As we prepared to leave Beaumont after the rains stopped and the water started to drain off, we had to decide where to stop next.  Checked all our resources, no Harvest Host within a hundred miles of the intended route, No Corp of Engineers, Passport America, yes, half off at Audubon RV Park, only four (4) sites.  That is strange, have never stayed in such a small RV park.  Well it is just south of Abbeville, LA and right in the middle of the area we want to visit so we decide to take a chance, how bad can it be for a night or two with full hookups and for only $10 a night, cash only as Joe says when we call to make a reservation and yes he does have a site that we can get into, and please don’t park on top of the lift pump when you set up.

The on board GPS tells us we have arrived and there is not an RV in sight.  The street address is a lot higher than the one in the book so we drive on, Carol at the wheel.  Eventually after avoiding a dead end street and taking a left turn to stay on Audubon Road we find the campground.  Four sites lined up parallel to the road.  The one closest to the road might accommodate a popup, but no trailer or coach would fit there.  On the far end is site 4, our assigned site, the others are all occupied, all 2 of them.  After a quick run to Walmart in Abbeyville we barely return to the coach when Joe, the owner, appears.  I part with cash for three nights and ask about the tour he mentions in the description of the park.

Ten minutes later we are in Joe’s truck headed for a tour of his holdings (and his brother’s).  I learned more about crawfish husbandry then I knew I wanted to know.  Also we learned that the same fields that produce crawfish in the winter, produce rice in the summer.  For that matter we have arrived the day after the last crawfish harvest of the year.  Tomorrow they will drain the fields from 18 inches of water to dry to be able to drill plant the rice, then when the rice comes up they will flood the field to 2-3 inches.  Joe is a multi talented guy.  He works for Chevron Gas managing over 154 miles of gas pipeline, farms his acreage for crawfish and rice and runs a small campground.

This is the wheel that drives the crawfish boat, it is driven by a hydraulic motor

Joe reached into a crawfish trap that had not been baited and…

Found one trapped bug

This is the boat underway in the crawfish field, the wheel pulls and the trailing disk keeps it stable

Why only four sites when he owns acres of land around the campground?  He planned on forty sites, but marriage slowed down his plans and he has had these 4 sites for at least ten years that I am aware of.  He likes to meet the people who he sees traveling the roads in RVs stopping to watch the work in the fields.  We enjoyed meeting him too.