Texas to Alabama

We finally headed east on Texas 105 towards Beaumont. From there we took US 90 east for a planned lay over in Lake Charles. Previously we had always stayed at the Coushatta Casino RV Park in Kinder but it's a bit out of the way, so we decided to try the Isle of Capri RV Park and Casino. US 90 joins I-10 just west of the casino which sits on the shores of Lake Charles. Unfortunately, this park only has parking for 10 RVs with a max length of about 30'. They do have 50 amp service which is confusing as RVs that short only need 30amp service. They said we could park diagonally across two sites and they would only charge us for one, but at $20/night for only electric, we decided to simply use their back parking lot which put us right on the shores of Lake Charles. We had a beautiful view of the lake from our coach but lots of traffic noise as we were immediately under the I-10 bridge that crosses the Lake. Once we left Lake Charles, we stayed on I-10 into Mississippi and Alabama.

When one thinks of Texas, one also thinks of the Armadillo. These interesting animals are abundant in Texas, but have been found as far north as Illinois and east as far as Florida. 

The Armadillo feed mostly on insects, grubs, ants and termites. 

Contrary to popular belief, only the 3 banded armadillo, found mainly in South America, roll themselves into a ball when threatened. In the States, we find the 9 banded armadillo as the most prominent species. This species will flee, usually into thick underbrush and spiney thickets to escape. Their armor shell protects them from predators. They will also jump as high as four feet when startled. Unfortunately for them, that's about the same height as a cars bumper.

We spotted this big guy cruising the campground looking for bugs. If you get a chance to feel the armor of these guys, it's more of a soft armor rather than hard.

Here's our site at the Thousand Trails campground in Columbus, Texas.

We had spent four weeks in and around New Orleans last year, so this year we stayed on the North shore of Lake Ponchartrain, at the Fontainebleu State Park.

This area was originally a sugar plantation from 1829 until 1852. The park houses ruins of one of the sugar mills. The plantation was owned by Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville for which the nearby town is named. 

Mandeville named his plantation Fontainebleu after the beautiful  forest near Paris, France, an area frequented by French Royalty.

The park consists of the entire 2800 acres of his plantation on the north shore of the lake. While most of the sites are fairly small, we discovered this one was just big enough for our 45' coach. We really enjoyed this area as there are many hiking trails and a nice sandy beach nearby.

Leaving Fontainebleu, we headed east again on US 190, a nice two lane highway with little traffic.

Being from California, it's hard to imagine traveling through three States in one day. We had started in Louisana and entered Mississippi by late morning.

By early afternoon, we passed through Biloxi, Mississippi. There are several casinos in Biloxi, (pronounced Buluxi) but we decided they could wait until another day.

Mississippi and Louisiana seem to have more swampland than Arizona has desert. Like the desert, it appears barren, but is teeming with wildlife.

By mid afternoon, we entered our third State, Alabama.

Looking northeast toward downtown Mobile, Alabama.

Interstate 10 passes just south of Mobile and enters a tunnel that passes under the Tensaw River just before Mobile Bay and the home of the USS Alabama, a World War II battleship, now in drydock and a tourist attraction.

We finally arrived at our 'home' for the next three months, Bella Terra RV Resort !