Trip to Cypremort Point State Park and Surrounding Areas

Morning-47F (8C)
Afternoon-61F (16C)

The cold front came in last night. We only had rain and a few distant thunder claps other than that and some wind it was pretty calm compared to the last two nights. When I got up this morning it was bright, sunny, windy and cold with no humidity! Quite a difference in temperature from yesterday. I even wore my gloves on my morning walk.

Around 10:30 a.m. or so we headed out to go to Cypremore Point State Park. First we stopped for diesel at 2.19.9. It's going up! While there my sister in Ottawa called. It was 47F (8C) at the time and it was 54F (12C) in Ottawa!

We had to get to the park in a roundabout way as apparently the bridge was out on the more direct way. Anyhow, I packed a lunch for us since there's nothing in that area and we headed out arriving there around noon. This park is on Vermilion Bay which is part of the Gulf of Mexico. It was very cold and windy. It wasn't much for a state park, picnic area, swimming area but it did have cottages for rent which apparently have everything including a fireplace and dishwasher. You bring your own towels and personal items. They supply sheets and blankets. We saw some windsurfers but that's about all you could do there today.

This is the bridge that goes over the intracoastal waterway on the way to the park.

Intracoastal waterway

Marsh at the state park

Quite a few palm trees in the state park

Looking out at Vermilion Bay - it does look kind of red

The cottages within the park

While there we drove around the vacation homes on the point. Lots of money there. I personally can't understand building a house in a spot like that. It wouldn't be a matter of 'if' a hurricane was going to wipe you out but 'when'.

The houses and boats on the intracoastal waterway on the point

We had taken US90 to get there until we turned off on Hwy 83 but took Hwy 182, the scenic route back through Jeanerette, New Iberia, and St. Martinville. We stopped in New Iberia and took some photos of the old homes that back on Bayou Teche, some of them antebellum. Then we crossed Bayou Teche and walked around the City park. It was a very nice park. It even had some Muscovy ducks.

I love this house just outside of Jeanerette

Beautiful old trees in New Iberia

New Iberia City Park

Muscovy duck or 'durkey' as some people call them

Here's a little background taken from Wikipedia on Bayou Teche:

"The Bayou Teche is a 125-mile long waterway of great cultural significance in south central Louisiana. Bayou Teche was the Mississippi River's main course when it developed a delta about 2,800 to 4,500 years ago. Through a natural process known as deltaic switching the river's deposits of silt and sediment causes the Mississippi to change its course every thousand years or so."

This is Bayou Teche as it runs through Breaux Bridge.


Back through St. Martinville where we drove into the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site. Gordon will go back probably tomorrow to see that as I don't have a lot of interest in historical things.

We drove to Lake Martin and walked the boardwalk again, then stopped briefly at the rookery before heading home.

A little green anole on the boardwalk at Lake Martin

Another swamp photo

And yet another

I find graveyards down here really interesting as people aren't buried in the ground but above ground.

We arrived home about 4:45 p.m.

I feel kind of like I'm getting a sore throat, probably the change in the weather!

Survived Another One!

Morning-65F (18C)
Afternoon-83F (28C)

The thunderstorms came earlier last night, knocked out the TV satellite so I missed the last 20 minutes of Gray's Anatomy. You'd think the storm could have waited another 20 minutes! Oh well, I'm sure I'll see it on reruns this summer. The thunderstorm wasn't as bad last night as the night before but we still had lots and lots of rain. There were tornado watches but again we escaped that again, thank goodness!

Yellow swamp iris


I actually had a bit of sun on my walk this morning but the forecast is for another night tonight like the last two then these systems move off to the east and bother someone else! Tomorrow is forecast to be much cooler than it has been.

Stormy skies over fishing pond


This morning I defrosted the freezer, another little job done. After lunch I went into Breaux Bridge to get it filled up again. I also got a hair cut. I looked in a couple of the other grocery stores. I'm trying to find yellow corn grits (polenta) without any success.

We didn't have any rain during the day today and had a bit of sun off and on but very humid. I can't imagine what it's like here in July and August. Not a place I'd want to be.

I'm posting this early in case we lose the internet when tonight's storm hits!

Weather Obsessions

Last night was a very unsettled night. I was listening to the NOAA station on my weather radio and it was forecasting very severe storms with 60 mph winds with a tornado watch and warning that if you were in its path to seek appropriate shelter immediately. I was watching the animated map and it seemed as if the storm was going to go north and continue east of us however not being used to storms of this type being from Ontario, I couldn't sleep. I woke Gordon up and told him, he wasn't concerned so I lay down fully clothed. The thunderstorm arrived with very heavy rain but no real wind as was forecast. I haven't heard of any tornados that hit the area, thank goodness. However, tonight is another stormy night!

Before I got up this morning I was listening to a radio station that was asking people to call in and tell them what the grossest thing was they had found in their food at a restaurant. Some of it was pretty awful. It makes you never want to eat in a restaurant again. What a way to start the day!

Morning-62F (17C)
Afternoon-75F (24C)

I got up a bit later this morning considering I didn't sleep well. It was still raining a bit but not enough to keep me from my walk.

After breakfast and some internet surfing, reading blogs etc. I managed to get a little cleaning done, not much, don't want to overdo that sort of thing when you're retired!

I started reading a new blog today. I got the link from the rv-dreams forum. So here's another one for everyone - Tales from a Crazy Heifer. I've read it from the start and am trying to add it to my sidebar under "Heather". So far, I've done it twice but it doesn't show up so I've left it under the blog name but will change it as soon as blogspot will let me.

Today was a quiet, cloudy, humid day. We didn't have rain during the day but I kept watching the satellite and another storm is approaching from the west although it looks as if it will take the same path as last night's did. It looks as if there were a lot of active tornadoes today in Louisiana but none in our area.

I spent the day either on the computer or reading inside. I only went outside once briefly this afternoon to take a photo of a great blue heron that landed on the platform in the pond across from us.

Today's photo of the kissy face swallows was taken today by Gordon. Aren't they cute?

About Poche's Fish N Camp & A Visit to the Rookery

Morning-70F (21C)
Afternoon-77F (25C)

We slept with the windows open again. I was listening to the radio before I got up and the forecast was for rain 'heavy at times' and when I got up it looked like rain was imminent but I set out anyway and didn't go far from the RV. It started to rain after I was out about 15 minutes. I was close by so didn't get too wet. It rained off and on and we had some sunny spots here and there.

Don't know why but my allergies are really acting up today. My eyes are so blurry I can hardly see. I've used a variety of eye drops and taken some Sudafed but nothing seems to be working. It's very annoying! I had planned to be doing some beading but it's hard to do with blurry eyes!

One of our fellow rv-dreams chatters has requested some campground information. Poche's Fish-N-Camp is a nice campground here at Breaux Bridge. It's out in the country so it's quiet and has four fishing ponds that are stocked. If you have Passport America and Good Sam the cost is $125/wk. We only have Passport America so the cost is $135/wk. which still isn't too bad. I don't know their cost for a month. Passport America is good Sunday thru Thursday so you pay full price on Friday and Saturday. It's about 5 miles into Breaux Bridge and there is a Superwalmart there as well as a Winn Dixie and a couple of other grocery stores. It's 15 miles to Lafayette which has some major shopping and has a population of about 110,000 or so. The campground has tengo internet that you have to pay for, laundry facilities, a swimming pool and they stock quite a bit of foodstuffs at the office. Some of the sites are paved and some are gravel. The gravel ones aren't necessarily level so you'll need some levelling blocks. Poche's also has a restaurant a couple of roads over that I've heard is pretty good. It's advertised on their site. To go to their site, click here. They also have cabins for rent. There are a number of birds that hang out around the ponds but most people seem to fish that stay here. Lake Martin is also about 1/2 hour (11 miles) away if you enjoy photography or birding.

This afternoon we went back to the rookery and I got to walk on the boardwalk as last time I was there it was closed. The boardwalk appears to be brand new and I don't remember this part of it being there when we were here in the Fall.

Little blue heron in the swamp

Night heron in the swamp - there's a ton of night herons here, more than I've ever seen before

This is the new boardwalk through the swamp

Dragonfly on the boardwalk

Egret and his reflection

Two little alligators on a log

Little blue heron in the swamp

On our way home we drove down a side road that the lady in the office had told Gordon was a pretty drive and indeed it was. Here 's a photo.

We had a fair amount of sun this afternoon and no rain where we were but I think that is about to change.......

Another Restful Day

Low-62 (17C)
High-76 (24C)

Last night after I posted my blog, Gordon got fed up with our router again so we went in to Superwalmart and bought another one. He set it up during the night. We used it today and it doesn't seem to be any better than the old one so I guess another trip to Superwalmart is in order to return the one we bought!

We slept with the windows open last night. It had been warm enough to do it since we've been here but there are tiny flies that can make it through the screens so we hadn't done it but last night's wind took the flies away so we took advantage of that. Also we are pretty much alone in our part of the campground now.

It was mostly cloudy today although I did have a peek or two of sun when I was out for my morning walk.

We had sun and cloud on and off today so it would have been an okay day to travel if we had decided to leave here.

I didn't do much today - read, went up and sat on the verandah at the rec hall, walked some books I had read up to the laundry room where they're starting a library, walked around the ponds a bit and this afternoon I baked a coffee cake from a gluten free mix I had purchased from HEB when we were in Victoria. I don't bake very often mainly because we don't need the extra calories but also because baking gluten free stuff from scratch requires a lot of ingredients to carry around so since we started rving, I haven't been doing it. It sure smelled good when it was baking and it tasted pretty good with a blackberry topping!

Here are some photos from my walk about.

This is the office and living quarters for the Poche family here in the park.

Really big thistle with pretty purple flower

Path and pretty clouds by fishing pond

Our site between the fishing ponds

I took this photo just before sunset tonight.

For Gordon's latest journal update click here.

Laundry and Resting

Low-62F (17C)
High-76F (24C)

It was partly cloudy most of today but still pleasant with a breeze. After my morning walk, breakfast and a shower, I changed the bed and got the clothes ready to do laundry.

Gordon drove me up and helped me unload the laundry and while I got it in the machines he took the trash to the dumpster, then we both went to the office to see about signing up for another week here. We still have a couple of weeks before we have to start heading north and we didn't see anywhere else we wanted to go in Louisiana. Gordon really likes Lake Martin and this is a nice Passport America Park so why not stay here. They have 3 RVs coming in on Wednesday that wanted to be together taking this spot and two beside us. This is a family run operation so they had to consult Momma about us staying in the spot we're in. As it turned out we're okay where we are for another week.

I went back to doing laundry and Gordon walked back to the RV. About 2 hours later I was done so came home for lunch.

Gordon decided to go to the rookery but I was tired not having slept well last night so I stayed behind and made up a meatloaf for tonight's dinner and did some reading and computering.

I just got notification that Rollie and Gina now have a blog. I'm putting it on my sidebar but to go there, click here. We met Rollie and Gina in Kerrville a couple of weeks ago and had a tour of their very very big truck! One of our regular chatters, Hembree has also been added, click here to see her blog.

Late afternoon I didn't have any photos for my blog so I took a little walk through the campground. Here's what you get from that walk.

Looking toward the office and the RV entrance from our site

This is the first cattle egret I've seen here

Our RV looks lonely all by itself

Pretty clouds over the RV's on the other side of the fishing pond

More pretty clouds

This is the rec hall

Sun rays near sunset



I started reading a book called "Toxin" by Robin Cook yesterday. I have to tell you that reading this really makes you want to become a vegetarian. Since I had the hamburg out of the freezer I had to make something out of it so chose meatloaf but I'm not sure how good it's going to taste!

To Houma, LA

Low-56F (13C)
High-79F (26C)

I woke up to dense fog. I had heard Gordon leave for Lake Martin before sunrise so away I went on my walk and took some photos as the fog was lifting.

A couple of photos of trees just as the fog was lifting


Spider web in the fishing pond

GBH in the pond at the front of the park

One of the irises in bloom outside the rec hall

The rec hall here has a verandah that goes around all four sides. It sits along one of the fishing ponds. I need to go down and sit in one of their rockers and just dream for a while!

As we were leaving the park, these two loons were swimming in the pond just as you're leaving the park.


About 10 a.m. we left the RV park and headed out for a road trip. We took I-90 from Lafayette to Morgan City. I stand by my opinion that Louisiana roads are the worst I've ever been on. Just outside Morgan City we happened upon the Brownell Memorial Park. We stopped for a while and walked on one of the trails taking some trail and swamp photos as well as photos of the Carillon Tower which is part of the park. This is a privately owned park endowed by the Brownell family. The bells for the tower were imported from Holland play on the quarter hour. We saw and heard bells like this when we were in Curacao some years ago. They sound so beautiful.

Path in the park

Swamp

Carillon Tower

More swamp

From there we took a roundabout way to Houma and saw lots of small Louisiana towns and countryside.

Interesting building in Houma

I have to say that the Houma of the V.C. Andrews books is no more! It's now a fair size city so I had to go outside the city to find a decent photo of a Louisiana bayou. I thought this one fit the bill. I've always had visions of poling down a Louisiana bayou probably from reading so many Andrews books.

We have bayous at home too only we call them creeks. The difference being the snakes and alligators!


We stopped at Taco Bell at Morgan City on the way back so Gordon could have a tostada and we could use their facilities, another stop to take a photo of the court house in St. Martinville and home! We arrived back at Poche's Fish N Camp shortly after 5 p.m. after over 7 hours on the road!