It's late November and we're still in Texas (it's quite a big state).
We made several trips to Bass Pro Shops, Shirlene's favorite place, then it was time to move on to Beaumont, Tx. Being a "newbie" RV-er, I wasn't quite aware of how hard the rain and the wind blows against you while you are driving. I just played it safe, drove my 55 mph, (the limit in California), and waved at the trucks passing me by (they had more pressing schedules). One thing I know for sure, we made it! We stayed one more night in Texas. We only drove around 5 hours a day, then went on to Louisiana.

Louisiana

We stayed a couple of days in Louisiana, and got to try our first "Swamp" tour. There were about 20 people on the boat, which made it a bit hard to get photos, but we still had a good time. We saw a lot of gators, kingfishers, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-eared Sliders (turtles), and a Banded Water Snake. We stopped to weigh our RV again, just to be safe, and found a great place that not only had a scale, but it also had some of the best mac and cheese and shrimp (for Shirlene). We found some good reasons to revisit this place before we left for Mississippi.

     

Mississippi

Next stop, Gautier, Mississippi. We stayed at Santa Maria RV Park, and what a great place. It was like being on a farm, but with a lot of open land and many trees. While we were checking everything out, and looking across the fence, we saw something else moving, and there they were Sandhill Cranes. They were feeding in the fields and were fairly close to us. How lucky we were!! This place had a couple of lakes and the people running the park were very friendly. We stayed here a couple of days and so, had a chance to visit the Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. They ended up buying some of my lens cleaning cloths with, of course, the Sandhill Crane images on them.

One thing you have to do on the road is pay close attention to the weather, especially during the winter months. We found out that a tornado was heading our way, so we packed up, unhooked and left a day early, to get ahead of the storm. We lost a nights rental space, but we sure felt better. That's a great thing about living in a RV. If you don't like the weather, your neighbors, or anything else, you just pack up and leave.

     
     

Sightings

Some of the things we saw on this part of our trip were gators, kingfishers, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-eared Sliders (turtles), Banded Water Snake (first time sighting!), the Sandhill Cranes.

More travel notes coming soon ... watch this space!

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