Another Dreary But Happily Uneventful Travel Day

Location: Galveston, TX (High 65, Low 58)

This morning as we packed up, we were happy to see that it was relatively warm outside. But no sun!

 

 

 

 

We weren’t sure how crazy the trip was going to be today, because we were were going to get pretty close to Houston.

 

 

 

We did hit some traffic, but we never had to slow down below our usual traveling speed.

 

We were happy when we started heading out of the Houston area and the traffic started to die down.

 

 

 

 

A little after 1 pm we rolled into Galveston.

 

 

 

 

It was an easy 11 mile drive from the bridge to the RV park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are all set up and settled for our three week stay at Jamaica Beach RV Park.

 

 

I’ve already taken quite a few pictures of the park on a short walk we took over to the beach, but I think this blog entry is already pretty picture intensive. So I’ll post some more pictures of the campground tomorrow.

Just Hangin’

Location: Orange, TX (High 40, Low 26)

 

Like everyone else out there, I am sure sick of this weather. I keep reminding myself that we would have it so much worse if we were still up in NY.

 

We haven’t gotten out too much over the past couple of days. It’s been too dreary…too cold…too wet.

We even had icicles hanging off the fiver!

 

Yesterday afternoon, it finally dried up enough that we could venture out…and we decided to try a local place that we’ve heard a lot about – Whataburger. We both enjoyed our meal, and our burgers were really good – we would definitely return if we wanted to go to a fast food burger joint.

 

Today the sun is shining and it actually looks like it’s going to be a nice day. So we may get outside for a walk, as well as make a trip to Walmart for a little grocery shopping.

 

Tomorrow morning we leave for Galveston!

Let’s See, What Was I Saying?

Location: Orange, TX (High 58, Low 27)

Well, when I did my blog post yesterday morning, I was sitting in my chair anticipating a nice quiet sunny Sunday spent doing nothing much. That changed just an hour or so later.

On Saturday afternoon, we were surprised when we came back from our run to find that the power was off. Just a couple minutes later it came back on. We checked our Progressive EMS to discover that we were having a high voltage issue. In the next ten minutes the power went off and on two or three more times. Harry called the campground and they said they would send someone over. The guy arrived a few minutes later and checked the power pedestal. He didn’t really seem to know what it might be, other than to say maybe it was a bad outlet. So he changed the outlet for a new one, and when we plugged back in, the power voltage was reading back in the 120s. Harry didn’t understand why an outlet would have caused high voltage but changing it out seemed to have solved the issue.

So you may remember that I mentioned in my blog yesterday that we had a full house of overnighters with our whole row full of rigs. (Several of them had actually come in to the campground while the guy was working on the electric.) When I wrote my blog, there was one  motorhome left parked in the site right next door to us. Just a little while later, they started hooking up and they weren’t even gone yet and our power had once again gone off from high voltage. We were faced with a decision to make at that point. We were planning to stay there until Friday and did not want to have to deal with our power shutting off frequently for that number of days. Plus, we weren’t sure if there was any chance of causing some damage to our system. So we decided our best move was to head on down the road.

Harry called the campground. The owner wasn’t in, but he explained the situation to the person on the phone. They weren’t sure whether we could get a refund, but said they would contact the owner and call us back. I looked online to find another campground, and found one in Orange that was only about 16 miles down the road. While we waited for the call back, we started packing up, because no matter the outcome, we had already decided we were moving on. A little while later, the person called back to let us know that the owner would give us a refund for the rest of the week. Obviously, we were happy to hear that.

 

It was around 1:45 when we pulled out at our latest time for our shortest trip.

 

 

 

 

     Another new state!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here we are in Oak Leaf Park Campground, in Orange TX.

 

 

It appears to be an older campground. They don’t have wi-fi or cable. (Not that we need cable as we got great local channels through the antenna and the rest off our satellite.) But most importantly, they have stable electric!! And hey, there’s a Walmart here!

We do plan to be here now until we move on to Galveston on Friday.

Having a Low Key Week

Location: Vinton, LA (High 67, Low 53)

There’s not going to be a lot to blog about this week. We are relaxing in a little campground about ten miles or so from the Louisiana-Texas border only about a mile from I-10. We really don’t hear much road noise though, which is nice.

 

The campground has a nice stretch of pull through sites and seems to get quite a bit of overnight traffic. Every day that we’ve been here, between 2 pm and 6, the travelers start rolling in.

 

 

Yesterday our whole line filled up, and two or three additional rigs parked over on the other side. It’s 9:30 in the morning, and they’ve all left now but one.

 

In our last couple of stops, we’ve gone over our usual budget for eating out and doing touristy types of things. So we’re going to be just relaxing this week and letting our bank account catch up!

I’ve done a bit of research and it looks like it may not be too tough to resist that temptation, because this looks like a pretty small town – there’s not even a Walmart! We haven’t even left the campground yet, but will have to check out the town sometime soon to find a grocery store.

So that’s the scoop from Vinton, LA…we’ll be here until Friday, when we will be heading to our next stop in Galveston.

More From the Swamp Tour

Location: Vinton, LA (High 30, Low 28)

Well, it’s just as well that I have some more pictures from the swamp tour to share, because there’s sure nothing going on here! I’m just very glad that we moved yesterday, because we definitely wouldn’t have been going anywhere today. It’s been a laze around, do nothing much kind of day.

But back to the boat trip the other day…Harry took some great wildlife pics, and here are just a few of my favorites…

 

Here is a cormorant drying his wings after diving for food…

 

 

 

 

…yellow bellied slider turtles sunning themselves…

 

 

 

 

…a close up of the turtles…

 

 

…an egret…

 

 

 

…a bald eagle posing…

 

 

 

 

 

…and another shot…

 

 

…great blue heron nesting area…

 

 

 

…and a close up of the great blue herons sitting on their nests…

 

 

…the male great blue heron bringing sticks to his mate for the nest. The guide told us if the female doesn’t like the stick, she just throws it away and sends him out for another…

 

 

…another great blue heron…

 

 

 

I think the guide forgot to tell us what this is…

 

 

It was a really great trip. The only thing lacking was seeing an alligator in the wild. But it’ll give us something to look forward to another time when we go on another swamp boat trip.

Changing Plans

Location: Vinton, LA (High 54, Low 29)

Over the past few days we’ve been watching the weather forecasts, and although there was mention of a chance of rain or a little sleet/snow overnight tonight, most of the forecasters over the past few days continued to say that there would be little, if any, impact on travel.

When we arrived this past Monday in Scott, LA, our plan was to stay at the KOA until tomorrow. I know a lot of people don’t like KOAs, but we have stayed at a few and don’t mind stopping at one occasionally. But this one was even a little more pricey than they usually seem to be, which is why we were only going to stay a few days. (They were having a “stay three nights, get the fourth night free” special.)

This morning when we got up, we were surprised to find that the slight chance of a little wintry precipitation was turning into a winter weather event. So after talking it over, we decided to give up our free night and move on, instead of taking a chance on being stuck paying for an additional pricey night or two.

We took our time packing up. Checkout was at noon, but we weren’t restricted to that, since we had the site until tomorrow anyway. So we ended up leaving around 12:30, which is easily our latest departure ever. We had a pretty quick trip of about 85 miles or so. Not too hard to take!

We are settled in a nice quiet campground in Vinton, LA. We are not too far from the Texas border. When we arrived, got settled and saw what a nice little spot this is, we decided to stay for a bit, so we will be hanging out here for the next week.

Since we ended up spending the day packing up and moving, Harry hasn’t had a chance to upload his pictures yet. So the next installment of “swamp boat tour” pictures is yet to come!

Champagne Swamp Tour

Location: Scott, LA (High 57, Low 40)

For our stay here in Scott, probably the thing we were looking forward to most was a swamp tour we planned to take. Based on the weather, today looked like the nicest day, so we made a reservation, and a little after 12 this afternoon, we headed out for the thirty minute trip to Breaux Bridge, LA.

Alas, no alligators! Our guide said that the weather has been too cold, and the alligators have not been venturing out. But we did see a lot of birds – including great blue herons and a bald eagle. We also saw lines of turtles sunning on logs.

 

Harry’s pictures have more close-ups, since he has a stronger lens than I do with my point and shoot camera. So today I’ll post some of my favorite pictures that I took and tomorrow I’ll do a blog with some of his.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time, and will definitely be planning to do another boat tour next winter (We would still love to see that elusive alligator)! Bird and turtle pictures to come tomorrow!!

Best Kind of Traveling Day

Location: Scott, LA (High 70, Low 49)

Today was the greatest kind of traveling day…sunny skies, warm temperatures, and not crazy with traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did have a little delay on our way out of New Orleans when we encountered a five car accident. There was one lane closed so we slowly made our way through the couple of miles until we were past the accident.

 

We drove over a lot of bridges – over  lakes, rivers, bayous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 1:30 we arrived at our next stop – Lafayette KOA in Scott, LA. 

 

 

 

 

We have a great pull through site with a view of the lake.

 

 

 

We were very happy that our satellite was able to find the signal even though we were surrounded by trees. :)

We will only be here until Friday, but we are looking forward to sampling a little Cajun food and hopefully seeing a little local wildlife.