Chicot State Park Trip

We are safely home from our camping trip to Chicot State Park . As you can see from the slide show, camping aint exactly what we
aughta call it. The cabin we were staying in, was lots more like a lodge or something, perched up on the hill over-looking the lake. Our good friends from Houston, Dave and Ginger drove up at the same time we did Friday afternoon and working together, unloading the vehicles, we were settled in, in no time. We lugged the heavy boat batteries all the way up the stairs to the cabin and put them charging for the night, so we could go for a boat ride the next day.
The next morning after we had got the boat all powered up, and lugged the heavy batteries back down the hill again, was when Cousin Larry pointed out that there had been some outside receptacles on the concrete wall right beside the boat the whole time...... sheesh! ( now he tells us.) We had a great time on the lake Saturday. If you click this picture of me fishing and make it big you can see the little Gater sunning in the back ground. When we got back to the cabin we feasted on grilled steaks and all da trimmin's. Glenn and Veronica stopped by to say "hi" on their way home back to South Louisiana, from modular house shopping way up in Mississippi. We were glad to see 'em and had a wonderful visit.
Sunday Peg and I kinda slept in, while Dave and Ginger hiked around the park. They left to go back home to Houston around noon, and Peg and I fried up a big ole mess of fried chicken, while we visited with Cousin Larry. Larry left early in the afternoon to go back home to Port Barre so Peg and I had a quiet evening, relaxin'. The big ol' cabin was very quiet after all our company had left. The next morning (Monday) we packed up the left-over chicken, and spent the day on the water, riding, fishing, and enjoying the beautiful lake. Chicot is the Cajun French word for 'stump', and as ya see from the slides, it is an aptly named little lake. While heading back to the landing for a potty break, we ran into a very nice guy named Troy, from New Orleans, who was checking out the hiking trail for his local Scout Troop. We visited with him at the landing and since he'd never been out on the lake and showed such an interest in it, that we offered to take him out on the lake in the boat. As he rode with us, he told us that he had hiked all the way around it on the trail, but only saw the lake from the banks, so Peg and I took him way out and showed him the big cyprus swamps and some of the lake channels.We really enjoyed meeting Mr. Troy and it was a great lil diversion on a wonderful day. After our day on the lake, we had a great night, got up Tuesday morning, packed up and headed out for home. We had a nice chat with Skye, the gate attendant, who related to us how she had come by such a pretty name. I jokingly guessed that her parents had been hippies. She said as a matter of fact they were. She said one night her mother had been 'stoned' and looked up at the starlit sky and said, "That's beautiful, and my daughter's going to be beautiful, so that's what I'm going to name her, 'Skye'...and she did". By looking at the picture, you can see the name fits. The last photo we took for son Thom, to let him know that, yes, there are bears here too :-) We had a wonderful time and are already dreaming of camping trips yet to come.