Bragg Family South 2013 spring break, part 1

The picture above is not quite Bragg Family South spring break, but represents one of the "adventures" we attempted this spring...remember that comet that was supposed to be visible just after dusk?  Well, we went looking for it one evening (unsuccessfully, I might add--too many high clouds).  Our spring break adventure this year involved camping in western Louisiana, along the shores of Toledo Bend Reservoir.  We stayed in a nice state park, North Toledo Bend State Park (http://www.crt.state.la.us/parks/intoledo.aspx):

Toledo Bend is one of many large reservoirs in this area, and actually lies between Louisiana and Texas.  Below is a picture of the shoreline not far from our campsite.  The tree in the right foreground is a baldcypress, and is usually submerged at the base, but give the recent severe droughts of the region, the lake level is noticeably down:

Something we really noticed on this trip to the piney woods of Louisiana and Texas is what wasn't down--the pine pollen!  The dusty covering of this wooden footbridge is actually pine pollen that covered just about everything in the area:

We camped three nights at the same state park, and made day trips to see various things.  Our first full day involved driving several hours further south to the Texas/Louisiana coast along the Gulf of Mexico.  One of the things that strikes you first of this area is all of the oil and gas development in the region, including this huge Valero refinery you actually drive through at one point:

The technology and sheer scale of the infrastructure used to produce our society's needed petroleum products, including gasoline, is incredible!  After seeing the facilities we did, it is hard not to think of them when you fill your gas tank...

Our destination before lunch was another small state park on the Texas Gulf Coast called Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site (http://www.visitsabinepassbattleground.com/index.aspx?page=14).  This was the site of a Civil War battle between a Confederate fort and the Union navy that ended up with the Confederates driving off the Yankees.  Later, the Civil War site was lost to the erosive power of a nearby river, but the US military kept building facilities in the area to protect this strategic access point to oil resources.  Below, the kids walk among ammunition bunkers built to support a World War II artillery position installed to help protect American shipping from German U-boats:

Note the large steel girder "arch", cranes, and triangular towers in the background--these are part of the active shipping industry that dominates this area, mostly to support oil and gas industry.  I don't want to think about the chemical contamination of the swamps and waterways of this area, but some locals didn't seem to worry about it--several were fishing right off the shore at this park:

Note the large white tanks in the background of the picture above.  These were used to store liquified natural gas, probably for shipment to Europe and other parts of North America.  These guys new what they were doing, as they caught a couple fish while we were strolling around.  The larger, plainer looking fish below were called "drums", because of the strange booming sound they make (we heard it ourselves), and the smaller striped fish is called a "sheepshead":

Below was another common site along the coast--pelicans!:

After lunch we crossed the river that forms the border between Texas and Louisiana (the Sabine River, which also happens to be the one they dammed up at Toledo Bend Reservoir) and we parked along the beach and strolled the shore for a while:

Growing up, my siblings and I always got into collecting seashells...but living in northern Wisconsin, this meant we had to "collect" them by buying them at stores, when we could find them.  Along these beaches, huge quantities of pretty intact shells lay scattered EVERYWHERE:

We picked up (literally) pounds of shells.  The kids also donned their swimsuits (it was in the 70s), but we didn't let them get in the water much because of the rough surf this area was experiencing:

Did I mention there were tons of birds on the beach?  Numerous species of pelicans, seagulls, and many other wading birds could be found:

One of the things that brought them in was the "food" washed up on shore--below is a well-seasoned small shark that the kids spotted:

We also found the remains of quite a few other dead fish, plus more trash than I'd care to admit, in addition to all our seashells.  After a couple hours on the beach, we hopped in the truck and took a car ferry across another river:

We had a great Cajun lunch earlier in the day that had filled us, so we only had a quick fast food supper before heading back to our campsite, arriving after dark.  Thus ended our first full day, and we all settled in to a brisk yet satisfying evening around the campfire and then bed.  Kenny, the new Boy Scout, actually chose to pitch his own tent and sleep there rather than the camper, for which we were quite proud.  Stay tuned for the next installment!