Jen’s Journal – January 12, 2020

Day 197: Rutherford Beach, LA

Mostly sunny and cool.

We drove the rest of the Creole Nature Trail from Rutherford Beach to Lake Charles, after a morning walk on the beach. Beachcombing is super at Rutherford.

We did get to see a blue heron, three alligators and several great egrets, and lots of other birds.

We had lunch at Mama Reta’s in Lake Charles. This is a real soul food southern restaurant, recommended by some friends we met in Fredericksburg. The shrimp po’boy was soooo good.

We found a campground in the Kisatchie National Forest. The campground is on the site where the sawmill town of Fullerton was from 1920 to 1927. You would never know there were homes, a hotel, a hospital, sawmill, and 5000 people here. The only evidence is the community swimming pool.

Pretty bizarre. The company that ran the sawmill owned all the buildings. When the sawmill closed, they took the sawmill apart and sold all of the houses, which were moved from the site.

We are the only people in this campground. There is a moldy travel trailer with a camp host sign, but it looks like no one has been there in a while. Late at night, we heard some distant booms. I checked Google Maps for military base near me, and there are three training camps and a base all on this patch of federal land. Not sure if that makes me feel safer or not!