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Louisiana
(Continued)
We stayed in
Lafayette,
Louisiana again, and took off in the morning for New Iberia,
Louisiana, which is the gateway to Avery Island and the Tabasco®
Factory. To get on the island we had to go over a toll bridge
that was about 8 feet long and 2 feet above the water. That
toll was $1.00, so that amounts to about 12.5 cents per foot of
bridge. At that rate, it would cost about $723.00 to cross the
Brooklyn Bridge! And you'd have to sell your car to cross the
Lake Pontchartrain Bridge.
The old folks took a tour of the Tabasco® Factory, but
us guys don't like that hot sauce, so we jest stayed in the van and
took another nap. They said they saw how they put the hot
sauce into little bottles by using a bunch of special machines that
squirt it in and put on the lid, then put on a label, and finally
put the bottles into small boxes for shipment to your local store.
Click on the web link
below to see their cool website, and don't forget to check out their
new Chipotle flavored sauce the next time you go to the store.
Tabasco
Sauce Avery Island Website
After the Tabasco® tour the old
folks went into the Tabasco® Gift
Shop, and they came back with some souvenir stuff, and we also got
another brother, a little alligator who got named "Lil
Benny." He came out of one of those barrels that they
fill up with guys like us in the store, and Lil Benny was clear in
the bottom, so he definitely came from the bottom of the barrel!
His name was written on the side of a
building nearby, and I think he wrote it there with a can of spray
paint, but he won't admit it, so I'll jest show you the pitcher so
you ken be the judge. It sure looks like alligator
handwriting to me!
Avery Island Bird Park
After the Tabasco® tour, we all went
to a neat park near the fact ory,
and the old folks unloaded the bikes and went for a ride.
Before the ride, though, they had a little picnic with peanuts,
crackers and cold ice tea, so us guys got to eat our favorite lunch,
except without the chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies and ice
cream that we always prefer.
After they left for their bike ride,
me and Sniffy and Dexter and  Lil
Benny and Scruffy and one of the other guys who I forgot, we all
went out exploring, and we saw this vicious alligator who was jest
looking around trying to find somebody to eat fer lunch. We
were reel sneaky so none of us would be that meal.
We also saw 3 people walking
along the edge of the swamp, t hen later after that alligator wasn't
where he had been, we saw those people walking along the swamp
again, but this time there was only 2 of them, so we guessed that
alligator had the other person fer lunch. Somebuddy said that
alligators don't like Tabasco® Sauce, and that's one of the reasons
Mr. McIlhenny invented it, so he could jest splash some on and not
be bothered by alligators if he decided to take a nap along the side
of the swamp.
Since an alligator that is full like
that won't attack and eat up  anybuddy else, I got up on a sign and
threw rocks at him and teased him for a while, but he jest went to
sleep in the mud. There wasn't much else fer us guys to do, so
the rest of the guys went back to the van while me and Sniffy ran
and caught up with the old folks on their bikes.
They hadn't gotten very far cuz they
got stuck behind one of those noisy pickup trucks that makes a lot
of black smoke, and he was driving reel slow and they couldn't pass
him without possibly ending up in the swamp with some other
alligators who still might be hungry.
Both of us got to ride in the bike
bags, and that is jest great, cuz that way we don't have to do
nuthin' except look around and check things out. We got a
great ride and saw a lot of neat birds of all sizes, and l ots
of flowers and cocoanuts and bananas, and bamboo and all sorts of
other things that we didn't recognize. On the way back, there
was a great big hill, and it was reel hot out there, and Gloria
steamed over and got off the bike and made me get out and walk right
after Jim took this pitcher at the right. Sniffy isn't as
heavy as me, so he still got to ride in Jim's bike bag, and they
made it up that hill okay. Then we went back to the van and
cooled off with the air conditioner going full blast!
Conrad Rice Mill
Oh, yeah, before we left New Iberia,
we took a tour of the Conrad Rice Mill, and got to see how they
clean and package rice. They use a machine that is about a
hundred years old, and it shakes and beats the rice to remove the
shells and any dirt, then it somehow moves it through some big pipes
and puts it into all different sizes of bags. It was reel
cool, but, again, there was a lot of dangerous-looking machinery, so
us guys took a quick look and beat it back to the van. You ken
find out more about it by clicking on this link: Conrad
Rice Mill
Note: If
you tell them, "Sparky sent you," they'll give you a free
taste sample of some special rice they make up fer jest such an
occasion. They also have some great coffee you ken get a drink
of. In fact, if you forget to tell them that, they'll probably
still let you taste the rice and drink some coffee.
We spent the night
again in New Iberia and blasted off for New Orleans the next
morning.
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quickly,
and green things sometimes grew on stuff and made it taste funny.
