Gorgeous day in Galveston

Today we hit the jackpot.
The sun rose in a cloudless sky - there is a cool breeze and it has been cloudless all day. High in the upper 70's. Even by Gulf coast standards this is a great day.
We had a leisurely breakfast (Sally's Special Pancakes, maple syrup and bacon), then we said a leisurely goodbye to the Canadian friends we have just made (they are going off to live the winter life boondocking on the sea shore further south). We then took a leisurely wander round one of the nature trails, followed by a leisurely walk to the beach (after parking the van 20 yards from the beach. We returned for a leisurely nap with a cool breeze blowing through the trailer. Then we gathered three weeks of washing and I have come to the local washateria, called Soaps, to do a leisurely (ha!) mega clothes wash. I am writing this blog as the three loads are going through the wash cycle. (another 4 minutes to go).
On our wander round we have seen the return of the Roseatte Spoonbill, Red tailed hawks, blue heron, large white egret and White Tailed Kite.
Tomorrow we move on towards San Antonia to do a remake of The Alamo.

Leaving Louisiana

Tuesday

In leaving Sam Houston Jones State Park we were leaving Louisiana and the Cajun culture we had come to see this trip. In some ways I felt that I had not seen enough, yet we knew that we had had enough of Louisiana, not that there were any bad experiences, quite the reverse, just that we knew it was time to move on.

We rose early today and were on the road by 10.10. One of the things I have noticed with Sally that I think may be the result of her diet is that she is waking much earlier and has been alert much earlier in the morning, which has been great. We bumped along the rough Louisiana Interstate 10 and crossed the Sabine River to land in Texas. The first thing I noticed is that the roads are much smoother.

We were planning to stop at Galveston State Park, now Galveston is a town built on an island, well really a 20 mile long sand spit which has been cut off from the land. We found it difficult to understand the scale of the waterway it is built on. It is at the mouth of what is called the Bay area, this bay is about 15 miles wide. The Intracoastal Waterway is the strip of water between the sand islands and the mainland. This waterway is up to 10 miles wide and stretches for many tens of miles along the southern coast of Texas. It is part of the offshore sand strip which is a couple of hundred miles long and goes from Louisiana to Mexico.

This was a long trip for us – 180 miles – and we were both weary and stiff by the time we arrived in Galveston, only to find that the State Park was 9 miles the other side of it. Still it is a beautiful park, if you like sand dunes and wetlands. We had the choice of a site right by the sea shore, but out of site because of a fence/hedge, or a waterside site on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway, so we chose the waterside site. We have a great view right across the waterway. Out of the trailer window we can watch pelicans dive bombing the fish, Macawber like herons, waiting for something to turn up, large Red Tailed Hawks soaring across the wetland, an Osprey perched on a stake sticking out of the water and Killdeer skittering round the wet sand/pools. I have been keeping a good lookout for dolphin, but have not any confirmed sitings. But it is very relaxing just sitting watching.

As we were leaving Sam Houston Jones S.P. we met a couple of Canadians, who were also on their way to Galveston, so we endeavoured to meet up when we arrived. I had to go back to the Rangers office this morning and ran into them. They have moved onto the Intracoastal campsite and invited us to eat with them, we have just come back from a lovely time spent with them.

When The Wildlife Gets Friendly

Following our somewhat hectic 'Cajun Tour' we have slowed down a bit, taking more time to relax. Yesterday we went in search of a Cold Stone Ice Cream, but the shop was shut due to 'technical problems', so we settle for a Starbucks coffee and cup of Earl Grey Tea.
We are still seeing all sorts of wild life in the park. Last night we saw raccoons up close as they tried to empty our trash bin. I couldn't get a decent photo though, so we await a further visitation tonight. The park is just about empty now, although I am sure that more campers will arrive tonight and tomorrow for the weekend. I managed to take this picture of a pot bellied woodpecker

Sally went for a wander and took some good pics of a heron

and some turtles sunning themselves

Sally also took a good picture of the raccoon
.
As we are in relax mode we have had a campfire, while we sat round the fire, just watching the flames, who should come along but our friendly raccoon.

This time I managed to get some nice pics and some video.
It wandered up to us and sat around the campfire with us, then climbed a tree nearby and cleaned itself. Then came back down the tree and wandered off. Incidentally, in case you, like me, are wondering, a raccoon climbs down a tree forwards and makes it look easy.

Lake Charles

Monday we left behind a nice State Park and a new friend. This week we have spent a bit of time with Camilla. We have done a bit of exploring together, shared some lovely meals, sat round a campfire together and even had a bit of a jam (she plays a pretty good violin). This left us a bit sad.
Now travelling West we made good time and found ourselves a nice spot at Sam Houston Jones State Park, right on the Western Border of Louisiana in time for lunch. We are now poised to travel into Texas. But first we want to explore a little bit around here.
The campground is split into two areas, we are in the smaller of the two. The sites are small and often very close together, however it is a pleasant enough campground, while it is empty. The facilities are good, with the newer style en suite arangement found at Chicot North Campsite. Four private rooms, each with a shower, toilet, basin and mirror.
Anyway we are now safely encamped in a nice little spot by a (now dry) swamp.
We have already had deer, squirrel and a pileated woodpecker come within 10 yards of the trailer. Sally has taken a number of really good pictures of some of them.

Deep in the woods

Thursday - With Sally slowly improving, but not well enough to go out, we have been looking in more detail at the wild life around us.
So far it seems that there are a lot of amardillos, like this one.
I saw a small group of Cotton Tail deer from the car.
We had a visit from a couple of raccoons last night, they were busy investigating some petrol cans I had left out at the front of the trailer, we could hear them moving around in the dark.
Yesterday while we were having coffee our on our patio we were fortunate enough to see a Pileated Woodpecker close up. This is the largest woodpecker, apart from the very rare Ivory Billed Woodpecker, which is now only found in one part of Sout East Florida. It is also the one which modeled for the famous (amongst oldies) Woody Woodpecker. It has a very loud drum which really does sound like a pneumatic drill. It is between 12" and 15" long.

Chill Down

Wednesday, we are now well settled at Chicot State Park in Louisiana and it is very pleasant, it is 6500 acres of forest surrounding a huge lake.
The lake level is low at the moment, so lots of old cypress tree stumps are exposed. I took a walk down there this morning, dozens of large herons of all sorts, I heard an alligator belch somewhere, lots of mosquitos (but the good old 'Go Juice' took care of them).
I have a photo here of a large white heron, with an enormous, but dead, Cypress tree in the background, if you look very carefully there is a very large turtle sunning itself on a little saandbank. I have put in a close up of them.

It is very beautiful and very quiet and peaceful. One downside at the moment is that Sally is not feeling too well, so it is a good job we are taking a fairly long rest here.

Update from Connie's

Well it's Thursday already.
We have been here for five nights. So far we have cleaned out the Trailer, unpacked everthing from the vacuum packs and tidied everything away. Now we are ready to move from Connie's lovely house into our little home on wheels. Much of the time we have spent just relaxing and catching up with the time difference, today was the first time I didn't wake up at 2.00 in the morning and have dificulty getting back to sleep bceause my mind was telling my body that it was 7.00 in the morning. It has been difficult to stay awake after 9.00 in the evening. We have found some time to have some practice sessions with Connie and her sister Brenda, boy are we rusty!!! Connie and Jim only arrived from Rochester, New York two days before us, so they are tired and also sorting our the house here.
Yesterday the news was all about a tropical storm,- Nicole, moving up from the south, fortunately it passed about 50 miles east of us, so we only got one shower, however further up the coast (North Carolina) they have had more than 20 inches in the last three days!
We love seeing the wild life here. Out of the window we can watch the Jays, the Bluebirds (yes they really do exist away from the Land of Oz), the woodpeckers, the tiny Carolina Wrens, Mocking Birds, and the Grackles. There was a big hawk sat on the TV mast above the house. I managed to get really close to a Sap Sucker, it's a small woodpecker, without the pretty colouring.
When I went out on to the patio last night I found a couple of small Praying Mantises. There are also two large, hairy spiders which inhabit one of the window frames in Connie's dining room (outside, not inside fortunately) which are fun to watch.
So todays plan is to move the rest of our gear back to the trailer, then take a shopping trip to Publix to stock up the trailer, before having supper with Connie and Jim and hopefully another music practice.