Thursday, November 21, 2019, Tabasco Factory Tour & Museum, Avery Island, LA

I always wanted to visit Avery Island, the home of Tabasco, but the only time we ever visited Louisiana we were in New Orleans. I never even tried to locate it on a map since it was never a possibility. Then Joani asked how far would I drive to visit - turned out we were only an hour away - that was close enough. She signed us up for the plant tour and the Jungle Gardens as well.

We could not have asked for a better day to visit. It was warm with a little breeze. The tour started at the museum and ended at the store but I headed into the store first. They had samples! I tried them all. A very enthusiastic young sales girl tried to sell me on a six-pack of my choosing that would net me a 25 percent discount. Joani gave me a special dispensation to exceed our hot sauce limit in the coach this one time and I took it. More about that later.

Who knew there was so much to learn about pepper sauce? We saw some of the earliest advertisements through to today's campaigns that made the sauce world famous. There are only three ingredients in Tabasco sauce - peppers, salt and vinegar. Every drop of the fiery condiment was made from peppers grown on Avery Island, Louisiana. The name Tabasco was to honor the town of Tabasco, Mexico where these peppers originated.

I had no idea there were so many counterfeit Tabascos. This was just a sampling.

This made me think of David!

Avery Island was not what most would consider an island. It was actually the top of a huge salt dome that raised the area as much as 160 feet above the surrounding area. The salt dome may extend more than 6 miles below the surface. Salt was mined on the island for the sauce and is now also commercially mined and shipped out by Cargill. The dome stands out from the surrounding marshland creating a circular 2,200-acre estate where the McIlhenny family has been growing peppers for more than 150 years. 

An aerial picture of Avery Island.
In 1868, Edmund McIlhenny planted his first crop of peppers on Avery Island, Louisiana; 140 years and five generations later, his own descendants are mashing those peppers’ descendants.

The tour took us by the nursery where pepper plants were grown from seeds. The seedlings were then planted in fields on the island. Mature peppers were picked by hand when they reach the perfect shade of red-orange and green peppers had to wait. 

The instant we walked into the greenhouse my camera fogged.

Peppers, mixed with some salt are mashed into a puree and aged in barrels. The tops of the barrels are sealed with oak and a layer of salt. The peppers are aged for as long as three years before being processed further. I learned later that each barrel, mixed with some vinegar, will yield 50,000 ounces of Tabasco sauce! At $3.00 per 5 ounce bottle each one of those barrels represented a nice chunk of change! 

Each barrel yields $30,000 worth of sauce and the warehouse holds about 68,000 to 73,000 barrels.


They process 20,000 to 22,000 barrels in a given year.

Next up was the processing factory. Here the pepper mash was mixed with vinegar and more salt and stirred. When the flavor was "just right" the mixture was filtered to remove the seeds and husks.

I suspect most people would have a difficult time breathing on the other side of the viewing area window. You could push a button that allowed you to get a "whiff" and it was pretty strong.

Finally, the pepper sauce was ready for bottling. We watched as one machine filled empty bottles and another installed the shaker top. Another screwed on the cap before labels were applied to the bottle neck and body. The last machine applied a tamper-proof seal to the cap. They proudly displayed how many bottles were produced for the day.

Time for the bottles to be boxed and packaged for shipment around the world. Tabasco sauce is shipped to 180 countries with labels in 22 different languages so don't be surprised to see it almost anywhere you might travel.

The last stop in the building was a room filled with historical pictures and memorabilia and a place to sit in quiet contemplation of the miracle of the Tabasco pepper sauce.

Enough about hot sauce and time to enjoy some of the island's natural beauty. The Jungle Gardens was a self-guided tour around a 3-mile loop. We chose to drive rather than walk because we needed the time for picture taking and I'm not sure how well we would have managed a 3-mile hike. The Live Oaks draped in Spanish Moss were simply spectacular!

Live Oaks are the dominant trees in the gardens.

A tree knot that caught my fancy.

Signs warned there were alligators in the area and they were not wrong. They were on the small side, at most 4 feet long, but we gave them a wide berth. Apparently, the turtles had no fear of the gators.

We watched this egret (a white heron) for a while.

 Its body language would give a clue as to when it was about to pounce.

I never saw him miss...

...he caught a fish with every try.

A huge pond and only one water hyacinth had a bloom.

Camellias were in bloom, or ready to bloom, throughout the island.

The Buddha was a gift to E.A. McIlhenny in 1936.

Bird City on Avery Island is a birding paradise in the warmer months, but in November only an egret or two can be seen. I believe the green covering on the water is duckweed.

I'm not sure if the round green 1/4 inch leaf and the teeny, tiny green pellet is part of the same plant, but one of them is duckweed.

I found contrasting perspectives on duckweed - a pest to be destroyed or a superfood that may save the planet.

Phyllostachys viridis, Golden Bamboo

Golden Bamboo attains a maximum height of around 45 feet, with a diameter of 3 to 4 inches.

Cryptothecia rubrocincta, the Christmas lichen

Such a pretty lichen.

Back at home, I had to get a shot of my new acquisitions. Many of the varieties I had never seen before. The Rocoto pepper sauce had just been introduced the day before we visited. It was also my priciest purchase. Scorpion sauce was their hottest option so, of course, I had to have some of it. I'm sure I will enjoy all of them even more so because they will remind me of our visit. Joani was responsible for the pickles and chili starter.  I'm sure I will help her with the chili but the pickles are all hers.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019, Move to Breaux Bridge, LA

The drive today was longer than I was expecting - 213.1 miles (95,994.1 total). It was all Interstate but somehow I had it in my mind it would be just a couple of hours so I was tired and hungry by the time we set up at Frenchman's Wilderness Campground near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. I don't know if we finally made it far enough south or if the weather just changed but we opened the windows for the first time in a while - it was in the mid-70s and beautiful!

That was one tenacious little ladybug clinging to our windshield and wipers at more than 60 miles per hour for most of our trip today.

Crossing the Mighty Mississippi we could see the Port of Baton Rouge was quite busy with cargo ships and barge traffic.

Monday, November 18, 2019, Mississippi Petrified Forest, Flora, MS

We had no idea there was petrified wood in Mississippi but we found a museum where we learned something new. Petrified wood can be found in many States and in many countries worldwide. All that was necessary was the right conditions to preserve the wood allowing the fibers to be slowly replaced by minerals. The petrified wood in Mississippi was certainly not as colorful as that found in Arizona's National Park but it was still impressive.

During the Cretaceous Period, 145 to 66 million years ago, the global climate was much warmer in North America than it is today. The sea level was quite high and divided the continent in half.

During the Oligocene Epoch, 34 to 23 million years ago, global temperatures began to gradually cool and sea level again dropped. Almost half of the state was dry land or swamp. Rivers cut new paths and formed floodplains. Logs were entombed and petrified in the sediments of these ancient rivers.

During the Great Ice Age, 11,700 years to 2.6 million years ago, nearly all of Canada and the northernmost US was repeatedly covered by glaciers as a series of temperature swings resulted in more than a dozen major glaciations. Rapid warming at the close of the Ice Age probably contributed to the mass extinction of many large terrestrial animals.

The petrified wood found in this area did not grow here, they are from the north. Mississippi was once covered by a shallow sea. These trees were probably brought here as driftwood 36 to 38 million years ago, stranded in a log jam of the area's lowlands and quickly buried in over 70 feet of soil from the murky waters.

140 years ago this land was 60 feet higher than today. How many more logs might be exposed in another 140 years?

This area was once "badlands" but has since eroded and been reclaimed by flora, leaving the petrified logs exposed.

"Caveman's Bench" lies right on the Forest Trail and signs encourage you to have a seat. In the old piece of canyon wall beside the Bench are a number of log sections still embedded, which were once all part of the same huge tree.

A small museum at the end of the trail showcased petrified wood from sites all around the world as well as many interesting mineral specimens.

The Mississippi Petrified Forest history page has an excellent explanation of how this came to be.

Saturday, November 16, 2019, Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, Jackson, MS

One of the nice features of LeFleur's Bluff State Park location was that it was adjacent to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science which meant the drive was only a few miles. It was also on the list of ASTC reciprocal facilities so our admission was covered. It was a surprisingly nice museum with many interesting and informative displays. Around the museum were many nature trails through some of the same woodlands comprising the state park. On a nicer day, we might have done some hiking but we chose to spend our time indoors.

Most of the dinos were animatronic and very colorfully imagined. Why not, after all, we have no idea what their flesh really looked like. Some were even covered with feathers now instead of scales - a very recent discovery gaining popularity. 

I spent a good deal of time watching these two Diamondback Terrapins (she's on top, he is on the bottom - adult males are noticeably smaller than adult females.)

She is sitting on him for the moment (she is the size of a dinner plate, he is the size of a bread plate.

I was fascinated by the three-foot-long congo eel, a three-toed amphiuma (longest amphibian found in North America). Yes, he does use that little leg.

Quite the local attraction, a two-headed rat snake.

Resting under heat lamps, all so still, we had to wait for eye blinks and toe wriggles to assure ourselves they were alive! I was sure that alligators would eat turtles and found many disturbing YouTube videos showing just that. My guess is they are very well fed, so why bother.

Who knew there were dreaded ROUSes in Mississippi!  Ok, it is really a Russian Boar, but come on, it must have been the model for the "Rodents Of Unusual Size" in The Princess Bride.

Back to my favorite couple! They were now joined by a beautiful Blue Crab (female - red-tipped pinchers).

Friday, November 15, 2019, Mississippi Capitol, Jackson, MS

Time for some sightseeing. Just driving out of LeFleur's Bluff State Park in Jackson, MS, provided beautiful views of Mayes Lakes and the cypress trees.

The Capitol was almost the tallest building in Jackson so it was easily visible no matter where you were.

The eagle is solid copper covered in gold leaf. It is 8 feet high with a wingspan of 15 feet.

I find it amazing that this Capitol was built in only 28 months between 1901 and 1903

at a cost of $1,093,641, funds awarded to the State of Mississippi from a lawsuit against the Illinois Central Railroad for back taxes. (1980s reno cost $19 million.)

The globe with a basket weave motif in the middle of the picture is approximately 10 feet across.

After the dome tour in the Kansas Capitol, I was interested in the architecture above the inner dome. There was no dome tour here - reaching the top of the outer dome required crawling through some outdoor hatches and several long ladders - I'd pass even if it were allowed.

Having been built just after the invention of the new-fangled light bulb they chose to include as many as they could. They did not, however, have a good plan for replacing bulbs without erecting a lot of scaffolding so we saw a lot of missing lights. I thought the bare bulbs everywhere detracted from the overall beauty of the building.

Yes, the bare bulbs are original and at the time a new technology. 750 bulbs are used in the Rotunda alone. There are 4,750 throughout the building.

David thought the bulbs brought images of penny arcades of the 30s (now that is all I see!), but in 1901 it was cutting edge.

The elevator was restored to its original elegance and still had an operator sitting at the controls inside.

I love my new sweater, Katie, thank you!

The flourish on the Corinthian columns was a bit over the top (no pun intended) and I missed having a handrail on most of the stairs but they really wanted to make their capitol a showplace.

The architecture is Beaux Arts style (defined as scholarly, self-confident, grand and lush), popular from the 1890s to the 1920s.

The heavy brass fixtures with globes were much more what you would expect to see in a well-appointed capitol building.

Thursday, November 14, 2019, Move to LeFleur's Bluff State Park, Jackson, MS

Today's drive of 192.4 miles (95,781.0 total) landed us for the first time in the state of Mississippi. Our reservations in LeFleur's Bluff State Park put us very near the heart of the capital city, Jackson. My first impressions were positive. The roads were well paved and Jackson seemed to be very easy to navigate without a lot of traffic.

The campground was such a surprise. We were surrounded by woods and water. It was a mile from the check-in gate to our site along a winding road that was nearly covered by leaves and surrounded by Mayes Lake. It was easy to forget we were in the middle of the state's capital.

The lake level was high and the grounds were still a bit muddy after recent rains. Clearly, the park had experienced flooding in the past, hence, the bathhouse built 12 feet above the ground.

Most every morning the calm lake afforded us mirror-like views of the fall colors.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019, Move to Tuscaloosa, AL

Today we returned to the road with a much more respectable drive of 221.1 miles (95,588.6 total) making our way to Cottonwood, AL (next to Tuscaloosa and the Crimson Tide).

We were a little sad to leave but the cold and the overnight freeze (in the 20s) provided the incentive we needed to get going.

The fall colors were in full swing,...

...but the winter temps were creeping in.

This says "time to hit the road and head west."

Our first stop in Alabama was the Speedco in Cottonwood where we had the oil and filters changed. I was a little worried when they seemed to have a difficult time removing one of the fuel filters. It was pretty mangled by the time it was finally out. I'm sure everything went well after that - the engine started right up and nothing seemed to be leaking.

We settled the bill and crossed the road to fuel up at the Pilot where we also parked for the night. I had to back in really deep to get the coach level enough to operate the refrigerator. It was all good since the car had already been disconnected for the oil change and that also allowed us the opportunity to drive down the road for dinner. I love it when a plan comes together. It was cold again overnight but we had plenty of propane for the furnace which kept us toasty warm in our coach.