Texas - The Lone Star State
Archers Holidays, June 2014
Bleagh! The alarm went off this morning at 5.30am as we had a 6.30am bag collection and 7.30am departure. Breakfast started at 6am and we headed down about 6.15am. We had the usual oatmeal, eggs, sausage, potatoes, yoghurt and cereal. We didn't have too much as we also had some Red Velvet Cheesecake to finish off.
We were on the bus by 7.20am and set off for Louisiana. Our first stop was just across the Texas-Louisiana border at a Visitor Center. We picked up a map of Louisiana and a free cup of coffee and took a look around the grounds.
We looked for signs of animals, but there was nothing exciting, although this sign would have you believe otherwise. Probably best we didn't see any, well, just this little chap.
We climbed back on the bus for another hundred miles to take us to Cracker Barrel
for a lunch stop. We like Cracker Barrel, but it's not very veggie-friendly. Even the veggie-looking stuff contains meat stock! We only had an hour for lunch so we lined up to be seated. Bit annoying as there was a couple got in the middle of our bus group and were asked (told) to wait until they'd seated the bus group. I know we were in a rush, but it was their turn. It was a bit embarrassing really, so I dropped them a Ted.
We got our table and I ordered the turkey special with a baked sweet potato and some fries. The service wasn't too slow and we were done in half an hour - as we left the restaurant one of our party said they were still waiting for theirs! Maybe the special is already done? It was pretty good and they brought out some biscuits too - Di checked and she could eat them! In Florida they said they put meat stock in them. She had a few of my fries too (not many!) Have to be quick with a fork when she's around.
We took a look around the store, which is an eclectic mix of toys made in China, foodstuffs, retro items, quilts and the usual t-shirts and hats. I found me a bed and a rocking chair (albeit both were pink!) but evil assistant Paul said I didn't need them! Outside I found one of their full-size rocking chairs (below right) - one of these days I WILL get one!
Soon we were on our way again, heading to the Tabasco Factory
on Avery Island.
We had a short wait for the tour to start before our guide, Charlie - who very generously let us take her photograph, even though she hates it - told us a little about the history and manufacture of Tabasco sauce. It's ALL bottled on the Island, but the plants are mostly grown in South America. The plants grown on Avery Island are used to produce the seeds.
The seeds are sent to South America, planted, grown and harvested, being mixed with salt and placed into former Jack Daniels barrels (JD can only use them once) with salt mined on Avery island. Holes are drilled into the barrels to allow gases to escape during fermentation, and a salt cap is used to keep out foreign matter.
After her introduction, Charlie showed us into a small movie theatre where we saw a film showing the production from planting, growing, hand-picking (no machinery is used) with the chillis being selected only when they reach the correct red colour - which can be determined using le petit baton rouge (little red stick) painted the colour of a ripe chilli, that the picker can hold against the plant and only pick the ones that are the correct colour. Three years later the mash is sent for bottling, with the salt cap (that has by this time hardened) being used as salt licks for the local deer. After the film, we exited to a corridor alongside the bottling plant.
It turns out Tabasco make quite the range of sauces now, more than just the original Pepper Sauce, including Green Pepper Sauce, Chipotle Pepper Sauce, Buffalo Style Hot Sauce, Habanero Sauce, Garlic Pepper Sauce and Sweet & Spicy Pepper Sauce. All of the hundreds of thousands of bottles are made here.
On the day we were there, they were up to their 184,660th bottle of the day!
After the bottling plant we entered a tiny museum which further explained the processes. The freshly picked peppers are shipped to the factory where they are ground with salt into a mash and placed in 50-gallon barrels. Below centre is one of the pepper plants. The barrel is then capped, with a vent to allow fermentation gases to escape, before covering the lid with a protective layer of salt. The barrels are left to age for three years when they are opened and mixed with vinegar and stirred intermittently for several weeks. Once the seeds and pulp have been filtered out, the sauce is ready for bottling.
Outside we took a look at one of the pepper plants that are used to create the seeds to send abroad for planting. Initially a wooden building "The Laboratory" was built on the Avery/McIlhenney homestead grounds and it was here he concocted his TABASCO® sauce. The present 70,000 square-foot factory was built in 1978, the style based on the old factory. When another 40,000 square feet were added in 1988, the old factory became converted to office space. I thought this Hot Pepper Express tramcar was cute.
We then hit the Country Store where you can buy all kinds of things sporting the Tabasco label, or containing Tabasco products. They had each of the jars available for tasting but I only tried a couple. They also offered us some ice cream - I didn't think much of the jalapeno flavour, but I did quite like the raspberry habanero flavour! It was like normal ice cream, but with a bit of a kick underneath. We bought a few teeny tiny bottles of the regular and alternate flavour bottles - there's probably enough in there to keep me going for a while, as it's a little too hot for me, but Paul gets through a lot of it.
Soon we were back outside heading to the bus. On the way I spotted their Royal Warrant - good to see Her Maj making an appearance.
We were soon back on the road as we had a boat trip awaiting us. Patrick had called ahead in case we were late - traffic was bad on the way to Avery Island - and they'd agreed to hold the boat for fifteen minutes for us, if required. We arrived at McGee's Landing, for McGee's Atchafalaya Basin Swamp Tour which was a bit of a shack - with boats - but we climbed aboard.
It had gone a bit cloudy overhead and was looking a bit like rain. We hoped the rain would hold off until the boat trip was done as it would make life easier if we were not all soaking wet!
We found that our driver, er, Captain, was Gabby Hayes! Well, okay, so it wasn't exactly, but Dave said he wouldn't be out of place at a gold mine with an ornery mule! There was only our group on the boat so we were able to spread out a little.
We saw some flowers and wildlife and got a great view of the Atchafalaya River Highway (Highway 3177).
We spotted some folks having fun in an airboat before turning around and heading back to our landing spot.
It was an easy, scenic ride, though pretty hot and stuffy so I imagine on a sunny day it could be a little uncomfortable so we did well. Our Captain was a funny guy so all in all it was a pretty good trip.
We returned to the bus for the drive to our Lafayette hotel. We'd cried off tonight's optional - it was creole food (shellfish - Paul's allergic and Di's a veggie) and dancing (my assistants are both antisocial and my dancing isn't the best!) Instead, I sent Dave as my envoy - he said he had a good time.
Our hotel was Ramada Lafayette Conference Center The room was adequate - two queen beds, Wi-Fi, flatscreen TV and table with two chairs. The hotel also had a reasonably-sized pool. On arrival, they gave us some bottles of water and cookies which we grabbed to take up to our room.
The lobby area was huge - they even had an arcade games area!
After a busy day I was starving and back in England before we left, Di had identified a place called Pizza Village
just about five blocks away. Google Maps now said it was a thirteen minute walk - we could manage that, although the road was a bit isolated. It didn't actually take that long and when we arrived we saw there were quite a few cars outside which we thought was a good sign.
What a welcome. Don't think they get a lot of tourists in here - they were very friendly, particularly on hearing our British accents and we got a nice table. It said pizzas would take thirty minutes to cook so we decided to order some garlic bread to start, then upgraded to cheesy garlic bread. Oh yeah, and a large pitcher of Budweiser, which arrived with chilled glasses that they would change between refills!
As this was World Cup 2014 time, we were quizzed about the footie (sorry, soccer) but, of course, I had no clue! Done with the garlic bread, our pizzas arrived. Mushroom and onion and pepperoni and jalapeno. Boy were they hot! Temperature-wise I mean. Nice and crunchy base too. The servers were attentive and friendly throughout. The whole lot, which included six pitchers of beer (though each less than a pint) came to $43, including a 20% tip! Bargain. Patrick should know about this place!
We ambled back to our room and sorted out my purchases of the day - mostly tiny bottles of Tabasco - before going to bed.