Welcome back to our full-time nomadic RV adventures with cats! 

Saturday at Davis Bayou in Ocean Springs, MS

Also, on this day Greg destroyed me in Monopoly. It took him a little longer to bankrupt me, but he won fair and square. He tries to rush me when I’m handling my banker duties, so I’m a bit suspicious of some  possible shenanigans. I’ll keep my eye out. I need to train the cats to watch him and send me a signal.
Also, saw a dog on a motorcycle with a little helmet. And Nemo is not a fan of his new healthy digestion food.

Sunday at Davis Bayou in Ocean Springs, MS

Birthday party time! Greg’s family celebrated his mom’s 83rd birthday today at her house. She seemed to enjoy seeing everyone and certainly enjoyed the food, including an ice cream cake that she adored. It was a cookout with the usual bovine ingredients. I brought some Impossible burgers and a garlic, kale salad made from the kale I bought at the Fresh Market. As soon as anyone saw that it was green and KALE, they stepped back and avoided it. 🙂 More for me to enjoy later!

Greg’s sister, Vicky, is so thoughtful and really tries to make me feel included. She made a vegan potato salad, baked beans, and even brought a box of dairy free Dilly bars from Dairy Queen! That really was such a kind gesture. Vicky is one of the most generous people I have ever met in all aspects of her life. I hope one day she gets the chance to relax and do for herself. Greg’s step brother and sister came to the party, as well as Vicky, Scott and Karen (Greg’s half-sister and brother and sister-in-law). It was nice to see everyone.

Monday at Davis Bayou in Ocean Springs, MS

The forecast was showing Monday as the last warm day before a brief cold streak. We took advantage of the nice day by meeting Scott and Karen in Gulfport to take their boat out to Ship Island. It is about four miles to the island that is part of Gulf Islands National Seashore. There is a fort and boardwalk to go to the Gulf side. We saw dolphins on the way out and then we anchored right next to the beach and walked in the water to shore (only about three feet deep and perfectly clear). There were many stingrays or skates in the shallow water. They were amazing and very curious about us, as well. The park rangers were there closing up everything for the season, so we didn’t get to visit the fort. It was a ghost town as we ended up being the only people on the island! It was beautiful and a great experience. I have never done anything like that. I am grateful that at my age I was able to climb up and down a boat ladder.

Greg set my flip-flops on the side of the boat at some point and they flew into the water when we were going fast. Soooo… I had no shoes for the dock and parking lot. Small price to pay for such fun. I wonder what dolphins do with all the flip-flops they collect.

Tuesday at Davis Bayou in Ocean Springs, MS

Suddenly our dehumidifiers are not so full and our furnace is kicking on. It dipped into the low 40’s Tuesday morning. We have traded our shorts for jeans and hoodies. It was a great day for some purging of “stuff” in the camper, losing some of the weight. You have to be very aware of cargo carrying capacity in this lifestyle. When you bring something in, you have to take something out! 

Today we bought a new mattress at Camping World. We have an RV king size which at 72×80 is a few inches narrower than a standard king size mattress. The mattress that came with the camper was surprisingly comfy, but pretty thin. I found that I could feel the hard platform at the end of the night and it was making my hips hurt. This new mattress is twice as thick, so it should be good!

Had to get a picture of this statue in Biloxi of an astronaut named Fred Haise. They put bird spikes on his head to keep birds from landing there and pooping it up. So now Mr. Haise looks like Sid Vicious!

Wednesday at Davis Bayou in Ocean Springs, MS

It was still cold and even dipped into the 30’s at night! Our RV furnace is a BEAST. When it kicks on we are warm before you know it. It is amazing to us that since April, even with full-time living from July on, we have only used half of one of our two (30 lb each) propane tanks! We use propane for hot water, some cooking, the griddle and the furnace. Since propane is on our dime, I try to use electric devices to do most of my cooking at campgrounds with hookups.

Today we ran errands knowing that we leave Ocean Springs tomorrow. We hit the post office, Walmart, laundromat, a pharmacy, Scott’s house and a visit to Greg’s mom. That visit was awesome and his mom was more coherent, talkative and inquisitive than she was for the previous two weeks. They had such a lovely visit. Greg was glad to have that time with her.

The pharmacy we went to was in a town called Moss Point. We stumbled into an area devastated by an EF2 tornado last June. A whole strip of the town is missing roofs, boarded up, trees are swirled and naked. It was shocking and we had no idea! I feel so badly for the people living there. I am surprised that on the surface it appears that very little progress has been made to fix anything in the four months since the tornado…especially for an area so used to dealing with hurricanes, floods and storm damage.

Thursday (Travel Day!)

Gold stars for both Nemo and Cleo today as they were BOTH very patient in the truck! And extra gold stars for Greg who is just so very good at moving our house on wheels! The trip today was 2.5 hours from Ocean Springs, MS to Tickfaw State Park in Springfield, LA about an hour northwest of New Orleans and an hour east of Baton Rouge. Our site, 18, is just your average campsite. The picnic table area is large bits of gravel, more like rocks. The pad itself is slightly beat up asphalt. There are some other sites that have an actual wooden deck and look a bit nicer than ours. We have electric and water hookups just like at our last campground. There is a fire pit that we again cannot use due to the burn ban. This drought is very serious. We have still only had a total of two days of rain since we moved into the camper in July. Within 30 minutes of our arrival we saw three bald eagles soaring above us. And Nemo saw his first armadillo. Here is a picture of his face as he stares at his new friend.

Tickfaw is small as state parks go, but has some great features beyond the amazing wildlife. There are beautiful marsh/bayou/swampy areas with a canoe launch area. There is a splash pad for the kiddos, a nature center, two-bedroom cabins, group cabins, tent camping areas and the RV park including a laundry room and bath house. There are about five miles of walking trails, but many are closed due to damage from Hurricane Ida.

I can imagine that during the height of summer this place is a mosquito apocalypse, but today the weather is cool and breezy. That seems to be keeping them away so far. It looks like the forecast is for 80’s and sunny over the next few days, so I will be deploying the bug spray again soon. This is a high water mark on the outside of the bath house from a flood in 2016. It seems that everywhere we go down here there is damage from some recent natural disaster.

Friday at Tickfaw State Park in Springfield, LA

If you want to learn the most you can about an area, start by striking up a conversation with the naturalist at the nearest state park. Not only do they know about the park, but they typically live nearby and can tell you about good restaurants, other things to see, etc. We found out that not only did this park suffer a huge flood in 2016, it then lost 70% of its tress in Hurricane Ida in 2021! As he said, “We were on the bad side of Ida.” He said that before Ida you could barely see the sky while inside the park. Now it’s nothing but sky. The naturalist also told us that armadillos have terrible hearing and eyesight. This explains why when I tried to steer one into the brush when a truck was coming his way, he jumped straight into a wall of shrubs and bounced off. They really need that armor for many reasons! Also, the US only has 9-banded armadillos.

We stayed in the park today and walked the trails. One trail no longer loops because it is cut off from fallen trees (again, the hurricane), but it was lovely. We saw a group of ibis fishing in the swamp. They had no idea we were there. It was a silent, beautiful sight. On our way back to the campground we saw a 10′ alligator sunning at the base of a very large cypress tree. They have cypress trees in the swamps here that are hundreds of years old. They even have one called The Grandmother that they estimate at 400-800 years old. Again, we had tourons enjoying a roaring campfire during the burn ban. Where do these people come from?

Saturday at Tickfaw State Park in Springfield, LA

Today we went to Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center in Baton Rouge. Due to the drought the swamp is completely dry. No water at all except for the front pond that we discovered is being kept semi-full with water by a garden hose. None of the wildlife that this beautiful nature center educates you about remains in the swamp, because it’s GONE. If any wildlife was there, it was scarce. It really was a sad sight and it feels like nature everywhere we go is just limping along, trying to survive and get used to this strange new normal.

Baton Rouge is right next to the Mississippi River and had some beautiful buildings. The live oak tree on the grounds of the original state house was spectacular. No photo taken from a phone can do it justice, but that tree was mind blowing and probably hundreds of years old.

The people we have met in southern Louisiana whether at Walmart, a park, the street, wherever, are some of the kindest, most polite people we have met anywhere. It is a huge standout, and we each noticed it. Geaux Tigers! We even had an O-H… I-O moment with some tourists wearing Buckeye gear in Baton Rouge. They are everywhere!

Sunday at Tickfaw State Park in Springfield, LA

Sunday afternoons are a sparkling rainbow with unicorns and cotton candy as the tourons load up and head out of campgrounds across the country! Driving to the laundry room this afternoon the campground that was full only eight hours earlier was down to just four campers! AND STAY OUT! Yes, check-in time is 2 pm, but only a few level-headed campers were added. The armadillos are again frolicking. They definitely know when the tourons have disappeared. Tomorrow is a travel day as our trek west continues!