Little Thoughts: Monday, Dec. 24, 2012

Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012 was a travel day. Got on the road about noon and traveled Hwy 90 west. Through miles of messy timber, then acres of dockyards, boat-building areas and oil-platform manufacturing. Then the landscape changed into sugar cane fields and homes on stilts since we were as low as -54' below sea level. Clouds hung low and the humidity equaled the temps - probably mid-70's.

Drawbridge

Rice fields

One of the many bayous in this part of the world

Sugar cane ready to be harvested

Stopped around 3 PM in Iberia for lupper - small Seafood Connection diner with 5 tables, but very busy even at that time of the day. Obviously a local hangout. (Had tried 3 other seafood restaurants listed on our Nuvi but they were all closed.) Glad we came to this one, though as the food was exellent, home-made and not expensive. Jerry had homemade onion rings and a shrimp po-boy. I had the grilled shrimp salad and it probably had 50 small shrimp on it - grilled in cajun spices - yummm.

Stopped at the Rac-Trak station to top off our tank at $3.59/gal...and especially since we were heading into no-man's land. J got the first $15 free as somehow that much was on the pump when he started pumping! Never had that happen before, but we'll take the 4+ gallons.

Then the scenery were flooded rice fields (Iberia is home of a rice-processing plant which we toured last time we were in this area.) Thousands of small black birds were in the fields having a feast.

About 6 pm - getting dark - need to find a place to park. Stumbled on a boat launch area adjacent to a wild-life nature refuge. No signs not to park here, so we got set up. We're right at the curve of a large bayou. And just a few feet away is the gravel entrance to the nature refuge. Didn't need to cook since we had lunch/supper so late yesterday afternoon.

One of the many bridges over rivers, canals and bayous

Sugar cane harvesting equipment

Monday, December 24, 2012

Another foggy, humid morning, but I'm not complaining (no frost, snow or cold!) About 9 am got my water, camera and took off down the gravel road towards the nature refuge. Found a family fishing about half-way down. They were from around here, obviously Acadians, and were very friendly. She was trying to get crabs to crawl into her basket and he was fishing for catfish or redfish. (He used mullet which he caught in the pond across the road for bait) and she was using some kind of nasty-sounding part of a pig for bait for the crab.) The lady explained that no-one should go hungry around here as there is an abundance of seafood and fish. She would take the crab meat that she harvests and make a stew or similar dish.

About a half-mile down to the end of the road, I found two men fishing... totally different techniques. They had shrimp nets that they would fling into the water, wait about a minute, then haul them in. Small fish and shrimp would then be dumped into a large plastic bucket. The other man was using a fishing pole to catch blue crabs. He showed me how to tell the difference between a male and female crab - the markings on their underside are different. They come from about 100 miles away - up near Lafayette about once a week to fish here.

Got to see my first Roseate Spoonbill - not too close up, but did get a photo. Lots of blue heron, white egrets, Brown and American White pelicans and cormorants. A few ducks and nondescript birds also inhabit the area. I did NOT encounter an alligator though they are around this area. Thank heavens! I dreamed about running into an alligator on the gravel road last night...Egads.