Photo by Dave Carner
To hear Holly Williams tell it, her reasons for starting the Trampled Rose Guesthouse and Ranch were largely the same ones that found me there one weekend in May. “I was living in a house apartment in New Orleans, and the other tenants were a brass band,” she said. “They practiced all day, everyday, starting at 8 am. So I decided it was time to get out of the city.” Fast forward a year later, and Williams now finds herself, along with her guests and cadre of animal friends, quite free from the noise and clamor of the city, nestled in a forest hideaway between Ponchatoula and Madisonville.
One does not need to spend much time at Trampled Rose Ranch, Williams’ bed & breakfast, to recognize that music and literature each play a prominent role in its day-to-day goings-on. For one, the name Trampled Rose is borrowed from a Tom Waits song, an artist who Williams is quick to credit as a type of spirit guide in most of her business and artistic endeavors, which, besides the guesthouse, include a jewelry line and retail store in New Orleans. Entering the guest house, a converted barn, into the communal living area, it is easy to see Mr. Waits would approve of the found-object/junk-store aesthetic that guides the house’s decor. The guest house’s three rooms, each accomodating two guests, are all literary-themed, paying homage to Charles Bukowski, Dorothy Parker, and Jack Kerouac. Each room showcases Holly’s affinity and ability to pair simplicity with an eye for beauty in the old and mundane to create comfortable, relaxing spaces for her guests.
Besides acting as a forest retreat for people, Trampled Rose is also a friendly harbor for animals in need of a home. Three rescue dogs, three Nigerian Dwarf goats, and six chickens, all exotic breeds, currently reside on the three-plus acres of the ranch, though as a decided animal lover, Holly quickly concedes that she will be adding more to her brood.
Trampled Rose is ideally located between a number of worthwhile small-town locales to visit during a stay. Ponchatoula and Madisonville are each twenty minutes away and Hammond is only a little further afield. If you’re of the mind to bring a canoe or kayak along, the Tangipahoa River is less than two miles from the ranch, with a landing for easy access into and out of the water. There are also a number of wildlife management areas in the vicinity that would make for fine exploration by foot or boat.
For my adventure off the ranch, I opted to join Holly for pig-roast night at The Depot in downtown Ponchatoula, which proved to be a legitimate dive-bar experience that bar owners try, and their patrons hope, to replicate in innumerable urban settings throughout American. With a trailer-towed Cajun microwave oven firing in the parking lot in front of the bar, we spent the evening enjoying the coldest cheap beer in town while, around us, the locals continued now decades-old pool table rivalries originating in high school, all against the soundtrack of a jukebox whose Southern rock selection was beyond reproach. By the time the pig had come off the cooker, a karaoke setup had materialized in the far corner of the bar, and from 10 o’clock until we left, the heavies of the Ponchatoula karaoke circuit (and they are all good, I mean really good) launched songs into the Tangipahoa Parish night while the occasional freight train blasted through on the tracks just across the street.
Of course, there might not be much reason for you to leave the ranch at all if you are looking for a quiet respite away from the world-too-much-with-us. Trampled Rose provided plenty of quiet sanctuary. Having made myself coffee and a few eggs provided by the resident chickens the morning following our pig-and-beer-fueled adventure, I retired to the back half of the property and spent a pleasant morning by the pond reading while watching the occasional bluebird and red-headed woodpecker flit through the sun-dappled forest. A hawk, aloft high above me, did no more work than I was at the moment, effortlessly maintaining his altitude by riding the thermals and the breeze. I even caught a rare treat: a sighting of one of the season’s first hummingbirds, an advance scout for the coming migration perhaps, occasionally buzzing me as it reconnoitered for a meal. In the cooler months, the hot tub and fire pit will be attractive options as well.
One turn off of Highway 22, and I found myself right back on I-12, just another traveler in the crowd returning from the weekend’s fun and wishing that there was still the sound of gravel crunching under the tires, or better yet, that I was still whiling away the day within the friendly confines of the Trampled Rose. I’m already scheming which friends I’ll invite one long weekend in the not-so-distant future so we can commandeer the place for ourselves and I can share with them this little hidden gem in the Northshore woods, a newfound sanctuary for the mind and soul.
Details. Details. Details.
7 miles from Ponchatoula, La.
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