Chicot State Park, Louisiana

We are making our way from east Texas to the gulf coast of Alabama. We hate to take the interstates the whole way. So we're taking some back roads. That comes with it's hazards though. We were busily looking for where to turn in a small town. We quickly got into the left turn lane and didn't notice we were too close to the intersection....until that big log truck came up to us, nose-to-nose and told us to back up. After we got out of that predicament, the slightly-impatient-sherrif pointed out the white line under our rear tires. :-}

Anyway, we found a nice state park about half way between Alexandria and Lafayette, Louisiana. Some of the sites have wooden decks. I'm thinkin' that's due to high water.
All the sites have electricity and water and are well shaded. We paid $16 for camping and a $3 "transaction" fee. I'm not sure if that's because I used a credit card or just because I paid - hahaha

The south campgrounds have a good wi-fi signal.

There is a pavillion down by the cypress swamp. The water is covered by tiny green plants that make it look like algae covers the surface.

There a rental cabins available, on the lake, for $70 - $90/night. I don't know how many they sleep. They have AC, screened porch, satellite tv, fishing dock, lake front. We saw lots of trailers at the boat ramp so the fishing must be good.

We give Chicot State Park an A+

St. Louis, MO to East Texas

We had a wonderful visit with our friends in the St. Louis area. We headed south on I-55 but didn't get far when we decided to take a "road less travelled". We got off the interstate around Bloomsdale and took 67 through Poplar Bluff. Continuing on 67 into Arkansas, we travelled to the Newport area, where we camped for the night. We found the Jacksonport State Park. It is on the White River. Hardly anyone camping on this mid-week, October, day. Walnuts fall out of the trees in groups of 5 or 6. Fortunately, we didn't camp under a walnut tree!
The next day we continued down 67 through Little Rock. That wasn't a fun interchange with all the construction! But we finally found our way to I-30 which took us all the way to Texarkana. Then we took 59 south to Atlanta, TX. Although I had not been on this section of 59, this brought back old memories for me. I wore a path on 59 from Friendswood to Nacogdoches when I was attending college at SFA back in the late 70's. We stayed at Atlanta State Park on Wright Patman Lake. We had electric and water at this site and it was pretty secluded. It rained in sheets all night - sheets of water and giant acorns! Note to self: Don't park under an oak tree in the fall in the south.

Here's what we'd been travelling so fast for: Meeting my folks and brother at Lake Sam Rayburn, TX. We camped at Twin Dikes Campground (USACE). $18 for a full hookup site. The sites were overlooking the lake. It was nice camping here. I'm not sure I'd want to work here though. The gate attendants don't handle money (which is nice) but it didn't appear that the Corp person, who did, communicated enough with them. The bathrooms seemed a little neglected too.

The cool front brought lots of wind - complete with a tornado watch! We didn't see a tornado, thankfully! But the wind made for rough boating and not very fun fishing. We saw this black squirrel in the campground. We'd never seen a black one but my parents said they occasionally had. Anyway, this one was clearly working the campers for treats. He was not shy! They also had brown squirrels but this guy was the one that caught our attention.

My brother left before the wind calmed down. They weekend weather was gorgeous! The lake was like glass! Dad caught this small bass and let him go. We didn't catch anymore fish that day but we enjoyed being on the lake.

More rain is predicted so we headed to my parent's house on Houston County Lake, between Crocket and Grapeland, TX. We'll hang out here for a while and see if we can't schedule some good weather for visiting our friends in Alabama.

Hey Oregon, quit pushing the storms east! They are coming all this way!