Tuesday at the lake

view from the bedroom window

 

This morning we packed up, left Henderson and took I-10 through the rest of Louisiana and just over the border into Texas.

While on I-10 between Lafayette and Lake Charles, Louisiana we passed miles of flooded fields on both sides of the highway.   They looked like they were probably rice fields as they were uniformly shaped and flooded but these had small red "balls" at regular intervals

a very bad picture of a rice/crawfish paddy

It turns out they were rice fields, that is to say, used to be just rice fields - but now they were "growing" crawfish as well as rice!   Evidently rice has become an expensive crop to grow and market.    Wild crawfish were already living in the rice fields and eating the rice soooooo, some enterprising farmer decided to cultivate those "mudbugs" instead of  trying to market the rice.    I read that they sell them as fast as they produce them and it has turned into a huge industry - 90% of all crawfish now come from these fields.

Once we crossed over into Texas we exited the craziness of I-10 and headed north on state route 62 toward Jasper, Texas.   The road was in far better condition than the interstate and we rarely saw any other traffic.    The thing that was interesting to us was that the speed limit was the same - 75 mph - on this small two lane road that passed through little communities and businesses (those of you back home think route 15 type road!).      In Buna we turned on to US 96 and drove it into Jasper where we picked up US 190 west.    After about 10 miles we turned off onto a much smaller CR777, then down to a really small (one large, twisting lane with muddy ditches on either side) road, more like a lane.

We were at the weight limit for this particular road so we drove along, hoping that we had the correct directions and that we wouldn't crush the road or sink into a bayou before arriving at the lovely Sandy Creek Corps of Engineers Campground.   I took no pictures of the drive - I was holding my breath for the last part.

At any rate, we're settled for a couple nights in a really perfect campsite right on the lake in the middle of the Piney Woods.    There is no one else in our sight and its so very quiet except for the birds.....ah.

(only 3 things to watch out for here.....alligators (2), fire ant hills (obvious and hopefully easy to avoid if careful) and Sasha's southern enemy - sweet gum pods.)

Oh how Sasha hates to step on these babies!

Beluga is always very happy when we let her park next to the water.    She's happy tonight.

the new jeep listens attentively while Beluga explains
the finer points of camping by a lake

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Tomorrow we'll drive the 50 or so miles into Livingston, Texas to pick up our mail!