Along the Creole Nature Trail

Before I get completely side-tracked, I should mention that Carolyn fixed us all homemade taco soup Wednesday night. It cooked all day while we were busy doing other things and was just fantastic with a side of garden salad. We haven't had a less than great meal yet.

Thursday morning had us all heading out to the Creole Nature Trail. There is a loop that starts in Sulphur, goes south to the gulf, and then loops back up to Lake Charles. However, you can also follow it west to Texas or east to New Orleans. Obviously, we only traversed part of it. You can do it as just a drive or you can stop and take several hikes along the way.

This is one of the hikes.....not long at all.

They have displays with information as well as a pavilion.

 

There is also a real nice observation point right next to the parking lot with free telescopes.

Our guests, Rose and Virginia, joined Mary Jane and I for a look over the trail.

Birdie got some shots of butterflies. I should mention that the pictures for the GTG are a combination of those taken by Birdie, Carolyn, and me. Their pictures are the best ones but I always had my camera with me even when they didn't.

This is just in front of the ferry going across to Cameron which we didn't take.

We stopped at Holly Beach as Shirley wanted to see how much it had rebuilt after Hurrican Rita and Ike devastated it. There are several RV parks and new beach houses on stilts for the most park.

There was a small beach road incident involving Carolyn's truck. No, we were not driving on the beach but they had brought in loads of new sand and it was on the road to the beach. We were rescued by a good Samaritan with offers of assistance from another passerby as well. He assured us that we got caught only because diesel trucks are much heavier in the front than other trucks.

We saw some shrimp boats on Lake Calcacieu.

Rose told us Shirley needed to stop for gas SOON. Carolyn made sure she filled up with diesel at the station near the RV park before we left.....$2.09/gallon.....best price in the area.

Thursday night, Martha treated us all to her homemade chicken and sausage gumbo and rice as well as potato salad.....oh, there was also homemade peach cobbler. So sorry the rest of the Pink FlaminGoes missed it.

We made use of one of the great rally rooms at A+ Motel and RV Park.

Birdie had a bottle of Pink Flamingo wine.

Gumbeaux Lane.....how appropriate.

Another really great day. It was much later than this when we called it a night.

 

Flocking with a Bunch of Pink FlaminGoes

Birdie and I left the Alpaca Ranch Monday morning and headed for Sulphur, Louisiana to a Pink FlaminGoes GTG. Other than me not being able to find my credit card when we stopped for gas, the trip went fine. We were somewhat delayed with me hunting for it without success. About three hours later, we arrived at the A+ Motel and RV Park and checked in to find Carolyn, Martha, and Mary Jane already there. It is really a nice park.....much more RV park than motel, great for rallies with a family pool, adult pool and hot tub, gym, laundry, fishing pond, two rally rooms, etc.

 We sat around and visited for quite a while and then headed over to Le Bleu's Landing for a late lunch. It is a popular place because they have a fantastic buffet and salad bar plus a full menu and the prices are reasonable. Definitely worth a visit if you come through this area. By then it was happy hour.

Birdie whipped up some White Chicken Chile for dinner.

Our group grew on Wednesday when Shirley arrived from the Rio Grande Valley and Pat pulled in from west Louisiana.

It was so nice to get together and just spend time relaxing and chatting.

Shirley brought some great tamales with her so I put together a salad and we had dinner.

Our group often has pot lucks but we have a smaller number of attendees this time so it worked out really well for us to each take a turn fixing dinner instead of everyone fixing a lot of food. Usually someone would add a side dish and we were all set.

Wednesday, our first of two guests arrived.....Virginia drove in from Missouri and Rose came up from the Rio Grande Valley. Since they were pressed for time but wanted to come and meet the group, they shared a room at the motel. We had lunch at Hollier's (pronounced Oll Yays). Wednesday's their buffet is barbeque and it was very good although we thought LeBleu's was just a little better. Our waitress was great. When they only had one bread pudding left on the buffet, she went back to the kitchen and found enough for everyone.

We also had fun with the big rocking chairs on the front porch.

 

 

Our next stop was the Creole Nature Trail Adventure Point since we planned to do the Creole Nature Trail the next day. The Adventure Point is a new, free, fun attraction that makes it easy to learn about nature and Louisiana's unique culture.



 

One of the displays even has the aromas from cajun and creole cooking and cards with recipes.

 

 

 

 There are a lot of hands-on displays telling you about the best places to spot alligators and migrating songbirds, show wildlife found in bayous and marshes and even explain the difference between them.

 

 

And then there is the zydeco and Cajun band display where you can "play" the instruments and here the difference between the two types of music. 

What fun!

 

 

This is really a great place to visit before you visit the trail.

Drivedocking at an Alpaca Ranch

In my last post, I said we were leaving Lake Pointe Friday morning.....well, you know those jello plans. Willy kept me up almost the entire night barking and fussing so I finally put him on the bed with me but he only slept an hour. In the morning, he was still cranky.....I touched his ear and he got real cranky.  Yup, ear infection with with little brown pieces of wax. I headed back into town where I had some ear drops from his last infection. As I drove, I was thinking that his last infection didn't look quite the same so I called the Vet and got an appo intment first thing. By the time the Vet looked at his ear, it was all goopy. So he prescribed the same medicine along with some antibiotic pills so I got another bottle of the drops to make sure I had enough. Willy wasn't too happy when they cleaned out his ear so he got a little bitty muzzle while they put the drops in. Back at the RV, we had a two and a half hour nap so we didn't feel like zombies anymore and still went to bed early....both things I never do.

So.....Saturday we were off at last. Birdie led the way across country towards Huntsville.

Looks like a lot of motorcyclists out for a Saturday ride and lunch in one of the towns we passed.

 

Our destination was an Alpaca Ranch owned by some close friends of Birdie's. They were off on a trip of their own but graciously gave us their ranch for the weekend. I'm parked on the circle drive and Birdie is just behind me on the right. 

These were our neighbors. They have 5 alpacas, two horses, a couple of great big dogs, and about 3 cats. The big dogs were off visiting with their son so that made it much easier with the dachsies. They got to run around in the big fenced back yard and take lots of walks around the property. Harley got plenty of ball time in too.

It was really pretty there and the weather was beautiful.....a bit cooler and surprisingly little humidity which is unusual for east Texas.

The neighbors were taking care of the animals while Birdie's friends are away. Birdie has stayed there before and taken care of the animals while her friends took trips before too.

The alpacas really are cute with huge eyes and long eyelashes.

We gave them some treats.

They have a "lion" cute from when they were last shirred. Their wool is very popular.

We had a closeup visit with the horses in the barn too.

 

 It was a great weekend. Another friend that lives in the area came over to visit and we got some laundry done and did a little barbequing. Off to Sulphur Louisiana to meet up with the Pink FlaminGoes on Monday.

A Week with the Deer

Wow, this week has really flown past. Last Thursday Steve and I took the RV up to Lake Pointe RV Resort on Canyon Lake north of San Antonio. He was looking for a place to get away for the weekend with my DIL Helen. Since I planned to take the RV out to the lake right after the weekend, I told him we could take it up early if they wanted to use. I knew they would take good care of it and they both know about RVs so I didn't have to worry. He picked Helen up at the airport, stopped to get different clothes, and headed out for the surprise weekend.  I think they had a good time. Angus enjoyed the scenery at the lake.

He was fascinated by the funny looking dogs that seemed to be everywhere. Good thing he is a good boy and knows that he can look all he wants but no barking or chasing allowed. The Traveling Longdogs, Willy in particular, made that very clear to him on his first visit last year. I didn't tell the dachsies that Angus was out in their RV or they would have been very jealous.

Steve, Helen, and Angus headed home on Monday. I headed out to Canyon Lake in the morning but didn't make it to Lake Pointe until dinner time.

I met Birdie at Potters Creek COE and we headed up to Boerne to meet Ouida, another female RVer, for lunch. Ouida is a member of the WOMEN RVing group that I manage on RVillage and this was the first time Birdie and I met her in person. Another RVing friend, Mary Jane, drove up from San Antonio to meet us. We had a great lunch at the Dog and Pony Grill in Boerne. The weather was fantastic and we spent several hours on the patio enjoying the lunch and the company. The chicken salad sandwich three of us opted for was great!.

Back at Canyon Lake, my plan was to shampoo the carpet in my 5th wheel with the shampooer my neighbor lent me.  Since we were at Birdie's motorhome first, we decided to give her living room carpet a shampoo first.....it's not like it takes long to do. Then I was off to my 5th wheel where I gave my carpet a much needed scrub. I even got up in the morning and gave it another scrub with just plain water to rinse out any carpet cleaner residue hoping it would stay clean even longer.

I made a trip to the grocery store and back to the RV so it was late afternoon by the time I headed back in to San Antonio to return the carpet cleaner and pick up the Traveling Longdogs. Once I was home, I took one look at the carpet there and guilt set in because it really needed cleaning too. Sooooo.......I cleaned the downstairs carpet while Dave made dinner for us. My arm and back was getting pretty sore pushing the carpet cleaner back and forth but the upside was that Dave took the machine apart to clean the front of it while I cleaned out the tanks and brushes. I was happy with clean carpets at home and in the RV, and my neighbor was happy because she got back a machine that was cleaner than it had been in a while. They don't make it easy to clean those things out.

Now, back to the lake to relax.

Our neighbors the next morning.....

 The dachsies like to get a little relaxing in while they are RVing........Harley.

 



Gretchen.......hmmmmm, looks like she is sticking her tongue out.

And Willy........

 

 

Today we had to make another run to town. Birdie is a full-timer and she had things to drop off at her storage unit. We were close to my house so I picked up a couple of things I forgot. We stopped for lunch at Mozie's in Gruene on the way back....two for one coupon so how could we pass that up. The sandwiches are so big that we each had half left which made for a great dinner too. The dachsies did more of the above while we were gone.

 

Tomorrow, we are off to an Alpaca Ranch near Huntsville owned by a friend of Birdie's. At least that is the plan tonight. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Next week we are off to Sulphur LA for a Pink FlaminGoes GTG.

 

                                                                 "laissez les bons temps rouler"