Lost in Louisiana

Mary Jane and I caravanned out of San Antonio on Tuesday morning on our way to a rally jointly sponsored by the Texas Ramblin' Roses and the Heart of Dixie chapters of RVing Women. We sped through Houston with no problems. We stopped for the night in Beaumont at Gulf Shores RV Park. It's an easy in/out Passport America park with pull-through sites and breakfast. It was an easy few hours to arrive in Henderson and the Cajun Palms RV Resort.

The rally doesn't officially start until Friday but most of us come early. By Wednesday night, there were about 15 women there. We sat around a campfire and visited for a while in the evening getting to know women from the Heart of Dixie.

This morning 19 of us headed to Champagne's Swamp Tours.

We filled up a whole boat with one empty seat filled by a woman who was learning about the tour prior to becoming a tour guide. She took lots of notes

The boat had swivel seats which made it easy to see everything.

The swamp is not what most people expect. It is not smelly or stagnant. The guide told us that most people believe there are some springs which keep things fresh. First wildlife we came upon was a "bale of turtles".

The green on the water is actually thousands of very tiny plants.

And some areas are really clear and you can see through the water.

You have to look really hard in the middle of the picture to see "Stella". She frequents this area and has a nest where she had her babies some time ago.

There were a couple of babies there too.

Back on more open water again. We saw lots of birds like anhingas, snowy egrets, and great blue herons.

Moss covers most of the trees.

We spotted another larger gator here. The guide said a good way to determine their length is to look at the distance between their eyes to the end of their snout. Each inch is equal to a foot in length.

The gators we saw never moved a muscle.

There are actually two gators here.

We saw a number of these duck blinds out on the lake part. Those little specks to the left of the blind are actually decoys. There were an amazing number of decoys. The hunters bring their boats into the blind.

See the big nest on the left tree top? There are a number of nests on the lake which are used year after year.

Here we are headed back to the landing after two hours on the lake and in the swamp. It was really a great tour.

 After the swamp tour, we all went to Poche's Market for lunch. It was very good. Later in the afternoon we all gathered at one of the women's rigs. A lot more of the women arrived today. This is part of the group that got together this afternoon.

A Visit to Butte LaRose, Louisiana

Monday morning, Carolyn headed off to Butte LaRose, Martha to Abbyville, and Mary Jane to San Antonio. Mary Jane and Martha both had some A/C problems that needed attention. Birdie and I also headed east through Lake Charles.

Across the Atchafalaya Swamp and Lake Henderson.

To Butte LaRose.

Carolyn told us about another parish park with RV parking.....Uncle Dick Davis Park where full hookups including sewer are only $15 and......if you are a senior, only $10. No reservations but arriving on Monday, there were plenty of open sites available.

View out my back window.....Carolyn says this is a canal not a river. We did see a gator swimming slowly down the canal. The bank was pretty steep behind us so I wasn't too worried.

View out between our sites.

Birdie whipped her Class A in between these two trees in one fluid motion.

That evening, Birdie had only one thing on her mind.....dinner at Crawfish Town in Henderson. We picked Carolyn up on the way.

Birdie's soft shell crab and crawfish etouffe.

The next day we took a drive. This area has a lot of camps or what a lot of us call cabins. This one was very fancy.

Many of the camps had very interesting names.  Hard to read here but "Dad's Pad When Mom's Mad" and "The Other Woman" were right across from the park.

We drove through Breaux Bridge but didn't really get to stop and look around so I guess I will just have to come back.

Cemeteries are above ground due to water.

An interesting bridge in town.

Carolyn's new RV cover is done and just waiting on rock for the drive and a new gate.  Nice!

Can you believe Birdie wanted Crawfish Town again. This time it was a seafood dinner. Good thing she takes half of it home.

Carolyn took half of hers home for the next day too.

The fun just keeps rolling on. This is such a great trip.

Butte LaRose GTG

I belong to the Women RV Forum but I haven't been able to get to any of the larger Get To Gethers (GTGs) yet.  However, two of the members live in Butte LaRose and Abbeville so I wanted to stop and meet them on my way through on I-10.

Things are really hopping down there around the Butte LaRose and Breaux Bridge area. I missed out on the Carolyn, Martha, Nancy, Karen, and Sharon GTG last week since I was still in Florida but I didn't miss out altogether. After leaving Florida on Friday and spending two days in New Orleans, my son and I headed to Butte LaRose to stay overnight at Frenchman's Wilderness.

Carolyn Patinjones, and Martha (Acadianmom) were waiting at Carolyn's for us to call when we arrived. Not only did they show up to visit, they also let another friend in on the visit and Nancy also came by. Since my son was traveling with me, I have pictures, drum-roll please!!!!!, with ALL of us--including Carolyn--in them.


We had a nice long visit in my RV where everyone was overrun by the excited "Traveling Longdogs". Nancy already had plans for the evening but the rest of us decided that dinner out would be just the thing. Caroline had quite a few choices of dining places on her list but we decided that her favorite, the favorite of locals, would be our favorite.


The food was very good. Steve, Caroline, and Martha had the Half and Half (half crawfish etouffee on rice and half deepfried crawfish). I wimped out and had the hamburger after hearing that Sharon figured the rich food made her stomach rebel. Steve loves New Orleans and the food there but he said the Cajun style etouffee he ate at Crawfish Town was even better. My hamburger and steak fries were delicious too just in case you are wondering.
Half & Half

Burger and Fries


Great company, great food, and good conversation were enjoyed by all.
Steve

Martha

Carolyn (notice the camera glued to her hand)


After dinner, Martha headed for home as she lives well over an hour away. Caroline took us on a short tour. Next time, I want to have more time to see the area. We went by Cajun Palms RV Park where Sharon was holed up. We waved as we went by hoping she was able to sleep since her lights were not on. Initially I thought the park was too expensive but after seeing it, I would definitely stop if I had the grandkids with me and had enough time to make it worthwhile. They have a great water park type area that kids would love and since it is included in the overnight fee, it would be worth it.

Frenchman's Wilderness is very nice with lots of shade trees, parking sites that are spread out like a state park, a pool, a couple of playgrounds, etc.  Our only complaint was the voracious mosquitoes that appeared after sunset.  There were any in evidence during the daylight hours though.

The visit was too short but it was so nice to get to meet three other sistahs. Thanks Carolyn and Martha.