Louisiana

The first picture is of the wetlands in Galveston state park. The second is of Bob and the scooters in the midst of our adventure yesterday. (I forgot to download these pictures last night.) The third picture is of our campsite tonight - which I will explain.

We left Galveston this morning and drove through Houston, heading for Louisiana. Houston is HUGE. It felt a little like driving through LA. Many intersecting freeways, incredible amounts of traffic on a Sunday morning (I can only imagine what it is like during the week) and mile after mile of suburbs. We had intended to drive into downtown and the turn east on I-10, but the traffic was so heavy that we took the bypass and looked at it from afar. That was enough. It is HUGE.

The landscape is very flat and now it is very wet. There are lots of rivers, bays, and lakes. Lots of rivers, bays and lakes. And on those waterways are lots of oil processing plants, especially in the Texas City and Houston areas. There were miles and miles of them. The houses were huge. in some area and falling down shacks in other areas not that far away. Wonder how that happens.

We entered Louisiana about noon today. By the time we got here Bob was quite testy. The lanes on the freeway were apparently a lot narrower and there were a lot of very wide trucks that made Bob feel like he was losing control of the truck and the trailer. We had a couple of testy interactions about whether I had given him correct directions. I would say turn right here. He would keep driving and say "what?" I would yell turn here - oops too late. He would get mad at me for giving him directions too late and we would either go somewhere else ( like for lunch) or we would have to go all the way around a restaurant. Or, he would ask me which way to go. I couldn't tell and would make a guess - sometimes I am right and sometimes I am wrong. When I was wrong I would tell him we had to turn around. I know it is not easy to turn the truck and trailer and it made him even more irritable. We both tried hard to be understanding of the other. I don't think this is just being together too long. I think it was the stress of the kind of driving we did today - I hope.

Anyway, we are now in Sam Houston Jones state park in Louisiana. It is just 6 miles north of Lake Charles. The park is filled with bayous and beautiful big trees. In fact, there are so many trees that we had a hard time pulling into our spot. The width of the drive was not much bigger than our trailer and there were very large trees on either side of the drive, so it did not leave much room for error. But Bob got us in without hitting any tree. We are only staying here one night so we have not taken much out of the trailer and have not taken down the scooters. But, had I known how beautiful this place was, I would have tried to stay here longer. There are two other things which make this park really nice. One is that they have free wifi and it seems pretty strong and reliable. The other is the bathrooms.

One thing I have learned to do is to check out the showers as soon as we get to a new campground or rv park. Then I know what kind of hassle I will have taking a shower in the morning. Some of the showers, like the ones in Galveston, had a flat floor and a divider going about half into the room providing a separation between the changing area and the showering area. But they have no barrier to keep the water from flowing around that flat floor. So, by the time you finish your shower there is water everywhere and it is hard to put on pants without getting them wet. So when that is the case, I bring an extra towel to stand on in the dryest part of the changing area. But that is not the case in this campground. The showers here are wonderful. They actually have a barrier to keep the water from flowing and a very large changing area. (The best showers we have encountered have been in the rv parks. In those they actually have shower curtains and lots of hooks. In one rv park the shower rooms were just like a bathroom at home with a sink and toilet all in the same room. That felt really luxurious. have my standards changed? Anyone who has seen my huge bathroom at home will know how much they have changed.)

Okay, back to our trip. We are leaving here tomorrow morning and going to another park which is less than 100 miles from here. I have made reservations there for two nights. If it is as nice as this one, I will try to stay there longer. We still have almost two weeks before we are scheduled to be in St. Augustine and we only have Louisiana, the small tips of Alabama and Missippi, and the panhandle of Florida. Bob is somehow nervous that we will not have time to make it there. I tell him that if we wanted to do it we could make it in two days, so let's enjoy where we are.

When we arrived in Louisiana we stopped at the visitor center and got maps and brochures. There is a lot more to see here than I thought, even if we completely bypass New Orleans. Particularly there is a lot of history about the Acadians. In addition, the weather is very pleasant and the scenery is nice. We might have more to do here than we think.

One thing I forgot to mention in my blog yesterday was about one of the fellow campers we met in Galveston. He was from Ontario Canada. He and I started talking about traveling and he came over and gave us some great tips about the Canada portion of our trip. I was able to give him some tips about the western US and particularly the Pacific Northwest. That was delightful We even exchanged phone numbers and I will try to call him when we get to Ontario.

Back to our current trip. There are quite a few casinos in Lake Charles. There are on the water and the hotel and restaurants are on land. Bob thought that we could get a real taste of Cajun food at the casino. Wrong! But we had a few hours of fun losing some money and a very good and filling dinner.

Finally, I am not getting enough exercise when we travel. I try to make sure that I get some when we are in one place for a few days, but when we move, it is hard. So tomorrow morning I will make sure that I take a long walk. With less than 100 miles to go we should have an easy day of driving.

I am truly enjoying all of this. - Just so you know. By the way, Bob asked me to mention that he is no longer testy. He is reading the sixth novel by J. A. Jance and is very relaxed and comfortable. We will see.