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.