Broussard, LA

Friday - A 240 mile travel day from Alabama, through Mississippi, and half way through Louisiana to south of Lafayette. The traffic was a lot heavier as we headed west. Baton Rouge was almost like Florida. We aren at a small RV park for a couple of days as we plan on visiting Avery Island, the home of Tabasco. There were a few complaints about this park on Yelp but it is very nice. Plenty of real, green grass and large, level sites.

Saturday - Up early today for the Saturday, early morning test session. It starts at around 7:30, which is early for me. I think we plan on going to the Tabasco facility on Avery Island this morning. I had heard that the tour is pretty good. Better if you don't mind the smell of Tabasco sauce.

Later - The Tabasco “factory” is in a beautiful area with old oaks and lots of bamboo. The self-guided tour was well done with numerous short videos. The process seems pretty straightforward and hasn’t changed much over the years. Peppers, salt, and vinegar. 

The mash is aged for around three years after being sealed with salt on top of the barrels. 

The aged mash is then mixed with vinegar and stirred for several weeks before being strained and bottled. 

Since we were there on a Saturday, the bottling plant wasn’t running. 

A great place to visit!

Mobile, AL - HH

Thursday - Another 350 mile travel day to a Harvest Host farm southwest of Mobile, AL. I think that this is the first time we are staying in Alabama. We picked up some steaks but we will save them for tomorrow. Not quite enough time to make them tonight. We are plugged into a 20 amp outlet so our batteries will stay charged. Plus, we are parked under a large tree. It’s only 76°F so no A/C needed. 

Live Oak, FL - BW

Wednesday - We are at a Boondockers Welcome location in Live Oak, FL. Yesterday, multiple things went wrong while getting ready to go. The right turn signal on the Jeep wasn’t working when connected to the RV. Bridget ended up driving the Jeep from Fort Myers to here. About 345 miles. And the water heater drain was leaking. When I tried to tighten it, it broke. 

This morning, I was able to fix the cable from the RV to the Jeep. It had sagged and scraped on the road wearing through the cable. I spliced in a new piece of wire. And, I picked up a new plug for the water heater at Tractor Supply so we once again have running water. This location has water and power which is really nice. We are staying a second day due to the repairs. 

Sanibal Island, FL

Monday - At 9 this morning, we headed out with Steve & Cheryl on their boat. It was very calm but wind was in the forecast for the afternoon. 

There were quite a few boats in the channel heading away from Cape Coral towards open water. A lot of slow going due to potential manatees but we did not see any all day.

This narrow canal was one of the more promising areas to spot one but we didn’t see any. 

We stopped at the beach near the lighthouse on the south eastern end of Sanibel Island for lunch. 

This is the lighthouse. It looks like an automated light. Hurricane Ian completely flooded the island destroying most homes, boats, and docks. It is still being rebuilt. 

On the way back, we stopped to watch dolphins but I didn’t get any pictures.