Leaving Hot, Humid, Flood Ravaged Louisiana Behind


We have been camping in a lot of parks with light pollution.  Last night was an exception.  The campground was pitch black…nice for camping…but…there always seems to be a but!  When I got up this morning well before daylight, I stepped out of the trailer and heard a scrambling noise coming from our campsite followed by a bark and then a growl.  It was momentarily disconcerting…translation…I just about ‘shit’ myself.  Quickly flipping on my headlight, I realized that 2 dogs (good looking German Shepards) had made themselves comfortable under our picnic table.  Not sure of their intent, I yelled at them and they slowly left our campsite.  Shortly they were back.  I yelled at them again to scare them away without success.  I picked up a stick and tossed it in their direction to scare them off.  To my surprise, the younger one knew this game.  It was called ‘fetch’.  The bloody dog brought me back the stick.  Eventually, after being ignored by us, they wandered away probably to another campsite.  It would be interesting to know where they belonged.  If we were not in the US we might just have had a couple of new pets to take home.

Today was a day to escape from Louisiana.  We saw lots more flooding but the further west we went there was definitely less water problems.  In fact, we saw irrigation equipment at one point.  Western Louisiana has lots of different kinds of agriculture.  Soybeans, corn, and rice was being grown.  Cattle grazing was common but the strangest form of agriculture we saw was crawfish (crayfish in our world) being farmed.  They now grow them in converted rice paddies.  They grow rice as well that the crawfish eat.  Logging is huge through the area as well.  They log like we do in Canada…clear-cutting!

We entered ‘East Texas’ today.  It became clear that this area of Texas wants to be sure that everyone passing through knows that it is ‘East Texas’.  We are not sure what that is all about yet.

We are in another KOA tonight, this time in Rusk, Texas.  The State Parks are small, few and far between and apparently full.  Weekends continue to be our nemesis.

Distance Traveled = 395 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Great Egret, Cattle Egret, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Little Blue Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Tufted Titmouse, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Anhinga, Black Crowned Night Heron, Eurasian Collared Dove, Cardinal, Red Tailed Hawk, Raccoon, Black Cat in campground, 2 campground dogs.


Black Eyed Susan's covering the roadside in East Texas

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