Wednesday, January 16, 2013

EF1 Tornado in Breaux Bridge

A bit of scary times last week, Thursday and Sunday, when a storm came through Louisiana and an F1 tornado came through the small town of Breaux Bridge nearby...about 6 miles away. It was rather random how it hit...not like the swath you see on the weather reports for the big ones.



We drove down the other day to go to the grocery store and saw some of the buildings hit. It's interesting that the one house was hit but the one next to hit was not. Bad stuff. "Fortunately" ??, the house we saw only had the back patio structure and the garage torn away.

We've only seen tornado damage on the weather channel and the news. This was the first time we saw it up close. Kind of sobering.

La Poussiere  Cajun Dancehall. 


http://www.klfy.com/story/20585481/breaux-bridge-storm-recovery


















We had bad rain, lightning and thunder all day Christmas and New Years day. Not quite what we expected when we came here for a couple of months becuase last year was very pleasant. We head west on the 28th for Texas for a month of poking around as we head back west for warmer climates.

Kim and Steve

Friday, January 4, 2013

Louisiana Swamp

We recently went for a drive while our coolant unit on our refrigerator was replaced. We started out at Waffle House for some tasty waffles then headed out to Lake Martin outside of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana (about 14 miles from our RV).

There's a nice drive around the lake as well as swamp tours and canoe and kayak rentals. We ended up at this Cypress Lake Preserve boardwalk where we spent about an hour taking in the swamp views. What a different world !

A "grove" of cypress trees.
This cypress-tupelo swamp and bottomland hardwood forest habitat is a relic of the mysterious swamps of the past, with old-growth live oaks and cypress covered with Spanish moss.






These cardinals are so eye-catching...we watched them for at least 15 minutes...they're spectacular.



Cypress knees. The tree puts these up to get more oxygen...supposedly. However, evidence might not support this. Either way, they're pretty cool to look at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypress_knee

Water Hyacinth plant....an invasive plant that clogs the bayous and waterways.http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/eiccr.htm



A swamp dweller...kinda cold when we we visited...about 48 degrees.


Great reflections in the water...hard to tell where the water line is.




This cypress-tupelo swamp and bottomland hardwood forest habitat is a relic of the mysterious swamps of the past, with old-growth live oaks and cypress covered with Spanish moss.


Spanish moss

Spanish moss

Spanish moss



Close up of the fern-like plant covering the water.




Cypress closeup




For more information on this location....

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/louisiana/placesweprotect/cypress-island.xml

and here...

http://www.bayounature.com/Cypress%20Island.htm

Kim and Steve

Kayaking again...finally!

Finally, we got back on the water. This time at Meacham Lake in upper state New York, just on the north edge of the Adirondack Mountains (yo...