Day 4 Sunshine and Palm trees

The sun coming through the trailer window this morning was a God send to be sure. What a marvelous feeling! Birds singing, geese on the small lake outside the door, and a gentle breeze blowingthe buds on the trees. Just three "rigs"last night in the campground. Who would have thought that on the night before, that the lightning strikes, thunderboomers and the constant whooshing an splashing of rain on the roof would turn the weather around so quickly? But it did and the morning short run from Nacogdotches to Galveston Bay actually warmed the car, and forced us to doff both the coats and our sweaters for the first time.

Northeast Texas is mainly pine forests and mixed hardwoods with the Davy Crockett National Forest , and the Agelina N.F. being two that we traversed. Small by standards in the midwest (150,00 acres each more or less), they are important in their contribution to recreation, wildlife, and habitat for the state and country. This is where the expression "Piney Woods" comes from.

In this area are Stephen Austin University (15,000) at Nacogdoches and some other educational institutions which are the largest employers along with medical and social services. Surprising however, is Pilgrim's Pride (chicken plant) which is the largest employer in Lufkin County at 1200 employees. Then there is Moscow, Texas , probably one of the smaller towns in the Lone Star state. "There it was".

The names of the fast food chains change a bit as we get this far south as there are; "Whataburger", "Sonic", "Wafflehouse", and of course "Jack In The Box" to mention a few. We want to try the rapidly growing "Catfish King" as Ruth is a catfish fan.

Two and three story schools were seen in some towns and that was surprise. It certainly saves space. (Remember the old "fire escape slides" from two story schools?)

We continued to look for Propane refills but even "Buster Brown's Propane store was closed (Sunday) and that was fine as we will get some in Kemah where we are staying.

The approach to Houston (we went right through the heart of town on Sunday and it was relatively quiet) is like "cement city" and I am referring to the 6-8 lane highways rather than the buildings. It is an amazing piece of engineering. At one point on the Freeway (US 59 finally becomes one) there were seven, that's right seven roads stacked on top of one another. We were at level two and there were five above us. That is amazing. How do they do that? There is much construction all along US 59, even south of Houston, as it converts to a Freeway. The recent rains of course had made much mud in many places.

Finally we did arrive at our destination , Marina Bay RV Park, and it is quite new (4 years) and "tidy", again with a lot of cement . As we had camped everynight on gravel, this felt quiet "ticky tacky all in a row" at first. There are no trees in the park and we will miss that. I put up my colored ribbonned spinner on the pole, the USA flags, and a couple of colored "twirlies" that spin with the wind on the ends of the trailer. (See picture). So we are ready to explore the area and just "chill out " on Wed and Thursday when the predicted rains come.

We saw and heard our first Mockingbird ,today , some Purple Martins, Snow Geese, Killdeer, Robins, White Crowned Sparrows, the ubiquitous Turkey Vultures, Grackles and a few hawks.

We will see what tomorrow will bring.- Jim and Ruth