Snow in Louisiana

We had a little snow and ice here at Eunice yesterday so we just stayed here in the campground.  It didn't snow much at all but it came with freezing rain so the snow was icy and slick.

This is the ice on our withshield.

We have had a flock of these birds hanging around the campground pecking the ground for bugs. They wouldn't touch the bread that Janice threw out for them.  I'm not sure what kind of bird it is.

As I was posting these pictures, I found a couple more in the camera that we took in Mississippi of some of the chainsaw carved oak tree stumps left from Katrina.

We are headed to Bossier City, LA tomorrow.  We are going to be staying at and volunteering at the Red River National Wildlife Refuge there for the next month.  I am looking forward to it, it should be interesting.

See this Refuge website for more information on the Refuge.  I hope to be able to take a lot of pictures there.

Back in Eunice, LA

We left said good bye to Waveland this morning and drove to Eunice, LA.  We really enjoyed our week at Waveland.  Nice little campground, nice view of the bay, some fun at the Silver Slipper Casino and some good seafood in the area.  Tony's Restaurant was our favorite.  We met a nice couple parked next to us in the campground and had lunch there with them after Mass on Sunday.  We decided to find some quiet place to stop for a month or so instead of trying to make it to San Antonio.  We talked to someone from a nature center and wildlife refuge in northern Louisiana about a resident volunteer program there similar to what we did at Saylorville Lake last summer.  We are waiting to hear back from them, so we stopped here for a few days.  There is a freezing rain and ice storm predicted here tomorrow, so we will probably just hang here in the motorhome.  We ate supper at a little restaurant called Rocky's in town here that we ate at last year and then stopped at Walmart for a few things.

Thursday in Bay St. Louis

Yesterday was a quiet day at home for us we just stayed around the campground reading books and visiting with neighbors.  We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the Gulf.

No, this is not snow!  I took an evening walk on the beach.

And watched another beautiful sunset from the beach.

Today we went sightseeing. There were several fishing boats docked near the casino.

This was Janice's favorite boat. Notice the two extra boats on top.

Reminders of Katrina are everywhere. New houses next to supports from destroyed houses.

A pelican?

Empty lots are everywhere from destroyed houses.

We stopped at this old depot/visitors center/Mardi Gras museum.  There was an interesting display upstairs of the folk art of a local artist.

And downstairs was the display of Mardi Gras costumes.

We stopped at this cemetery which appeared to be the burial ground of  the brothers of an order of monks headquartered here at a Catholic college.

We stopped at a great restaurant for a late lunch and then went to the casino for awhile.  Our senior player cards give us five dollars free slot machine play each day.   A really enjoyable day!

Bay St. Louis, MS

First of all, I would like to show you some interesting ice formations that I took pictures of in the Georgia campground on the morning we left there.  This is called needle ice, see this link for an explanation  needle ice .  I had never seen it before.  The white stalks are made of ice.

Today we woke up to dense fog, so we visited with a few friends in the campground and didn't leave until almost noon.  We had a short drive today, about 100 miles.  We crossed into Mississippi on I 10 and then took a smaller highway that runs along the gulf.  We had to cross several bays on long bridges.

There were several of these sculptures along the road.  They are carved from some of the live oak stumps from trees destroyed by Katrina.  See Story of sculptures .

We stopped at an rv park at the Silver Slipper Casino.  The beach is right across the road from us.

A picture of the campsite from the beach.

Tonight we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Tomorrow maybe we will visit the casino.

Saturday Morning at the Flea Market

I drove over to the big Mobile weekend flea market this morning while Janice hung out at the motorhome.  It's about the same size as the one that I go to in Georgia.  I picked up some fruit and some potatoes.  I bought an MSR backpack stove and a set of pans for it for $30.  It came with a bag of what he said were spare parts for it.  I was thinking that the stove was the model that sells for about $80 so I thought it was a good deal.  When I got home I looked it up and found out that it is the top of the line model that sells for $150!  When I opened the bag of "spare parts", I found 2 spare parts kits and another complete stove!  Did I mention that both stoves are brand new and unused?  Am I happy or what?

Friday in Mobile, AL

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to Mom and Georgia.  Mom came out the the campground and rode up to Temple, GA to fill the motorhome with  propane.  Then we went back to the campground and got the jeep, parked the motorhome at Walmart and went to her house for awhile.  After goodbyes we hitched up the Jeep and headed out.  We got to Mobile about 6:00 last night, a trip of about 300 miles.  We are in the same campground as last time.  So far we have talked to two of our friends from the campground here that we met last year.  Today we went out to Ed's Seafood Shed for lunch, a place that we liked last time. Take a look at Ed's Website.  Be sure to click on the pictures link in the website to see more.  They have fantastic coleslaw that they just bring out to the table and keep refilling.  Mom ordered some calamari for and appetizer and it was very good.

I had a fried shrimp plate that was very good (I ate part of the shrimp before I took the picture).

Janice had a crab stuffed whitefish plate.  Yum!

As far I I know, very few restaurants have alligators on the ceiling.

It was a great lunch and now we are back at the motorhome just resting.

Getting Ready to Move On

   We are busy trying to finish up all of our projects and things that we planned to do while we were here.  Amy, Dustan, and Tristan came over today and joined Mom, Janice, Sharon and I for lunch today.  We went to M & J's which is a buffet restaurant that has southern cooking.  Things like fried green tomatoes, fried okra, cornbread, pinto beans, and strawberry cobbler.
   A stray dog found us on Thursday here in the campground.  We took it up to the office and left it with them, they said that they would call animal control.  When we got home that night, he was waiting outside the motor home again.  I went up the the office the next morning and talked to a different lady who called her supervisor.  The supervisor said to let him loose and she would call animal control.  I said to have them come to our motor home and we would have him there.  After waiting into the afternoon, I went back up there. They must not have called animal control because she called the supervisor again who told us just to let him loose and he would go home.  I was not happy about being lied to twice.  We took him to a vet to see if he had a chip but he did not.  So we are trying to find a no-kill shelter to take him to.  He is a very nice calm dog who seems well cared for.  Someone must have dumped him off here because he won't leave.

I went back to help at the soup kitchen Thursday morning, it was cancelled Monday because of the cold weather.  I guess they must follow the school schedule.  Tomorrow will be my last day there since we are leaving this Thursday.

Medieval Times

Amy, Dustin, and Karen had given the whole family tickets to a renaissance dinner theater called Medieval times for Christmas, so last night the whole family went.  The meal was really good and we enjoyed the entertainment.   The pictures were taken with my ipod, so the quality is not great.  Plenty of competition between knights a shows of horsemanship.

And we will close with a selfie!