Starve Hollow State Recreation Area

Landing at Starve Hollow State Recreation Area in Indiana for tonight.  Since I'm entering this a year late, I don't remember anything about this park.  But, that could be good since if it were bad, I probably would recall it.

On to Ohio

Trail of Tears State Park

Here we go, 1st stop on a trip to New York.  Trail of Tears State Park is located on the Mississippi River.  It's small, but nice enough.  We didn't have reservations, so we were lucky to get in as it was filling up fast.  The campground is right on the river with a railroad between it and the river.  This seems to be a main line from St. Louis to Memphis and there also seems to be a train about every 5 minutes.  The river is up and still rising.  The camp ground is not at risk of flooding, but a low place in the road to it is.  So, we may have to clear out before the night is over.

Next day:

Well, we made it through the night and our feet are still dry.  We're heading out for Indiana this morning.

Pomme De Terre State Park

We met Dusty and family at Pomme De Terre State Park for the weekend, our first spring outing.  Well, Dusty was there, what can I say?  It rained nearly all weekend.  I took the boat, hoping for some good fishing and we got a little fishing in, but only after having to bail out the boat after a rainstorm in the night.  The bilge pump wouldn't work so we had to bail.  Well, actually, the pump worked, but the hose leaving the pump was plugged with a dirt daubers mud ball and we didn't have what we needed to dig it out.

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.