Deep South Louisiana - Red Sauce & Rednecks

Departed New Orleans for our 140 mile hop to the deepest Cajun south.

So far the local folks we have met on our journey have said New Iberia would be swampy and humid with a large smattering of rednecks in pick-ups with guns living off Tabasco.

This all turned out to be true in fact apart from the Tabasco Plant there was actualy not a heck of a lot else to see and do!

Arrival at our rather grand looking guest house was met with a "Hello can I help you?" it took us a minute to explain we were actually supposed to be staying with them, then upon entering we were subjected to a 40minute talk on the local attractions, which turned out to be a swamp tour that was unavailable and the home of Tabasco which was our main reason for visiting this area.

If anyone reading this wasn't already aware, Gary is a fan of Tabasco, when I say fan I mean he uses it on everything and visiting the home of Tabasco is not a tourist attraction, more like a Pilgrimage!!

So, on our first night we popped into a local nice looking bar and were met with ladies in vests with matching tattoos, along with hairy leather Harley Davidson boys.

Swiftly finishing our beers we headed out over to a nice restaurant across the road which turned out to serve great food and some iffy live music, redneck count was still fairly high though.

Next day we headed over to Avery Island for the Tabasco tour, typically well organised American affair with a great gift shop, a long awaited visit realised for Gary.

Next to the Tabasco plant is a wildlife reserve called Jungle Gardens maintained by the Mcilhenny family who own the Tabasco brand. Baby 'gators, egrets, turtles were all spotted, Jill still looking for the first sign of a Racoon though...... mind you, we've seen plenty "having a snooze" on the main roads.

Not much else to do in this area apart from swamp tours, ours was cancelled in favour of a larger group taking our seats, not to worry.

At a loose end we drove to the nearest larger town called Lafayette and dropped into their local cinema and caught Terminator 4.

A canny day all round for Gary, Jill's still on the lookout for Raccoons.

Off to the Hurricane "Ike" hit Gulf coast town of Galveston on Sunday 31st. NASA awaits.