After three nights at Martin Dies Jr. state park, we are on the road again. We are moving about 2.5 hours north. That's further than we normally move in the motor home in one day, so we took a break in the middle to explore the area around Center, Texas. We parked the motor home at the Walmart in town, and unhooked the car for a little exploring. We were just leaving the parking lot when a pickup pulled up beside us. He had seen us come out of our Tiffin motor home, and he owns a Tiffin as well. That makes us instant friends. Before we knew it, he was escorting us to his favorite meat market in town so we could buy their famous fajita meat. Before the day was over, we would have that marinated fajita meat on the grill for supper.
But we're jumping ahead of ourselves, as we are still in the little town of Center for now. We found it is the county seat, so Denisa had to see the court house. Each one of Texas's counties seems to have a personality of its own, as does its court house. This one is modeled after an Irish castle with its round turrets at each corner.
We noticed that this area is surrounded by national forest land, so we set off into that green space on the map. Denisa had read about "Boles Field" and we managed to find it among all those trees in the Sabine National Forest. There's a little campground here where water and electric sites can be rented for $6 per night. But the real claim to fame is this little cemetery among the trees.
Started around the turn of the century, this is the final resting place for fox hounds from all over the United States and Canada. We found out that some of the world champion fox hounds are buried here among the pines where some of them loved to hunt.
We drove on to see the banks of the Toledo Bend Reservoir, but we weren't planning to kayak today. So after our fajita and fox hound adventure, we reunited with the motor home at Walmart and went on down the road to our destination near Marshall, Texas. We will be staying at Laguna Vista campground at their half-price Passport America rate for four nights. There is a little pond adjacent to the campground, and even though we are once again lined up in a row in a private park, it feels a little like we're out in the country.
We will poke around the town of Marshall, but the main reason we are here is to explore a place called Caddo Lake. As we settle in to our new camp site, we're eating those fajitas that a total-stranger-turned-friend told us about. We are amazed with the things we stumble upon on this adventure we are blessed to live.
One of the things that brought us to Martin Dies Jr. State Park was the kayaking possibilities. So we waited for the prettiest day to pump up our inflatable Sea Eagle kayak and head into the lake.
We had temperatures in the 70s, with blue skies and no wind. It was a perfect day to be on the water, as we looked ahead at the first bridge we would paddle under to get to the open lake.
The water is perfectly still, mirroring the trees around it. This is Steinhagen Lake, and this northern section has lots of great peninsulas and watery alley-ways that are fun to explore in a kayak. We were the only ones on the water here this weekday morning, and we were hunting for an eagle nest in the trees on this side of the lake. The ranger had told us that the baby eagles had just hatched, and we were hoping to spot the parents taking care of them.
We were looking up in the trees, and Denisa thought these blue herons were simply lovely. We saw most of them on the ground, fishing in the shallow water. But this blue boy flew to the top of this tree that is just budding out.
Because we were so intent on looking for the eagles, we almost missed what was happening down at water level. Mark heard a big splash, and we looked to see this big boy that was making the noise at the edge of the water.
We only got one picture of him in the grass, before he slid into the water. You can see his eyes just above the water as he slides into the lake with us. Those eyes at the top of the water are the way that alligators swim, and we will see that several more times today. Denisa would prefer paddling in the opposite direction now, but Mark was interested in trying to get a better look at that gator. It's times like this that Denisa wishes we were in two separate kayaks instead of being together in one.
We were having a great time exploring the narrow inlets of water. Even though we are on a large lake, we often have land and trees on both sides of us through the narrow lanes.
Because we are all alone out here, there is no boating noise to scare off the wildlife. With our silent kayak, we are able to sneak up on birds like this great white heron.
We also sidled up next to these curious-looking birds, with their red beaks and legs. This is a white ibis.
Their adult plumage is white, with black tips under their wings when they fly. The ones on the right are youngsters that haven't yet molted from their brown feathers into white.
It was about this time that we saw a couple eyes at the top of the water. No pictures, as they were tiny because they were some distance away, but we could see them clearly with our binoculars. We spotted three different alligators cruising the lake water with us. Denisa was happy to watch those eye-balls through the binoculars, rather than up close. That brought our count of alligator sightings up to four for the day. Meanwhile, an entire flock of ibis had moved into the trees on this neck of the lake.
When something startled them, they all took off. It was grand to see and hear the whoosh of their wings right above us.
That's when we were startled as well. We heard a noise that at first sounded almost like someone trying to pull-start a boat engine. We hadn't seen another boat all day, so we looked around quickly. No boats. Then it happened again . . . and again. . . and again. . . We finally figured out that it was a guttural roar of something big--very big. We heard it eight different times, and of course Mark started rowing us in that direction. (We're really going to have to ditch this two-man canoe!) We never did see the big boy, but we later researched it. It was certainly the roar of an alligator, probably protecting his territory. While we were on the water, we felt as if we were hearing something akin to the roar of a lion. We had wandered into another of God's wonders--the territory of the king of the lake.
By this time, we had been on the water for three hours. So we headed back towards the state park grounds for a bathroom break and a little time to stretch our legs. Then we started back into the water, now on the designated paddling trail. White poles are planted at crossroads, to guide us through the maze of waterways. But we found that the increased boat traffic also meant there was less wildlife here.
In fact, we were most of the way through the paddling trail before we saw our first wildlife--a couple turkey vultures sitting on a log. As we got closer, we noticed they were eating something. As we sidled still closer we saw they were eating what they were sitting on, and it wasn't a log at all. As the vultures took to the air, we saw the dead alligator that they were cleaning up. It didn't look like the big gator had been dead for long. Even though he is dead, we're counting this as our fifth alligator sighting of the day.
The next part of our kayak trip took us out to the main body of Lake Steinhagen. We are hugging the shoreline, hoping to see more wildlife. Those are cypress trees in the water, quite content to have their feet wet.
Those cypress tree trunks look like elephant feet in the shallow water of the lake.
Some of the cypress trees are starting to green up. We see the light green needles of this cypress up close while trying to get a picture of this adolescent ibis.
The last leg of our kayaking journey takes us up Walnut Slough. Have we mentioned what beautiful weather we are enjoying? With no wind, the water is completely still, reflecting the blue sky and trees around us. We have totally wandered into another of God's wonders today.
The slough got increasingly narrow as we follow it inland. At some points, we have to kayak between the cypress trees that try to block our way.
We've been in the kayak over five hours by now, and we're very glad to have such comfortable seats. We're also very glad to have such beautiful reflections around us. This looks like a great place for more wildlife sightings, but we see no alligators or even birds in the slough this afternoon.
There is, however, plenty of plant life. These bright green plants look lovely, and perfectly harmless in small groups.
But they are growing out of control in solid masses in some lakes in the area. We can see that they not only cover the top, but their dense root structures can totally suffocate any natural animal or plant life. It can also make it impossible for two people in a kayak to cross. So we were very lucky that a motor boat gunned his engine and tore his way through the mass ahead of us, so we could get through behind him.
Far in the distance, we can see the bridge where we started the adventure this morning. It was good to be back! But we decided to paddle back under the bridge, still hoping to spot the eagle parents this evening. Again, we were looking up in the trees when we heard a mighty splash. No pictures because it all happened so quickly, but we both turned in time to see the biggest alligator of the day. He was startled by our approach, and he rolled out of his resting place into the water with us. We've never experienced how fast a startled alligator can move, but we estimate he went 30 yards in just two seconds. We're just glad that he traveled away from, instead of towards us with that kind of speed. We had just experienced alligator number six of the day. It was a grand finale for sure!
We moved quickly away from that area! After our heart rates came down, we watched with our binoculars as that big alligator moved along the shore of the lake. Mark estimated he was 10-12 feet long, while Denisa was thinking 30-40 feet long.
It was hard to call it a day, but after six hours, it was time to get off the water. We never did see those dang eagles, but looking for them brought us close to six different alligators, and lots of beautiful places. We dried off the kayak and got it stored back in the car, then made our way back to our campsite for our final sunset.
Mark stayed in the motor home, taking this picture of Denisa's silhouette watching the sun setting over the lake. We treasure moments like this, and we are blessed with days chasing gators.
After our longer-than-planned stay at Navasota, we are on the road again through east Texas. The drive took us through Polk County--our home county. This is the court house where we registered to vote.
Our mailing address is Livingston, Texas--home of the Escapees mail-forwarding headquarters. As we drove through Livingston, Denisa snapped this picture as we passed the Livingston City Hall. She even got the Livingston water tower in the background, just to prove we rolled through "home" once again. We've stayed here before, and we really like our little town.
But this day we are heading another hour down the road to Martin Dies Jr. State Park. Even though we haven't been able to score a reservation during the weekend in a Texas state park, we have our pick of many sites during the week. We got this great 50-amp and water site facing the lake.
After months of being parked in private campgrounds with RVs parked side-by-side, it's nice to be back in a state park. Our site is a couple acres in size, and we can only see one other RV in our entire section. We love camping in the middle of the week in the spring!
We celebrated having all that extra real estate by doing some projects outside. We washed the front of the RV, and we sorted through our stash of citrus fruit. We still have a few juice oranges, and some tiny grapefruit, as well as some extra tangerines. We juiced them all together to make a delicious breakfast drink that was as pretty as a picture.
We wanted to spend more time outside, so we went on a bicycle ride around the state park. Denisa is glad to report that the roads are surprisingly flat and make for a great ride among those tall pine trees. You can barely see Denisa riding down the road, dwarfed by those trees.
We rode down by the lake, with more tall trees close to the water. Everything is so green here, due to the excessive rain they have gotten this spring.
That extra rain has closed some of the trails around the park. This trail was supposed to be closed, but you notice that Mark has crossed the "caution do not enter" tape because he's pretty sure it has dried up by now. Denisa hates to admit it, but he was right. She also hates to admit that she followed him through that taped off trail.
We loved the hiking trails at Martin Dies Park, because they are very wide and flat and make good biking trails as well.
We rode all the trails in the park, even the one that connected us to the Corp of Engineer park a couple miles away. One evening we rode over ten miles, and another evening it was close to twenty miles on our bikes.
As we rode through the Walnut Ridge section of our state park, we saw a young deer in the bush beside the road. Instead of darting into the thicker brush, she stepped out towards the road. She even walked along the road with Denisa as we continued slowly on our way.
Eventually, the deer lost interest in walking with us, and turned right in front of Denisa's bike to get to the other side of the road. What a fun experience with the state park wildlife!
Martin Dies Jr. State Park is located right between two towns. Woodville is to our west, and will celebrate their Dogwood Festival in a couple weeks. Jasper is to our east, and celebrated their Azalea Festival last weekend. We feel like we're in the middle of the spring time blooms! So Denisa had to take a picture of the Jasper County courthouse, with the azaelas blooming on the front lawn.
We stopped in at the Jasper Welcome Center and found out that the town had just gotten good news from the American Azalea Society. They have just been recognized as one of the 15 official azalea cities in the United States.
We couldn't help but notice the bluebonnets also blooming in front of the courthouse as well. This is one of Denisa's favorite flowers, so she is trying to soak up all of these blue beauties that she can.
Our trip into Jasper also happened to coincide with Dairy Queen's free ice cream cone day. Guess who couldn't wait for the picture before he had to have a taste of his ice cream?
It's been a great move, and we're really enjoying our new camping spot. Because Mark pulled the motor home in facing the lake, we can sit in our comfy front seats and watch the sun setting over the lake through our big windshield. Life is good!
Note: Don't panic and think your calendar is wrong! We're just now catching up with our travels from a week ago--when we celebrated St. Patrick's day on the correct day in March!
When we pulled the motor home into the little city RV park in Navasota, Texas, we planned to stay only a couple days. The $10 daily rate for full hook-ups brought us here, but the fun things we found to do in the area kept us here for four nights. That's what we like about the flexibility of not planning too far in advance or having to stick to reservations. We can stay longer if we're still having fun, or leave earlier if we want to.
We had already made a trip to College Station, and we drove to nearby Washington on the Brazos. But what special thing could we do on St. Patrick's Day? The picture below says it all--we were lucky that we got to see our nephew and his family at their home in The Woodlands. We have always adored our nieces and nephews, and we think all their children are great too!
We were glad to get to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with these crazy people.
They know we love to play games, so we got to play the game that 10-year-old Camden invented. It was actually a school assignment, in which he used the characters and plot from a book to make a board game with detailed rules. It was fun to play, and we never remember a book report being so much fun!
We always learn something new when we visit, and this trip we got lessons on how to ride a fliker. If a six-year-old can do this, surely we can too?
Even with such expert coaching, we can't say that Denisa was very good at riding this three-wheeler.
We also spent some of the day in their music room, where the members of this talented family play more than one instrument. We could join in with this family sing-along for hours!
But we had an appointment at a local escape place. The last time we visited, we went to our first-ever escape room, where you use clues and brain teasers to solve a maze of riddles that allow your group to escape. The group only has 60 minutes to figure it out, and we got out with 13 minutes to spare. This family has experienced over 20 different escapes all over the world, and it is great fun to escape with them. (In case you have read the signs below, Denisa picked out the one for Mark to hold.)
The luck of Irish was with us, and we had a great day in The Woodlands on St. Patrick's Day! Then we made the one-hour trip back to the motor home parked in Navasota. This central location has allowed us to do so many fun things! But our last evening was not as much fun. We are the red pin in the map below, soon to be slammed by the storm coming in from the west.
Through the windshield, we watched the ominous clouds come into our area. Severe weather alerts were all around us. Since we have a home on wheels, we could drive away from the storm, but it seemed that the storms were all around us.
We dodged a bullet and prayers were answered, as the storm split and only pummeled us with hard rain. The baseball-size hail that fell 20 miles north of us would have done some major damage to our rig! It was really muddy when we pulled out the next morning, and we are already on our way to new adventures down the road.
