Just In Time

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to help out with Wild Things, our big festival of the year with over 5000 visitors attending.

We all worked together putting up over 20 tents for the big event.

We were not expected to be here at this time, but hurricane Matthew changed our plans.

It felt so good to be driving into the gates of this refuge in Louisiana after the harrowing last few days in South Carolina.

Here are some of the brown shirts (employees) along with the volunteers getting our marching orders.

Everyone pitches in to get the job done.

This is just a portion of the crowd in the back of headquarters participating in some of the events.

It is all free of charge except for drink and food.

Wally the woodpecker thrilled some of the kids. Pictures were taken with him as we walked among the crowd. Only one child cried...did not want anything to do with him.

We finally went to Avery Island to do the tabasco tour.

Avery Island is a salt dome known as the source for this delicious sauce.

We took the tour of the museum, the greenhouse peppers, the barrel warehouse, the blending room, the bottling line, learned about the salt mine, had lunch at their 1868 restaurant, and of course shopped in the country store.

They do a pretty good business.

The blending room was interesting where the vats hold the pepper mash.  The smell hits you right away.

This lady is putting on some of the labels that did not get them on the production belt.

Look at all that Tabasco sauce!!!



There are salt domes all across the Gulf of Mexico. We first experienced these in South Texas at La Sal del Rey, a part of the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge.

The salt is used in the making of the sauce, by placing it on top of the barrels of mash, which takes about 3 years to cure.

There are many flavors to sample in the country store. Did you notice Wallace in among the display?

It was a long day, but now we can cross that trip off our list.

We are back to our usual work. During the brochure run this past week, we found this discarded baby bed that had been dumped on the refuge. We saved the wooden parts...maybe they can be recycled in some way.

I cleaned these brochure racks, something I always do when we get back, while Wallace weed whacked. I replaced the covers and filled them with brochures.

This is what they look like now. Probably no one notices since the brochures cover them up unless the slot is empty. I like to clean them up...the yearly cleaning.

Then we found this. A sign so covered up with weeds you can hardly see it. Hello...did no one see this? Oh, well!

Then there is more boardwalk work that needs to be done.

We replaced a few of the broken boards to keep people from falling through.

It took all morning to fix this post. Wallace had to dig down 2 feet with a post hole digger to get the old, broken post out. We repaired this post last year and replaced it this year. Looks much better.

Well this is a long post, but it has been awhile since we posted and we wanted to catch up. Hope you enjoyed following along.

Until next time...

Fast and Furious...Exodus

One hour we are walking on the beach with friends, having a great time, then stopped for a delicious lunch of flounder and shrimp.

At 3:00, we attended the staff meeting to find out we needed to leave...the refuge is being locked down because of the hurricane. We asked if it would be a problem to leave them for the remainder of our time there...they understood.

We left the meeting and packed up for our departure and were on the road about 5:30. It took us two hours just to get out of Charleston.

We drove 85 miles and needed to stop for the night as we were completely exhausted. Our first overnight at a roadside park!!!

This park was just north of Savannah, Georgia.

We were dreading the traffic around Savannah. It was not bad.

We cut down from Georgia to Tallahassee, Florida, and finally were able to relax.

In Florida, while in construction area, we were bumped...did not even know it until a fellow traveler passed us pointing to the side of our rv. 

When we stopped at the rest area in Alabama, this is what we found!!!

Could have been a lot worse. There are a few black lines further down past this area too.

Alabama has overnight security at their rest areas and this is where we spent our second night.

Quickly, we found ourselves in Mississippi.

 We stopped for fuel and noticed the Cracker Barrel was right around the corner...time for breakfast.  We needed that!!!

Full tank of diesel and full tummies, things were going good as we entered Louisiana.

Another passerby passed us pointing. We pulled over on this busy I 10, to find we had had a blow out!!!

Now Goodyear wants to see how much tread is left for us to get anything back. There is no tread. Now a lot of red tape...we shall see.

This could have been a lot worse. It caused only minor damage...a little dent in the underside of the fender.

Strange thing, as I was sitting in the truck waiting for the guys to change the tire, I noticed all the tire debris in this area...AMAZING. As a matter of fact, there was a truck pulled over in front of us with the same problem.

Makes one wonder doesn't it?

Our roadside service did not keep us waiting too long, that was a comfort and the guy did a great, quick job changing the tire.

After 2 nights, 781 miles, terrible traffic, bump, and blow out, we are now peacefully at our home here in Lacombe, Louisiana for our 4th year.

We were talking about how great this place is...we think it is the nicest overall by far!!!

Until next time...

Sweetgrass Baskets

Highway 17 has been designated the Sweetgrass Basket Makers Highway. This road takes us from Charleston to Bulls Landing Road where we are parked for the summer.

All along the road are these little places where the Gullah Geechee set up the baskets to sell.

This is Julia...it was time to get my basket and she was kind enough to let me get this photo. My basket was priced at $40.00 but you can go as high as $500.00. This custom was started by one little lady who sat out a chair and sold them...then one by one it turned into this.

This is Julia's stand. You can see another on down the road.

She was in the process of making another basket that she is holding.

There is a historical plaque...click on the picture to enlarge.

This craft was brought over from West Africa where the baskets were used in winnowing rice.

The basket sewing is viewed as a gift from God.

These people, the Gullah Geechee, have made a good business for themselves. It has given them a sense of purpose, meaning and belonging.

I love my basket!!!

Until next time...

Lighthouse Island

Tricia, volunteer  coordinator, is back and we spent some time working with her on Lighthouse Island.

This picture was taken inside the tall lighthouse after our work was finished. She was giving us more information about the refuge and its surroundings.

There are two lighthouses on the island as you will see.

There were 9 of us working together with loppers, weed eaters, brush hog etc.

A really neat place with a lot of history.

Here are the two lighthouses in this photo.

After disembarking from our boat, the guys start weed eating the trail.

We docked the boat at low tide, causing us to walk on oyster beds and through the muck, I almost came out of one of my boots.

Did you notice...the tall lighthouse is leaning. It tilts several degrees out of plumb.

The shorter one to the right was built first. It was too short, thus being ineffective.

The tall one (the second one) was built in 1857 with 212 steps to the top, and it is 154' tall.

Tricia showed us this old buoy that was used during the Civil War. She is the one who discovered it. What a find!!!

You can see the condition of the metal stairs. For this reason we can not venture up to the top.

Work is being done to replace all those 212 steps!!!

I can only imagine the beautiful view from the top.

Our first three years out, we gave tours of a lighthouse in Winchester Bay, Oregon.

You can see the work we got done. The grass was up to our knees.

How about that old ceramic sign!!!

It was a really HOT day, but we all pitched in and gotter done!!! Lighthouse Island is in the Wilderness Area where all motorized tools are off limits, but in this case it has been approved.

There will be lighthouse tours coming up done by concessionaires. We have done our part to spruce it up for the public.

I need to correct a mistake on the last post...there have been over 2000 Loggerhead turtles nesting on Cape Romain this year.

Until next time...

First Week Thoughts

Things are a little confusing as the volunteer coordinator is gone to take care of her mother. Tricia will be back this week so we will find out what's what. It seems a little overwhelming right now.

Our first week was spent learning the area. It seems like we will be spending our time at the visitor center/ee building at least until Wallace has had his 2 week check up...not our favorite place, but with this heat, it may be the best place. Here he is pressing a button that lights up the floor which shows a  map of the area.

We enjoyed some time on Bullls Island. It was great to be on a beach again. We drove around on an atv experiencing some of the area.

The refuge is made up of islands. It stretches for 22 miles along the coast (66,287 acres).

We live near Awendaw, a small town seen here on the map.

This is Garris Landing. We are in walking distance of this area, just to the left of the picture. This will be handy for Wallace to wet a line as the pier is a great place to fish and crab.

Back to Bulls Island.

This was the first permanent European settlement of South Carolina. On March 17, 1670, they arrived on the ship "Carolina" on their way to establish Charles Town...now Charleston. The remaining "Old Fort" was used for protection of pillaging pirates, and the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. What is left is this round base made up of oyster shells.

There are two lighthouses on Lighthouse Island. They remain as historic landmarks only. We have not visited there yet.

This beautiful two story house was used as a hunting lodge, and it with the land was donated to the Fish & Wildlife Service in 1932.

A concessionaire rents it out for $450.00 a weekend with all meals included with the ferry ride thrown in, per person.

The Loggerhead sea turtles nest on the refuge here and they have had a banner year with over 1000 nests.

The maintenance shop is nearby. I haven't counted all the boats yet, but you get some idea of how many. This is the way we reach the island where most of the work goes on.

More later as we learn more about this refuge.

Welcome to our newest follower, Glenda Ramee!!!

Until next time...  

 

CAPE ROMAIN NWR

So much has happened on our travels to South Carolina.

It took us a while to get here, but we are now settled and finished our first week. We were not given much time to set up before we were expected to go to work, but much of it was spent getting to know the place...but we are hot and tired!!!

It was hard to leave Horicon, but someone was coming in for the next shift to take our place.

We stopped for a week at the same COE near St. Louis where we stayed going up. We got to relax a bit in our chairs, a gift from Horicon. Things were going fairly well.

Our next stop was at another COE in Tennessee where we have stayed in the past. Wallace had been experiencing some chest pains off and on which began to be more on than off!!!

We finally decided on the day we were going to leave that we had better have things checked out. We went to the hospital in Carthage where they immediately sent him away by ambulance to TriStar Medical Center in Hermitage, about 40 miles away. Divine intervention...a wonderful doctor (Hoda) fixed him up.

He had one artery that was completely plugged where a stint was put in.

Next morning, he was cleared to go home.

I thought I was going to be next. You can not imagine what all this stress did to me!!!

Wallace is now feeling GREAT. We thank the good Lord for His guidance...a great doctor, a great hospital and great nurses. Pretty good for a strange place, not knowing anyone!!! But things like this makes one wonder if it is time to get off the road.

Here we are now. We spent the night in Newberry, S.C. at the Walmart...hot, hot, hot, but we survived after a meal at El Poblano at our front door. A short distance of 169 miles more and we reached Garris Landing where we will be until November.

Lots more to tell but it will have to wait...

Until next time...

 

Scenes of Wisconsin

Mike parked "my" tractor right behind our rig...hum. Left me with this view!!!

Sandhill Crane family enjoying a meal in the marsh.

This is one of my favorite scenes...corn as high as an elephants eye.

Packer Country!!! This was taken from the ceiling of a restaurant.

A prison right in the town of Waupun...a historical building built on solid limestone...can not dig their way out...El Chapo!!!

An interesting mural.

View of visitor center from county road z.

Beautiful church in the town of LeRoy.

Road signs on the Kettle Moraine drive.

Made from rebar, taken at the southern end of the marsh owned by the state.

Wind turbines abound.

So many beautiful farms!!!

A church built in 1861.

An advertisement for pumpkins???

The welcome sign.

I love those cupolas!!!

I fell in love with this round building.

Of course their State House.

This painted turtle showed his colors.

Not the typical black and white. The cows have come home!!!

So many of these "Rustic Roads" to drive.

Will end with The End of the Trail sculpture. Waupun is known as the city of sculptures...this is the only one we have featured.

We have certainly enjoyed our time at Horicon, but it is the end of the trail for us here in Wisconsin.

Until next time...