Dora, the Greeting Ambassador

Not much happens when you're parked somewhere for 3 weeks. We're still at Lake Whitney RV Resort in Whitney, TX.

I've been doing a lot of walking with Dora. She loves to explore, while Sammy loves to sleep. I've met some very nice people - Kevin, who's parked next to us on the left, and Judith and her dog Precious, who's parked next to us on the right. It's wonderful meeting new people, each with their own story and history. Most are either retired or work remotely, like Judith who's a Spanish translator, or the young couple 2 spaces down, from St. Johnsbury, VT, which is only 1 1/2 hours from where we live in NH. He's a tutor and she's a graphic designer. A few are are just out for a camping weekend before returning to their "sticks and bricks" houses. Most full timers are older folks but a few have young children. Once in a while someone will pitch a tent, although most of those are just passing through rather than staying long term. So there's all kinds of people, with all kinds of stories, a rich diversity of humanity.

I've been asked how I meet so many people. I have a dog, a very friendly dog, who loves everyone. Dora has applied for the job of official greeting ambassador. The first people I generally meet are people out walking their dogs, or people who my dog wants to say hi to on our way by.  As was the case with Nancy and Pat. I was out walking Dora and I commented on their very classy RV, then Dora wanted to say hi, then Nancy fed her almost an entire small package of dog treats as Dora went through her repertoire of tricks, then Nancy wanted to meet Sammy so Jim walked over with him. Next thing we knew they invited us in for a visit and we became good friends, even if it was for a short time.

Russ is an lovely older gentleman who tent camps full time since his motorhome was totaled in an accident. He's been looking for another one but hasn't yet found one to his liking and budget. I was walking back from the dumpster when he was just setting up. He looked to be having a bit of difficulty, so I offered to help. He commented that his tent was a little on the older side and somewhat challenging for one person to manage. He said he might have to find a wife to help if he was going to keep using it. I laughed and said it might be less trouble to just buy a new, easy set-up one!

Russ's tent setup

Many times I meet someone at the laundromat during the weekly wash ritual and we have a lovely conversation while waiting for our laundry. That chore never stops just because we're traveling. Sometimes I wish we could use throw away clothes like we use paper plates. Hey, don't judge me. The last thing I want to do on my winter excursion is wash dishes.

The weather has taken a turn on the chilly side. It was 20 degrees for the past few nights, with daytime temps in the 40s and 50s. Last night wasn't quite so cold and today it's in the 60s with bright sun and no wind so it feels very nice. Here's the thing though - it may have been a chilly 20 degrees at night, but there was no minus sign in front of that, which is what I see from back home.

Chicken Express is a fast food chicken chain that's quite popular in this area. I know the chicken on the sign is supposed to be a chicken going very fast, but to me it looks like a dead chicken just laying there. Am I the only one who thinks this looks like road kill? What does it look like to you? Hard to un-see it now, isn't it?

Here's some random photos from the area.

Every parking sign in the parking lot had a single bird on it. Curious.

Apparently this needs a translation for teenagers

Berries on a plant called Heavenly Bamboo, which isn't really bamboo

Large flocks of grackles swarm through parking lots. Anyone see the movie "The Birds"? This female is dark brown and the males are black.

A lovely place to relax on a leisurely Texas afternoon

An abandoned bird nest by the shore of Lake Whitney

Sun shines through Ashe's Juniper trees at Lake Whitney. There are small blue berries all over the ground, which are supposed to be edible. Dora seems to like them occasionally.

 

Champagne's Cajun Swamp Tours

As many of you know, we're members of boondockerswelcome.com, which is a network of private homeowners who let you stay in their driveways or fields for free. We're also members of Harvest Hosts, which is a network of businesses that let you stay at their places overnight. It's a way to bring in extra business because the RVers are encouraged to spend at least $20 at their stores. Offering their parking lots gives advantages to both RVers looking for a place to overnight, and the business.

Our next stop was at a Harvest Host location in Breaux Bridge, LA. Champagne's Swamp Tours gives tours of the swamp at Lake Martin. The area where we stayed was a huge field under the old oaks across the street. There was one other RV that pulled in for the night, a fellow Cougar owner, a lovely couple from Washington state.

We're the camper on the right

Our captain on the tour boat, Jonathan, may have been a little guy but he's got a head full of knowledge about the wildlife and various vegetation in the Cypress Swamp.

Our captain, Jonathan

The first thing we learned was that the word swamp came from an Indian word meaning flooded forest, and bayou means slow moving river. 

Lake Martin's Cypress Swamp includes about 10,000 acres of protected cypress-tupelo swamp and botomland hardwood forest habitat. It is a world-class wading bird rookery, where thousands of pairs of herons, egrets, and other water birds nest. It is also the year-round home to over 200 species of resident, wintering, and migratory birds, as well as over 1,200 alligators.

This season of the year with the cooler temperatures, the alligators are very lethargic. They brumate, not hibernate, coming to the surface just for air. They will become more active on warmer days, but the day we were there was quite cool. We were fortunate enough to see a few resting in the weeds.

Alligator in the weeds

Cypress trees live an about of 600 years, but many make it to 1,200 years with the oldest being over 2,600 years old. They have a long tap root that extends down about the same distance as the tree is tall. They also produce vertical protrusions above the water, along their horizontal underwater roots known as knees. It is thought they help give air to the submerged roots. Some of the trees had dozens of them, some only a few. Some of the knees were attached at the base of the tree and some extended out into the water, not seeming to be part of the tree.

This Cypress tree is about 500 years old

All the trees are covered with hanging Spanish Moss. We were told that Spaniards stuffed their pillows and mattresses with it but it contains chiggers, hence the saying "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite". There are many theories for the origin of this saying and this is one possibility from local lore.

We saw many species of birds including Great White Egret, Blue Heron, Cormorant, Anhinga, and several species of ducks. At one point we observed about 30 buzzards circling an area not too far off to our right.

The sun seems to make this Egret glow

Turtles resting on a log.
Notice the "knee" on the left at the base of the tree.

Blue Heron

This mound is an alligator nest

Salvinia is an invasive plant with tiny hairs on its surface.

Scientists have developed a material called "nanofur"

that mimics these hairs and is used to clean up oil spills.

Water mark from a recent flood.
You can see one of the tree's "knees" at its base in the center.
There are more around the trees in the background.

RVs Aren't Plows

Before we left SC our son-in-law took the whole family out to a wonderful Chinese restaurant. Not much else to say about it other than it was great food and wonderful company.

Next we visited Jim's great niece, Ariel, in AL She's stationed at Fort Rucker learning how to fly helicopters. We visited her last year and Jim asked if there was anything we could do for her while we were there. So he volunteered me to install handles on her kitchen cabinets and patch a hole in her bathroom ceiling. RVing can get pretty boring so I was glad to have the opportunity to do something useful, and you all know how much I like carpentry projects. This year I gave the baseboards in her house a fresh coat of paint and Jim fixed a loose deck board.

Ariel says she has the coolest job in the world. I tend to agree.

I've said many times that RVing is a learning curve. The 1st winter was a steep curve with many bloopers and oopsies. Last year, our 2nd, was much better and we thought we had done about all the oopsies anyone could. However, we grossly underestimated how many oopsies a person can make. Apparently, we weren't done because Friday morning as we pulled out of Ariel's yard, Jim forgot to raise the tongue jack. Let's just say we could have followed behind and planted a crop in the long furrow it made. Since tongue jacks aren't made for plowing fields it bent backwards at a 45 degree angle as it plowed a deep furrow about 40' long. It wouldn't retract and obviously we couldn't travel with it still down, so Jim cut it off with a sawzall. He'll have to locate a replacement post but meanwhile he stopped at Walmart and bought a car jack so we can get it off the truck at our next stop over.

We traveled to our next stop near Mobile, AL. One great benefit of RV traveling is meeting great people. Our hosts, who's place we were parking our RV at, were not only extremely welcoming but invited us out to dinner with some friends. Panda Palace Buffet had a very interesting variety, including sushi, if you're into that, which I'm not. I did try the squid salad though. I didn't dislike it. I can say it was interesting. I think it's definitely an acquired taste and if I had enough time, like maybe a year, to acquire it I might actually learn to like it. They did have something I'd never tried before - crab casserole, which was crab meat in a cheese sauce. Excellent!

Our new friends in Mobile, AL.
Our hosts Travis and Kathy are on the back left.

The car jack that Jim had purchased to temporarily replace the tongue jack didn't work. Since we couldn't get the RV off the truck Kathy offered to give Jim a ride to Northern Tool to get a bottle jack. That did the trick. Then Kathy offered me a ride to Walmart to get groceries. RVers are really wonderful people who understand emergencies when you're in need of repairs. Travis and Kathy were no exception and were right there when we needed them. More lifelong friends to add to our ever-growing list.

Some other pictures from our visit in Mobile, AL, all taken right outside our RV:

Dock on the shore of the Dog River

Muscovy ducks

You can take me off the farm, but you can't take the farmer out of me.
Our hosts had about 10 chickens.

Jim relaxing on the dock with Sammy

We'll be here till Monday morning when we'll be off to Breaux Bridge, LA where we'll be overnighting at a place that offers swamp tours. I'll give you a report on it, that is if I don't get eaten by the alligators!

Forgot to show you the reindeer that Hobby Lobby was selling. I'll take good old Rudolph without the fur collar, thank you anyway.

Goodbye 2021

2021 has been a tough year for a lot of folks. With ongoing concerns about Covid-19, illnesses, loss of loved ones, job losses, financial difficulties, and more, the troubles never seem to end. With the new year we're all hopeful things will be a little easier. So here's to all the possibilities of new sunrises and sunsets for the next 365 days. Goodbye 2021, hello 2022. 

As of this moment we're still in Fair Play, SC. The weather has been rainy and damp and we've had to keep the dehumidifier running almost constantly. Moisture is not an RVs friend as they can easily support mold growth. The good thing about rain is we don't have to shovel it. A rainy day in the 60s is still better than a sunny day in the 20s, although not nearly as pretty. Here's some beautiful snow shots taken by my friend Trish Slone in Colebrook.

The rain here has brought some wildflowers to life. I don't know what they're called but the bright color brings a splash of sunshine to a drab, cloudy day.

On Christmas we were able to travel about 2 hours south to Jim's daughter's house near Columbia, SC. As per our tradition of not buying presents and doing something with our grandkids instead, we took everyone to the movies. They wanted to see the new Spiderman movie. The kids liked it, but a few of us adults thought it was very slow and, at one point in the movie, someone mentioned she wished we could just fast forward to the end. That wasn't me, although I was thinking something similar along those lines. If was great spending time with family though, and seeing how all the kids have grown.

Love the matching PJs!

The oldest had dislocated his shoulder playing hockey and needed to have surgery. Dora thought he looked lonesome and decided to give him some company. Or it could be that, having just come home from the hospital, he was the only one taking a nap and holding still.

We leave here on Monday for southern AL for a few days before making our way toward TX. One thing I know from RVing experience is that when a sign says RVs shouldn't go in an area, you should listen. This sign is at the back of the RV park where we are. Looks like someone wasn't paying attention.