TWO PEAS AND THE POD: EVERYTHING'S BIGGER IN TEXAS

MONDAY

TRAVEL DAY
STOP #255

We've got a long 250+ mile travel day ahead of us today! We are leaving Western Mississippi, crossing over the entire state of Louisiana and landing in Eastern Texas. So we need to get an early start because we are arriving at a small 20 site First Come First Serve campground in the Sabine National Forest. The fact that it's a Monday should guarantee there are a least a few vacancies for us to choose from when we arrive around noon.

We were on the road by 7:30AM and it wasn't long before we were crossing over the Mississippi River between the towns of Natchez, MS and Vidalia, LA.

The 4,205 foot Natchez-Vidalia Bridge is interesting because the current westbound bridge (the one we were on) was built it 1940 and was originally used for both east and west bound traffic. It's two lanes are only 8-foot wide (with no shoulders) and THE POD (and most other large trailers) are 8 1/2 foot wide. It makes for a somewhat tight fit when someone absolutely feels the need to pass you while still on the bridge.

Watch this short 8-second clip from a video Tricia just happened to be shooting while crossing the bridge. A white pickup truck passed us just as I was sliding over to the left edge of my lane to dodge a cardboard box coming up on the right hand curb.

The center span of the bridge is also where the state line is, notice the green Louisiana sign at the end of the video!

The newer eastbound bridge (built in 1988) has today's standard 11-foot wide lanes with both inside and outside shoulders.

Thankfully the rest of our trip was pretty uneventful after getting off to a little bit of a rocky start.

We arrived at Boles Field Campground around noontime, just as we had planned, and found only one other camper there in addition to the Camp Host. We had plenty of sites to choose from.

The campground occupies both sides of Forest Road 2694. The north side of the road is where the Camp Host, a pavilion and amphitheater, bathhouse with hot showers, and the Iron Ranger pay station are located. Along with the first half dozen campsites.

The south side of the road is where you'll find the balance of the campsites. They are all in one long row set not terribly far off the roadway. Each site has an electric and water hookup, picnic table and ground grill. There are also two centrally located trash pickup bins for us to use.

All of this for the Grand Total of just $3 a night, using our Lifetime Senior Pass, $6 a night for everyone else. I guess even "the bargins" are bigger here in Texas!

Campsite #11 at Boles Field Campground in the Sabine National Forest.

Those are our only neighbors way down there in the A-Liner style trailer.

TUESDAY - There is another attraction located here at Boles Field Campground that we haven't mentioned. It struck us as "just a little bit odd".

We weren't quite sure what to make of it when we first selected our campsite. After checking it out I told Tricia if she hears any hound dogs baying in the middle of the night I wasn't going to be the one to go outside to check it out!

It's located just on the other side of the driveway in front of our campsite and I'd be willing to bet none of you have any idea what it is! I sure didn't have a clue.

As you can see the signage reads,
National Hall of Fame Cemetery of Fox Hounds.

After checking out the cemetery we hopped into ROVER to go check out another Forest Service campground located nearby on the Toledo Bend Reservoir. The east side of the reservoir is in Louisiana and the west side is here in Texas. This campground does not have electrical hookups and with temperatures at, or below freezing, for the next few days we wouldn't even consider moving over here to save the $.50 a night. It's only $2.50 a night here and even I'm not that frugal (or foolish)! We love our little electric space heaters too much to give them up.