Today we came back to our itinerary, for a four night stay at Cagle Recreation Area on Lake Conroe in the Sam Houston National Forest. They had some sleet here, with remnants that still remain with the cold temperatures.
But we are well west and south of any power outages in Texas.
Had we stayed at Cypress Bend Camp we may have been in trouble. Sabine County, where we were, had 50% of customers lose power and over 20% are still without power. So we did dodge the storm.
But in doing so, I almost forgot that our 250th different campground visited since we started full time, was now Bayou Marino RV Park in Westlake, LA.
This lovely National Forest Campground is now number 251. And today, when we set up camp, it was the 296th time we’ve done that in just over four years of full time travel. We move a lot.
It is nice to be back in a public park with room and trails.
Ice drops were still clinging to the needles, leaves and twigs, it was only about 30 degrees.
But 30 degrees in sunshine and trees feels a lot better than 34 degrees under clouds on city streets.
This morning the weather forecast turned ominous. Cypress Bend Park was now firmly within an ice storm warning area. We were daunted by the “expect power outages” portion of this warning. It was still above freezing and just misting, so we decided to quickly pack up and move south.
And here we are, at Bayou Marino RV Park in Westlake, LA close to I-10.
I called this small, commercial park while we were driving south. We made all the arrangements via text.
After we were set up my contact texted me this photo and asked if I liked the park. They must have a camera on one of the posts.
The park backs up on the bayou, which is pretty enough.
The neighborhood is fairly blah,
as is the view from the dinette window.
But I have a decent view out the back window where I do dishes (those are egrets in the tree across the bayou).
And best of all, the forecast is for possible slick roads, but no power outages!
We are now at Cypress Bend Park on the Toledo Bend Reservoir near Many, LA. Wednesday morning, before we left to come here, I got a call from the gatehouse here asking if we knew the weather forecast and if we were still planning to come.
Yes, we know the forecast, and yes, we still came. Where we are now, the blue dot, is in the area expected to get a glazing to a quarter inch of ice from winter storm Fern. And if I were choosing a weekend to take off in my trailer this is not the time or place I’d choose. But since we will be in the trailer no matter what, this seems as good a place as any nearby to be. In fact, rather than try to drive on Sunday I extended our stay here by a day, so we don’t leave until Monday.
This reservoir is renowned for its bass fishing,
but not too many fishermen are out there now.
So far it’s been very drippy and very gloomy, but well above freezing.
The reservoir is interesting, if not inviting.
This is a pretty nice place, with pavilions,
and a fishing pier.
There’s a picnic area,
a beach,
and a playground.
It has 10 very nice cabins, all empty now.
There are 64 campsites, almost all with full hookups.
Ours is right along the reservoir.
But considering the forecast,
The view out our window might be what we appreciate the most.
Friday we came back to Lincoln Parish Park in Ruston, LA. And though I still enjoyed the walking and mountain biking trails, and the infrastructure they have built to accommodate both,
I was dismayed to see that by Saturday afternoon every site along the reservoir was occupied. And it was cloudy.
Sunday dawned clear and cold. It’s hard to tell but there’s ice on the shallow water here. We made the best of it, but the only view out our dinette window was the huge motorhome next to us. We kept the shade down.
Then this morning everyone left!
We have our lovely terraced site…
all to ourselves.
Then I realized, today is MLK Jr. day and all the folks who came camping for the three day weekend had to go home today. It’s nice to be the ones who get to stay!
Our good friends Jane and Rob planned a trip to Hot Springs while we were here. They stayed here, in the Arlington Hotel. On Saturday they took a hike with me. (Poor Bud had to go to Little Rock for dental work.) Our starting point was just down the hall from their room on the seventh floor. A walkway takes you to the outdoor pool and from there you can access the trails in the National Park.
We walked along the trail on the side of North Mountain and then over to Hot Springs Mountain.
It was about a mile and a half of fairly level trails to the observation tower.
It was chilly with sun and some clouds, a good day to go up the tower.
As long as I’ve been coming here I’ve never taken this elevator trip…
so I was happy to be doing it with Jane and Rob.
The views were great with the cloud shadows. That’s the Arlington Hotel at the intersection of Central Avenue and Fountain Street.
Past the city you can just see a shimmer from Lake Hamilton.
We left the tower and took the steep path downhill. Behind Bathhouse Row is one open spring, trickling and steaming away.
For lunch we took the advice of a fellow traveler at the Arlington and checked out the Ohio Club. Turns out this is the oldest bar in Arkansas, having been serving drinks since 1905.
During prohibition you entered to a fake wall and only got back to the bar if you knew the password. Our waitress told us there is a bullet hole in the ceiling from the rowdier days of this city.
After our late lunch we headed back to the Arlington.
We couldn’t reach Bud (turns out cell service was down at the park) so they showed me around the 100 year old hotel.
Downstairs there’s an ice cream parlor, a barbershop and a bookstore, and on the third floor they have their own bathhouse.
Turns out Bud didn’t feel well enough to join us, anyway. Sunday morning he was better and with my help managed to cook a nice lasagna. Jamie and Sean were supposed to come out and hike and eat with us, but their dog was very sick on Friday and still had no pep. Also, Jamie was afraid she might be contagious and didn’t want to expose Matey. Jane and Rob did get to meet Jamie on Friday, and spent a bit of time at her house while I held the IV bag up so Jamie could give the dog 500 cc’s of saline solution.
Between Bud’s sore mouth and Jamie’s sick dog it was not the weekend we had hoped for. But Jane and Rob said it was a nice break from Wisconsin and though it was chilly they enjoyed our walks in the 50 degree sunshine.
We’re now at the blue dot, and we’re pretty much straight north of Jamie. If you look just northeast of Hot Springs you might be able to see the tiny red dot I put on Gulpha Gorge Campground. We are only a couple of miles further from Jamie, but now we’re out in the country and not on the edge of the city.
This is the highway here and it dead ends just past the campground.
Our site is pretty nice,
with a gravel “patio” lakeside.
A nice view sitting out,
and for that matter, a fine view sitting inside.
By the way, we were last here the first week of April, 2025, during torrential spring rains.
The water is nowhere near, now. This isn’t quite the same angle as someone is in the campsite where I took the photo last spring,
but that double trunk tree is the one surrounded by water in the earlier photo.
So colder and drier now, and still a fine place to call home.
We’re back at Gulpha Gorge Campground in Hot Springs, and this feels as much like home as anywhere.
Bathhouse Row is all decked out for the holidays,
as is the camper (and the trees behind us).
It’s time for traditions. Sunday I helped Jamie with cookies. Sean was out trying to put up new lights, Adler was sick, Jacey wasn’t there and Tia has her own apartment, so it was just the two of us.
Christmas Eve friends of theirs came over and we decorated the last of them. They have been doing this every Christmas Eve for about eight years. Adler joined us just after I took this photo, so he missed the picture. Bud was home sick, but was able to join us Christmas morning.
I hope all of you are having a lovely holiday season with your family and friends.
Happy Holidays to all from beautiful Hot Springs, Arkansas.
When we came into Lincoln Parish Park near Ruston, Louisiana, I was hoping we liked it, because I had inadvertently booked us back here for January 16-21 on our way out of the Hot Springs area after the holidays.
We were delighted to find the lakeside sites were raised and paved giving us what amounted to a private patio…
overlooking the reservoir.
There is a lovely paved walking trail going around the reservoir with access from the campground.
There are ducks…
and at least one egret.
It’s just under a mile and a half around the reservoir,
and Matey can walk with me or ride in the stroller.
There is a tree identification trail…
with both an underpass and an overpass at the junctions of the well made and
well used mountain bike trails.
This is the “Hub” where most of the those trails start.
They even have a place to wash the bikes.
When we arrived we found we’d just missed the annual Christmas celebration; Lincoln Lights Up the Pines.
It had been held the two weekends before we arrived.
Non-profits,
churches,
and businesses had displays. These folks showed you can even dress up a dumpster!
Some of the displays were elaborate…
and inventive.
It must have been quite a big event.
There were generators scattered around to power the many lights.
Folks were beginning to take things apart. But we were not disappointed to miss it.
The young man at the gate said both weekends the campground had been fully booked, and about half the people stayed the week between. They had all cleared out just before we arrived, and we had the whole campground to ourselves. Of 33 RV sites and 10 tent sites there is just us and the campground host.
That’s just fine with us; we’re happy to share this space with just the birds and the squirrels and the walkers and the bikers.
Last Monday we arrived here just south of Alexandria in central Louisiana. We have a paved site with full services.
For the weekdays there were just 7 sites occupied of the 17 on our loop. We had this nice view of the Indian Creek reservoir out our window. This is sunrise.
There are plenty of places to walk here and the weather has been great, so Matey and I have been doing a lot of walking. This is a screen grab from my phone, Bud had just dropped Matey and I at the little blue dot. He then drove back to our trailer at the little red dot (I think ours is a new loop and doesn’t show on the map).
Matey and I then walked back, wandering down the side roads for yet another view of the beautiful vista of water and trees.
I have the stroller and when Matey gets tired he gets to ride.
The forest service roads are fine for the stroller.
One afternoon I cut back along a section of the nature trail. It was a little bumpy for Matey, but doable.
There is plenty of walking just around the campground loops. Matey and I still walk about 2 miles a day. If I put him in the stroller and walk all the campground loops it’s about 3 miles.
There are three beaches here, this is the largest as seen from across the reservoir.
This is the smaller beach, just past our loop
There’s also a campers beach,
and a playground. But in the winter all these are blessedly empty,
and we get to enjoy the peacefulness of this place.
Cold nights, warm days, blue skies and colorful trees; perfect!
On the Roam Again 