Ticfaw, Swamp Tours and 'Nawlins

Gator Day

Today is Friday the 13th. Unlucky? I think not. Today we saw gators and turtles and even a cottonmouth. The day began at Ticfaw Park, which is just such an amazing state park. Dan and I rode our bikes all around and walked along all of the boardwalks they have set up. The park is a science teacher’s dream come true. The interpretive trails, as well as the nature center, are chock full of swamp land facts and history. While the park seemed to be teaming with school groups, most were regimented to guided tours and so we had the trails to ourselves as long as we beat the school busses. On our return trip a park maintenance man stopped in his souped up golf cart and asked if we’d noticed the gator we’d just passed (see picture above), we hadn’t. After he pointed that one out, all of 50’ from us, he told us about a pond right behind where we were camped that had “no less then five of ‘em” in it. So of course the pond was our next stop.


Cottonmouth.




See the turtles on the log?


Ticfaw's water park.

The placards in the park talked about the region’s history and about how the land went from being stripped of all trees to being fertile land for farming the best strawberries around. Well as we were leaving the park we passed a “U Pick-em” strawberry farm, so we did. For $5 we got more berries than we could possibly eat, we have since been pawning them off any poor soul who happens by our campsite.





Tonight we are camped in our first ever KOA. This is for two reasons. One because it is really to close to the swamp tour I am getting ready to tell you about. And two because today is the second ever “Come Camp with Us Day”, where most KOA’s offer a free night of camping.

Swampin’


I was in Nawlin’s for a wedding about a year and a half ago. I had one day to sightsee and got talked out of what I really wanted to do, a swamp tour. I mean when you’re in Louisiana you must eat mudbugs, drink a hurricane and go swampin’. So this time I put my foot down (read as: begged Dan to forget our budget for a day and let me go) and off we went. From our free spot we drove about 10 miles to Cajun Encounters Swamp Tours, there Captain Ben took us (and 22 other touristas) on a two-hour honest-to-God swamp ture (I know tour is spelled t-o-u-r but ture is how it is said around these parts). The ture was complete with gators, nutrias (second largest rodent in the world) and many shanty swamp homes that make our trailer digs look mighty fine.

Cyprus Tree with Spanish Moss.




A six foot gator.



Nawlins


That is New Orleans to you folks. Today we took the free KOA shuttle into the Big Easy, this helped us to justify the $30 price tag on our no-frills camp site. Once in town we started the epic hiking tour that would last us eight hours. We strolled all along the River Trail, throughout the Garden District and mainly through the French Quarter. We ate our way through the town, gator, beignets and po’ boys, none were spared.


In the background, in green, you can make out what Dan's eating.

We stopped and listened to street performers and enjoyed the numerous artists who peddle their wares along the square. We spent about an hour listening to a fantastic Creole band and savoring the buy one get two free ways of Bourbon Street. Finally at 7pm we poured ourselves back into the van and returned to our home for an early night.


The lead singer/ accordian player of the Creole band we listened to.


We loved this guy, a quintessential bluesman, ripping it up on his harmonica.


The bluesman's boots.


A crane in the Audubon Park.


The street performers were great fun to watch.

More sights from The Garden District.

Vicksburg and The Natchez Trace

Part of what has us so excited about this part of the trip is the chance to walk through history. Wednesday we toured Vicksburg National Military Park, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. This is site of a famous battle during the Civil War. Lincoln ordered General Ulysses S. Grant to gain control of the Mississippi in order for the Union army to win the war. Vicksburg was the most important of the Confederate strongholds left along the river, and beginning on May 12th 1863 the Union army held the city under Siege until finally, due to constant attack and lack of food and water, the Confederates surrendered on July 4th, 1863. Local legend is that to this day Vicksburg does not celebrate the 4th of July.









The park is filled with monuments erected by each state that had soldiers at the battle. Most notably, Illinois has a giant memorial dome located on the Union side. The battlefield is riddled with signposts marking where the forces drew their lines, sometimes the Union and Confederate lines were less than 20’ from each other. Imagine sitting in a trench for almost two months, 20’ from your sworn enemy, in the heat of a Mississippi summer, wow.


See the sign post along the trees? That was the enemy's post as seen from this cannon site.


Illinois monument's dome.




Our first glimpse of The Mighty Mississippi.

From the Military Park we got onto Natchez Trace Highway, just outside of Jackson, Mississippi. The Trace, or trail, was used by men who floated the Mississippi River in wooden boats laden with goods to be sold in New Orleans. Once they had sold all of their wares, including the wood that was once their boat, they would walk this trail back to Tennessee or Kentucky or wherever home was. In the early 1800’s the trace was enjoying its heyday, inns, locally known as stands sprouted up all along the route, and thousands marched along the trace.

Last night we camped along the highway at the Rocky Springs Site Campground. To our surprise and delight this campground is free. The CG had nice paved sites and bathrooms. A short hike from our rig was a part of the original Trace which we hiked up to the old Rocky Springs town site. All that remains is a falling down church and a few old safes; it is so overgrown that you will need a very vivid imagination to believe that a town of over 2600 people ever existed there.


Part of the Trace.


We followed the remainder of the highway down to Baton Rouge today, stopping to visit Mount Locust, the last remaining Stand (Inn) along the trail. We toured the house and the grounds. It was once a bustling plantation, home to 13 in the family and 50 slaves. On the grounds are both the family cemetery and the slave cemetery, the difference between the two was striking.


The family cemetery is well manicured, has an ornate wrought iron fence surrounding it, and contains traditional headstones and monuments.


In the entire slave cemetery there is but one very small, unmarked headstone, no fence and no discernable upkeep.

Tonight we made our way to Tickfaw state park between Baton Rouge and northern New Orleans. This park is fantastic. Camping is $12/night, which includes water and electricity. There is a new bath house built up high on stilts since we are surrounded by swamp, and even laundry which we are in great need of. The park has tons of activities ranging from, hiking/ biking, a nature center, a water park (this consists of a series of water guns and little slides), to a really great canoe tour that we will have to miss since the shuttle only runs on the weekends.

Tyler, Texas to Ruston, Louisiana

Lincoln Parish Park, Ruston, LA.

We spent last night in Tyler, Texas, visiting our friends Meade and Lee Ann. They took us on a bike tour around their neighborhood and through the campus where they both work. Back at their house we did what you do when you visit friends in West Texas, we played Texas Hold’em Poker. Lee Ann took all of our money but we drank all of her beer so it evens out. When you consider that they live in a dry county and that it will take them a 40 minute drive to replenish their stock, you might even say we came out ahead. This morning per their advice we headed for Tyler State Park which is said to have some fantastic mountain biking.





The park is gorgeous and the trails look like a blast but today they were closed due to rain, so a driving tour was all we got. Again we were impressed by Texas’ state parks and would recommend this one. Not to be dissuaded we got back on I-20 and headed east for Louisiana. This is the first time we’ve been in a new-to-us state since Christmas. I get to put another state magnet on the stove so I am happy.



Our friend John Owen, who we will be visiting tomorrow, told us about Lincoln Parish Park outside of Ruston, LA, another place known for mountain biking. We got here around 1pm today, and promptly took a nap, seems it took Lee Ann a while to take our money so we were up too late. After the siesta we started peddling around the lake we are camped on, we easily found the trailhead and followed the well marked path through the dense and damp forest. The riding here is so much fun. The trails are rooty. muddy and a little technical in spots, but not steep or punishing like all those Utah and Colorado trails Dan drags me on. We buzzed through the trees and came out back at the lake an hour later. There are over ten miles of interconnected trails here and we have only ridden about four so far, (we did a lot of lollygagging along the way). Tomorrow we’ll finish off the loop before going to Alto to visit John and his family.

This park is truly wonderful. The campsites are full hookup but with a primitive feel, cost is around $18/ night. We are overlooking the lake and only about 20’ from its banks. The cove we are in is filled with turtles and bass, we are being serenaded by crickets, toads and birds as I write this. So far I am loving Louisiana, the people here are so friendly and helpful and the scenery is superb.

Louisiana, Rice Farming

Alto, Louisiana.

John Owen and Dan worked together at Wolf Creek early on in Dan’s illustrious ski patrolling career. John had maybe the most interesting off-season job of them all, he is a Louisiana rice farmer. We spent yesterday afternoon with his wife Anne and their sons Bob and Pat before John came home covered from head to toe in grain bin dust. After a quick rinse off he drove us out to the farm for the grand tour. The Owen farm is 1900 acres of which 1200 is rice and the rest is a hodgepodge of wheat, soybeans and even some old pecan trees. John and Anne took us out for our first mudbug meal at Cormier’s. Along with his boys we put away 25lbs of crawfish. John even got us T-shirts from the restaurant that have instructions on how to eat them, (this is for Dan’ benefit he didn’t get the hang of “grab it, pinch it, peel it, suck it”, and almost starved).


Anne, John and a bucket o' bugs.


The Boeuf River.




Dan and John spent the evening reminiscing over the good ‘ol days and threatening to break out their explosives training to blow up some pesky beaver dams that interfere with rice farming. Fortunately they were all talk and no beavers were harmed in the making of this post. This morning we visited John out at the only high point on the entire farm. John showed us the grain bins and his huge combine. Dan had serious toy envy, our rig isn’t half the size of that combine.


Dan and John atop the Grain bin.


A dry rice field.


A flooded field.


The grain bin.


Irrigating the fields.


The grain bin fan.


Nothing brings me back to childhood like the smell of honeysuckle, which is everywhere around here.

Dallas

Our friends Ryan and Jonika (you may remember them from the Grand Canyon posts) relocated to Dallas right after we got off of the Grand. We got to be their first non-family houseguests and they showed us a great time. Friday we got to visit Ryan at his office in a downtown high-rise. He took us to the famed grassy knoll and we got to hear a myriad of conspiracy theories, see the sixth-floor window in the book depository and the X painted on the road that marks the spot (supposedly) where JFK was shot. (The picture above is a commentary from a visitor to the JFK site, taken from the infamous picket fence.)


Sixth-floor window.

We ate out at fantastic restaurants, throwing our budget aside for the weekend we feasted on sushi and pasta. Saturday we did a bike tour of the city. Dodger and Jonika just bought their first place- a condo in Uptown, so we stopped by there. Nearby is a cemetery filled with prominent Dallas residents. On this particular Saturday a local seventh grade class was performing their Texas History assignment for the public. Each student stood near the grave of some past Dallas resident and acted out that person’s life. This boy was a prominent civil rights leader who died in the 1970’s.



From there we continued the tour around the city. We rode along the Katy trail, a local running/cycling trail made from an old railroad bed with really nice city views all along it. Once the tour was complete we enjoyed a lazy day of movies and board games.


Ryan and Jonika in front of their new place.

Dallas made a really good impression on us. Coming from Colorado as we do, it is bred into us that Texas is bad, but it seems that may not be entirely true ;) Now we are off for East Texas and another stop-over with friends.