Southern Louisiana

After Texas, I headed to South Louisiana.  My first stop was to Sulphur, LA.  My main  reason for stopping here was the Creole Nature Trail (a Road, not a hike!).  This drive went through or close to several wildlife refuges and through some interesting towns.  Some of these towns were just about destroyed during the last few years by either Hurricane Rita or Ike.  Some places have rebuilt, but others have not.   

The picture above is where a church stood.   You can just make out the foundation and I’m guessing the tall structure is where the steeple was.

Sabine Wildlife refuge was one of my favorite places.  They have a couple of trails, but a great 1.5 mile handicapped accessible walkway where I saw many birds, alligators and plant.

I think the above bird is a Tri-colored Heron (also called a Louisiana Heron), but not all pictures have a blue beak like this one.  This bird is also in the upper right hand corner on the picture with the alligators.

Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge was another place I enjoyed.  They have a wildlife drive that was very interesting.

Above is an Ibis and several Black-necked Stilt.

The alligator above was about 15 feet from my car on the wildlife drive. 

I know the above bird is an Ibis, but I’m not sure what type.  If anyone knows, let me know. 

I left Sulphur, LA and headed toward Plantation Country in South Eastern, LA.   I actually stayed at one of the plantations – Poche Plantation.  This is not one of the larger plantations, but they do have an RV park behind the house.

Just next to this plantation, is St. Michael’s church and cemetery.  I have always enjoyed walking through cemeteries and this one was very interesting.  Being in Southern Louisiana, most of the graves are above ground and in addition many of these were old, the oldest one I saw was 1832.  Quite a few of the graves were brick and in need of repair such as the ones below. 

In addition to the free tour I got at my park (Poche plantation), I toured 2 others and saw quite a few more.  My favorite was The Laura.  This is not one of the largest or more elegant plantations, but is a Creole plantation.  I didn’t know much about the Creole lifestyle and learned quite a bit during this tour.  

The Laura has several slave cabins and one of these cabins is where Br’er Rabbit was recorded.  I saw recorded rather than written because Br’er Rabbit (not the original name) was actually a West-African Tale that was brought over to America and recorded here.  You can learn all kind of things while taking tours!

I also toured Nottoway plantation.  I wasn’t as impressed with this one, but I did find it interesting that there were no doors to get to the upper deck/patio.

 

To get outside you had to go through the windows.  It was planned this way, you can see how long the windows are as my tour makes it way back inside. 

I thought the room above was clever.  The entire room was white.  This made it not only elegant, but it was extremely bright.  This was very useful before electricity!  Also, note the ornamental thing that the chandelier hangs from.  (I should ask my mother what it is called, so I don’t have to call it a “thing”. I’m sure she knows)  While the ones today are probably made of plaster, this was made of clay, horse hair and other natural materials. 

I went to an arts and craft show at Oak Alley plantation.  This plantation has been used in many movies.  I didn’t notice until later that when I took pictures they were working on the house.  Note the person on the ladder at the front door.  I did learn at another plantation, the reason for the oaks.  They would line oaks between the river and the homes to get a better flow of wind to cool the houses. 

Poche Plantation is on River road, so just across the road is the Mississippi river.  You can’t see it from the road as there is a levee between the road and the river.  But this levee made a great place to walk and ride bikes!  Unfortunately this part of the river is a working river.  Barges were loaded and unloaded with whatever they were hauling.   It was interesting to watch, but took away from what could have been a beautiful spot. 

My next stop was a week in Desoto State Park in Alabama.  Then back to Georgia for a few weeks.  I’ll post more on that later.

(Just a note – I finally got around to writing this blog and now my internet connection is down and I can’t post!   Hopefully I will be able to publish it soon).

Mission, TX

I finished spending a great month in Mission, TX a couple of weeks ago, but am just getting around to the blog.  I stayed at the Bentson Palm RV Park which is right next door to Bentson State Park.  Some of you may remember that I stayed at this same park last year. 

While there, I walked, biked and watched birds (and a few other animals).  As I have mentioned before I don’t really know much about birds, but I am learning and it’s fun to meet bird watchers who really know what they are doing. 

I learned that a big black bird, might not just be a Blackbird or a Crow.  One day while at the Hawk Tower in the State park, I saw some black birds and the volunteer told me that they were Grove Billed Anis and that it was a good sighting (they aren’t too common).  Well, my pictures didn’t turn out too good, but a few days later I saw them again.  Below is my picture of a Grove Billed Ani. 

While there, a very rare bird to the U.S. happened to be visiting the State park.  I heard that he was 200 – 300 miles further north than where they typically live. According to the park, it was only the 6th recorded time it has been in Texas.  The bird was a Black-vented Oriole.  For several weeks, it was a very famous bird.  I meet several people who came from out of state just to see this bird.  I didn’t realize how serious some birders are.  I meet people from New York and Michigan who came to Texas and this park just to see this bird.  The bottom picture is the Black-Vented Oriole and a woodpecker, I think it’s a Sap Sucker.

Because I was in the park so much, I saw this bird many times and talked to people who sat for 8 hours and never saw him.  There was also a rare Blue Bunting and I saw the male and female once, but when I took a picture they flew off.  

I saw the Vermillion Flycatcher a few times.  It was interesting watching him catch bugs.

If you are also a reader of  Life's Little Adventures(fellow Lazy Daze Rver’s – Jim and Gayle) it may seem like you have already read part of this blog.  When I read their blog a few weeks ago and they had a picture of the Vermillion Flycatcher, I thought it was a bit funny that we had seen the same type of bird(their March 9 post).  In the next blog, they talk about people flying in from around the world to see a rare bird that they saw.  They were in Arizona, but I was beginning to feel like I was copying them!  (Note – if you love the outdoors and hiking you will enjoy their blog.  I’ve made many notes for future trips based on their travels.)

Other pictures -

Ringed Kingfisher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Kingfisher -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Altimira Oriole -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I left Mission, I stopped in Victoria, TX for an overnight stay and took a picture of some fellow campers -

I am now in Louisiana and will be headed out tomorrow, I have spent a couple of weeks touring South Louisiana.  I will blog about this soon.

Port Aransas, TX

This year I made 2 resolutions.  I told myself I would do a better job at keeping my blog up to date this year.  I guess that didn’t happen!!  The other was my typical one to eat better and exercise more.  (more on this below)

As mentioned in my last blog, I went to South Texas because it is supposed to be warm.  Well, we had a few nice days during my stay in Port Aransas, but we also had an ice storm.  Below is a picture of the grass on the sand dunes and a picture of my water spigot.  (I disconnected my water hose so I wouldn’t have to mess with a frozen hose).

One of my goals while in Port Aransas was to get a good picture of a Roseate Spoonbill in flight.  While biking in one birding location, I looked over to another birding site and what did I see -- a huge flock of Spoonbills.  The picture below is taken with the lens at it’s max zoom.  It’s a bit hard to tell, but those are Spoonbills.  The second picture was taken from The Birding Center where the pink Spoonbills liked to hide just out of sight from the people on the boardwalk.  Look at the bill and you can see why they are called Spoonbill.

While in Port Aransas, I did a good bit of bicycling.  One of my favorite trips was riding into town.  My campground was about 4 miles out of town, so I would ride about 5 miles on the beach and then ride around town visiting birding locations.   Below is a view from my bike at the Port Aransas Nature Preserve.

I would often stop for a break beside the channel between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass.

It was a great place to watch people, ships and quite often dolphins.  I never realized that there were so many types of ducks.  Many times at The Birding Center there would be 100’s of ducks.   The one below is a Northern Shoveler.

I’ve written about this before, but I enjoy watching the Reddish Egret do their little dance while they catch food.

The picture below was taken at The Birding Center.  I guess there are more than birds at the center.  The Alligator was about 8 feet long and as you can see not far from the boardwalk.  We were 3 – 4 feet above him. 

I can’t forget my beach shot.  After all, I am staying at a campground that is on the beach – just a short walk to the boardwalk which crosses the dunes and I’m at the beach.  Most days I would walk 3 – 7 miles on the beach. 

When I was in Georgia, I started back on Weight Watchers after I found out I could travel and go to different locations.  I have now been to meetings in 5 different locations and I’m still doing well.  I don’t go out to eat often as I do much better when I cook and know exactly what is in my food – even though I don’t cook well!!  I did meet Chuck and Carla (fellow Lazy Daze owners) for lunch one day in Corpus Christi, but I planned for that meal and did fine that week. 

I left Port Aransas on Feb. 15 and am currently in Mission, TX.  It’s definitely warmer.  As a matter of fact, today was too hot for me.  I think it got to 93, but today is supposed to be the hottest day this week.  We have had many days in the 80’s, but with lots of wind.  Once again my plans are to walk, bike, look at birds and other nature. 

Left GA and now in Port Aransas, TX

Yes, I got out of GA before the big snow earlier this month. As much of the country, the North GA mountains has been colder and had much more snow than normal.  

12.5 degrees at 8:27 in the morning of Dec. 28.   That’s too cold for me!!

I left GA on January 4 and headed to South Texas where I was hoping for warm weather.  My plans are to stay in Port Aransas, TX for a month and then go to Mission, Tx for a month.  Before getting to Port Aransas, I stopped in Beaumont, TX for a few days and went to Big Thicket National Preserve. 

In Port Aransas, I had hoped to get back into an exercise routine.  So for the most part I’ve been walking the beach, riding my bike and bird watching. 

In the picture above, it appears the heron is watching the birds also.  I really don’t know too much about birds, but I do enjoy watching them and am slowly learning to identify more.

I’m still not sure where I will be going after I leave Mission, TX.  My niece is getting married in July, so I want to be in Wisconsin the first part of July.  I was thinking of going back to Arizona and then Utah, but I am now thinking I might head back east some and tour Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.  With gas prices so high, this could keep my cost down a bit.  I know I don’t want to be in the south during the summer, unless I am high up in the mountains.  I’ll eventually figure this out.

Today I have a busy day planned - I’m going to ride my bike on the beach towards the channel between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass (and probably see some dolphins).  Then I’ll probably ride to and thru the Nature Preserve, then back.  Hopefully I’ll still have time to walk a few miles on the beach.  Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying retirement!!!!

Snow in Georgia

I had my first ever white Christmas!!!  I’ve been in Georgia for 47 out of 50 years and we have never had a white Christmas.  The news says it hasn’t happened in more than 130 years!! 

It didn’t start snowing until after 9:00 am, so I went to my mom’s house early for breakfast on Christmas day.  We noticed it was starting to sleet and snow, so I left shortly after that.  By the time I got to Dillard the streets were already snowy and icy.  But I made it back to the campground just in time.  I saw one minor accident where someone slid into a street sign. 

The pictures below are from Dec. 25.  The first picture was taken from my car on the road just before the campground. 

In the above picture, you can see a few folks huddled around a fire.  They are 2 rows behind my site!  I knew one of the guys and during one of my walks went over and warmed up a bit.

The next 3 pictures were taken on Dec. 26.  It never got above freezing! We ended up with 5 – 6 inches of snow.

I realized I forgot to post a picture of a great campground in Gainesville, GA.  River Forks Park is a Hall County park and campground near Gainesville.  I went there because it’s only about 12 minutes to Camping World and I had an appointment the next morning.  The park is on Lake Lanier which is the lake where some friends and I would rent a houseboat for a few days each summer. 

It is now Dec. 27 and 18 degrees.  It is not supposed to get above freezing today, but hopefully once the sun comes out I’ll get out of the campground and go to my mom’s house.  Others made it out yesterday, but nobody else is on my row at the campground, so the road is still very snowy and icy.  My sister and family are due in today if they make it through all the bad weather. 

Georgia

I haven’t blogged much while in Georgia.  I have visited friends, family and doctors (not socially!).  During my first week in GA, I stayed at Ft. Yargo State Park in Winder, GA.  This is a nice park and this year I got a spot on the lake.

Below is a visitor to my campsite.

After Ft. Yargo, I went to Dillard, GA for a month.  After Dillard, I had thought I was going to go to the Florida panhandle – probably St George or St Joe State park.  But in watching the weather it was going to be cold there (and almost everywhere in the US), so I went further South.  I went back to Sanibel Island.  I camped for a week and stayed in an ocean front Condo for a week.  This was the first time I have slept in something not on wheels in almost a year. 

While there it was a bit chilly, but it was still nice.  The day after the real cold weather the beach was interesting.  Lots of shells and live sea creatures.  So many that I saw on the news that some marine biologist were looking into it, but as an initial cause they were thinking it was just the cold and rough water.  Lots of good shells (many still had the creature inside), starfish, hermit crabs and even squids.

Ding Darling Wildlife sanctuary is one of my favorite places on the island. Below are a few pictures from my visits this year.

I didn’t realize that wood storks have a leathery head.

I also went back to the Corkscrew Swamp refuge.  I saw a Night Heron do the strangest thing.  It looked like he was trying to stand on his head. He would stay that way for several minutes, then straighten up for a while and then do it again.  Below are 2 different shots of this behavior.

When I saw this, I was glad I was on the boardwalk!

One day, a lot of urchins had washed ashore.  I would say thousands.

I also say a Skimmer for the first time.  When I first saw it, I thought it was a gull that looked like a toucan.

I’m currently back in Dillard, GA watching it snow!  On my next blog, I’ll post some pictures of the snow and my RV.