MAY 1, 2014 GREAT RIVER ROAD TRIP/ LAKE SUPERIOR

Day 1 of the Great River Road trip.....
Getting TO the Great River Road.

We decided to do a few side trips of interest on our way to the Mississippi River.  From Houston, that means heading towards the coast and then east to Louisiana.  We left home around 6 AM, hoping to reach High Island while there is still good morning light.

High Island is on the Bolivar Peninsula and is home to several birding reserves.  Our favorite is the Smith Oaks Reserve, which includes a Rookery used by Roseate Spoonbills, Egrets and Cormorants.  The Island is on a man-made lake, used in the past for water supply and by a sulphur company which has moved on.  Offering protection from predators , it soon became popular with birds as a rookery where they come to build nests and raise young.  It was extremely busy with birds this morning!  Gators and turtles bobbed about in the water and the croaking of bull frogs and buzzing of insects completed the picture.

Several photographers as well as some visitors from Mongolia who took a peek through our lens at these sites...

roseate spoonbills on nest

great egret with chicks

island on left, observation deck on right

every nook and cranny is busy on the island

Purple passion flower, salvia and other flowers nearby.

Scratch-and-sniff of the day (They are still working on this technology for blogs :)):  Beautiful white flowers on shrubs that smell sweet like honeysuckle.

After High Island, we had to go north again and then over to Port Arthur and into Louisiana.  There used to be a highway from High Island right into Louisiana, Highway 87, but this road ran right along the Gulf and after one hurricane too many they decided not to rebuild it.

We crossed the Intercoastal Waterway, which runs all the way from Mexico and is very busy.  It varies from being very close to the coast to being a mile or more inland. Lots of ships and barges, tugs, etc.

We made our way to Highway 82 which runs along the Louisiana coast, and stopped at a little place called Constance Beach for a quick walk and lunch.  The beaches here are fairly shallow and compacted.  We came across a few very large jelly fish - probably close to 12 inches across -  and a woman who was using a board to put them back into the water – guess she thought she was rescuing them.

We continued on till we hit the Creole Nature Trail and headed north.  Stopped at a visitor center with a 1 ½ mile walk through the marshland.  We saw a couple of gators, a dead snake and lots of birds, particularly noisy red-winged black birds and a few herons. 

We had been seeing smoke in the distance for some time and found out here it is a marsh grass fire that was started by a lightning strike 5 or 6 days ago!  It is fairly windy today and we spoke with some rangers/fire fighters who were on the loop, observing and making plans.  They said they have tried a few things to contain it, but because of the high winds it continues to jump.  They aren’t terribly concerned with the fire itself as it is a natural occurance and actually good, but this fire is headed towards the visitor’s center and some other structures that they want to protect.

Continued north and soon reached our next destination, the Mardi Gras Museum in Lake Charles.  It was in an old school which has been re-purposed as a Community Center.  Learned a lot about Mardi Gras celebrations and saw some amazing costumes and decorations.  We suspect we were the only visitors this day, but a friendly lady gave us some beads and turned on the lights and several animated characters who gave the “tour”.

 There were 67 Krewes this year and each one has a king, queen and court.  The museum traced the growth of Krewes in Lake Charles and had hundreds of costumes and memorabilia .  And this is just little old Lake Charles!  Mardi Gras must be what is keeping sequin companies in business!!

We decided to stay in Lake Charles since we have a crawfish farm tour tomorrow morning not too far down the road (in Roanoke!). Found a nice Lowe’s where we spent a quiet night after getting permission, and enjoyed their wi-fi.  Pulled pork sandwiches and salad for dinner.