Oct 14, 2009 - Cajun Country

On Wednesday, we broke camp, which in our case means: unplug the electrical cord and cable TV, take off the hose for water, push a button for the slide outs to retract and another button for the jacks to come up. The jacks are used to stabilize the motorhome. Make sure nothing will fall on the floor and then find a place to hook up the car to the RV, which Jerry does really, really well. And then, we're off! We headed south into LA to Interstate 10. New Orleans was to the east but we headed west to Cajun country and stayed near Lafayette,...

Apr 23, 2009 - Westbound

360 miles from Destin and a 7 hour drive takes us through Alabama and Mississippi to Louisiana. Interesting to watch the trees change and the sandy soil of Florida give way to normal soil. Crossing the mighty Mississippi River was an amazing sight. I think that would be a great journey to track that river to its source in Minnesota over 2000 miles north. Now theres a thought. Feel a bit guilty about skipping by places like New Orleans and the Mississippi without even a boat trip but just haven't the time this trip. So for now its a swim,...

Mar 27, 2009 - Swamp tour!!!

Today, we went on a swamp tour! I wasn't too keen at first as the boat was tiny! However the 'Captain' was very informative and helpful! We saw 5 snakes, 2 spiders, variety of birds, 2 slider turtles, a hog, a bard owl and 2 alligators!!!!!!!! The biggest we saw was an 8 foot female! very cool!!!!!! Really enjoyed my day there and don't regret a thing!

Mar 25, 2009 - Lafayette

3/31 I've actually been playing catch up on this journal the past few days. While I sit here typing, we're experienceing a huge thunder, lightning, rain and hail storm. When all of you PG&E folks are feeling bad about the weather you're working in, thank your lucky stars you don't live in the south! WOW! 3/24 A little more of Lafayette. We did take a tour of this Historical Site "Shadows-on-the-Teche". Located on the banks of the Bayou Teche in southern Louisiana, the plantation house was built for sugarcane planter David Weeks. As the...

Mar 22, 2009 - Lafayette

3/22 Drove to Lafayette to meet with our friends Ed & Celia who are here from Watsonville for a wedding. Went to dinner and had Shrimp Etouffee. Very tasty, but not to order again. 3/23 Today we toured the Tabasco factory on Avery Island. From pepper pods obtained shortly after the Civil War, Edmund McIlhenny cultivated a crop, invented a product and founded a company. 3/24 We did the best Bayou trip ever!!! Oh my gosh, we saw 14 ft alligators, water snakes, birds of all kinds, more alligators, more snakes. The Louisiana Atchafalaya is...

Feb 6, 2009 - An Unbelievable Experience In Louisiana !!!

I talked to my little sister, Jean Wednesday, and she said my brother got to come home from the hospital earlier in the day. From what she says, he is doing fine. I am giving him a few days to get rested up and then I will call him. Tuesday, the day before we left The Parkview Riverside RV Park, they had live music. It was all older guys,3 guitars, and one fiddle player. They were pretty good. I took a couple of pictures and will share one with you. I also got a couple pictures of a woodpecker eating at my small bird feeder. I’m not sure...

Jan 2, 2009 - Travel Day

Today we move on. Bob left about 9:00am heading back to Florida. We got on the road about 10:25am heading for Lafayette. Found a Passport America campground for $11.00/night, full hookups. Decided to stay 3 nights. This area is the heart of Cajun country, lots to see and do. Daryl and I visited the Tabasco Factory, did the tour, sampled everything, and bought more stuff. In the evening went to Mulate's for dinner, an institution around here. Ate alligator, huge salad with everything Cajun, and for dessert bread pudding and pecan pie....

Dec 9, 2008 - Southern Louisiana, aahhh 70's

Well Saturday was an interesting day if you like to learn stuff you didn’t know before. Like when you think of Arkansas do you think of oil? No, how about brine? Ya, like brine what? You know, salty water. Well boy did we learn about oil and brine at the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources (formerly the Oil and Brine Museum, the name when it was dedicated by Governor Bill Clinton.) Ok since you are dying to know I’ll do oil first. About 10 miles from El Dorado (and that is pronounced Do-ray-do, Do-rah-do is in Texas y’all) is the town of...

Nov 8, 2008 - Lafayette, LA

We arrived in Lafayette, LA at about 4:30PM after a great drive across Texas, then south from Shrevport, LA. It is good to see green grass, and the trees are just beginnning to turn their colors so that is a nice touch. We wanted to eat dinner "out" so chose on in downtown Lafayette. We'd made reservations for 6:00PM and decided to leave the campground, four miles away at 5:30. We got to the restaurant at 8:30. We were in one of the worst traffic jams that we'd been in for a loooong time. Seems that a bus had overturned, and had the highway...

Nov 6, 2008 - Cajun Country and Tobasco

We are in Cajun Country in south central Louisiana at Lafayette. After setting up the RV, we went for a drive to Avery Island to see the Tobasco Factory. What a great drive and tour! There are fields of sugar cane around this part of Louisiana and they are being harvested now. At Avery Island, we toured the Tobasco factory. Tobasco sauce is only made here for sale worldwide. The peppers are grown in Central and South America and shipped here for processing. After the peppers arrive, they are grated and then put into Jack Daniel's Whiskey...

Jun 16, 2008 - Lafayette, Louisiana

We are staying in the Parrish of Lafayette for a week, lots to see and do. We found this beautiful old church, I'm going to go to mass on Sunday. They have a brand new organ in the church that looked spectular. To the right of the church, there is a 500 year old oak tree. Amazing. After that we went to "Downtown Alive". They have live music out in the park. Great music. We went to the Tabasco factory, to see how they make and bottle Tabasco. We tried some Tabasco ICE CREAM and COLA. It was different!!!! Went to a Rice mill and did a tour....

Apr 7, 2008 - First day out

This is the first day of our 2 month adventure. We made it to Lafayette LA the first day, which was only a 5 or 6 hour drive. We're staying at the Lafayette KOA just west of the city. The park is a little noisy, due to its closeness to the interstate but other than that quite nice. We're planning on visiting the Tabasco plant tomorrow on Avery Island and then heading to San Antonio on Wednesday.