Posts Tagged With: Beaumont TX

2017 Trip Two: Tour of Texas. March 31-April 1

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

April 1, Saturday, Houston Texas

We titled this trip Tour of Texas and after a month of travel we finally made it to Texas. You may have wondered if we knew what we were writing about. We do, it just took us a while to arrive here. No problem, though, we have a month of travel left for Texas.

The Book Nook Inn B & B in Lumberton TX

Inside the Book Nook Inn in Lumberton TX

Friday, March 31st, was a slower day than planned. Our goal was to spend most of the day hiking at Big Thicket National Preserve. However, the Southern cuisine did a number on my stomach and walking far was the least of the activities I wanted to undertake. Luckily, the Book Nook Inn B & B was a welcoming place and we spent time on the veranda sitting, contemplating, or talking with the owners.

Big Thicket National Preserve

We did go to Big Thicket and walked a short hike. Big Thicket Preserve represents about 5% of the original pine and cypress forest, hardwood forest, meadow, and black water swamp that was here. The other 95% of the forests, swamps, meadows, etc. disappeared due to wood cutting, rice-growing, oil drilling and the homes and businesses of 500,000 people.

Forests and trees are probably not your conception of Texas but the uniqueness of this area and the diversity of flora and fauna made even partial preservation a natural concept. In gaining approval, though, the enabling legislation mandated the continuance of hunting, trapping, oil and gas exploration, and cutting of non-native tree species.

We are spending the weekend in Houston to visit some relatives. On the drive here, we stopped at two lesser known museums. First was the Babe Didrikson Zaharias museum in Beaumont. The name may be unfamiliar to most of you. Babe was probably the most well-known female athlete of the first half of the 20th century and considered the greatest all-around sportswoman in history.

The museum was small and probably does not get many visitors. It showcased her early life in Beaumont, her three gold medals in the 1932 Olympics (all three categories she was in), and her unmatched golf prowess. Golfing gave her the best recognition, she won 82 amateur and professional golfing tournaments. Babe died in 1956 at age 45 of colon cancer.

Our second stop was in Houston at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum. Our trip to Yellowstone in 2013 first made us aware of the “Buffalo Soldiers”. The term was first used to refer to black soldiers who fought against Native Americans in the West. The Indians respected their fighting ability and saw a similarity between the mane of a bison and the curly hair of some African-Americans. The term has broadened over time to become a generic name for all African-American soldiers from 1866 through WWII.

This museum was founded in 2001 through the dedication of one man who visioned it as an American history museum, not a black history museum. Plentiful memories and tidbits of history are showcased in the video and display cases of the military tribulations and successes of black soldiers. Despite the segregation and lack of acceptance, black soldiers represented this country proudly. Their segregated use in WWII led many of them to come home and not accept Jim Crow but to begin the march to full repeal of segregation laws.

The Harriet Tubman historical reenactor at Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston

We received an extra bonus at the museum. A historical reenactor made a moving presentation as Harriet Tubman, tieing it into Harriet’s role in the Civil War. Harriet was the first woman to lead an armed expedition, hers freed 700 slaves. We had visited the Harriet Tubman post Civil War home in Auburn NY last fall.

Tonight we are just at a Springhill Suites. We got an excellent rate at a hotel in a business park, they must be slow on weekends.

Ed and Chris. April 1

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2017 Trip Two: Tour of Texas March 30

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

Lumberton, TX. Friday March 30

Our one time on this trip to see the Gulf of Mexico in Texas

Our patio at the Savoy B & B in Lafayette LA

Rice, ranching, and roseate spoonbills; our day in a nutshell. We left our great B & B in Lafayette, the Savoy B & B, with fond memories. Overnight the area received a real soaking of rain, the morning began cloudy but cleared up as the day went on.

Views from our Thursday drive

Back roads continue to be our primary choice. We use Google maps more frequently now than the Rand McNally atlas; choosing less traveled options, roads that frequently are not even on the atlas. The view is a more varied countryside, hence the views of rice paddies today and sugar fields the last two days. We pass run-down homes and sub-divisions of large, expensive brick homes.

Twice in the last week though, Siri has dictated errors from the Google Maps plan. Once we were routed off a portion of Interstate, reversed direction, and had to turn around at the next interchange to get back to the planned route. The other time when the traffic got slightly heavy, we turned at the next signal light, making a right, left, right and rejoined our original road two blocks farther along. You wonder what is happening but don’t have time to stop and check the directions before you arrive at the questionable direction location.

Roseate Spoonbills

Our route today took us along Creole Nature Trail, the road closest to the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf was not normally in view but marshes and waterways next to it were. As we were driving along, we came across a mass of birds in the fields, numerous roseate spoonbills among them. Their pink color made for a great contrast to the white and black of the other birds. This road was so little used, we stopped the car in our lane and took pictures with no worries of cars coming up from behind us.

The Rand McNally was used to direct us to a side trip to see the Gulf. Chris said it was just a five-mile jog to a public access beach. The view was not overwhelming, there were some oil rigs in the distance, but a pleasant diversion.

Much more interesting was Pintail Drive, a three-mile trail in Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge, south of Lake Charles Louisiana. (We ran into a Minneosta couple here that had also been on our swamp tour in Lafayette, LA.) A forty-five minute slow drive showcased alligators, turtles and countless birds of types we could not identify.

Along pintail wildlfie drive in Cameron Preserve

Along Pintail Wildlfie Drive in Cameron Preserve

Along Pintail Wildlfie Drive in Cameron Wildlife Preserve

Did you know alligators do not eat during the winter months? When spring comes, they need heat more than food to get their body back into full operating mode. Once they heat up and get energy, they will start eating-and then go onto mating.


Video-alligators use an open mouth to help regulate body temperature

A final stop before bedding down for the night at the Book Nook Inn in Lumberton Texas was the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum. Spindletop was the first true oil gusher in 1901 and really ushered in the wide-spread use of oil as a fuel. Mobil/Exxon, Gulf, and Texaco all got their start here.

A replica of an early oil derrick at Spindletop Museum

I had been confused by pictures showing oil derricks in the hundreds sort of cheek to jowl. Evidently in those early days, lease rights were parceled out in lands as small as 1/64 of an acre. Spindletop’s big push lasted only 10 years but it gave the impetus for this stretch of Texas and Louisiana to produce and refine oil and for cities like Port Arthur to become shipping cities.

Ed and Chris. Lumberton TX. March 31

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