The weekend trip

On Thursday, we drove to Pikeville, KY - "the city that moves mountains" - to visit with Charley's sister, Jean. The cut-thru project shown here is the largest engineering feat in the U.S., and second in the world only to the Panama canal. It started in 1973, and finished in 1987 at a cost of over $77 million.

To view the "cut thru" you stand in a cage overlooking the city. It was spooky, suspended out in mid-air on the side of a cliff.
The project diverted over 600, 000 cubic yards of dirt, to eliminate flooding from the Big Sandy River.

Friday evening, we drove over the new highway to South Williamson. I was looking for batteries for my camera, so we stopped into a little mall. Surprise - they had a band playing in the center of the mall, so we stopped to enjoy a free concert.
Check out the size of this guy's bass.

The concerts are a regular Friday night event. Some brought their clogging shoes. Feel free to get up and dance.

My new best friends. On the way back over to my chair, the guy in the back said, "Hey, take our picture". So I did. He said, "Well let us see it." I showed it to them and remarked, "Now there's a handsome group!" They agreed.

Play ball

Put me in coach. I'm ready to play.

Playing catcher. She is the smallest one on her team.
At bat. I think the size of her batting helmet is a handicap. She can turn her head all the way around in it and the helmet never moves.
In the outfield, ready to make an out. It was the last game of the season, and they handily won.

The lake and the garden

Crusing around on the water.

We finally took a late afternoon boat ride. Charley said we had to charge up the battery on the pontoon. A tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

Planted my garden today - cabbage, broccoli, kale, tomatoes, lots of peppers (habanero, jalapeno, banana, and tabasco), parsley, dill and basil. The big section to the left is that tree stump. I gave up digging it out, and moved the garden to the right. The stump was too big, blocking any room for my plants to establish roots. I still have to find a very sunny area for my blueberry bush - maybe by the beach.

Enjoying the wildlife and getting organized

The swans are all on their nests, and the wildflowers are abundantly blooming.

Tabasco on Avery Island

After leaving the swamps, Bryan told us to stop here for a great lunch. Bryan said, "Us Cajuns, we eat enything. Crawfish? We suck out the heads. You tink you never ate them? If you had crawfish etouffee you ate the heads. " It was a great lunch, in spite of the name.
Watch how tabasco is made - a narrated slideshow:http://tabasco.com/tabasco_history/avery_island.cfm#targ

We drove a half hour south to the Tabasco factory on Avery Island. It didn't look like an island on the map, but we did cross a small bridge to the salt marsh that is home to the most famous hot sauce.

The pickers carry a small painted red stick to compare the color of the peppers. The peppers must be a bright shade of red to be ripe, and the human eye does not have good "color memory", so they carry " la petite baton rouge" as a visual aid.

Once picked, the peppers are washed, mashed, then stored in barrels for 3 years to age. The barrels have a hard salt cover to keep dirt and insects from entering. The salt is mined on the island, and poured over the barrels where it forms a hard cement-like cover.

After storage, salt and vinegar are added, and it is stirred for 28 days, then bottled. They bottle over 720, 000 bottles a day and ship it to 160 different countries.
It is labled in over 22 languages. The day we visited, they were bottling for shipments to France.

Their marketing is genuis. A short film reminds us to place the Tabasco on the table with salt and pepper. The company store has a long wall of products with Tabasco in the ingredients. There is chili, ketchup, mustard, jellys, and several versions of their hot sauce. We sampled a new raspberry chipotle sauce (not fruity enough), tabasco ice cream (not my favorite), and tabasco cola (surprisingly good).



Charley's favorite product - SPAM - Hot and Spicy style.

Atchafalya Swamps

You might notice many of the alligators were swimming away from us. One passenger asked if an alligator had ever tried to climb in the boat. Our Cajun tour guide, Bryan Champagne replied, "Not yet."

I can't begin to identify the many birds we saw ther (sorry to all you birders out there).

It was nesting season, so we could not get too close. There were areas posted, warning "No Boat Passage during Nesting Season. The area was closed off with chains mounted on posts driven into the swamp.

The turtles were the shyest animal - ducking under water before we could get close enough to get good pictures. This one must have been the bravest of the bunch.

The snowy egrets were almost extinct in this area at one time, but seem to be flourshing now.


There were many species of herons. I think this one is a blue heron.

Don't be decieved by the solid looking grass. It is actually still swamp here.

One couple had a small dog with them. He told his wife it looked like he could step out of the boat here and walk around. She spotted the creature below, and told him to "Go ahead. But hand me the dog."

Alligators galore! There were dozens in the two hours we were on the lake - from smaller than my hand babies, to some over 14 foot long.

I can't wait to do the tour again.

Lousiana Swamps

I love the Atchafalaya swamps.

Every year, when we travel through Louisana, I have wanted to take a swamp tour. The boat had a flat bottom, a very quiet motor, and held 12 passengers. The motor shaft and prop were encased in a "cage" to protect it when we ran over logs, trees, and swamp grass.

The bird houses below were built and placed by the Boy scouts. Look closely to see a snake with it's tail sticking out of the hole. Charley thinks this one was "planted", since it was the only one we saw. I was just grateful.

A baby alligator peeks out at us.

It looks solid, but we took the boat up this little "alley", and through the grass.

The alligator looks planted too, but I assure you, it was real. The closer we got, the more he opened those jaws.

There were many duck blinds on Lake Martin. Some were hallowed out trees, some were a little larger, like the one below.