Austin's Green Belt (11/8)

After a nice breakfast at a little Internet Cafe called  All English.  This was quite different and it was OK but the other places we have eaten at here have been much better.  Not sure we like English food.
Once done we head to the Austin Green Belt to do some hiking.  Shannon has heard a lot about this area but has never hiked here so it will be an adventure for all of us.

This is a great area in the middle of Austin.  There are miles of trails, hiking and biking and also rock climbing to be done.  We did about a 5 mile hike, got lost several times and had to do a lot of back tracking.  There were some little caves we tried to explore but they were gated off so you couldn't go in.

Joe got a great shot of a spider in it's web











I was really tired after the hike and just wanted to go take a nap.  We are suppose to go out again tonight but I think I am going to send Shannon and Joe by themselves.


Really great day two in Austin.  Tomorrow we are just going to hang out and Shannon is going to cook gumbo for us.  Can't wait!!!!!

Austin night life (11/7)

We pick Shannon up around 10 this morning and look for some place to eat breakfast.  We at the 49 Diner, really good food.  Full we drive around Austin looking for something to do but nothing is happening until tonight so we come back to the RV park and have a nice relaxing day getting caught up on each others life's.

We to dinner at a soul food restaurant, again Shannon picked a great restaurant.  Austin has great food and to much traffic.  It takes for ever to get from one place to another and the streets are very narrow and when people park on both sides of the street almost impossible to get through.l

We we to the White Horse to listen to one of the band's Heather Rae plays in called Gumbo Ce Soir.  They play Cajun music.  We got a treat tonight because they had 3 fiddles and a squeeze box playing with the band.  One of the fiddle players was of course Heather Rae.  For those of you don't know who Heather Rae is she was married to Shannon and is still our daughter in law in our opinion.  It was so nice to see her again.

After the show we went to Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon.  Heather Rae is playing here with the Prospectors.  Shannon used to play with this band before we joined his present band, Black Irish Texas.  The Prospectors are more of old country swing type music.  I miss seeing Shannon play with them.

We had a great night and didn't get back to the RV park until 1:30.  We both fell into bed and slept like a rock.

Austin (11/06)

It is still raining this morning.  It is so hard to pack up in the rain. Joe is having a tough morning, first he gets in an ant hill then we discover ants are climbing up our water hose to get out of the rain and we have them in side the one outside compartment.  Then he steps in critter poop, not sure what kind of critter it is from.  So his day is already bad.  We finally get hooked up and on our way to Austin at about 8:15.  We are very anxious to get there, but know it is going to be a long day, around 400 miles to drive.
The roads in LA are horrible they are so rough.  It was so nice when we finally hit a nice long stretch of blacktopped road.  Another problem there are no rest areas on this stretch and I can't wait any longer.  We pulled off the hwy and found a spot to pull over, thank goodness for having your own bathroom to use if necessary.  I shut the door and went to lock the dead bolt and something happened to the tumbler.  My key came out but we couldn't unlock the door again.  Every time we stopped we would try to unlock it with no luck.  Finally we stop out side of Houston for lunch at a Cracker Barrel and our waitress was nice enough to get us a couple of numbers for a lock smith. The lock smith looked at the lock and said it looked like it had been tampered with.  He tried to pick it but no luck, he ended up having to drill it out to get the door open.  That was a big expense, $245.  Didn't expect it to cost so much but no other choice.
Going through Lake Charles was a big mess.  It took us over one hour to get through do to road construction.  First the left lane is closed then the right then the left then the right. Of course this is at a point that other freeway's merge in so it is a big mess.  The stretch over the big high steep accent bridge was the worse.  All the big trucks were having to really work to get up and over because you couldn't get up any speed.  When we saw that the lanes were closed so they can clean weeds out of the divider in the road I was speechless.  The lane over the bridge didn't show anyone doing anything until the very bottom of the bridge on the down hill side.  What a mess.  There is a bypass they could have directed people to use that would have avoided the mess, but of course that would have been the smart thing to do.  As I said a very frustrating long day.

We finally get to Austin and the Lone Star Carefree RV Resort at 6 pm, 9 and a half hours!!!!!!!
Once set up we go to pick up Shannon and have dinner.  This is the high light of our day.  Shannon looks really good, he has been sober for 10 or 11 months now, we are so proud of him.  He took us to the Magnolia Cafe, nice choice the food was very good.  We talked until after 9 then took him home and we came back to the park and bed.
There is a festival in town this weekend so we should have a great time.  Friday night we get to see Heather play with her Cajun band and possibly see the Prospectors either then or Sat. night.

I am so glad today is over and I know tomorrow will be better.

Jefferson Island (11/05)

We woke to rain this morning so not sure what we will do today.  Jefferson Island is an outside tour so we decided to drive to the Gulf of Mexico first and hopefully tour the island in the afternoon.

It is the perfect day to go see the Gulf of Mexico for the first time.  Now I can say I have touched the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Golf of Mexico this year.  Shannon has us beat though because he has swam in each of them this year.  

We got a little lost trying to find our way but finally made it to the Cypremort Point and the Gulf.  It is very foggy here so the Gulf looks a little eerie.

The picture above is the cabins that they rent.

The birds in above pick our seagulls and the one on the right is an Egret.




The coolest thing is the houses built up on stilts at the edge of the Gulf.  Some of them are pretty big and amazing.

   Once done here we do go to Avery Island it is still raining off and on but not hard.  Once parked we go have lunch at their restaurant.  We sit at a table that has a beautiful view of Lake Peigneur.  Once lunch is done we go to walk around the gardens and tour the mansion.  The gardens are beautiful.  I have never seen Bamboo so big. They have great big Oak trees some of which are 350 years old. There are twin oaks that it is said that buried treasure was found there, buried by the pirate John Lafitte
.

 The mansion is beautiful and was built and owned by Joseph Jefferson who produced the screen play for Rip Van Winkle, he also was he actor who played the part for many years.  Then the property was purchased by the John Bayless SR. His son, John Bayless Jr also know as Jack, inherits the property.  He has the house renovated and rebuilds the gardens.  He names this place The Rip Van Winkle Gardens in honor of Mr Jefferson.  Mr Bayless Jr had another house built on the other side of the property to live in as the mansion was to big for just him.  In 1980 shortly after he finished his new house a disaster struck the island. Mr Bayless also owed the salt mine that I told you about on Avery Island, Jefferson Island is right next to Avery.  An oil company was drilling for oil and accidentally drilled into the salt mine. This caused water from Lake Peigneur to start draining into the salt mine.  This caused a big whirl pool in the lake that was sucking everything in it's path into the salt mine.  Barges, land, tree's and even Mr Bayless' new house.  This lake went from a not so deep lake to a 30 foot deep lake.  When the water equalized the barges just popped back up.  It is an amazing story and if you care to hear about it go to U Tube and look up Lake Peigneur Sinkhole Disaster.  There were 55 salt miners in the mine and all were able to get out, there luckily were no deaths and the oil company had to pay out big time. All that is left of the house is the chimney that sticks up out of the water the rest of the house is still underwater.

 These are pictures of the Jefferson mansion

The bird on the right sitting on the log is not fake like I thought it was.  I don't know what kind of bird this is but they sit on the logs or post with their wings spread out like you see in the picture and they revolve around in half circles.

We had such a great day at Jefferson Island from lunch to touring the grounds to the mansion.  If you are ever in this area I would highly recommend you come here.

Tomorrow we leave for Austin to see our son Shannon.  We are very excited to get to spend some time with him.  We saw him about a year ago in San Diego when he was touring but only for a couple hours while his band played.  We have not been able to have a long visit with him since 2009, so this visit is long over due.  We will be in Austin until Monday morning then head to New Mexico and finally Mesa.  See you all soon.

Avery Island (11/04)

Had a leisurely  morning this morning.  Joe went into New Iberia for a hair cut and I just did nothing but read for a while then had to get busy.  Today we are going to go to Avery Island.  This is where they make Tabasco Pepper Sauce.
Once signed in we have to wait about 20 minutes for the next tour to start.  We talked to several couples while waiting.  One of them was telling us all to go to Boulder CO to the Celestial  Seasoning Tea factory, it is suppose to be quite interesting.  So maybe next time we are in Boulder we will take that tour.  It is now time for our tour.  We start by watching a movie on the history of Tabasco Pepper Sauce.  I think the one thing that really amazed me is that Avery Island is on top of the biggest salt mine in the world America.  It is said to be as deep as Mt Everest is high.  I can't imagine that much salt.

The tour is mostly promo for their product but we did get to see some of the process.  They pick the peppers when they are a certain shade of red, the pickers carry a round stick that is painted the correct shade of red to look for, so when in doubt put the stick next to it.  Next they are weighed and then put in the grinder and finally turned into mash that is put in oak barrels for around 3 years.  The barrels they us come from the Jack Daniels factory in Lynchburg TN. Once the mash is cured it goes into vats and vinegar is added and it is stirred for about 21 days then it is ready for bottling.  We did get to see the bottling area not really very interesting.  They bottle 4 days a week and make around 800,000 bottles on each of those days.  There sauce is shipped all over the world.  Once through with this part we went to the country store.  They have all the different sauces made by Tabasco there.  They are all lined up for you to taste with pretzels.  Another surprise is they also make Ice Cream, a raspberry and a jalapeno ice cream.  Both were very good.  We bought a bottle of their buffalo sauce and  their garlic sauce.

Once done with this tour we headed to Jeanerette LA to hopefully tour the Jeanerette Sugar Museum.  Unfortunately they were closed for election day.  So we went back to New Iberia and to the Konriko  Company Store and Rice Mill. This is the oldest continuously working rice mill in America.  Mr Conrad built it in 1912.  They to took the first three letters of Conrad the first two letters of rice and the first two letters for company and changed a couple of the Cs to Ks and came up with Konriko Rice.  We watched a film on how the rice is grown and then went through the part of the factory where the rice is processed and bagged.  This is the original factory the machines are from the 1920's and still working.  The factory has been declared an historical building so no changes can be made to it.  The walls, ceiling and floors are all the original structures.   We were shown samples of all the different processes rice goes through from brown rice to white rice.  Very interesting.

Back home for dinner of Green Onion Sausage and Cabbage.  WOW this is good sausage.  It is made here in this area.  I am bummed that we probably be able to find it in AZ unless we learn to make it ourselves.  Cajun country has so many different flavors that are amazing and I really like the gumbo they make here.

Tomorrow we will tour Jefferson Island.

Lake Pontchartrain (11/2) New Iberia (11/3)

It is cold again this morning, 47 degrees, but not much wind so it feels a little warmer.  We are out early to beat the crowd at the Cafe Du Monde.  This is suppose to be the best place in New Orleans to get beignets.  This is where the wait was one and a half hours yesterday.  We arrived there at 8:30 and there is already a line but not a long one.  We had to wait about 10 minutes.  Beignets and coffee, hot chocolate and cold drinks is all they serve here.  I thought the line was to order but is is to get seated.  I place my order and I can see from the other tables that the beignets here look much better than the ones I had yesterday.

 The beignets here are thick and yummy, no at all greasy.  They must own stock in powdered sugar, they put tons of it on them and the plate.  I had a Cafe' Au Lait, never had one before and quite like it.  Just the right mix of coffee and half and half.  Joe just had a fresh squeezed orange juice.   Once done we walked around a bit and went back to one of the shops we liked.  In talking to the owner he was telling us that the Cafe Du Monde is open 24 hours and if you go later in the evening like 9 or 10 pm you have a good chance of seeing celebrities.  It is not crowded then and that is when the celebrities come out for beignets.

When we get back to the park we decided to drive across Lake Pontchartrain.  This is a 24 mile long bridge that you drive across and for a little bit you see nothing but water.  It is a little spooky not being able to see land.

The bridges go up high then plunge down the other side as you go over them.  This is to allow boats to go under it.

 Once across we looked for some place to have lunch but didn't find anything but fast food you can get anywhere.  We like to eat at local places that have a different flare to them.  So we decided to go back across the bridge instead of taking the long way around which would take several hours.  As we approached the bridge we see to go back across the bridge there is a toll.  Only $3 so not bad.

The sky line of New Orleans from the bridge.  The roads are so bumpy that it is hard to get a good picture.


Back at the park Joe went back into the French Quarter for lunch, I wasn't really hungry just tired and didn't want to walk any more.  He ate at Huck Finn's and had a shrimp poor boy sandwich.  He was in and out of bars and the casino for most of the afternoon watching the NASCAR race on TV.  He finally gave up on it and came back to the park.

We leave in the morning for New Iberia LA.  It is not a long drive so no need to be up early or hurry.
The morning is really nice about 10 degrees warmer than the last few days.  We take our time getting ready and leave around 9 am.  It is a hectic drive until we get out of rush hour traffic and get on hwy 90.  Now it is very pleasant accept for the road being so bumpy.  I don't know what they do to there roads here but you always feel like you are bouncing down the road.  It is impossible to read or sleep.
We have to go over the Huey P Long bridge, this is a really cool looking bridge.


There are two bridges that go across the river, one to hwy 90 and the other into town.
The pic on the right shows how all the other bridges on this road look.  Way high over the bayou and then down they are not very long.


Once in New Iberia we arrived at the KOC RV Park.  That is right it is KOC not KOA, just in case you thought I hit the wrong letter.  It is not a bad park we have nice park area at our back window.  Most of the people here appear to be permanent.  We get somewhat set up and go into town for a lunch of gumbo.  I really like chicken and sausage gumbo.  Then to the visitor center to get an idea of what we want to do while here.  There is Avery Island, where Tabasco Pepper Sauce is made.  They have a Jungle Gardens you can go through as well as tour the Tabasco plant and many other things.  We have heard from people we met in New Orleans that is worth going to.  Also there is Jefferson Island noted for it's garden's and restaurant and the Joseph Jefferson Mansion. We plan on doing both of these if the weather permits.  It is suppose to rain one or both of the days we will be here.  We also plan on driving through some of the Bayou's here.  Hopefully tomorrow won't be nasty weather!!!!!