Texas - Part 1 (March 20-24, 2021)
“Texas is neither southern nor western. Texas is Texas.” - William Blakely
We began our Texas adventure with a stop at Village Creek State Park in Lumberton TX, very near Beaumont and only about a half-hour inside the state line from Louisiana. We’ve chosen to stay exclusively at State Parks while in Texas because they are highly rated and inexpensive. We purchased a Texas State Park pass ahead of time which enables us to avoid the per-person per day entrance fee, (which would be separate from our camping fees) plus gave us a 50 percent discount on our second night at each state park. As we pulled into Village Creek we quickly realized that it was much busier with a lot more families camping than we had experienced in other places thus far. We suspected though that since it was a Saturday, things would quiet down before the weekend was over and we were right about that. The weekdays that we spent there were incredibly quiet with just a few campers each day.
Although Village Creek was about an hour and a half from Houston, we did decide to take a day trip into the city. It would be a shame to be that close and not check it out. We realized that our best weather day would be Sunday and as it turns out, it was a good day to explore. Getting in and out of the city was easy. Parking was also easy and free! We knew we had a lot of museums and tourist attractions to choose from but instead, we opted to check out something a little more obscure but equally as cool in our opinion. One of the YouTubers that we follow had reviewed a guided tour of the Cistern at Buffalo Bayou Park and it looked like a unique experience. The cistern is an underground water reservoir that was decommissioned by the city of Houston in 2007. It was initially set to be destroyed but instead, the city decided to renovate and incorporate it as a part of Buffalo Bayou Park. Our tour included a 30-minute walk around the inside perimeter of the cistern while our guide told us the history of Houston’s water system and the structure itself. We spent the rest of our day exploring Buffalo Bayou Park and some of downtown Houston. We found Houston to be very clean, quiet (but it was a Sunday), and walkable.
That Monday we opted to “take the day off” so that I could update our blog. We also took advantage of our time at the campground by cooking up a big batch of pork fried rice on the Blackstone. I had brought a frozen pork loin from home and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it up. We had pork fried rice for dinner that night plus we put two meals in the freezer for future dinners. We’ve discovered that since our schedule is so unpredictable, having ready-made meals in the freezer is handy. We like the flexibility to eat out if the mood strikes us and knowing that we have something quick and easy in the freezer if it doesn’t.
We got back to exploring on Tuesday, our last full day at Village Creek. On this day, we opted to check out the city of Beaumont because they had lots of historic sites and homes to visit. As it turns out, most locations are only open Wednesday through Sunday so the places we could explore were limited. We stumbled on a few gems though so we’re happy with the way things turned out. Our first stop was the Texas Energy Museum. Our admission was free because the second floor of the museum was closed for renovations. Even though we were limited to just the first floor, we learned lots about the discovery of oil and oil refinery in the area. I admittedly knew nothing about oil refinery before visiting this museum! Our second stop of the day was the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum. Admission was only $5 so we didn’t have super high expectations but boy were we pleasantly surprised. The museum is located on the campus of Lamar University and celebrates Texas’s first oil discovery in 1901. The museum is the site of a recreated boomtown that came to be as the result of the discovery of oil in the area. Each building (the saloon, post office, mercantile, etc.) houses period artifacts. We even spotted an 1888 time clock made by the International Time Recording Company of Endicott, New York.
As we set to depart Village Creek Wednesday morning, we discovered a puddle near the back passenger’s side tire of the Excursion. Since all the brake-lines on the Excursion are brand new, Charley didn’t initially think much of it and assumed the puddle had been there before we arrived. After realizing the brakes had a little more give than he would like, he investigated and realized that a caliper on that brake had blown a seal. We were lucky that an auto parts store was just down the road and within an hour, Charley had the caliper and brakes changed and we were on our way. We definitely knew this trip would come with some challenges but I’m so thankful to be traveling with someone who is mechanically inclined. That repair could have cost us several days and many dollars had Charley not been able to fix it himself.
My initial thoughts were to share all of our Texas adventures in one post but Texas is a big state and we’ve done a lot so this will conclude our Texas adventures for now. The next post will include our time in Austin, Lockhart, and San Antonio!
