Back in the Cool-Wet South

After some shopping in Harlingen, TX we drove to my cousin Rich’s home in Houston on Wednesday afternoon . It was a sunny and warm drive but on Thursday the cool wet weather moved in. No bike rides or outdoor activities, so Rich bought a new home theater receiver and I helped him hook it up to their TV, DVD, I-phones, computers, and their existing speaker systems. It took us 2 days but Rich was pretty happy with the results.

I didn’t take many pictures but here is one I got of Tracey with her two youngest, Finn & Dane, before we went out to eat at Lupi Tortilla’s, our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, a short walk away.

We spent 6 nights there but got sick of the cold and rainy weather.

It finally cleared on Monday night We  left Rich's on Tuesday morning after rush hour. I was surprised how light the traffic through Houston was at 9 AM.

We had a nice 5-1/2 hr. drive to the same campground in Louisiana that we stayed in last year, Kincaid Lake in Kisatchie NF. It is one of the few National Forest camps that we have run into with 30-50 amp power and HOT showers. The camp fees are only $15/night or half that for Golden Age Passport holders.

We are planning on taking the Natchez Trace Parkway, a linear National Park, for a  relaxing drive North. It is a limited access parkway with no truck traffic and no stop signs or cross roads for 444 miles from Natchez, MS to near Nashville, TN. There are three free primitive campgrounds along the way.

Kincaid Lake is right on our way. It’s 150 miles NE of Houston and 90 miles due west of Natchez. We got the same campsite as we did last year and were finally able to wash off all the road grime and dirt that we got from driving out of Mexico.

They have nice hiking trails but they were a little soggy from last week’s rain. It was cool but dry. We took about a three mile walk, past the fishing docks, and swimming beach which doesn’t open yet for a few weeks.

We didn’t see any eagles in their big nest along the trail and we didn’t see Smokey Bear either like last year.

We had dry weather on Tuesday & Wednesday but thunderstorms blew in on Thursday morning. So we decided rather than leave in the rain we would wait until Friday morning to drive to Jeff Busby National Park Campground on the Natchez Trace Parkway. It is about a 6 hour drive to milepost 193.

See Map of Planned Route.

My daughter Joan sent me this picture of our driveway up in Ohio. I hope the snow is gone before we get back home, possibly on Sunday night, March 15th.