Gulf of America and Initial Starlink Review

 Location: Intracoastal Park; Calcasieu Parish Louisiana

Yesterday was the first time I've seen the Gulf of America and it was a good day. It sure looks a lot like the old Gulf of Mexico. Although I didn't have any healthy bologna, I still packed a lunch of turkey/swiss cheese and headed south. Now if you head south from where I'm camped you will eventually have to turn east or west or end up in the Gulf of America. It's a leisurely 30 minute drive with a few interesting things along the way. I explored some of those things the last time I was here and didn't stop this time. If you're interested in them you can read my old posts here >>> https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2014/12/moving-day-cajun-riviera-and-circle-of.html and here >>> https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2023/12/marshes-and-gulf-of-mexico.html

It's always a good ride when headed to the Gulf and the weather was great. Window down and letting the Freedom Fragrance fly around.

There is a large LNG export plant just a little south of the campground. They collect natural gas through pipelines, clean it up a little bit, then cool it down to about -260 degrees where it turns to liquid. Once in the liquid state its volume has been decrease by 600 times. As long as it remains cold, it can be pumped onto ships like in the picture. This ocean going ship is on the Calcasieu Ship Channel and appears to be headed to the Gulf. The drilling for and exporting of natural gas is big industry in Louisiana. 

There is a small fleet of shrimp boats on the way to the Gulf. You can buy shrimp that was caught just hours before you buy it. I thought about it, but didn't want to mess with them. Most of the Walmarts in south Louisiana sells frozen Wild Caught Gulf Shrimp. Since I can't really tell the difference between fresh, fresh and recently frozen, I get mine at Walmart for the convenience. I do have a hankering for some shrimp gumbo now. I guess as Jerry Clower would say, "I've done flung a craving on to myself". 

For those along for the ride, here's your picture. The water on left if pretty much natural while the water on the right is probably a "borrow ditch". The dirt that was dug up was used to make the road. There a several places along the way where people can fish and crab alongside the road.

It was the first time Freedom2 had seen the Gulf and she was gobsmacked (you younger folk may need to ask a seasoned citizen for the defintion).

This is looking east from where we parked. Just like in Texas, you can drive on the beach. Even though my truck has 4 wheel drive and new tires, I didn't feel comfortable driving alone. Freedom laughed at me and called me chicken, but I held firm and stayed parked on solid sand.

This is looking west from the same location. Notice the rip-rap (stone) breakwaters doing their job at protecting and creating the beach. Money well spent.

This is the community of Holly Beach. The gulf is one block to the right in this picture. The entire community has been wiped our several time by hurricanes but people continue to rebuild.  

I've been using my Starlink Mini for the last six weeks or so. It's been doing really good and provides fast internet speeds even without having it accurately aligned. I guess if I spent time adjusting it more, the speeds would increase but I've fine as it is for now. I'll probably get bored one day and play around with it just to see how high of a speed I can get by aligning it more. I'm using about 1 Gb per day while using my laptop and haven't used it for TV or streaming movies. In fact, I haven't turned my TV on in months and don't miss it. I guess I need to make sure it works because it is useful when traveling if bad weather is around. The local TV stations give more detailed information than my Accuweather app. Anyway, back to the starlink. I get 50 Gb per month for $50.00. If I overrun the 50 Gb's, I'm charged $1.00 per Gb over 50. If I want to, I can go with the unlimited option for $165.00 per month but so far, the 50 option seems to work for my use. It will be interesting to see the challenges to setting up the receiver in future campsites. At any time, I can pause my service and resume it in the future. I've heard people talk about pausing it for a week and use it for a week. I don't think I'll do that, but we will see. That was a little bit rambling. If ya'll have any questions, just post it in the comments. I'll do an additional review after a few campgrounds. 

I'm looking forward to having a visiting lunch with my oldest son today. Tomorrow is moving day and I had planned to use the Cameron Ferry to cross the shop channel but the ferry is out of service so I'll have to go the long way around to get to my next campground. 

I took this picture while I was walking around the campground. The lift bridge is only used in special cases for over-sized loads. It hasn't been lifted since I've been here this time but was when I stayed here previously.

I've camped in many places where I could easily see the tow boats working but this place is the best. I can hear them all night long, but it isn't a problem. This was near sundown yesterday evening. The sunset was below average but the calm and peaceful feeling was above average. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.