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After our Central American trip we had no real plan for our immediate future as we just hadn't had the time to formulate one. So we headed north through Texas from the Mexican border knowing we would have to take that route anyway, stopping at numerous libraries en route trying to get various things sorted out - banks, insurance and other mundane things.
Our website was also 3 months out of date and we needed to catch up. (Note from the future - we can now laugh at being only 3 months behind as we are now 9 months behind!!)
Finally we decided to head to New Orleans as we have only been there once which was at Christmas 2004 and before hurricane Katrina hit. So we turned east and explored the coastal area of Texas and into Louisiana.
On the way a cougar ran across the road right in front of us; we stayed on a smelly beach full of unappetising seaweed with signs up warning people not to swim due to the large amount of toxic algae (which didn't stop people at all!); we got a free ferry to continue along the coast where we had to switch off our propane tank and fill up our extra petrol can with water; and got rained on quite a bit causing our usual leaks; and drove through a town appropriately named Winnie!
Ferry crossing in Galveston.
We enjoyed a brief stop in Lake Charles where we went on a walk to look at some of the historical houses (built around 1885 and later so not really that old) and got side-tracked into American Idol mania! The owner of one of the houses told us that a local boy had the chance to get into the top three that evening and it was a major event for Louisiana!
We had no choice but to find somewhere with a TV and went to a casino where we found what we were looking for. But even though they had the sound turned on, we couldn't hear it. Not being American Idol aficionado's we had no idea what to expect anyway. One thing was clear - the candidates wouldn't be singing! There was a decision to be made though and the local boy (Joshua Ledet) got through to the last three. (A week later he was voted out which put an end to Louisiana's euphoria and we never did hear him sing!)
Our next stop was at Avery Island, the birthplace of Tabasco sauce and went on a free tour. The plant is only open Mondays to Thursdays and we were there on a Friday! But when they are open they produce 700,000 bottles of the famous sauce a day!
We learned that they use red sticks painted in the exact red that the peppers need to be when they are ripe for picking. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge - which means red stick in French.
The fermenting process takes three years in barrels that previously contained Jack Daniels whisky. The barrels have a layer of salt on the top taken from their own salt mine on the island. After this process vinegar is added and the mixture is left for a month and then bottled. Around 400,000 barrels are stored here but most of the peppers are now grown in Central and South America. For more information click on www.TABASCO.com.
Afterwards we went to Konriko Rice Mill, the oldest rice mill in the US (1912). We had missed the last tour of the day but the very nice lady put on the video for us without charge. Kirsten was more interested in taking photos of a gecko outside which had a pink fan on its neck that came out when he was bobbing up and down.
