March 10, 2017 - Lafayette, LA to Sulphur, LA

We are going to camp at Sulphur, LA for 2 nights.  Erwin and I plan to visit with my cousin, Doris and her husband, Paul tomorrow.  Last year we stopped in town to leave several boxes of my mother’s fine china set with Doris, but we overlooked one more box that was on the backseat of the Jeep. We want to drop the box off before we travel on to the West.

I went online to reserve a campsite at Montgomery KOA. There are other campgrounds that are cheaper than KOA, but too far or out of the way for us to visit our friends, Patty and Paul.  KOA is less than 2 miles away from their house. We will be camping there for 7 nights.

We checked out of the campground at 10 am.  When Erwin was at the dump station it started to rain.  The weather forecast called for 60% chance of rain.  At least, it did not rain hard when we ”moved” out.

It is 99 miles to the campground in Lake Charles, and we stayed on I-10 West.  Even though the clouds looked dark and stormy it did not rain a bit while we were on the road, which is good. 

We continued on I-10 W after we entered Lake Charles city limit. We got off at exit to get on LA-27 South to Sulphur, LA.  

Ellender Bridge over Intracoastal Waterway

After crossing the Intracoastal Waterway we pulled into Intracoastal Parish Park.  The park attendant was already out of the office when we walked up.  She was a very friendly lady, asked us a couple questions.  Cash only, no credit cards.  $12 a night and we get to pick any site we want. There is a partial hookup: electricity and water.  The dump station is on the site.

After unhooking the Jeep we drove to check out sites, decided on #8 that faces the Intracostal Waterway. A great view of the drawbridge.

We ate lunch while watching the barges go by.  Some so long, some short, some with tugboats pushing.  Even though I am deaf I can hear(feel) the noise coming from the barges. You can even feel the earth shaking!

We decided to go visit Cameron Prairie Wildlife Refuge again. We visited it last year, but just love this place.  We forgot to take along the GPS, so we relied on Google Maps app on our IPhones.  Well, we thought the refuge was on the very same route when going south from the campground.  No, WRONG!  It is on the other side of the canal. This means taking a ferry!

The blackbird is hitching a ride 

The ferry route was a short one.  No toll going east, but it is $1 if you are going west.

It was a VERY long drive from Intracoastal Parish Park to the refuge.  We arrived the refuge little after 3 pm and they close at 4 pm.  That did not leave us much time to dillydally.  

After the first turn there was an alligator resting half on the grass and half on the road.  It did not flinch or move even after I moved the Jeep closer to it.  That was a good photo opportunity for me.  When it started to walk down to the water-filled ditch we noticed that it was missing half of its rear right foot. 😔

There were not many shorebirds around, and we guessed that they may have already left for the north.  There were so so many alligators, from tiny wee to jumbo. Some very visible and some camouflaged.

Young Alligator

Even though there was not much activity at the refuge we still enjoyed every minute of it.  It would have been better if we come here during migratory season.

We went back home very tired and hungry.  After supper Erwin went fishing (our next door campers had fresh bait and offered Erwin some).  No luck in catching fish!  Then the mosquitoes started to bother him!

Nice lightning show in the distance. I was not able to get pictures of the bolts.  

The barges continued their run during the night.  We could feel the vibrations and hoped we could sleep through the night.  We shall see...