Our campground hosts ran a shuttle service to downtown New Orleans. In short order, we were driven six miles to the French Quarter in downtown New Orleans. We started the day with a walk along the banks of the Mississippi River.
At noon, we stopped for lunch at an open plaza. The most amazing jazz quartet was playing incredibly good music beside our restaurant patio. I've never heard such great jazz before and this appeared to be just a local street band. Then again it was New Orleans
Restaurant Plaza with female House Sparrow
Catfish Sandwich and Fries
We wandered through the old warehouse district of New Orleans.
After a circular route through the warehouse district, we returned to the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter. It's hard to describe the vibrant, decadent, voodoo-laced, European flavour of this fascinating district.
Our campground hosts scooped us up late in the day to take us back to our camp site.
March 3
We gassed up and left New Orleans heading east. We were looking for a Louisiana swamp to go gater and bird watching. No luck. We were on the I10 and there were no wildlife refuges that you can easily access off this highway.
We entered Mississippi and stopped at the stately visitors' centre. There was a subtle change in the terrain and energy. It felt like we were entering the old south. The terrain seemed a little higher and less marshy, the buildings better kept up.
Mississippi Visitors' Centre
There was much less of the Cajun influence and many homes had neo-classical Greek facades with Doric columns. In the small park around the visitors` centre, we saw several eastern bird species: 197) Blue Jays;
198) Fish Crow;
199) Tufted Titmouse.
It was a beautiful calm, warm, spring day so we drove to the beach at Bay Saint Louis. The beach was lovely but you could see storm damage on the piers from past hurricanes. Some of the metal was badly twisted and sections of the cement pier were missing.
Pier at Bay Saint Louis
Gulf of Mexico
Forster's Tern
Sanderlings
Brown Pelican soaring on the air currents created by the waves.
Along the sandy beaches we also saw: 200) Long-billed Dowitcher and 201) Greater Scaup.
This site marked the eastern limit for this trip as it was time to start heading back toward Vancouver. We returned along the I10 to Louisiana and arrived at Fairview State Park at dusk. As we set up camp, we noticed a rather exotic bird wander past us.
Peacock
Apparently, a neighbour had a pet peacock that routinely wandered through the park.
Dusk near Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana
March 4
We were camped along the banks of Lake Pontchartrain and enjoyed an early morning walk along a boardwalk that ran through the adjacent swamp.
Black Vulture
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Spanish Moss
Emma booked a swamp boat cruise for us with Cajun Tours. We headed to the banks of the Pearl River to board our boat.
Despite the signs, Emma is the adventurous sort.
Our guide was a local and quite the comedian. One minute into our tour he spotted a small alligator hiding behind a tree. I`m pretty sure it was a small plastic alligator but our guide wanted to be sure we saw at least one alligator during our swamp cruise. No to worry as it turned out we saw lots of alligators and enjoyed the murky ambiance of this Cajun swamp.
Sliding through the swamp we saw several water snakes basking on branches just above the water.
16] Diamond-backed Water Snake (Nerodia rhombifer)
Water Moccasin also called Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus)
March 5
We drove north along highway 55 and left the bayou swamps of Cajun Louisiana. The ground rose gently as we entered central Mississippi. The swamps gave way to rolling pine forests and deciduous trees.
We took Highway 98 through Homochitto National Forest. It was a very cool road with no traffic and almost no houses for miles. We stopped for lunch, a long walk and a swim at Okhissa Lake.
Sona is a Golden Retriever and went for a long swim in this clear, clean lake. She was in doggy heaven.
As we sailed through Bude Mississippi it reminded us of the town of Mayberry. Seems we were admiring the town too much. The local sheriff pulled us over for a traffic infraction. He was very friendly and understanding just like Andy Griffith. We had a pleasant chat as he cautioned us to be careful and have a nice day.
Late in the day we arrived at Natchez State Park. It is a big park beside a lake in the middle of a tranquil forest.
March 6
We like Mississippi. It is a clean and friendly state with lots of open spaces and friendly well-mannered folks. After a few months wearing blue jeans, I felt that I should dress up a bit to blend in better with the locals.
A short drive down the road took us to Natchez and the Melrose Planation.
We wandered around the grounds and saw:
203) Red-bellied Woodpecker
203) Red-headed Woodpecker.
We toured the former slave quarters that were beside the main mansion.
Melrose Place
We were not much interested in the main mansion so headed into downtown Natchez.
The Mississippi River at Natchez
In the 1840`s, Natchez was the centre for cotton production and had the second biggest slave market in the USA. Fortunately for Natchez it did not have a rail line till the 1880s so was not a target like Vicksburg during the civil war.
The walking tour around town was fun. Emma spent the afternoon in the Afro-American Museum. She received a guided tour around the exhibits by the museum host, David Dreyer. For supper, we joined David at the nearby Biscuit and Blues restaurant. We tried some of the local fair including gumbo soup and fried egg plant with shrimp. We had a delightful engaging discussion on a range of topics.
That night we crossed the Mississippi River and camped on the Louisiana bank looking back across at Natchez.
March 7
We had a brief farewell walk along the Louisiana bank of the Mississippi River then headed west on Highway 84.
Northern Louisiana is not like the swamp land of the southern part of the state. It has a slightly higher elevation and is carpeted with lots of trees. The forest looked more like plots of tree farms as most of the land seemed to be uniformly planted with trees.
It was very pleasant driving as there was almost no one on highway 84 as we traversed Louisiana. We stopped mid way across the state for a short walk to a tranquil lake where Sona could retrieve some sticks.
When we reached highway 49, we turned north and ended the day camped near Shreveport.
March 8 to 11
We drove steadily along the I 80 to the KOA campground in Arlington, Texas. Over the next three days, we made arrangements to store our RV near the Dallas Airport. We plan to fly back to Dallas this summer and continue our exploration of National Parks.
We booked a flight to Seattle and a rental car from Seattle to Vancouver. Booking passage for Sona was a bit of a challenge as was purchasing an appropriately sized kennel. We had a couple of days to get Sona familiar with the kennel but she was not impressed.
March 12
We parked the RV, wrapped it up in canvas and convinced a taxi driver to take Sona and us to the airport. Getting Sona on the flight was a challenge even though we had complied with all of American Airlines regulations. They weighed the dog, weighed the kennel, measured the dog and measured the kennel. It was touch and go as the kennel was at the maximum 30 inch height limit. After sufficiently traumatizing us they relented, followed their own rules and allowed us to board the plane.
Getting our Avis rental car was the usual extended wait but we were soon settled into the car and motoring up the I5 toward Vancouver. We stopped in Mount Vernon and had one of our best meals on the trip.
Sequestered in the cold and damp of the pacific northwest was very comforting. We felt like we were home. We arrived back in Vancouver near midnight after a full day of traveling adventures.
203 bird species for the trip and 16 other animal species
Harlequin Duck
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