Almost two weeks have passed, high time for an update!

Quite a lot has happened in the meantime, first and foremost the fact that we finally moved out of Hammond and Hidden Oaks! 
I know, it's nothing but a miracle, but there you have it, we did it!
After talking to Greg, who's the guy that's going to work on the truck, we left for Columbus, where he lives, at 8.30 am on Saturday the 10th. 
It was an uneventful drive, which we like, we had some coffee (with homemade chocolate fudge cookies that I made for the road) ...

                           

... and lunch along the way and arrived at the Wayne Hayes Campground around 2 pm.

                                 

This very nice COE campground has only limited sewer connections, but we managed to snatch up one of the two 'drive-up' (versus reserved) sites that were left.
There's a 2 week-stay limit but we hoped that we only needed one, which we know by now will likely become 3 or even more ... sigh, those best-laid-plans again!
But lets not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?

Once again we got a very nice site, it sits on the river's edge although unfortunately we don't have much of a view of it. They've let the bushes grown too tall for that ...

Otherwise it's nice and large, with a concrete pad for the RV and a gravel patch as a sitting area. 

On this map you'll find us a little right of the bottom half, that pink dot that says 73.

We're all set up and already appreciating the slightly cooler temperatures and less humidity around here. Especially the mornings are really nice, and now James doesn't have to work anymore, it feels very 'vacation-y' to have breakfasts outside every morning!

   

      

Eh, let's see, that's scrambled eggs, cheese omelet with salsa and avocado, and fruit waffles 

Oh, and this little something happened while we were setting up. With the living room slide half out, because the awning has to fit over it before we can fully extend it, I stubbed my toe on the teeny little edge of carpet sticking up.

Initially I didn't feel much but holy smokes that changed to excruciating pain, I kid you not, in the hours following. Gawd, it HURT!

   

         

I was sure I broke it, at the very top, and started icing and elevating immediately. There's really not much else to do with a broken toe than all that and taping it together, 'buddy taping' it, with another toe.

It's a week later now and I think I'm gonna live, and my toe too ... Actually, I think I just bruised it, I took the tape off and the pain is almost non-existent. Unless I bump it, and of course, Murphy's law, that happens quite a lot right now!

As you might be able to make out on the map above, there's a (short) walking trail on the north side of the campground that takes you an overlook over the Cypress Slough:

It's my favorite place to hang out here so far. It's so very peaceful, nothing but a lot of birds, mostly swallows and a gazillion of blue and green Dragonflies ...

  

This young Tree Swallow was waiting patiently for over 5 to 10 minutes (and so was I), until one of his parents showed up for chow-time!

Even in the evening hours there are NO mosquitoes here (which is nothing but a miracle), which is the time to watch tenths of Great Egrets fly in to their roosting spots, in a group of Bald Cypress across the slough.

I wonder if they all have their 'reserved' spots or if they just come in randomly?

I was REALLY exited to see the following creature crawl out of the swamp. It's a Snapping Turtle!

Normally they hang out at the bottom of murky waters, and only come out to lay eggs in the drier parts of the swamp. Which makes me think this is a she ...

She's about 15" (shield only), distinctive saw-toothed keels on her long tail, a huge head and a powerful bite. 
Seriously, these turtles can bite off your toe!

That's one scary looking mamma!

As I said, our site doesn't really have a view, a few little peeks only, but 2 sites over is the boat launch, and by walking over there in the evening, we've enjoyed some nice looking sunsets ...

 

Well, I think that's a nice end for now. I'll start another post for everything we've been working on lately, because we've been pretty busy!

                         

Wow, we sure had a busy week here at the camp ground.

Last weekend was the weekend of the 17th Annual Memorial Day Swamp Pop Music Festival!

The campground was booked solid and since our spot was reserved as well (about a year in advance) we had to move to a different site. 

(We'd actually already moved last week because we didn't know if we would have the truck available.)

Preparations on the grounds and at the office were in full swing, everything was looking good, and than ... it started to rain!

... and rain ... and rain ... and ....

The flooded H-section in the back

Pfff, well, we all know the story by now .... of course the dang river started to rise ....

And so, we all flooded again ...

This time we crested at 16.4' on Thursday morning, after which it started to recede quite fast, as usual. 

But with people already planning to come in on Thursday night, it meant they had to cancel all the reservations for the H-section, which by that time was still under water.

For some reason we actually were fine, we seemed to have picked the one spot in C that was situated on a little bit of a 'rise', so we just, but only JUST, stayed dry!

Any-who, as anticipated, people started to 'flood' (pun intended) in on Thursday afternoon and by Friday evening pretty much every dry spot was filled.

Lots of people meet friends and family here every year, it's a hugely popular event, and throughout the weekend people gather at different campsites for private parties and reunions, potlucks and BBQ's.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, and at 7.30 the evening entertainment started up ...

Now, I'm not a big fan of loud music and feared we would be blasted away, being fairly close to the music pavilion, but because we were enclosed by so many RV's the sound was thankfully somewhat muted.

Also, this type of folk/country/Cajun music is really not the loudest and actually something we rather enjoy.

Even better, and something I'm rather puzzled by (but not complaining!), is the fact that at all the events we've had here, the music stops at either 10 or 10.30 pm. 

Certainly not what I'm used to from parties I've been to in the past!

On Saturday morning vendors set up shop in front of the pavilion .. 

And a huge crowd of day-visitors filled up the parking areas ...




People filled up the benches under the tents at the pavilion or brought their own seats, or simply set up in front of their sites:

          

The day got really hot and humid (92 and 88), but if you're real swamp people, you don't mind ... or you just sit in your chair, drink your beer and don't move ....




Bands attending were the Aaron Foret Band, Ross Grisham, Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition, Travis Thibodaux Band, La Rouge, Natural Satisfaction, and Tet Dur. 
Two of them I'd heard before, the rest were new to me, and although I'm not too much into music, I enjoyed listening to a few of them for a little while. 
I really only can stand music for a short time, and was happy to be able to escape into the RV where the AC was doing a nice job keeping me cool!

Most people braved it outside though. Like I said, it amazes me how they can stand it. Let alone dance!

You have to be born here I think, ...

... or cheat and bring a big fan!

To say we're not much into music, or any of these busy and noisy events, is somewhat of an understatement I guess. 

James wasn't even there for the day (we're such party-poopers), he was working some more on the truck at Ronnie's (his boss') place.

It's still not running very well and we'll keep on monitoring it for a little longer, but he's now basically doing maintenance, changing oils and filters, shocks and what-not, just normal 'stuff' and small repairs.

The fact that Merlin's deaf has it's advantages. 
He was totally unfazed by all the noise around him, and believe me, it was NOISY! He spent the weekend mostly conked out because of the heat ...

Or was it the wine? So sad .. a drunk cat ...

All in all, it was a fun weekend. I mostly enjoyed the people watching and to see what RV's and trucks showed up. 

This might be a 'poor' State, but people sure love their 'toys'!

Most of these rigs and trucks are not cheap ...

Like I said, it was fun, but thank goodness everybody has left, and we're back to enjoying our peace and quiet again !

Like a nice and quiet BBQ outside ... 

These guys ...

Life is good!

I'm a little behind (what else is new) so let's rewind again, shall we?

I'll start with Mother's Day, which was a beautiful sunny, but still fairly cool, day. Perfect for an event I had really been looking forward to; the yearly Mothers Day Crawfish Boil here at Hidden Oaks!

To be able to boil 600 (!) pounds of craw-fish they set up a custom made contraption in the morning for a huge pot and basket to be hung  ...

A cartload of potatoes, sausage, corn, onions and garlic arrived:

Which were boiled in a separate, much smaller basin ...

                                                 

And than of course, the stars of the show, the 30 pound bags of craw-daddies ...

Some of them got a little 'defensive' ... they pinch hard (but who wouldn't if you fight for your life?)

They were thrown in some salted water, which makes them purge themselves from mud and poop (yikes!)

Salt, (hot) Cajun spices and a whole bottle of Zatarain's Shrimp and Crab Boil were added to the boiling water in the 'big' pot ...

      

After which the basket was lowered ...

It takes about 15 to 20 minutes and a lot of stirring to cook the little guys ...

                  

The steam that rises from the pot burns your eyes and nose! Talking about hot and spicy!!!

We didn't wait around for the whole procedure so I don't have an actual picture of when they tipped 'our' basket, but this one that I stole from the web should come pretty close.
(Somewhere halfway they also added a few bags of ice to the boil, apparently this draws the spices better into the craw-fish).

They actually used a small trailer covered with paper to dump everything in, and moved it to the pavilion ..

Than they simply filled plastic bags with 2 pounds of craw-fish each.



The 'fixings' were laid out by Nita and Chris ...



And we all lined up for our meal ...

Unfortunately, not as many people showed up as they had hoped. According to the 'regulars' the event gets smaller each year. 
A lot of it has to do with the floods of lately, people are fed up with it, are selling their sites and are looking for other (dryer) places to go ...

Still, the ones who did show had a great time and although the overall opinion was that the crayfish should have been spicier (even we, as non-southerners, agreed), and the corn was over-cooked, we ate until we were well and truly stuffed ...

We brought some home for left-overs which, taking several people's advice, I used a day later in an omelet. It was indeed delicious!

Well, lets see, I think that was all for the exiting part of the week.

The rest was pretty calm and uneventful. As usual.

I've resumed my walks around both sides, and loops, of the park and still manage to find something new every day ...

... like these beautiful Gardenias. Actually, you smell them long before you see them ...

I brought some inside the RV. Wow, you should have smelled the place!
I know understand why these southern 'Belles' in the movies always seem to faint so easily, it's 'heavenly' smell is almost overwhelming!

O, and than there was this guy! I think it's a Rat Snake. Very useful, getting rid of rodents, but scary nevertheless .. 
They're constrictors, I don't think they're very aggressive or bite but I kept my distance, just in case!

There are always Dragonflies, like this pretty Blue Dasher:


And than there was this huge wasp buzzing through the high grass. 
I found out it's a Red Wasp and the iridescent blue bug on the right is a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle. Clearly without the spots, which apparently is not uncommon.

  

In between jobs James has been doing some more maintenance on the truck and RV.

The truck is still 'pinging' at low RPMs so after much consideration we decided to bring it to a Medium Chevy dealer in New Orleans, to have it tested while being hooked up to a specially therefor designed computer program.

We figured now was the time to do it, while we're close to a dealer who actually has experience with medium trucks and not wait until we break down somewhere along the road while driving north.

Also, James boss had a job for him in New Orleans so he was able to car-pool and drop-of and pick-up the truck with one of the other guys he works with.

As it turned out the test results came back as 'all over the map', not pointing to something really specific but definitely as 'something wrong'.

They suggested several solutions, starting with the most obvious to hopefully, eventually, solve the problem.

So, our first move has been to eliminate the fuel treatment that James has been adding to the diesel to run smoother. It might actually make the fuel 'too rich' which affects the efficiency to burn it.

We'll keep our fingers crossed! All in all, it means that we're going to stay put for a little while until we're running better.

In the meantime, he has been working on the bedroom AC that was leaking all over the bed. Wonderful!
After opening the whole thing up it seemed that he had, during a previous repair, calked the drainage holes shut. Mmmm, duhh ... apparently those holes are there for a reason !

It's one (!) of his vices. Give him a calking gun and he goes to town!

Any-who, easy solution ... re-drill holes!

And voila! No more leaking! Good job Hon!

And while he was in a calking mode (you see what I'm talking about!) he re-calked some other cracked calking among the outside 'trimmings'.

OK, 'nough said, I'm going to end this post. Here's a shot of another outside dinner. Nassi, one of James' favorites. Merl' likes it too, especially if it comes with chicken sate!