Tickfaw State Park, Ponchatoula, LA, Alligators

We left Shepard State Park and are now at Tickfaw State Park in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.  Much of Tickfaw State Park is a cypress swamp with miles of boardwalks throughout for viewing wildlife in their natural habitat.  Lots of hiking trails and a popular place for canoeing and kayaking.

Our Route

Our Site

We visited Ponchatoula, Louisiana which is the self proclaimed strawberry captial of the world and is actually a nice little town with much of the downtown restored to how it looked in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  There are lots of antique shops and many places to eat.

Turn of the century locomotive of the Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co. which was based in Ponchatoula

View Of Downtown

Sign at the State Park

Section of the many elevated boardwalks through the cypress swamp

Another section of the boardwalk

Our first alligator of the year - about 7 or 8 feet long

He looks Happy! 

The second alligator we saw here - about the same size as the first - he was blocking our hiking trail - it was a loop so we reversed direction and sure enough he was still there when we came around the other way so we had to backtrack back to the campground

View of same alligator from the other side

Another alligator

5 Line Skink - right behind the camper

Pretty good size Rat Snake - about 4 to 5 feet long

Close-up of the same snake

Shepard State Park - Gautier, Mississippi - Biloxi - Mardi Gras

We have been at Shepard State Park in Gautier (go-shay), Mississippi for a few days and will be leaving for Louisiana tomorrow.  We stayed at the Lamotte Bayou Campground which is part of Shepard State Park.  While we were here it rained a lot so we haven't gotten out too much but we did go to Biloxi on Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) and saw some of the Mardi Gras festivities.  

Our Route From Alabama to Mississippi

The entrance to the state park is an interesting elevated log building - the building is the welcome center and camp store but it was being renovated due to hurricane damage so it was not open

Entrance to the campground

Our campsite among the palmettos

One of the many casinos in Biloxi - this guitar was enormous and surprisingly detailed - pic was taken from a moving vehicle so its a little blurry

Part of the huge crowd for Fat Tuesday

Another casino - more of the crowd

Biloxi Light House - built in 1848 - had water 1/3 the way up during Katrina but it survived!

We even found Margaritaville 

Lots of interestingly named establishments along the coast

We walked the somewhat famous Biloxi Bay Bridge which is about 1.5 miles long so about a 3 mile walk out and back.  The bridge was heavily damaged by Katrina in 2005 and was redesigned and rebuilt - it reopened in  2008 - Golden Nugget Casino in the background (Darby's head in forground)

Govt. Shutdown, Mardi Gras, Isaac Creek COE, Monroeville, Alabama

It has been an interesting few days.  We traveled from R. Shaefer Heard Campground in Georgia to Isaac Creek Campground in Monroeville, Alabama with the intent of staying at the latter for two days (Monroeville was the home of Harper Lee and the town on which the town of Maycomb in To Kill A Mockingbird was based - we drove through the town which has an interesting town square but didn't take any pictures).  Our next stop was planned to be near Biloxi/Gulf Shores, Mississippi as we had never seen that area.  We couldn't find any vacancies in the Biloxi/Gulfport area and we were told it was because of Mardis Gras.  We were told that most of the coastal towns from Pensacola, FL to Galveston, TX have Mardi Gras celebrations this week and weekend.  Who knew?  I thought it was just New Orleans.  So, we thought we would just extend our stay here a few days until we could get in a campground near Biloxi.  When we went to extend our stay we were told that there was a high probability there would be another Government shutdown and since this was an Army Corps Of Engineers park it would be closing at midnight on the 8th if there was a shutdown.  Everything finally worked out though, we finally were able to make reservations at a state park near Biloxi and the shutdown only lasted from midnight to early morning today so we didn't have to leave.  We will be leaving tomorrow for Mississippi after a total of four days here in Alabama.

Our Route To Isaac Creek

Our Campsite - we are located right on the Alabama River (you can just see the river in the background

The dam and lock system from the campground

View from below the dam and lock

R. Shaefer Heard Recreation Area - Finally Warm Again!

We moved from Twin Lakes Recreation Area in Pendleton, South Carolina to R. Shaefer Heard Recreation Area in West Point, Georgia.  There is hardly anyone here this time of year - have most of the park to ourselves.   We were just here a couple days and will be moving on to Alabama tomorrow.  We are trying to get South and West quickly - once we get to Louisiana we will slow down and get out to see more of the sights.  Finally we are not cold - today was in the low 60's and we were able to go out for a hike around part of the lake.  This is an Army Corps Of Engineers campground on West Point Lake.  West Point Lake is about 35 miles long and has over 500 miles of shoreline.  It was created when the Corps Of Engineers built the West Point Dam on the Chatahoochee River to provide hydroelectric power and flood control. 

Our Route

 Our Site

 View Of The Lake From Our Site

The West Point Dam

 Looking across to the Alabama side of the lake from Georgia

Update On Our Whereabouts

We have been in Virginia for the past six weeks or so staying with family.  We left the RV in Advance, NC during this period  hoping that that  was far enough south to protect it from freezing.  As it turns out there weren't too many places on the East Coast where it didn't freeze during this period.  Fortunately we drained the water pipes, tanks and hot water heater and had no serious damage from the cold weather while it was in storage - just one split water bottle that was left in the refrigerator - must have been a defective bottle as there were several others that did not split. 

We are on the move again, headed toward New Mexico and Arizona for the rest of the winter.  We left Tuesday and spent two days in Advance, NC and today we moved to Pendleton, SC where we will be for the next couple days.  From here we will be going to SW Georgia for a couple days and then on to Alabama where we will follow I-10 across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to New Mexico.

We are currently at Twin Lakes Recreation Area in Pendleton, SC - the picture below is from when we stayed here on the way up to VA - we actually got the same campsite this time - there is hardly anyone here.

Twin Lakes Campground, Lake Hartwell, Pendleton, South Carolina

Well we finally left the 1000 Trails campground and moved just a little way East to Twin Lakes Recreation Area in Pendleton , South Carolina just a few miles from Clemson University.  This is a very nice Army Corps Of Engineers campground on Lake Hartwell  which is a about 50 miles long and has 962 miles of coastline. 

I didn't do a map of the trip since it was so short but in its place is a map of our travels since we left NH on August 9th including where we expect to be for the next couple weeks.  We are at #23 this week and will be at #24 next week which is another 1000 Trails campground (we are going to try them one more time).  

Our site - we are on a little point surrounded on three sides by water

Part of the lake from behind our camper looking North

Looking South

View of our campsite from the lake

Blue Heron near the camper

View across the lake with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background 

Another view of the lake

We hiked the shore for a few miles today and found quite a variety of terrain from white sand beaches to a large rock quarry to long stretches of red clay - I took this pic because it reminded me of a Mars landscape

1000 Trails Campground Fairplay, GA, Stumphouse Tunnel

Wednesday we moved from McKinney Campground in Ackworth, Georgia to Carolina Landing in Fairplay, South Carolina.  Carolina Landing is owned by "1000 Trails",  a membership campground organization that has campgrounds throughout the country.  We were given a 1000 trails membership when we bought our camper and this is the first time we have used it (we actually tried before at other locations but they either had no vacancies or were closed for the season. Well, we were not impressed - they advertise 227  sites but in actuality the majority of them are rented out to seasonal campers and there are only a handful of sites available for travelers.  The park is old and outdated, very hilly and tough to navigate - our first experience with 1000 Trails was not a good one although in fairness, the people that worked there were very pleasant and helpful.  I guess we shouldn't complain as we got a free membership and it cost nothing to stay here.

Our Route

Our Site - We were jammed in between two permanently occupied campsites - very little extra space - barely enough to use the awning.  This is not the worst place we have stayed in the last year and a half but it is in the top three. 

We went hiking on Stumphouse Mountain and stopped to see Stumphouse Tunnel which was part of a plan to build the Blue Ridge Railroad from Anderson, SC to Knoxville, TN.  The railroad ran out of money and ceased work on the tunnel in 1859.  Then the Civil War came along and ultimately work on the railroad never resumed.  The tunnel was hand dug and goes about 1/2 way through the mountain.

There is also a large waterfall nearby that we hiked to.  The falls were nice but there has been a drought and I understand they are normally more impressive.