So I went to Wally World to pick up a replacement light for one of my fog lights that burned out. Just kind of went the long way round - if you know what I mean.
Weather was just too nice to sit at home. Finished my second tank of gas since I got home and got about 150 miles in today.
Rode around some neat country roads - no destination in mind.
Wound up at Jefferson Island and Rip Van Winkle Gardens.
This was the lake that Texaco drilled a well into a salt mine and drained the lake to where water was rushing backwards up the bayous from the Gulf in 1980.
From Wikipedia:
In 1980, when the disaster took place, the Diamond Crystal Salt Company operated the Jefferson Island salt mine under the lake, while a Texaco oil rig drilled down from the surface of the lake searching for petroleum. Due to a miscalculation, the 14-inch (360 mm) drill bit entered the mine, starting a remarkable chain of events which at the time turned an almost 10-foot (3.0 m) deep freshwater lake into a salt water lake with a deep hole.
It is difficult to determine exactly what occurred, as all of the evidence was destroyed or washed away in the ensuing maelstrom. The now generally accepted explanation is that a miscalculation by Texaco regarding their location resulted in the drill puncturing the roof of the third level of the mine. This created an opening in the bottom of the lake, similar to removing the drain plug from a bathtub. The lake then drained into the hole, expanding the size of that hole as the soil and salt were washed into the mine by the rushing water, filling the enormous caverns left by the removal of salt over the years. The resultant whirlpool sucked in the drilling platform, eleven barges, many trees and 65 acres (260,000 m2) of the surrounding terrain. Leonce Viator, Jr., a local fisherman, was able to drive his small boat to the shore and tie it up to a tree, and get out, to later watch it and the tree get sucked down.[4] So much water drained into those caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, making the canal a temporary inlet. This backflow created, for a few days, the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 feet (50 m), as the lake refilled with salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay. The water downflowing into the mine caverns displaced air which erupted as compressed air and then later as 400-foot (120 m) geysers up through the mineshafts.[4]
Remarkably, there were no injuries and no human lives lost in this dramatic event. All 55 employees in the mine at the time of the accident were able to escape thanks to well-planned and rehearsed evacuation drills, or through heroic efforts by co-workers. The staff of the drilling rig fled the platform before it was sucked down into the new depths of the lake. Three dogs were reported killed, however. Days after the disaster, once the water pressure equalized, nine of the eleven sunken barges popped out of the whirlpool and refloated on the lake's surface.
There were peacocks in the trees and I happen to pass by one when it sounded off. If you have never had a peacock sound off when you didn't know it was there - it sounds like a scream and will make your butt pucker for sure!
This is the house at Jefferson Island.
Leaving out there was a lake full of Flamingos. Made me think of Flamingo Babe!
And since this was like a mini road trip - that means FOOD! Like a hotdog you had to eat with a fork - yep, that is a 20oz Fanta behind it!
Rode around a couple of more hours and still made Wally World and ALAS - my grass cutting still awaits me this afternoon. Anyway, it was too nice NOT to ride. 66 when I left out (long sleeve shirt and blue jean weather) and was beautiful all day!!!!
Life is good!
