Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map Interstate 10 across Texas is 879 miles long. So we expect to be in Texas for about a month as we head to Quartzsite Arizona. The drive from Livingston LA to Beaumont TX should have been an easy one. We stopped at a couple rest stops. The one in Louisiana at the Atchafalaya Basin was quite nice. The visitor center had all sorts of displays and even had a small theater with a 4 minute movie talking about the area and its diverse wildlife. This looks like a region of the state that may be interesting to check out at some later date. At the visitor center in Texas, they were warning everybody that a section of I-10 westbound near Beaumont was closed and was backing up for many miles. They suggested a detour so we opted to take it even though it added many miles to our route and our traffic enabled GPSr wasn't indicating any issues. Construction along the detour brought the road down to one lane which added another 10 or more minutes to the drive. After getting thru the construction, we turned down another road hoping it was large enough to handle our rig. It was, until we noticed flashing lights approaching us. It turned out to be two huge buildings or pieces of machinery with an enormous police escort along with several utility trucks presumably to deal with low hanging wires if need be. I was forced to drive with half the motor home riding on the grass. Thank goodness the ground was plenty firm there.
Our simple drive was not so simple and we were going to be getting into camp after sunset. This had been one of our rules - always get in during the light of day preferably mid afternoon. Fortunately the sky was clear and we had a pull thru site, so coming in at dusk was not too bad. Gulf Coast RV Park is just west of Beaumont proper and is a pretty nice place. It's close to I-10 and a railroad track. Why is it so many campgrounds have train tracks right next door? It wasn't too loud and trains were not too frequent. They even had a free breakfast each day. We only checked it out once, but they had waffle makers, biscuits and gravy, bagels, donuts, fruit and cereal - much like you see at some motels. The wifi was reasonable but not great. We were breaking with our drive about 200 miles and spend a week by only staying here 5 nights. We think it worked out well since there wasn't a ton of stuff to do in the area and this would allow us to drive through Houston on a Saturday and onto our next stop in San Antonio on a Sunday. One day we drove just north of town to Village Creek State Park. There were quite a few geocaches here and we were looking forward to some nice trail walks. We decided since we would be in Texas for at least the next 30 days and planned on camping in a state park when we get out further west, we decided to get the $70 annual pass. It seems like each state has its own rules. Other states (Michigan and Wisconsin) has a sticker you buy for your vehicle. Texas works it based on the person. So by getting a pass for one of us, it will cover the other person in the vehicle, plus in state parks we drive the motorhome into, as long as we are towing the Jeep, there isn't an extra charge.
It turned out that there had been some flooding here as well back in mid summer. So several miles of trails were closed to hikers. I would like to have thought that we could leave it up to our own discretion as to which trails we felt were passable, but the signs they had up at the closed sections were pretty clear so we ended up not hiking as much as we wanted. Plus it also explains why many of the caches in the park hadn't been found in months.
The Barricades, Caution Tape and Signs Kept Us Out
The Namesake of Village Creek State Park
On the day before Thanksgiving, it rained very hard for a couple hours in the morning. I was amazed that it took several days for the standing water to soak in to the lawn next to our rig. I got wet feet several times getting into the car when I stepped off the concrete pad. Maybe that's why this place floods so easily. This would be our spot for Thanksgiving so we headed to the grocery store to get the fixings. Actually this wasn't our first Thanksgiving in an RV. About 5 years ago, when we still had our 24 foot travel trailer, we had a very warm fall and had not winterized it yet. With 60 degree weather predicted for the weekend, we headed out over that holiday. Since that was a more impromptu trip, we didn't do a full feast.
However now that this is our home, we wanted to do it right. We haven't gotten a big bird in some time since its just the two of us, so the one we got fit perfectly in the crock pot. Stuffing baked in the convection oven and candied yams on the induction top along with my favorite 24 hour salad, we had a great feast.
We made it to another disc golf course Klein Park, northwest of town. Glad we had waited an extra day after the rain to try it out. Even so, it was muddy in a few spots. The course was well laid out and marked. We didn't play very well, but I don't think we should blame the course or mud.
For one day trip, we headed to Sea Rim State Park. It is right on the Gulf coast a little south of Port Arthur. On our way there we stopped at the Beaumont Botanical Gardens which was only a few miles from our campgrounds. The building happened to be closed that day, but the grounds were very nice. The hundreds of roses out in bloom in late November seemed out of place to us northerners.
Entrance
Nice Plantings
Some Sort of Palm?
Yellow Rose of Texas
Bird of Paradise
Sea Rim is one of those parks in the middle of nowhere. The drive to it took you past huge oil refineries all along the waterway. Just across the water is Louisiana. Since you cannot get to the park from the other direction (west) the drive seemed all that longer on the way back. While at the park, we did get in a few shorter walks. They have a 3/4 mile boardwalk where we saw many birds but no gators. Portions of the beach in the park are open to vehicle traffic. We just had to take the Jeep out on the beach. Once we got to the one sign though, Chris suggested we turn around even though I could see other vehicles 1/2 mile further down the beach.
Patterns in the Sand
We Won't Tease Them, If They Don't Eat Us!
Boardwalk at State Park
Birds Feeding Along the Beach
No We Didn't!
There are some interesting structures along the route. Some appeared to be oil well platforms being constructed on shore. Other huge crane like things were at one businesses adjacent to a Sabine Pass Battleground Site. It wasn't clear if it was used to make other things or was the "thing" being made?
Cattle Along the Way
Oil Platforms
What the Heck Is It?
Tanker Passes by Park
On our last full day in the area, we loaded the bikes and drove to Pleasure Island to do an 11 mile bike ride. We parked at Riverfront Park and headed north to South Levee Road. The road along the levee was in good shape, but the trash all along it was quite excessive. There were dozens of vehicles parked all along the levee with many people fishing. I suspect this is a popular spot to not only fish but drink and party - thus all the trash. At the southern end of the levee, we headed back up Route 82. There isn't a shoulder and there was a lot of traffic. So the ride wasn't the best idea. Probably should have just backtracked when we got to the end of the levee.
Looking Back Towards Port Arthur
Ship Heading Towards Gulf of Mexico
Shore Birds with Refineries in Background
We had our first unwelcome visitor to the motor home while here in Beaumont. At about 3 AM one morning, while I was sound asleep in the middle of a dream, Chris screams at the top of her lungs. Good thing the windows were closed or our neighbors would have heard her as well. She swears she heard a mouse scamper by the bed. Since we were now both awake, I searched for signs of the critter and wasn't convinced. The next morning, at a more reasonable time, I did a little more searching and came to the conclusion Chris may have been right. While she was out running other errands, I had her pick up a couple traps and baited them with peanut butter. One went in the lower bay where I saw some indication of a mouse and the other up in the living space with us.
Years ago in our first house, we had discovered during kitchen remodeling, that we had a mouse in the house. I had set the trap and just after we crawled in bed one evening, we heard the trap snap shut. As I started to get out of bed to deal with it and reset the trap, I heard the trap moving quickly across the kitchen tile! It took me some cautious searching to find that one. So with that memory firmly in my mind, I was expecting a repeat performance. Alas, we have yet to catch anything in the trap in the living space, but did catch one a day later in the storage bay. Hopefully that was it, but I know better so I suspect the traps will be set for some time to come.
Our next stop was to be somewhere in the New Orleans or Baton Rouge area. The campgrounds that are in either of these cities weren't looking all that appealing to us so we picked Lakeview RV Park in Livingston LA. About 30 minutes east of Baton Rouge. Originally when we made the reservation, we were told they could only put us in the in a pull thru site. These are their most expensive sites and not close to the lake. When we checked in, Chris was able to get us into a back-in, off lake, full hookup site and for much of the week, it was a lake view site since nobody was blocking our view. Admittedly there isn't a lot to do in the immediate Livingston area but it would prove to be a convenient spot for some day trips.
The View at Lakeview RV Park
We figured it made more sense to head to New Orleans over the weekend to avoid some traffic, so we went towards Baton Rouge one day. Our first stop was at Highland Park to play disc golf. Reviews of this course warned that a course map was needed, but we found that even with the map, we spent a great deal of time wandering around looking for the tees and then the pins. We are far from experienced, but most courses we have played had some sort of tee area with either a concrete pad or some sort of mat on the ground. The tees also usually had some sort of indication of how far and which direction the pin is. This park had 8 inch flat rocks flush to the ground and painted orange or yellow. Trust us when we say they are only visible when you are within 15 feet or so.
After a good Cajun lunch, we went back and found the observatory (part of Louisiana State University) to do some geocaches nearby. Unfortunately there wasn't any program to check out during the week we would be in the area. We then headed into downtown Baton Rouge to wander around the state capital area. Fun fact: the Louisiana Capitol building is the tallest in the country. The building is an ornate art deco style. A few blocks away is the mighty Mississippi River. A little lake nearby had all sorts of big white birds perched in a tree. I am not sure but I think they were snowy egrets.
Gardens Next to Capitol Building
Lower Details
Upper Details
Cute Sculpture Near Capitol
Beautiful Tree at Capitol Lake
Snowy Egrets (?) Perched Across Lake
We were approaching our milestone of finding geocache number 9000. Generally we have done some special cache for the big milestones. #8000 was a 60 foot tree climb and others have included Maine's oldest cache and Texas' most favorited cache. Unfortunately there wasn't anything in this area that looked to be "that" special, but we found one that we thought would be okay and headed towards the east to Pelican Park where there appeared to be quite a few caches along the trails. These would be needed in order to get up to 8999 before heading to our milestone. The park was just about empty and the trails were actually quite nice. We were unable to get to two of the caches in the park because of standing water so we needed to find a couple more. The cache we picked - Mystery of the Holy Grail - was some big homemade thing in the side yard of their house. It was better than most, but we will need to plan out our 10,000 find with a bit more care.
One day we headed towards Denham Springs to shop at Bass Pro. After shopping we drove around town heading to a restaurant Chris had picked out. This area had been completely devastated with flooding late this summer. It was quite evident where the water level had been based on the high marks left on the homes. We were lucky that the place we picked to eat hadn't been damaged and had pretty good food. A few tables of locals were chatting over lunch about what damage they had and it sounded awful. On Saturday we headed into New Orleans. We had talked with some locals at the campgrounds and they had suggested we park in the lot near Jackson Square by the Mississippi River. This worked out well as our starting point. We wandered for a little bit but decided to head to the Garden District first and then come back to the French Quarter later. We finally found the right place to catch the trolley. The car we were on was far from quiet. I expected an electric trolley to be without much noise except for the track noise. We thought it sounded like a badly running engine in the back of the trolley.
The first place we headed to was Lafayette Cemetery Number 1. This is just like we pictured from movies based in New Orleans. The place is old and many of the structures are in need of repair. There was a team working on one of them and I suspect it will look great when they finish. This cemetery is still open to the general public. The more famous one in the French Quarter has suffered so much vandalism. That you can now only tour it as part of a tour group at the cost of $20 per person. Maybe that one had more famous people buried there, but this one would do just fine for us.
Cemetery Entrance
Fresh Flowers
After the cemetery, we did a walking tour around the Garden District. There are definitely some fancy buildings here. We even managed to find a couple geocaches along our route. And wrought iron is definitely prominently used for fences and balcony railings.
The trolley we took to get back to the French Quarter was a little quieter but still not what I was imagining. Guess that means we won't just be riding them aimlessly to see different sights. Chris had another walking tour picked out for here but we we getting hungry so we found a place that looked good and enjoyed our view of the people walking by as we dined. I tried an alligator po-boy and yes it pretty much tasted like chicken. After lunch we walked around and for the most part stayed where the crowds were large - partially from a safety concern but more from one of people watching.
Here Comes Our Trolley
The street performers ranged from odd to interesting. A group of 6 small kids with 5 gallon buckets nearly half as big as they were, were sitting in the middle of the street playing the buckets like drums and were actually fairly good. A wedding party was up on one of the balconies watching the crowds below them. The line to get into Cafe Du Monde was always very long and since I'm not a real coffee connoisseur, it seemed pointless to waste time even though this is considered "must do" when here.
Street "Performer"
And the Band Played On
When we passed by Jackson Square a second time, there was a parade complete with a float. The Hare Krishnas were having some sort of celebration. They had a pretty good size police escort but in the half hour or so we watched, they barely went a quarter mile. For some reason they were handing out oranges. I suspect we could have come back with a bag full if we had wanted. The float and their costumes were quite colorful.
Jackson Square
Hare Krishna Dancers
Float Pulled Along Route
There are some very beautiful buildings in the French Quarter as well.
Preservation Hall
We ended up heading out even before the sunset. I guess we enjoy being out in a forest a lot more than a congested city. And since we weren't there to be drinking as we walked the streets, our visit seemed to us to be just the right length. Maybe if we were to come back during Mardi Gras, we could be enticed to check out New Orleans again.
Recently we seemed to be on a bit of a military theme for our day trips so we thought we might as well continue this and head into Mobile and check out the USS Alabama. This battleship is easily seen as you cross the Mobile Bay on I-10 into town. It is not too far of a drive from our campgrounds but we did make a quick stop at a highly favorited geocache along the way. We tend to do that often in our travels and as we have found out, it often takes us to something scenic, unique, beautiful or strange. This time we were brought to a small concrete domed building. It is open (at least when we stopped) and you are permitted to check it out. The log book for the cache is just the visitor log that each visitor would sign. Apparently it was built as a hurricane shelter built by Henry Stuart in the 1920's. "The Poet of Tolstoy Park" is a book about the life of this eccentric person. Doubt we will read the book, but the building was very interesting.
Tolstoy Park
Interior of the Building
The USS Alabama is in Memorial Park that has numerous planes, tanks and other displays. The parking is only $2 per car and allows you to check out all the outside displays. To actually get into the Alabama, a submarine, and an aircraft hangar, you head into the visitor's center to get tickets. We managed to score senior discounts since the cutoff is only 55. At $13 per person it turned out to be one of the more interesting places we have toured.
Dramatic Shot of USS Alabama
When we read about the visit, they mention tours and in my mind I was envisioning a guide leading groups of people around the ship, describing what we are seeing, and telling people to stay behind some line painted on the floor. The reality was quite different. A volunteer greets you as you board the ship and points to the ship map on the wall. There are three self guided tours - red, green and yellow - and within each tour are 20 or more numbered stops with colored arrows pointing the direction to the nest stop. The printed out tour guide helps explain what you are seeing in case it isn't obvious or the sign at the stop doesn't help.
Sleeping Quarters
A Trough for the Toilets Isn't a Pleasant Thought
One of the Kitchen for the 2500 Aboard
Obviously the ship is huge and typically had 2500 men aboard, and there were many fascinating things to see. What completely surprised me was the fact that there were many areas which I would have assumed should have been off limits but were accessible to the general public.
Which Valve Should I Turn?
Some of the Controls for the 16" Guns
Obviously the 16" Shells were BIG!
Even up on the outer deck, you were allowed to climb into the area where the men would work to fire the guns. One 16" gun station with its 3 guns required 140 men to operate! If you were a bit of a contortionist, you could see how one of the 5" guns worked. And almost all the 40mm guns were accessible. It seemed like the only thing missing was live ammo!
Near the Bow Looking Aft
BIG Guns
After having a bit of lunch, we came back to check out the hangar and the dozen or so planes. Since we have done a lot of planes recently, we breezed thru this area and headed to the submarine. The USS Drum is no longer in the water but still fully accessible. Probably not for a person suffering from claustrophobia! There were many kids there and with the sub being much smaller than the Alabama, it was tough to get into all the areas.
Complicated Controls
The Engine Controls
Torpedo Controls and Hatches
Apparently you can stay aboard the Alabama overnight. Not sure of the details and it may have only been for scouts and there leaders, but there were hundreds of kids with sleeping bags and pillows waiting to head down into their quarters for the night. I bet that place would have been great to do as a kid.
A Line of Overnighters Waiting to Enter
We walked around the rest of the park and check out a tank or two. Again the place was crawling with kids. In this case literally since apparently some of the tanks were specifically left accessible just for that.
A Tank Without Kids
All in all this was an incredible stop. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth the visit. There is even enough room in the parking area for a motorhome if need be.
