Traveling with the Longdogs: Sulphur LA

Showing posts with label Sulphur LA. Show all posts

2020-07-22 Breaking in Beaumont

Harley lets me know that we are here from his navigator seat because he remembers this place from another trip. Gulf Coast RV Resort is my normal place to stop when traveling east. They honor Passport America which is always nice. Pads are long and concrete all pull-through. They could be a little wider but it's easier to line up my motorhome door with the picnic table pad than it was my 5th wheel which had the door near the back. It's a little more difficult to get here than it used to be because they are rebuilding the bridge over I-10 and it seems like it is taking forever. So if you miss the turn way ahead of the road, you have to go on and come in the back way which is pretty easy...especially if you have done it several times.

As I said in my last post, it quit raining before I got here so I got hooked up to electric and cable quickly. Then I decided it would be smart to fill my fresh water tank so I wouldn't have to hook up at my next stop and to give me a little more ballast in case Tropical Storm Beta finally made up it's mind and started moving. I also dumped the gray and black tanks just because it wasn't raining.

We settled in for a relaxing evening. Monday morning I decided to stay another night. Beta still wasn't moving very fast and they have decent wifi. I had lots of paperwork to catch up on from the rally since I am the secretary. I finished off the notes from the Officers Meeting and then the Chapter meeting. Then I incorporated the changes we voted on in the Chapter Rules and sent those off to our parent organization, RVing Women for review. That took a good part of the day but I managed to get a long hot shower in at the park bathroom. Normally I prefer to use my RV shower but I didn't want to put that much water in the gray tank since I will be using that at my next stop and at the upcoming rally.

It rained a little off and on during the day but really not much at all. Tuesday morning I headed east again. It rained between Beaumont and Sulphur. I was a little concerned about the bridge in Lake Charles as I heard it was hit again by another barge during Hurricane Laura. Everything was okay and we got across just fine. There was a lot of hurricane damage starting in Sulphur and continuing past Lake Charles. Huge trees were snapped like matchsticks and laying everywhere. Lots of building down and lots more with blue tarps over their roofs. I understand that a lot of the areas still doesn't have power back and that was several weeks ago.

When I got to Lafayette, I talked to my friend Martha again. She lives south of Lafayette in Abbyville. I know the storm surge from a hurricane a number of years ago flooded her house and they brought in a lot of dirt and put the new one much higher up. She said she wasn't expecting to have to evacuate this time. She is supposed to be coming to the rally as well. I did a little grocery shopping for the rally at Walmart in Breaux Bridge and filled up my gas tank. My next stop was my friend Carolyn's house in Butte LaRose. She is on a rolling rally on the way back from the east coast and will meet up at Tickfaw State Park for our Pink FlaminGoes Flocking. She has a couple of hookups at her house and said she would be happy to have stay here so here I am. Harley and I arrived about supper time yesterday and got hooked up to power. It rained hard this morning way before we got up and sprinkled a couple of time during the day but the sun was also out quite a bit. Harley was happy to get out for a couple of short walks. He promised to protect me from the alligators but fortunately, we didn't see any. I was surprised to see that the swamp water was low right now. That isn't always the case.

Today I spent 3 hours trying to get 3 photos into a folder on a website. Google photos kept saying I needed an Internet connection which I was already using on the website. Some days electronics can give you a headache. I could get on google photo fine on my phone (same Internet connection, lol) but the screen was really hard to manipulate the folders on the website. Finally got it done and Harley and I went for a walk.

I'm caught up with the blog for now. Tomorrow I leave for Tickfaw. Harley says he needs my attention now so I'm putting the computer away.

Brimstone Museum and Calcasieu Parish Police Jury Parks

Our two guests, Virginia and Rose, left Saturday morning for home. The rest of us headed to downtown Sulphur to the Brimstone Museum.

Sulphur has rather an amazing history which is related at the museum. Sulphur mining in the late 1800's eventually led to a new town. The first sulphur mine opened in 1895 and operated until 1924 producing about 9.4 million tons of sulphur.

Dr Frasch developed the process for extracting the sulphur.

A second sulphur mine began operations in 1932 in the midst of the Depression bringing many jobs to the local area.

There is a running history of industry in the area. A company called Cities Service eventually became Citgo. This is a small free museum with a lot of information about the local area and industry.

Our next stop was Sam Houston State Park for a picnic.....bonus.....seniors get in free.

It's a nice park with two separate camping areas which were both full on a beautiful weekend.

Our next stop was Holbrook Park, one of the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury Parks we found out about yesterday. It was even nicer and larger than the Lorrain park. The parks are first come, first serve and each have a camp host on site in a small house. There is another park called White Oaks which is not far away. We were really impressed with these parish parks.

We stopped at Orange Leaf Yogurt on the way home. Birdie is a very bad influence. Carolyn just discovered that she had over $7 worth of yogurt in her cup.....it was her first time and quite a shock.

Most of us knew better but it was all good.

We had a local reporter that we met at Hollier's ask to come and interview us. Look for an upcoming article in The Voice of Southwest Louisiana" by Joyce R. Kebodeaux. It is a monthly local magazine.

We sat around and answered Joyce's questions while she took notes.

It was suppertime so we invited her to join us for leftovers.

She had a great time.

Sunday, we had one last lunch together at LeBleu's before we headed our separate ways on Monday morning.

We also had a Walmart stop.

It was a fantastic GTG......small, relaxing, and super enjoyable. The Pink FlaminGoes that couldn't make this one really missed a great time.

Lorrain Bridge and Calcasieu Parish Parks

Our visit to Bayou Rum wasn't our last adventure of the day. After we got directions from Josh, we headed to the Lorrain Bridge about 7 miles away.

The site for the Lorrain Bridge was acquired in 1894 and a wooden type draw bridge was constructed around 1895. In 1920, it was reconstructed again as a wooden type draw bridge. It was damaged in 1950 and the draw bridge portion was disabled in 1955. It stayed open and connected Calcasieu Parish and Jeff Davis Parish until it was closed in 1998.

It was rebuilt through the joint efforts of the Lorrain Bridge Association, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and the Jeff Davis Police Jury and reopened on July 1, 2004. For those not familiar with this area, Police Jury is sort of like County Commissioners. It has nothing to do with the police department.

We met some new folks and chatted for a while.

The bridge was not the only treasure we found here. There was a real nice small park with 9 RV spots with water and electric plus a dump station and room for tents, all for $12 per night......and this was one of several Calcasieu Parish parks with similar or larger RV camping. Wow, what a find.

And then there was dinner. I put a crockpot with a good size pork roast on before we left in the morning. When we got back to the RV park, I pulled the pork and added barbeque sauce for pulled pork sandwiches.

Time for some Pink Flamingo drinks. Champagne and cranberry juice.

Cheers everyone. This may be the best Get Together ever.

Along the Creole Nature Trail

Before I get completely side-tracked, I should mention that Carolyn fixed us all homemade taco soup Wednesday night. It cooked all day while we were busy doing other things and was just fantastic with a side of garden salad. We haven't had a less than great meal yet.

Thursday morning had us all heading out to the Creole Nature Trail. There is a loop that starts in Sulphur, goes south to the gulf, and then loops back up to Lake Charles. However, you can also follow it west to Texas or east to New Orleans. Obviously, we only traversed part of it. You can do it as just a drive or you can stop and take several hikes along the way.

This is one of the hikes.....not long at all.

They have displays with information as well as a pavilion.

There is also a real nice observation point right next to the parking lot with free telescopes.

Our guests, Rose and Virginia, joined Mary Jane and I for a look over the trail.

Birdie got some shots of butterflies. I should mention that the pictures for the GTG are a combination of those taken by Birdie, Carolyn, and me. Their pictures are the best ones but I always had my camera with me even when they didn't.

This is just in front of the ferry going across to Cameron which we didn't take.

We stopped at Holly Beach as Shirley wanted to see how much it had rebuilt after Hurrican Rita and Ike devastated it. There are several RV parks and new beach houses on stilts for the most park.

There was a small beach road incident involving Carolyn's truck. No, we were not driving on the beach but they had brought in loads of new sand and it was on the road to the beach. We were rescued by a good Samaritan with offers of assistance from another passerby as well. He assured us that we got caught only because diesel trucks are much heavier in the front than other trucks.

We saw some shrimp boats on Lake Calcacieu.

Rose told us Shirley needed to stop for gas SOON. Carolyn made sure she filled up with diesel at the station near the RV park before we left.....$2.09/gallon.....best price in the area.

Thursday night, Martha treated us all to her homemade chicken and sausage gumbo and rice as well as potato salad.....oh, there was also homemade peach cobbler. So sorry the rest of the Pink FlaminGoes missed it.