First Stop: New Iberia, LA

We started our journey Saturday, January 20th.  It rained lightly through North Georgia but once were in South Georgia, we hit heavy rain, wind and tornado warnings.  Both of our cell phones were announcing that we were in tornado warning areas.  The first notfied us near Auburn, AL and the second warning sounded near the Hattiesburg, MS area.  We were close enough to hear the sirens from the nearby towns.  We drove past four cars in the ditches/trees, with the AL state patrol searching for another in the woods, down a steep embankment, hundreds of trees down, some on the highway, and a couple of areas where all the trees looked like they had been cut by a giant lawnmower. Visibility at times was near zero due to heavy downpours, wind and hail. Our phones were telling us to “take cover” but, how do you do that with a motor home?  I was going to turn off at a truck fuel area (we needed fuel) but the entire off-ramp was double-stacked with trucks.  We finally limped past the storms to learn that they were very serious and deadly in MS and GA.  Glad we missed them.

Our initial goal was to make it to Slidell but we made our first night in Livingston, LA, then on to New Iberia, the home of Tobasco Sauce.  We arrived at the Tobasco facility first thing in the morning.  This is Cathy going to get our tickets for the factory and gardens tours (both self-guided).

After going through the surprisingly detailed museum we headed to the greenhouse to see the types of peppers that are grown on site.  Then we went to the aging facility to see these barrels of pepper mash and salt aging.  Once the mixture is aged up to three years, vinegar is added in large vats and is mixed for about 20 days, then filtered  and bottled.  We spent time in the mixing rooms then watched the bottling process.  They were bottling traditional  Tobasco sauce (there are nine different variations bottled here) for Japanese distribution, and had already bottled over 147,000 bottles that morning!

We thought we had seen the last of these “bear warning” signs in Alaska, and did not expect to see one in the deep south.  Apparently, black bears like Tobasco too!

The is the plaque at the main entrance to the Tobasco plant.

These bottles are too big to fit in our MH.  They are over six feet tall and represent seven of the nine different flavors available.  Two of the flavors are only available by direct purchase.

Since Tobasco is located on Avery Island, near New Iberia and surrounded by swamps, we went for a walk to see the swamps.  Saw this big lizard sunning himself.  He kept an eye on me as I got close for this photo.

The live oaks in this area are amazing, some have a circumfance of over 20 feet at the base and have existed since the 18th century.

Swamps have a beauty all of their own.  The tide had gone out (the water here is at sea level) and the entire areas is surrounded by dykes.  Homes in this area are either built on raised berms or on stilts.

Cathy at the water’s edge.  That is bamboo on her right.

This little guy was camouflaged in the water on her left.  He probably wasn’t hungry…

A blue heron.  There were a lot of white egrets in the area but this is the only blue bird we saw.

This stone bridge reminds me of one going to a par three on the Masters course.  Except it was in a swamp.  Surrounded by alligators.  Led to nowhere.  Oh well…

I tried to get out to this old trestle but ran out of boards before reaching the trestle.  It was over a swamp, with (probably) alligators lurking below just waiting for dinner, so I didn’t venture out past the boards in view.  They were unattached and very wobbly.  I decided not to take the chance as there really wasn’t much beyond that point.

This is the view looking back from the “boardwalk”.  The tide was still out but slowly coming back in at this point.

We are packing up tonight for an early departure.  Tomorrow night we arrive in Houston and be there for two days.