Motor-Nomadic Travel Journal

November 14, 2010 (Sunday) Lake Fausse Point State Park, St. Martinville, Louisiana

We have been here since Thursday, arriving to an almost empty campground. On Friday the locals came in droves and the place filled up with burly guys on Harleys, families of several generations, and other travelers. Louisianans seem to be fun-loving, gregarious, family-oriented, and multi-cultural.....a little like Hawaiian families. It feels comfortable here.This morning they all left and now the campground is nearly empty again. We will leave tomorrow to meander onward toward Texas. This park is down miles of winding roads deep into the Atchfalaya Bayou, 6,000 acres of bayou with the park sitting on a huge island in the middle of it all. There is abundant wildlife and we have seen armadillo and alligators for the first time in the wild. Also, a barred owl flew out of a tree right in front of our faces the first evening we were here. We will not be too anxious to leave this place, but want to meander further toward Texas to spend time with Max and Michelle and family.

Our first stop in Louisiana was on the Gulf at Grand Isle State Park, on a tiny sandbar over the longest bridge I have ever crossed and down 60 miles of road to what seemed like the end of the earth. The Gulf was closed. BP’s oil spill is still a disaster there. But the birds! Pelicans, the giant American Egret, thousands of shore birds. It was warm and the sea breezes refreshed our ocean-loving souls.

I don't think there is actually any dirt under the entire state of Louisiana. The roads are all built up on posts. We crossed one end of Lake Ponchartrain, and managed to survive crossing the Huey P. Long Memorial Bridge (that's a whole other story and suffice it here to say that I pray never to cross that bridge again). We have crossed the Mississippi River countless times between Minnesota and Louisiana....it seems to be everywhere.

November 8, 2010 (Monday) Percy Quin State Park, McComb, Mississippi

The park cleared out by about 11:00 AM, with people loading up Harleys onto carts attached to huge buses and gigantic fifth-wheels with slide outs being re-absorbed and much maneuvering of hitches with wild gestures and some yelling. No one is left except for a trailer two-spaces from us that has been quietly unoccupied since their whole group of about six adults and a couple of children left in trucks last night.
Blessed solitude. A sunny day with a bite in the breeze, but toasty in the sun. Not a single cloud in a cerulean sky mirrored in the perfect glassy surface of the lake. Changed the bed sheets. Did more laundry. MAde a vow to wear my clothing until I just can't stand it anymore.....too much laundry for only 2 people. Took a walk with Brad. The birds and squirrels are cavorting all around the motor-home. There are so many different bird sounds all around us. The most recognizable are the jays scolding and the crows cawing. Cacophony, says Brad, is a word meaning a symphony of crows. And crickets and squirrels chirping.

We’ve seen several kinds of woodpeckers, and startled at least thee or four more Great Herons on our walk, each of whom yelled at us in the voice of a pissed-off crone who has been smoking cigars for thirty years. We startled a huge Egret, much larger than the Cattle Egret we saw in Hawaii. And a diving duck surfaced right at my feet under a shallow wooden footbridge over a swampy plant-choked creek. No alligators so far. Brad keeps searching the grassy banks where the muddy lake water comes up in a gentle slope. Me, I am staying back from the shoreline.

November 7, 2010 (Sunday) Percy Quin State Park, McComb, Mississippi

On a still blue lake named Tangipahoa (I would like to find out the origin of that Hawaiian-reminiscent word), this park is large and a little more crowded than we prefer. The campsite is nestled in huge water oak trees, magnolias, and tall pines and has all the amenities (although I was disappointed that the lady in charge of check-in would not give me a senior discount......she said I had to be 65 to be a senior in Mississippi).

We settled in campsite #35 about 2PM and I did a couple of loads of laundry in the park’s 2-washer/2-dryer launderette while Brad took a nap. His neck has been hurting him and he can’t turn his head. Once the laundry was done we decided to take a stroll around the campgrounds and get a good look at the lake before the sun set.

Later we walked up to the last cul de sac of campsites and cut down toward the lake-shore across an open grassy area that lead directly to the water’s edge. I head a shrill sound and saw that we had interrupted a great heron standing on a small log near shore fishing. We apologized and the heron kept watching the water, waiting for supper to swim near.

After standing at the muddy shore and looking in the water and across the lake, and stooping to pick up and examine pebbles and small interesting rocks, we moseyed back up the grassy area to the campsite roadway and noticed a sign at the road side in front of the grassy area we had just left saying “Beware of Alligators”. Great. (Stupid Yankee motor nomads disappear and feared eaten by alligator.) Later we came to another large grassy area with easy access to the lake and there was a sign exactly like it, “Beware of Alligators”, right next to a sign that said “Swimming Rules: Stay Within the Buoyed Area”. We didn’t see anybody in swimming.

We’re hoping it won’t be so damned cold tonight. It’s been in the mid-to-low thirties since we were in Cadiz, Kentucky visiting with my sister, Patti and her husband Bruce. Last night it seemed especially cold and the Ranger, who came by to collect our camping fee (and he gave me the senior discount) at Holmes County State Park in Durant, Mississippi, said he missed his home in Biloxi and that he was suffering with the cold spell they had been experiencing. We felt we had found a kindred spirit in a cold cold world. We kept the electric space heater on all night and still huddled under multiple layers of blankets.

Today warmed up to the mid-sixties. It’s a little after 6PM (we “fell back” today an hour.....what a dumb tradition) and we don’t have the heat on yet, although we have closed the windows and I’m wearing heavy socks, sweatpants, two shirts and a hooded sweatshirt jacket inside the motor-home. Acclimate Schmaclimate... It’s damn cold here and this is The South! We are heading for The Gulf and hoping for some warmth there. We are loving the motor-nomadic life.