Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sam Houston Jones State Park - Apr 5
We've finally made it as far as Louisiana -- Sam Houston Jones State Park, located near Lake Charles. Don't ask who S.H.Jones is (was?) -- a local politico is our guess. The park is very nice -- designed around a cyprus pond (swamp) that we probably would not think as highly of if the weather were not as cool -- it got down to the 40s last 2 nights, and high yesterday was only in the 60s. Today was warmer, and it's supposed to be just a little warmer tomorrow. There has quite literally not been a cloud in the sky all day, just beautiful blue. The only downside so far is the cell phone reception in the park is horrible, which means we can't get our email very easily. We've had to drive to town to check our snail mail (which hasn't been there), so we've been checking our email (which is). We're a little worried about the snail mail, since we have to leave Friday -- the park is full this weekend and so are a lot of the other state parks, so we have reservations at a private park 140 miles away. One of the hassles of full-timing.
We drove the Creole Nature Trail today, which is a 100+ mile long loop in Southern La. The loop starts in Sulfur, LA (named for the mineral formerly mined there), and goes from farm country to bayous and swamps to the seashore, then back out again, winding up at Lake Charles. The birdwatching was wonderful, even if we weren't in Texas. The first stop was the Sabine NWR, where we saw many of our old friends (herons and egrets, etc) plus a green-backed heron, and a clapper rail. Also, the conditions this spring must have been right for alligators, since we saw over a score of little (3 to 4 ft) gators, plus one mother with no fewer than eight (8) tiny babies on her back. We continued on, taking the western spur from Holly Beach, which was disappointing -- the beaches were small and not very scenic, although I suspect it was high tide. We backtracked to continue through Cameron, where we took a ferry across the Calcasieu ship channel -- here again, LA ferries don't compare with Texas -- but the mindset here is different. If you have to wait 30 minutes for a single ferry, so be it. We drove to Rutherford Beach, which was lovely -- a shellers paradise. In the few minutes we walked along the beach, we found a dozen flawless spiral-thingy shells (whatever they are). We also spotted a loggerhead shrike.
The northern leg took us through the Cameron Prairie Refuge, where we saw more old friends, plus a purple gallinule. The HQ was closed by the time we reached it (the flyer said allow 4 to 6 hrs, we spent 8), but we had a 2nd lunch there, and straggled back home, much to the delight of our cats, who despaired of our never coming back. And speaking of cats, our dear, sweet, 21-year old Molly is sick -- she is not traveling with us, she's being cared for by our good friend Penny. Molly's weight has dropped to less than 4 lbs. So we're all thinking positive thoughts, and hopefully Molly will see her 22nd birthday later this year.
A couple of final notes on Galveston. We REALLY liked the place -- both camping on the beach and the interesting touristy things to do in the town. You may have heard of the rather tumultuous weather in that part of Texas for the last few days we were there. Well, we were fortunate enough to miss the worst of it and only had to put up with some fierce winds and some rain the last night we were there.
On Friday, March 31, the census person came to our trailer while we were camped on the beach near Galveston. Although the short form was so much easier, we opted for the long form. For some perverse reason, we wanted to make sure the fact that we were actually living in our trailer was counted, so they would get a better count of folks who are full-timing and consider them "important". When actually, they may just figure out how to rip us off more!
We drove the Creole Nature Trail today, which is a 100+ mile long loop in Southern La. The loop starts in Sulfur, LA (named for the mineral formerly mined there), and goes from farm country to bayous and swamps to the seashore, then back out again, winding up at Lake Charles. The birdwatching was wonderful, even if we weren't in Texas. The first stop was the Sabine NWR, where we saw many of our old friends (herons and egrets, etc) plus a green-backed heron, and a clapper rail. Also, the conditions this spring must have been right for alligators, since we saw over a score of little (3 to 4 ft) gators, plus one mother with no fewer than eight (8) tiny babies on her back. We continued on, taking the western spur from Holly Beach, which was disappointing -- the beaches were small and not very scenic, although I suspect it was high tide. We backtracked to continue through Cameron, where we took a ferry across the Calcasieu ship channel -- here again, LA ferries don't compare with Texas -- but the mindset here is different. If you have to wait 30 minutes for a single ferry, so be it. We drove to Rutherford Beach, which was lovely -- a shellers paradise. In the few minutes we walked along the beach, we found a dozen flawless spiral-thingy shells (whatever they are). We also spotted a loggerhead shrike.
The northern leg took us through the Cameron Prairie Refuge, where we saw more old friends, plus a purple gallinule. The HQ was closed by the time we reached it (the flyer said allow 4 to 6 hrs, we spent 8), but we had a 2nd lunch there, and straggled back home, much to the delight of our cats, who despaired of our never coming back. And speaking of cats, our dear, sweet, 21-year old Molly is sick -- she is not traveling with us, she's being cared for by our good friend Penny. Molly's weight has dropped to less than 4 lbs. So we're all thinking positive thoughts, and hopefully Molly will see her 22nd birthday later this year.
A couple of final notes on Galveston. We REALLY liked the place -- both camping on the beach and the interesting touristy things to do in the town. You may have heard of the rather tumultuous weather in that part of Texas for the last few days we were there. Well, we were fortunate enough to miss the worst of it and only had to put up with some fierce winds and some rain the last night we were there.
On Friday, March 31, the census person came to our trailer while we were camped on the beach near Galveston. Although the short form was so much easier, we opted for the long form. For some perverse reason, we wanted to make sure the fact that we were actually living in our trailer was counted, so they would get a better count of folks who are full-timing and consider them "important". When actually, they may just figure out how to rip us off more!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 9:58 PM 
