2016 Louisiana Trip - Let’s Head South – Days 1&2

If you live in the East, you remember the beautiful warm weather we had in late December, before the new year and winter rolled in.  So I was sitting here with the much cooler temperatures, thinking how well my knee was doing and that I could pretty much do what I wanted, when I looked out the front door.  There sat the RV, also enduring the cold, having been sitting for three months and likely looking at three more months of sitting idly out there in the cold.  Then it occurred to me that for the next several weeks, we would likely be just sitting in the house looking out at the cold when an idea struck. 

While we don’t have time to do like the last couple of years and head to Florida for a month or so, we did have the remainder of January with no commitments.  A few of years ago, we had stayed overnight at a place called Cajun Palms, in Henderson, LA and really liked it so when I presented the idea to my ladies they believed that while it would not be as warm as south Florida, it would be warmer than home and should be an interesting place to visit for a couple of weeks.

Since I don’t winterize the coach and keep it plugged in with the various systems running, all we had to do was line up the house sitter, load in our clothes, stock the fridge, add some water to the tank, and hit the road, which we did on Jan. 14.  Our first day ended in Meridian, MS and since I could not find an acceptable campground, we decided to try our first Walmart parking lot and we quickly discovered that neither we nor our coach are designed for that lifestyle.

While it’s nice to know we can do this in an emergency, since our coach is not laid out to be occupied with the slides in and all of the electric devices required the generator run full time, we will opt for campgrounds and save the boondocking for when there is no option.

Our second driving day was a shorter distance and we anticipated arriving at the campground around 2:30pm until we arrived at the interstate parking lot where I-10 & I-12 come together in Baton Rouge – talk about a malfunction junction.  Since I hate to sit in traffic totally at its mercy and not in control, we got off and drove north through Baton Rouge in bumper-to-bumper traffic – thanks to the stop lights, but at least it was moving.  It gave us a chance to see a little of the town and we used the only other bridge in the area to cross the Mississippi on US-190 which we followed west a few miles before taking a curvy little back country road back to I-10.  After fueling up we pulled into Cajun PalmsRV Resort around 4:30pm, tired and a little stressed out (well maybe more than a little).

A lot of campgrounds use the term resort but I have to say this place really is from a facilities standpoint and I assume they offer more activities during their busy season.

This is us at site 38.

When we first got there there were several rigs near us but after MLK Day we were pretty lonely.

Like many newer RV parks, Cajun Palms has buddy sites buy they also have a few places laid out for three rigs sharing a covered common area.

See us all alone way down there.

It's obvious this place is geared to families as there is plenty for kids to do including three pools (one with swim up bar, two snack bars, hot tub, miniature golf, indoor/outdoor bar above the clubhouse, cabins and two fishing ponds.  I can imagine they stay full in prettier weather. First shot is the clubhouse entrance and others are behind it.

Please continue to tune in as we explore the heart of Acadiana.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/14 – 1/15/16 event dates