March 8th, Sunday - Louisiana to MIssissippi

Louisiana, America’s wetland for sure. Woke up at 6:30 feeling very damp. Outside everything is dripping. Daylight saving is now in effect. We’re on the road by 7am – fastest yet. As we leave, I realize that we were in the less desireable section of the park. I vow to be more assertive and ask for better. And pay more attention to the ratings in Woodalls.
The fog lifts slowly to a clear sunny day. I10 has been paved with a layer of asphalt over the concrete. No more lump-d-dumps, very smooth. Two years ago the drive was painful.
Lake Charles. The city’s skyline is dominated by the petro-chemical industry. The usual bungalows are sitting on cement slabs, some with bars on windows and doors, mobile home parks and water catchment areas. We’re in alligator country. First big up-scale casino, Coushatta, where the parking lot is crowded with cars and stretch limos at 10am. Are they gambling or sleeping? The railway line continues to follow us north up #165 to Alexandria. South bound lanes of the divided highway are closed. Road construction is another big employer.
Forest Hill, roughly 25 miles south of Alexandria is nursery country with
over a hundred retail & wholesale container plant businesses. Spring is definitely here; azalea & camilia are in full bloom as well as magnolia. Roadside grasses are green and full of wildflowers – mostly white at this point.
As we travel north the price of gasoline is slowly creeping upward from the lowest of $1.57 in Mercedes to an average closing in on $2.00. One station still advertises $3.25. OK I admit it is closed, but is a good reminder of where we were not that long ago.
Our campground for the next 2 nights is River Town, just a few miles south of Vicksburg. The office is closed with an accompanying sign saying ‘full’. Upon further investigation the camp manager shows us a sheaf of registrations to arrive soon. Gasline construction crews have to stay somewhere. She then allows that this is her first day on the job and we can have the only site available, a back-in near the road. I figure she has yet to figure out what is available and what is not as there must be over 15 unoccupied sites at the moment. A hand coloured chart or Excel would help.