The Ides of March in Egan

We are definitely in Louisiana now!
Monday, March 15, I got up at 5:30 a.m. after being awake for an hour. The time change has me befuddled. I unpacked the space heater and had to move the digital picture frame so I plugged that in too and stared at photos and drank my hazelnut coffee as the heater did its thing. I got on-line to check email. I'm so glad we heard from Nan and Tom--I sure do miss them after our fun month together. Had a ice note from Tom and Shirley too. I sent them all pictures of the fish I caught last night. Then I worked on my journal pages. Bob got up sometime after it was light--I don't know when. I finished my Oysterfest photos and journal page and the two of us had breakfast after I vacated the kitchen table and we moved the bikes over so we could eat like human beings.

We decided to stay here one more day. We're both just too tired to move again. Besides the fishing is great. After breakfast I walk and then stretch. Bob works on digital pictures after researching Ohio sites. I call Fontainbleau State Park and discover they are full on weekends through the summer and have a 14-day stay limit. So I call New Orleans East Kampground and get a site for a month in Slidell, LA.

I go outside to call my niece, Megan, as the cell connection is scratchy inside the RV here. Megan had a Facebook posting about making her first trip to the grocery store since Ethan was born. So I thought there might be a chance that she was answering the phone too. It was great to chat with her. All is going well. She says her Mom is in Ireland until Thursday.

I also call my brother Mike to tell him I got his text message last week about "All Jimmy LaFave; all the time!" He's at Lake Texoma until Wednesday when he returns to Dallas. He will see Ethan, his new grand baby, and pick Linda up from her Ireland trip on Thursday. Friday he drives to Memphis for my nephew Travis's bachelor party, then to Travis's place in Jackson, then to see our folks near St. Louis and finally a fishing spree at Bennett Springs in Missouri. What a whirlwind trip. He says he has a big garden this year; turnips and snow peas are new for him in 2010.

Fishing pond at Cajun Haven RV Park

I tried to pay the office for one more night but it is locked up. It's 1:15 p.m. and 63 degrees with 44$ humidity and windy. Today we are able to have lunch at Fezzo's Seafood, Steakhouse and Oyster Bar in Crowley, LA. I have Eggplant Medallions over grilled tilapia with a creamy shrimp sauce. Bob has Crab Cakes with Tasso sauce which seemed to be some kind of cheese. It was very good but prices. I loved their sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. A super-polite older Cajun gent held my door in the parking lot so I didn't get a picture of the sign out front. But I did snap this coffee shop down the street. We get a Baton Rouge paper at the Conoco on the way home.

Back home I work on journal pages, read the paper and we head out fishing at 4:15. First we stop in the office and finally pay the guy for another night here. We had our rods with us and one of the RV park permanent residents who saw us catch fish last night asked if we caught any. He saw Bob's plastic frog on his rod and had to make a weird comment. Geez.

It is windier and cooler tonight and the fish are not hitting as much. I finally caught one nice bass and then promptly lost my black buzz bait in a tree a few casts later. We called it quits around 6:20. On the way back to our RV an older Cajun in a travel trailer across the road from us said "I was impressed with your fishing out there ma'am. I can tell you're real serious about it." Okay, I guess I have arrived in the sporting world if a Cajun is impressed by my fishing! Too bad he maam'd me.



Bob and I have leftover Pepito's red snapper and watch House and a Human Target we recorded. Castle is a repeat. It's 8:10 p.m. and 61 degrees with 50% humidity.

Movin' On to Egan, LA

Reet catches a 'nice one' at Cajun Haven RV Park

Sunday, March 14, the time changed last night. We had forgotten until we read it in the paper last night. It didn't work well with our plan to get up early and get through Houston before the traffic got bad. So we went to bed at 10:15 (internal clock time--very early for me) and got up at 5:30 (6:30 DST). We ate breakfast on the pie table in the living room and packed up and left by 8:45. That's pretty early for us to pull out. There is dew on the truck windows and we can't see out. I hopped out in the driveway of the RV Park exit to wipe them off with a towel. All it did was smear around the dust from the road. Oh well.

We take 59 north through Houston and quickly get inside the loop. Traffic is heavier that we hoped for but it is six lanes most of the way so there is plenty of room for error. It turns out Hwy 59 is pretty easy to follow. You just stay in the 2nd or 3rd lane from the right the whole way. What a relief to be through there in 55 minutes. The sun rising in the east would have been worse if we'd left any earlier. For my part, when we finally quit RVing it will be due to towing 14,000 lbs. through big city traffic.

On the bright side, we get good mileage during our 209 mile trip today; 10.95 miles per gallon. We stop at a picnic area before Beaumont, TX, and a Visitor Center area in Louisiana where we have lunch on a picnic table under a pavilion. We pick up some brochures at the Center while we're here. It is sunny and 67 degrees. It feels warmer as the sun is hot. There is no wind. Traffic picks up by noon due too Spring Break I guess.

We arrive at 1:00 at Cajun Haven RV Park, 434 Trumps Rd., Egan, LA 70531. (337) 783-7330, at exit 72 off I-10. The guy who is supposed to be in the office is watching TV in his rig. His boss called him to say we were out front--Busted! He's a nice Cajun fellow, very friendly and polite. We pay $20.00 for one night and he leads us to our site, a long gravel pull-through with full hookups.

Bob wets a line at Cajun Haven, Egan, LA

They have a nice pond here. The wall in the office has a big crappie and bass mounted that were caught here. Bob and I set up quickly and have no issues. We try to call Fezzo's Seafood in Crowley at exit 80 off I-10. We call at 1:30 and they close at 2:00 today. Bob had found their brochure at the Visitor Center and thought they looked good. Oh well. We get fuel and a Sunday Lafayette paper. We end up eating at P & J's Hamburger Grill. We have a whole Muffalata Sandwich that turns out to be two whole round ones each the size of a 45 rpm record if you're old enough to remember how big that is!

We go home to check Fontainbleau State Park reservations on-line. They are full due to Spring Break. I will call in the morning and see if I can get anywhere on the phone. There is a cute wire-haired dog running around the campground. It's 4:50 p.m. and 77 degrees with 19% humidity, just a perfect day. The high was 81 degrees after a low of 52 in Richmond. At 5:00 Bob and I go out to fish the pond. I caught two really nice ones; 2 lb. and a 3 lb. bass. Caught a few eight-inch bass and lost pretty good strike. Bob caught some too and we had a fun evening.