We finally moved on to Texas today. Now we could have hopped on I-10 in Lake Charles and about 70 miles later we would have been in Beaumont Texas looking for our exit to Village Creek State Park. Our philosophy, however, is to avoid Interstates if at all possible. Another philosophy is if something is a little out of the way while we are way over here, go ahead and take the side trip. It would be a whole lot further to come all the way back just to see that one thing.
Today Judy looked at the map and highlighted something called the Creole Trail National Scenic Byway. Now doesn’t that have a romantic ring to it? This byway takes you directly south to the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The clincher was it takes you to Holly Beach, LA. Now in December of 2005 we met a refugee from the Hurricane Rita in South Toledo Bend State Park. His tale of woe was that his house in Holly Beach was swept away by the high winds and tidal surge of Rita. All he had left was his RV. He had been fighting with his insurance company about whether the winds destroyed his home or the storm surge washed it away. Of course the insurance company was taking the stand that was favorable to them because his insurance didn’t cover both of these possibilities. (I think it only covered wind damage.) He showed photos of his house perched on 12 foot pilings and a second photo of just six of the pilings left on a sandy lot.
On our tour today we stopped in Holly Beach. A dozen new houses perched on their 12 foot pilings were scattered around a development that would have originally had a hundred or more houses. Some lots held battered debris where a house once stood, most of the lots were simply bulldozed flat. The streets were partially engulfed with drifted sand. Judy and I could see nothing that would attract people to want to rebuild here. We drove on down the coastline toward Port Arthur Texas. We could see drilling platforms out in the Gulf. Much of the road had been rebuilt, but where it hadn’t there were stretches where the pavement ended abruptly at the white line and jagged gullies gaped at you alongside. I nervously took my half of the road astraddle the center stripe.
There are businesses in this area. Mostly outfits that deal with the drilling platforms or the oil pipelines. Many places alongside the road there were newly created RV parks filled with trailers and fifth wheelers. The houses were mostly wrecked; I suspect the workers live in these parks. We did see some houses that survived the storms. They were newer construction and even then there were patches of siding missing. When we drove through Port Arthur we saw that many of the houses are patched with the famous “FEMA blue tarps.”
This is beautiful country with its swamps and marshes and the picturesque bayou’s meandering through. I can understand how the people can continue to rebuild over and over again. This is home and they have to come back and pick up the pieces after each storm. Even the RV’s make sense, they can pack up and leave until the storm has passed.
I will include a couple photos on the web site at www.disnmore-enterprises,com/20090128.html Also you can review the December 9, 2005 blog called “Random Thoughts” at this link, (under construction, Link to come later)
I will close with a famous quote from Dorothy. “There’s no place like home there’s no place like home there’s no place like home.”
Gary and Judy
