The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 238: Gulf Coast RV Park/Beaumont, TX/Post B

This part of the Big Thicket is swampy.

We ventured out into the Big Thicket today after what has become a normal morning (Me winning). I beat the Cager for a 1-zip lead in the Beaumont Open. Tomorrow, I hope to finish her off to win all the beef links in Beaumont. The patch of the Big Thicket we toured today is about forty miles north of Beaumont. The thicket, which today is a National Preserve of 108,000 acres stretched over seven counties used to be an expanse of three million acres. We walked two trails, one of which was kind of sloshy from the recent rain. We also drove through some piney forest on a couple of winding dirt roads that seemed VERY far from civilization. As usual, you'd need to spend a considerable amount of time to really explore this section of the piney woods. The only drawback to today is that we're a little out of season in that the flowers have yet to come out of their winter slumber. Having said that, we did find some flowering dogwoods and the azaleas are simply stunning. The day itself was gorgeous: mostly sunny and about seventy-seven degrees. After a few hours of wandering around like a couple of Davy Crockett's, we decided to start our Beaumont area BBQ fest. For lunch, we stopped at the West Texas Style BBQ in Silsbee, Texas (Which just happened to be on the way back from the Big Thicket. We shared a brisket plate and it was GREAT. The ladies who own this place have run it for the last seventeen years. They claim two things: that they're great pie makers and that they're mean. One of those two was true: The lemon pie we had for desert was GREAT, but the lady who took our order and served us was as sweet as Southern tea. The pie was so good, we took a piece of pecan pie home for our after dinner dessert. For dinner, we sauntered across the tracks to Patillo's BBQ, which has been making all beef links since about 1900. They were pleasingly greasy, extremely rich, and they left a faint trace of heat in the after taste. All beef links like these are a specialty of this part of the country (They're quite cajun), and Patillo's uses an old family recipe. It's not what you'd call a glamorous joint, but it smelled good, the lady serving us laughed at my jokes, and we felt welcome. We've driven quite a bit of Beaumont in the time we've here, and once again we've noticed that segregation is alive and well in America. Our time in Phoenix was spent in the predominantly Hispanic area (And low economically), but the homes seemed well kept for the most part. In Beaumont, as in other places we've seen in the South, the poor side of town has been passed by time, repair, and concern. It is stunning to drive from one side of town where eight thousand square foot limestone homes are surrounded by rod iron gates to the other side of town where the houses have worn tarred roofs, slat board siding, drooping porches, and raggedy lawns. I'm not sure it's so much different in Spokane, except that the incidence is much less. In Beaumont, nearly half of the population is African American. We found the same not so invisible line last winter in both Austin and San Antonio. Given the recent renewal in racial unrest, it's quite interesting to witness the status quo as it exists in Texas. Since I have no desire to run for office and I have no answers to any of the big questions, all I'm left with are my observations. But enough of that. Tomorrow, we venture deeper into the piney woods, albeit mostly by driving. We'll spend the night in what appears to be a very quaint State Park called Mission Tejas, which is on the edge of the Davy Crockett forest. After a night of listening to crickets and whistling birds, we'll brave the traffic of Houston just to watch some young men in shorts play with a ball. Go Zags. As I sit here licking the slight sheen of BBQ grease from my lips, I'm glad to report that life is good, especially today.

This loop included ninety foot magnolia trees, white oaks, and what Texans call pine trees.

This scary guy was guarding the restroom. He was as big as my hand.

White oaks.

Testing Stumpy's map reading skills, we took this back road for quite a spell.

The forest floor sprinkled itself with flowering dogwoods.

I had to clear some of the "piney woods" from the road.

Azaleas, gorgeous in their lush redness, grow like rhododendrons on Washington's coast.

We toured this trail hoping to find some pitcher plants (They eat bugs because the soil is so void of nutrients), but all we found were the husks of last year's plants.