Sam Houston Jones State Park

On January 25, we made the drive and ferry ride to Sam Houston Jones SP, that is just north of Lake Charles, Louisiana. In my last entry I forgot to mention something we saw that was interesting. As we took the ferry ride from Galveston Island to Port Bolivar, we crossed the Houston Ship channel. This is the entry to the port of Houston. Out to our right there we a number of large oil tankers, just sitting there at anchor. I have been told that these ships are full of oil. As we all know, there is an excess of oil right now. There is so much of an excess that the oil companies have run out of places to store it. They have resorted to filling the tankers and using them as storage.

A few oil tankers at anchor just off Galveston

 We were looking for a stop about half way to New Orleans. Looking at our options we decided to stay at Sam Houston Jones SP. It is not far off of I 10, and sounded like an interesting place to hang out for a couple of days. We ended up staying three days.

After arriving and getting set up, I decided to check out the many hiking trails in the park. This area had some heavy rain over the past few days.

There were water puddles all over the campground, but the roads were paved and fine. 

The walking trail was a bit wet, but it was a nice walk along the river that runs through the park.

Calcasieu River

The trail was paved with crushed stone for part of the way making it OK to ride bikes on it.

Nice Trail and nice scenery

I ended up walking along the river for about 2 miles. I did not see any interesting birds, but the cypress trees are cool to look at.

They call Louisiana the "Sportsman Paradise". These guys are taking advantage of that.

On the 26th, it rained most of the day. I decided to take advantage of day by getting my oil changed in the truck. The last time I had the oil changed, we were is Sequim, Washington. It seems like forever ago.

On the 27th, I decided to go for a longer walk. I chose the longest walk in the park. There were wooden bridges and walkways constructed along the trail to keep you out of the wetlands.

The blue blaze on this tree was the primary trail markings.

I ended up walking over 5 miles. I really enjoyed the walk and felt good about the accomplishment. 

While I was was out walking, we got an RVillage message from our neighbor in the campground. Mike and Jodie are full timers and were parked right next to us. They were going to have a campfire in the evening and invited us to join them. Kim forgot and took a shower and did not want to get smokey, so I went over and was social for the evening. I really enjoyed our time talking about life on the road and sharing experiences. It was a very pleasant evening. Kim did meet Mike and Jodie the next day before we left. They have only been on the road for about 4 months, so it is all new to them. We are beginning to feel like the old pro's. It is great to talk to people that understand our lifestyle. It really reminds us of what we love about the way we live. 

I had to grab this shot as I went out to enjoy the campfire.

From there it was on to the New Orleans area. Come back to see if we were able to stay out of jail.