16 March 2022 Poverty Point National Monument

 David work yesterday morning and did income taxes in the afternoon. It was raining yesterday so we really would not have been out and about. Today we drove north to the Poverty Point National Monument, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site is named after the Plantation which previously was on the location. We first went to the visitor center/museum to pay the entrance fee for Leslie ($4). David did not have to pay a fee since he is 62 and over! Welcome to Senior Citizenship! We watched the park movie about the site and explored the exhibits. The site contains 4 major mounds and 6 C shaped ridges that were built between 1800 and 1100 BC. There are over 1000 Indian mounds in Louisiana but these are the largest in the country for this period. Archeologist estimate the builders moved over 100 million basket loads of soil to build the expansive central court yard, the three mounds and the 6 C shaped rings that are perfectly centered with the courtyard. Mound A is the largest mound raised during this time period (it would not be surpassed for 2000 years). This site was the epic center of an enormous trading network and would have been the New York city of its time. The trading network extended from the Gulf Coast to the Canadian Border, and from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains. Although not located directly on the Mississippi River, during that period, it was only a 6 mile journey down the Bayou. 

We walked the 2.8 mile World Heritage trail. From ground level, its hard to picture the 6 ridges after 3000 years of erosion and 100 years of being plowed. They leave the grass longer on the tops of the ridges to help you visualize the ridge locations. They once were 6-9 feet above the swales in between but today are barely 3 feet. One mound on the site was built by the Cold Creek society over 1500 years after the site had been abandoned and two of the original Euromerican settlers are buried on the top of this mound. Mounds B and C are hard to visualize but Mound A is very distinctive. It is theorized that it was built to resemble a bird in flight. The view from the top of Mound A helps you visualize how large the site is and how organized the society had to be. We spent about 3 hours in the park and saw everything there was to see.

For a Work Heritage Site, we were pretty disappointed in how the site is maintained. The park is run by the state of Louisiana (it was a state park before it was named a National Monument). But it definitely needs a lot of maintenance. 

 

When we returned to the state park, we hiked some of the trails in the state park with Etta, but found them wet and muddy from the rains the previous days. 

Entrance Sign

Local Art

Site Map

Mound A from the top of Ridge 6

View of Poverty Point from the top of Mound A

Swamp in the State Park

14 March 2022 Mansfield TX to Delhi LA, Bye Bye Texas

 We left Fort Worth and Texas today as we drove to Poverty Point Reservoir State Park ($23 per night). We were sad to leave Texas but are excited about our coming travel year. We were on I-20 for most of the 7 hour drive. I-20 through Shreveport in horrible. Huge bumps, pot holes, etc on that stretch of I-20 that jarred our teeth and even put Etta airborne! Never again! Next time we go through there we will take the I-280 bypass rather than drive that stretch in Shreveport again. The rest of the drive was on pretty good roads and we arrived at the park around 4:30 (they close at 5) just as it started to rain. We have a HUGE pull through site with water and electric but no sewer (there is a dump station on the way out). We are here to visit Poverty Point NM (named after the plantation that used to own the land). This will be our first park to visit this year, so we are looking forward to it. 

Campsite

28 Feb – 14 March 2022 Home Town Visit

 We spent two weeks in the DFW area visiting our friends, doctors, dentists, chiropractor, financial advisor and most importantly family. The doctors all agree we will live. So no major ailments and the usual advice (more exercise, lose weight, improve our diets, etc). Leslie got her back worked on by our wonderful chiropractor, Dr. Adams, after she pulled it saving the dog from the Love seat (a whole other story). We had dinner with our friends Rick, Jim and Kelley at Pappadeaux. We had dinner with our friends Jim, Sharon and Mona in downtown. We were lucky and it Sharon’s Birthday. We were so happy to celebrate it with her. Leslie had lunch with her Mom one day, and David Joined them for another lunch another day. David had dinner with his friend Rick to get the latest on his house construction in Big Bend area. Leslie had a girls dinner with Mona to catch up on all the latest downtown gossip. We had a wonderful dinner with June, Anne and Bill at their new condo. And to wrap up our visit we helped Cynthia and Felix load up the family air Lomé dining room table from their Mom’s storage unit to go to their new house in Houston. Then had a family Lunch at Mi Cocina in Dallas. Everyone seems to be healthy and doing well. So it was a very busy two weeks! 

Dinner with Sharon, Mona and Jim in Downtown

Lunch with Mom.

28 Feb 2022 On the road 2022!

 We pulled out of Conroe for Mansfield today. Happy to be back on the road. We will be in the DFW area for two weeks to catch up on doctors, dentists, financial advisor, friends and family visits. Out plan for 2002 is to work our way up to Canton Ohio during March, stay there for 3 months to help Veronica clean out her home and get it sold, then work our way up to Maine by the middle of July for four weeks, then down the east coast to the outer banks before heading back to Texas. Its going to be a busy year! We are so looking forward to it! 

On the road again!

14 Feb 2022 Winter of Batteries

 We have decided to call this the winter of batteries. In January the two batteries in the Behemoth went bad. David decided he wanted to replace them with AGM batteries due to longer life, low corrosion and low maintenance. But when he went to the Interstate Battery center in Conroe, he found out there is a supply shortage of AGM batteries. But they loaned us two refurbished batteries until they could get in the two replacement AGM batteries. He also learned that you cannot mix different types of batteries on the same charging circuit because AGM and flooded batteries have different charging profiles. Knowledge that would come in handy. 

 

Then in early February, when we went to take the Wanderer to the body shop to get some minor fender damage repaired, the slides would not budge. A quick diagnosis found the house flooded lead acid batteries had almost boiled themselves dry, despite having just been filled up 4 weeks prior. All six batteries (4 cells each) had water levels below the top of the plates. It was clear that these batteries would need to be replaced as well. David filled them up, and we were able to pull the slides in and make our appointment with the converter/chargers help. While we stayed at Cynthia’s and Felix’s, David researched replacements. Again, he wanted to go with AGMs and selected Lifeline batteries since they seemed to be the most reliable and are built to Military Standards and are used by the US Military in a lot of their applications. He checked the local dealer and they indicated a 12–18-week delivery timeline due to the supply shortage. So, he got on line and found a dealer in Nevada with 6 batteries and free shipping. They arrived a week later and today he installed them. This involved disconnecting the old batteries, dragging them out of the battery compartment, cleaning up the spilled acid on the floor of the battery compartment and repainting (the acid had dissolved the paint), cleaning all the corrosion off the connections, loading the new batteries into the compartment (6 batteries at 68lbs a piece on his hands and knees), reconnecting everything and applying lithium grease to prevent corrosion. He also had to change the charging profile on the solar charging system since the Lifeline AGMs have a special charging profile. It took about 5 hours. The new batteries have more storage capacity, less maintenance, and should last 6-8 years. We briefly considered going with Lithium Iron Sulfate batteries, but given we don’t boondock very often and double the cost, it just wasn’t worth the added expense. The new batteries are working great. Happy Valentines Day!

Old Batteries leaking acid

Clean new batteries virtually maintenance free

31 Jan – 4 Feb 2022 Wanderer Body Repair

 We took the Wanderer to High Class Body Repair to get the damage from this years travel accidents to both rear fenders repaired. When we went to take the Wanderer to the body, the slides would not budge. A quick diagnosis found the house batteries had almost boiled themselves dry, despite having just been filled up 4 weeks prior. We were able to fill them up, but had to use tap water since we only had a gallon of distilled water at hand. We made it to the body shop and then drove over to Cynthia’s and Felix’s house to stay while our home was being repaired. While there, we took the Behemoth into the Ford dealer to get the annual maintenance done and state inspection (we had put new tires on the week prior). Gerson did an outstanding job again (he fixed the nose cap the year prior) with the body repairs and the Wanderer was ready for pick up a day early. The Wanderer is back to its usual beautiful self. 

Passenger side damage

Diver's side damage

12 December 2021 Year End Travel Summary

 It has been a very busy year of travel for us and we were blessed to see so many of the natural wonders of out great country. To summarize:

 

1.    Drove over 19,000 Miles in the Behemoth (Our F-350). 

2.    Visited 8 National Parks (total so far of 50 out of 63).

3.    Visited 11 NPS National Monuments (total so far of 53 out of 85).

4.    Visited 7 States.

5.    Visited 30 other interesting places (Preserves, Refuges, Recreation areas, Bureau of Land Management National Monuments, National Forest National Monuments, National Historic Districts, State Parks).

6.    Visited friends and family along the way.

7.    Saw a lot of Pueblo and cliff dwelling ruins.

8.    Posted 102 entries to our Blog.

9.    Leslie wrote and sent around 500 postcards

 

We are starting to plan next year’s itinerary, but are waiting for some things to fall out. We think we will finish up the east coast parks that we did not get to see in 2019.  You are welcome to meet up with us anywhere along the way! 

We wish y'all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!