People from Louisiana tend to pride themselves on the same core values: family, food, faith, and friendship. That’s what makes our state so special. Despite graphs, polls, and other “data” that rank our state the lowest in overall well-being (Yahoo-Finance) and highest in stress, somehow our ENTIRE state is as one community.
If you move out-of-state, this is always home. Nothing ever fills that boot-shaped hole that Louisiana leaves. If you travel around, somehow you always find yourself naturally attracted to people that you find later are other Louisianians. Something magic about our state is that no matter how polarized we may feel at times, as a state, we are a family. We are a community.
Nothing means more to us than our core values… and our amazing views. Sometimes, I think we take for granted how incredibly breathtaking our home can be. We have sunsets that look like watercolor masterpieces. We have Driskill Mountain, Woodriff Falls, Tunica Hills, we have swamps and wetlands, we have major ports, growing metropolitan areas, and we even have our own city that never sleeps!
How better to celebrate the beauty of being from Louisiana than to spend a day, or a weekend, here in our own state. We have so many wonders to be found here; yet we are all racing to take a vacation out-of-state! Fairview-Riverside State Park is one of those magnificent gems. Only two miles east of Madisonville, along the Tchefuncte River, is about 100 acres of nature trails, campgrounds, forested wetlands, freshwater fishing, a boat launch, and sites that are awe inspiring. I think we all are guilty of forgetting that a vacation from stress doesn’t have to be a vacation away from our beautiful state.