It’s been raining most of today in San Miguel campground, so I’m catching up on text for blog posts. Alas, I do have a couple of outings to note since our arrival here. We went to the Army Recreation Center in Florien LA (part of Fort Polk) where our boat is stored, to bring it to San Miguel while we’re here till the day after Easter. Our boat was exactly as we had left it 3 months ago, so that was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately our battery had died and we had to get a new one, but we got out on the water the day after we arrived at San Miguel. On the Friday we spent a good portion of the day out at places we had scouted the day before. It was a great day on the water, but we caught no fish. After we got out boat back to it’s covered slip at San Miguel, we tried fishing from the docks. We caught a few croppies from the docks! That was exciting! We went back that night and caught some more! The weather’s been windy with small craft advisories, so we’ve been limited with our safe time on the water.
Sunday (Palm Sunday), we drove to Carencro to attend mass at St. Peter Catholic Church. We got the mass time wrong and were late, but still were able to get communion and talk with Father LeDoux (Mark) after mass. He told us some of the history about the altar and pews and their uniqueness. We got pictures and even though Anita’s been to this church many times in her life, she didn’t realize how old (145 years) this church is. Steve got lots of pictures.
We then went to visit Anita’s godmother Mary who is 90 and lives in Carencro. She doesn’t cook anymore so we ordered plate lunches from Mire’s down the road from her house. We enjoyed our visit with “Nan Nan” and Steve even got to watch the March Madness basketball game between LSU and Iowa women. LSU won that game😊
Palm Sunday 2023
Monday we went out on our boat again for a few hours, but again had no luck fishing. It was still a nice day on the water, seeing wildlife. Anita looked up just in time to see a grey and blue striped snake slither into the water from a tree branch about two feet over the water. Later, we saw some turtles catching some rays out on a log. We got a picture of them since they didn’t seem to be bothered by us fishing near them.
10 April 2023 while out on our boat
Tuesday, April 4th, we went to Lufkin TX for Anita to get established with the VA office closest to Livingston TX, our home of record. The Charles Wilson VA Outpatient Clinic is located in Lufkin TX and was so nice, Anita came away convinced she should go with the VA for medical needs and stop paying for medical coverage on Steve’s retirement benefit. The annual enrollment for Retirement healthcare benefits comes up in October, so a final decision will be made around that time. After Lufkin, we went to Livingston to get our mail at RV Escapees, then to the clerk of court’s office to get our wills, and medical directives witnessed and notarized. We had a nice Cajun dinner at a Livingston restraint and stopped for ice cream too. This week we’ll mail it all to our friend/attorney/executor, Cynthia Campise for safe keeping. With our traveling lifestyle, chances are higher that we’d both die together, but hopefully we’ll both live long beyond the traveling years and only go one at a time😊 That’s the final admin thing we had left to do to be footloose and fancy free in our life on the road.
Kassi, John and Jackson joined us at San Miguel for a couple of nights Easter weekend. They arrived on Good Friday and left Easter morning for John to fly to Montana for training. The Saturday we got to hang out. The boys went fishing at the docks by our boat and the girls caught up and cooked the Easter meal. We had a great feast that day and then attended the Easter Vigil mass at St. John the Baptist church in Many. I kick myself for not getting pictures of all of us together, but Steve got one of Jackson😊
Jackson on the Saturday before Easter 2023
We had to stay a couple of extra days near Bossier City to get our roof replaced on our fifth wheel. During the day’s maintenance the week before, a tear on the roof was discovered. Steve nor Anita remembers an incident where a limb would have done it, but the tech who pointed it out said it looked like a tree limb tear. We stayed in a cabin at San Miguel and just fished a little more from the docks.
We had prepped our bot for storage and brought it back to it’s spot at the Army Recreation Center in Florien, LA on Easter afternoon. Being in a holding pattern for a couple of days, we checked out the sister park of Sabine River Authority, Cypress Bend. It was very nice and there was lots of prepping for the Bassmaster Opens Tournament happening the weekend after Easter. 1200 boats were expected to participate.
Cypress Bend Park April 2023
Qualifying Day (11 April) for Bassmaster Opens Tournament coming 13-15 April 2023
About 250 boats had launched for qualifying from Cypress Bend Park
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