We were happy to find Acadiana Park Campground, a city of Lafayette park in a nice neighborhood not far from downtown. There is water and electric at the site, and a dump station, for $13 a night. And there aren’t many people here, even on the weekend.
About 15 miles west of crossing the Mississippi, we came to the long, long I-10 bridge over the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest swamp in the US. We’ve driven it several times before, but never checked to see how long it is.Turns out it is 18.2 miles, making it the 14th longest bridge in the world. It crosses over bayous,swamps and marshes, and is actually very scenic.
As we neared our campsite we saw a new body style Lazy Daze, and got to meet the owner, Trecil, who’s been full timing for a year in his 2010. He is heading to Florida along the route we just came from, and had spent some time in Texas, where we are going, so we swapped campground ideas and talked about full timing and the joys of early retirement.
On Friday nights in the spring and fall there is a free concert from 6-8:30 in downtown Lafayette at Park International, a fenced park with a huge stage. This week it was the Tab Benoit Band, and it turned out to be a great concert. He is an excellent blues guitarist, playing a range of music from blues to rock to Cajun and a little country. We haven’t been to a concert in a long time, and it was really an enjoyable evening. Of course, we don’t get out much!
Somewhere near Baton Rouge Friday on our way to Lafayette, the windshield got hit by a rock, so we had a nice chip with star shape cracks radiating from it, Jim called Safelite, which was 7 miles from the campground, and they were open Saturday morning, although they don’t do mobile repairs on Saturday. That was fine, we just drove the rig there and got it repaired before it got bigger and necessitated a whole windshield replacement like we had to do a couple years ago in Utah.
Yesterday afternoon we hiked the 3 miles of trails in the park. There is an elaborate boardwalk system and a nice nature center.
The trails were covered in fallen leaves, but there was still some fall color in a few of the trees. We were surprised we weren’t being bothered by bugs. It turned out to be a very pleasant place to spend the weekend.
Our plan today is to stop in Anahuac, Texas.
I hope you'll visit the refuge today. I'm working the VIS that is out on the refuge. It would be great to meet you! :)
ReplyDeleteNice park & great pics. Love it when we find those good CGs. On our way from LR to NC, we stopped in Ruston at the Lincoln Parish CG -- another great CG. Be safe in your travels!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos! That is exactly the kind of campground I love to find. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteCathy's sister used to live in Lafayette about 3 miles from the park so we've spent some time there, it was always almost empty.
ReplyDeleteFor something different, you might want to go a few miles south of Lafayette to Abbeville and spend a night or two at Betty's RV Park (http://bettysrvpark.com/). It was one of the highlights on my first cross-country trip.
ReplyDeleteI believe I just saw you drive past the volunteer rigs on FM 1985. Are you taking the ferry to Galveston? Too bad I didn't know your route. We could have waved at each other as you drove by!
ReplyDeleteAlways love to hear about great campgrounds like this. I've got it on my list as well as the one Alan and Marilyn recommended. Also glad to hear you were so easily able to get the windshield rixed.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your windshield getting hit, but glad you took care of it right away. I had that happen to my windshield as well in only my first month of fulltiming. Got it mended right away and have never had a problem with it since.
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