Hurricane Damage

You hear so much about the damage that Katrina did to New Orleans, but you don't hear much about Mississippi. I can tell you that having whole houses blown away is pretty devastating. We were so amazed by what we saw: beachfront property with nothing left but the pillars that Gulf homes are built on. A local told us that some of these were historic homes. So sad.

These were taken in Waveland/Bay St. Louis Mississippi

Beignets and Cafe' au Lait

It was 1994 the last time we were in New Orleans and what I remembered most were the beignets at Cafe du Monde, so a trip into the french quarter was essential for these oh, so, decadent french doughnuts. Beignets, coffee and soft drinks is all this restaurant has on it's menu. It's really all they need!
Would you like some powdered sugar with your doughnuts?

Miss Cynthia, this picture of Tujaques is for you.

The french quarter appears to have recovered from Hurricane Katrina, but I was amazed at how many for-sale signs are there.

Jackson Square

Port Fourchon

We headed out one morning to drive to Grand Isle State Park, but along the way we encountered signs telling us the park was closed (due to Hurricane damage, of course). So instead, we headed south to Port Fourchon. Sounds exotic, doesn't it... What we actually discovered was a working port for offshore oil drilling. We were amazed by how many rigs you could see just from the beach.

This photo's are stitched together and so are a little large, but it's interesting to try and count the drilling platforms. Just click on them to see them full size.

And the refinery...

Lagniappe

On our way through Houston, we were able to have dinner with Tara, the remaining Texas gal that I had met on my Thailand trip. Fun evening! It was wonderful reconnecting with these fabulous women. I would love to travel with any of them again!

The Painted Churches of Texas

There are about 15 of these painted churches in Texas. From the outside they look like many other churches, but on the inside nearly every surface has been painted with beautiful colors and the stained glass windows are breathtaking. Built by 19th century immigrants, inscriptions on the walls read not in English, but in the mother tongue of those who built them: German and Czech.

You can read more about them here: http://www.klru.org/paintedchurches/

We spent about 4 days in Beaumont, hanging out with Deborah & Jeff. Unfortunately, they had to work (bummer) and so we spent some fun evenings together, until the weekend rolled around. We pitched in to help with some home maintenance, while they were working. Les installed an electrical outlet outside and I did some painting in the bathroom. It was actually kind of fun to have some projects to work on.

Salt & Pepper ~ AVERY ISLAND - Land of Tabasco!

Just outside of the town of New Iberia, Louisiana, is Avery Island. Considering how Les appreciates a good hot sauce, this side trip was a no-brainer for us. We had the misconception that the island part of Avery Island meant we'd have to cross some major water source to get there, but really it is just surrounded by bayous, salt marsh and swampland.

Tabasco was created by Edmund McIlhenny in 1968. The basic recipe, the process by which it’s made, and the ingredients remain unchanged. (Basically peppers, salt and vinegar). All Tabasco sauce is still made on the island, but the peppers are now mostly grown in Latin America (however all the seeds come from the island). The peppers have to reach the perfect stage of red before they're picked (they start out green and then go through yellow and orange before turning red). The pickers even have a small wooden dowel "le petit bâton rouge" painted the correct color to compare against the peppers. After they're picked, they're mashed and mixed with salt and placed in white oak barrels to ferment for up to 3 years. The barrels come from Jack Daniels, who by law can only use their barrels once! The history is fascinating and you can read more here: http://www.tabasco.com/tabasco_history/mcilhenny.cfm#targ

Here's the most impressive fact about Avery Island: it's really a SALT DOME. This 6 mile island is the tip of a mountain of salt that is 8 miles deep; one of the worlds largest salt mines. Picture it this way: if you fashioned of pure salt a lifesized model of Himalayan Mt. Everest, it would still be so much smaller than that plug of salt that there would be room to add a dozen or so of the major mountain peaks of the Allegheny range. (Taken from the Avery Islands Jungle Gardens brochure.) Wow! The salt is mined by through a shaft 530 feet deep. Oil was discovered on the island in 1942. Five generations later, the McIlhenny Company is still privately held by direct descendants.

Son, Edward Avery McIlhenny, or "Monsieur Ned" as he was affectionately known, is credited with saving the snowy egret from extinction. He founded this bird colony—later called Bird City—around 1895 after plume hunters had slaughtered egrets by the thousands to provide feathers for ladies' hats. Monsieur Ned gathered eight young egrets, raised them in captivity on the Island, and released them in the fall to migrate across the Gulf. The following spring the birds returned to the Island with others of their species, a migration that continues today.


"Jungle Gardens" is the 250 acre natural area created by Monsieur Ned, which includes numerous native and imported plants.

Look closely, that's a baby alligator.

Lagniappe means something more or a little bit extra...

Hill Country

Les's sister, Deborah, and her husband, Jeff, met us in Kerrville for a long weekend of riding in the Hill Country southwest of Austin. They've had a drought, so it wasn't as green as normal, but we had a great time. Their daughter, Shana and her husband, Stephen, brought their motorcyle and came over from the San Antonio area for the day. Unfortunately, the day they came it was too windy and cold to ride. We had a good time anyway, playing pool, catch-phrase, and having dinner.

This is Deborah riding her very own Dyna Low Rider! I am so impressed!

Les and Jeff got out the RC trucks to play with.

They have a very cool 2 year old Boxer, named Hot Rod. Isn't she a beauty. She weighs almost as much as Deborah.

Shana is trying to keep Hot Rod from chasing the RC trucks!

Our first Armadillo sighting! Stephen knows how to pick them up without being mauled by their very sharp claws.

Jeff's ride is a very cool custom Big Dog - Mastiff.

The Hill Country is a popular riding area and this was a fun spot to stop for a chili dog and a cool beverage.

Canyon Lake (this is cool... my new camera has a program that will 'stitch' multiple photos together to make a panorama shot.)

The town of Gruene has the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas. I found it a bit strange that nobody in this area pronounces the names for towns and such the way they look. Gruene is green, Boerne is bernie, Leakey is Lay-key and Bexar is Bear. Go figure.

Seagulls

This is a funny little video of me feeding the seagulls outside the coach window in a parking lot in Corpus Christi. If you watch closely, you can see the bread being thrown and the birds catching it in midair.

Heading North

Having made it as far south as you can go in Texas, we're finally heading north. We left the McAllen area and headed up to Corpus Christi. Unfortunately the weather in CC was pretty gray while we were there, but we didn't let it stop us from doing so site-seeing around the area. We ventured out onto Padre Island to the National Seashore and were so surprised that you can drive on the beach there. The paved road only goes about 5 miles into the national park and then you can drive another 65 miles on the sand (we only went down a couple of miles). You can also dry camp right on beach. This is the longest undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world.

They're also doing a lot of work there to save the Kemp's ridley turtle. The seashore is the most important nesting beach in the U.S. for the Kemp's ridley, the most endangered sea turtle in the world.


After driving to the northernmost part of the island, we took the free ferry at Port Aransas back to the mainland side.

The highlight of our trip to Corpus Christi was getting together with 4 of the women from my Thailand trip last fall. Fran and her husband graciously organized a dinner for us and we had a wonderful time reliving our trip.

Les was not too pleased that we ran into a rainstorm between Corpus and San Antonio. Yuk! When the trucks pass you they throw all kinds of road grime up. What a mess it made of both vehicles and all the bikes.

After leaving CC, we spent a day in San Antonio. We had been there before, on our 2002 trip, but it was fun to go back and walk along the riverwalk.

We had lunch at Rita's and this was my view. Les likes to try and capture me in 'candid' moments. Usually, he just gets me with food in my mouth!

The story of the Alamo is still pretty moving, and a great part of Texas history.

Tonight we're in Kerrville ~ the Hill Country ~ outside of Austin. We're anxiously waiting for Les's sister Deborah and hubby, Jeff, to arrive tomorrow morning. We're looking forward to spending some time with them and doing so touring around the area.