Written by: Jeremy
Well, it has been a couple of weeks since we visited New Orleans and Robin had promised to author this blog, but I don’t see it happening. So in the interest of keeping things somewhat moving, I decided to knock this out.
We mentioned in our last blog that we decided to venture out to NOLA for Mardi Gras from our spot in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. We boarded the dogs, cashed in a few hotel points and got a room at a hotel in the French Quarter on the Sunday before Mardi Gras.
We showed up early so as to beat the traffic, dumped the F250 with the hotel Valet and headed out on foot for some eggs and Bloody Mary’s and to do a little sightseeing in town before the festivities got underway. This was a different place day versus night, that is for sure.
Well, yada, yada, our day did not end until about 1 am on Monday as we strolled down Bourbon street in a surreal experience weaving between the drunks and druggies in an eye opening display that was about what you would expect. It was crazy but we never did feel unsafe. Sorry, both of our phones were dead by the end of the night so not many good late night photos to share.
Although NOLA and the Mardi Gras parades were fun, this was a people watcher’s paradise. A once in a lifetime experience that we may or may not feel the need to repeat…ever. We partied, ate, drank, watched some parades, caught some beads, and even met some friends that were also in town for the festivities.
All in all, we experienced exactly what we wanted for Mardi Gras 2014 and we almost escaped without injury. Robin caught an unusually heavy set of beads whipped at her and the tail end flung around and hit her square in the forehead. The swelling lasted most of the night but did not dampen her enthusiasm. All the drinks probably helped as did some repositioning of her bangs.
I am not sure that I have anything really profound to say about our experience at Mardi Gras in New Orleans so I will just post some pictures of some floats and weirdo’s.
Upon returning to our month long home in Bay St. Louis we were tired and kind of regretted agreeing to march in the Monday night Bay Saint Louis parade with our fellow snow birders in an evening when temperatures dropped into the 30’s. All in all, we completed our Mardi Gras Journey, if not in style, at least with a shred of dignity still intact.
Sam Houston Jones State Park, Louisiana
Written by: Jeremy
After all of the excitement of Mardi Gras and after a month long stint in Bay St. Louis we were both getting the travel bug again. Yes, we needed to slow down but after over a month stationery our wanderlust was kicking in as was our desire to get to some dry climates.
We knew we were headed to and through Texas but we weren’t really sure where. We thought about Austin, but the South By Southwest festivities were probably a little more than we were up for and we had not made any reservations in advance. We found zero availability when we finally looked but that was OK as neither one of us really had enough time off work to really enjoy such a festival. Maybe another year. We decided to head towards San Antonio. The drive all the way from Bay St. Louis was a little far and we also wanted a chance to notch Louisiana into our RV travel belt.
Sam Houston Jones State Park in Western Louisiana fit our needs perfectly and we reveled in a nice spacious State Park for a few days on our way to Texas.
The park was nice with plenty of hiking for the boys. The nearby town of Lake Charles was a dump and the campground itself was a little full of yeah-hoe’s on the weekend. Apparently putting up a spot light and then dumping a giant bag of deer feed around your RV makes for a real fun weekend of camping for people in this neck of the woods. I can only imagine what would happen if someone dumped a bag of feed down for deer and raccoons in a Colorado park. They would probably be arrested on the spot. Similar to what would happen at Sam Houston Jones State Park if you were to light up a joint. Different people and priorities for sure.
The river hike and marshland were a real treat and although the park was full, it didn’t seem like the people do much hiking here so we had the trails to ourselves.All in all, we enjoyed our stay and would recommend this park for anyone passing through western Louisiana.
View Larger Map
Leave a comment
Posted in Camp Ground Reviews, General Commentary, Jeremy Blog, Live, Louisiana, Uncategorized
Tagged Sam Houston Jones State Park