Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 23

Thursday, March 5
Add to trip lessons learned: on multi-night stays, always empty the coffeepot while doing dishes. Put it in Ed's cup if needed. I forgot and it overflowed, but only a little.

Goodbye, lovely campsite by the lake!

 

 

 

Our last stop for the trip was the Shreveport/Bossier City KOA. It was okay, for a KOA. A little litter cleanup would have helped.  The dog parks were okay; there was a very nice playground.

It wasn’t crowded at all, on a Thursday of course.  There was a small section of what appeared to be seasonal or permanent resident sites. But we had site 34, a nice, big pull-thru site with a patio. I’m sure I paid through the nose for it. Starlink reception was good. The sites were very close together, as usual.

 

Are those people in the window? 

  Zooming in... 

  

They had a little pond (mosquito breeding facility) in the back with promise of some good birding in season. At the time, it was mostly robins and a thrasher. There were lots of big pines back there, too.

They had a double dog park—big and small with a connecting gate. Molly was not in mood for ball at first. We took a walk, then she had to check out the small dog section, so I opened the connecting gate and let her through.  Then she played ball. Good girl!

If I ever plan on stopping here on the way out, remember to check on charcoal grill fires. They don’t allow campfires, at all, but we didn’t ask about our charcoal grill.

I did notice that Bossier City’s Murrell’s restaurant closed about 7 years ago. Sad.

 Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 22

Wednesday, March 4

One of my favorite places to be--sitting at a picnic table beside a lake on a spring morning.  Coolish air blowing but the promise of warming up later. If only the summer birds were here!

After pancakes and my breaking the kitchen drawer slide, we went in search of the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Cypress Swamp walk. The drive down Natchez Trace Parkway was glorious with wide curves and huge trees lining the broad roadway. I'd love to do the whole thing, end to end, someday. Or walk it!

 

The Swamp Walk wasn't where Google said it was but not far off from that, either. People should have warned us that it wasn't a swamp but rather a former swamp, slowly filling itself in after the Pearl River diverted and left it behind.  It wasn’t very large nor very interesting. Oh, well.

 

Later, back at camp, Molly and I took a deliciously long walk along the something-or-other trail and then the Beaver Dam trail (named creatively—nowhere near any water) and then the little Persimmon trail. I heard something cool I never dreamed existed. A couple of Bald Eagles were circling overhead and talking to each other, in gentle tones. Kind of like a soft version of the Greater Yellowlegs call. Not something you'd expect from a big, fierce predator.

It was a great walk although it did take us close to the edge of the park and the back fields of some farm houses. I was worried that some territorial farm dogs might hear us. None did, and we finished the walk back at the lovely lake.

And so the sun went down on our last real day of camping this trip. (We have one more night but that's at a KOA--not a real campground. They try, but there's only so much nature they can provide and still cater to the 45' monstrosity motorhomes.)

But this is a very nice place. Geese honking like lost baby seals. Kingfisher having his final say. We will have a peaceful night.

Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 21

Tuesday, March 3

Molly and I went for a morning  boardwalk bird watch. Add to trip notes: I need to put in my contact lenses the next time we do something like this!

The Merlin App heard both a Clapper Rail and a King Rail there, but no rails appeared to my human vision. Bah. Also Yellowthroat and Brown-headed Nuthatch. I saw Tricolored Heron, Reddish Egret, White Ibis, American Alligator, Laughing Gull, Bluebird, and doves, all of the Mourning Dove persuasion.

 

I'd definitely go back there for another trip, and next time take the boat out around the lagoon. It looks lovely other than the occasional alligator. Gorgeous weather. 76/57 today.

Desperately trying to get on the Interstate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it was time to head toward home. After a shortish drive we ended up at Roosevelt State Park. It was absolutely gorgeous.  Our campsite had a concrete pad with patio, grill, and a nice big picnic table. FHU. Seems brand new.  The site was right on the lake, with a water slide across from us.  When the sun set (later) it was behind us, so I hoped the sunrise might be over the lake. But more likely it would be behind the trees on the opposite shore.

I would definitely stop there again—there were lots of huge campsites.  There was traffic noise but at a distance. The campground was very close to I-20; brand new; some streetlights but not at the waterfront sites in the new campground—our site was nice and dark. But I would not like the other campground, the one called “CCC”—it had nice sites by the lake also, but too many street lights.

For our walk, Molly and I took the wrong trail (our map was black and white but the trail markers were colored) and all it did was wind around a bit and dump us back out at the campground next to us, near the bathroom.

So we went on along the road and drew the attention of an unleashed dog, who headed our way and was joined by another one. I had to call Ed to come get us just in case. Even if they were friendly Molly would have had a fight to pick.

Other than that, it was a nice walk. There were Canada Geese in the water; Brown-headed nuthatch (noisy little thing) at our campsite; Yellow-throated Warbler, Chipping Sparrows, and bluebirds who wanted to occupy the rail around our little deck.

Note at time: Little yellow bird just perched on the rail and looked at me. Yellow-throated vireo or pine warbler? I didn’t check my field marks!

Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 20

 Monday, March 2

First white-eyed vireo of spring!  But of course, I am in Florida. He might have spent the winter here. 

We saw the usual lone Pied-billed Grebe out in the river. The water was still in the morning, but a little ripple disturbed its sheen. The rooster was crowing and Limpkins were calling out across the water. Those were certainly some new sounds  for me in the morning.

It was clearly still winter there--only a few trees were blooming; most were bare. It would have been easy to see birds but there just weren’t a lot back yet.

While we were sitting out on the fishing pier trying to get some warmth from the early sun, a Limpkin came nosing up along the shore right beside us. Molly saw it--good dog! It called/crowed? For a random few seconds. Weirdest bird sound ever.

Travel day. We went west to Meaher State Park just over the Alabama state line. It was kind of a MEH state park--very open and developed; tons of fancy-ass big honking RVs, all lined up in rows like an RV park. There were big pine trees in the middle—that was pleasant. But there was constant traffic noise from I-10 all day and night.  You could see all the traffic in the distance across the bay.

 Our RV from the boardwalk 

 

But… there were also tons of birds in the huge Mobile Bay. And an alligator. There was a long fishing pier stretching far out into the water.

I didn't find the bird-watching boardwalk at first so Molly and I went strolling around and found a little road called “Canecutters road” with some bee hives, out in the middle of nowhere. With warning signs. 

 The bee hives

 

We saw a Boat-tailed Grackle or twenty, but I’d seen them before down at the Texas coast. We also saw some kind of cool raptor as he deserted the trail in front of us. It was either a Cooper’s Hawk or a Red-Shouldered Hawk, from the size.

Traffic on Interstate 10 across the bay.

In the back of the campground there was a row of little cabins, and next to them a nesting stand with an Osprey nest right there!  The cabins weren’t occupied, but the nest surely was!  I can’t believe the birds tolerated all those humans so near by.

The alligator, but you can't see him. 

And the birding boardwalk!  It goes right out through the swamp and makes a little circle. I was sure I heard some sort of marsh-dwelling sparrow out there, but I never got a look at it. Merlin said it was a Swamp Sparrow. But I can’t count it just on Merlin’s say-so.

Best I could do was one small alligator and a whole lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers.

I found a tick on my ankle at bedtime. Attached.

Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 19

Sunday, March 1 2026

I saw a Swallow-tailed kite over the campground. Cool.

We left late on purpose—we had a 4pm check-in time at a COE park on a Sunday. Which could be disastrous….

But it wasn’t. There was no issue with us checking in early. Plus, it was NOT a COE park—it was called “Coe Landing” which confused me—it was actually a county park.  I don’t believe we spoke to or saw a single human host or other sort of worker. We just drove in and found our site, and our name was on the post.

 

It was a lovely little tiny campground, right beside a river.  The sites alongside the river, which of course included our site, had balcony/porches with rails.  Very old wood but strong and quite durable.

 

The actual parking areas were tight and very unlevel, but our site 15 pull-thru was plenty long enough for us with room to spare in the front. Gravel pad. Ed stressed at first because he saw no hope for a starlink signal and his life would be misery without the constant noise of crap TV. But starlink pulled thru, on the picnic table pointing through the trees out toward the lake.

There were birds all over. Including chickens. And a rooster. A very noisy rooster.  And across the river (or was it a lake?) there were Limpkins making a constant racket.

 

Review COE LANDING campground.

Very nice although probably impossible for anything much longer than us. We were in a 35’ motorhome, and our site 15 pull-thru was plenty long enough for our it and our toad. It was crooked and unlevel, but not at all difficult.  The road through the campground was very narrow with trees on the sides but we didn’t scrape. A trailer or small fifth wheel came in during the night and backed into the site next to us. It took them several tries, but they made it.

The lake was pretty trashy down around the water and boat ramp, but the campground had obviously been tidied up. It was nice.

Our site was in heavy tree cover, but we set the Starlink on the picnic table and pointed it through the trees out toward the lake. It had outages but worked well enough for streaming TV.

Our site surface was gravel; we had a deck with a picnic table and barbeque grill. The water pressure was good and the 50-amp electricity worked ok. The dump station was easy to get into but had a sharp turn coming out, however, it wasn’t too sharp for us even with the toad attached.  The only water faucet for tank cleanout was labeled as potable water. I would NOT use it to fill my tanks. It was too close to the sewer and most likely people would have used it for tank cleanout, with a possibility of backflow.  But of course there was water at the sites so there would be no reason to use it for drinking.

It's a very pretty place, great for fishing though I didn’t actually see anyone catching any. There’s a nice little boat ramp and lots of docks and fishing piers.

Limpkins were common—I heard them calling across the river and also watched one foraging along the bank on my side.

 

Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 18

Saturday, February 28

(At Whimcycle RV Resort) Yesterday, when we first got here it was starting to rain. And the place looked so bare and seemed to have no amenities at all--I was disgruntled. How could this little circle of asphalt with angled parking spots for the cars and grassy driveways into little gravels "pads" for the RVs…be any good?

It then proceeded to rain all night.

We had a great dinner at Los Magueyes about 6 minutes away. The chips and salsa weren’t so special, but Ed’s molcajete (I think that’s Spanish for mess of meat) was great and my veggie bowl quite tasty. There was lots of good looking fish dishes too and at least six other veg dishes on the menu.

But in the morning, the day of this post, things were still dripping and skies overcast, but it was nicely warm. And not overly soggy. Florida drains well. And I found the lovely little dog park tucked away behind the laundry room. They also had a recreation area and a bike wash station, plus a 200' trail over to a lovely, paved bike trail that connects to lots of walking trails and other bike trails.  A sign at the dog park explained which trails were dog-friendly, which was very nice and exactly what I needed to know.

By the way, the Florida Trail comes by here!

We went over to Silver Springs SP and walked the boardwalk there. We never did see the monkeys, even though a man and woman said the monkeys had been there by the river just two days ago. But we did see Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorant, Wood Ducks, Ruby-crowned Kinglet,  White Ibis, Swallowtailed Kite, and Yellow-throated Warbler. Merlin heard Northern Parula (and I did too) but never saw one. Cool place and lots of birds!  I’d have seen a lot more if I hadn’t been looking for manatees and monkeys.

 

 There was a wedding going on when we arrived; we didn’t see it but the number of dressed up people was surprising. And at about noon the number of people in general peaked and it became hard to enjoy much of anything—too much dodging of people and dogs and strollers and children. What else would you expect, so beautiful a place on a Saturday?

If Molly and I had been by ourselves we would have wandered a whole lot of the lovely little wooded trails, both around the river and away from it. We could have spent a lot of hours there.

 

 

 

Male Wood Duck 

Female Wood Duck

Anhinga

 Note: next time in Florida, check out camping at Manatee Springs SP. Looks awesome.

Back at Whimcycle, after a quick late lunch and a little computer time, Molly and I took a long jog on the bike trail. (dogs allowed; I checked) After about 34 minutes we came to a state park with a campground and this sign—

This was also the junction of the Marjorie Davis Greenway and the Florida trail passed through there. I saw the sign for it, but didn’t walk on it.

I used the bathroom and we headed back,watching for bears all the way. We saw none, since it was about four o’clock in the afternoon, but we saw a whole lot of little gray squirrels. Bear food.

But when we got back to the cutoff that goes to the campground, I wasn’t ready to stop. We went on for 1:15 of jogging time and then started walking. In the other direction from Whimcycle (I think it was north), the trail goes on across two roads and keeps on going. I noticed that some of the people using the trail had parked alongside the road in the grassy shoulder, so I guess there is no official parking area near there. It would be interesting to see where it goes at that end.

 Correction to earlier note: it was officially called the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. But according to the map I didn’t get there, instead I got to the Santos Campground. To go further I would have had to cross a street, and I didn’t. But anyway I got to the Florida Trail which was my hope.

Georgia on my…Magnus? Day 17

Friday, February 27

We set our alarms for 4:45 am--there was a rocket launch that was supposed to put some Starlink satellites into orbit. It was scheduled for 5:20, but when the alarm went off I checked the official countdown site and discovered it had been rescheduled to 7:20. So I reset the alarm, went to the toilet, and went back to bed for two delicious hours of sleep

 

 

I woke up with baddish dreams about tornadoes and some friends I didn’t know in waking life (all made up). It was foggy outside. But, getting our coffee, we headed down to the bay anyway—maybe it would clear up.  Some hope--it was very, very foggy. So much you couldn’t see any buildings or towers across the waterway.

The rocket launched on schedule but I never caught a glimpse of it. The lady next to us said she did.  But we could all hear it! The birds out in the water were mildly disturbed.

Note to self: This is not such a bad place considering it’s in a populated area and it's crowded. People are so nice! I’d stay here again but probably only two nights, and I’d be sure to check the rocket launch schedule ahead of time.

And the wildlife refuge is awesome—I’d love to do some hiking there.

Rocket launch completed, we packed up and headed west. It's a good direction. 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the next RV park near the center of Florida. It was Whimcycle Trail Resort at Santos.  And I will describe it in the next posting.

Our supper, also to be described in the next post.