Trippin'

St. Francisville/New Roads Ferry

Melville Ferry

When you are young you will do just about everything......right?


It's Friday evening and you drive through Hammond on the way to Melville, Louisiana.


Yep, Melville.......Don't ask! Ok, if you must, I talked my frat brother Anthony "Tony" Marino aka the "Hamden Flash" (born and raised in Hamden, Conn.) into making a little (yeah, right) scouting trip with me to Melville. Yes, I acted like I knew where it was and everything like that to make it sound like a good trip. Yep, Tony didn't really know that I didn't really know....that's cause he was from Connecticut. He was in for the ride (of his life).....ha ha ha!

We left Hammond in the "Marino Mobile" and headed to Melville. We were going to scout them for my good friend S. Donald Currier whose St. Francisville Saints were going to play them. So, how hard is it? Can't you just open the map and drive to Melville. So what if you are going to take a right at Krotz Springs and head north????

Sidestory: Interesting ballgame, I believe Melville lost the game 7-6 when they lined up for a field goal with seconds to go in the game and they were up 6-0, had the kick blocked and returned for a touchdown. Oh my.


Game concludes and we must now go to St. Francisville on our way to Hammond and drop off the scouting information. So, Tony and I, chugging along in the "Marino Mobile", with a six pack on ice and Elton John's "Don't Shoot Me I'm the Piano Player' 8 track tape cranking, set off to return....but....you know what.......as I look at the map......I think......it says that we can go straight across to St. Francisville if we only drive over to Melville and catch the ferry and then down the road to New Roads to catch that ferry......and it would be a lot closer and save us a bunch of time.....right? That would be if we caught both ferries at the right time (oops, didn't really think about that, did I?)


At Ferry #1 at Melville.....to get there you gotta travel down a gravel road........no lights........freaking pitch black.......Deliverance type of night..............looked like only one car would fit on that little ferry......made it on and slipped across the river in the dead of night and through the fog (I think we drank the six pack) singing Daniel My Brother, Teacher I need you, Elderberry Wine, and Crocodile Rock. God, please get us to the other side was our prayer. It worked, Thank God.


On to New Roads to Ferry #2.......much bigger......more cars.......had to travel through a bunch of gravel roads (each one look like it was taking us nowhere) ..........still pitch black and foggy.......and Tony is swearing people will come out of the woods and beat the living crap out of us and steal his car.......we are basically scared to death.........hang on.......we made it across the river...................only to land in St. Francisville . Whew, mission accomplished.

Now, in retrospect, it appears that we could have actually driven back around, avoided the ferries and arrived sooner than we did. But, let's face it, how much fun would that have been?

Next week's phone call. Tiger: Hey Tony what are you doing Tony: Anything but going anywhere with you. CLICK.

Viva Anthony "The Hamden Flash" Marino
Peace Upon You