February 17, 2025

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  What I’m finding is that when I have a lot of travel days, my energy goes into keeping house, hooking/unhooking the Wandering Spirit from her three lifelines – power, water and sewage (sometimes only 2) and experiencing whatever weather and location I am in.  I think I left off in New Mexico – Oh My! How it is flying by! Because I’m sitting in a state park in Mississippi as I write this.  Which means Texas and Louisianna are in my rear-view mirror.  I’ll do my best to remember what I did two weeks ago!

The highlight of Texas was arriving at the gulf in Goose Island State Park.  Probably more of a fisherman’s paradise, but I loved parking my RV right on the bay waters and enjoying my first taste of warm, sunny days before the gray clouds began again.  But on the way, across Texas, I did a couple of overnight stays in RV Parks which had seen their better days – but they sufficed. 

At one such park, there was a colony of feral cats that roamed from RV to RV seeking hand-outs.   Funny how the universe provides – as my cat has responded very positively to his thyroid medication, the special tummy diet food I had him on became to rich for him.  I had a bag of this food ready to donate the first chance I got – and here was a feral colony just waiting for a hand-out!  So, after providing a treat of “sensitive stomach” food to some beat up looking cats, I left the remaining cans in a location where someone else could do the same. (Still looking for a location to donate my old pants and shorts – I’ve dropped 20 pounds already and have replaced most of my jeans!)

My plans for my San Antonio stop changed when my hot water heater stopped working, plus the heavy traffic and lack of RV parking around points of interest – the Alamo and the River Walk – were seriously lacking. My initial thought was that by the end of the trip, I will have replaced or repaired all systems under warranty – but thanks to Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas it was a quick fix.  Apparently, those wash board roads in New Mexico had loosened a wire.  I changed my RV park to be closer to Camping World for my appointment, I ended up, literally sleeping under a freeway bridge.  Good thing I’m a deep sleeper; after getting used to the noise of semi’s zooming overhead, I actually got a good night’s sleep.

So back to Goose Island.  What a great couple of days of R&R complete with a couple of good sunsets and a lazy day of watching the shrimp boats circle one apparently very populated spot of those gulf delicacies. They were so fascinating that even Spirit Cat spent most of the morning, between naps, watching them outside the back window of the rig.  Although this park had signs “do not feed the allegators”, I was both relieved and disappointed I didn’t get to see one in the marshes.  Only their ghosts in the swaths of trampled grass and mud tracks crossing the roadway.  Alligator sighting came later in a very controlled environment in Louisiana.

Upon exiting Goose Island, I found myself in the first episode of using my girt to get to the mainland – I crossed my first high “causeway” bridge over a part of the bay with a strong wind.  Although I’m not religious (I am spiritual), I found myself praying for someone to give me the concentration and grip on the steering wheel to get over it safely.  I did it but not loving it, and I am improving my wind driving skills all the time! 

I spent another few days at Jamaica Beach on Galveston Island, Texas where the weather was cold to slightly warm.  I walked the beach a few times – once all bundled up, the next time in sleeveless shirt and shorts. Did heavy loads of laundry here – when you share a blankets and spreads with a dog, things get dirty quicker. 

One of my neighbors there was from New Hampshire and was driving a huge Class A (the ones like a bus).  He shared that he’d borrowed the rig from his son who lives in Florida but was considering cancelling the rest of the trip.  They’d had to live in it in the snow for 3-4 days and driving it in the wind was more than he’d bargained for.  We commiserated on both of us coming from northern climates to find sunshine, but with very mixed and unexpected results.

Remember those windy causeways that connect many gulf islands with the mainland?  Same for leaving Galveston!  But here, the navigation played a cruel trick on me.  After crossing the first time, white knuckled (wasn’t the worst wind – but I’m always on guard for those unexpected gusts), the system told me to take an exit.  I did.  Then it told me to turn left after the overpass.  I did, with a sinking feeling – and sure enough suddenly, there I was driving across the same causeway going back onto the island.  (The gods must be crazy?)  So, I stopped, got gas, looked at my map and headed back across this causeway a third time.  This time I ignored all of her commands (that navigation trickster) and pushed on.  She tried to entice me many times with “make a U-turn, exit next right” and I kept going until I hit a major highway and used my own sense of direction to get me back on track.  It worked, except, well- I’ll deny it- I think I drove on a tollway without paying the toll? (Never saw a toll booth.)  Not my fault, I blame the navigation system that told me to do it when she realized I was hell-bent on going my own way – payback, I think?

In Louisiana, I researched their tourist information “by-ways” drives – the first being called the Zydeco by-way.  This led me through the back country, broken old roads where I was often the only vehicle and for sure the only RV, past homes on short stilts.  I arrived in the town where Cajun music and zydeco dance are famous, and nothing was opened.  Oh yeah, February isn’t the peak tourist season.  I did a quick walk around the little Cajun town buildings, then went on to my next resting place.  I was delighted here to find the woman work at reception spoke with a real Cajun accent – I was fascinated with her way of speaking and could have engaged her longer, but she was in the middle of juicy gossip on the phone when I arrived, so I let her go.  This place did have its own Cypress swamp to add to the charm.

The next day, I hit another Cajun Village tourist spot – circa the 1960’s.  It was here I got to see an alligator up close and had my beloved beignets and café au lai.  It was warm and muggy, but one of the small fans I bought for this type of occasion helped keep the RV comfortable for Audy-wee and Spirit while I browsed.  My only disappointment was that instead of a sleeveless t-shirt, I found a lot of LSU merchandise!  I guess college fans exist everywhere – not just in duck/beaver country (lol).

I like to refer to the last two pictures in this next set as the before and after photos. Although, for the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would eat these creatures. I admit that on one trip down south during my independent consulting days, while out with clients in the Jacksonville area, I tried allegator strips – not really impressed than, lots of deep-fried breaded stuff is what I remember of the tasting.

The drive through the rest of Louisiana was crazy – I must have driving over 25 miles on a highway on pillars through bayous.  Was a different experience – no turn-offs for the majority of this part of the drive outside of Baton Rouge and around Lake Pontchartrain before heading into Mississippi. I purposely did not go to New Orleans – not RV friendly, too close to Mardi Gras and not just into big cities this trip, so I drove around it all. Wish I could have found a place to stop and do some viewing, but one thing I’ve noticed about the states down south, they just don’t have the blue signs to tell you about tourist attractions and if they do, you see them right at the exits as you drive past unaware (pretty much the same for rest areas too). They do have the food, gas and lodging signs.

With the wind and storm warnings (at that time, possible tornado warnings for later that night), I kept going until I reached here, Buccaneer State Park, Mississippi. The tornado warning had been reduced to a “watch” by the time I called the park to check – I began to consider turning around and heading west until the weather improved – and upon arrival the watch had been lifted, leaving only a warning for an extreme thunderstorm in the wee hours of the night.  That storm did materialize but was short lived and now it has been sunny since yesterday, just chilly.  That brings me to today, which I need to get outside and enjoy even if bikinis aren’t an option (well, to be honest, they never are for me anymore anyway). 

I’ll be in Florida tomorrow – with extended stays in both the Orlando area and Key Largo!  Hoping for a more interesting blog next time – Disneyland and the Spirit of Jimmy Buffet!

NAMASTE (I honor the spirit within you)