Where The Wind Takes Us... One Doggie Field After Another

Forgot we had been writing stuff as we went on the way here to Louisiana.

Sunday October 2, 2005

Today was the best! We got up early and drove out towards the beach. Suzi wanted to go see the old Spanish Fort. As we drove I had to listen to my people be in awe over the houses on stilts, and more importantly the debris piled on the sides of the road. We found out later that FEMA will be coming by with a huge crane to pick it all up. There were also piles of sand that reminded Kim of the snow drifts of her childhood in Montana. The sand was blowing across the roadway, and there were tractors digging their way thru the piles of sand to their homes.

When we got close there was a ferry dock which was closed, so we pulled in and went for a romp! They let us off leash and we walked out to the end of the dock to see some huge pelicans hanging out on some tall piers.

When we left, we were next door to the old Fort. We talked to the lady at the booth for a few minutes. She said Samantha and I were welcome, even said not to bother to clean up after us... Which Suzi did anyway... But the lady said they have birds here that leave bigger piles than we ever could and people should just get used to it...

We spent along time at the Fort. It was a lot of fun! They unhooked us for safety when going down some stairs. The stairs were REALLY STEEP! Kim held her arm to it to see how tall each step was. Each step was ~13inches tall. The steps going upstairs in our 5th wheel are 9inches tall...

After we got done at the Fort we drove over to a beach access site! Finally I got to see this Gulf thing that I was told about... IT WAS GREAT! Samantha and I had a blast! We got off leash and romped and splashed! The surf was rough something about tropical depression Stan clear on the other side of the Gulf.

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More Sunday October 2, 2005

After we ate and rested a bit our people decided to go for a little ride. We drove past condos and hotels right on the beach headed East of town. Sam and I would have loved to go romp some more, but our people were tired...

We headed over to the State Park campground to see what it was like. It smelled really good, dank, and moldy smell to it. I was told it looked like good alligator land. Suzi ran in to see how much the park was... $19.50 for a basic site, $22 by the lake. We are at a private park spending $8 for full hookups, with our Passports America discount.

As we left the State Park Suzi noticed a sign about alligators and asked to stop. They left Samantha and I in the truck while they went to take a picture by the sign. Next thing we knew they were all excited about the alligator they saw... looked like a log to me... But they claim they saw it swimming. Of course the camera with the zoom was at home in the 5er back at camp...

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Monday October 3, 2005

Last night our NOAA emergency radio crackled on, and there is a flood alert for high tide on the coastal regions. High tide is around midnight.

This morning we decided we don't like waiting for phone calls, so we went out to the beach. It was really windy and the surf was even rougher than yesterday. Course as soon as we were a ways away from the truck the phone rang. The wind was so bad Suzi had to high tail it back to the truck to call the person back. Looks like tomorrow we are headed for Ville Platte, LA for 4-6 weeks.

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Tuesday 10/4/2005

We headed out this morning for Ville Platte, LA. We called the visitors bureau for both Mississippi and Louisiana. I-10 was open thru Mississippi, and I-12 was open thru Louisiana. We needed to stop for fuel in Mississippi. The first station we went to was out of gas, but the 2nd had gas but no diesel. Glad our truck takes gas! The rest areas were all closed along the way. There were not many places to pull over with the 5th wheel. We saw numerous vehicles abandoned on the side of the road with flat tires. Some had flats on their spare tires. Mississippi showed the most wind damage. The billboards were all mangled and missing their slogans. The houses along the way had blue tarps on their roofs if they had roofs at all...

We pulled into Chicot State Park at dusk. Since we were here to help a the hospital for the Hurricane our site is free. There is a 2 day limit here that they are currently waving. We are not sure where we may move to if necessary. We are planning on rolling with it. There are no sewer hookups here but there is a dump station, so we are trying to decide if we should get a blue tote or not...

One thing that is interesting is we planned on coming here to Ville Platte due to Hurricane Katrina, but locally they got hit harder from Hurricane Rita than they did Katrina.

It really hit us where we were when we turned on the TV and at the bottom of the screen they have updates and where to get help scrolling constantly.