Louisiana Trip - Day Five - Opelousas to Jasper, TX

Leaving Opelousas this morning, the day is once again COLD.  That's okay -- a car with seat warmers and a great attitude are all that we require.  And coffee.  Brew and Scoop - a coffee and ice cream spot - is today's winner.  The order goes in and while we wait, a group of people sitting and chatting have me chuckling to myself.  I'm not passing judgement here -- at all --- I just found it humorous that a mixed group (meaning men and women) were sitting and loudly discussing breast feeding pros and cons.  Even Mister can't keep from smiling.  The coffee is good - personally, I think it was better than yesterdays, but I'm still refining my palate.

Going southwest, about an hour later, we are in Crowley and we stop to walk around a bit.  A beautiful church stands on one corner and we find ourselves making that the first place to explore.  Saint Michael The Archangel Catholic Church was established in 1897.  It is of Italian Renaissance architecture and cost about $40,000 to construct.  The current renovation, which was completed in 2015, cost approximately $2.8 million.  Goodness.  (Two cameras, two developers - I have brightened all my pictures to show detail -- Mister's show incredible atmosphere)

The dome contains depictions of The Evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Settled into the warm car, we start down the road and spot this Supreme Rice Mill.  RICE!!!  I had no idea.  A quick Google search shows that some rice mills do give tours but not this one and not in the area we are driving.  Drat.  However, my interest is definitely piqued.

Continuing our drive around town, I spot something and make Mister go around the block once again.  OH M GEE!  I told you it was cold here, but . . . . .  These poor citrus fruits.  They are just heavily covered in ice and the ice is so thick that it was falling off the metal fence as I stood there.  My sweetie explains that watering citrus trees ahead of an expected freeze is common, but I think things got out of control here.

With my fingers rapidly searching out something in the area to do, I come across Crystal Rice Plantation Tours.  It's listed as a top item to do in this area and shows it is open.  With our handy GPS, we are soon on the way and come to a group of buildings that seem confusing.  We try several but no one is answering.  I did see a sign that direction plantation traffic another way so we give that a try as well.  The funny picture on the right shows my feet as I chat with a gentlemen who informs me that the Crystal Rice Plantation closed and moved several years ago.  He does NOT want me going any further.  Hmmm -- how does one "move" a plantation?  At any rate, we retrace our drive back to the main road and leave down a slightly different road.

Rice fields come into view.

Another spot shows that they are flooding the field.  A nearby sign proclaims that Salmon Lusk Wright (1852-1929) developed at this site the world's best seed rice which revived the industry by insuring wider markets.  His varieties that are used today for breeding purposes are Blue Rose, Louisiana Pearl, Early Prolific Edith and Lady Wright.  The fields also have these stacks of odd looking nets.  I cannot fathom why they are needed for rice.

So, once again, I am researching like crazy.  Apparently these fields are used for both rice and crawfish.  After the rice crop is harvested in late summer, the field is re-flooded (what we are seeing) and the rice stubble crop is allowed to regrow.  This rice regrowth, or ratoon crop, serves as the primary forage for crawfish production.  Because the field is only drained to allow for the harvest of the rice crop, after which it is immediately re-flooded, crawfish are only required to be stock in the field initially as they go underground during this short period of time.  The initial stocking occurs 4-7 weeks after planting the rice crop.  Crawfish harvest needs to be terminated in early April to allow for optimum planting of the following rice crop.  A typical rotation timeline is as follows:  March-April, plant rice   August, drain field and harvest rice  October, re-flood rice field  December, begin harvest of crawfish.  Sooooo, those piles of strange items are the nets/cages used to trap the crawfish.  (Yes, I am out in someone's field trying to understand the whole thing.)

Still making our way southwest through as many backroads as possible, we arrive in Lake Arthur.  This is a pretty big lake.

A walk out the pier takes place even in this chilly weather --- it adds pink to the cheeks -- both sets.

I decide to walk down along the shore and Mister tells me to check out the snails along the edge.  I look at him -- snails?  Well, by golly --- there they are --- and alive -- and huge.

They are coming ashore all along the edge.  It turns out they are an apple snail and BAD, BAD, BAD.  They are invasive and can do so much damage.  They originated in Thailand and have made their way through people having them as pets and then tiring of them and dumping them in ponds or streams.  They are rapidly growing and causing harm all along our lower coast from Florida to Louisiana.  Some have even shown up in Texas as well.  Ugh.

We are parked right near the small downtown area and look for a spot to have some lunch.  The Main Street Deli looks good and as we start walking that direction it a lady comes towards us.  You can just barely see her in the lower right corner of my picture.  She says, "I see you have Texas license plates.  Are you here to visit or are you lost?"  Laughing, we share why we are here and at the same time wonder just what she is doing watching all the license plates that come through here.  She owns the building next to the deli and takes us in to see her "Lakehouse."  She's a unique soul that has lived her all her life and we soon see that she has put some time and effort into a "get-away" spot that includes half of a boat built into a wall, an original dance floor, vintage cafe stools, pirates and Jack Daniels --- lots of Jack Daniels.  Enough said.  It takes us a bit, but we manage to extricate ourselves and return to our task at hand.  Food.  Yum!  Our only complaint here is the ventilation --- gotta get some.

On the road again -----  quick pics as we drive.  Bayou Lacassine

Lake Charles is up next, but at this point, we really are not into a whole lot.  Crying Eagle Brewing Company resides here.  That sounds great.  It's a great facility with a wonderful offering.  I love that they have BASIC beers.  So many times anymore, the brewers are trying to outdo each other to the point that a simple, low-alcohol, session beer is no longer easy to find.  We score here and I'm a happy porter girl.

What is going on with all the coffee??

Testing, that's what.  Finding the perfect coffee to add to a beer.  Soon, one of the brewers, Joel, comes to visit with us for quite awhile.  This is what makes stopping at breweries the BEST.  We thoroughly enjoy him and are able to sample his newest mix of the porter with coffee.  It's gonna be awesome.

During our visit, Joel mentions that we should check out Louisiana Spirits, makers of Bayou Rum.  They have free tours and do a pretty good job.  Perfect.  Hello Google, take us there.

Along the way ---- the water is just right by the road and look at these cypress trees loving it.

As we walk into the distillery, we see a sign that says tours every 1/2 hour and we are a few minutes after that.  Our luck for this trip is holding though and the previous tour just left so we can join them at their first station.  Yay!  They have began with the bottling area as it is actually operating right now.  From there, we are able to watch the process from where we left it with the cane syrup.  That is the molasses that arrives here.

It then goes through several cooking/pasteurizing levels

to get to this stage.

More distilling

and we get what you see here --- if you look close.  In the center cylinder, it is now clear fluid.

At this point, into barrels for aging.  They re-purpose bourbon barrels, stamp their logo on the one end, but maintain the integrity of the barrels history by keeping the original stamp in place as well. 

Since we raced in at the last minute, we have no idea what all the tour includes or what it costs.  We thought they would collect from us at the end, but to our amazement it is free and includes samples of all their products.  What a deal.  The glasses are in the same order as the products at left.  One or more of these are coming home with us.  That's for sure.

The part of the tour we missed at the beginning was a movie, so Mister and I watch it now.  We learn about the Louisiana Sugar Mill industry as a whole and discover that over 2 million tons of raw sugar and over 80 tons of molasses come from this area each year, employing over 30,000 people and generating almost 3 billion in economic value to Louisiana.  At the factories, sugarcane is crushed between heavy giant milling rollers which separate the juice and leaves behind the fibrous "bargasse" which is used today to fire the boilers and for land reclamation projects.  The juice contains sucrose which is clarified by cooking - it is boiled to concentrate the sucrose.  Then it is cooled and with a "strike" it begins to crystallize.  Progressive engineers found that centrifugal force separates the crystals from molasses much faster.  The mills send their raw sugar to refiners who treat the sugar and package it in various ways for sale to consumers and other sugar marketers.  Louisiana Spirits uses raw sugar and fresh molasses direct from a specific mill, ensuing that they are 100% locally sourced.  Rum has been produced in Louisiana since 1751 when the early Jesuits began growing cane and using it for making tafia, a drink similar to rum.

This has been a wonderful stop and, yes, items go home with us.  Onto Lake Charles and some dinner.  We will now have to make a decision as to what our plans are for tonight.  We did not book a place ahead of time as we just didn't know how the day would play out.  Seafood Palace wins the toss for dinner tonight.

With a look a the map, we decide to just start making our way north.  Jasper looks like a good place to stop and thus our decision is made.  Now to enjoy this massive amount of food, that started out with fried dill pickles and ended with more food than two people should have on their table.

It's after 8 by the time we locate a room for the evening and call it a day.  We are both pretty tired and simply relax for a bit before sleep overtakes us.  Night y'all.