Busy at Betty's

Hi all,
Time going by quickly here at Betty's RV. We had four campers pull out on Monday leaving the place looking pretty barren. It didn't last long as two pulled in later and four checked in on Tuesday. This is the time of year many rver's are migrating south so many pull in for short stays along the way.
 Monday Wendy and I took about a 40 mile drive to Cypremort State Park. We enjoyed the ride as much of it was on back roads we had not traveled before.
 Cypremort is right along the coast and looked to be a major launch for fishermen. The park is pretty small, much of the land is wetland and a refuge. The park has no camping but does have a couple large cabins to rent.

Cabin area

picnic area

 We got in a small walk along the beach which around here is hard to find. It looks like a nice place to picnic and spend a day. It also has a area set aside for sailing and looks like a good place to kayak.
 Tuesday we joined Toni and Doug and headed over to Breau Bridge for a Cajun swamp boat tour. We have done this twice before while here but at different times of the season. The  2 hour tour goes around Lake Martin at first wandering around the tall Cypress trees that continue to grow and thrive in the shallow waters. Our guide Captain Morgan( yes like the rum) gave us a good narration along the way explaining the difference between swamp and bayou. He also told of the wildlife and plant life about. Later we motored out to the lake area for some bird viewing.
 We had a great day and yes we finally saw a bunch of them gators.)

Doug and Toni from B.C.

 Being that we are only staying here for a little over a week we are staying pretty busy. Wednesday we took a short drive to Palmetto State Park. We have been here before but again at a different time of the year so things do seem different.
 This is a pretty nice park that offers camping, canoe rentals, and a splash pad that seems to be a popular option around these parts. We got in a few of our steps but it was a little hot and humid so we didn't do as much as we would have liked.
 Thursday we took a drive to Jeanerette to check out a museum. A portion of the museum was on the sugar cane grown in this area and something we wanted to learn more of.
 Well we picked the right place the little city of Jeanerette is also known as Sugar City. At one time it featured three sugar refineries.

sugar cane

A piece cut from a stalk. These are planted to grow new crops.



Sugar Cane ready for harvest

 A few other fun facts, Jesuit priests first introduced sugar cane in 1751. It is now a 2 billion dollar business for Louisiana grown on over 400,000 acres producing 13 million tons of raw sugar.
 Sugar cane is planted in the late fall and has a 7 month maturation to harvest. Most other regions where sugarcane is grown requires 11 to 12 months.
 They museum has a short 10 minute film on the processing of the cane to sugar.
Not quite done here yet, Jeanerette has an old bakery that has been producing bread since 1884. Today they only produce French bread, hot dog buns, and ginger cake. Well we were told if a red light is on the store front that warm bread from the oven is available. Good luck would have it the red light was on and we got a couple loaves of yummy stuff.)