~Tuesday, December 29, 2020~
Day 198 (Travel Day)
Packed up and had a nice visit by Bronnie and his good ‘ol buddy Randy. The southern accents are very melodic and animated. Here are a few words that I completely mangled while we were visiting this Pelican State with the camera not being the only thing that gives away our “tourist” label:
1. Natchitoches (NACK-a-tish) The oldest settlement in the state
2. Tchefuncte (chuh-FUNK-tuh) The river that drains into Lake Ponchartrain
3. Tchoupitoulaas (CHOP-uh-TOO-lus) One of New Orlean’s most famous streets
4. Ouachita (WASH-ah-taw) Parish in north Louisiana
5. Louisiana (Loos-ee-ann-a)
…..just to name a few.
After a 4 hour drive, we arrived at our campsite in Abbeville, LA at the Abbeville RV Park. We tried to get into Palmetto Island State Park, but it was full. Both are within minutes of historic downtown Abbeville. Darn, we just missed the annual Giant Omelette celebration and Christmas stroll. Hoping many of the Christmas lights will still be on display.
Yeah, we arrived before dark (barely). Our stop at a UPS store on the way delayed us an hour. Anyway, we had called the office earlier to ask about check-in. Pretty laid back place as you can just select your site upon arrival. I’d say there are about 50 sites, with lots of shade and the sites pretty spread apart, but not too private. We selected site #14, and backing in was not fun. The ground was really soft and not very level. So after Jeff had tried to back into that site, I walked over to another site that looked a little better...picnic table, fire ring (we’re free to burn any branches or logs we find on the property). So site #17 it is. Nice to have a full hook up site. I changed my mind about setting up all of the Holiday decor again since we’re leaving here in 3 days. And our once perfect Christmas tree, which was already sooooo dry for days, has now found its final resting place in the forest back at Grand Bayou Resort.
Oh my goodness…..we haven’t had a mosquito issue since the trip began, but boy are they bad in the South. Who knew in December?? If they’re bad this time of year, I can’t imagine what summer is like. So I spent a good hour on the phone with Apple Care (issues with photos not loading into the “cloud”) while swatting mosquitoes in the trailer. Time to bring out the lemon eucalyptus oil.
While I was working on my blog posts, Jeff and Sadie had some R & R outside while the mosquitoes went to town and another critter decided to visit our site. Sadie tried to chase it, but thank goodness she responds well on command and turned right back around. Just minutes later, Jeff heard something again, and saw a shadow of something a little smaller than Sadie’s size, leaving us to wonder….could it be an armadillo, a wild pig, an alligator, anything’s possible as we have small bayous behind the park that ultimately flow into the Vermilion River.