We’re now at the Sam Houston Jones State Park in western LA.  We’re doing a bit of backtracking by heading west before we head to Florida for the rest of the year because Jeff needs to get his Texas drivers license.  Our efforts to get Texas drivers licenses has been long and would be funny if it weren’t so alarming!  I had to go into the Drivers License Office 4 separate times when we were in Livingston before I had all the paperwork in order to get my license.  They couldn’t tell me all at once what I needed – each time I went in they gave me one more item I had to have.  Geez!!

Jeff couldn’t get his as he didn’t have his ORIGINAL birth certificate.  It was in our safe deposit box back in San Diego.  So we left Texas without his, and since I was planning a quick trip back to San Diego the first week we were in Picayune, I stopped at the safe deposit box and picked his birth certificate up.  We made sure he had ALL the paperwork they were going to need and Jeff made the 9 hour round trip from Picayune MS back to Texas one day to get his license.  Wouldn’t you know…the day he chose to do that the computers were down state-wide and he couldn’t get his license processed.

SO…here we are back in west LA so we can do a little sight-seeing in this area and he can make a shorter trip into Texas to (finally) get his drivers license.

The Sam Houston Jones State Park near Lake Charles is very primitive, but beautiful.  It’s setting is in a swamp area, and our campsite backed up right to the water’s edge.  Picture below.  It’s very beautiful and has lots of trails, so we’ll do some hiking while we’re here (we’ll try to avoid any aligators!) and we’ll also see some of the west LA area including Avery Island where Tobasco sauce is made.  It’s also in a swamp and is a natural preserve area.