Monday, January 2, 2012

Louisiana, America’s Wetland

The winds abated enough by this morning so I could finally head out from Anahuac NWR.  Mostly it was an uneventful 213 miles to Lake Fausse Pointe State Park in Louisiana.  It turned out I had about a 25 mile drive once exiting I-10 to head south to the park.  Those first five miles on the two lane road made me wonder what I had gotten myself into.  LA 352 is just in awful shape out of Henderson.  Eventually the road smoothed out as it traveled along the Atchafalaya Basin levy.  It was a long 25 mile drive!

IMG_5404But, it was worth it.  Having never been here before, it was a lottery shoot when I had to pick a specific site to reserve on Reserve America.  Site #32 is a beauty.  To get into this site, I had to go past it and then loop around so I passed it again in the opposite direction.  As I did the loop, I decided to unhook the toad.  I didn’t know there was a rig pulling in directly behind me.  I got out and told them what I had in mind, and the gentleman in the fifth wheel hopped out to see if I needed any help.  Well, you know how that goes. I have a system for unhooking, and he really didn’t interfere very much.  Turned out that he and his family were arriving to camp in the site next to mine.

IMG_5414At the far end of my site, there is a deck with two little benches that overlooks the Borrow Pit Canal.  It just looks like a river (bayou) to me.  I paid an extra $2/night to have a premium site, and that includes a deck along the water.  How cool is that?  If I had a boat, I could tie it up here.

IMG_5405                                                    This cypress is right to the front of the deck.

IMG_5412                                                                         Looking up the canal.

IMG_5406

                                                             The view of my site from the deck.

As I began to back up the rig into the site, the gentleman from the fifth wheel suddenly appeared in my rear view mirror helping to direct me into the site.  Cool beans!  As we chatted while I tried to get my water hookup to stop leaking, he said he had the same problem.  He and his family are native Louisianans, and they have invited me for dinner tomorrow to experience some down home Cajon cooking.  It has something to do with pork, sausage, rice, and white beans.  I’ll get the name of it tomorrow.  Now I’ll just have to figure out what I can bring to contribute to the dinner.  I’m so happy I decided to go on this little excursion before heading to my next refuge.

He also informed me that there is wifi at this state park.  I can’t get anything on my phone or air card, so we’ll just see if I can get this posted.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy