The Beaumont Elk’s Lodge sits here right on top of the very busy Hwy. 90, across the street from the Exxon Mobile Polyethylene Plant and a very busy railroad route. (It would sure be coincidental if that very plant was the manufacturer of the plastic engine part that we have been waiting on for over a month and a half.) Needless to say, there is a teensy bit of noise associated with every waking minute, not to mention every sleeping minute…the dang trains run ALL NIGHT LONG, and they love to toot their horns! While here we got a couple of really good drenchings that brought out the mud bugs in the temporary swamps that got created at the rear of our rig. The fire ants seem to thrive here, even the golf courses are covered in ant hills.

Beaumont, Texas not being one of the most exciting areas of the world, we tried to make the best of our stranded-ness. Jeanne found the Gulf Terrace Hike & Bike Trail only a couple miles from “home”. It is a small city-type park area with a nice paved path and several nice shaded rest stops. We strolled the 2-mile loop section while I molested as many of the fire ant hills as I could (I really really really hate fire ants!)

One of the Elk’s members suggested a couple of food stops while we were here. The first one we hit was the Pine Tree Lodge which is located right on the Taylor Bayou. We drove out one day in hopes of catching sight of a wayward gator or two while enjoying lunch at our table. Alas, Al Gator failed to show up, I guess I should have made an appointment with him. But we did get to watch the soft shelled turtles swimming around the bayou.

I found the Cattail Marsh for another little outing. It is located on the Hillebrandt Bayou at Tyrrell Park. There is a path that circles the marsh but we only needed to walk the length of one side to find the object of our search…Al Gator! And then we saw his little sister Allie! (OK, I’m no biologist, I couldn’t identify the sex of a gator if my life depended on it! But it makes good print…) They also have a very nice boardwalk that extends into the marsh for all the bird watching you can stand. While we were there one birdwatcher had his scope set up on a bald eagle, probably over a mile away. He gave Jeanne the opportunity to take a gander (c’mon, man, ganders are gooses, not eagles!) Tyrrell Park also had a nice 9-1-1 Memorial display. The associated golf course was terribly covered in fire ants.

Jeanne did another “Griswold” thing and found the world’s largest functioning fire hydrant, so we just HAD to go see it. Yep. It was large! It is located across the street from the Fire Museum of Texas in Beaumont and next to the Texas Firefighter Memorial. Since we were in the area (downtown), we wanted to check out the famous Crockett Street area. This is Beaumont’s locale for celebrating Mardi Gras. It was a bit disappointing in size & scope, as well as the entire area was DESERTED when we were there, not a soul or vehicle moving in any direction, nothing open.

Next excursion was a trip over to see the Port Arthur area. On the way, we passed through Port Neches and wanted to stop for snacks at the Neches River Wheelhouse on the River Front walkway. This was a nice atmoshphere with views of the Neches River. I had some awesome seafood nachos, loaded with shrimp, mud bugs, and lump crab, but had to fight the dive-bombing birds who like to hang out around the patio area, like the sea gulls at Pac Bell Park during game days.

After lunch we continued into Port Arthur proper to a point near the Louisiana border. Port Arthur is one of the very huge ports for the oil industry and is covered in oil refineries, therefore not a very scenic area. But here, you can judge for yourselves…

Towards the end of our stay, we were treated to a Blood Moon, supposedly the last one until sometime in 2025. We actually caught a clear night sky and I figured out how to use my timed shutter release on my camera.

Freightliner is very low on my fan-favorites list. They knew we had been waiting for over a month and a half for our part to arrive and yet, they failed to call me when it did come in. We just happened to call them for a status check and were told it was on their shelf. #@$%&*^$#%! A quick run in to get it swapped out and bingo! Ready to Rock-N-Roll! Now the only hold up is we already ordered our mail be sent to us here, so with tomorrow our anticipated delivery date, we have to stay put just a smidge longer.  We should be jacks-up by weekend, next stop?