Mammoth Goes to Grand Isle State Park

Monday February 5
Tickfaw State Park to Grand Isle State Park

We left at 10:00 for the dump station, then left the park at 10:46. (We had to load the car on the tow dolly after dumping; that's why it took so long) Dang, it had gotten cold overnight. Note from the night before: during the 8:30 p.m. dog walk, the frogs were loud! How is that possible, since they're cold-blooded creatures:. Or do amphibians have an internal heat source?

The drive for the day was a "shortish" three hours to Grand Isle State Park. It seemed a lot longer because the last hour of the three was on narrow roads--and bridges, of course, since this is southern Louisiana--going thirty miles per hour. I found myself not looking forward to making this drive in the reverse direction in four days.

After a short gas stop at a nice little truck stop on Highway 1, we arrived at 1:50 pm. The trip odometer said 145.2 miles. Hookups were complete by 2:18. Nice.

 
On the way, after crossing the toll bridge ($4.50 or so) to the island, we drove past miles and miles of beach houses. There were only a few restaurants and only two grocery stores, however, there might have been some more off the main drag. On our right (ocean side) the houses were only a single row deep, but on the bay side there were four or more rows of houses and some industry off in the distance, but not all that far in the distance--if you'd been standing on the Mammoth roof top, you could have easily seen the water on either side of the barrier island.  There were a few cars here and there but the whole place seemed oddly deserted. Off season, I guess.

 

The campground was immaculate--a perfectly groomed, mathematically calculated line of RV sites on a perfectly cleared and mowed field. The sites were pull-through and very long, long enough that we could leave the tow dolly hitched, park the car in front, and still have room in front for another car if we had one. There were two rows of sites with the road looping around the outside and down the middle; on the other side of the road the grass was mowed for six yards or so and then little trees were grown up all around.

Although the park itself was very clean, there was trash in the low trees and brush all around. Not nearly as much as I've come to expect around parks in Texas. Just a little litter here and there.

 

We could see the ocean from our Mammoth RV--but only if we climbed up to the roof. I did it, just to prove the point--and I hate going up that ladder! The dogs and  I took a short walk through the brush and over the dunes, and there we could see the ocean easily. If only dogs were allowed on the beach!

It was colder than snot and very windy. Well, technically it was in the low fifties, but with a 15 to 20 mile-per-hour wind it seemed frigid. The birds in the trees weren't upset by the wind, but I notice they were mostly keeping close to the trees. Phoebes and yellow-rumped warblers were all I saw that day.

Mammoth stays at Tickfaw another day

 Sunday, January 31 2021

From my notes for the day:
January is ending and there's just four short weeks until I can start actively scanning the skies for migrating warblers. And buntings, and orioles, and tanagers, etc. For now, we've just got the normal, birds who've been here all winter. I'm taking my binoculars in a bit, along with the dog, for some serious bird watching. I saw a couple of robin-like birds in the bushes this morning which could have been Veery--but no binoculars.

The bird-watching episode turned out to be different from expected--Ed came along and we took Zack down to the Alligator Crossing spot on the road. We stared and stared into the muck, but no alligators appeared. Then we walked back, stopping at Mother Tree where I saw nothing until Ed pointed out a bevy of small birds in the trees right in front of me. Chickadees and Butter-butts and one small bird that was very likely that warbler with no especial markings on it. But I didn't have the camera and I couldn't tell using just the binoculars.

After that we went back by the laundry room, where Ed went inside to check the price of the washers. He thought it must have been 25-cents, because there was only a quarter-sized coin slot. We only had one real quarter and one Filipino quarter between us, but we decided to do a single load and then see if the Filipino quarter would work in the dryer.

(Later, when I went back to do the load, I read the LED over the washer controls as  175. Which was a lot more likely to be the real price--$1.75 per load.  You'd still have to put in a quarter at a time--seven times!  So I didn't even try my measely two quarters.)

But before this, we walked on down to the bridge on the way to the front gate. and there, right at the top of the clear, non-algae topped water, was an alligator!

A smallish one, about four feet long. He moved a little to and fro, just hanging out in the water with his eyes exposed. I didn't get a picture, but here's a little friend in our campsite:

Last note about Tickfaw State Park: the best spots are 27 and the two on the far side (smaller numbers) of the volleyball court. But those might be noisy on weekends--that end of the park was where all the party was. But any site on the outside of the loop would be okay, preferring the ones near the end of the loop like the one we had. Our site pics:

Mammoth Dozes at Tickfaw State Park

 Saturday, January 30 2021

After sleeping a tad late (7:30) and fixing pancakes for breakfast, I took Molly for a long "jog". My leg was hurting worse than ever, and I was slow even for me. We went down the road, past the restroom and tent camping area, toward a pavilion and some trailheads. We took a trail that said it was 3/4 mile to the river, and it's possible that we went that far. But I'm not sure--we stopped when the trail ended at a little fishing pier out in a small river. I overheard some people saying that the trail kept on going after a left-turn at the river.

Spots of slick mud dotted the trail so I had to slow down and walk through them. My shoes got a little messy, but no big problem. At least I wasn't slogging with soaked feet the whole time, and I didn't have to peel off my socks the moment I returned to Mammoth.

There were three cyclists that overtook me on the trail, but other than that it was deserted until I started back. Then I met a group of about four people and two kids, then later a single lady with a mask on. But no animals at all, and only a few butterbutts and wrens in the brush.

And this wren, probably a House Wren:

On the road we had passed a short boardwalk to Mother Tree, a huge old cypress that was a lone remnant of the ones that used to populate the swamp. The signage explained that the big trees had been cut down in the early 1900s, leaving only ones that were rotten on the inside or otherwise inaccessible. Since Cypresses tend to "flare out" at the bottom, the loggers would construct a scaffold at the top of the flared portion and just saw the trees from the point where they slimmed down. As we were walking around, I looked for trees that had been cut like that but didn't see any. I suspect it was too long ago--it had been eighty or ninety years since the logging boom in the cypress swamps.

After my walk, Ed and I took a drive in search of the nature trail at Joyce Wildlife Management area. We found it, but only after passing it up by about eight miles and tracking back.

What a glorious swamp! We walked the short boardwalk to the end, peering into the scum-covered water in search of alligators, turtles, or whatever, but saw nothing except yellow-rumped warblers. I later did the research and found out that alligators go inactive (there's a special word for it, but it's not the same as hibernation) from October until March. So the chances of seeing an alligator in January are like, zilch.

But it was indeed glorious. I wish it had been twenty miles longer.

Then back to camp,where I ate lunch and inexplicably took a dozing-sort-of nap which wasted away the rest of the afternoon and screwed up my sleep that night. But no matter. I'd planned to be working on contract work for the time, so napping was preferable.

The campground was noisy, although our particular site was pleasant enough. It was a little too chilly to want to sit outside without a fire, so I only noticed the noise when I went for the evening dog walk. Typically I try to do the last walk sometime between 8:30 and 9:00, although with the earlier dark and the chill of winter, it's temping to do it even earlier than 8:30. But still, I'm asking the dogs to hold their business for over ten hours, from evening walk until morning walk (7:30-ish), so it would be mean to stretch the period much longer.

Molly and I walked in the dark toward the restroom and the road that goes out of the park, hoping to repeat the pleasant walk away from all the other campers that we'd taken on the previous night. But we'd barely gotten twenty yards when she went crazy, trying to attack the trees on either side. With my weak human senses, all I could see was a pool of water on the side of the road. But I'm sure she was hot on the scent of an armadillo or some such evil creature of the night that plagues her existence.

So we turned back, picked up Zack, and walked toward the other campsites in our loop. There was a bit of loud partying going on, but no critters. At one point a pickup truck took off and roared around the campground going way more than the 5-mile per hour speed limit, revving his already-loud engine up louder. He left, and I'm sure I wasn't the only person glad to see him go.

And all quiet for the night. Except for the very loud swamp critters.

Mammoth heads to the swamp - Tickfaw State Park

Friday, January 29
At 10:57 we headed to the dump. And at 11:12 we were leaving the dump station behind and heading out.

Bye, North Toledo Bend!

 

 

 

LA-6 turned out to be an okay road, but very rough. It's called the "El Camino Real" original route. But it needs repairs! I assume the original riders on the road were on foot or horseback--it's sure not suitable for RVs.

The terrain was very hilly and piney up north, but as we went south it became flat with scrubby deciduous trees on either side.

q: What is the Cane River Creole National Historic Park?

Then it became piney again. We went through a 15-mile long (at least) river bottom. I can't even imagine the amount of highway construction money it cost to create an elevated, four lane divided highway through the middle of a flood plain. After we passed through Alexandria the land started getting very flat. As in pancake flat. We lost the pine trees and entered a hardwood forest (leafless, of course), floored with palmetto.

We had to go through Baton Rouge to get on I-12. I say "had to" because the google navigator suggested that if we took the I-110 route instead of the one I'd chosen, we'd save ten minutes. And I trusted it. I hope it was the right choice, because the route we ended up on had heavy and very slow traffic for miles.

We made a quick stop at the I-49 rest area so the dogs could get a walk. Then we made a nearly disastrous fill-up at a Pilot gas station--the station was a little cramped to get into and the 'car' pumps were full, but we easily pulled into a truck pump. But then when we tried to leave, the truck exit was routed around the back and out onto a little four-lane street, with backed up traffic in both directions and only a few cars getting through at each cycle of the stoplight. A very nice guy driving a red pickup truck let us out, otherwise we'd have been there until midnight. And it was only 4:00 or so at the time!

Big city and suburb traffic always stinks, so I shouldn't be surprise. I hope the route back avoids big cities, but if it doesn't, I may re-route us.

On the other hand, getting over to I-110/I-10/I-12 in the first place was not exactly a joy. We were on smallish roads, a Louisiana state highway and a few US highways. But they went through all the small towns.  And the road surfaces were out of this world crummy!  It reminded me of US-75 through Oklahoma, with periodic craters that would shake your teeth out. They did shake out the plug for our toad (tow vehicle)'s extra brake lights that we have mounted on the roof. Apparently the plug bounced along the road for a number of miles, because the pointy things that plug into the socket were worn down to nubs.

We arrived fairly early, 4:38 at the gate, and by 5:26 (or so) we were done with hookups. We'd gone 274.7 miles per the trip odometer.

I made this note:
So we had to leave our lovely campground with almost no people and a water view, to drive four hours across Louisiana to get to Tickfaw State Park.  Which is in a swamp. And full--almost completely full--of people. Kids and bikes and dogs running loose; music played too loudly.  People and cars everywhere! It's a little city out here!

Clearly, I was not pleased. I noted that later I would get on google maps see if there were some day trips we could take to get away from the place.

One good thing I had to say--it was dark when night fell!  Really, really dark.  I hoped that maybe on Sunday night some three-quarters of these other people would leave and we could enjoy some night life.

Molly got awfully excited by some invisible critter at the end of an empty site. Maybe we'll see if...if ever all the people leave.

Other than the lack of scenery, the campsite is awfully nice.  Really long concrete pad and a little patio for the picnic table. Some of the sites have patios but others just have a freshly graveled spot. It's really very nice here, except for the lack of a view, privacy, and silence.

Mammoth Goes to Louisiana

 Thursday, January 28 2021
Trip to North Toledo Bend Reservoir, Tickfaw State Park, Grand Isle State Park and Colfax RV park.

What a crap trip this started off to be. At the end of the day we were in a very lovely place with very few people, but the start of it was late and the circumstances unpleasant--Jeep not ready, having to hook up the tow dolly for the car, etc. I don't want to write down the other trivial nonsense because I don't want to remember it.

We didn't leave until after noon (12:24), so the best we could hope for was to get in by 5:15. And we actually hit that goal--but it seemed much later. By the time we hooked up and I got freed up to take pictures, it was getting dark:

We'd taken 69 down to I-20. I'm not sure that was the best route--it was an okay road, but awfully wavy and bumpy. It had big shoulders, but went through tons of small towns--Point, Emory, Albe... Every ten miles, another small town and another 40 mph speed limit with traffic lights. Blah.

When we were finally on I-20, I made a note that road construction was causing a LONG westbound back up just this side of Longview and that we should check and possibly avoid that stretch of road on the way back. (Of course, we completely forgot)  Next we had an annoying gas stop in Mansfield at a little privately owned "truck stop". The idiot at the cash register couldn't simply look out the window and see which pump we were on. So back out I went to ask Ed, and he said 7. So the guy supposedly turned on 7. I went back out--no gas. So we decided it was 8 and told the guy to turn on 8. No gas. I went back in. Eventually Ed was ready to give up and just leave, but I knew there were no other gas stops on the rest of our route.

Just on a hunch, he tried the other pump #7, on the opposite side of the pump and it worked. How it made sense, to have two different pumps with the same number, I cannot father. But luckily the hose stretched around the pump and to our tank. From now on we're sticking to big Interstate highway truck stops whenever possible.

After all that fun, we arrived at the park at 5:15 after going 271.9 miles.

The site is on a hill at the edge of the lake, pleasantly nestled amid lots and lots of tall pine trees. So we didn't have an unobstructed view of the water, but we did have a view. It was lovely! The campground was very nice. Good roads, big sites, privacy, lake peeping through the trees. The very only thing bad I could say is that there were streetlights scattered here and there; every ten or fifteen sites. We were lucky not to be directly underneath one--honestly, I had no idea there was any such a thing as streetlights in a campground!  And now this makes two in a row!

So remember this: don't choose campsites without trying to see where the streetlights are. No to #44 and #46; avoid #45. #47 is okay. All the sites without streetlights were fine, and of course, the ones on the water were superb. Like the one we had. Some of the sites are long enough to park the boat at, and in fact, this would be a great place to take a boat to. The reservoir is on the border between Texas and Louisiana, so the only issue might be figuring out which state to get a fishing license from.

I was very sorry not to be able to stay at this place longer. I'd originally booked it for two nights, which would have been perfect, but we had to leave a day late and so give up the first night. There were several trails I might have walked, including one that went out to a "sunset point" view of the lake.  We walked a few yards along one but that was all.

Biography review where I failed to warm to the subject

Mary Edwards Walker:

America's Only Female Medal of Honor Recipient

by Ammar Habib

I'm going to quit on this one, at about page 46. Or maybe I'll try just a little bit more. It's just seeming awfully dry to me. I think the author was so determined to keep his opinions out of the narrative that he squeezed out all the heart and left only bare facts. Seriously--it reads like an encyclopedia article.

Sorry to be so judgmental--the research seems excellent and the book is very well-written. So I won't say it's a fault of the writing--more likely, a fault in my reading because I'm just not finding Mrs.Walker all that interesting. She certainly seems a bit oddball, at least in the part I've read up until now. Her dislike of womanly wear seems extreme to the point of mania. Yeah, I see why one might hate hoops, corsets, tight-lacing and layers of skirts that weigh you down and prevent free motion. The author writes,
Her most zealous topics tended to be about women's rights. Mary did not see eye-to-eye with many mainstream suffragists. These suffragists solely focused on granting women the right to vote and were willing to compromise on other issues, such as dress reform and amending the ways women could file for a divorce, in order to attain their goal. However, Mary was unwilling to compromise any of her ideals on women's rights. For her, every aspect of women's equality was as important as the rest.

Okay, but get some perspective. Go for the vote and the rest will naturally follow. I guess. Or maybe not. We've been voting for a hundred years and there are still a lot of issues unresolved. Drat.

But never the mind--me not warming up to the subject of the biography is no reason to fault the biography or the biographer. But it is a reason why I'm giving up reading the book. Sorry, and remember my thoughts are purely my own and have no authority to judge this book for others. So I will not give it a rating.

The Pants of Perspective

One Woman's 3,000 Kilometre Running Adventure through the Wilds of New Zealand

by Anna McNuff

I cannot resist a travel story--and this is no slouch of a travel story! Don't know what to do with your life? How about running up the length of New Zealand?

Along the way she makes a lot of wonderful traveling--and stationary--friends. And sees some amazingly gorgeous scenery. And fights fatigue and injuries, loneliness and joy.

There were times when I had a little trouble picking the book back up, but I can't put a finger on exactly what was wrong with the writing. Possibly it was me--I was reading this while on vacation and maybe I rushed through too fast. Or possibly it was just the simplicity of the style--here is an example,
Pounding away and picking up the pieces with Paloma by my side, I was struck by how dense the forest was. I didn't think I'd ever been in a forest like this before. The ones in the UK tended to have a lot of space between the trees, but in this one there were very few gaps on the ground, or even in the canopy. The trail was easy enough to follow in the first mile or so of Longwood Forest. It was part of a well-trodden tourist pathway....

It went on in this style for one very long paragraph. I'd have made at least three paragraphs out of this. So I think my issue was simply with the writing style--kind of run-on. Like a bunch of bulleted lists crammed together in a paragraph.

However, the source material--her journey and her adventures and her internal struggles--those were spot on. With a little better writing, this would be a masterpiece.