Week ending Dec 31, 2015 Morgan City

On Thursday, just after posting last week's blog, we saw a huge long flock of birds flying across the near edge of the lake.

Friday after a Skype visit with John's parent and his brother George we went for a walk through the park. We know that this area has experienced a lot rain in the past week or so, evidenced by the picnic table.

 

We returned back to the trailer in time to put our  turkey in our portable  oven out on the picnic table to avoid heating up the trailer..  Christmas day was very warm (19C)  We then had a Christmas visit with our kids and grandchildren. This year Karen and Dominique were at Trev and Sue's in Calgary , so one Skype visit was all that was needed.  We did another walk through the park, catching pictures of some of the resident birds. 

 Cormorants

    

Coots

Boxing day we drove around the historic district of Morgan City.
  

Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church

We drove toward Cypremort State Park on the coast.  Along the route from the main highway to the coast there were many sugar cane harvesters.   The fields were very muddy. 

Cypremort Point is one of the few spots on the Louisiana Gulf coastline which may be accessed by road. We did a short walk along the beach, drove through the resort community, 

and then returned via the town of Franklin, which had some historic signs about its prominent residents, and a Civil War battle and Union gunboat that was captured by the Confederates, who fired it rather than letting it be recapture. before returning to  Morgan City. 


Sunday we spent the day walking around Lake End Park, visiting with fellow campers and campground workers. Although the day was very warm it was windy and we were warned that a cold front was on its way in. It was rainy and very windy all night,  but finally by morning the wind died down.

Monday we decided we needed rubber boots. It appears that we are camped in a "swamp" the water table is very high here and with all the rain lately there are puddles everywhere. We found some suitable boots at Walmart. We can now get from the trailer to the truck without getting our feet wet. 

Our next stop was at the Sea Wall.  Built by the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers in the late 1970’s, the Sea Wall protects Morgan City from the flooding waters of the Atchafalaya River in the spring.  Massive doors that allow access to the wharf and riverfront are closed during these times.  A catwalk was built at the top for pedestrians to enjoy views of the river. 

Now it is lunch time so we stopped at Rita Mae's. Joan had some spicy seafood gumbo and John a BBQ beef po-boy. 

After lunch we headed back to the trailer to try out our new boots. They work wonderfully.

Tuesday we did a drive through a number of small towns in the area, with Longfellow-Evangeline Historic Site as our destination. We arrived to discover it is only open Wednesday through Sunday.  We will never learn. That is strike 3, or three different sites we have gone to see in the past year or so only to discover it is closed.  We stopped at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church built in 1735 by the Acadians. 

We then drove back through the town of Jeanerette.   

 Harry B Hewes House

 Sugar Cane Processing Plant

On our way back to the trailer we stopped to pick up our wine order. We then went for a walk through the park. John saw a turtle on a tree in the creek running through the park. Unfortunately he was unable to get a picture of it as it promptly dove into the water.

Wednesday was a wet cloudy day. Joan decided she was tired of wading, so spent the day inside doing housework and cooking. John  drove up to the local hardware store to get some dessicant.  They had an order arriving Wednesday morning. After lunch we went for a walk around the park. Half way through our walk the heavens opened, so by the time we got back to the trailer we were drenched.

Thursday morning we did another walk around the park.   Birds enjoy the lake here.

Because it is a cloudy day the resident turtle is in hiding. We had a  Wii rematch and watched the park fill up for the weekend.

Week ending Dec 24, 2015 Grand Isle to Morgan City

 Thursday evening, we had quite a beautiful sunset.
 

This week at Grand Isle we have put many miles on our shoes walking on the beach.   There was a flock of birds we hadn't noticed before.  With the help of Field Guide to Birds of North America, which John's Mom gave to us, we decided they must be black skimmers.  The lived up to that name as the skimmed along the waves, before landing in formation on the edge of the beach.

 

We saw several boats, including the Coast Guard ship below.  We wondered whether it was out to intercept something in the Gulf.

We also saw what we think is an oil platform being brought back in for servicing.

 

and a trawler running just outside the rock jetties protecting the shore.

 

 One day we decided to go sightseeing in Grand Isle. We drove around this little seaside village, on almost all the streets,  admiring the pastel houses.   Then we stopped and picked up some fresh veggies at the only grocery/hardware/clothing store in town and were back  at the trailer within the hour.

Monday night we were expecting a bit of a thunderstorm. It turned out to be much more violent a storm than we expected. Over night 3 inches of rain fell. The road behind the trailer became quite a lake.  That made us wonder whether the sign on the other side of the road was due to the rain, or was meant for the beach.

Tuesday was a dull damp day, so Joan again took advantage of the laundry, John went and filled the truck with diesel. When he looked at our finances, we realized that was  the first time we had purchased diesel in 2 weeks.

Wednesday we packed up, ready to head off to Morgan City. We had a long goodbye visit with the Kelley's who had been our neighbours for the past 2 weeks.   They mentioned that they had been woken by a tornado alert on their phone.  Nothing had come of it, so ignorance is bliss. We asked them what we should do in such an event, they replied - not much could be done on the island, since, instead of houses having basements, which is the best place to be, they are on stilts, including the wash houses at the State Park.  As the Kelley's have lived in this area all their lives, their advice carries a certain amount of weight. 

We arrived in Morgan City shortly after lunch.  When we said we wanted to stay for two weeks, they gave us the choice of the 2 sites that were available that long. One was close to the facilities, pull through and but among some trees. The other has a view of the lake, no trees and but a long walk to the facilities. John was not 100% convinced he could get a satellite signal from the first site, so we chose the 2nd site.

Thursday morning we woke up to a dense fog.   After it cleared, we did our shopping for Christmas dinner. We were able to buy a little turkey that will fit in our portable oven.  We went to a local grocery store and were able to order some Bota Box Shiraz  which will arrive next Monday.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Week ending Dec 17, 2015 Grand Isle State Park

Since arriving at Grand Isle State Park we have spent most our time walking on the beach and enjoying the great weather. We find that walking at the edge of the surf we avoid the mosquitoes. There are quite a few trawlers that fish along the coast here, along with the pelicans and shore birds. 

We also noticed a memorial, which we presume was due to a boating incident of some kind, as it was facing out to sea.

The weather has been great since we arrived, warm enough that we haven't even had to turn on a heater overnight. The breeze off the ocean keeps the trailer cool enough, so no air conditioning is needed during the day.

Monday morning we watched some dolphins feeding in the surf. Quite a surprise as we were not expecting dolphins here, and certainly not that close to shore.   We were able to get a bit of picture by running the camera on video, but by the time we got that organized, they had quit leaping to dive on the fish.

Later Monday morning we drove to Port Fourchon, about 15 miles away. It is a port whose main industry is to build and service the oil rigs in the gulf.  We then completed the circle drive through Leeville, another oil service port.   It had several oil platforms being prepared for service in the Gulf.

On our way back to the trailer we stopped at the Starfish restaurant, Joan enjoyed a bowl of seafood Gumbo and John had chicken sausage gumbo. When we pulled up to the restuarant John noticed the business next door. Interesting imagining someone driving away with a daiquiri in hand.

Tuesday Joan took advantage of the complementary laundromat which Louisiana state parks provide to their campers. The rest of the day was spent doing chores, enjoying the warm sunny weather and visiting with fellow campers.

Wednesday we again walked along the beach. We visited with fellow campers and enjoyed the hot weather. We also watched an oil rig leave the port heading out into the gulf.  Of course we didn't happen to have the camera on us at the time.

Thursday John did a bit more maintenance while Joan did some Christmas baking. Time to get the mince tarts made as well as some spicy pumpkin muffins.  The weather has turned slightly cooler, so  having the oven on doesn't overheat the trailer.  Our neighbours in the next site have gone on a mini vacation to Baton Rouge to attend their granddaughters university graduation, so we are trailer sitting. They will be back tomorrow night. This is a very quiet campground, so we are not expecting any problems.

Week ending Dec 10, 2015 New Orleans and Area

Friday after a skype visit with John's parents we did our basic shopping for the week. Our campground host visited with us a bit. He is one of the most hospitable hosts we have ever had. He has a nice chocolate lab, and shared his dog's biscuits with our dogs.

Saturday we did a plantation trip.  Our first stop was Laura, a Creole Plantation.

This is a very good example of a Creole Plantation, and in fact one of the slave cabins was occupied until the 1970's, by a man who had worked on the plantation.  Laura was not open to tours when we drove the plantation road in 1989, as it was not renovated and opened until 1994.   We had an excellent tour guide, Rose, who told us the story of the du Parc family who ran the plantation. The story of the family was recorded by Laura Lacoul Gore for her children who never saw the plantation, since Laura chose to sell the plantation instead of running it like her mother, grandmother and great grandmother had done.   If it hadn't been for her memoirs, Laura plantation would have been best known for the stories of 'Compair Lapin', or 'Br'er Rabbit', which were told in the slave cabins on the plantation. 

 

We were surprised that there were 23 varieties of bananas grown on the plantation.

 

Since the tour was so comprehensive (about 70 minutes), we chose to just look from the road at the rest of the plantations that are on both sides of the river west of New Orleans.  We saw that the bonfires along the levee were already being erected.  These will be burned on Christmas Eve, so Santa Claus will be able to find his way down the river to New Orleans.  We will miss this event this year, but enjoyed it when we here in 1989.

 

Sunday we drove down to Grand Isle State Park.  We wanted to check out the facilities, because Joan had heard it was a nice park. It appears to be well suited for us, except for a proliferation of mosquitoes.  All of the houses in the area are built on high stilts to keep them out of high water.
It would be quite an 'interesting' experience to be here when there was enough water to justify the height.  

 

At the  day use area, we saw an excellent motto for our lifestyle. 

 

Monday we completed our Great River Road trip by driving south of New Orleans along the Mississippi as far as the road goes towards the mouth of the river, arriving at the town of Venice.

 

 

We had a great lunch at CrawGator's Bar and Grill on the deck overlooking the Venice Marina. John had a grilled shrimp platter and Joan had a very decadent seafood baked potato. The deck was a perfect location to watch the trawlers, sport fishermen, pelicans and cormorants come and go.

The Mississippi area is an interesting mix of nature and industry.

On our way back, we stopped at Fort Jackson, which was built about 30 years before the Civil War to protect the river.   During the Civil War, it withstood a 10 day siege by Farragut, but surrendered when New Orleans fell to the Union army.

Then we crossed to the east side of the river on a free ferry, which had to wait for a ship to clear the route.

 

This east side of the river, south of New Orleans has many houses that are still boarded up since Hurricane Katrina.

Tuesday was clean-up day. We made a quick trip to Winn-Dixie for some items we missed on our last grocery trip and discovered that in fact our RV park was located only a few blocks from the motel we had stayed at in 1989.  The hotel we had eaten at during the rain/ice event of that Christmas is in ruins, a result of Hurricane Katrina from 10 years ago.

Wednesday morning we packed up with Grand Isle state park as our destination. We stopped at Raceland for coffee and a driver change. We arrived at the park early afternoon.
South of Golden Meadow, there is a toll fee for the Gateway to the Gulf Expressway that goes out to the island.  On our trip down on Sunday, we had asked the toll booth attendant about getting our trailer through the pay lane.  She suggested that we stop at the Expressway office to get a pass, which would allow us to use the through lane, which is much wider.   So we stopped at the office to get a pass. The attendant explained that they don't do one trip passes, but that the trailer should fit just fine, as semi-trailers use the booth lane.  They had a chart that indicated that vehicles 8 feet wide were allowed through the lane, so we measure the trailer, to find it was 8 feet 3 inches, plus an allowance for the awning posts.   Not too comforting, but we carried on to the expressway.   Just short of the toll booth, there was room to park the trailer beside the road, so John got out the tape measure, and walked up the the tool booth lane to check the width.   We wouldn't want to have to back the trailer out of a narrow lane if it was too narrow.  It turns out the lane is over 10 feet wide, so not a problem.  When we got to the booth, the attendant complimented us on being 'handy' and checking the width.  She said that people have managed to get their vehicles stuck in the lane.    

When we arrived at the park, and had arranged for a site for a week, we asked what the 'marine hazard' is that requires the purple warning flag to be flown.  A small alligator had been spotted on the beach.

Thursday was a hot day. Everyone in shorts and t-shirts.  We spent the day wandering along the beach and enjoying the warm weather.

Week ending Dec 03, 2015 Vidalia, Natchez, Marksville, New Orleans

Friday morning we were off to the Delta Blues Museum in Ferriday, LA. Before we left we checked their website and according to the information it was open. We arrived at the museum to discover that due to Thanksgiving it had given itself a long weekend and was closed from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving until the Monday after. It appears that no matter how hard we try we can't win.  There was some information outside on placards as well as a patio of fame with stars on it honoring  numerous music celebrities from along the Mississippi River. Three local people with stars on their patio are Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart, who were cousins.  For more information check www.deltamusicmuseum.com  We did a quick stop at a wine store on our way back to the trailer and spent the rest of the day watching the European curling championships.

Since Saturday was a warm beautiful day, after doing a few chores and then went for a walk on the trails going south through the RV park.We are pleased with the wi-fi here, so have been searching for RV parks and things to do further down the road.

Sunday morning was spent watching the RV park empty  out.  We said our goodbyes to our neighbours.  They were very interested in our full-timers lifestyle. We shared with them the good and the bad about this lifestyle. He really understands some of our "ugly" as he is a deputy sheriff. We are glad we are not on the roads on a Sunday of a long weekend. After lunch we decided to walk along the river on the Natchez side of the river. The only interesting area was "Natchez Under the Hill", an area which in the early days was the less desirable part of town.  We stopped at the Natchez Visitor Center, which has a tremendous display on the history of the city, from the Mound Builders, New France, British West Florida, New Spain, Mississippi Territory, Mississippi State, a Confederate State, and then back to a US state.   One of the interesting items was the list of staples required by someone walking back north along the Natchez Trace.

We then drove out to Natchez National Historic site.  It has a well maintained mansion, Melrose house. 

There was a good description of both the sugar cane and cotton crops, with examples of each growing in small beds.  Go to  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melrose_%28Natchez,_Mississippi%29 for more information. We then stopped at The Forks of the Road, where the slave trade established a market after it was banned from the townsite.  See http://usslave.blogspot.com/2012/04/forks-of-road-slave-market-at-natchez.html for more detailed information. Our next stop was a  short hike to an observation tower at Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge.  Although the walk was very nice, birds and animals were elusive.

We then headed back to the trailer to watch the Grey Cup. John was very happy with the results.

Monday morning we packed up and departed for Paragon Casino in Marksville, Louisania.  We know we are in the Delta, since a google earth elevation profile indicated a minimum elevation of 16 meters, and a maximum of only 31 meters.   It was a nice drive through a nice wooded area most of the way.  We stopped at Deville for coffee and a snack. We ordered sausage and egg biscuits.  They said it would be about 15 minutes, so by the time they arrived we decided our snack could be considered  an early lunch.  We figure they had to bake the biscuits, as they were nice and fresh.  Shortly after lunch we arrived at the casino campground. It is very nice. We noticed White Pear Trees in the park, that have beautiful red leaves.

After getting set up it started to rain, so we did nothing for the rest of the day.

Tuesday was another dreary day.  While Joan did laundry John went for a few groceries. Joan had trouble with her US credit card so she called  Mastercard and  was told  she will not be able to use it as the chip option because she tried the wrong pin number too many times. It is okay to use it as a swipe card, so we will go with that until we get back to Canada and get this sorted out. Luckily John remembers his pin number. We then called Three Oaks and a Pine RV Park in New Orleans to reserve a spot. Late afternoon we wandered over to the casino, donated a few bucks to their cause, before having a really nice dinner.

Wednesday morning  we packed up early and headed for New Orleans. The drive was really easy, mostly freeways. At one point, we were driving on a levee through a wetland with thousands of birds.  Unfortunately there was nowhere to stop, but we did get a photo from the truck.

We stopped mid-morning at Geismar, south of Baton Rouge, for coffee and a snack. Our projected arrival time at the campground was early afternoon, but the drive didn't take as long as we expected, so by noon we pulled in. The manager was very accommodating. New on the job and wanting to have happy campers in his park. After we got set up Joan went over to pay. Will her credit card work??? that is the question. No chip technology here, so all is well. The rest of the afternoon was spent making plans for our time in New Orleans.


Thursday morning we hopped on the local bus to go to the French Quarter. We chose a 3.00 day pass, that allowed us to use buses and trolleys.  We had an auspicious start by watching the bus go by before we got to the bus stop. Oh well, another came in 20 minutes. While waiting another lady from the RV park came to the stop. She was well versed in the route to the French Quarter so gave us lots of help, actually she said" just follow me that's where I'm going" and as she had been here for months she knew the best routes.

We made a stop at Jackson Square to take some pictures,

St. Louis Cathedral

then headed for Cafe Du Monde for our coffee and beignets. Nothing has changed; they are as good as we remember from 26 years ago. The French Quarter is as quirky as ever, with houses with interesting wrought iron railings on their balconies.

We then walked along the river to Riverwalk Outlet Center.  Finally it was time to retrace our steps take the public transit back to the park. It  was so much easier than looking for somewhere to park our truck in the French Quarter