Author: Easin' Along

We left Lafayette, LA and spent the next two days at Galveston Island (TX) State Park.  Our campsite was within walking distance of the beach, but our hopes for a sunny beach vacation went unfulfilled. The weather was cold.  The weather was drizzly. The weather was very windy. I only took a few pictures of some brave kids flying kites in a 25-mile wind. I’ll share them at some point.

Next, we took off for San Antonio and a reunion with Mary Jo and Ed, a couple who lived across from us in Wurzburg, Germany over forty years ago during our first Army assignment. The campground at Fort Sam Houston would be our home for the next three days.  Mary Jo and Ed retired in the San Antonio area. They came out to spend some time with us in Lucy, then led us to a very nice Thai restaurant for dinner. They both looked great, and we had much fun catching up after all the years that had passed. The night moved so quickly; I forgot to take pictures. Take my word for it; they looked terrific.

The next day was Sunday, and our plans included a visit to the Alamo and a stroll along San Antonio’s famous Riverwalk. Mary Jo had warned us that because Sunday was also St. Patrick’s Day that we might want to start early…a task that usually gives Helen (adorable wife) a challenge.  Nevertheless, she was up to it, and we made it downtown soon enough to get a parking place near the Alamo as traffic began to build.

At the Alamo, an Irish-American Friendship ceremony was underway, and an Irish dignitary was speaking to the crowd. A long line formed at the entrance to the Alamo.  It took about twenty minutes to reach the front door.  There is no fee for a tour. The exhibits inside are excellent and there is no need for a tour guide. Outside, a short video explained the events of the attack led by General Santa Ana and his 6,000 men against a tiny number of brave fighters inside the small open-air church. As a Tennessean, I spent some time learning about the role of Davy Crockett in the attack.  He performed well but, in the end, Santa Ana spared only the women and children and slaughtered the men.

From the Alamo, Helen and I walked a few blocks to some steps leading down to the Riverwalk.  The color green was everywhere.  Even the river was dyed green. Except for Helen and me, everyone wore green, and the green throng along the river was huge. Boats, similar to parade floats drifted in front of us, filled with St. Patrick’s Day partygoers.  The first float we spotted bore the title of “Mad Dogs” and had a celebrant in the front dressed to resemble the Pope (pictured above). What a hoot!

Continuing along the Riverwalk, an Irish Pub named Waxy O’Conner’s called us inside for an Irish lunch. We shared a table with Connie and Tim, a fun couple from Wisconsin.  Connie was into the celebration in a big way.  She greeted every restaurant patron that passed by and applied a Shamrock sticker to their cheek. Helen and I both received one.  Finally, we wore green.

Soon, the Pope mentioned above entered Waxy O’Conner’s.  Connie posed for a picture with him, then broke out into an Irish dance as the lunchtime musician played a tune on his guitar.  The crowd applauded. Connie can dance. An overserved underling wearing a kilt accompanied the Pope and, on command from His Excellence, the portly fellow would bend over and raise the kilt to allow bar patrons to autograph his derriere with a Sharpie. Several patrons (females among them) accepted the offer. A dozen or more cameras recorded the event. Somehow, this didn’t make my Reuben taste any better, but a bottle of Guinness helped forestall the shock.

We hated to leave the party, but we wanted to take a boat ride in the canal and depart the scene before the traffic got heavy.  Many of the float boats were forming for the parade that was to start in a few minutes. The participants were ready to put on a show and full of the Irish spirit(s). Our boat left ahead of them but the crowd along the canal assumed we were part of the Parade and greeted us with exuberant waves and shouts. At one point along the route, a group of skilled Irish dancers performed to a lively tune for us.

As we returned to the dock, the party showed no sign of letting up, and music everywhere seemed to grow only louder. We took that as our cue to exit at stage left. Helen danced a jig up the stairs and down the block.

It’s days like this that make Easin’ Along so much fun.

Note: We’re Easin’ Along across the south on our way to Arizona and California in a journey we named Lucy Does the Desert. Read below for an account of our third stop, Lafayette, LA.

We left Biloxi with some of the stress and kinks that go along with the beginning of any trip subsiding, and finally beginning to feel relaxed. Our next stop would be at Acadiana Park Campground in Lafayette, LA, a place neither of us has ever visited. My nephew lived nearby for several years and recommended the area highly for the Cajun influence and the Cajun cooking. I was eager to see it for myself.

At around four in the afternoon, we pulled in to Acadiana Park to find it almost to ourselves. There was one large motorhome in the campground. The park ranger told us to park wherever we wanted. Helen (picky, but adorable wife) finally allowed me to pull Lucy into a lovely campsite under a solid Live Oak adorned with Spanish Moss and Resurrection Ferns. The picture is below. Our stay in Lafayette would be a short one. We only had one full day to take in the sights and the seafood, so we settled in early to get a good start in the morning.

Helen had two options for sightseeing. The first recommendation from Trip Advisor was Vermillionville, a historic village not far from the campground. The second option was Avery Island, the home of Tabasco, America’s favorite hot sauce. We arrived at Vermillionville, but because our time was limited, and because Vermillionville seemed a bit too touristy, we might enjoy Avery Island more. Good decision.

Avery Island is about 30 miles from Lafayette and a very pleasant drive through the Louisiana low country. Although it was somewhat early in the day when we arrived, a lot of cars filled the parking lot. Helen went to the Tabasco Country Store to purchase tour tickets for the Tabasco plant, and to get suggestions about what to see while on the property. The nice lady selling tickets said we had to see the Jungle Gardens. The Azaleas and the Camellias were in full bloom and be sure to see them. We toured the Tabasco Museum first.

The Museum is nicely done and does an excellent job of telling the Tabasco story of Mr. McIlhenny creating the sauce and a modest business after losing his banking fortune during the Civil War. The Museum details the extraordinary growth of the product nicely extremely well. The videos scattered throughout the Museum tell the history of Tabasco and describe the manufacturing process in a very informative way.

Next, we entered the plant where the distinctive aroma of Tabasco greeted us. I am a devotee of Tabasco and use it on everything from steaks to gumbo. The hint of spicy vinegar that wafted through the plant was not lost on me and only made me hungry for scrambled eggs.

The most exciting part of the plant tour was seeing thousands of bottles parading through the assembly line and receiving the diamond shaped label that has adorned the bottle for the entire history of Tabasco. A digital counter displayed the number of bottles produced for this day. As we made it to the end of the assembly line, the number exceeded 300,000. Tabasco is hot! Pun intended…

The Jungle Gardens on Avery Island were in full bloom. One lady selling tickets in the shop near the entrance assured us that the price of admission is a value and that this is her favorite time of the year. As I always say, timing is everything.

Enormous Live Oaks and alligators are found all along the roadway that leads us on a self-guided tour. We stopped to admire one large oak, bordered by a brilliant line of azaleas. I have shared a picture here, but this is a tiny sampling of them. The camellias were also on full display, with the shrubs filled with blooms.

We love camellias, and some of the plants here were well over six feet tall. According to one of the markers, one of the McIlhenny sons loved them as well and collected them from all the world to plant on Avery Island. Thank you!

To cap off a great day, we drove to Prejean’s, a Cajun restaurant with a top tier rating. The restaurant was lively for a weeknight, but we obtained two seats in the bar area. A pretty and very accommodating server talked us through the menu, suggesting the award-winning gumbo as a “must have.” She was spot on; the gumbo was delicious with a subtle smoky flavor and loaded with shrimp.

Helen ordered crawfish enchiladas and left nothing. I tried a taste and found it delicious. I ordered a platter of catfish to go with the gumbo. The catfish was light and flakey, just the way I like it. The platter held a lot of food, but I managed. Prejeans was a great experience. The Cajun band that played throughout the evening added a local flavor for the guests.

That about wraps up our third stop. On the way home from Prejeans, we vowed to exercise more. I suppose that means we’ll have to move Helen’s barbells from their present use as a weight for our satellite dish. Oh, well, we’re havin’ fun and just Easin’ Along. Come back.

Here’s another update on Lucy’s journey west. We’re kinda hopscotching across the south as we work our way to Arizona. Wi-Fi is spotty, so we will post updates as connections become available. We made it to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, AL, and worked on getting Lucy organized. Today, we drove from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, MS to LaFayette, LA for two nights at Acadiana State Park in the heart of Cajun country.

We had a delightful time in Biloxi although we were a bit apprehensive going in after reading reviews of the campground at Keesler Air Force Base. Our concerns were unwarranted. The campground facilities do have some age on them, but all of the utilities are in good working order, the showers (also aging) are clean and sporting a fresh coat of paint. Rick, the campground host is an outgoing, amiable fellow who was always working to keep the campground in good shape. His efforts have produced results, and I plan to write a good review of the campground soon.

On Saturday, we puttered around until the start of the Tennessee – Auburn basketball game at 11:00 CST. We should have puttered on…Auburn squeaked out an upset of our Number 5 ranked Vols. That afternoon, Helen (adorable wife) read up on the best places to eat in Biloxi and learned that Taranto’s Crawfish was rated number one on Trip Advisor. I was all in and hungry.

Taranto’s Crawfish is a place you would not find just driving around; it is way out in the country and down the road less traveled—way down. You could imagine our surprise when we drove up to find a full parking lot, and a line of equally hungry customers stretched out the door and onto the driveway. The wait was twenty minutes, and we were among the lucky ones. By our time to eat, the delay was twice that. The food was worth the wait.

After much discussion, we settled on splitting a Seafood Platter (fried, of course) with oysters, crawfish, shrimp, and the best catfish I’ve ever eaten. The fried crawfish were delicious, and the shrimp and oysters coated in a very light batter. Helen also ordered a cup of crawfish and shrimp bisque, and I couldn’t pass on a cup of gumbo. We devoured everything while watching diners all around feasting on large platters of boiled crawfish. Now, I love crawfish, but they do require some work to get a meal out of them. That fact didn’t seem to bother any of the crawfish lovers around us and the shells piled up. When we finished, we paid Stephanie, our very friendly server and walked out with a doggie box full of French Fries for the road. We waved to those still waiting. I shifted my toothpick to the left and gave everyone a satisfied smile.

The next item on the Saturday agenda was a drive to Bay St. Louis for the monthly event called Second Saturday Downtown. It is very similar to the event we have in Knoxville called First Friday. Most of the shops and pubs were open to visitors. The sidewalks were full. During the event, visitors had the opportunity to purchase a blue wrist band that entitled them to a small bowl of soup at every shop that participated. The blue band was $25, and the proceeds went to the local Food Pantry. All of the soups and gumbos looked incredibly enticing, and we had we not stuffed ourselves at Taranto’s, I would have one of the blue bands. We strolled the shops instead.

Bay St. Louis is charming. We drove back to Biloxi along the coastal highway, enjoying the Gulf waters, the shimmering white sand, and the stunning antebellum homes lining the road across from the beach. Helen decided we should go to the Casino that evening and hope for good luck. It wasn’t her day, but I came out $4.00 to the good. As I’ve said before, I’m only there for a good time.

On Sunday we did a 180-degree turn from the night before and streamed the 11:00 service from our church. Thankfully, Dr. Eason’s sermon was about the love and kindness of Good Samaritan and not about the evils of gambling. Dr. Eason is a very gifted speaker. In the afternoon, we visited a flea market close to the campground—an activity that we enjoy. Helen found a woven basket in one of the booths, but soon decided it didn’t match Lucy’s color scheme and put it down (whew).

Monday morning, we were both up early, loaded Butch (tow vehicle) and pulled out of Biloxi by 10:00 am, unusual for us because we rarely make it out of a campground before checkout. Please come back for an update on Lafayette. It won’t be hard to catch us…we’re Easin’ Along.