Abbeville LA: Day 1 to Day 5

We are most of the way through our week long stay in Abbeville, LA at Betty’s RV Park.  It has been a delightful stay to learn of the culture, taste the cuisine, listen to the music, have a nightly happy hour fellowship with other RV’ers and tour the home of that famous hot sauce.  The food here is awesome if you like fresh seafood and some spicy cajun seasoning.

I will miss this area and the friends that we have made, but is it almost time to move on.  It had been unusually hot and humid, but that all changed yesterday with a strong cold front accompanied by strong winds and thunderstorms.  We went from upper 80’s to 70 as a high.  It is fall finally.

We found out about this RV park from a blog that we occasionally follow: “on the road of retirement,” another full time RVer.  Thanks!  There are quite a few of these seasoned folks who can provide some tips from their time on the road.

History of the Acadians

In a relatively small section of rural southern Louisiana, the people are descendants of the french people who settled the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.   The French and Indian War resulted in the British expulsion of the Acadians from the region.  They fled to different areas of North America, but a large number settled this section of Louisiana.  The Acadian term was then changed to Cajuns.  Since their establishment in Louisiana, the Cajuns have developed their own dialect, Cajun French, and developed a vibrant culture including folkways, music, and cuisine.  The people here very friendly and helpful and do have a heavily French accented speech.

Avery Island

We drove about an half hour south to the coast to visit this small salt island of Avery Island.  This is the home of the Tabasco hot sauce as they produce it, age, bottle, and sell it from this location.  We toured the factory and followed the eight steps in the process.  And sampled some as well.  The sauce has just three ingredients: vinegar, peppers, and salt.  They mine their own salt right on this island.  Many years ago, they also built small housing for their workers who live in them even today.

Riverfront Restaurant

Did I mention that I love the food down here?  Fresh cajun spiced seafood.  Trish may not be completely sold on it, but it has been some of the best food on our trip.  After the Tabasco tour, we stopped at the Riverfront on the way home for a late lunch.  It was about 2:30 pm.  I’m glad we found this place.  I have had shrimp and grits at many places, but this is the best – no contest.  The seasoning was absolutely spot on.

Cracklin’ Fest

The timing was great as we were able to attend this annual festival on Saturday morning.  It was just up the road at 2-Checks bar.  They had a large crowd, a Cajun band, and maybe 15 vendors providing free samples of their cracklins.

This was to be a new experience for us.  Cracklins are a part of the culture down here.  Y’all probably already know what they are.  I soon learned they are a thick 1-2 inch thick chunk of pig skin with a lot of meat or fat attached.  After being cut up into squares, they are deep fried in a vat of boiling oil, then seasoned and are ready to eat.

They were providing samples of their cracklins along with shrimp, pork chops, potatoes and other deep fried goodies.

Shucks Restaurant

Shucks is a very popular local seafood place.  Their charbroiled oysters were near the best I have had.  Very good.  I had the 10 oyster sampler.  That and the Crawfish Etouffee.  Wow.

Betty’s Happy Hour/Jam Session

We wrapped up this great day with the daily 4:30 pm happy hour along with a jam session of some local musicians and 4 fellow campers.  These guys played for four hours.  An incredible concert of country, zydeco, and some other genres.

We held this one inside as Sunday was an entire day of high winds and heavy rain.  After this passed by, Monday was greatly cooled off.

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