Louisiana road trip

Since it’s the weekend, and no work will be done on the rig, I decided a road trip was in order for Emma and me.  Once the sun melted the frost on the windshield (I no long own a scraper:)), we headed out for Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge that is located between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, LA.  I stopped at two different Visitor’s Centers along the way, and I must say that Louisiana visitor’s centers are exceptional.  They have movies, displays, and many knowledgeable folks manning the desks to answer questions.  I was really impressed.  At my second VC, I got the directions to find the refuge. 

 

Perhaps many of you have driven I-10 between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, but this was my first experience of the, I think, 18 mile long bridge through the swamps.  Wow!  I wish I could have stopped to admire the views, but there aren’t any pull offs.  Anyway, I then took LA 975 for 17 miles down a gravel road.  On my left was a levy, and on my right was woods.  I never saw a sign for the refuge, and being winter there really wasn’t anything worth photographing.  I guess this is one of those refuges that few people other than hunters visit.  Bummer.

As we headed back towards the rig, I made a detour through Breaux Bridge and decided to visit Lake Martin.  One of the folks at the second visitor’s center said you could drive completely around the lake and see some swamp area close up.  Turns out you can’t drive all the way around Lake Martin, but I did come upon a Nature Conservancy preserve.

There was an inviting boardwalk through the cypress swamp, so off we went.

The sun was behind us, so it provided some nice reflections in the bright, sunny, but chilly afternoon.

In the spring and summer, Cypress Island Preserve has many alligators that can be observed from this boardwalk. 

We didn’t see any, but Emma was certainly trying to find something interesting.  I’m going to have to look at the weather forecast because I’m thinking I’d like to take a swamp tour, maybe on Monday.  I’m fascinated by these cypress swamps.  I imagine they will just be teaming with life in a couple of months.

 

Tomorrow, I suppose I should do the Tabasco factory tour since I’m in the area.  I also plan to do some grocery shopping to plump up the empty shelves in the new fridge.  :)  Emma will have to stay home and hold down the fort!

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy

Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway

After almost a week of overcast skies, the sun was shining brightly when I finally got up this morning.  7:30 is pretty late for me, but that’s just about dawn around here at this time of the year.  And luckily, if the sun isn’t up, neither is Emma!  Since we’d been cooped up for quite a few days, I decided we needed to get out of Dodge, and see something besides the parking lot.
Remember when that Biker Babe suggested I take ID 21 to Idaho City about a week or so ago?  Well, that’s what we did.  It turns out this route is the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway.  Now I understand why she suggested it.  It was a gorgeous drive.  Idaho has quite a few official scenic byways, and all of them have been well worth my time to travel.  I wish all states had such publicized routes.  This view is from a little ways past the Boise Diversion Dam.  The water is pretty low right now, but you can see that it can rise much higher.
If you take the Ponderosa Pine Byway the whole length, you end up in Stanley, ID.  I did the Sawtooth Mt. Scenic Byway in early August, so I chose to only go about half way today.  Stanley is part of that byway.
   I imagine that the spring snow run off would change the look of this scene dramatically.
I’m not one for taking too many pictures of old buildings, but I couldn’t pass this unusual place up.   The lady at the Visitor’s Center said that lots of people like to stop and see this building with all it’s “junk” attached to it.  :)  Idaho City was a booming gold mining town in days of yore, and was once the largest city in the west.  It’s not much now.
I always like to stop and drive through some of the National Forest campgrounds.  I’m afraid my present rig is too big to fit in most of them, but I like to visit them anyway and remember when this was were I used to do so much of my camping.  As I drove through, I couldn’t help but think of my friend, GYPSY, who may soon be back on the road in a truck camper.  I think she would love this place in amongst the Ponderosa pines.  :)

Today’s 100 mile excursion provided a welcome relief to my crankiness over being stuck here for a while.  If the weather cooperates, I just may do another of these wonderful scenic byways around Boise before I leave.

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy