Pass Christian and Long Beach, MS

After we completed the Tabasco Factory Tour on Thursday morning, we returned in the Jeep to Miss Doozie and hooked up and continued east on I-10 and I-12 in Louisiana.

We got off the interstate just after entering Mississippi and headed southeast toward US 90 to be near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

We stopped along the road at a beautiful white sand beach at Pass Christian...

There are beautiful huge homes on the other side of the road.

Carl headed out to disrupt the seagulls that were at the edge of the water...

It was getting close to sunset...

The seagulls returned to their rest after Carl had disturbed them.

There were no signs along the road that indicated any time limit on parking, but we had asked at the Welcome Center about free parking, and the lady there indicated only Walmarts were available for RV parking, so we headed to Walmart for the night.

The Walmart is right across the road from the Gulf...

Pretty nice view out our front window!

We met friends who previously owned a Bluebird for breakfast on Friday morning at the Waffle House, and they let us know that the parking along US 90 that is not marked as "No Overnight Parking" allows RV parking, particularly at this time of year, though there may be authorities who will ask you to "move along" during higher season (summer).

So, after breakfast, we took Miss Doozie a little further down US 90 and pulled off... and took Miss Kitty with us and a couple of chairs and went down to the water's edge to have our morning devotions.

I can't say that Miss Kitty was ecstatic with the plan, but she enjoyed walking from one lap to the other and wasn't too upset!

We highly recommend this part of the coast!

Tabasco Factory Tour

We stopped in Lafayette, Louisiana so we could visit Avery Island and take the Tabasco Factory tour, so Thursday morning, we drove the Jeep about 45 minutes to go on the tour...

The factory buildings

Tabasco is sold in, I think, 180 countries -- with 22 languages in their packaging.

Some of the 22 languages...

Hebrew (I recognize the language now, though I don't know what it says!)

In case you want to make the sauce yourself...

Oh? We didn't see any bears...

Patti outside the greenhouse...

Tabasco peppers in the greenhouse

Habanero peppers in the greenhouse

Le Petit Baton Rouge hanging in the greenhouse

The sauce cures / ferments for 3 years in oak barrels. The tops are covered with salt...

These particular barrels were packed just this month, 02/2020

New Orleans had a "parade of fish" at some point in the past years, and this was the contribution from the Tabasco company. Note that the fish is going for bait that is a Tabasco pepper!

Blending area - after the 3 years of curing/fermenting, the mash is mixed with vinegar and stirred for a couple of weeks.

They were bottling product while we were there...

A counter of the number of bottles so far today....

... and a picture 11 seconds later - 200 bottles in 11 seconds!

The closest line was bottling green pepper sauce...

...and it was going to Saudi Arabia!

 Some cautions / suggestions:

We decided that these bottles of sauce were too large to take with us on the bus!

For a giggle, you might want to remind yourself of a special Super Bowl commercial from a few years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZubL4mZ5n0

After the tour, we went to the "Country Store" and sampled several of the items. I am *not* a spicy food lover, so I stuck with the very mild options, but Carl tried a lot of the very hot items. We did not end up buying any, but they gave us some sample bottles on the tour and Carl is enjoying using them...