While staying in Duson, LA, which is in the southern part of the state, a friend came down from northern Louisiana to visit.  This is talented artist Melody and her handsome son, William.  Melody has done some beautiful work in wood and is delving into stone intarsia work.

Adorable daughter Gillian shares some of the stones they polished on their brand new cabbing machine and some fairy wings she and her mother made with tissue paper, wire and glue.

We enjoyed our short visit with them and appreciated them driving down just to see us!

Humidity was high in southern Louisiana and a heavy fog rolled in that night.

But it cleared this morning and we were able to head out onto the I-10 and continue our trek west.

 East Texas still had swamps and bayous but soon opened up in a way only Texas can.

 It started to look like Texas too.

 We were happy to see the resultant puddling from a recent good rain in Texas, something sorely needed after one of the worst droughts in Texas history.  When we crossed the Texas panhandle last spring, we experienced that dryness and wild fires springing up all around us while we stayed there.  But there has been a silver lining to the drought cloud… drying bodies of water have revealed hidden treasures.  Check out the NY Times Article here.

So we came to our first of three stops in Texas, here in Columbia.

Angie enjoyed the doggie park, even though it was a little strange for her to have to act like a real dog for a change (and not a spoiled kid).

The neighbors by the doggie park called these the weather rocks.  Kind of a joke in Texas.  If the rock is wet, it rained.  If it is swinging it’s windy.  If the rock is gone, there is a tornado.  😉  I think the holes were either made by nature or by Ancestral Native Americans.

And what could be better than finding some cool rocks for the tumbler!  Texas Flint in it’s many colors.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s overnight stop on the Guadalupe River.  We stayed there last year and it was a great rockhounding spot.