What a Day

This was not the way to begin our day, especially when we hoped to be on the road by 9 am. John went out a little before 8:30 to prepare the trailer for travel. That is when he discovered we had a flat tire. The brochure for the Sam Houston Jones State Park included an ad for a local tire company. John called them and arranged for them to send out a road service company with four new tires. He had felt for a while we needed new tires and this confirmed it.

SJ, of SJ's Road and Tire Service arrived sometime after 10 with the tires. He was very methodical, precise and careful in everything he did. The trailer has aluminum wheels, which need special care. We were impressed with the work he did.



It was close to noon before he was finished. We enjoyed getting to know him and appreciated his work.



It wasn't till after we had made the arrangements for the tires that we remembered our Good Sam Emergency Road Service policy. After sitting on hold for 15 minutes, I learned they would have paid for the flat tire service if we had called them first. We can submit the bill we paid and hope for reimbursement. If there is a next time, maybe we will remember to call them first.

As we drove east on I-10 and then I-12 to Fontainbleau State Park on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, we saw numerous trucks hauling something made of orange plastic and folded in long sections. It wasn't till we watched the evening news that we realized they are the plastic booms that will be put in the Gulf of Mexico to try to contain the oil spill from that oil well explosion. That sure puts our minor inconvenience in the morning into perspective.

The local news is dominated by the story, even more than the national news, because of the impending damage to wildlife, the fishing industry and tourism in this state that is still recovering from hurricanes Katrina and Ike. What a tragedy! Just days ago we visited wildlife areas on the bayous and coastal areas of the state. They are so beautiful and they are facing possible devastation. How sad.

Along the road we also drove over a gigantic bridge that crosses the Atchafalaya Basin. With a total length of 96,095 feet (29,290 m) or 18.2 miles, it is the tenth longest bridge in the world by total length. We went on a boat tour of the swamp three years ago in mid-March. In late April the trees have leafed out and the water is much higher than when we were there.



Monday, before leaving the Lake Charles area, we went to town to eat southern food for lunch and ended up at a locals' favorite restaurant, Southern Spice. John had a Cajun spiced roast beef and cheese po-boy. I had a shrimp po-boy. In case you don't know what a po-boy is (we didn't), here is the definition from Wikipedia, "A po' boy (also po-boy, po boy, or poor boy) is a traditional submarine sandwich from Louisiana. It almost always consists of meat or seafood, usually fried, served on baguette-like Louisiana French bread."

Then we drove to the old downtown area of Lake Charles and the Historic Charpentier District of the city. According to the Trailer Life Directory (don't you love my sources?) this district has "one of the finest collections of Victorian architecture in the state, dating from the late 1800s. Since there were no architects in evidence here until the early 1900s, the structures reflect the individual characteristics of the carpenters (charpentiers in French) and builders."
Here are pictures of a couple of the houses.

Alligators, Bayous and Crab

There you have the ABC's of our Tuesday. We drove the Creole Nature Trail though far south Louisiana. We saw lots of alligators. After we stopped at the Cameron Prairie NWR Visitor Center, we drove their Pintail Trail and Boardwalk.



At first we didn't understand why there was a warning that hiking was not allowed on the trail. That was before we saw this fellow.



And this one.



And this one.



No wonder we couldn't hike. We didn't even get out of the truck to take pictures. As our eyes became trained to see the alligators, they were everywhere. Interesting, but scary We understand why we saw these signs posted in the area.



The Creole Trail goes south through all the bayous and farms between I-10 and the Gulf of Mexico. This is what much of the countryside looks like.



We drove through Cameron, one of the towns hit hard by Hurricane Ike in 2008. First we noticed these new houses built on stilts.



And others built on a small hill of earth as well as stilts.



Someone used to live on this concrete pad. Their home is entirely gone.



It is truly amazing how much damage a hurricane can do.

Further on we made a short trip on a ferry. It only cost $1 to cross the small bayou or river. I think it is a regular part of life for those who live here.



I had read it was blue crab season, but I had no idea how you catch crabs. It seems you tie a sturdy string around a large portion of chicken leg and thigh, then lower it into the water.



When it starts to jiggle, you pull it up and catch the crabs that are trying to gnaw on the chicken leg and put them in a net.



Here you can see how many crab two women had caught and saved in their cooler. You also can see the blue color on the crab legs.



In addition to alligators, bayous and crab, we saw turtles. This one was the road in the state park as we left in the morning.



And we saw these in the wildlife refuge.



We also saw butterflies.



And lots of birds, including this Baltimore (or Northern) Oriole



and an Indigo Bunting



and also this Scarlet Tanager.

Great State Parks

We are staying in Sam Houston Jones State Park in Louisiana. This is the 18th state where we have stayed in a state park. National Parks are called "America's Best Idea" and we agree. But maybe state parks are America's Second Best Idea. Although we have a site that was the devil to back into and on some sites (not ours) the electric and water are very far away, we love this place. We have a great, large site.



This is the first time we have parked in the middle of a swamp and it is beautiful.



Look at all the Spanish Moss hanging off these Baldcypress trees.



After dinner last night we rode our bikes around to see if we could find wildlife. Obviously, lots of other people also like to ride bikes at that time of night, and many of them aren't in the campgrounds here.

Cypress trees have "knees." These are roots that show above the ground. When I saw them, I said I thought the roots were coming up for air. A sign along the pond said that is one theory of why the knees develop--when the water rises, these root extension provide oxygen to the tree.



We saw interesting ducks (or are they geese?). They look like turkeys in a duck or goose body.



In the cabin area we saw this flowering bush. It looks like an azalea to me.



The most exciting event of the evening was getting this close to a Snowy Egret. Isn't it beautiful?