Savannah! Oh beautiful Savannah!

Ray and I fell in love with Savannah! It reminded us so much of the Garden District of New Orleans except times 10! The historic district is about one mile square and is uniquely laid out. There are 21 park like squares. Each is about one square block. One is prettier than the next. Large beautiful homes were built facing the squares creating mini neighborhoods each having it's own park. And then there are the trees, OMG the trees! I love old moss covered oak trees and this city has them in spades. To top it all off there is Forsyth Park and it is huge. It's about five blocks long by two blocks wide. The showcase feature is a magnificiant fountain. Then there is a very nice riverwalk. Lots of restaurants and gift shops. River Street is cobblestone with trolley tracks. It was really bumpy so Ray put the wheels of the cara on the trolley tracks like a professional and the ride was smooth as glass! Of course we had to stop at River Street Sweets...so good, just so good.

Our last day and meal in Madisonville, LA :-((

When in this area, we always take a pass around to our old haunts. This is the dock that Ray and his brother Stew, built back in 1983. We lived aboard our 32' sailboat for seven years in that very spot. We have such fond memories of this place. BTW, the green algae is an anomaly. The water is super warm. Lake Ponchartrain even has algae right now. We have never see that before.

This is also where I started sewing canvas. We ordered a dodger, enclosure, etc. from a great canvas shop in Houston. They were doing other boats in our marina and were driving in every two weeks. Well, we were the last boat they worked on...they didn't finish. They just decided they were tired of the drive. Well, what's a girl to do?...finish the job of course. Then people saw the work I did and started ordering work done. Believe it or not I had an industrial machine on that dock in a waterproof box that Ray built. That machine was so good that it was our main machine in our shop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We had three other machines, but we all preferred that old one.


We had our shop for seven years in Vallarta before shutting it down to move to San Antonio, TX to care for our sick and aging parents. They have passed on now. We lived there for five years and still consider it our home base.


 As you know, we ate our way through Louisiana. Well for our last meal we decided to go old school and buy our cooked seafood at a seafood shop. Yes, we have seafood shops like other cities have bakeries. I got hard shell crabs and Ray got boiled shrimp. He loves crab, but refuses to peel them. It is tedious, but a personally think it's worth it. I requested females because I love the roe. I was not disappointed. They were packed. Ray really enjoyed his shrimp too. This was a fitting ending to our stay in our old stomping grounds. I can still taste those crabs!!

Fairview Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA

This is one of our all time favorite parks. It is located on the beautiful Tchefuncte River (cha-funk-ta). We've been visiting here for many years, but it's been a very long time since we've stayed here. It is as beautiful as ever.

Another bonus is that it is very near a couple of our favorite restaurants. We had dinner with my brother Tony, and his daughter Ashley at Friend's, a local favorite. We gave our parent's their 50th wedding anniversary party here in 1995. It was great and the owner's made it special. We always have dinner here whenever we are in the area.

Not far from Friend's is another of our favs, Morton's. We had lunch there today. I got another one of my cravings satisfied. I had oyster artichoke soup and a fried soft shell crab po'boy. Oh my gosh, was it ever good. I have great taste bud memory and I gotta tell ya that soup was exactly like I remembered. The soft shell crab was fried nice and tender and of course it was on good ole New Orleans French bread. Ray had another oyster po'boy. I think he's going to turn into an oyster.

We visited our favorite seafood store to buy our dinner (yes, we have seafood stores like other folks have bakeries) and got hard shell crabs for me and boiled shrimp for Ray. Now Ray likes boiled crabs, but he refuses to pick them, so guess who doesn't get crab! Oh I guess I'll give a little.

Tomorrow we leave heading east. We plan to stay in Tallahassee, FL. We'll let you know how it goes.

Avery Island

 I took this pic for you, Mac.

After having a wonderful lunch at Dupuy's, we hot footed over to Avery Island near New Iberia, LA. We have been wanting to tour Avery Island for a long time. Plant tour was short, but informative. We had a great time talking with the ladies in the company store. While were there, a bus load of tourists arrived from Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. That was a load of fun watching them taste the different Tabasco sauces. Since we didn't get there until 3 p.m., it was way too hot to take the tour of the gardens. We'll save that for another time.

Mermentau River RV Park, Lake Arthur, LA

(337) 774-9599

Our good friends Lew and Anneke Jennings, stay here when they can. They posted some pics and we just had to get there to check it out for ourselves. We were headed in that direction anyway. We absolutely loved it. We felt at home in the bayou. It reminded us of Bayou Castain where we lived aboard our sailboat for 7 years. Of course the people here were great. Again, we felt at home. The river is pretty the trees are gorgeous. Well, you can tell from the pics.

Dupuy's Oyster Shop, Abbeville, LA

Dupuy's Oyster Shop

108 South Main Street

Abbeville, LA 70510

(337) 893-2336

After spending a lovely couple of days on the Mermantau River in Lake Arthur, LA, we headed east to get closer to Avery Island. We really wanted to see the McIllhenny Tabasco Plant. We stayed at Betty's RV park in Abbeville, LA. It's small with no amenities, but the people are great. We arrived around lunch so we asked for a recommendation for a good ole Cajun restaurant. Ray and I have been craving oyster and shrimp po'boys for a pretty long time.

One of the recommended places was Dupuy's, so off we went. It's a small place in downtown Abbeville. We really had our chops set for these sandwiches remembered from our childhoods. Ray got an oyster po'boy and I got a combo oyster and shrimp. When the waitress set the plates in front of us, I was dubious. The bread was not authentic New Orleans French bread. Now anyone from 'round these parts knows that a po'boy just isn't a po'boy without the right bread! It didn't deter us, we were hungry! The seafood was cooked perfectly. It can easily be ruined by cooking it even just a little too much. The bread turned out to be delightful. It was tender and light and let the flavor of the seafood shine through. We walked out of there so pleasantly satisfied. As the Cajun's say, "That was so good, you'd slap your Momma for the last piece". Now that, my friends is some good! I highly recommend Dupuy's if you are ever in this little corner of Cajun land.

History: Dupuy's Oyster Shop was established by Joseph Dupuy in 1869. Mr. Dupuy would harvest his own oysters and sell them for 6 cents a dozen. He started a tradition which would continue for three generations. Dupuy's has enjoyed over 130 years of success in it's original location. World famous for it's oysters on the half shell and outstanding seafood, Dupuy's is continuing the tradition. Owners Jody and Tonya Hebert look forward to the years ahead.

Kerrville, Fredericksburg, and Canyon Lake, TX

Here's a slide show of our shake down trip before we set off for our new life adventure. We really enjoyed our week. We set out to concentrate on training the dogs for the motor home. It turned out that they trained us and all is good. :-))

We loved By The River RV Park in Kerrville, TX. We were on a fork of the Guadalupe River. There was a little island with a foot bridge to it. We could let the dogs run free on the island...they loved it. Of course at one point our little Sami girl took a look at me guarding the foot bridge, took off, got a real good head of steam up and blew right past me! It took me thirty minutes to get her reigned in. It was good exercise and a reminder that if there is the slightest chance of escape, she'll take it.

We spent a night in Fredericksburg, TX. Here is a link to the history of this fabulous town settled by Germans in the Texas Hill Country. We next went to Canyon Lake, TX. We very much enjoyed our stay there. Cullen (Ray's brother), DeAnne, Casey, and her friend Vanessa came for a visit. What a nice time that was. Mac and Consuelo Melhuish also came to visit with us in our new home. We had a grand time. We love all of you guys.

Corn Soup

8 soup rounds (I don't know what a soup round is, but I think Pearl means pickled pork)
1 lg onion, chopped
salt, black & red pepper to taste
Corn cut from 6 ears
1 can (1 lb size) whole tomatoes
Green onion tops

Place soup meat in a large gumbo type pot with enough water to cover the meat. Boil until tender. Skim.

Add onion and corn and continue to cook for a half hour. Add seasoning and tomatoes with liquid and cook thirty minutes longer. Add onion tops about 15 minutes before cooking is finished.

Note: Serve with rice cooked on the side or if you wish, you may add 1 cup raw rice when you add the tomatoes to the soup. Another variation that Pearl used is to add diced raw potatoes along with the tomatoes. The potatoes are especially good when there are small children in the household.

Recipe by Pearl Aguillard as printed in Louisiana Lagniappe