Mustang Island State Park, Corpus Christie

 On Wednesday, we packed up at Brazos Bend and departed for the Corpus Christie area. This about a 3.5 hour trip, 228 miles total. Nice easy drive on mostly back roads - which still have a 70 or 75 mph speed limit!  Also, it seems like every road or highway in Texas is under construction!

Mustang Island is a barrier island. The camping here is pretty much in a parking lot. Total opposite of Brazos Bend, and not someplace you really want to spend a lot of time just hanging out. 

Picnic table/w shelter and Grackles

The Gulf

Parking lot camping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise over the gulf dunes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What we have been doing is bird watching like crazy! We did a bunch more watching at Brazos Bend before we left there, and saw several more species we had never seen before, and got amazing looks at some birds that are usually very secretive. I won't bore you all with them...but will post a few pics at the end.

Same thing today, and saw 3 or 4 more new species-to-us species. I suspect this will happen more and more as we enter new habitats and areas.

A friend asked for details on some of the parks we have stayed in, so here goes:

In Mississippi: LaFluer's state park: $15 W/E, barely cell service, good bathrooms

Tombigbee State Park: $28 W/E ok cell, ok bathrooms

In Louisiana: St Bernard state park: $28/night W/E; very nice bathroom; wifi; good cell service

 In Texas, with purchase of TX state parks pass for $70

Brazos Bend State Park: $21 W/E; decent cell service; nice bathrooms but could be cleaner.

Mustang Island State Park: $70 for 3 nights, W/E; cell service good; bathrooms new but unheated; not very good ambiance. Beach camping (primitive) available. 

 

 

 

Me being goofy

Black necked stilt. Look at his leg under the water.

Reddish egret, white morph, doing the egret dance.

American Avocet, winter plumage

Whooping Crane family. Baby has a tag and tracking device on his leg.

Crested Caracara, in the Raptor family, a carrion eater.

 

Brazos Bend State Park, TX

 After leaving Winnie, TX on Monday, we drove a short way around Houston (with no issues, thankfully) to the southwest side of the city. Brazos Bend State Park is about 45 minutes southwest of the city. It is over 5,000 acres that were donated by a family named Hale in the 1970's. There are several man-made and natural lakes, and many bike and hike trails. The campsites are very nicely spaced apart, and there is a visitor center with  knowledgeable staff. One of them took out a couple of snakes and a baby alligator for us to "pet". While there are plenty of gators in the waterways, there are none near the campground, so no worries.

 

Foggy spiderweb

Our campsite, with Live oak behind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The birding here is quite good. We have already seen two life birds (a bird you have never seen before, for non birders). They are black bellied whistling duck and crested carcara. You will have to turn the sound up to hear them whistling.

Black Bellied Whistling Duck. Pink bill & feet!

  The banks of this lake are all torn up by feral hogs, We have not seen any. They do a lot of damage!

I love the shape of these Cypress trees

Muddy Brazos river

They have had a LOT of rain here.

 

 

We biked the trail that runs along the Brazos River. There has been a lot of rain in the area, there is lots of water. Today we will do some more birding in the park and then take a drive to Galveston, just to see what there is there. Tomorrow we depart here for Mustang Island state park, near Corpus Christie to do some more birding, and try for Whoopping Crane.

Onward into Texas

 To catch you up...when last I wrote it was Friday and today is Sunday. Friday night we drove into New Orleans from St Bernard Parish. This is only a 12 mile drive but it is a world away. Lots of changes in the landscape in those 12 miles. But getting to the French Quarter was very easy. We ate dinner in a place called Tujagues, and it was good New Orleans fare. Then we walked toward Jackson Square to wait for the parade to arrive. It took a while, and we watched the moon come up over the square too.

Tujagues restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The parade was fun, and the people watching even more so. Lots of folks in medieval costume, and all kinds of mardi gras colors too. Very fun. We didn't stay until the very end as we wanted to get back to the pups in the camper. 

 

Full moon over Jackson Square

Mini King cake, with baby included

The next day, Saturday, we walked around the campground again on the nature trails, had lunch and then went to the Chalmette battlefield, where the Battle of New Orleans was fought. This battle effectively ended the War of 1812. It was fought on this date, January 7th, 1815. General Andrew Jackson was the hero of the day, and this battle is why his statue stands at the center of Jackson Square. 

 

Mansion built after the battle had occurred.

Officers tent

 

 

 

 

 

 There were soldiers and townspeople in costume and character, an officers tent and camp followers camp...pretty interesting! We walked over the levy and right down to the river's edge. 

The Mighty Mississippi

 

Battle monument

Venerable live oak. This tree could have been here in 1815!

 

 

 

Crab trap Christmas tree!

 

Today, Sunday, we departed St Bernards for Winnie, Texas. We were supposed to stay in Sea Rim State park, but the report of hordes of mosquitos crawling through the camper screens changed our minds and we are in a Hampton Inn, where I am currently doing laundry :-). It's surprising to me how many Canadians we come across camping. Rigs from Nova Scotia, Ontario, even Alberta!  All fleeing the Canadian cold.

Crossing the Mississippi at Baton Rouge

Tomorrow we drive around Houston to Brazos Bend State Park where we stay for a few days to do some serious birding around the Galveston and coastal area. 

Sunny New Orleans

Scrub palmetto on the nature walk

 We left Jackson, MS on Thursday morning, January 5 at 9:15am. Another nice, sunny day, Got down into the 40's at night so we had the heater on but were toasty warm. 

Three and a half hours to our campsite at St. Bernard's State Park, but going through/around the city was a bit harrowing...and I drove it! We got to the state park at 1:30 and made camp. Our campsite has cypress knees in it. I imagine this site is underwater at times (even just recently) but is not right now...thankfully. There's a nice nature trail here that we walked this morning with the dogs. We are not far from the Mississippi and you can see the levy from the trail. 

We are taking it easy today as it is good to be not moving for a few days. Today is Twelfth Night, and Mardi Gras season starts today with a few parades to kick it off. We will go into the city this evening for one of them that takes place in the French Quarter. It is the Krewe of Joan of Arc parade.  

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, and there is a celebration and re-enactment not too far from here in Chalmette.  We depart NOLA for Texas on Sunday morning the 8th. 

Here are a couple photos of the campground, and a video Steve took of a Live Oak allee' on the way here yesterday .

Good food at The Fish Place

Zoom in for cypress knees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 4, Tupelo and Jackson, MS

 Yesterday, Jan 3, we woke to heavy rain in the Louisville area. It sounded like someone was aiming a hose at our hotel window. We left Shepherdsville at 8:15am, still raining but not as hard. We were in rain for about half the day and then voila! sun comes out and temperature warms up to 70°. We gained an hour in the morning, and arrived in Tupelo at 3:45pm, to Tombigbee state park. Very nice park with one camping loop and lots of bike trails that we didn't get to use. Oh well. Took a nice walk with the dogs around one of the trail loops before dark. And bad blogger that I am, I didn't get a photo of our campsite. 

Stats: 400 miles driven, 13mpg, gas $2.79/gallon.

This morning we woke to sun and 50°. Had an easy morning and departed campground at 9:30am. Tent campers next to us from Canandaigua, also heading to New Orleans. Small world.

We headed directly to the Natchez Trace visitor center 20 miles away from the campground. The Natchez Trace is over 400 miles long, and we drove one small section of it. It is a nice drive in the woods but I have to say I was a bit disappointed. All of the historic stops are just pull offs with a sign telling you what used to be there. Very few actually have something there to look at. The recreated pre-historic mounds are small and unimpressive. We stopped for lunch in Kosciusko, MS and did not get back on it. Somewhat disappointing.

Arrived in Jackson, MS at 4pm after driving a paltry 200 miles. We are staying at LeFluer's Bluff state park. The park is named for Louis LeFleur, a French-Canadian explorer who established a trading post on the banks of the Pearl River in the late 1700s. The City of Jackson was originally known as "LeFleur's Bluff.".

There are fun cypress knees here and we have already seen three good birds: Red headed woodpecker, Anhinga, Great Egret. Tomorrow we had to St Bernard's State park outside New Orleans where we will be fer 3 or 4 days.

Some photos of today.

Original Trace, sunken from thousands of feet walking it

 

 

Campground bathroom up on stilts!

I just love these reflections

The moon!

Cypress Knees

January 2nd in Shepherdsville, KY

 Yesterday, January 1, we departed Ithaca at 10:10am and arrived in Medina, OH (suburb of Cleveland) at 5:10pm, 364 miles. We averaged 12mpg. It was 46° when we left Ithaca and about the same in Ohio. Misty and foggy too. 

This morning, January 2, we departed Medina at 8:15am and arrived in Shepherdsville, KY (on the south side of Louisville) about 3:15pm, with similar mileage. It is much warmer today however, currently 65° here. Still overcast and misty but not too bad. MPG up to 13 today as well. We thought that it would be too cold to camp these first two nights, so had booked rooms. Turns out it is warm enough, but we are happy for the rooms in any case.

We arrived early enough to take the dogs to Bernheim Arboretum for a walk. This is a very large arboretum that we saw one small part of. They have a series of sculptures called "Forest Giants". We only saw this one.

The ponds were designed by the Olmsted firm, and look similar to other Olmsted designs. 

 

 

 

 

They have a very nice holly collection, many interesting pines and firs, and many of these European Hornbeam with this very interesting shape, shown off nicely in winter. All in all a very nice hour spent there. Dogs were happy to be out of the car!

European Hornbeam

American Holly

Tomorrow we will get to Tupelo, MS and camp for the night at Tom Bigbee State Park, the jumping off point for the section of the Natchez Trace that we will drive on Wednesday. But I am getting ahead of myself. We will get rain overnight, but will miss the heavy weather predicted further south, thankfully.

Meet Bubbles

 Bubbles is a 2011 Casita Spirit Deluxe (deluxe meaning it has a wet bathroom). She is 17' long from hitch to bumper, so about 14' of living space. Inside we have a closet to your left, then bathroom with toilet, sink and shower, 2 seat dinette, and queen bed across the back. Around the corner from the bed is a 2-burner propane stove, small sink and fridge/freezer. 

We purchased her from a friend in Colorado Springs in 2020, and headed out in May to pick her up. It was high covid-times but we felt safe in our little bubble, hence the name. Enjoy this little video tour. 

We get on the road today, the first day of the big adventure. We will make it into Ohio tonight, and stay in a motel. Wish us happy trails!