Random Thoughts: Thursday and Friday, so it must be South Toledo Bend State Park

Wednesday was another day of adventure in a way. We decided not to ignore the warning light on the View and go get it checked out. That required us going to Baton Rouge, about 100 miles south and not in the direction we wanted to be heading, to get to the nearest Mercedes Benz/Sprinter service center. We made it down just on time and spent the next two hours in their customer service waiting area just off the showroom where we saw quite an amazing car. If you can read the sign it says that it is a M-B SLS, one of 12 in the US and the only one with this particular trim package....we did not ask for a test drive as they most likely would not have taken us seriously when it came to their $223,000 car! Anyway, it was fun to hang out in such a ritzy showroom in our campground duds!

The red tape is to keep our grubby hands off the car

After we finished up with the View, we headed to a really big Whole Foods Store and stocked up.

We headed back up the exact same path we had taken down to Ville Platte and then struck out to the west so we could work our way across the state to South Toledo Bend State Park, which is located right on the border with Texas on a very large reservoir created by a dam on the Sabine River.

Flooded rice paddy (from the window as we drove along)

Back to Ville Platte, though, for just a comment or two. We stopped for fuel at a station just on the east side of town. Marty went into the store to get a couple of cold drinks only to see that they also had a very complete meat section of smoked meats and sausages! When she checked out she commented that it seemed that all shops/food stores in town smoked meats. And the clerk replied "yes ma'am." I guess the title of smoked meat capital of the world really does belong here. The "gas" station's meat section had four men working behind the counter making sausage and seasoning meats.

Only a few miles away from Ville Platte we left behind the rice paddies and were in tree farm country with rolling hills; quite a change in just a few miles. We were on secondary roads for a change of pace in order to see more of how folks live. It was interesting to pass through some of these small towns and see just how many of the small stores had closed. Almost as though, in some cases, that the town had rolled up its sidewalks and just left town. A large exception was Leesville, though. This town is right outside the main gate of Fort Polk, an army post that trains Rangers, among other things. Army towns are unique, offering all sorts of services that the GIs don't get on post. (Including "gentlemen's clubs advertising "Girls, Girls, Girls".)

We arrived at South Toledo Bend State Park shortly after 5:00 pm and found our spot. It's very lovely here on the lake with tall trees, a small beach and hiking paths. There are handicapped accessible paths as well, which was a pleasant surprise to see. There is one major challenge though and that is getting your camper or trailer level. We've seen very few spots where one could just drive in and be level. The campground host who is parked across from us has a large Class A and he and his wife even have planks under their jacks in order to level the front of the camper enough! Pretty amazing really that they have designed such a nice campground that is nearly impossible to park in!

Our spot

There park is loaded with birds. We awoke to them both Thursday and Friday mornings and have been hearing them sing all day. Now we'll have to spot them!

On Thursday afternoon we went for a paddle and were right in the middle of a flock of hundreds of coots! Marty got some interesting shots showing how they run on top of the water as they get airborne (it's also fun to watch their very ungraceful landings)! Also a big blue heron flew right over our heads and we floated right up to a great egret that was fishing in the grass along the shore. We've seen some interesting birds we are not quite able to ID yet, but we will try to get more shots or at least use the binoculars next time around.