March marked the start of our spring travels. We started the month in Ocala, FL and ended the month in Texas. What a fun month it was! Since then we have left Texas, traveled through Oklahoma and are currently 45 minutes southwest of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Let’s take a trip through March via photos.

Our Campsites for the Month

In March all of our campsites were paid, ranging from $3 a day to $31 a day.

Newport Campground – in the panhandle of Florida. We spent two nights here and had full hook-ups (water, electric and sewer). At $31 a night, it is quite reasonable. We spent two nights here to have the chance to explore the Saint Marks river and lighthouse on the coast. This campground has been a stop over for us for a few years now. It’s convenient and right on our way through the panhandle from Ocala, FL.

Hickory Landing – in the panhandle of Florida. Another favorite spot of ours to stay while traveling through the panhandle. Primitive camping for $3 a day with water, trash, vault toilets and a boat ramp to access the Apalachicola River. We stayed a week to enjoy some boat time on the river and a little coastal time.

Davis Bayou Campground – in southern Mississippi between Pascagoula and Biloxi. A new spot for us this year. Rather than do a quick overnight in a Cracker Barrel parking lot (they work in a pinch), we looked for a water opportunity. Found this spot and stayed for two nights, one for traveling and one to explore Davis Bayou via boat. Reasonably priced at $22 a night with water and electric at each site.

Fairview-Riverside State Park – in Louisiana on the north end of Lake Pontchartrain. Another favorite stopover of ours. We spent a week here. Ralphie stayed safely parked for 2.5 days while we enjoyed another stay at an AirBnB in the Marigny and explored the French Quarter. We also explored the Tchefuncte River during our stay. The price increased this year but is still affordable at $27 a night with water and electric hook ups at each site.

Lakeview Recreation Area – on the Texas side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. This was a new one as well and a new favorite. It is in our top 5 campsites of all. What an amazing place this was and at $3 a day I felt like we should be paying more. Primitive camping with fantastic lake views, water spigots, trash, and vault toilets. We stayed for 10 days but could have stayed for longer. There were a few days we had the entire campground to ourselves! The day we left marked 5 years on the road. What an incredible ride it has been and continues to be.

St. Mark’s River and Lighthouse

Last year after we had stayed at Newport Campground I found this lighthouse on the map. Turns out it’s only a 20 minute drive from the campground so I made a note of it for our next time through. This year we stayed an extra day to explore and instead of driving to the lighthouse we went via our Sea Eagle Paddle ski (in the first photo, ours is in the bottom left of the photo). Exploring via boat is always more fun. Had lunch at the Riverside Cafe overlooking the St. Mark’s River. While dining we saw the most unusual site, what appeared to be a truck on the river. In fact it was a truck mounted on top of a boat. That’s a new one! The guy honked the horn as he went by.

Apalachicola National Forest/River and The Gulf at Eastport

Last year we had the old Mercury motor and had the opportunity to get out on the Apalachicola River a bit. This year we returned with our new motor and explored further up river and some down river. It’s a rather wide river with a good current. The new motor chewed up the miles no problem.

During one of our excursions we had quite an unexpected encounter and I regret I did not capture it in photos. While motoring up river Shane said “is that a dog in the river?”. Sure enough there was a dog swimming toward us and he was looking tired. We of course had to rescue him out of the water. He seemed grateful to get to our boat, where we carefully hoisted him up. He was probably about the size of Josie, 60-70 pounds with no harness to grab a hold of. If Josie were still around she would have thought he was handsome. He had a collar on, which was hard to read in the sunlight. But I determined his name was Captain and after some time we were able to make out a phone number. Called his owner who happened to be out on the river, he had passed us earlier. He was shocked Captain was in the river as he had left him at his dad’s houseboat docked up river. I guess Captain had other plans and really wanted to go. The owner came and retrieved his dog, who was very sweet. It was only after that I realized in all the excitement I did not get a photo of him. It was good to have a dog on our boat again, if only briefly.

During our stay we decided to stop in the local shelter and have a look around. We are still undecided if we are fully ready to get another dog but it was good to dip our toes in so to speak.

We spent one day down at the coast and found the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve. Very cool place that is free to check out (donations are welcome). There is a nice boardwalk out to the water and a very nice indoor nature center. The day we went to the coast was foggy but still enjoyable. We decided to make an alligator in the sand, I think he turned out pretty decent.

Davis Bayou Coastal Preserve

This was a nice stopover on our travels across the panhandle, Alabama, and Mississippi on our way to New Orleans. Now that we have a boat with a new motor we are finding more spots to camp on the water. The Sea Eagle Paddle Ski with a motor has been a game changer for exploring via water. This spot looked intriguing so we decided to give it a try. It was beautiful out on the water. Found a great lunch spot right on the water. This is becoming a new trend for us, lunch via boat.

The campground was peaceful and very near the boat launch, making this a convenient stopover. With the added bonus of a great horned owl and her owlet in a nest in a tree high above. The owlet was still fuzzy and oh so cute.

New Orleans

We spent a week playing and enjoyed every minute of it. A trip into the French Quarter for another round of music, food, walking and booze. Plus a wonderful stay in a nice AirBnB on the local side of town, literally steps away from Frenchmen Street. Needless to say we got our fill of walking, live music, delicious food, and adult beverages. A cold front came through during our stay but it wasn’t bad temperature wise and no rain for our stay. This year our stay coincided with St. Patrick’s Day. Our AirBnB was a few blocks away from the start of the St. Patty’s Day Parade. What a fun treat! Although Shane and I are not big city people (in fact we avoid them), New Orleans is the exception to that. The city is alive with creativity, wonderful people, and a vibe that I cannot fully describe.

Our fun did not end in the French Quarter. Upon returning to our campground on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain we unpacked and recovered from three days of exploring. Then we had the chance to enjoy some boat time on the Tchefuncte River and nosed out into Lake Pontchartrain briefly. It was so cool to explore in a new way after staying at this campground a few times now. I was too busy enjoying the day on the water and did not take many photos. The last photo is of The Ark, an 80 foot Catamaran that is for sale. For the low price of 2.4 million! If you are curious here is the link to its info.

Toledo Bend Reservoir

Last and the best new find this season, Toledo Bend Reservoir. This reservoir is huge, 185,000 acres huge! 60 + miles from the north to the south end. It is on the border of Louisiana and Texas, with one shore in Louisiana and the opposite shore in Texas. We stayed on the Texas side and were wowed by the peace and beauty of this place. Bald eagles flew overhead daily. It was quite literally paradise. I will let the pictures do the talking.

We spent time on shore admiring the lake. Time exploring via boat, even the fingers are huge on this lake. We managed to explore the two closest fingers to our campground. And finally we spent time simply anchored off shore and taking it all in. The weather was practically perfect during our 10 day stay. It was bliss.

March was a month of plenty of travel and lots of fun. Words cannot fully express the gratitude I feel for this life we enjoy. It has its challenges and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.