Chapter 2 -- The End

I'm sitting at home writing this last post for this adventure. The next is already around the corner, but this one has come to an end.

From my friend's house I spent the night at The Myrtles, a famous plantation in northern Louisiana. Bad weather was coming so I spent a good portion of Friday driving. I am so thankful for remote work, Bluetooth earbuds, large parking lots and a wonderful company. I could not do what I've done over the last few months without all of those things.

I finished the drive Saturday with a full day of driving and a couple of naps.

Next up is Missouri for the eclipse, Route 66 and Utah. April 1 will not be April's Fool Day for me.

Chapter 2 - Day 30, 31 and 32 Friends and Puzzling

 Leelu and I are hanging in my friend's driveway while we work on puzzles, drive around and buy meat. 

I'll be back on Friday with an update from The Myrtles. Be good.

Chapter 2 - Day 29 - Tabasco Factory Tour and Jungle Garden

 I spent two nights in a RV park, Saturday to Monday morning. It was clean and had sewer hook up. Sunday was the nicer day weather-wise, so I headed to Avery Island. 

The Tabasco Factory tour, gift shop and restaurant were really neat. The tour is a walking tour with videos that play, interactive elements, etc. It's well done and if it'd been a work day I could have seen workers too.

I'm winding down on this trip and won't really have much beyond this update until the end of the week. For the next couple of days I'm staying with my friend and doing just boring friend stuff. :D Although I am buying a bunch of meat products for Ben.

Chapter 2 - Day 28 - Community Garden

 Today was relaxed. I worked, wandered the property here, did a tiny bit of weeding... and that's about it. There's some storms north of here which gave us grey weather, but also nicer temps. Here's pics of the garden. The last one is Leelu looking at me because she was in timeout for trying to mount the other little dog here. I can't take her anywhere.

Oh, tomorrow I'll be experiencing Avery Island and Tabasco. I'm so excited.

Might order delivery for dinner. Be good!

Chapter 2 - Day 26 and 27 - Baby Alligators are SO CUTE

Day 26 was just a weird travel day. I took the better way, less muddy, out of Lake Fausse. I headed to Broussard and Breaux Bridge area. I spent the night at Champagne's Swamp Tours on Lake Martin. But before I arrived there I got food and worked in the Walmart parking lot. 

Day 27. Oh, all the baby alligators. So, obviously I took a tour. Right? Right! 

The morning started very muggy. VERY. I buttoned up the camper and turned on the AC to get it dried out. So glad that trick worked. I left it running for Leelu when I went for my tour. She deserves AC when it's gross out.

The tour was great! Pics are below. But we saw two ospreys, cooper's hawk, yellow belly turtles, great blue heron, great white egret, cormorants, a couple of ducks and probably some other things I've forgotten. Tour pics are below.

Once that was done I went for an oil change (if you're ever in Breaux Bridge check out Rees Street Lube) then on my way to New Iberia to hang out in the Iberia Market Garden for a couple of days.

Chapter 2 - Day 25 - Extra Edition

 I didn't want to mar the loveliness of the Houmas House with the following story.

We headed toward Lake Fausse Pointe State Park. Why there, you ask? Because after two rainy, grey days I was low on POWER. I needed some electricity and laundry. So, off to the internet I went looking for those two things. 

What I didn't realize is that Google has a sense of evil humor. Yep, you heard me right. Maps did me dirty.

That map. That purple highlight? Fifteen miles of mud, puddles, more mud, gravel and mud, gravel, BOULDERS, more mud and mud. Enough so that in the end I was cheering The Beast on for her ability to handle the mud like we were in seven inches of slush at home. We skidded, spun, slid and slalomed our way through it. 

Why not turn around you ask? Well, The Beast is 30 feet long. Which means I need a LOT of road or area to turn her around. I had fifteen at best and the edges were NOT to be touched. Nope. So, I kept on driving. Patting the steering wheel with each piece of crazy we got through.

It was fun, after my heart rate got back to normal. And it proved that not only can I, but the Beast as well, can handle the slickest of shit.

Oh, and I saw two bald eagles while on the highway of hellishness. And a bunch of beehives.

So, this was the aftermath. I wish I'd taken a pic of the back of her with the caked on mud but I didn't.

Chalked it up to an adventure and a good story. I did get my laundry done.

Chapter 2 - Day 25 - Houmas House and Gardens

 The morning was grey, but not raining. Leelu and I ventured out mid-morning for our tour and it was awesome. I'm not going to try and explain all the pics. You can check out some walk-through's on YouTube that cover the rooms, art, etc. I'll link one here for you.

And... the plethora of pics:

Then I went looking for a place with electric. I'll fill you all in on the mudding I did over 15 miles of Google's hazing of me.