October 15, 2008

Wednesday 15~~~This is our second day in Duson, Louisiana. Duson is a small town with a population of about 500 about 5 miles from Lafayette We have our mail sent to a small town Post Office in care of General Delivery. This way we think the postal person will take better care of our mail. We picked up some mail yesterday when we arrived and did some odd things around the 5th wheel.
We had made a reservation to take a 2 hour Swamp Tour, we arrived at the swamp to get on a Flat bottom boat to go deep into the swamp and Bayou. We learned the difference between the Swamp and a Bayou. The swamp dries out and grass grows on the bottom, it is on the edge of the bayou. A Bayou is a stream of moving water flowing from the river, there is always water in the bayou. The river boat held 12 people, it is a flat bottomed boat built specially for swamps where the water is sometimes only 3 inches deep. The guide spoke very fluent French for French on the tour, it was very interesting to hear them talk. There are a lot of tree stumps in the water that the boat bumps into a lot of algae and plant life. We enjoyed seeing the different flowers that grow in the swamp and the different birds. The most exciting thing of course was seeing the alligators big and small. They are so hard to see as they blend in so good with the logs and growth. He told neat stories about how they catch alligators to sell, they hang a whole chicken from a tree with a large hook inside the chicken attached to a cable. The higher they hang the chicken the larger the gaiter they get, the gaiters smell the chicken and they jump clear out of the water to catch the bait. When they check their lines the next morning, the alligator is there with the cable holding him. Alligators sell for $45.00 a foot, so the longer, the more money.
After our tour, we ate lunch at a small deli that made the most delicious Cajun fried shrimp. It was $10 for 16 shrimp, fries, potato salad and a lettuce salad. What a deal!!!!!!!!! and oh so good!!!!!!! Next we drove around town and we went through some antique stores, Sharon wanted to see what kind of antique furniture they have here. We drove home and fixed dinner and watched TV the rest of the evening. Tomorrow we leave for Houston, Texas.