The Ray Adventures: Houston, Broussard and Mandeville, La

We have been so busy this last week, I long for our lazy times in Rockport.

Monday,January 19^th, A beautiful day is expected with highs in the low 70’s, we took Luci to Pet Smart for doggie day care to give us some “alone” time and best of all will run some of the “stuff” out of her. We drove up to Bayou Bend Gardens, the land purchased in 1925 by Miss Ima Hogg and her two brothers. Poor thing I wonder if she was teased unmercifully by her classmates. The 14 acres of natural woodland, ravines and bayou were perfect for their home and gardens. We didn’t take the house tour, it is a museum of fine arts, sounds like it was beautifully decorated with period pieces as well as some that were 300 years old. Ima, a rich philanthropist, began planning the gardens before the house was completed. She wanted each section of the landscape to be a “room” from very formal to the secluded wooded areas. We were surprised to see pines as we drove in, in the areas we have been we haven’t seen any. I would love to see the gardens in the spring, she had so many azaleas and Camilla plants throughout. On our way back to pick up Luci we stopped at Fountains Pub in Sugarland, named for the fountains out front, there were other restaurants on the pond. They have a special every day, Monday’s was a $3.00 burger, well you can’t beat that. It was delish! We decided to walk the boardwalk along the pond, big mistake. There must have been 100 dead fish floating on top of the water. Yuk. Gary has been looking for a new camera case so after we picked up Luci we went to a nearby camera store, he had certain prerequisites, well if you couldn’t find it in that store I don’t think it exists, he came home empty handed. Needless to say we skipped dinner.

Tuesday, January 20^th,We’ve decided a fun thing we could do in our travels is visit as many NFL stadiums as we can. The NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans have certain days that tours are available. In the scheme of things it wasn’t too far from the Elks, it only took us about a half an hour to get there. Construction started in 2000 and completed in 2002, costing 352 million and it is owned by Harris County. The Astrodome right next door is in bad shape, it will cost too much money to ever be used again, the locals do not want to tear it down so it is used for storage. It was cool, we were the only ones on the tour. Our tour guide Paulette, relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, was proud of the fact that the Texans have sold out every game since being franchised into the league. The stadium is used for the rodeo, Monster Jam, ice shows, college basketball and college and NFL football. In 2017 they will host the Super Bowl. Like AT&T stadium they host many events. We couldn’t go down to the field, the Monster Jam finished up on Sunday, they were still taking the dirt out. The first stop was the visitors locker room and offices for the coaching staff. We didn’t get to see the Texans locker room. The two TV screens in the end zones are the biggest in the league, measuring 55 feet tall and 277 feet wide. The stadium has a retractable roof that they open when the temperature outside is between 50 degrees and 80 degrees, it takes 10 minutes to open, due to damage after Hurricane Ike in 2008 the roof had to stay open all season. The club level suites cost $300-400 per ticket per game and the private suites are $40,000 per game, with seating for 75 plus food and beverage costs. The field is natural grass, squares of 8X8 are stacked onto palates, taken to the field by a fork lift then are placed on the field which takes 8-10 hours. Then the NFL and team logos are painted with latex paint. After the game the paint is sprayed with water, letting the water run through the floor then are removed and taken back outside where they are stored. College teams use polyurethane turf. One thing I’ve always been curious about was how do they clean the stadium after an event, first they pick up the trash then power wash the seats and floor. Now I know, the cleaning crews were busy cleaning up after the Monster Jam.

Wednesday, January 21, We woke up to a very foggy day but sunshine was scheduled to arrive by 12. We wanted to get an early start we had about a 250 mile drive. And we did, then Gary had a Boo Boo with the car parked next to us, another repair to be taken care of Indiana. We finally hit the road about 10, traffic was still pretty heavy which made for a stressful ride, especially after what just happened. We stopped at the rest area/visitor information exit just after the Louisiana border, wow, it was just like a park, a lake, nice picnic areas and a boardwalk through the swamp out to a fishing platform. The area with so big (how big was it?) that we were able to find 3 caches which have to be at least 1/10 of a mile apart. The signs bothered me, “Caution snakes” and “No swimming, Alligators”, I was very careful where I walked. We had been warned about the roads in Louisiana, well they were right. Cement slap that shook the whole coach. Every time I opened a cupboard something would come flying out at me. We arrived at Maxie’s campground in Broussard about 3:30, not the best of campgrounds but at least they didn’t try to pass themselves off as a “resort”. Nice and cheap for $14.00 a night we can put up with heavy traffic noise and no satellite due to tree cover. I had made turkey, barley and vegetable soup the night before so all I had to do was warm it up.

Thursday, January 22^nd, Robert and Diana, who we met in Rockport, came by, they are staying at Abbeville just about 15 miles away. The heavy rain that was forecast arrived right on time, just before we went to lunch at Bon Teche, the menu was interesting, we had to keep asking what certain things were. Robert got a crawfish pot pie that was about as big as a dinner plate. I had honey chili chicken, Gary had meatloaf and Diana had something I can’t pronounce. It was good to see them again. We made plans for Sunday to go on a swamp tour. The rain was really getting heavy, 3” had been forecast, and it rained all afternoon and night. Luci was not keen on the idea of going outside to do her business, she made it real quick. We can just get a few channels with our antenna, ABC is the only network.

Friday, Jan. 23^rd. It rained and rained and rained, 2-3 inches of rain, since we can’t get the news I don’t know what the final total was. Today is very cold and windy but no rain. After lunch we drove to St. Martinville, about 10 miles from Broussard, founded in 1765 the 6^th oldest town in the US. We stopped at Evangeline Oak Promenade along the shore of Bayou Teche. I always thought a bayou was a swamp, no a bayou is a slow moving stream of water, a swamp is trees in water. Now I know. Teche means snake. The lady in the visitor center said the snakes in the summer hang off the eaves of her house. I’m not going to move to Louisiana! According to local history, Judge Edward Simon studied at Harvard at the same time as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Simons’ accounts of the history and geography of Acadia influenced Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. The Accadians of Nova Scotia in 1755 were issued an ultimatum to swear allegiance to the British Crown and the Catholic Church or leave. They refused and ended up in southern Louisiana, hence the area is called Acadia. I had to look up the poem Evangeline to understand the correlation. In the poem the day before the wedding of Evangeline and Gabriel, he was exiled to Louisiana. On Evangelines arrival in Louisiana to search for Gabriel she discovered he was so grief stricken he left the area. She searched for Gabriel and found him on his death bed, she died a short time later. It may be fictional but people in the area believe it to be based on a true story. We drove around town looking at historic places including the St. Martin de Tour Church which was established in 1765. A beautiful church and the restoration is amazing. We went to see Taken 3 after dinner, we enjoyed it but a little suspenseful just before bed.

Saturday, Jan. 24^th, Robert and Diana told us about Avery Island, where Edmund McIlhenny invented Tabasco Sauce on 1868. He started making it in his kitchen for family and friends, it evolved into a factory bottling 700,000 bottles a day selling to 50 countries worldwide. The sauce starts with a seed, grown in a greenhouse on the property, then planted, handpicked and processed with only vinegar and salt. Once the mash is made it is placed in an oak whiskey barrel. (purchased from Jack Daniels in Kentucky) The lid is covered with salt which seals it, fermentation bubbles up but the salt keeps dirt from getting in the mash. After aging for 3 years (the private reserve label is aged for 5 years) it is processed and manufactured. You walk by the manufacturing, bottling and labeling area behind a glass wall. Adjacent to the factory property is Jungle Gardens, one of McIllhenys sons developed 250 landscaped acres and filled with exotic plants from all over the world. Located beside a bayou, there are ponds with alligators (we didn’t see any) stands of bamboo, one of the largest display of Camellia’s, statues etc. Avery Island is the largest of 5 salt domes in Louisiana. One area of the salt is 28,000 feet deep. Needless to say the salt from the ground covers the barrels. The weather is improving, the sun is out and a little warmer.

Sunday, Jan. 25^th,Robert and Diana picked us up about noon for our Swamp Tour on St. Martin lake. The shallow bottom boat seated 30, our driver (he never told us his name) was quite adept going through the tight spots in the swamp. The swamp was just as I’d imagined, the Bald Cypress trees dripping with moss, turtles sitting on logs, shallow water, birds and lots of green “stuff” floating which our guide said was duck weed. Of course I had to ask about snakes, he said they hang from trees, I don’t know if he was pulling my leg or not but I did keep an eye out. He took us through the Rookery, the bird sanctuary which is closed Feb. 15-April 15 for egg laying and hatching. Places were so tight the unnamed guide had to use the cypress trees to turn the boat and so shallow he had to rev up the engine to get through. He showed us an alligator nest, it looks like a big mound of dirt. We did get to see an alligator, 65 years old, 13 feet long. They are just starting to “wake” up after winter. The tour lasted about 2 hours, quite interesting. On our way back to Lafayette we stopped to pick up a couple of geo caches. We decided to get a bite to eat before heading home, we had a hard time finding a place to eat, most of the restaurants were closed on Sunday. We found what turned out to be a sports bar but the food had a local flavor, our server Brooklyn was patient with us, first explaining how to pronounce the dish then what it was. We all had dishes we’d never tried before.

Monday, Jan. 26^th, We left Broussard about 10:00 for Mandeville only about 2 ½ hour drive. Mandeville is on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, we’ll be here for 2 weeks. That is Gary will be, unless the storm in the northeast disrupts my flight I’m leaving Wednesday for Oregon to celebrate Charlotte’s 70^th birthday. We’ve been friends since the early 80’s, I can’t believe we’re so old. We’re staying at Fontaine State Park right on the lake. It’s a beautiful park, Gary will have lots of bike trails to ride while I’m gone. We made a quick stop at the visitor center to get the “skinny’ on the area.

That’s it for this week, I probably won’t publish my next blog until after I get home from Oregon on the 3^rd.

TTFn

Gary and Pam