Day 7: Nope, that’s a log: Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, LA: No driving!
Did I ever mention those cute couple games we play? In one, we try and guess the rating Captain Q will give a boat he is presenting. In another, we try and guess the tip the crew will receive on the Below Deck series. One of us wins these games far more often than the other. Have you met Miss Milddogs?
Today, on a day without travel, we hung around the State Park. It was rather chilly for this time of year. There is even a freezing warning for tonight 🙁
I set out on my walk in 3 C temperatures this morning to do the longer park hike (trail C). At entrance it was a tad muddy. Perhaps because of the torrential rains yesterday. Abort! I back tracked and did trails A and B. It took me along open water and rather swampy areas. I did not see any significant wildlife 🙁 . It was a nice walk and I was back 5km later.
We did a few small projects. Got the chairs out and relaxed in the sun away from the wind where possible.
We had a lovely lunch of pulled pork (leftovers) nachos. Amy was envious.
Post lunch we ventured off to do one of the hikes. We selected trail B. Glad we did. After many rounds of “Is that a gator?” where the answer was always “Nope, that’s a log”, we finally saw one. As usual, I was not winning this game. Zero for 10 until this key moment. It was in a swampy area sitting up on an old downed tree. It appeared to be about 10 feet long nose to tail. Hard to see but it is in the middle of the picture. I won “Is that a gator?”. I went 2 for 12.
Around the corner, we saw another smaller one swimming about 10 feet offshore. As I took my first step in super stealth mode, the gator went under the water and was gone. No pictures of this one. My stealth mode may be misnamed. Or perhaps this is why every other person in this park wears camouflage as their main attire.
Post hike we relaxed some more back at the van. Struggling with the weak cell signal to get some intel on where we are going next. Our Verizon JetPack with MIMO antenna is the only way we can get enough signal to reach the world. The MIMO antenna is taking the signal from -128 dB to -116.
Showers! 2 days, 2 showers each! We are so clean!
Let’s talk about black tank valves. I have finally figured out why our black tank valve doesn’t always close 100%. This can lead to some unpleasant situations. Yesterday, I left the new RhinoFlex hose attached with the valves closed. Today I went out to open the valve for shower time and noticed the sewer hose was full. Oops! Turns out, the handle can and did catch on a piece of metal and does not close entirely. It feels closed. It’s not closed and I have proof! Yuck. A 90 degree twist and if fully closes. Lessen learned and I am still not completely covered in feces!
Dinner was burgers cooked on the Blackstone Griddle. These were served with fresh tomatoes and cheese on crispy Tortilla shells as buns. Improvise!
Post dinner we did another hike to see what we could see. No gators but a bunch of birds.
Tomorrow (happy daylight savings time – I’m not if sure Louisiana or Texas do DST) we intend to get going fairly early with the intent of being on or near the Texas Gulf coast near Galveston, Texas by dinner time. We will provision along the way. Our Garmin GPS does not have a clue how to get us out of here without taking us back to the closed bridge.
It was really nice to take a day off of moving. My first impressions of this State Park were not favourable. But, it’s actually pretty good. Gator sightings and decent quality trails move it up several notches.
I’m a little hesitant to go to Texas, afraid of running into some exes.
Make mine a cheeseburger!
