Touring to Texas!

Tuesday 8 April

With great effort, we chose to rise at 4am and be on the road by 5 in order to drive to LA without traffic hassles – although according to David, it was still ‘mad’.  It was worth the effort because we made the trip in little over an hour.  This gave us time to visit Linda’s favourite restaurant – Ihop – for brekky.  Returned the car to Avis and took the courtesy bus to the airport.  Flight to Dallas – 3 hrs followed by a fairly spirited walk through from terminal D to terminal C in record time to board the 1hr flight to  New Orleans.  Landed in a cold thunderstorm!  Highlight of the trip:  Flight attendant to Linda:  ‘Ma’am – what would you like to drink?’ Linda ordered.  FA:  ‘You two going on a cruise?’  Linda: ‘Yes, how can you tell?’  FA: ‘You two are the only pair on board wearing bright colours and you’re happy!’  Linda: ‘Well I’ll take that as a compliment!’

Comfort Inn at St Rose (5 mins from airport) – great hotel with a free courtesy shuttle.  Picked us up – by now almost dark.  Damn cold!  Freezing wind, not very pleasant. Courtesy shuttle to restaurant ‘Voo Doo BBQ’ across the road (virtually) for dinner and pick up to return to the hotel. 

Wednesday 9 April

Hit the road this morning after picking up hire car at airport.

Destination – Avery Island, Louisiana, home of the Tabasco factory.

Tabasco sauce is a brand of hot sauce made exclusively from tabasco peppers (Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco),vinegar and salt. It has a hot, spicy flavor.

We did the free tour and saw the factory at work bottling the various varieties.  Then we hit the souvenir shop - and also some taste tests!

Currently it is strawberry season in Louisiana – best climatic conditions for the last 21 days making it a bumper crop.  Stopped at a roadside stall to buy a small ‘pint’ basket - $US3.50.  The gentleman wanted to sell me larger containers but I had to explain that I was going to be the only one eating them, wanted to compare them to Australian berries.  He said, ‘I guessed you were from there.’  I said, ‘Oh, because of my accent?’  He said, ‘I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing.’  (Lol! Somebody else who likes hearing me talk!)

On recommendation from Lesley, next we stopped at the town of Rayne...

Rayne is a city in Louisiana, USA.  The population was 7,953 at the 2010 census.  It is nicknamed the "Frog Capital of the World", as well as the "Louisiana City of Murals".  

We love frogs and liked seeing the town - here are some of our favourite photos:

Next, we drove on to Beaumont, Texas.  It was a very long day!