February 22, 2010 Road trip USA
Where’d I leave off? We managed to get onto the bayou. The tour wasn’t really all that we wanted. The boat was too big and so we couldn’t go as deep into the swamp as we would of like to. Still it was the only trip available on our schedule and it was interesting all the same. The summer would be the time to see it. We didn’t find the Zydeco bands we were promised last night. Instead when we got there a band was playing cover tunes from the 80’s. Another place seem to be having an impromptu, drunken karaoke night.
We visited Avery Island LA yesterday as well. For those among you not hip to Cajun geography, Avery Island is home to the world famous Tabasco factory. It was actually quite nice there. First the air is permeated with a light infusion of peppers. Secondly the family has owned the island for generations.
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| Avery Island |
The man was a nature lover and cultivated the gardens and grounds into a sanctuary the size of Stanley Park, maybe bigger. We met our first wild Alligators here. As we continued through this paradise we came though giant oak forests, floral gardens, bamboo forests (location of the original 1920’s Tarzan movie) and an aquatic bird sanctuary. It really was an Eden.
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| Saw Our First Gator |
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| Avery Island |
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| Jens photo-Tarzan Bamboo forest |
Continued west out of Louisiana following old hwy 82 along the coast. A bit of a waste as it was fogged in so bad we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us. Besides it was dark. We pulled of the road for a short break; it sounded like it might have been an interesting place to explore. On the south side of the road white sand beaches with what seemed to once be some sort of beach communities. Now just holiday trailers parked on top of what was probably a house of some sort before Katrina. The north side of the road was a bayou, Sabine National Wildlife Refuge. To bad we could see much. The ocean sound and smelt nice though. There were a great many creeping, crawling, noise making things playing about behind us in the swamp. Time to get back in the car. I missed a turn off to a town in the fog so we ended up in Texas around midnight; Jen still thinks I drove through on purpose but she’s mistaken.
Y’all know that show “king of the hill”? We’ll I met the cast outside of Galveston Texas in the town of Brazoria. I picked up a flat and had to stop to get it fixed, that where I met them, nice boys but their world is small. Quote, “My sister said she wants to go to Bora Bora as if that’s even a real place” Do you think he was serious?
The South Eastern Texas coast is a schizophrenic area. We are presently west bound on hwy35. To our immediate south, in its entire splendor, the Gulf of Mexico. Not blue like the Mexican side, more of a muddy green. Miles of white sand beaches interrupted with the occasional clumps of beach communities, brand new or in various states of rebuilding or abandonment. Spread further apart but leaving a stronger impression are the giant chemical plants and oil refineries the feeling of post apocalyptic cities. My view right now is the fiery sky falling behind one such futuristic steel city. The in land, north side, transforms from prairie to swampy wetland indiscriminately and then back again. The sky is everywhere and it seems as though we can see the curvature of the Earth again. My new southern friends from the tire shop assure me that the area around Corpus Christi is quite pretty. Our goal tonight is Padre Island, kind of an American Isla Mujeres. I’ll decide!
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