Another Drive

We drove the Creole Nature Trail today, it includes Sabine WLR, Rockefeller WLR and Cameron Prairie WLR, Ken was hoping to get some bird photos. We found that the hurricanes hit the area hard in September. The WLR's were closed and repairing buildings and roads washed out. Sabine is to reopen tomorrow and we did walk the trail some. We drove by the Gulf of Mexico and saw the damage, basically the little beach towns of Holly Beach, Rutherford Beach, Cameron, Oak Grove and Grand Chenier are gone. Some homes have been repaired, some have been replaced but many are just gone you just see where they were. We saw graveyards but no church nearby. Surprisingly tho, the trees especially the oaks still stand, nature has basically survived but man is struggling to survive in this area.

We did see birds but were not able to stop on the busy roads to look or photograph them, we saw several Roseate Spoonbills, Egrets, Herons, Ducks, Cormorants, Kingfishers, Shrikes and others we couldn't idenify.

Maybe tomorrow, we'll go visit Lake Charles.

Snow Morning

We woke up this morning to half inch of snow, an unusual event for LA, they said on the news maybe once every 10 years. Some parts received 4 inches!! (My photos came up the opposite that I meant them to.) After the snow melted around 11 am we went for a drive on one of Ken's birding routes. We did see 2 new maybe 3 to add to our life list, Loggerhead Shrikes, Little Blue Herons and a ???. I didn't get very good photos of the Heron or the ?? maybe Ken did.

Here's a Bluebird right at our campsite this morning! We also have Pine Warblers and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, hopefully I will get a good photo one of these days.

The rest of the weekend the temps just get warmer each day til 70's on Sunday.

We finally got some mail, it's been almost a month. We received a couple of cards and a Christmas gift looks good under our little tree.

Christmas Tree

It is still cold and rainy today so we just checked out the rest of the park after having breakfast at McDonald's, Ken is happy we have McD's close by again. I decided it was a good time to decorate our tree, Squeekie is checking out the spanish moss. Here's our little tree all decorated!! I used the queen butterfly I picked up in NM, my collection of pins and smashed pennies and a little cotton and all done.

The weatherman says we could have a little snow or sleet early tomorrow morning, I believe the cold just follows us, but Friday looks better.

Hello again

We've been at Lake Fausse Pointe State Park where we had no cell service that is why I haven't blogged in the last few days. We found the LA's state parks are great places for us to stay, they honor our Nat'l Park Golden Age Pass which we get half price on camping fees which makes it $9 a nite and the sites are large enough for RV's. Lake Fausse is about 40 miles south of Lafayette and it was 25 miles from anywhere but it was beautiful. Here are a few things we saw: Remember to click to enlarge.

We saw about 25 armadillos Monday, you can just stand quietly and they will work their way up to you as they are nearly blind.

We are now at Sam Houston Jones State Park at Lake Charles, LA it is just a few miles north of town so we have cell service again. It's been beautiful the last couple of days about 70 but we may have a storm tonight. We really like Louisiana the people are nice and it is so beautiful and different from MO.

Ken is excited about the birding opportunities from here so we will be staying here awhile.

Natchez,MS

Monday we went to Meridan, MS to visit Ken's sister-in-law and had a nice visit.
Tuesday we headed a little farther south to Natchez, MS actually we are staying in at River View RV Park in Vidalia,LA. We do have a view of the river too. Today was a beautiful day, temp in the 70's more like it. The cats enjoyed the day with the windows open. We did a little sightseeing, we went through 2 mansions, the Melrose and the Longwood (couldn't take photos of the living quarters at Longwood). There are 10 mansions here one could take tours through but at $10 per person it gets a little pricey. At the visitors center they charge $2 for the 20 min.into movie of Natchez.
We visited St. Catherine Creek NWR and found a few birds to photograph.
We did enjoy a very nice lunch at Mammy's Cupboard, I had their Roast Chicken breast special for Wed. and Ken had a Roast beef Sand.
Tomorrow we may

head out again for somewhere in LA, stay tuned.

A little more of Vicksburg

It turned alittle breezy and cool today,but the sun peeked thru the clouds now and then. We did alittle more touring around and here are some more photos. I would like to suggest visiting www.atticgallery.net it's a fun site just as it is a fun gallery. It was visited by our own Randy Mason for RareVisions and Roadside Revelaations seen on KCPT. Margaret's Grocery was also featured. I enjoy outsider art as I create some

myself every now and then. Enjoy!

Vicksburg National Military Park

We are in Vicksburg, MS staying at the Amerastar Casino RV park. This is a photo of the casino the park in across the street and up the road a block or two so it is a long walk but they have a free shuttle.

We explored the VNMP today, it is a 1,800 acre National Park, America's most monumented national park, where the fate of a nation was decided in 1863. Within the park is a Union ironclad gunboat which had been submersed on the bottom of the Yazzoo River for 102 years. The largest National Military Cemetery of Union dead in the U.S. is located in the Park.
Vicksburg was under siege for 46 days and surrendered to Grant July 4, 1863.