March 5  through March 11, 2004

Friday March 5:

Awoke at 5:50, the breeze was still strong with a warm humid summery feeling as it gusts through the overhead vents.  The temperature is 72 degrees.  Plans for today are undecided….we must be out of Bayou Segnette campground by 1PM.  We can spend another day in New Orleans, or move on.  I think we are both tired from the walking.....and although the severe showers associated with the front coming through are going to concentrate further north, the rain chances today are the highest of the week. While dumping we found evidence of attempted forced entry on the passenger side front window of the RV, most likely happening at the Algiers ferry parking lot yesterday.  We immediately changed plans, and chose not to go again to New Orleans; why give them another chance with better tools?  We've seen most of what we wanted anyway, and there will be other chances for an overpriced Jazz Cafe lunch....VERY overpriced if we add an RV break in into the price. Flexibility is our only real  need...  :-))   After evaluating options, we decided to spend the night in the overflow area here, as cell coverage is strong for Internet use tomorrow, and the environment is pleasant.  We drove to the park office and signed up, returning to park next to the grass at the edge of the lot.  I worked the webpage, Purry enjoyed grazing his private pasture while Claire practiced TaeKwonDo and cooked kidney beans with ground pork for dinner.... a very nice recovery day for all!

Saturday March 6:

It rained a lot overnight, but blue sky poked through by morning; it is a beautiful sunny day (our first in Louisiana this trip). We decided to stay here yet another day;  it is comfortable, and very pleasant with the awning out, keeping the warm afternoon sun from heating the coach too much.  There are signs of summer coming, though.

 I'm happy this guy is on the OUTSIDE looking in; even if he cannot bite, I itch just looking at him.  :-))  I walked to the park entrance to renew for another day.  There seems to be gigantic plumbing everywhere in these lowlands, for what we can only guess.

It does seem that really BIG pumping stations are needed to keep our feet dry though.  :-)  

This one is busy, with construction in progress, but the size of the discharge pipes (center) tells the story.  So do the six exhaust pipes for the diesel pumps in the building....  These folks need to move LOTS of water at some times!  I finished uploading the website and sent e-mails.  Dinner is left over pot pie.  There is some activity in the parking lot shortly after dark as more folks come in, but it IS the weekend....it is very quiet for sleeping after things settle down though.  :-)

Sunday March 7:

Temperature is 64 at 7AM; the front is through and it has cooled.  Today we leave Bayou Segnette for Walmart in Boutte, and much needed resupply.  After shopping the Walmart, we came out of the store with a cart loaded with goodies to find another RV parked next to us.  We chatted with the local couple returning from a trip in their RV, while they unhooked their car in preparation for fueling.  The man said the Bayou Segnette folks who recommended the Algiers ferry parking lot for our RV were not thinking; it is a pretty bad area.  Oh well, now we know fer sure, but I guess we suspected that just looking at the nearby homes, and from our visit here at Mardi Gras two years ago.  We just thought the parking attendant would deter daytime problems, but of course he was never there when we returned, and the RV was a sitting duck.  The man said this area in Boutte was quite safe, (actually, the lady was quick to point out that this end of the parking lot was in the town of Luling where THEY lived, and there were lots fewer blacks living in Luling). :-)   The area adjoining the Walmart lot did look nice, with well kept homes and no barred windows.  We saw the Boutte town line sign on US 90 a few hundred feet further west, about in the middle of the Walmart property.  This Walmart did use a Boutte address in the listing, but came up much sooner than we had expected from the map.  This is the second time we have been surprised by the sudden appearance of this Walmart, as we found it a very welcome but unexpected stop two years ago in rainy weather, when we had planned to continue for miles to another store.....it will not happen again, as we now have the GPS location logged.  :-)  We fueled immediately, as Monday morning is a bad time for Walmart gas price increases. This one looks a bit too good to stay at $1.559 before the 3 cent gift card discount. Most others in the area are already near $1.60.   Dinner is burritos with tortillas and fresh veggies we just bought to go with the left over beans....  mmmmm mmmm good!  I was tired and sought bed early.  Claire watched a bit of TV before turning in.

Monday March 8:

Temperature is 58 degrees under the RV at 5:30 AM.  We need to do a lot of planning for the trip to Morgan City's Oil Museum, and the Atchafalaya area, and also reload the GPS.  When Claire awoke, we decided it was too much of a stretch to try to make Morgan City by the start of the 10AM tour on the oil platform, so decided to go to the 2PM one.  Claire reported gas prices were now listed at $1.59 at the station we had used last night....too bad it went up 4 cents overnight, but at least our tank is full.....  As we finished breakfast and prepared to leave, I noticed the refrigerator door refused to close...there must be something caught in it?  Purry was looking up at me expectedly, but made no sound that I heard (Claire insists he made a low short mew), and as I opened the door to look, he pulled his tail out and walked away in disgust; how DARE we pinch his tail in the door.  He'd better be more careful;  there is no apparent damage this time, but I'm not sure how much we'd enjoy living with a kinky cat!  :-))  The drive to Morgan City was easy and fast, but we missed the turn off US 90, as it was not marked with the Louisiana route number, only the local street name, and before we knew it we were across the Atchafalaya river bridge and in Berwick.  Claire found a place to back around, and we returned to Morgan City, and fished around for a place we could cross the railroad to get down to the Oil Museum. The tower on the drilling rig was visible on the horizon, but some places the railroad underpass was too low, other places the road's hump over the tracks seemed too high, threatening to hang up our low underbelly, but finally we saw truck route signs, and followed them successfully.  When we saw the gate through the sea wall, it looked a bit tight, and we asked at an entrance office if we could park there and walk in; the lady was most accommodating, and we soon had a close up view of Mr Charlie, the first offshore submersible barge mounted drilling rig, now a museum and training site resting on permanent piles set in the Achafalaya river bottom.  

We determined we would have to wait for the 2PM tour, as it was 45 minutes past the 10AM start of the last one.  Purry got a short walk around the RV, then we walked around Morgan City.  The neighborhood near the museum looked a bit unsafe and run down, so we moved through it fast and crossed the tracks into historic downtown Morgan City.  This area was interesting as viewed from the pleasant walkway atop the seawall.

This area had appropriately old buildings from the 1920's, well maintained, with shops of interest to tourists as well as large oil field service companies.   Outside the seawall, the busy docks here are largely populated with shrimp boats.

Up river larger vessels are docked.  I notice many of the shrimp boats have their nets rigged, and ask a man working on his boat if they are fishing now.  

He said the weather has been too bad, but they plan to go out in two weeks.  We conversed for a while with two young men who looked quite out of place in their suits and backpacks, sporting Latter Day Saints name tags.  They were from Idaho, and on a two year mission in southern Louisiana, travelling around meeting people.  One wondered if I were taking pictures for a magazine .....no, just my web page I told him.  :-))  We enjoyed the waterfront, checked out a few open shops, and spoke with friendly folks around town who all seemed to ask if we were tourists....one even stopped her car to ask, then recommended a new unique Mexican restaurant that had just opened a few blocks away.  :-))  A shrimper working on his boat said they would start fishing in a few weeks, as the weather had been bad.  This is a friendly town indeed!  We returned past this stately southern home.

Morgan City has lots of history, from before the Civil war when it was named Brashear, to 1876 when it was renamed Morgan City to honor Charles Morgan, who had brought railroads and prosperity to the town.  We arrived back at the RV in time to make coffee before joining the 2PM tour.  Purry proceeded to graze one particularly high tuft of grass almost to the ground....

We'll have to step carefully when we return to the RV.  :-(  We found another RVing couple waiting for the tour, retired school teachers from California.  They had called ahead and were assured the tour would go as scheduled, so we chatted; the man showed me his Minox camera, a tiny film camera he bought years ago because it fit in a shirt pocket.  It is smaller than mine by a good bit, but he was interested in a digital camera now.  I showed him mine, and expressed my feeling that film and paper pictures are an inconvenience on an RV; once you have a computer on the RV, keeping pictures on hard drives backed up on CDs is much more convenient, and more secure from loss or damage too.  The tour guide appeared on the platform just at 2PM, and invited us to climb up the ramp.  He introduced himself and collected our tour fee ($4 each, as we were all over 55).  He said the drill rig had been named Mr Charlie in honor of the man at Murphy Oil Company that had agreed to finance the floating re-locatable drill rig project after many larger companies had turned it down as too risky and doomed to fail.  The final cost of this rig which, operates resting on the bottom and could work in up to 40 feet of water, came in at over 2 million dollars in 1954.  He showed us a collection of old rotary drilling bits in various sizes.

The sizes from over 20 inches to less than 3 inches are necessary, as each time the steel well casing is extended into the deepening hole, a smaller size bit that fits inside the newly installed casing must be used from there down).  The well proceeds to neck down in size each time the well must be cased to prevent the sides from collapsing as the well deepens.  The wells have been drilled from floating platforms in more than 10, 000 feet of water, and have gone nearly 30,000 feet below the surface.  There seems to be no limit to where drilling can be accomplished if oil is deemed to be present in quantities justifying recovery costs.   In answer to a question from our tour companions, the guide said gasoline prices were being driven by the very significant costs associated with operating the oil recovery infrastructure, a small part of which we are seeing here.  The rate of success for wells has increased to 49% with the new location technology available today, but I can understand the purchase price and operating costs of  rigs like this are high, and there are around 600 of them world wide; the guide said roughnecks who work on the drill platform are well paid, the roustabouts who unload and move the pipe around on the rig deck might get $11/hr to start with no education or experience, but they usually do not last more than 5 to 8 years in that job; it is physically demanding and their bodies just...get tired out, and they seek other work.  The housekeeping and food preparation crews get less...maybe $7/hr. We proceeded to the drilling deck which holds the drilling tower, drill pipe, and winches and tools required to lift and join the heavy pipe sections together.  The conically taper threaded drill pipe lays on deck waiting to be winch dragged by the roustabout crew into position to be lifted by driller and roughneck crew using the tower winch to stand vertically and be ready to thread together.

Threading is accomplished using giant tools to hold the pipe, and winches to apply many thousands of foot pounds of torque to tighten the threaded joint so it cannot loosen down the hole. The hollow drill pipe carries drilling mud at high pressure (2000 psi or more) down to the bit, where it escapes through jets (red arrow in the picture below) in the bit, to sweep the crushed rock drilling debris away from the cutters and up the well casing to the surface, where the mud is cleaned of the drill debris and reused.

All of the stuff that is handled routinely on these rigs is BIG, HEAVY, and will put you away for keeps if it lands on you.  This hook is used to suspend the "Kelly" from the tower winch cable.

You can get an idea of scale by observing Claire climbing the stairs in the upper right of the picture.  The Kelly itself is the device that connects the drill rig to the pipe, rotates the pipe to turn the bit by locking to the rotating table on the drill deck, feeds the mud down the pipe...but I have no idea how it really operates.  I only know that it better not drop on my toe....or any other part of me.

The hose on top of the yellow Kelly carries the mud under pressure to the drill pipe.  The Kelly is lowered onto the rotating table through which the pipe descends into the well, and engages the rotating table by mating it's bottom pins into the 4 holes seen in the table.  Thus the pipe and lower part of the Kelly can rotate while the hose and tower winch hook is on a slip joint having no rotation.

Although I am disappointed I do not fully understand the drilling process, I know enough to feel strongly that I would not like to do this work....  It is a DIRTY job, with drilling mud spilling everywhere on the platform when pipe is pulled to replace a bit; it is considered VERY GOOD if a bit lasts one day before needing replacement.  Then every foot of drill pipe must be pulled, unscrewed at the joints, and stacked against the tower (several hours hard task in a deep well) until the bit is exposed and replaced, then it must all be reassembled and torqued together to thousands of foot pounds, all using special powered wrenches which are much heavier than a man can lift...they are suspended on cables to allow them to be moved into position, and pulled by winch driven cables to generate the needed torque.  The winches are all controlled by the driller, who is in charge of the crew and can easily kill a crew member with a mistake....  The rig is manned by two crews, who work 12 hours on, 12 hours off, with a break for lunch.....for 14 days, before going ashore for 14 days off;  whew, makes me tired just to write it.  :-)  Each worker is totally dependent for his safety and yes, his life, on the rest of the team doing their jobs right.  One mistake by anyone can kill...  Safety procedures are rigid, and still injuries and death do occur.  Our guide demonstrated the way up and down to personnel replacement boats via this crane lowered double ring assembly the crewmen ( and women )  grab onto and hang on outside, to be lowered to the boat, or lifted from it.  There is a heliport on Mr Charlie's roof for emergency evacuation and helicopter transport if this is more economical than boat transport.

 The smaller yellow ring would be suspended about chest high when the crane is holding it upright for use.  These port facilities next to Mr Charlie service the supply boats going to the rigs offshore.

   The living area is clean, with special areas to remove hats and boots, before proceeding to the shower area to clean up before you are considered acceptable to enter the rest of the dining and living areas.

The rooms are simple, four to a room, two from each crew.

The rooms are spotless, but maintaining them this way is not a burden to the occupants, as a housekeeping staff is provided to let the rest of the crew concentrate on their jobs exclusively.  Room and board is provided free of charge on the rigs.   Mr Charlie can house 58 crew members. I asked if the water was expected to get to the deck area, as all doors were watertight fully gasketed bulkhead doors.  The guide said no, but with watertight doors the dirty areas could just be cleaned with a high pressure hose.  :-)      We proceeded to the galley, also characteristically spotless.

Our guide (pictured above) pointed out that 4 meals a day are served, equally spaced around the clock, to accommodate the two crews, and the food is excellent and plentiful.  Often the meals are on a predictable repeated weekly schedule on most rigs in the offshore oil fields, no matter which company runs them (seafood every Friday for example).   I believe the living quarters on the rigs are deliberately made as clean as possible to give the men a refuge from the extremely dirty conditions on the work deck (we saw the work deck WITHOUT mud, remember... )  In the galley we met the manager in charge of training galley crews on Mr Charlie for a contractor; he was quite informative, and said the retention rate for new hires with training was MUCH better than before, when new hires were just sent to the rigs; many would quit in 4 days.  Now that they know what to expect, most stay.  There was a "No Drugs" sign on the wall in the dining area; the training manager indicated they had random testing, and he had just found one this morning testing positive.  The state had a program to place ex-convicts in the housekeeping crews, but he had to keep the percentage below 10% or they would get a bad reputation among their customers, as the housekeeping personnel get free access to other crew members rooms and personal belongings while performing housekeeping chores.  I must say the living and dining areas looked spotless, and we could enjoy the treats provided at the end of our 1.5 hour tour with no concern for where they had come from.  The training man said he had first signed on after leaving the military 12 years ago, and was sent offshore, to remain there for 4 months before getting off...almost as bad as being shanghaied onto a sailing vessel in a foreign port in bygone years!!    He said personnel policies are much improved now, and this training is one result of that improvement.   He also mentioned that he personally knew 5 men who had been killed on the rigs.  We have observed  the billboard  and TV ads for lawyers specializing in off shore injury cases everywhere in this area.  I'm sure this work takes its toll on the workers!   I'm glad I could find other ways to make a living. The time on Mr Charlie has passed fast, and it is after 3:30 when we say goodbye to our guide and walk down the ramp. This production platform standing on shore is one which would be placed on a well after it had been drilled to get the oil and gas from the well into a pipe to carry it ashore

.

There are heaters, separators, and even flare stacks to burn off unwanted products right on this platform, before moving the product to shore based refineries.  We make ready for travel, and head for New Iberia and the Walmart we've chosen for the night; time tomorrow to wind along the levee road to Lake Fosse Point State Park...a choice best made BEFORE we find ourselves lost on questionable roads after dark!  Some bayous we cross over high bridges are quite beautiful.

I can understand how folks get attached to this low watery land.  We find the Super Walmart almost exactly where Street Atlas put it, and really would have had trouble finding it without that guidance, as it is a mile from the highway.  There is plenty of room on this large lot, and we park by ourselves out in the corner under bright lights.  Claire quickly makes Italian pasta soup for dinner, using the few beans we have left.  The  news comes on at 6PM here, from Baton Rouge, and we miss the first few minutes of it, but now we know!  After dinner I am ready for bed.  Claire watches TV, reconsidering her thought to shop tonight; tomorrow is another day!

Tuesday March 9:

Temperature is 55 degrees under the RV at 6:30 AM.  It was cool in the middle of the night and I'd closed the vents, and wiped up some grass that had mysteriously appeared on the floor under my bed; it looked a lot like the kind of grass Purry had eaten….YECH...oh well, he's a cat and does not have the 4 grass digesting stomachs of a cow.  :-((  We took our time this morning, and Claire went to Walmart's while I finished the log.  When she returned, she had her hair cut at the family hair salon there, and suggested I do the same.  I needed some motor oil and a filter too, so I got ready and went to the store.  The hair salon was busier than I could know, as some folks were in back under machines, so I waited and we had a very late departure by the time I was finished, then had lunch....after noon by quite a bit.  The drive was only 18 miles today, but they could be slow miles as part of the run was along a levee road that was described as "under construction".  The run to the levee was through farmland and small communities; it reminded me strangely of the flat land we cross between the Canadian border and Montreal in Quebec, though I could not place the specific similarity.  When we reached the levee road, the sign said 8 miles to the park; the road was not blacktop, but seemed very hard and not bad driving; it had been scratched by a blacktop removing machine and the tell tale roughness was there, but it ran well at 35 mph.  Cars passed us much faster in both directions, and we pulled over for them to save the windshield.   We finally reached a flag man with a slow sign as we reached a gang of machines working on the right lane; the left lane was open but very narrow and soft, with signs of vehicles sinking into the shoulder.  THEN the graders decided to remove another 10 inches from our driving lane.  

The machines were mixing white powder from a semi truck preceding us into the road soil.  Later we heard this was lime, that hardens the road surface.  I'm not sure what the chemistry is, but it must work with something in the soil here, as the road is quite hard where the process is complete.  We reached the Lake Point Fosse State Park gate, feeling fortunate we had not slipped off the road and in need of a tow or worse.  When we arrived at the office, we found room only through Thursday night, as weekends are booked up.  We decided to take only two nights until we find what there is to do here;  it seems hiking may be the only activity interesting us.  The sites are nice, blacktopped, with electricity for $6/day with our golden age passport card.  We hook up, then decide to go for a short 1.6 mile hike.  This is swamp country, with resemblance to the swamps in the Everglades and Apalachicola. It is pleasant and peaceful.  There are what appear to be large bumblebees, which come to within a few feet of us and hover, looking..... A bit disconcerting when I thought they might sting.  When I try to get close and photograph them, they bolt; maybe they do not want to be stared back at.....  :-)  Later I see them going into holes in the park's  wood structures, and recognize they are probably carpenter bees, which bore holes in wood for their nests, and DO NOT STING.  :-)  We did not see much wildlife or any people as we started the hike.  There were a few mosquitoes, but not many.  We continued, not seeing a lot of wildlife, but hearing lots of bird calls.  This area is criss-crossed by bayous, which break the land into small islands.   Our trail is a loop around the perimeter of one of these islands.  We are more than 75% complete with our circumnavigation of the island when we see a boardwalk in the distance through the trees, and shapes visible on it through the vegetation. As we approached the boardwalk, Claire sounded first warning; we were obviously approaching some swamp dwelling homo sapiens in spring mating season. {Click here for more, but YOU explain it to the kiddies: I won't.  :-) }   A bit further along we heard a loud leaf rustle nearby, and watched as the first live armadillo either of us had ever seen foraged head down in the leaves.  I took many pictures trying for a whole body shot, but head down is the way an armadillo likes to travel I guess.  A short time later another one appeared, and I tried to approach him closer by walking into the woods.

 He would bolt at high speed for 15 feet, then freeze.  He would quickly resume his head down rooting, until I approached too close again, when he would bolt another 15 feet.   As we approached the trail head, a family with a young boy approached us, and the boy was screaming in fear.  I told them we had seen nothing other than a couple armadillos back in the woods.  The man said there was a snake, and pointed out the thin black tail on the ground, sticking out of a hollow stump.  I said "little one"; he said it was pretty big in the middle.  I looked cautiously down into the hollow stump from the top, and saw a writhing coil of snake of respectable size; the head looked dangerous to me, so I was not getting close.  Digital zoom is the way to go! 

 By the time I had a picture, the head had wriggled out of sight, but I do believe from what I remember, this snake is most likely a cottonmouth moccasin by comparison with pictures on the bulletin board.

I am relieved that the snake indeed tried to hide from us, but I think we will put our suction snake bite kit in the pack tomorrow!  This is the first live poisonous snake I have seen in the wild since hiking and camping in the woods of Pennsylvania as a young boy.  These Louisiana swamps are DEFINITELY not boring!  We returned to dinner of Walmart steak (still not to our liking) and watched TV news.  After dishes, then a shower to get rid of haircut ends,  it is bed for me.....I'm ready to snore!

Wednesday March 10:

The temperature is 52 at 5:30 AM.  The heat did not come on, but the RV was cool enough to require the fleece "snow" pants to be comfortable sitting at the computer this morning.  I think I've acclimated a bit to summer…..  :-)  I worked the log while Claire did laundry in the campground machines.  One family offered Claire the use of their canoe when she asked about a place to rent them.  We want to walk the 3 mile trail, so doubt we can do both today.  We ate lunch before starting the walk, and asked a staff person about the location of the store that a sign referred to as moving to the "Red Building".  We could not see a red building....blame it on painters?  :-)  The lady explained the store had moved to a different area of the park, and was only open weekends.  Oh well....  A Cajun family was visiting the park, Mom and Dad lived in New Iberia and adult daughter Debbie in Layfayette. Dad was a retired home craftsman who had survived a heart attack.  They pointed out an alligator on a log across the lagoon, with many turtles.

 I thought alligators ate turtles, but this bunch did not seem aware of that...  Dad explained in his Cajun accent that the turtles were delicious eating.  I told him of the little "stink pot" turtles we used to catch while fishing in Pennsylvania as kids, and how they smelled so bad we would not think of eating them.  He smiled, and said yes, but the meat inside is good when fried, tastes just like chicken, and is more healthy; look what chickens eat.  I asked him what turtles eat, he said good naturedly "who knows, but it isn't artificial...."  :-)   They intended to walk the trail, and accompanied us to the "snake stump" of yesterday....a cautious peek, no snake. I do have the snake bite kit.  The walk took us close to a different bayou than before, but the terrain was not much different; low wet lands with a few "high spots" over 10 feet above water level. Some vistas were breathtaking.

 There were backpacking campsites distributed back here, rather well equipped for such sites, too

Bench, barrel to keep wood dry, fire ring, but none were occupied.  I think I would rather be here NOW than when mosquitoes reach their peak in a few weeks.  We see more armadillos...ho hum...  :-)  There is some boating activity in the bayous; mostly we just hear the sound of motors, but sometimes we spot one fishing, as down at the end of this inlet to a paddle and backpack campsite with a pretty view..

.  We passed two boys and a girl hiking the trail in the reverse direction, maybe 17 years old.  They just said "hi", passing quickly with no other notice.   The rental cabins on the lake are attractive, and occupied, by the looks of the vehicles parked in front of each.

 We rejoin the trail, and meet a staffer with an all terrain vehicle and chain saw readying to cut a poison ivy wrapped fallen log off the trail.  He said he wished he had remembered his safety glasses, but he was not very susceptible to poison ivy, so he would just tuff it out.  He said we would probably get our feet wet further along the trail, as it was wet.  We did find mud, but managed to walk around the lowest places, and step on logs and other high spots such that our feet did not really get wet.  We chatted with Janet in the RV next to us when we returned;  she was a farm lady from Wisconsin, and retired school bus driver, RVing by herself since her husband died.  She was living on money from farms sold, and now was traveling with her sister Sharon.  They had been here previously for many years, and loved it.  Claire invited them over for wine and cheese later, and started spaghetti for dinner. In early twilight, I heard what sounded like a pack of dogs VERY close, and looked up at the sound; THREE barred owls were defining their mating territories in the tall trees overhead.  

 Dinner was delicious as usual, but we cleaned up quicker than we might have without guests on the way.  Janet and Sharon arrived exactly on time, with 5 pieces of King Cake.  A friend had given them a large King Cake, and they were both trying to limit carbs to control weight.  We had never tried this traditional Mardi Gras delicacy in New Orleans, and were surprised to find that it is a raised dough, not really a cake.

 Traditionally a little "king" had been baked into the cake, and the person who received the piece with the king is responsible for the next Mardi Gras party.  [I wonder if I could just swallow it? :-)  ]  Janet and Sharon refused to have any themselves, but after Claire ascertained that the king icon had been on top, and not baked into the cake, we enjoyed a piece....what a delicious fruity filling!  The ladies were both outgoing, and had many interesting experiences to share.  Janet is 70, living on a farm in Wisconsin, and Sharon, 61, lives near Littleton CO.  Both have raised their families and are now single.  Janet kept the motorhome after her husband died at his request, as they had both enjoyed it. They RV'd to Alaska, and have wintered in the south for years before he died, as Janet has cold induced asthma.  When Janet started single RVing, she invited her sister to go along   They also travel together overseas, having been to Siberia, Mongolia, Brazil, the British Isles, and are planning an eastern  European trip shortly after they get home this spring.   Of course, it is the farmland wealth that makes all this possible, and I cannot help wondering how many generations of labor went into creating it, to be spent NOW.....still, the ladies seem frugal in their travels, staying for long periods parked at homes of friends, and are enjoying their lives immensely.  Their kids are living at their homes while they are gone, taking care of their pets, and supporting their lifestyle totally.  GO ladies!!  :-))  Sharon expressed that she had no service on her Verizon phone.  I told her I had, but with an external antenna.  She expressed interest, and asked how the antenna connected.  I showed her, and showed her how the power cord plugged into the antenna adapter.  She also expressed her interest in connecting her phone to a laptop computer and using the Internet with it; the conversation turned in other directions so we did not pursue this;  I hope she succeeds with that!  It is much after my usual bedtime when the ladies depart, intending to leave here at 6AM, before road construction starts in the morning.  Their RV is 6 inches wider than ours, so I understand their concern.  :-)  We are in bed very quickly after we say good bye.

Thursday March 11:

Awoke very late; temperature 55 degrees at 8AM.  Janet and Sharon have departed the park, and we did not hear anything when they left.  I wrote the log while Claire cooked squash soup using the campground electricity.  About noon, as I was printing the route to Sam's and Walmart in Lafayette, Claire suggested we could stay another day here; she was not bored, and wanted to walk the levee.  We had also not yet showered, and would have to rush to get out before the 1PM checkout.  I walked to the office, found there was another day available on our site, and  we signed up. I asked about walking the levee, and was told it was technically against the law as it was private property, but there were only three levee police for 180 miles of levee, and most likely they would just chase us off.  Who owns it?  The federal government, of course.... PRIVATE property?  Oh well...... This is a very relaxing, quiet place, with spring busting out all over; some of the bald cypress trees seem to pop out in leaves over night.  Last evening the barred owls were barking/hooting in the trees right overhead (it's their breeding season too), and the whippoorwills sent out their eerie cries all night.  I welcome another day here! We could sure do much worse!   We relaxed, ate lunch, and decided to walk the levee; we saw no private property signs on our road to the levee, so at least we are not officially warned.  :-)  We pick the path with the shortest grass to climb the levee bank, and look carefully where we place our feet; this is snake country we know for sure...  On top there is a single lane gravel road of good quality; we walk south for 1.5 miles, seeing a number of cars, most pulling boats, pass on the state road below the levee.  Most wave at us.  There is not much to see on the river side of the levee that we have not seen on the other side; we cannot see the Point Fosse Cut, or the bayou hidden by dense trees.  

There is a drainage ditch along the bottom of the levee with a bit of standing water, and the grass at the base of the levee is mowed for a width of 100 feet all along the levee.  There is a lot of maintenance put into this!  A car comes towards us at high speed on top of the levee, throwing a trail of dust; we find a place to step off into less high grass, and wait for it to pass...or maybe stop and kick us off the levee?  It slowed before reaching us, passed slowly so they did not to kick up dust, and then they waved as they resumed their normal speed.  :-)    The folks here really are friendly....but perhaps they do not see that many people either.  This area is REALLY remote, especially with the state road being under construction.  We decided to turn around now and walk back, without incident.  I found a trailer tail light laying on the road, evidence that the rough roads really DO take their toll on vehicles using them.  It has an 1157 bulb in it, in a socket, but it is evidently not replaceable, as the light is a glued waterproof assembly, probably from a boat trailer, designed to be immersed and replaced as a whole unit when necessary.  We received a call on the cellphone; someone needed to mail Claire something.  Well, it is high time to get mail from our forwarding box too.  It is always difficult to pick a place where we will be a week ahead, but now we must.  We make a best guess, pick a smaller town along the Texas coast with only one post office, call them to be sure they will accept general delivery and to verify their location,  and then make the arrangements with the senders.  Now we are committed....this is a place we MUST go in a week or ten days.  :-)  The cell service is analog here, from Centennial Wireless, and although we have two bar signal strength, and can hear the calls fine, our transmissions are scratchy on the other end. Some calls must be redialed to get a better connection, and phonetic spelling of most words is required. Dinner is squash soup.  Bed is welcome.  The owls and whippoorwills sing me to sleep.  :-))

 PLANS:  We will spend only a few more days in Louisiana;  I had not fully appreciated the beauty of the swamps and bayous before, but it is time to move on.  We must be in the Lake Jackson TX area, south of Houston, on the gulf coast by next Friday to pick up mail.  From there we move on with planned stops in Kingville for the King Ranch, and some stop on the Mexican border for Purry's pills.  The speed of movement will depend on the weather, and now we will expect uncomfortably warm temperatures before cold down on the border.  Once we have visited Mexico, we will move north until we are comfortable, and undoubtedly see some things we have had to pass up before.

Until next time, ENJOY!   We are!