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Sorry folks, I tried removing the requirement for commenters to type in that "word in the box" thing but it did not work. The first night I got several spam messages that I had to delete. It will just be too much work so sorry, you will have to deal with the annoying text box.

Don't let it stop you from commenting. I always enjoy getting them. Don't forget the ShoutBox at the right as well.

Differences

I think us Canadians fit in nicely with the Europeans!

Poche’s Fish ‘n Camp and RV Park, Breaux Bridge

Pont Breaux, Louisiane

Hey Rae, that’s French! You would love it down here. Cold like you are used to and lots of chances to speak French, although you would probably not recognize it as French.

The area was all part of Firmin Breaux’s property. Breaux was an Acadian who landed here in 1766. His property was on both sides of the Bayou Teche so he built a rope “bridge” over the bayou and allowed his friends and neighbors to use it. The area became known as breaux’s Bridge and the settlement that grew around it as Breaux Bridge.

Here is the “new” bridge and the plaque in the Historic Center of town:

And the main intersection:

Breaux Bridge Sunset

We are backed onto this man made lake. The area was a farm that flooded way too often so the owner, thinking a half a farm that never flooded was better than a whole farm that was always flooded, dredged the soil from half the farm to raise the level of rest of the land. These “lakes” are now stocked with catfish. There are also harmless water snakes and a few not so harmless water moccasins. No Gaters sighted yet...

Avery Island Gardens

There is a large garden on Avery Island, part of the Tobasco plant. The “Island” is not really an island at all but is on top of a mound of salt. This salt is used in the production of Tobasco Sauce and the deposit is believed to go as deep into the ground as Mt. Everest is high! That is a lot of salt! The gardens are accessible by car which was a good thing today considering the cool temperature. It is the wrong season for the gardens but they were very nice anyway.

Tobasco Plant

Today we took a drive to Avery Island, the location of the only Tobasco Sauce plant in the USA. This plant produces 700,000 bottles of Tobasco sauce each day! They used to grow all their own peppers but demand has now far outgrown supply so they still grow peppers but export the seeds to other countries where the peppers are now grown. The peppers are crushed, mixed with salt and stored in used Jack Daniels whiskey barrels where they ferment for three years. It is then mixed with vinegar, stirred and bottled.

There is a store on site where they sell all six flavors of the sauce as well as shirts and trinkets. It was a very interesting day and they got $120 from me in the shop! Brooks and Linda - gifts coming... Here is the plant:

Breaux Bridge, LA

We are in Breaux Bridge, the heart of Acadiana Country and Crawfish Capital Of The World! The weather when we arrived yesterday was beautiful, around 70 and a clear sky. We went to a local restaurant where I got to sample Crawfish Étouffée. I have only one word for it – delicious!. It is very rich so it is not something I will be having every day but I will definitely enjoy it a few more times.

We had a problem getting to Poche's Fish-N-Camp & RV Park thanks to an error in my POI download into the GPS. The annoying lady in the GPS took us into town and down a road telling us we had 1.5 miles to go. There were no signs but I did not think anything of it as the new GPS has been performing well. We kept going until the road narrowed and it became obvious there was no RV park. I pulled over and flagged down an approaching pickup and asked him and he said no, there was no RV park and no place to turn around. There was a farm beside us that I could turn into so we walked up to ask permission and to check it out. There was no one home but it looked like there was room in front of the barn to make a u-turn. We drove up and I cut the wheel as tight as I could and we were about five feet short of making it. I tried to back up a bit and the rear tires sank into the wet soil! Crap!

I unloaded the car, took the dolly off and tried to get out. I “rocked” the motorhome but it was only going deeper. I found a pile of broken bricks beside the barn and threw a few into the holes I had dug and tried again. This time it worked and I got out and reconnected the dolly and Honda. My pants were muddy, my hands were muddy, the motorhome was muddy and I was pi$$ed off!

We found the address of Poche’s and put that into the GPS and it finally got us there. The actual park was about five miles away from where the GPS originally took us.

Today we drove around and explored the local area. We stopped at the tourist office and found a few more places nearby to see so we will be staying here a few more days. They are a Passport America park during the week so spaces are half price for us then and on the weekend we get 10% off with our Good Sam Club. Regular rates are $32 per night so it is a pretty good deal for us. Stay tuned!

Kicking Myself

We passed through Winnie, TX just before we crossed into Louisiana yesterday and there was “Nutty Jerry’s” Club. The billboard outside advertised a live performance by Jerry Lee Lewis & Percy Sledge!  The date of the show is January 21 and it was only the 18th. We would have had to hang around in pretty much the middle of nowhere for four nights. We decided to let the opportunity pass but I just know I will be regretting it!

We pressed on to Lake Charles, LA where we are ensconced in a very nice, new Walmart parking lot. We asked if we could park for the night and were told, “Of course! Just pick a spot and stay as long as you want! Friendly people here in Louisiana!

It was about 65 and dry when we parked at just after 5:00 and was 61 at 7:00 PM. Not bad and warmer than it has been. We are getting two HD channels off air. Life Is Good!

Texas Highways Ferry System

Texas has several ferries and we took one of them this morning. It took us from the east end of Galveston Island to the Bolivar Peninsula and the highway east. It saved us a couple of hours of driving through heavy traffic.

Texas treats it’s ferry system as part of it’s highway system and does not charge for ferry rides! They are free!