Hi to you all, did you think we got lost?,Nope, no such luck my friends! I have so much to tell you about, and just not sure where to start!
First of all I need to clear up a BIG mistake I made on my last blog. I said we were in Kilroy,Texas, I LIED!!, we were in Kilgore,Texas. SORRY!
We headed for Jefferson,Tx., and called Karen Brown to let her know we were about to descend on her, Karen & Jack met us a few miles from Jefferson, and they carefully guided us, and Big 'Ol Whody, into their RV park on the other side of town. Once we picked out a spot, we had our choice of several, they even had Tipis,not this kid, to many bugs, she left us to get set up, promising to come back and show us around town, and to go see Destry at the train. I was so excited, I could hardly wait to see the train! (sorry Destry, glad to see you too!!) About an hour later we entered Karens "tour truck", and were whisked around town, and what a town it was! Approx. 50 bed and breakfasts, a museum, etc.,etc.,AND a train depot with a really cool steam engine train. But....Karen had other plans for us, she had arranged a ride in a really nice carriage, with a pretty horse and a pretty lady to take us around to some of the Historic Houses,my what history behind some of them,each with their own flavor, for sure! Now keep in mind that I am getting OLD, my 66th is coming up, so can't remember every little detail, I' ve slept since then, but about 9:30pm we headed down to the depot to ride the "Ghost Train" Doot,doot,doot,doot.It runs through the Cypress Bayou, and on a certain holiday you could just about see anything there, even a HUGE pig,chasing the train,story is an 11yr old boy shot a 9ft, over a thousand pound pig, with just a 22, but the train folks say it is looking for revenge,HEH,HEH, and there was a HUGE bee hive, and those bees DO NOT like to be disturbed, so be verry careful on the Ghost train! Actually, although it was very dark, it was so much fun, we saw Whody along the trail,the train goes past the campground, we could actually gotten off there, and it was lotz cooler than downtown.
Sunday we actually rode the train in the daylight, and OH MY, what a beautiful ride it was. Keep in mind that this is our 3rd train ride since we started out, and although there were no train "robbery's", or costumed people, it was the best ride so far! The scenery was sooo beautiful,you could see turtles sunning themselves, birds of every size, shape and color, and trees of all different varieties. The thing that most impressed me was there was NO traffic, or unsightly dumpsites, old cars or donut houses, just the beautiful Cypress Bayou! I really hope I can get some pictures on for you, but trust me, they don't hold a candle to what we saw!
Bill and I sort of went out on our own, and WOW, am sure most of you have heard songs about "old Shanty town", and we understand the songs much better now, cause we saw some Shantys ,The RV park is "on the wrong side of the track" haven't heard that statement in a while, and along both sides of the street there were these houses, that were homes for the Negros, and they call them shantys. Most have several familys living there, and most livin' is done outside, 'specially on week-ends. Another thing we noticed as we drove along, was once again, a very well kept home, green lawns etc., next door was a dilapidated house with no paint and broken windows, and old junk everywhere, but no one seems to mind, they just sort of "live and let live" I guess. Now back to our tour , Monday evening we headed for Uncertain, Texas(guess they couldn't decide what to name it, and Caddo Lake, once there, we took a ride aboard a steam engine paddle wheeler, YOWEEE!! It was called the 'Graceful Ghost' and was run by a lady named Lexie Mcmillen and her husband Jim. They took us out where you only saw the beautiful cypress trees,spanish moss, lily pads, turtles, birds, beaver dams, lily pads, and alligators, actually we didn't see any alligators,PHOOEY, wanted to, looked real hard, didn't see even a baby one, but what we did see was extremely beautiful, and serenely quiet, all you could hear was the steam engine gliding through the water, now, whenever the guy named Bill gets on my nerves I just drift back to Caddo lake, AHHhhh. Don't ask me what He does to get away from me, how could I get on Anyones nerves now I ask you!!! HA HA. Karen told us that there are 2 lakes, different as night and day, yet connected by the Cypress Bayou,(hope I remembered right), and that was somewhere we would go before we left. She kept us anticipating the next destination, she really should be a tour guide, she remembered so many facts, but I would have had to have a tape recorder to remember them myself, sorry.
Tuesday we left fairly early and headed for the Alligator farm in Greenwood, Louisiana. Not only was it an alligator farm, it was also a really neat mini zoo. You could actually get pretty close to most of the animals and feed them. They had pygmy goats,deer, a baby camel, mini horses, you name it, they had it, such a fun place for us kids. Yeah, I mean Bill and I, Jack enjoyed it too, he really liked the goats, they were really fun. There was a little black and white new born goat, still had its umbilical cord attached, and it was leaping into the air, spinning around, made me wanna do the same,(got a big picture of that one do ya),I took a lot of pictures of him he was sooo cute! Let me tell you there were Alligators, big ones, small ones, a couple of HUGE ones, all in different ponds, and you could look down on them from above, but not feed them. There was a feeding at 1pm, and YOWZA, I wouldn't like to fall in about that time, it is dog eat dog, oops, 'gator eat 'gator, everyone fer hisself, that's for sure. They feed them pellets made 'specially for 'gators, myself I was disappointed that they didn't feed 'em little ones, JUST KIDDING, at least chickens would have been groovey! It was really amazing though and we both loved it! I even got to hold a 'gator, albeit very small, it felt soft and quite warm, honest, and I even got a T-shirt! Cool ! Then we went and had catfish and corn pone at David Beards 'Catfish Village' Yummo was it ever tasty! Now it is time to go to the "other" lake and see what the difference was there, AMAZING, no cypress trees or lily pads, just a boatload of people and a really great place to swim in the lake. It was just as beautiful in its own right as the other lake, not as quiet, but we had a ball, specially Jack, he loves to swim, we spent most of the afternoon, all the fellas kinda got quite a lot of sun, but fun was had by all! We went fora ride around the 'Lake 'o the Pines, where you could buy a house and lot for less than $10,000, we were really tempted, some were really nice, some not so nice, but all were near the lake. Any takers??? We came home to the Browns house where Karen had prepared chicken and coleslaw, and being a sweetie, she sent some home for out trip away from Jefferson the next day.
I know there was a lot I missed, please forgive me, but I will try to get pictures on here, and explain a little more! I've missed you guys and am soo glad to back on line! Love to all and smiles , Arlette & Bill too, and the noisy Sassy (she hates thunder)
