What did we do today--Military Museum, Rip Van Winkle Gardens, T-Bob Crawfish, Joseph Jefferson Mansion, Air Race Dinner.....

Abbeville, LA
Betty's RV Park

Our first stop today was the Louisiana Military Hall of Fame & Museum.  It was out by the airport and the signage wasn't great.  We circled around the roads and we saw a lady pulling her car out from a building.  We asked her where it was and she said follow her.  We didn't realize that it opened at 10 am.  

It just so happened that Crystal was the museum director.  Going to a museum can be boring unless you learn about the people.  We really learned a lot about the people and their stories.

She was telling us about a quadriplegic who was shot in the neck and now has his pilots license.  She showed us a photo of him in a plane.  They are working on a program to give wounded veterans free flying lessons.   

Since this was in a hangar, I was thinking about our nephew Daniel who has his war birds.  He's trying to decorate his hangars in the "war look". 

They even had a Bell helicopter.

These LST's were made in Louisiana.

Robert came in and told us the stories of some of the people in the Hall of Fame.  The story of Steven Bennett spanned over a 20 year period.  While the museum was well done, the stories of these people were very interesting.  

Crystal was wrapping some cookies she decorated.  She said she only does it for fun, but I think she could have a successful business.  

Robert invited us to come back at 6 pm for catfish dinner.  They are having a plane race tomorrow. 
From the museum we headed back to the Rip Van Winkle Gardens that we were too late for the tour earlier this week.  

We purchased our 8 dollar ticket which included the gardens and the mansion.  We were told to go directly to the house as the tour started in 10 minutes.  It was a much longer walk than you think.  Just in time to sit in the rocker and then the tour guide came out.  There was one couple that had a four year old with them and one other couple.  

I might mention that this four year never touched anything and was a perfect little lady who seemed interested in the tour.

Naturally, you can't take pictures in the mansion.  It was very interesting.  Joseph Jefferson was an actor for 73 years.  His most favorite role was that of Rip Van Winkle which he performed over 4500 times.  

Joseph had 36,000 acres and they did find salt near the home.  They named the salt company Jefferson Salt. 


The second owner turned over the home to a foundation and built a new two story home not far away.  

 In 1980, Texaco started drilling for oil in Lake Peigneur.  The next thing they knew 65 acres were swallowed up.  It seems that the drilling hit the salt mine and all the water filled up and collapsed the salt mine.  Fifty people were in the mine but no one was killed.  

All that you can see today is the chimney from the new house of the second owner in the lake.

The gardens were swallowed up but they are restoring them.

We could have had lunch at the restaurant on Jefferson Island but Betty had told us to go to T-Bob's for crawfish.  Since Betty hasn't steered us wrong, we headed over to Erath to try crawfish at T-Bob's.  

We had no trouble finding T-Bob's.

The signage wasn't the best but there wasn't much else in town.

It was a small home that has been made into a restaurant.

Not knowing what we were getting into we ordered the three pounds of crawfish to share which was $12.00.

It took a little practice, but soon we were able to get to the meat.

Bill had no trouble getting into them.  We ordered ours mild, but wish I would have said hot.  Notice the black tray they came on is now empty.  We ate them all.

We had just enough time to go to Happy Hour.  Monica's daughter made this wine glass for Mother's Day.  The "jewels" kept coming unglued.  

We left Happy Hour early to go back to the museum for the catfish dinner.  When we arrived the hangar was dark.  The electricity was out but about 15 minutes later it was back on.  

We meet a few of the pilots that are going to be in the air race tomorrow.  There are 15 in the race.  The catfish and hushpuppies were excellent.  They come from a farm in Mississippi.

It was another busy day, but I can't tell you enough how much fun we are having in this area.  The Cajun people are the friendliest people we've ever met.  

We're scheduled to pull out on Monday but there is a long list of things we haven't had time to do.  This will definitely be an area we'll return to.  

I might mention that it was almost 90 degrees today, but the heat didn't bother us.  Bill and I both hate humidity but can't figure out why it isn't bothering us. 

Turtle Safely.......