Running from storms...

While it wasn't in our plans to retrace our steps as far back into Texas as we have, we were forced to do so to avoid some big storms since we left Mississippi. We left the Margaritaville RV Resort and moved a short distance over to Lake Charles Louisiana at Sam Houston Jones State Park.

What a nice park this was! We were on concrete pads with full hookups and could see a beautiful swamp just across the road from us. Our plan was to stay three nights, but we ended up adding a few more to avoid traveling in the rain. While it didn't rain all the time it rained off and on a lot. In the breaks we ventured out to enjoy a nice hike or two around the lake and swamp inside the park.

Every morning, we took a little over a mile loop trail located across from our campsite. Short enough that we could avoid the rain but long enough to see interesting things and enjoy the walk. The trail took us along the river on a boardwalk then across the street over to the lake. How wonderful to have views of the swamp, the river, the lake and finish through a forest of longleaf and slash pines.

We saw lots of birds along the trail daily and would often see different birds each day. We also discovered some we called our "friends" such as a singing prothonotary warbler on the boardwalk who frequented the bald cypress in the swamp. We also discovered a nest of four baby green herons which we checked on each day.  Lastly, we also discovered a mother kildeer who would feign injury to lure us away from her nest with 2 eggs on the ground. It was a blast checking in on our friends as we enjoyed the hike each day.

 

When the weather finally looked like we would have a good travel day we moved on over to Beaumont and stayed at Gulf Coast RV Resort where we stayed before. We were only there one day and it rained off and on all day. However, we did manage to take another hike to the Cattail Marsh Preserve we hiked last time. It was enjoyable this time as the Purple Gallinules which we saw so many of last time were either nesting or had babies running around in the marsh. What fun it was watching them.

  

When we left Beaumont, we headed into Houston and encountered heavy traffic as we made our way to North Houston to stay at Rayford Crossing Park near The Woodlands of Texas. We spent two nights there and it continued to rain off and on as it has been for the last several weeks. But once again dodging the rain we were able to hike into the George Mitchell Nature Preserve. It was a nice hike until a wind came through the treetops. I warned Sharon we were about to get rained on and within minutes it was raining, thundering and lightning all around us. As unpleasant as it was it was still fun to be hiking in the woods and seeing the glistening of all the raindrops on the leaves which made the woods sparkle.

 

We enjoyed one last happy hour at Postino in the Woodlands.  Next, we head over to our old hometown of College Station.

More Louisiana Fun and a stay at Margaritaville

Once again, it became time to move on down the road. Mississippi was the farthest east we were going to this summer trip, so we did a turnaround back into Louisiana. Our next stop would be Abita Springs Resort. However, along our route we stopped at the newest Buc-cees near Biloxi Mississippi. It had just opened two days prior, so we happily stopped in for some jalapeno-cheese kolaches and to fill up the RV with $2.74 per gallon diesel!

 Abita Springs Resort Is a membership only resort. They advertise themselves as being part of the Ocean Canyon Resorts, a five-park conglomerate.  We came on an invited stay at no charge looking to investigate it as a possible longer term stay in the future. It's a nice Park and in a good location. However, what they didn't tell us is that they're also affiliated with Coast to Coast, which as many of you know is just like Thousand Trails and has exorbitant membership fees to join.

As part of our stay, we agreed to hear a sales pitch from their very nice representative. While I understand many people use Thousand Trails and Coast to Coast as it perfectly fits their lifestyle, we feel it's not for people like us. We want to travel frequently and stay near areas of interest to us, sometimes in nature and other time in cities.

Despite being misinformed we had a great time in the Abita Springs area as we were able to return to Copeland's one more time for happy hour in Covington, Louisiana. This time around we ordered some blackened crab cakes that were to die for and we also had to re-order the shrimp cakes with tasso cream sauce. We even bought some tasso so we can try and recreate this delectable dish. Tasso is a smoked pork shoulder spiced with Cajun seasonings. What a treat!

Although it has been raining a lot here in the south lately, we were able to enjoy a trail not far from the park called the Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve. It has a nice boardwalk trail located in a slash pine and longleaf pine meadow. it also featured pitcher plants and sundews which are two parasitic plants found in the USA. They are parasitic in that they trap and consume insects. Cool evolution...

 

We left Abita Springs a day early to head over to our next stop at Breaux Bridge in Louisiana where we will stay at Camp Margaritaville. It was a rather long drive of 119 miles where we pulled into the check-in line at the expansive Margaritaville Resort. We purposely planned to come for the weekend to be able to listen to live music both nights from 6:30 to 9:00. For those that have never been to a park like this picture a Jellystone RV park (designed for kids) combined with a park designed for adults. 

Since it was a short 2 day stay we planned to revisit the Old Thyme Grocery in Lafayette La for one more excellent shrimp po'boy. Speaking of food, just outside the park we saw a Herbert's where we found a couple more boudin balls to try. They were pretty good but not but definitely not better than Karchner's or Billy's! Other than those two trips we walked around the resort, took advantage of the pool and Sharon used the onsite gym.  

Since we were in the park on father's day I got an unexpected treat. The resort was giving free bloody marys to all the fathers in the park. Since they have an on-site bar and restaurant it allows them the flexibility to offer such treats.

But as you can imagine, being a weekend with live music and kids running all over the place, it was a very noisy park. By the end of our two days, we were more than ready to go someplace quieter. Our next stop should take care of that as it's a state park in western Louisiana just before we cross into Texas.

Fontainebleau State Park LA

We loved our stay in southern Louisiana at Fontainebleau State Park, but the plan was to head on over to Mississippi for a week stay and then come right back to Louisiana. After a drive of 110 miles, we pulled into our campsite at Davis Bayou campground which is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Campsites are nice and if campers use the senior lifetime pass it's only $11 per night for water and electricity!

Since the last time we stayed at this park, they have built a boardwalk adjacent to the marsh. We used to have to walk in the road to see the marsh and now with the boardwalk it's much more enjoyable. We walked this boardwalk every morning of our stay.  

 

Several things we saw or encountered while walking the boardwalk in the mornings were such critters as Clapper Rails and a Common Loon. Whenever Clapper Rails are in the area you will know it since they make quite the noise. One such morning I decided to use my phone's Merlin app to see if I could call one up so Sharon could see one up close. When I played the bird song to entice one, suddenly a Clapper Rail immediately called back and startled Sharon as it was just few feet away from us. After calming down, she did indeed see and photograph it!

The story behind the Common Loon is that we saw one sitting on the side of the marsh near the road and thought it had been injured. It couldn't seem to move. At first, we thought it may have been a baby Osprey as a nesting pair with offspring was close by and we had high winds during a storm the day before. It turned out to be a fledgling Loon and once a Game Warden we flagged down came by it abruptly scooted off into the water and started swimming away. We were about to call wildlife rescue to come save it, but we were glad it was just fine after all!

   

We found another fun thing to see located at the end of the boardwalk and across the street. There's a pond where we occasionally saw an alligator. We nicknamed the alligator who we spotted most mornings as Ollie. We were always happy to see and greet him on our walks. 

While here we also visited a lot of casinos, especially with it being my birthday week. We were hopeful that some of the casinos would give us some free birthday cash and a few did. However, the casinos on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi provide free adult beverages for those who are gambling. As you may know we don't gamble a lot, but we sure had fun playing the nickel video poker and drinking free libations.  Since it was raining a lot here during our stay this provided a nice indoor activity for some fun.

However, the main reason we came to this area was to visit Bozo's which is a Mississippi seafood market that also serves food. This is hands down the best and largest shrimp poor boy you will ever find for only $18. We bought one and shared it. Both of us were stuffed and we still took home enough shrimp for us to have a lunch another day. I can't recommend enough this excellent Mississippi establishment. Get the Shrimp Overload Po' boy. You will not be sorry! 

But as always, all good things come to an end as our time on the Mississippi Coast ended. We decided to leave a few days early because monsoonal rains were hitting the area and we wanted to avoid them so we will quickly return to Louisiana.

Eating our way through Louisiana

We both enjoyed our stay at Brazos Bend State Park more than we anticipated. The hiking trails and the scenic beauty at this time of the year were awesome. However, once again it became time to move on to our next stop down the road near Beaumont Texas.  

We pulled into Gulf Coast RV Resort, 126 miles away, in a nicely wooded site where we' planned to stay just a few nights. Knowing this we went out exploring the afternoon we arrived.  While we didn't do a long hike due to the weather we did hike a bit in the Cattail Marsh Scenic Wetlands. It was crazy how many Purple Gallinules we were able to see. Once we ventured onto the boardwalk they were everywhere. It's such a delight to watch them with their super long legs and really large feet as they delicately walk across the surface vegetation on the water in search of morsels and/or companionship. 

We even saw one scolding a nearby 4-ft alligator. While it kept its distance we were worried a couple of times that it was getting a bit too close and thought we were going to witness yet another National Geographic moment!

 Besides the gallinules, we also saw an assortment of other birds in the marsh. Luckily, we even managed to see the very elusive Least Bittern flying across the marsh and hiding in the cattails. 

Our second day in Beaumont was a washout as it rained off and on almost the entire afternoon.  The next morning it was sunny, so we headed on down the road to our next stop in Duson Louisiana.  This would be another short stay.

One hundred and twenty-three miles later we pulled into Frog City RV Park, a nice Passport America park we've stayed at several times before. Our plan for our visit here was to go to several of the Cajun specialty meat stores and sample boudin balls. A deep fried boudin ball is a type of rice and pork sausage made Cajun style, and it is indeed a Cajun treat. We stopped at three different stores for sampling and enjoyed each of them. Sharon like the one at Karchner's the best while my favorite was at Billy's.

 

We weren't in Duson only to sample boudin balls as we also stopped here to eat at our two favorite Louisiana eateries for shrimp po'boys. Our first place to eat at was the Old Thyme Grocery in Lafayette. They make an excellent shrimp po'boy on very light bread. The next afternoon we also stopped in New Iberia Louisiana at the Bon Creole restaurant to enjoy their shrimp po'boy. They had been our favorite the past two years, but Old Thyme was the best this year and returned to the top of our list for now.

We did get in one hike at the Cypress Island Preserve on our way over to Bon Creole. While it was a bit soggy there due to the rains, we did get to see lots of bird and even an alligator that startled me as it lurched off the levee we were walking on. Fortunately, I startled it too as it retreated back into the swamp.

As you can tell, our stop was  mainly a culinary stop. The morning we were supposed to leave we were invited to yet another culinary treat as the RV park was hosting a breakfast where we were treated to two freshly cooked eggs, hashbrowns, sausage and bacon as well as other breakfast choices which were all complimentary. What a great way to start the day heading on down the road of retirement to our next stop...