Tabasco on your Celery?

It's all poison ivy.

About 50 miles west of Baton Rouge on I-10, you come to the pleasant town of Lafayette. We stayed in a wooded city park that has a small nature center and a series of paths winding through a forest of poison ivy. I called it the trail of terror and kept my hands and arms tightly by my sides. 

A few miles away we visited the Nature Conservancy’s Cypress Island Preserve where thousands of waterbirds nest in the cypress-tupelo swamp beside a lake. From the truck we could see roseate spoonbills, egrets, herons and ibis flying and bustling about the rookery and hear their loud, raucous squawking. When we parked, I spotted a small alligator and pointed it out to a man and a couple women standing nearby. “How did you see that?” he said. “If we were in Ireland, where we’re from, I could show you a leprechaun!” That I’d like to see, if it were a real one! They were happy to see the gator and walked down to the water as close as possible and scared it off. Back in town we drove to the Catholic church beside which is a huge live oak tree. It’s older than 450 years, surrounded by an iron fence, and so big, its limbs are supported with metal posts.

That evening we went to Randol’s to hear Cajun music and eat Cajun food. There was an excellent live band. People were dancing, but unfortunately, the music and dancing were in another room. However, you could hear the music and when the sun went down, you could kind of see people dancing through the plexiglass that divided the rooms. After dinner, I went in the other room and watched the show while David continued to work on peeling and eating the three pounds of crawfish he had ordered. There may have been 100 crawfish. They kind of taste like lobster. 

The following day we drove to Avery Island on the coast to visit the McIlhenny company. They make tabasco sauce, and you can visit the factory for “free”. Actually, you have to cross a little bridge over a tiny stream and pay the troll a dollar to get on the private island. But that’s okay. It’s actually a pretty interesting story. Someone gave Edmund McIhenny a few pepper pods just after the Civil War. They grew well. He made some sauce and ended up creating a business, which is still in the family. When we got there, two tour buses had just arrived, so we went to the store and sampled about 12 different kinds of tabasco sauce, tabasco soda, tabasco ice cream and a few other tabasco products. We bought some chipotle tabasco sauce and got a free container of mustard with tabasco. On the tour you get a brief overview of the process and history, watch a 10-minute video, visit a museum and see where they bottle the sauces.   

Our next campsite was at Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The campground itself was a bit cramped, but it’s across from a pretty cypress swamp. Surprisingly, there weren’t any mosquitoes. We learned why later when they came through spraying. The wi-fi here was very good, the best we’ve had in the few places we’ve had it. We explored the park and walked on a couple of trails. I took the boys out, and Neptune had a great time chasing bugs.  Later that day we watched as two rented campers pulled into the campsites beside us. Four young men piled out of each RV. Must be college Spring break. The power cord to one of the vehicles wouldn’t reach the receptacle, so they had to do without power. If we didn’t have a 30-amp extension cord, we wouldn’t have been able to reach either. The following day they were gone. 

From Lake Charles south to the Gulf of Mexico there is wide open space, the large, shallow Calcasieu Lake and acres of freshwater and brackish marshes. You can download an audio tour and let it lead you along a 180-mile loop called the Creole Nature Trail National Scenic Byway. It’s a great idea. You’re driving along in the comfort of your own car at your own pace and someone is pointing out the highlights. It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 80’s, and the drive was scenic, for the most part. We stopped several times to walk on trails. In Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, tall dry grasses rattled in the breeze as we walked the one-mile Blue Goose trail. We didn’t see geese, but we saw lots of red-winged blackbirds and boat-tailed grackles and admired the pretty pink morning-glory-like flowers speckling the green grass. A few miles farther down the road was the 1.5-mile Wetland Walkway. 

David went to the observation deck in the parking lot, leaned over the rail and jumped back. Right below him was a huge alligator, half out of a small creek. Another one was close behind. They weren’t looking for people to eat, but probably people feed them because there are big signs saying “Don’t feed the alligators.” 

Then we drove along the Gulf of Mexico. We could see dozens of oil rigs off the coast. There are at least 4,000 rigs and platforms in the gulf. Makes you wonder. We stopped at a small overgrown nature preserve. A man was tying pink plastic ties around small trees so the bushhog wouldn’t mow them down. He told us they were just getting the site ready for the annual migrant birds. We found a picnic table and had lunch. Then we drove east and crossed the river on a ferry to Cameron. Here you can see dozens of oil refineries and other oil-related businesses. There wasn’t really that much development outside the small town of Cameron but lots of campers, perhaps for contract workers living here temporarily. It’s very flat. At one point the road was only about six feet from the shore and level with it. We walked around a boardwalk and drove the three-mile drive in Cameron Prairie NWR. We saw lots of birds and alligators. Thousands of waterfowl come here to overwinter. National wildlife refuges let people shoot the waterfowl (and hunt other animals) within season and with bag limits. The visitor’s center had some good exhibits. I learned that the black ibises we had seen are called white-faced ibises. The white is hard to see. 

Back at the trailer, the cats were enjoying watching the friendly squirrels that lived in the tree next to us. Later that evening a deer came to the door, looking expectant. You shouldn’t feed wild animals. It changes their behavior. This deer had already been trained. (Bad excuse, I know.) I gave her a piece of apple. She wouldn’t eat it. I have her a piece of celery. She looked at me like I was crazy. So I gave her a piece of bread, which she ate. Neptune watched, enthralled. Plato ran and hid. Later that night I looked out the door to see what Neptune was staring at. A raccoon was eating the apple. In the morning, the celery was still there. Perhaps it needed something on it...tabasco?