Tabasco and salt

Our destination today is Avery Island. The original and continuing home of Tabasco sauce.

In the mid 1800's Edmund Mciilhenny married into the Avery family and moved onto Avery Island off the south coast of Louisiana. From pepper plants obtained shortly after the civil war he cultivated a crop, invented a product and founded a company. The capsicum pepper plants and their recipe, first grown on Avery Island after the civil war, was so unique it was granted a patent.

 

The peppers are mashed and fermented for a minimum of three years in white oak barrels that they obtain from the Jack Daniels company. Because Jack Daniels can only use their barrels once as they advertise "aged whiskey in one time used barrels". So Tabasco buys these barrels and uses them until they deteriorate. The company then chops them up and sells them as BBQ smoking chips. It is an interesting history of a sauce that is familiar to everyone. It is sold in over 160 countries. It has growing fields in south and Central America but all production is done at the plant on Avery Island.

As it is Saturday we don't see the plant assembly line in motion.... we see a video, a small museum and their general store where you can, of course, buy anything Tabasco related.

The other interesting aspect of this is the salt mining in the area. From what we can tell it is the basis for Morton Salt. The island is basically a salt dome, some say as deep as Mount Everest is high, surrounded by bayous, which are slow moving, muddy rivers.

It is such a unique and interesting area, this southern part of Louisiana. After Tabasco land we see a Cajun meat shop and make a quick stop. We come out with more sausage.....more boudin, syrup sausage, which is new to us and a couple more hot sausages for the freezer.

I'm still looking for "the" place for a po' boy and hopefully some jambalaya before we leave Louisiana. Have found a connection for a state park just inside Texas, 20 miles south of Port Arthur. The weather and the availability of camp sites will dictate how fast and how far we travel each day from now on. The next two weeks are looking like a mixed bag of weather and temperatures. It would be nice to settle down and stay off the highways for the Thanksgiving weekend.

A dinner of leftover rice.....adding boudin sausage, chicken, mushrooms and peppers, some Tabasco chipotle sauce and Creole spices. Mouth on fire, but capsicum peppers are good for you:)

We take it one day at a time.

 

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Paradise back to parking lot

We left Grand Isle in a humid and warm morning. It is so hard to be productive when your energy is sapped despite a shower. We are slowly? heading west. We are traveling along the InterCoastal Waterway through bayous and small towns. The weather forecast is for possible thunderstorms this afternoon. They are a reality as we travel along the Black Bayou on our way to Morgan City. Rain and wind harder that anything we have experienced since Tumbler Ridge on our Yukon Trip. We are grateful we are on back roads and the traffic is minimal so slowing down doesn't present a problem. This is just before the deluge started, still just ominous dark sky and the beginning of the wind.

We have had to stop for a raised bridge. Not an inconvenience but a photo opportunity to watch the barges moving up and down the bayous.

This barge is being pulled and pushed.

I'm having a hard time trying to describe today. There is beauty along this route but primarily it is oil rig industry. I have never seen so many 'oversized' trucks and semis on the road. There are bayou canals with boat building marinas, oil rig platforms and every kind of service industry required to support this industry. I haven't been to Fort McMurray, but I think it must be similar. We are sitting in a Walmart lot, which a local sherriff said was probably the best place for us to spend the night. It is busier than anything we have seen yet on our trip. We have cooked prawns, garlic toast in the middle of traffic bedlam, lol. Sometimes it is really the only way to experience a community. Some places we stay in are peaceful and quiet, others are a representation of industry at its best and worst. Nobody seems to take much notice of us other than a passing interest and a checking out of our licence plates. Other than that it's just Friday night shopping at Walmart, the same as anywhere, even Courtenay. The temperature is still warm but the humidity has reduced to a comfortable level.

 

Two old friends flip over a cart to sit on to rest while they wait for a bus. They share the cart while talking quietly, flip it back up and get on the bus, to where? We can only guess.....maybe a casino for the evening. There are several along this stretch of highway, mostly associated with truck stops.

 

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A Church on Stilts

Missing from my previous post, but a building I loved to look at. Had to add it but couldn't figure out how I lost it...

 

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Last Day in Grand Isle

At least twice a day we talk about whether we should stay or should we move on. Today the decision is made. We will be back on the highway tomorrow. This whole trip we have been motivated by places we have had on our must see list and what the weather ahead holds for us. Grand Isle is a beautiful isolated strip of land and the people are as wonderful and friendly as we had been told.
As many times as we drive down the main road, which is also Hwy 1, I so enjoy looking at all the houses, summer homes, cabins and even the commercial buildings all up on stilts and everyplace has a name.

The Post Office

The local church

Summer home and guest cottage

This is a community that is a paradox of affluent vacation residences and working class homes. Either one can be on a canal with a pleasure boat or working boat sitting in their 'front yard'.
I needed to do some email printing and the library was closed. We went to the Port Commission/tourist office and they had wifi and a printer which we were welcome to use. It's like visiting with friends....everyone has time to visit, share information and generally just have a chin wag. The Police Chief came in, why I'm not sure, but we ended up having an exchange of cooking recipes from our homemade clam chowder to his gumbo and jambalaya ingredients. It's times like this that I don't want to move on. I just want to stay and get to know these people but if that was the way we traveled we'd still be in Saskatchewan. Even going to the post office to mail my Italy Walk
forms is a social event. Everybody loves to talk and visit. Island time Mon....

I'm still not really sure of my history of this area except that they, the Cajuns, are originally from our Maritime area, known as Acadians. We stop at the Shrimp Shed to buy more more prawns to fill the freezer before leaving.
The conflicting thoughts of going or staying are decided this afternoon as the humidity saps our energy. Everything feels damp and the only way to combat the dampness is to run the air conditioner. We have a short walk on the empty beach to get rid of our prawn heads, return to cook dinner and finish our organizing for tomorrow's departure.

A quiet evening sipping Pennsylvania Dutch egg nog listening to Charlie Musselwhite. Another beautiful spot along this wonderful journey we are traveling.

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Oil Rigs and Shrimp Fishers

After a clean up day we are ready to go exploring. Our first stop is at a marina close to the state park. It is such an interesting area, so many waterways and canals. There is more water than land. A crew of Air Boats comes roaring into the dock. They work for BP? British Petrolium, or the Louisiana Government. Not sure, but a quick conversation with one of the operators tells us they are working transporting BP workers out to the oil rigs. Apparently there was a hurricane a couple of months ago that did more damage in the Gulf and they are still doing repairs. It is a well orchestrated manouver as they bring three boats ashore and put three new ones into the water. We watch and listen and hear that the water is 'rough out there'. Some of the 600 oil rigs are as much as 150 miles out into the Gulf.

Each boat is manned by one person, but they travel in threes from dock to rig across open water that is probably dangerous on any given day. We never know what we will find when we turn down a road.

Through the town of Grand Isle on our way to Port Fourchon, the Center of the oil industry and the southern most point of Louisiana. We stop at Bridgeside Marina in search of a 'PO Boy' recommended as the best. Unfortunately for us they have closed down their food section for the season. There is an interesting looking thing on the counter ...I ask what it is and the young woman tells me it is from her 'Honeybee Party'...a wedding shower that her granny in law made for the party.

I wasn't sure what it was...turns out it is a rice crispy cake made in the shape of a fish. Her fiancé didn't want to cut it up cos it was sooo pretty. Someone took the head off it and she brought the remainder to the store. We are now the proud owners of the tail portion. From the Yukon to Louisiana I always seem to be the recipient of someones birthday, anniversary and now wedding shower cake. Back to the truck.

There is a fishing pier that we walk onto. I am always eager to converse with people, asking what's happening. This is the first time I felt we were speaking a different language. Apparently they are fishing for fish, lol..go figure...a small fish is sitting on the dock called a croaker, no more that 6 inches long. It's not long on conversation either.

Port Fourchon is hard to describe. It appears to be the hub of the oil rig jump off site. There is so much to try to describe, huge deep sea rig ships, crew boats for the oil rigs, helicopter pads, every kind of supply company needed for this huge industry. Names like Haliburton, Chevron, British Petroleum.

We stopped to take pictures of a huge "rig ship". Everything is fenced off, gated and no trespassing. Again I am always willing to risk our safety based on being innocent tourists. As we took this picture I went to the gate to ask if there was any way we might get a tour, Bahahaaa ...the young woman at the gate politely told me they will watch us for maybe 2/3 minutes then a security person will approach us and remove us. She was very personable and gave me some good information about touring in the area after we left this particular place. A highly protected and probably very political area.

Right in the middle of all this is a commercial fishing harbour. I remember when the BP spill happened in the Gulf in April 2010 where 11 people died and a horrendous spill compromised the environmental health of the Gulf and it's fishing industry. Interesting to see it all. How does everyone justify their existence and how do the active fishers feel today about their lively hood.

These are things we read about and watch on the news but it is discomfiting to see it in reality. Everywhere we have traveled people have been very forthcoming and friendly. Today I felt a somewhat negative atmosphere. Can you blame them. Their fishing livelihood doesn't seem to be able to compete with the global need for oil.

On a brighter side, on our way back to camp along the bayous we spot flashes of pink birds. We are able to pull over on the side of the road that takes us back to Grand Isle. They are Roseate Spoonbills, from the Ibis family, feeding in the grasses. There are Curlews, egrets and pelicans. It is a wonderful moment to see them feeding and somewhat oblivious to us watching them. These pictures are from my iPad. Bobs pictures from his camera are much clearer but I can't attach them to my blog. A

Back to camp and BBQ and a sweet sunset.

An interesting day on the Gulf.

 

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Bath time for Bertha and her "toad"

An overcast windy day and cooler temperatures. I walked the campsite road in the morning to get some fresh air and a little exercise in case the rains came back.
Still undecided as to how long we will stay here, we took advantage of the cool day to do a wholesale cleaning. Inside vacuuming and floor wash, scouring the kitchen and the bathroom...just like at home only on a smaller scale. The big job was the RV and the truck. More than 7000 miles of road grime and assorted bugs have now been washed into the Gulf of Mexico.
I think all our hard work before we left, waxing and polishing has paid off because the whole rig looks pretty shiny now that the dirt is gone.

Everyday can't be exciting. Some days are just satisfying and now if the rain will hold off we will reward ourselves with a rib-eye steak, some mushrooms, Gulf prawns and a coleslaw.

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Marine environment of the Southern kind

I woke up to bright flashes of lightening but no thunder....strange...how far away does that mean the storm is? How far out in the Gulf is the storm to see the lightning but not hear the thunder. Two hours later the thunder was here too. We have had heavy rain and wind all morning. A soggy, wet Paradise. And the forecast doesn't look good for the next week. Do we move on or stick it out, that is today's dilemma.

We need to get out so drive into the small community of Grand Isle which is mostly empty.

The fleet and the pelicans

We find a dock that sells prawns right off the boat. Six pounds for $28. Dinner for a few nights to come.

It is a summer resort area and as the woman at tourist info told us, this is "our" time. The quiet, non tourist time, but still a mostly fine climate through the winter. Today is an exception that we hope will pass on by.There is one super market that really is 'super'. It has a well stocked grocery store, liquor outlet and hardware.

Back to the barn for a quiet afternoon waiting out the wet weather. By dusk it is calm and warm again but still overcast. Prawns for dinner...maybe a Monday night football game?...it is rather decadent to have unlimited power so we have the TV on, a rare occasion for us.

These are the brutes that have taken chunks out of me....maybe they are even worse in the summer but I don't care I still don't like the results.

 

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