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...
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