Tickfaw State Park, Springfield, Louisiana, LA; February 22 – 29, 2016

The day after our arrival the weather was nasty and we were under a tornado watch. We checked with a ranger, and she said the safest place on site was a closet in the visitor center, if push came to shove. Since we had shopping to do, we decided to go to Baton Rouge – we'd have better cell reception to keep posted on the weather than in camp and a better choice of hidey-holes, if we needed one. We made our obligatory trip to Jerry Lee's to stock up on his delicious boudin, did some grocery shopping, and the weather app on our cell phones began pinging. Severe thunderstorms were coming through the area. We stopped at the Cafe Phoenicia for their wonderful Greek food and kept an eye on the weather. We figured if it a tornado was imminent, we could huddle in the restroom there – it was safer than the truck or camp. Happily, the storm passed without any tornadoes near us and we headed back to camp after a couple other stops. Back at camp the only problem we saw was a couple of large downed trees, but there were 13 tornadoes in the area that day, including a deadly one in Convent, just 35 miles away from our campground. Pensacola, near our last park, had a tornado touch down early the morning we left. Maybe we won't head out of the Gainesville area so early next year... Other than that spurt of activity, we didn't do much other than take walks around the park and enjoy watching the birds.

While we were getting ready to leave for our next location, Rich hurt himself picking up the 70 pound hitch from an awkward spot on the ground. We went to the ER Sunday, since we were to move to Lake Bruin and it's about 50 miles from nowhere, and were told he had a bad hernia that needed to be repaired reasonably soon. Since we were familiar with the Baton Rouge area, we did some research on surgeons and hospitals, and settled on a doctor in Hammond. Monday we called and after hearing our story, they were able to get us in the next day. Since a medical clearance was needed for surgery, we were scheduled with another office and by Thursday we had the clearance and an appointment at the hospital on Monday, the day we needed to move, then surgery the next day. We were able to find a private RV park near Hammond where we could stay for the six weeks Rich would be under a doctor's care and moved there after the appointment with the hospital. All-in-all, we were lucky with timing and felt confident about our decisions.