Mar 24 - Lake Martin and Cypress Wildlife Preserve, Broussard, LA

   We spent the morning revising our remaining itinerary.  Partly to accommodate the rescheduled Tiffin RV repairs at the Tiffin manufacturer's in Alabama.  They hope they will be open the second week of April.   So, we will stay for a longer time at the State Park in Tuscaloosa, and maybe see Peter's grandchild  more.  We also cancelled 4 RV parks near Nashville, TN and near the Mammoth Caves in KY.   As a result, we are getting earlier to the RV park that is next along the journey.  And, since we are not going to visit Peter's brother in NJ and we want to stay far away from NYC, we are going to head home through the Delaware Water Gap recreation area, to go on a more northerly route.  So, we need to find a park along that route.
  You can only do so much of that kind of planning in one day, so we decided to find some nature to visit around here.  We went to Lake Martin, and the Cypress Wildlife Preserve.  We are DEFINITELY back in the south!  We walked 1-1/2 miles on a trail along a bayou, ending at the Lake.  Cypress trees and lots of green foliage everywhere.  We had "environmental shock" after all of the time we spent in the southwestern desert areas.  Peter Loved the Green.  As we walked, we saw a snake, a few giant white egrets, and a few orange-billed ducks.  It's really neat how the cypress trees grow right in the water, with all of the cypress knees growing up around them.  At the lake, the drippy moss that hung from the trees created a nice view. 
  After walking back to the car, we decided to follow the gravel road around the lake.  We came to a wetland boardwalk that the Preserve had created.  Wasn't too long, but was a nice way to get into the swampy area.  Nice many colored daffodils were blooming up from the water.  As we finished the route around the lake, we saw an really unusual house, stuck back in the woods.  It was a four room house with each room stacked on top of each other.  Very strange.

Cypress Wildlife Preserve and Lake Martin photos: