J & S RV Park

We parked at J & S RV Park in Monticello, Ar. on Christmas Day.  The park is not a place I would recommend.  As it is, it is the only one we could find in Monticello.  It is hardly a "tourist" RV park.  In fact, all the RVs there looked like they were there for the duration, with "stuff" scattered around.  The temperature was below freezing and it appeared few residents had prepared for it.  Many had frozen water connections, some with ice all around the leak of the bust pipes.

We didn't stay long, just over night, then we moved to Stephen's driveway.

Merry Christmas

Jimmie Davis State Park

Jimmie Davis State Park, another nice Louisiana State Park, but difficult to enjoy.  The cold front had hit here hard!  So cold, I did not get a photo.  Well, that was part of the reason.  The other part was I was too busy trying to get a small black kitten out from under the RV.  After we had parked, we kept hearing a kitten mewing and finally decided it was under the RV.  Ditto and I got out in the cold and wet to investigate.

I finally located it hunkered down on top of one of the waste storage tanks.  There was a space hardly big enough for me to get my arm in there.  But, the kitten was too far back for me to reach it.  I had to resort to trying to scare it out.  So, after beating and banging and prodding with a stick, it finally shot out and ran up to the front of the RV and jumped up on top of a front tire.

I crawled out and went up from to try to coax it from the tire, but by now it was too spooked to have anything to do with me.  It somehow climbed up into the engine compartment and up on top of the engine.  Now anyone familiar with a motorhome like ours, knows that you don't just open the hood and access the top of the engine.  You have to remove a cover inside and even then, access is minimal.  So, I removed the inside cover, but the cat was not in sight.  After shining my flashlight around some, I finally located it down behind the exhaust manifold.  I managed to grasp it by the neck and pull it out.

I got out of the RV with the little black frantic kitten in tow and as I tried to adjust my grip, it bit the crap out of me.  A little kitten sure has sharp teeth and claws.  Anyway, I dropped it.  It ran away into the woods.

At first, I thought it was okay now, but then realized it was miserable cold and wet and hardly campers so it was unlikely to find anything to eat or get out of the cold.

Our campsite was located near a small lake and the kitten had ran toward the lake which was only a few yards away.  Ditto and I headed there to see if we might capture it again.  I found the poor thing hunkered down next to a tree and apparently too afraid to move.  Being a little smarter, I put on my gloves and snatched it up again.

I took the frantic little thing back to the RV, but it was too wound up to turn loose inside and try to feed it.  So, I dropped it in a pillowcase where it would at least be warm and could settle down.

Our next stop is Monticello, Ar.  We plan spending Christmas with Stephen there.  We left the kitten with Stephen.  Here it is a few weeks later.

Lake Fausse Pointe State Park

Lake Fausse Pointe State Park is another nice Louisiana State Park.  In fact, it seems Louisiana has some of the best maintained and outfitted parks we have visited...anywhere.  The only problem, it rains there.  And in a December winter storm, that rain is cold!

But, we were on our way home now.

Grand Isle State Park

Grand Isle State Park is located on the Gulf of Mexico.  The trip down from New Orleans was an interesting trip with many new sights for us.  We traveled down U.S. 90 to State Hwy 1.  Hwy 1 followed along Bayou Lafourche nearly its full length.  This bayou is one of the main waterways for the shrimp boats with fishing village all along the route.  It is not shrimping season so many of the shrimp boats are tied up along the bayou in various states of maintenance or just "resting".

When we got to the park, we found a nice park, but a beach in shambles.

Behind Joyce is a huge tube of heavy black plastic filled with sand.  Off-shore, sand is being pumped onto barges to be brought to shore to continue filling the big tube.  Here it is, 2009 and the destroyed beaches are still being repaired after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  The sand filled tube is intended to present a barrier that will not be washed away in storms and will help reduce beach erosion.  Keep your fingers crossed...

And then winter reached all the way down here.

Fontainebleau State Park

Fontainebleau State Park is located on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain near Mandeville, La.

Here, we're parked at the visitors center closer to the lake.

Joyce and Ditto in the "shade" of a dead live oak tree.

If you look closely, you'll see the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge.

Then we crossed it into New Orleans.

We didn't hang around New Orleans.  The streets of the French Quarter are not very motor home friendly and Ditto couldn't visit the restaurants and tourist traps, anyway.  Instead, we headed on across the Huey P. Long Bridge which was an experience all its own.

I stayed in the outside lane as far over as I dared to allow the much faster traffic to pass.  I was so close the tailpipe dragged along the curb.  Looking up in this photo you see the railroad trestle.  The bridge is an auto and railroad bridge built as one.  As you get up above the Mississippi River, the auto lanes are suspended on either side of the railroad tracks.  When a train passes, the bridge bounces.  Kind of scary!

Lefleurs Bluff State Park

Lefleurs Bluff State Park is located on Mayes Lake in urban Jackson, Ms.  Once past the industrial complexes of downtown Jackson and into the park, it is difficult to believe you are not out in the wild somewhere.

Hugh White State Park

Hugh White State Park is located on Grenada Lake near Grenada, Ms.  We camped at the Outlet Channel Campground just below the dam.

Jacksonport State Park

First stop on our winter trip to the Gulf is Jacksonport State Park in Arkansas.  It sits alongside the White River which was up and roaring this day.