Lafayette to Morgan City

Yesterday, though we originally planned to go to Baton Rouge, it rained so hard we decided to just have a layabout day. So we watched a little TV, read, snoozed and took it easy. Eventually the rain let up but it was too late in the afternoon to start a 100 mile round trip plus it would leave little time to spend in town. Ahhhh well, tomorrow's another day.





Today dawned early with Punky getting us up at 7:00 AM with a face full of kisses. It was time to get up. As usual, I got up, got dressed, did my morning stuff, put my coat and hat on, put their leashes on and took the dogs for their morning walk, all be it an hour early. The sun was trying to peek through the clouds and the temperature was trying to rise - neither was having much success. It was about 38 degrees out but if you kept to high ground (6 to 12 inches above the surrounding ground) it was pretty dry. Anywhere else and it was pretty soggy, but that's typical of an area where the average elevation is about 10 to 12 feet above sea level.

After breakfast and cleanup I drained the holding tanks, hooked up the car and we started out on a day of exploration. Our first stop was the town of New Iberia where we stopped to tour a home built in the early 1830's called "Shadows on-the-Teche" built by one of the early sugarcane barons, David Weeks. The three story home sits on the edge of Teche Bayou. We parked in front of the home and since the first tour wasn't until noon, we took the dogs for a walk into downtown looking at the many historical buildings that have been maintained or restored. New Iberia is a very pretty small town with a large park on the shores of the Teche Bayou.

After our walkabout we met out tour guide and after a short historical video were shown about the house and grounds. As frequently happens, we were the only people on the tour. The house was very unusual in that the ground floor rooms were not connected with interior hallways. Several rooms were only accessed from outside. The main dining area was connected to a pantry and food preparation room where food was brought from an outside kitchen before serving. The upstairs living area had a main receiving room for parties that was accessed from an outside covered balcony at the front of the house. You got there by going up stairs at either end of the front porch. The main room was surrounded by bedrooms, day rooms and several small areas dedicated to storage. The third floor was primarily taken up by several trunk rooms. The grounds outside along the bayou had several oak trees over 150 years old and were lovingly landscaped with gardens and walkways.

After leaving New Iberia we drove out to Avery Island to see the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory http://www.tabasco.com/tabasco_history/visit_avery_island.cfm#targ . Avery Island isn't actually an island, rather it is a high spot that sits atop a salt dome and probably rises an additional 20 feet above the surrounding lands seeming to form an island.


We parked just outside the actual factory building and walked over to find out when the next tour would begin. Finding out we had about 40 minutes we walked over to the Tabasco Country Store for a spot of lunch. Tina had a crawfish gumbo while I had a Boudin, a type of sausage typical to the cajun area. We ate lunch sitting in a small area and visited with several other people down for the tour. After lunch we spent some time browsing the country store section where we sampled some special ice cream. Tina had a taste of "Hot N Spicy" ice cream while I tried the "Jalapeno" ice cream. Both were very good, not too hot and cooling to the lips after our spicy lunch. Tina also tried the "Spice Soda", a cola with a kick!!

We wanted to tour the Jungle Gardens, 200 acres of landscaped grounds with gardens, ponds and hummocks but were running late. So we returned to the main highway south and continued in to Morgan City. We drove past the RV Park (no sign) and stopped for directions. Found out we were only a few blocks away. Following the helpful directions we located the Morgan City RV Park and headed in. There wasn't an office and it looked like most RV's were permanent. There wasn't a way to turn around so we got out and started to disconnect the car. A very nice older gentleman came up and told us where we could park for the night. So we disconnected the car and backed into our spot. Surprisingly we had 50 amp service and cable with a nice area to walk the dogs. All in all a very cozy spot for an urban industrial setting. After setting up and having dinner we experienced a couple of trains going by across the way and the ground literally vibrated under us. Not very surprising given how much the ground has been absorbing water down here the past few days.

Tomorrow we continue to wind our way though the bayou country on our way into New Orleans.
Distance this leg, about 85 miles. Total for trip 4,242 miles.