2015 Trip - League City, TX to New Orleans, LA

Sun. 5/24… (League City, TX)   It rained hard on us this morning complete with lightning and thunder and dumped a lot of water in the campground.  But it let up a bit by 10:00am so we decided to drive down to Galveston Island to tour around.  I had been there when I was on assignment in Houston a little over 4 years ago so I knew a bit about the city but it was still fun to go back.  This place is like a huge Balboa Island complete with plenty of tourist stops and restaurants! The beach is the attraction but the weather kept most of them away at least for the morning. 

 

 

We decided to go tour the Moody Mansion.  Designed by William H. Tyndall for Narcissa Willis, financial mogul William Moody Jr. bought the mansion from Mrs. Willis’ heirs for $20,000 after the great storm of 1900.  The Moody Foundation restored the mansion and property to its former elegance and the $8.00 senior ticket was well worth the money!  Cameras are not allowed in the mansion but I got some pictures of the house. 

 Afterward we looked around for linner and found Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant down by the cruise ship pier but couldn’t find parking.  We headed for the south beach area known as Seawall Ave. (17’ high seawall was built after major storms devastated the island).  We found Fish Tails and a parking space. Yaay!  The meals were ok.  The clam chowder soup was expensive and terrible. They should have called it bacon soup with clams. Lydia and I shared the seafood platter which was very good, just overpriced. We expected tourist trap prices so we were ok with that.  Afterward, we headed home to catch up on TV (Indy 500 and CocaCola 600 for me!). We prepped the rig for tomorrow when we take off and finally leave Texas.        

   

Mon. 5/25…. (New Iberia, LA) We had 240 miles to drive today so we were up and out of camp by 9:00am.  We worked our way east and up around Galveston Bay and to the I-10 then out of Texas and into Louisiana.  No issues, just a stretch of really rough roads which made for a long day!  We are now at KOC Kampground in New Iberia, LA. 

 

The weather is just plain hot!  Up till now we had some cloud cover when it wasn’t raining.  Seems that is over now and we have big white puffy clouds and temps in the 100s!  Hot and sticky!  Treasa is cooking tonight and she served up spaghetti and salad and bread.  It sure hit the spot especially with a few cold Lone Star beers! We talked a bit about plans for tomorrow.  We want to go to both the Conrad Rice Mill and to McIlhenny Company on Avery Island and see where Tabasco is manufactured. 

 

Tues. 5/26… (New Iberia, LA) We left camp around 10:00am and headed south about 6 miles to Avery Island.  This really is an island that was bought by McIlhenny family and developed as a salt mine (cost us a $1 to cross the tiny bridge).  Avid gardener Edmund McIlhenny planted seeds of capsicum peppers and then developed the recipe for the pepper sauce that is made to this day.  The plant is expanding but we got the basic tour through one room of windows.  Basically the peppers are harvested (under the supervision of a McIlhenny) and sent to the mill where they are crushed and made into a pasty muck which goes into barrels for 3 years.  Once opened, they add vinegar and mix and bottle the sauce immediately.  Afterward, we went to the store where all their products are available to sample.  They make seven versions of Tabasco sauce but also steak sauce and others not available anywhere but at the store. 

Afterward we drove back home to walk the dog a bit.  She deserves some time too!  We let her off leash in this great big boggy grass area and she had a ball running and rolling in the puddles.  She was a mess! The picture I took didn’t even look like her

 

Before and after....

 

After giving the dirty dog a quick bath, we then set out to find the Conrad Rice Mill.  P.A. Conrad founded Conrad Rice Mill in 1912.  Konriko was an acronym for Conrad Rice Company. He changed the Cs to Ks and thus the name.  Our tour guide was wonderful.  She is a true Cajun and has been working there for 10 years. Turns out she was married only 8 days after us!   We saw a movie about the history of the area and then she walked us over to the mill.  This place was deemed an historical site in 1981 and cannot be altered in any way.  It is a working mill with only 17 total employees so they don’t market that much product. 

We bought a few things and asked about where to eat in the city and she immediately directed us to ‘Bon Creole’.  She said if you didn’t know about it you would not go in the rundown place.  But she says, ‘It is the Best!’ so we went.  It was the best! Lydia and I split the large combo basket which included crawfish, shrimp, oysters, catfish, fries and a salad and drinks. Very tasty! Rick and Janie bought linner to thank us for helping get their water heater going again. Not necessary but thanks guys!

 

 

After returning we had to check out the little time town of ‘Lydia’, just a few miles down the road. We went into the Lydia Food Store and bought some fudge, then cruised around the town and took a few pictures. Just had to do it!

 

On the way home we drove through New Iberia to see if we could find the 'sugar plantation' mansions on the Teche Bayou. We saw a few but they were closed to tours for the day. We got a picture of the trees in the front of the property.

 

We came back and rested and made plans for the trip tomorrow.  We are headed to the New Orleans area and back to another military base.  One note - we traveled here on I-10 and then to State Highway 90.  90 is a terrible road!  We are continuing east on that route again tomorrow.  Let’s hope the road improves! 

 

Wed. 5/27… (New Orleans, LA) This morning we got going about 9:00am.  Even though the drive was only 135 miles, we knew the road was tough so we wanted to leave early to allow some time. We had a nice enough road but we hit some really bad rain along the way. We were able to outrun it though and made it to Aviation Arbor RV Park at the NASJRB Base in Belle Chase, LA. We had to stop along the road (Walmart parking lot) to switch wives again so Janie could use her military id to get our rig on the base.  This is a really nice place.  The RV park is in a kind of secluded area on the base so it should be really quiet tonight.  We got in and hooked up everything right before the storm caught up with us.  They said we only got the edge so it wasn’t too bad.  Just wish California could see this rain.  Once the rain quit we headed over to the base commissary to pick up something for dinner. Lydia is cooking tonight so we settled on rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes, veggies, bread, and an apple crescent roll thingy for dessert.  It was yummy!  Tomorrow we head into New Orleans.