Bogue Chitto State Park

Wayne and I are spending two nights at the new Bogue Chitto State Park near Franklinton, Louisiana.  We are one of four campers in the whole park -- except one left today, so now there's only three of us!  It's a well thought out park and definitely a place that we will come back and visit. 


Today I decided to go on the five-mile hike which is the Gorge Run Trail.  It was well marked and scenic . . . until I got to the part in the second picture.  The trail is supposed to go where the tree is leaning.  There was some major flooding in this area two weeks ago when a major storm went through.  A lot of the campgrounds and roads in the lower part of the park (called Bottomland Camping Area) were washed away or still under water.  I backtracked and skirted around a couple of the areas, but met another submerged portion of the trail, so decided to turn around and backtrack.  My hike was four miles, but it was scenic (and muddy).  


We are headed back to Fairview-Riverside State Park tomorrow and will be there until March 13th.  Then who knows what we'll be doing!  Stay tuned.

Camp Avondale

A view of Tigator Lake at Camp Avondale where we have been fortunate enough to spend the past couple of nights and visit with Wayne's buddies at camp.  It's always fun to drive around camp and see all the changes and improvements that have been made since Wayne left.  It was 32 degrees this morning!  BRRR!

Welcoming Committee

A little fuzzy, but this is a small portion of the welcoming committee at the campground we pulled into on Thursday afternoon.  The ducks are bigger than Ziva.  She is leery about going outside when they are close by.  At one point, she thought about chasing one, until he spread his wings and started making a noise and she saw how big he really was, so she turned around and ran back to the door.


We had to hang out at DMJ Enterprises, a Generator Repair shop, to get our non-working generator back to working.  We got it fixed (new starter installed) on Friday.  Now we can dry-camp and know that we have generator power.


So we are in Louisiana for a while and the weather has turned cold and rainy!

On Our Way

Colder weather, here we come!  We are en route from sunny, warm Florida, to cool, wet Louisiana.  Gone are the days of wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts and back to long pants and jackets.  We have enjoyed the warmth, but are we really ready for the cold again?  Guess we'll have to be!

Everglades National Park

We spent a couple of nights at Everglades National Park on the very southern tip of the mainland of Florida.  I was able to go on a riverboat ride and learned a lot about the area and see some wildlife - such as this baby crocodile.  We saw him on the left bank when we headed out and he was still sunning himself when we returned an hour later.  We had nice weather while there and I am glad we went.


We are now at Lazydays in Seffner, Florida, but will be heading out tomorrow.  We saw several friends from the Alaska RV Tour we went on two years ago.  It was a good time and good food.


We will slowly wind our way up to Covington, Louisiana, to hang out for a little while and see family and friends.  Still heading towards Albuquerque by late March or early April. 


Wayne and I start our summer job at Jellystone of Estes Park, Colorado, on May 1st.  We will be there until October 1st.  If anyone is passing through the area, please come see us!


Florida definitely knows how to do sunsets!

Bye Florida Keys - We Will Miss You

Our last sunset on the Florida Keys was amazing!  The weather was perfect the whole time we were there and I now have a fabulous tan.  This morning was overcast with a slight breeze, which was welcome considering we were dry camping and our generator starter wouldn't work, so we had no air conditioning or ability to run fans while there.  I'm not complaining -- we had a great time.  Everybody left this morning and headed home -- all but 2 of the 14 couples live right in the area and use this rally as a means to get together and visit and have fun.  You wouldn't have believed all the food!  We had a barbecue on Friday night for Jim's birthday (our gracious host), and it included Florida Keys lobster (two lobster tails per person), more shrimp than anyone could eat, chicken for those who couldn't eat or don't like seafood, clam chowder dressing with cranberry/chicken gravy, and assorted salads.  There was chocolate birthday cake to follow.  We met some great people and enjoyed the rally.

We are spending tonight in Florida City, Florida, and tomorrow we will be heading to Everglades National Park where we will be dry camping again for two nights.  I am so thrilled we took the time to travel down to the Keys and see it.  It was beautiful and warm and great time spent with great friends!

Will check back in once we bet to Lazydays and the Alaska Rally!

Daily Walk

We are right across the All American Highway (Overseas Highway) where I can walk on the Old Seven Mile Bridge, which used to be the railroad built by a man named Flagler in 1912.  In fact, they just had the 100-year celebration of the bridge this past weekend.  It's a two-mile walk to Pigeon Key, which is where Bettye lived when her family first moved to Marathon and which is now the museum, and a two-mile walk back.  The scenery is gorgeous (lots of water, birds, and boats).  If you look closely, you can see four juvenile pelicans that were escorting me on my first walk -- they would fly in front of me, circle around and fly behind me, and once they were right beside me.  This was an overcast afternoon, but it's been mainly sunny since then.  Enjoying every degree of it!