*Tent on Wheels at DISNEY* M-I-C (See You Next Time!) K-E-Y (Why? Because we LOVED it!)

It's always a sad day when you have to pack up and head home from a great camping trip, but I think post-Disney vacation blues is a serious condition!  We struck camp from Disney Sunday morning, dropping the golf cart off, hooking up, and starting our 995 mile, 14 hour and 34 minute trip back home. 

On the way across, we spent the road time listening to the Spotify playlists my team had made for my birthday - an eclectic mix of rock, rap, country, easy listening, Latino, and Disney songs.  I arrived home and they had even sent me a lighted plaque with a QR code at the bottom that lead to one of the playlist songs!

On our way home, we fired up the Audible app and listened to David Grohl narrate his book, The Storyteller.

We really enjoyed listening to his book while supplementing the stories he told with Google searches of the concert where he broke his leg, the Fresh Pots coffee promo, the harmonica surprise from Huey Lewis and the Foos, and his performance of BlackBird at the Oscars. Getting to listen to the author of a book read their own story is such a cool thing (Matthew McConaughey reading his book Greenlights is another one we loved to listen to on road trips).

We stopped every hundred miles or so to fuel up the truck and take a stretch break. We appreciate the set up at LOVE's because they're really designed for tractor/trailers, which makes navigating the gas station easier.  We were prepared for the fuel costs for this 2400 mile trip, but it certainly hurt our budget a bit as fuel prices rose subsequent to the Russia/Ukraine conflict.   

We stopped over the KOA in Milton, FL.  We pulled in after dark, and noticed quite a bit of road noise, but the stop was super convenient right off the highway.  

We were in site BN1, which was really easy to get into and pull out of the next morning.  The campground was well kept and had a cute hay bale decoration right up front as we left.

RDB was up _early_ that next morning and we were on the road by 8am.  I must not have had a good nights sleep, or maybe all the running around at Disney finally caught up with me, but I dragged a pillow into the truck with me and zonked out for the first several hours of the drive on Monday.  We were making really good time, as we had our next stop at the KOA in Lafayette, LA which would only leave about 3.5 hours to home Tuesday; we had it to the KOA by noon and decided to go ahead and stop, have. good meal, and rest for the evening. 

This KOA was larger than most we've stopped at.  The sites surrounded a lake with paddle boats to rent. There was a putt-putt course amongst the large old, moss-draped oak trees.  In the office, there was a detailed and beautiful quilt in the front office and we were impressed but the incredibly friendly front desk wishing us "safe travels." 

We dropped the camper in Site 309 and then took off for a little afternoon adventure.  Food first - we relied on Yelp to help us find a spot and once again, Yelp didn't disappoint.  We had lunch at Bon Temps, and as the name implies, it was GOOD.  The jalapeno cheese grits would be worth driving back to Louisiana for! 

And if there's something that Louisiana is known for, it's good food.  Good and spicy food. So it's no surprise that it's also the home of Avery Island and the Tabasco Brand Manufacturing Plant and Museum.  

I had the chance to drop in for a tour back in my road warrior days, and since then have really wanted to take RDB over to see how our favorite flavor-enhancer is made.  It was a total spur of the moment detour for the day, but was 100% worth it!

I'm a little sweet, and a little spicy! 

The viewing area into the manufacturing plant was the only thing that was on the 'tour' the last time I was there, so it was neat to see how they expanded out to include the people-sized bottles and other various props and historical objects.  You have the opportunity to walk a self-guided tour around the property, pretty much seeing the process from seed to sauce.

In addition to the little red peppers that Tabasco is known for planted there on the island, there's also a significant grove (or several, actually!) of bamboo. 

During WWII the Tabasco 'family' worked with the USDA to plant over 60 species of bamboo on the island, and nearly 35 of those still exist. (No surprise there - bamboo is sooo invasive!)  We stopped by the gift shop before we left, and I'm pretty sure we spent more on souvenirs from Tabasco than we did at Disney World!  (Also - those cinnamon Tabasco suckers were over the top delicious!)

We packed up the next morning and finished out the last leg of the trip home.  The great thing about Lafayette, LA is that it's less than 4 hours from home - not any longer than a normal weekend camping trip.  We were home in plenty of time to get a little laundry done and set up the camper as our "guest house" for WLTR, in town for the weekend and hanging out at our place!

We had bought a bottle of scotch before we left, with the thought that we might share Walt Disney's preferred drink (Scotch Mists) with others at the campground, but with all the fun we had in the parks and everything else, we never had a chance.  It turned out to be the perfect night cap of this dream of a vacation trip we had!

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Be sure to check out our other posts from Tent On Wheels at DISNEY!