Five and a half hours driving from Foley to Carrabelle, Fl only to check into the wrong RV park. Not really wrong, just not the one recommended by our friends Stan and Jerre. Next time make sure I get the information. Drove downtown to pick up some veggies then came back to relax, have a glass of wine and get the BBQ started. Rob got it all set up and lit, then came in for his glass of wine. Shortly, some guy from across the way was banging on our door. I mean BANGING!!! Rob jumped up and opened the door, then grabbed the fire extinguisher.... Our BBQ was ablaze and so was the table it was sitting on. The hose to the propane tank had burned off the BBQ and was also on fire. Thanks to our alert neighbor our coach didn't burn. Oh, did I mention the awning was out over the bbq! So, no steak for dinner, spaghetti and meatballs instead. Tomorrow we replace the bbq and the fire extinguisher.

Not many birds seen, but this cute little lizard came out to greet us.
Birds in order:
Mississippi Kite
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Swallow Tail Kite

We left Betty's early. Only Jo was up to say goodbye, but before we could put it in gear Fred came out, then Donnalyn and Jim and Merline and Dan and finally Betty. Half an hour later we were on the road.
In the south grass seems to be king. Many of the houses from Louisiana and into Alabama favor huge lawns. It's not uncommon to see a house in the middle of a one or two acre lot surrounded by grass. A riding lawn mower parked beside or in front of the house would seem to be a symbol of an individual's status.

We literally skipped over Mississippi by means of a raised highway traversing endless swampland and bayous.  It seems like the only place we touched dry land in Mississippi was a rest stop.

We stayed in Foley, Alabama at Anchor's Away RV Resort. There are many great birding trails in the area because it is a stopping point for migrants making their way from the Yucatan Peninsula on their way north for the summer, or south in the fall. We hit most of them. They too, are swampy and heavily forested. Very difficult to pick out the birds. So far, this trip, our life bird list has increased by 16. Had dinner tonight at Tin Top Restaurant on a recommendation from friends who told us we must try the Royal Red shrimp. We had planned to go last night, but were too tired from birding so we bought some fresh Ahi from a fish market and grilled it. Too bad we waited, Tin Top was out of Royal Reds. Guess we'll have to look for them in our next stop, Carrabelle, Florida. We'll be there tomorrow.

Pix from our wandering around Abbeville. Note the menu written on the side of the Cajun restaurant.

Every night at Betty's, all the RVers meet in the patio of her office/house and share the events of the day. We got lots of recommendations for things to do and places to see. Yesterday, we ventured off to Avery Island, home of Tobasco. We took in the General Store first and gawked at all the varieties of Tobasco available as well as other tourist-slanted stuff. A busload of students had just gone in the factory for the tour which is controlled as to numbers allowed in at any given time. Rather than wait for the next tour we opted to visit the gardens. Beautiful old oaks with moss and lichens dripping from the branches. Streams and rivers running through the entire acreage. Ned McIlhenny created the garden as an attempt to save egrets from extinction due to their popularity for feathers for women's hats. He built platforms for them to nest on and they return every year to raise their young. Amongst the birds roosting on the platforms were Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Anihingas, and Roseate Spoonbills. Of course, we saw a few alligators also, all very small. Have not seen any Water Moccasins so far.

Today we ventured out for more birding with another couple in the park, Jo and Fred. They wanted to visit a new refuge, White Lake, and we were happy to go too. Along the way we passed some flooded fields (rice is one of the principle crops grown here) filled with all kinds of wading birds and a few ducks (mostly blue winged teal). We just stopped in the middle of the road and tried to identify and photo as many as we could. Rural area, no traffic. I guess we were a bit of an oddity, because one woman stopped to ask if we were having trouble. White Lake was a bit of a disappointment. Its a very nicely maintained refuge, but the trees are so dense not very many birds could be seen. Although, we could identify some by their song.

On the way back we stopped at a restaurant favored by locals for some authentic Cajun food. Rob had Turtle Picante (pronounced peecant) Sauce. The place was packed with locals on their lunch hour. Good food. No dinner tonight but we'll be in the patio for happy hour. Betty is having someone come in to entertain us.

Tomorrow we're off to Foley, Alabama on the Gulf shore.

Ok new blog for Vern K who complained we weren't blogging enough even tho' he disregarded the fact that we sometimes don't have enough reception to use the internet.

Today we moved from Houston area (New Caney) to Abbeville, LA. We used IS 10 most of the way, but then transferred down to LA IS 14 and meandered through miles and miles of bayou and crawfish farms. No traffic fortunately since the roads are rather narrow for a bigrig. Eventually we made it to Abbeville and Betty's RV Park. Betty greeted us and got us settled and invited us to a happy hour at 4:30. It was only 3:30 and the front of our coach and windshield were literally covered with "lovebugs". Rob set to cleaning them off while I set up the coach. By 5:00 we were ready to join the happy hour. We brought our glasses of wine and joined in. The group (this park has only 17 spots and it's not full yet) was deciding on ordering crawfish for dinner from a local joint. We decided to order 3 pounds, never having eaten them before.

OMG....What fun! Betty instructed us on the proper way to approach these critters!. We dug in.  After a few minutes I figured out I was picking up the ones Rob had already worked at. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get any meat out. Luckily Betty was sitting next to me and worked me through another lesson. She even gave me a few of hers.

After two bottles of wine, between me and Rob, and 3 pounds of crawfish we finally mastered the process. Next time we'll go for 10 pounds for the two of us.

The debris from our crawfish meal.

 The love bugs probably don't show up too well in this photo, but the front of the coach is covered.

Our plans for this area are fluid at this point. We may stay longer than the three days we've planned for.

Kerrville is in the Hill country of Texas, home of the LBJ Ranch. We had seen it before so we skipped it. Instead we made use of our time by visiting a couple of the numerous wineries in the area. Bleech!!! The first wine we tasted was reminiscent of some of our own which we threw out! On our way back to the RV we ran across a small new winerie owned by an Argentine wine maker. Great 09 Pinot Noir!

Leaving Kerrville took us to Houston area and the Forest Retreat RV Park. We spent the entire day with Rob's cousins Jim and Jere Brown. Dusty loved spending the day in their backyard chasind lizards and chameleons. After a fantastic lunch of bison sandwiches Philly cheesecake style and an even better dinner of fresh halibut we headed back to the RV. This morning we're off to Abbeville, LA and Cajun country.