I’ve been making a few changes and additions to our website -mostly in the form of adding pages with more photographs. Since we are just beginning our second year of the Lower 48 in 48 Tour, I’m reposting the recap of our first stop in our first state. Just for grins.

We arrived at Jimmy Davis State Park on Caney Creek Lake on a beautiful sunny Friday. The park is south of I-20 between Ruston and Monroe. It is located on an entire peninsula on the lake, so you are basically surrounded by the beautiful scene of water behind trees from every angle. I was impressed immediatly and continue to be each day we are here. The landscape is beautiful, the place is immaculately clean, the campsites are situated with great views and at a good distance from the neighbors. The park has two boat launches, 17 very cool 2-bedroom cabins, 2 lodges, a group camp area for 150 people, an excellent sandy beach area, and 77 campsites.

On our first Saturday morning we went to the nearest town with a Walmart (Jonesboro) for groceries and a Louisiana State Fishing License for Mike. By Sunday we were back at the Park Headquarters to extend our stay for 4-more nights from our original plan of 8 nights to a new time-frame of 12 nights. This place is so peaceful and quiet and empty, is seemed like the perfect spot to ease into our new slow and peaceful life.

We have been spending time walking the dogs, riding the bikes, building and tending a fire, lounging in the hammock, and cooking nice dinners outside. Oh yeah, and Mike has been fishing. I can either find him at the edge of the lake by our spot, or at the boat docks around the corner (which happen to be extremely well lit all night – explaining why there was no one in my bed this morning around 4:30 when I woke up and realized I had the whole bed to myself and was not taking advantage of extra pillows and blankets)! We have had fried fish for dinner once, and we are currently restocking the freezer.

We have been on two other road trips to Monroe and Natchitoches. We enjoyed the latter more than the former. While we were in Monroe, I should have tried to find the Duck Commander Warehouse and introduce ourselves to some of the Duck Dynasty clan. We ate shrimp Po-Boys, went to Walmart and searched for a liquor store instead. In Natchitoches we ate more delicious cajun food, walked around and looked at all the cool historic buildings and houses, found the state’s oldest hardward store, visited a beautiful 1800’s Catholic Church so I could light a candle for my new 2nd-Cousin, and yes- went to Walmart for groceries.

Anyone who likes to bass fish should come here with their own boat. It would be a great family vacation to rent one or more of the cabins or lodges. Fisherman could fish, everyone else could hang out by the fire (like me). It appears that the Louisiana State Park System really has their act together. I’m looking forward to checking out our next park in the “Cajun Country” part of the state.

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Our last stop in Louisiana was Fairview-Riverside State Park in Madisonville along the Tchefuncte River at the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain.  This park is much smaller than the other two and it is right in the middle of Madisonville – the town’s harbor and tiny downtown are within sight of its boat launch. The primary attraction of the park, other than the river bank, is Otis House. The park was originally the estate of a wealthy sawmill owner, and the beautiful southern style family home was built in the 1880’s. It is now on the Register of Historic Places and available for tours during the day. One boundary of the park backs up to a very nice neighborhood with large houses just across the fence, so we were right in the middle of everything.

After being in remote locations for the first party of February, I must admit I was delighted to get to a park that was so close to civilization. It was nice to go out to run quick errands without having to drive 20 minutes before seeing the first convenience store. Of course, there was a bit of road noise and the stars were not quite as brilliant at night – but there was a Kohl’s down the street!

Part of the reason we selected this location was so Mike could continue to use his Louisiana fresh water fishing license for as long as possible. He fished the river from the boardwalk a couple of times. The fish were not too plentiful, but he did get a good show watching all sorts of fancy yachts and fishing boats pass along the river on their way to the mouth of the lake.

We drove into New Orleans on two separate occassions to walk around and eat some classic creole, once to the French Quarter and once to the Garden District. One day I went shopping and found a place to have a manicure and pedicure. We went to a real grocery store instead of a Walmart Super Center and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed having a real selection of brands and options from which to choose!

The most memorable thing about our stay at this park however, will be the rain. Aaron Neville sings a 1927 song titled “Louisiana”. The tune was on a loop in my head for the entire week. The lyrics include verses that say “it rained real hard and it rained for a real long time”, “The river rose all day, the river rose all night”, “They’re trying to wash us away”. The entire time we were at Fairview – Riverside State Park it rained. Toward the end of the week we had so much weather, our site was covered in water. We couldn’t leave the coach without rain boots. The dogs were muddy and stinky. It was a mess! The swamp behind our site encompassed our picnic table and firepit before the rain finally stopped. I kept looking for snakes and other creepies down in the water. We never saw any snakes, only minnows swimming under our table.

By the time we left the rain had cleared and the water receeded but the mud was still everywhere. Time for change – headed to sandy ground in Mississippi to begin the month of March with some sunshine.

mud pit on last day

 

 

We arrived at Chicot State Park in central Louisiana last Wednesday. We are just east of I-49 between Alexandria to the north and Opelousas to the south. The nearest town is Ville Platte – 7 miles away. This state park encompasses 6,400 acres, and you can hike/bike around the entire lake if you would want. We didn’t get to explore as many of the hiking trails as we would have liked to because there has been so much rain here, the trails are very soggy and muddy. However, since we are in the swamp now… it might be muddy and soggy like this on the trails all the time, and we might just be sissies!

When we first arrived we got a false first impression. Our camp host is a bit of a hoarder living in a 1970 rusted class – C motorhome which would have to be towed away if it were to be moved. He drives around most mornings on his mule in his flannel PJ bottoms. I guess he starts work first thing in the morning, but waits to shower and dress until sometime later in the day. His is the first spot in our “loop”, so it is the first thing you see upon arriving to our camping area. After you pass by all his JUNK, you enter the rest of the campsites and the park is lovely. We have basically had our whole loop to ourselves since we arrived. It did get crowded over the weekend, but our closest neighbors were still more than 5 – 7 spots away.

Since there are no sewer hook-ups at this park, we have had to be convservative with water in order to avoid moving the rig to the dump station mid-way during our stay. The only “inconvenience” has been that the best showers and only laundry room in the park are 4 miles away in the north loop. Living in 350 square feet means we (I) need to do one load of laundry per day in order to keep the laundry bin from overflowing. Conserving water means it is best to shower and do laundry somewhere other than the Monaco. Given the distance to the showers and laundry – I did have to set aside about 1 1/2 hours per day for that chore… Not that big of a deal. I just brought the dogs with me and walked them while we waited for the washing machine to finish. Once I was over there, I wasn’t coming back until I had clean clothes to put in the dryer at my ‘house’. (Dryer doesn’t require water, so I can dry everything here in the coach – it is just the washing part).

Just like the last park – the cabins here are incredible! I can’t believe how nice they are. They are set in the most picturesque setting, I want to come back and stay in one of them. You can rent little john boats  or canoes here for $15/$20 per day. There is a swimming pool, and there are two different fishing piers off of two boat launches. The laundry is FREE and a bag of ice is only $1!

We have spent 1/2 of our time exploring the park on walks and hanging by the campire (and Mike has been fishing from the long pier a couple of times). The other half has been allocated to daytrips and errands. We went into Ville Platte on our second day to go to Walmart (surprised?) and find Paul’s Meat Market. Paul’s has placed an add in the Chicot State Park brochure promising one free pound of boudin if you spend $20. We walked away from Walmart with all the staples, from Paul’s we left with chicken breasts stuffed with jalapenos & cream cheese, Pork tenderloin stuffed with cream cheese & jalapenos and wrapped in bacon, shrimp boudin, and of course my pound of free boudin… plus a bottle of tequila.

Another day we went into Lafayette because we needed a Sear’s and a Petsmart. After our errands we were planning to go to Robin’s Restaurant in Henderson because that restaurant was featured on Food Network’s show ‘The Best Thing I Ever Ate” for their crawfish etouffee. After I started doing more research on other sites, it looked like it might be a tourist trap – so I checked my urbanspoon app and found a great place called Bon Temps Grille. YUM. Duck drumettes for appetizers, crawfish pie and shrimp with grits for our meals. When we left there, we stopped at another meat market so I could get the best boudin in Lafayette. At least Earl’s scored 100% in the reviews, and it was awsome.

Last night it was raining, and we didn’t want to sit in this thing and stare at each other any longer – so we went to a place called Rocky’s in Bunkie for boiled crawfish. Yum again. Hot, Spicy, Tender. There was a table of people from Georgia there causing a scene because they had never eaten crawfish. All the wait staff was taking turns trying to teach them. All the servers were so gracious and helpful – it was very cute.

Today we went to find a place called the Crawfish Barn for lunch, but when we got there we discovered they did not open until 5 this evening. So we went back to Ville Platte and ate at a great little place called Cafe de LaSalle. The Rotary Club had just finished their weekly meeting, it was full of locals, and the buffet was delicious. Mike’s favorite was the roast pork in gravy and mine was the meatball stew – both served over rice, of course. After stopping  at Paul’s meat market for more goodies for our freezer, and another free pound of boudin, we drove over to Marksville to visit a state historic site of  Ceremonial Indian Mounds. It sits on a river that once was the Mississippi River, then was the Red River, and now – 4,000 years later- is just the Old River. There was a trail around the park and we brought the dogs – so after the museum tour we walked the perimeter. A bit of culture and we were home before sunset!

Tomorrow is travel day, headed toward New Orleans for some crazy good food and a trip into the plantation lands.