Friday, 11 December 2020
I'd stayed in last night's campground - Martin Dies, Jr. - 3 years ago and found it uncomfortable. I stayed there this time only because it was convenient and because it had a site available for us, but was careful to be in a very different part of the park. This time it was much better, the only problem being a LOT of deer. When we went out at dusk before bed, I saw 5 deer, and there may have been more from the way Dexter was acting. They complicate a walk with my dogs.
This morning on our 2nd walk (the 1st was cut short by doggy reactions to deer), many campers were up and moving about. I was surprised at the large number that were in tents, and even more surprised at the large number of girls wearing dresses or skirts. These weren't cute little sundresses but halfway-down-the-calf dresses. I couldn't see any other signs of uniqueness among these or any other campers so don't know why that was their choice of attire.
Otherwise, we had an almost-level campsite, for a change, and were at a distance from the other campers which would have made it easy to walk the dogs if it weren't for all those silly deer. (Yes, I know that's their home and we were the intruders.)
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| today's route |
The drive this morning can best be described as 2 county courthouses, 2 road incidents, and several bits of trivia.
The County Courthouses
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| Tyler County Courthouse in Woodville |
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| Polk County Courthouse in Livingston |
Woodville in Tyler County has 2,586 residents. Note the county seat of Tyler County isn't Tyler, which is the county seat of Smith County. Go figure.
Livingston in Polk County is about double that size with 5,335 residents. In Livingston I saw a billboard that said, "Don'tMethWithMe.Org." That turns out to be an ongoing effort by the Rotary Clubs in Livingston and nearby Cleveland to educate local kids about meth and the results of meth use. (I've seen for myself in former clients of mine the ghastly effects of meth use on dental health.) Here's a link to their program. https://www.dontmethwithme.org
The Road Incidents
The first was a surprise illustration of the power of example. I was the 2nd of 4 vehicles on a 2-lane + shoulders road, with a large truck ahead of me. The truck was trundling along at about 50 mph in a 75 mph zone, which was too slow even for me, and he went on for miles without giving any of the 3 of us a chance to pass him.
After a while, I gave up on him and, when a chance for easy passing came along, I pulled over onto the shoulder to let the cars behind me go by, figuring they'd pass me no matter what and they might as well do it before I tried passing the truck. Which they did.
And when the next easy passing area came along, I was surprised to see that truck pull onto the shoulder like I'd done and let all 3 of us pass him. Plus I could see him in my mirrors for some distance and noticed he kept pulling over for other cars. I imagine like me he'd grown up knowing that's what Texas drivers do and had just forgotten for the moment.
The second incident was a car accident that I came within about a foot of being involved in. Again a 2-lane road but without shoulders. In the oncoming lane not far from me, I saw a small car with the turn signal going, waiting until I passed to turn left. Another passenger car was coming toward them from behind and didn't even slow down but instead drove right over the left rear bumper and fender of the 1st car. By that time I was actually alongside the 2 and it was just a fluke neither of them ran into the RV's side.
I pulled partly off the road but was afraid to get too far off because of not knowing about maybe mud; turned on my emergency flashers; ran back to see if everybody was okay. There were 2 young women and their shaken-up dog in the 1st car and a mother and daughter in the 2nd car; they all said they were okay but the 1st car was a mess. Three of their tires were flat, the bumper was hanging down, there were car pieces in the road. I couldn't see whether there was any damage to the 2nd car, which was newer and somewhat bigger than the 1st.
The 1st car folks said they had to leave and kept trying to figure out how to leave with 3 flat tires. I thought maybe one or both were undocumented or running from an arrest warrant, but they said they'd just gotten news their grandmother had a stroke and they were rushing to see her. But I'd seen they weren't rushing so much they did something wrong with their turn and told them I'd be a witness for them if they needed me.
The 2nd car woman - I never saw the daughter - said she was on the way to a doctor appointment and figured she'd better cancel it. She said she was a preacher and wasn't going to lie about being responsible for the accident (a relief to me, though I thought the 2 young women were too upset to realize how much worse this situation could have been).
They started exchanging information and said they didn't need me to be a witness, and by then cars were trying to get around this mess and I was afraid someone would end up clipping my RV after all, so I left. I was pretty shaken up, though, at how close I'd come to being involved and how close those others had come to being seriously hurt. Fortunately, Lake Livingston State Park was just a few miles down the road, and I decided to take a break there for a while to get back to normal.
Bits of roadside trivia
I heard on the radio the New York Times had made up a list of must-have Christmas presents that included LED fake eyelashes. Presumably they light up?
I crossed a small body of water labeled Theuvinins Creek. I figured it had to have been named for somebody, but all I could learn online is that locals also call it Tootl'm Creek. (Your guess is as good as mine.)
I found myself passing through the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe's reservation. They say they're the oldest Indian reservation in Texas. Their website provides some interesting tribal history. https://www.alabama-coushatta.com
Having spent time both in Louisiana and in Oklahoma this year, I wondered why I was remembering a Coushatta casino somewhere other than Texas. Turns out it's in Louisiana and belongs to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, which may well be related to some of these folks in Texas but is in fact a distinct tribe. The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe operates its own casino at Livingston, called Naskila Gaming.
I passed a series of signs apparently for a town called Soda: Soda Loop Road, Soda Country Outlet (thrift store), Soda Auto, Soda Oaks Road. I was surprised to learn online that Soda hasn't existed since about 1940. A town called Bluff Creek got a post office in 1860, and lost it again about 6 years later. The town changed its name several times and finally called itself Soda, which was an anagram of the initials of the discarded names. Despite this colorful background, the town withered until somebody set up a sawmill that employed 40 folks and they got back a post office around 1900. But by the Depression they'd cut down all the trees, the sawmill closed, folks moved away and the town died. Except, apparently, for these names.
I passed another sign for another ghost town, this one called Swartwout. It existed only in the mid-1800s and was eventually submerged when the Trinity River got a dam nearby.
Lake Livingston State Park
This park sprawls out along a jut of land by the lake. I told the ranger at the gate about the accident just down the road and my need to pull myself together while I walked the dogs. She pointed me toward a picnic area nearby and said there were several places in the area we could walk. Which we did.
Because I couldn't pick up an internet signal at last night's campground, I stayed in the parking area for several hours to get information about services in Huntsville, tonight's campground. The dogs got walks at both the beginning and the end of this session, so they were okay.
I have a vague memory of our family camping at this park when I was in my teens, and I'd hoped I might be able to get my memory jogged at the camping areas. But when I saw what the park looked like, I didn't bother because it bore no resemblance at all to my memory. Which was anyway a nighttime memory so my memory couldn't see much of what our surroundings were. The picnic area was nice. Lots of trees.
Back on the road
I ended up on US 59 for about 20 miles and passed a sign saying it's a "Future Interstate Corridor I-69." But I don't know why. That road didn't need replacing. It's already 4 lanes with a median and shoulders, and though it's not limited access like an interstate is, it still didn't have any traffic lights so you could say it's semi-limited-access. I just don't understand this drive to fix what ain't broken. (And I could say the same to Microsoft and Google and my blog program and all those other tech people who keep insisting we need "updates.")
I came to the town of Cut and Shoot, pop. 1,158. I've always liked that name, but it suggests a place that's much more rural than I saw. It's less than an hour from Houston and only 5 miles from Conroe, the county seat, so maybe it's just getting spillover growth.
Conroe is much bigger than I remember it from my childhood, in 2010 registering 82,286 residents.
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| Montgomery County Courthouse in Conroe |
In Conroe I saw a truck with a sign in its rear saying, "Dead Pedophiles Don't Reoffend." And then, with things as they are now, I found myself wondering if this person was an adherent of QAnon and was referring to the world-wide Satanical cannibalistic pedophile ring of Democrats and Hollywood figures that it claims exists. (Just typing that makes my mind reel. How can anyone believe all that? Or any of it?)
In the town of Willis, pop. 6,100, I saw a large sign saying
Congratulations
Trump Wins!
Wins . . . KNOW IT!!!
And a few more small towns later, I passed a sign saying Huntsville, pop. 38,548. But the road for the state park came several miles before the town did.
It took some driving just to get to the park gate, and a fair amount more driving to get down into the campground area. In a valley, with heavy trees all around, I was sure I wouldn't be able to get an internet signal here either - and I didn't. Maybe just as well.
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