Sam Houston Jones and rain

."We transitioned from Chicot on Wednesday to Sam Houston Jones State Park just north of Lake Charles, almost on the Texas border.  The wind was fierce on the highways and we were being shoved around a lot.  We were not alone in that situation either.  We didn't have much rain on the way over to the park but anticipated a lot.

Here's where we shopped in Lafayette!  A quite new, very complete Whole Foods Market.

This park is not as big as most of the others in which we have camped.  We have discovered that the majority of parks in this state are suffering from a lack of funding.  Conditions include but are not limited to apparant understaffing, lack of maintainence, wifi that doesn't really work other than to show you that it is present.  North Toledo Bend had been refurbushed larely, but generally we've just seen shopworn facilities.

  Our campsite, above water for sure.  This pull-through site was originally for two campers but now they are only using them for one.  This allowed us to adjust where we were for two different water/electric hook-ups and get as level as we could (which we did without the use of blocks).

The park is very interesting in that there is lots and lots of water.  It is on the Calcausieu River with numerous ponds.  One might anticipate lots of birds, but we have not seen as many as we have heard.  Maybe the rain has had something to do with that.

One really nice thing that they have done here is build walkways over some of the ponds so you can look down into the water as well as get a good general view. The photo above is of the nearest walkway to the part of the campground we're in.  The one below was taken showing the other side of the walkway.

There are snakes and other creatures here that one would not want to run into in the middle of the night!  We have not seen any alligators yet, however, several folks have said there is a 12' one in the area and at least one smaller one.  David wants to see the big one, Marty is neutral about it.

Another part of the pond.  Taken from the observation platform by which Marty is standing in the photo above.

It is hard to write much about this park because it has mostly rained since we arrived and we've not gotten out for any bike rides as we did in all the other parks.  Maybe before we leave it will happen, but here it is Friday morning and it is raining.  We did get a short break from the weather on Thursday afternoon and several photos below are from that momentary quasi sunny moment.

Since we are talking weather, we might as well say that we have been very, very lucky.  If you have been watching the national news these past few days you will have seen many reports about the amount of rain that Louisiana is getting.  We have quite literally, dodged the bullet on that score so far.  We left North and South Toledo Bend State Parks and headed to Chicot.  When we left Chicot for here we knew there would be lots of rain.  The Bend Parks got hit, and hit very hard.  The lake on which they are located is actually a resevoir created by a dam across the Sabine River.  The Sabine has reached a new record high flood stage at 53' and it is expected to rise close to 60'.  

While we have been here in Sam Houston Jones we have watched TV and seen all the weather reports.  The weather has mostly skirted off to our west and crossed northeast above Lake Charles.  Last evening things changed and the weather crossed to our east!  We have indeed been very, very lucky.  Our next campground is Grand Isle and that is where they are picking up "inches" of rain today! Hopefully, when we send this blog off into the ether from some snug Starbucks in on Saturday morning that the weather will have moved on from the New Orleans and Grand Isle area and we'll get sunshine.

The one and only egret we have seen in the park!

We have to include the above photo because the egret's wings are just so beautiful.  This one flew over to the other side of the pond and as he was landing, Marty shot this photo.

We do hear lots of these guys at night as well as during the day.  This is a BIG bullfrog.

Ah yes, snakes "doing the deed" we think.  There are four snakes in this bundle.  We assume that one is a female and she's got three males all trying to mate with her.  Don't know which water snake this is but are assuming that it is not a copper head based on head shape.  We were not about to try to get closer!  And these guys were on top of some floating plants in the pond.

We have enjoyed lots of NPR down here in Louisiana.  Whereas in Maine we get classical music in the mornings after Morning Edition's news, here we get blues.  When we were up north in Louisiana, we picked up Red River Radio (also NPR), but they seemed to be doing a never-ending pledge drive.  We were in their range for at least two weeks, and they were soliciting donations the whole time.  We think they keep it up until they meet their budget goals.  It really makes us happy that MPBN does it all in one day.