12/04/00: I awoke around 3am last night with every intention of heading into southern Florida, the Big Cypress Swamp and some warmth. By the time I got out near a highway, the truck had made up its mind differently and turned west so I had to tag along. We didn't stop until Mandeville, Louisiana where I had a long hot shower to warm up and to wash the stink off at the Fountainbleau State Park. Of four days of primitive camping, I only managed one SunShower because of the cold so there was a little stink to wash off.
12/05/00: While doing the laundry yesterday I met a guy who said the US Corps of Army Engineers were headquartered in Wiggins, Mississippi and offered a free book on their projects with a description of facilities. That sounded like it was worth a trip. I had to go up to Boque Chitto WMA in Louisiana to check things out there anyway and wouldn't have too far to go from there to Wiggins.
Yesterday I had tried to check out the Wildlife Management Area but couldn't find the road accessing it. Last night I got out the Street Atlas CD and printed out a detailed map of the area... and I still couldn't find it.
So off I go to Wiggins, Mississippi. Driving along in Wiggins I spotted the De Soto National Forest Ranger Station on MS 26 at the junction with US 49. I stopped in for information on the forest and asked about the Army Corps of Engineers. They said "Huh?". The guy must have been thinking about the forest ranger station when he gave me directions.
12/06/00: Another night in the low 30's and I'm outta here. The mean temperature in Louisiana and probably Mississippi and eastern Texas in December and January is 40's at night and 60's during the day. Everything has been 10-15 degrees below normal. I'm not having fun now. Texas here I come.
I drove till noon and spotted the Atchafayala Swamp and National Wildlife Refuge on the map with free camping. Turning onto CR 975 from I10 proved a disaster. Basically a one lane paved road with lots of pot holes and deep ruts across the road.
Back on I10 I then turned off at CR 105. This started out as a dirt road beside a levee but turned paved for the last 10 of 18 miles to Kronz Springs with their oil and gas fields. I found CR 975 again on the far side of the US 190 bridge and found the camping area right next to the rifle range. Someone was over there firing a howitzer. I had just finished washing and managed to get the tarp up before the rains came.
The forecast seems to be improving temperature wise but with rain for the weekend. I'm going to continue west tomorrow... unless I change my mind.
12/06/00: Gawd! I got two miles inside the Texas border on I10 and saw a mile marker indicating 878 miles to the end of I10 on the other side of Texas. You don't just pop over to New Mexico for an afternoon around here.
Last night was the first downpour I've experienced since switching from tent to truck camping. It wasn't too bad except with the door of the hatch raised, rain drips in, even with a tarp overhead. I rigged something up to force the runoff away from the truck.
The weather isn't much better in Texas but at least I feel I'm poised to make a mad dash to someplace warm. I picked up a lot of information at the Texas Visitor Center so we'll figure where we go from here.
12/08/00: I lost a day somewhere. I dunno what happened to the 7th. Time really flies when you're having fun.
After some heavy fog this morning things cleared up nicely and the temperatures hit the mid-60's. I drove down to Smith Point on the eastern shore of Galveston Bay where it meets East Bay, across from Galveston.
On the way down passed lotsa of American egrets in the rice fields along I10. In some places it looked like snow there were so many of them. Next I stopped off at Fort Anahauc, another free campground and took a walk out the 1.9 mile peninsula.
This was more like it. Temperatures in the mid-60's, a bright red cardinal, several blue herons, a few egrets, lots of terns, a flock of ducks, some anhinga and two rosette spoonbills in flight, the first time I've seen them in the air. Magnificent frigates, black skimmers with red and black bills also inhabit the area along with Least terns (the ones I saw?), Reddish egrets (that are really gray) and American oystercatchers with red and orange bills.
On the way out to the tip of the peninsula I watched brown pelicans crashing into the water for lunch while 8-9 white pelicans just hung around being cool.
And then there were the mosquitoes. A big bunch of them trailed behind me and every time I stopped they moved to the attack, forcing me to use the ol' bandana under the hat trick. At the end of the trail I stopped to take a leak and they zoomed in on that too. That caused me to beat a hasty retreat.
Out at Smith's Point they were even worse. I was planning setting up the tent to get away from them. They was big, and they was bad and they was hungry and they drove me outa there. I spent the rest of the day driving to someplace they weren't.
12/11/00: I got one nice paddle in but then the forecasters screwed things up saying 4-5 days of bad weather are on the way. I had moved over to Huntsville State Park on the other side of Sam Houston National Forest and had expected to stay in the area several days. Forecasted temperatures in the 20's put a damper on those plans. Before leaving I took a nice stroll around Raven Lake in the park. The falling leaves reminded me of New Hampshire and I saw a lot of tiny little birds no more than three inches long flitting around.
Temperatures in the 70's sent me south of Houston to the coast again. That proved to be a wasted trip. City and country parks are usually free or fairly cheap. Not Quintana Beach County Park in Freeport. They wanted $12 for a tent site and while I was reading that, the cab filled up with mosquitoes... and I was out of there.
After a wasted day of driving I ended up at the Brazos Bend State Park in Brazos Bend just south of Houston. I just now returned from a nature walk. Tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of black birds 4-5 inches long passed overhead. They had to be in the hundreds of thousands. They just kept appearing over one set of tree tops and disappearing over the next. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them landed in 4-5 foot grasses right in front of me as I watched from lakeside. It was amazing so many birds could fit into such a small area.
Just as I got back to my truck the wind started and I felt the temperature drop ten degrees, just like that. In the last few minutes I think its dropped another 5-10 degrees. They were saying the Texas panhandle experienced sub-zero temperatures with the wind chill. I'm not expecting anything like that. Probably the 30's tonight. The thing is, its not supposed to warm up much tomorrow from the night time lows. That sucks!
12/12/00: I'm nice and toasty in a Corpus Christi, Texas motel room watching the weather channel. Things look pretty bleak everywhere with this big winter storm. Things are forecast better for here tomorrow. I may or may not head down to Brownsville tomorrow. We'll see.
12/13/00: Temperatures in the 40's and an overcast sky sent me down to Brownsville, as far south as I can get in the western U.S. What a dreary, dismal town with its acres of container cargos and railroad cars. I went out to South Padre Island. More rip offs and nothing but a tourist trap with a couple of miles of junk shops. Eventually they peter out and the sand dunes start but they expect $4 for most beach access even in the off season, and they're sitting there waiting to collect. I'm in Arroyo City, farther north, for the night. I'll be going back to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge tomorrow. Dunno where I'm going from there.
12/14/00: An overcast sky, heavy winds and temperatures in the 50's helped me to the decision to return to Corpus Christi to replace the glasses I lost a couple months ago and get some film developed. Corpus Christi seemed like a place that would serve OK as a base of operations for a week or so.
12/15/00: Heavy fog sent me to San Antonio to visit the Alamo. A big Davy Crockett fan as a kid always made the Alamo a special place in my mind. The day was pretty dreary with more overcast skies, fog and drizzle, a good day to visit a museum. A big Davy Crockett fan as a kid always made the Alamo a special place in my mind. The Alamo is only a city block or so, a mission rather than a fort, right in San Antonio and I enjoyed it and the museum very much. A table in the museum held a model depicting one phase of the 13 day battle as Santa Ana and many thousands of Mexican soldiers tried to overrun less than 150 Americans including Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Colonel Travis, etc. Several people, myself included, stood around the table in silence, taking it in. Then someone would move a little and everyone would shift around to a new vantage point. It had quite an impact on us all I think.
Leaving there I headed northwest of San Antonia to the Hill Country State Nature Area. The hills, some are small mountains seemed quite enormous after all the cotton and rice fields and flat areas of south Texas. I haven't seen the sun in more than a week. I figure I can bundle up and hike the 30-40 miles of trails for a few days. A lot of horse trailers have pulled in the past couple of hours.