Sunday was a travel day for us, leaving Yogi Bear’s
Jellystone Park in Robert, Louisiana, and driving to Abbeville, Louisiana where
we were to join friends at Betty’s RV Park. We were invited as guests to spend a week
with friends Marvin and Shirley and Randy and Jeri at their Sport Chassis
Owners Rally—even though we don’t have a Sport Chassis, just a lowly Chevy dually,
which is big enough for us! The drive was relatively easy, just 3 hours, but
I-10 was rough is this stretch. We arrived at 1:30 p.m., 128 miles later. Temps
were in the mid-90s, but there was a lovely breeze and low humidity.
We got settled and spent the rest of the day getting to know the other 4 couples attending the rally, and then sat down to a meal provided
by Betty, the RV park owner. She made sausage and chicken gumbo and potato salad, and Shirley
provided pumpkin squares with whipped cream for dessert. YUM-YUM!
The couples at the rally were: Marvin and Shirley
(Illinois), Randy and Jeri (Illinois), Bill and (another) Betty (Illinois), Lee
and Sue (Alabama), Patrick and Agnes (Winnipeg, Canada area), Lionel and
Carmelle (Winnipeg), and Dick and me. Such a fun group! We thoroughly enjoyed
them, and the time we spent together. In the photo above you can see 4 of the 6
sport chassis rigs.
This week proved to be chock full of activities,
starting Monday morning as we drove to nearby Breaux Bridge, Louisiana to go on
Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tour. The tour took place on Lake Martin, (actually a
large swamp) which is known for its amazing wildlife—at least 205 species of
birds, Nutria (a large rodent), and alligators. The tour took us through groves
of 500-year old moss-covered cypress and tupelo trees, open areas with water
lilies galore, past duck blinds with dozens of duck decoys floating around
them, and what are called cypress knees that are actually cypress roots.
On our tour we were fortunate to see egrets, grey
herons, cormorants, ducks, turtles and, yes, alligators!
On our way back to the RV park we stopped at
Villager’s Café in Maurice, Louisiana, for lunch. What a funky place! They’ve
been around for over 20 years, serving the best poor-boys in Louisiana, so it’s
said. Wooden electrical spools make up the tables, and the walls are covered
with anything old (hmm, wonder what they consider as old…) Dick had an Italian
Villager sandwich (ham and salami with provolone and mozzarella and olive
salad), and I had a shrimp poor-boy (overstuffed!). Each was just $6.95. We shared a ½ order of
their very special French fries—so much we couldn’t eat them all! This meal gets
another YUM-YUM!!
Tuesday morning was another group event as we went
to nearby Lafayette, Louisiana to the Acadian Cultural Center and adjacent
Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folk-life park. The cultural center
has historical exhibits that focus on the Acadian, Native American and Creole
cultures of the area. (The Acadians are descendants of French Canadians who
settled in Louisiana after being expelled from what we know as the Canadian
Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward
Island, and Quebec for refusing to be ruled by the British.
The Vermilionville Living History Museum showcases
physical representations of an Acadian settlement. Most of the structures date
from 1765 to 1890, fully restored and on a 23-acre site. Local artisans are
onsite demonstrating how life was back then: yarn spinners, quilters,
seamstresses, weavers, and wood carving. Our docent was John Sitting Bear, from
the Avogel Tribe of Louisiana, who was very knowledgeable about Vermilionville,
the homes, and settlement. Dressed in period costume from his tribe, he did all
his own beadwork and hand sewing.
We sat in on a mini-concert by Jules Guidry, a Cajun
who taught himself to play the Cajun accordion and, who played in the old
schoolhouse; we chatted with a seamstress who was demonstrating the hand sewing
techniques used in the early days; and, we talked with a yarn spinner, who was
spinning wool which would be made into yarn.
Click here to see a video of Jules Guidry for
your enjoyment.
That afternoon some of our group went to Lafayette
to tour the 87’ US Coast Guard Cutter, Pelican. This 20-year old boat is soon
to be decommissioned. This boat is a rescue vessel, used for any and all sea rescues.
(If there’s fraud involved, perpetrators will be charged and fined.) During the recent
August floods, the boat stayed moored, but was the water raised the boat 8’
above normal.
Avery Island was our first destination on Wednesday
and, is best known as the source of the McIlhenny family Tabasco sauce. Although the island is
named for the Avery family who settled there in the 1830s, it was settled long
before by Native Americans who had discovered that portions of the island were
really massive salt domes. Being industrious, the Indians boiled the briny
spring water, found on the island, to extract salt, which they then traded to
other tribes as far away as central Texas, Arkansas and Ohio.
During the Civil
War, a mine of pure rock salt was founded on Avery Island which produced more
than 22 million pounds of salt for the Confederacy. The mine remained well
protected against the Union until Union forces began their invasion up Bayou Teche, at which time they burned 18 buildings, smashed steam engines and
mining equipment, and scattered 600 barrels of salt awaiting shipping. They
also took a ton of gunpowder left behind by Confederate forces.
Before the Civil War a gentleman named Edmund
McIlhenny married into the Avery family, and in 1868 he founded the McIlhenny
Company and began producing Tabasco brand pepper sauce. In 1870 he received a
patent for his sauce processing formula; that same process is still used today.
Hurricane Rita hit Avery Island hard in September
2005 disrupting Tabasco sauce production. The McIhenny family spent $5 million
to construct a 17’ high levee, pumps, and back-up generators to ensure that
such a disruption would not happen again.
Avery Island is surrounded on all sides by salt
marshes, bayous and swampland. It’s actually a huge dome of rock salt 3 miles
long and 2½ miles wide, and is 1 of 5 salt dome islands that rise above the
Louisiana coast. Salt plays an integral part in the production of Tabasco sauce,
so it’s a good thing it’s so close at hand.
Our tour took us from the museum to the green house, the barrel packing area, then on to the actual factory where Tabasco is created by mixing the pepper mash with vinegar and salt, bottled, labeled, crated and shipped.
 |
| The 3 peppers used in Tabasco sauce. |
Lunch that day was at Bon Creole Seafoods in New
Iberia. For over 20 years,
Bon Creole has served some of the best gumbo in the area. And, they serve some
of the best “overstuffed” shrimp or oyster poor-boys in the area. The building
is certainly unassuming, and unless you know where it was, you’d pass it right
by.
Then, it was on to
the Walet family’s Caroline Sugarcane plantation in Loreauville, Louisiana. The
Walet family has been growing sugarcane for 5 generations. We learned so much
about sugarcane farming!
Sugar cane requires
a moist climate with intervals of hot and dry weather, with little danger of
frost. Canes are planted in rows, about 2’ apart, in February, and are
harvested from October to January. After the 1st cutting, subsequent
growth, called “ratoons,” is smaller in size and the joints are closer
together. Supposedly they produce a sweeter juice and finer sugar that the 1st
growth. Each planting can last years, but 3 years is best. Cane plantings are
rotated so 1/3 of the crop is planted new every 3rd year. Cutting is
done close to the ground, after which the cane is taken to the mill, then on to
processing and refining.
 |
| Betty is taking "sugar shots" directly from the cane! The other photos are of equipment used in the production and harvesting of sugarcane. |
Click here for a video of the harvesting machine--it's quite a sight!
Today, Louisiana sugarcane yields a crop from 30-50 tons per acre, with 180-240 tons of sugar produced from each ton of cane.
Dinner that night
was at Black’s Oyster Bar, in Abbeville. Established in 1967, it’s been a
popular eatery for locals and tourists alike. Their claim to fame is their seafood,
especially oysters, but their shrimp, catfish and Cajun cuisine are just as
popular. We noshed on catfish, shrimp, oysters, seafood platters—the list goes
on. Good food!
Thursday morning it
was back on the road again, this time to Morgan City, Louisiana, to tour the “Mr.
Charlie” oil drilling rig. We made a pit stop at McDonald's on the way, and had
breakfast sandwiches…we needed nourishment in order to climb all over the rig!
Our tour guide was
Virgil, who holds degrees in both civil and chemical engineering. He’s a wealth
of information!
From 1954 to 1986
Mr. Charlie drilled hundreds of offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexico, off the
coast of Louisiana. Mr. Charlie was the first transportable, submersible
drilling rig and a springboard into offshore rig technology. Built in 1952 and
finished in 1953, Mr. Charlie was first working for Shell Oil Company, drilling
near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Skeptics were quieted when Mr. Charlie
performance exceeded expectations and went on to drill wells for every other
major oil company operating in the Gulf. Reports say Mr. Charlie drilled a
cumulative depth of 2.3 million feet.
This 200’ long and 85’ wide barge could accommodate
a crew of 58, and was totally self-sufficient with room to spare with drinking
water, food, and supplies for the crew. It generated its own electricity,
disposed of its own waste, provided its own communication system, and contained
enough fuel to accomplish all these tasks. It also maintained supplies and
equipment to perform drilling operations, was prepared for any emergency with
complete fire-fighting system, blow out preventors, and medical supplies and
equipment. The first floor of the platform is 60’ above the barge, and is supported
by legs that connect the barge to the platform. The legs serve as conduits for
electric, water and air lines, elevator access and other services needed to
operate an independent facility.
Mr. Charlie was retired in 1986 when drilling
activity headed into water deeper than it could reach. It now continues in the
role of teaching others about an industry that changed the offshore oil
industry. Our tour began by climbing the 60 feet to the main platform. Whew!
Afterward, we stopped at McDonald's again for lunch.
We needed it after spending almost 2 hours climbing all over that structure!
Then, it was on to Adam’s Cypress Swamp Art and
Museum. It’s quite a site! The driftwood creations are all the work of Adam
Morales and are made of pieces of cypress wood that he’s scavenged from nearby
swamps. Adam seems to have a gift for finding the natural contours and signs of
life in the wood he finds, simply attaching eyes to create the members of his
menagerie, or screwing pieces together to create his unique pieces, such as the
Statue of Liberty, the Iwo Jima Monument to veterans and troops, and the “swamp
family” which pays tribute to the local family that has brought the TV show Swamp
Family to us on the History Channel. He even covers some of his work in Spanish
moss and, I’m told he’s made a fortune selling it.
From there we stopped at Duffy’s to check on
alligators. That’s the location of the Swamp
People show on the History Channel. Troy Landry, so-called “King of the
Swamp,” is an alligator hunter, and stores his gators in a refrigerated
building behind Duffy’s Shell Station in Pierre Part, Louisiana. Unfortunately,
there were no alligators; by the end of September alligators are holed up in
their dens, apparently. Darn. Good thing we saw so many on our swamp tour.
Friday brought more things to see: a tour of the
Crystal Rice Plantation. The plantation is in Crowley, Louisiana, and has been
around since 1890. Using natural selection and cross-pollination, and with the
help of bees, founder Sol Wright’s hard work finally paid off in 1912 when
grains of “crystal rice” were achieved. He went on to develop new varieties of
long, medium and short grain rice, and by 1940 over 70% of the rice planted in
the U.S. were from grains developed by Sol Wright.
Following his death in February 1929 his son Salmon
Lusk Wright, Jr., took over, starting Wright Laboratory in 1956 based on a
rinse resistant vitamin enrichment rice coating process he helped pioneer. When he died at 84
years of age, he left the family business to his only heir Salmon Lusk Wright,
III who expanded world-wide markets for enriched crystal rice.
In 1995, crawfish was added to the rice crop
rotation to produce a unique crop rotation like none other in the world. Although
rice has been a mainstay in Louisiana since the 18th century, it’s
also the ideal environment for raising crawfish. About 90% of the total
crawfish harvested in the U.S. comes from the rice fields of Louisiana. Who
knew?
Typically, April, May and June are high times in the
crawfish business, but like any crop its success depends on the weather. When
surface temperatures are too warm, especially after rice has been harvested and
the fields are left to dry, crawfish burrow deep into ground (sometimes up to
15’) to get to moisture. But, in the rainy season they make their way back to the
surface to deposit their eggs and offspring in open water. Baby crawfish feed
on the rice stalks and grow through the winter, and begin to reach harvest size
by early spring.
While some of our folks went on to a specialty
hardware store in Rayne, Louisiana, 4 of us wanted to stop in to hear Cajun and
Zydeco music at the Rayne fairgrounds. Unfortunately, they didn’t start playing
until 6:00 p.m., so we were a bit early. Our quick lunch that day was at the
local DQ.
We returned to the RV park in time to watch
Betty’s friends Calvin and his wife, and 2 other friends, prepare black-eyed
peas, jambalaya, and cracklin’s. It was really a fund raiser for Calvin and his
wife after they were flooded out of their home during the August floods.
Although Dick and I aren’t fans of cracklin's, the black-eyed peas, although a
bit spicy, and jambalaya were really good!
That evening we played "7s from Hell" with Marvin and Shirley, and new friends Lee and Sue—women against men. The men won, so I won’t elaborate on the game…
Saturday was a free day, so Dick hopped on his
motorcycle and rode 50 miles round trip to New Iberia, where one of our
favorite authors, James Lee Burke, is from.
He also stopped in at the “Shadows
on the Teche” estate where an arts and craft show was taking place. He also
toured the home, “Shadows on the Teche,” but no interior photos were allowed.
He returned back to the park just as the rest of us
were ready to leave for Erath and the Erath Museum Café to hear the Jammers
play their specialty: French Cajun music. Such fun! Click here to hear their music.
That evening, after happy hour, we went to Amoré
Pizzaroma for dinner. What a crew!
By the time we got home we all were ready for bed.
Four of us couples were leaving Sunday, with the rest departing Monday. We all
needed a good night’s rest.
Sunday arrived quickly, and by 8:30 we were all
ready to dive into the breakfast provided by the rally folks and Betty from the
park: scrambled eggs and sausage, bacon, biscuits and jam, caramel rolls,
orange juice and coffee. YUM-YUM!! No one went away hungry!
By 9:30 three of the couples were ready to hit the
road; we got away at about 9:45. Bill and Betty from Illinois were going to
drive straight through to home; Lionel and Carmelle, as well as Patrick and
Agnes would take a bit of time and planned to arrive home in Canada on Thursday.
Dick and I headed to Galveston Island State Park. We arrived at 2:30 and got checked in and set up by about 3:30. We’re right on the beach, and it’s beautiful! Temps are in the mid-80s, with the ever-present breeze off the water. Feels so good to be back in Texas!
More on our week in Galveston next week; we leave
Friday for Rockport!
Hugs,
RJ and Gail
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