Thursday, 10 December 2020
Sadly, nothing about our overnight stay at Mission Tejas State Park was pleasant. Our extremely short campsite was seriously not level, and I'd've had trouble making it level even if I had the equipment. When I took the dogs out for early walks, I was worried about the likelihood of deer I wouldn't be able to see in the pitch dark. So when Dexter started sniffing away madly, so completely living through his nose that he ignored me, and then when Gracie started the same routine, I went into panic mode and hauled them back up the steep hill to the RV. Which set off my asthma problems. I left as early as we could get daylight down into the campground area.
Oddly, they did have something that might have been interesting if they'd bothered to explain it. Across from the bathhouse was the head of a hiking trail, that had a sign saying "CCC Bath Tubs" with an arrow pointing down the trail. I've seen CCC bread ovens and dining halls and trails and bridges and swimming pools, but this bath tub bit was new to me. In line with this park's refusal even to put up a one-way sign on a one-way road, they didn't bother to explain anything about the bath tubs either, not on a sign or in their literature or online or anywhere. I suppose if I'd stopped at the office on the way out, one of the rangers could have told me, but I was so peeved with this park I was afraid to open my mouth to them, in case something ugly came out.
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| today's route |
Driving back east from the campground, I saw horses and cows; hay; grazing land and brushland; trees and thick undergrowth.
I came back to the Caddo Mounds site, still surprised that there wasn't even a highway sign for it - I guess they don't really want visitors to their archeological dig. But at the turn there was a sign saying Weeping Mary that-a-way (well, there was an arrow). Because I couldn't imagine what Weeping Mary was, I looked it up and found, as I have so often, that it's a town established by freed enslaved people and has a fascinating history. http://www.texasescapes.com/Weeping-Mary That article was written in 2008, but I imagine it's still relatively accurate.
I came to a stretch of highway where the volunteer litter crew was from SRG Film Productions. I guess it's a form of advertising?
And back to Alto, and on this road there was a sign saying the town's population is 1,225.
And another sign saying I was on the Original Route of El Camino Real.
I came to what seemed to be the town of Douglass, though there was no sign. (It's an unincorporated town of about 500, I learned.) But I did see a sign saying they were the 2014 1A Baseball State Champions. And I saw a place labeled "Doug's Restaurant Farmers Market Chocolate Factory." I was certainly surprised to find a chocolate factory here in deep east Texas, so I looked it up and learned they do indeed claim to make real chocolate there. But they also say they're closed right now (maybe the virus, though they don't say) but will reopen at some point. Here's their website. https://udougs.com/about-us (They've got BBQ, too, of course.)
At Winters Hill I saw a sign saying, "Keep America Safe - Vote Republican." Unfortunately, these days supporting some Republicans seems to mean trashing democracy, with our senator Ted Cruz leading the charge. Though I imagine if Democrats wanted to throw out the votes in Texas, he might sing a different tune. What a strange world it is lately.
Nacogdoches
Nacogdoches, pop. 32,996, is a name I grew up pronouncing without saying the "g" and the emphasis on the 1st and 3rd syllables. As far as I know, that's how Texans pronounce it.
Nacogdoches County has moved its courthouse from the center of town, where the very obvious former site (it's in the middle of a square in downtown) is now occupied by a 1-story brick visitor center. The new courthouse (built 1958) is a couple blocks away. I didn't take a photo but this is an internet version.
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| Nacogdoches County Courthouse in Nacogdoches |
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| the 1911 county courthouse it replaced |
I didn't see this side of the new building. It's built on a serious slope, and the backside, which I did see, doesn't have much for windows and is built into the hillside. I'm sure it's all very clever and environmentally sound, and I'm sure the building is far more functional than the previous one. But I don't see east Texas as a bastion of Spanish/Mexican architecture, and though attractive, this new(ish) building just doesn't have character the old one did, to my eyes.
When I discovered the erstwhile site of the county courthouse and its present non-spectacular occupant (the visitor center), I assumed I'd followed directions wrong and drove around a bit trying to find the real county courthouse. What I found was an attractive old section of town with brick streets, many of which were one-way but weren't marked as such. I ended up going the wrong way on 2 of them, and of course they were too narrow for me to turn around in so I had to keep going. I can't possibly be the only visitor to come to Nacogdoches, so why wouldn't the town see fit to Mark The One-Way Streets? (I'm trying not to shout.) Maybe they took their cue from Mission Tejas State Park's non-one-way-street marking.
After locating the current county courthouse, I found a nearby city park where the dogs could get out. And I found some art work reminding me that Nacogdoches is the oldest town in Texas, having been founded in 1779 (take that, New England). And I found some historical markers that told me stuff I'd never known about Texas.
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I drove around town a bit and found Stephen F. Austin State University. Established in 1923, it now has 9,567 students and is one of only 4 state universities that are independent of any of the state systems.
I saw a sign saying Nacogdoches is home of Foretravel. I was surprised to learn that the local Fore family has been making motorhomes since the 1960s, and that they're sold at the same place I bought my RV.
And I saw a sign for Moore Supply Co.: "Keeping Nacogdoches in hot water since 1955."
Nacogdoches is sister city to Natchitoches in Louisiana but, though the spelling would lead someone (like me) to assume they're pronounced similarly, I learned from east Texas TV weather people that the LA version is pronounced NACK-ih-tish. It figures I'd spend a month in LA and not learn what I had to come to TX to learn.
Back on the road
I crossed the Angelina River.
I passed a small building with a sign in front saying "Fill Dirt Wanted" and then below, in smaller letters, "Around Back →" and I had a mental image of the big dump-truck-loads of dirt that would have been piled up in the small space in front of this building without that extra sign.
I saw "Abitibi Consolidated" with a long line of railroad tanker cars. Unfortunately, I can't find out what the connection would be because Abitibi Con. is a large Canadian paper & pulp company, which doesn't seem to have anything to do with tanker cars. For some reason that name Abitibi was niggling at my brain (aside from sounding like it belongs with the Disney song "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo"), and I finally found it in an online image of those dumpsters where people can recycle paper that you see around here and there called "Abitibi Paper Retrievers" with a picture of a dog with a rolled-up newspaper in its mouth. I couldn't find an uncopyrighted version online so can't show you what I'm sure would jog your memory too.
Lufkin
This town of 35,067 somehow didn't rate a highway sign going into town. But it's the county seat.
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| Angelina County Courthouse in Lufkin |
I'm sorry to say I didn't see anything of interest here in Lufkin, and even TripAdvisor suggests only the zoo and museums for Texas forestry, natural history and East Texas. Apparently, Lufkin isn't a happenin' place.
Back on the road
I crossed both the Angelina River (again) and the Attoyac River, and thought both of them were lakes because of their width, until I saw the signs saying otherwise.
I passed through the Angelina National Forest.
I got back on Texas 21 (it runs between Crockett and Nacogdoches, for instance) and noted I was back on the El Camino Real Original Route.
I went through Milam on my way to Toledo Bend Reservoir. Like Caddo Lake, this is a body of water that Texas and Louisiana share. I remember staying in a state campground on the Louisiana side of the reservoir and wanted to see it from the Texas side. That turned out to be surprisingly difficult. There isn't a town or anything sitting on this side of the lake - at least, not down in this part of it - just a bunch of private campgrounds. When I told Google to take me to the lake, it insisted I wanted to go to the LA side. Finally, I found a gas station/convenience store (Big Daddy's Chevron) near the water and asked for directions to it.
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| Toledo Bend Reservoir |
Turning away from Louisiana, I passed through Hemphill, pop. 1,198, and found it's a county seat that I didn't know was there. My first clue was when I drove past the courthouse and thought, "that looks just like a county courthouse." And it was.
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| Sabine County Courthouse in Hemphill |
Hemphill is also the location of the Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum. I knew nothing about this either and hadn't planned to stop. But from the comments I found online, it sounds like a worthwhile place to visit when I have more time. Patricia Huffman Smith was born in Hemphill and was on the Columbia spacecraft when it blew up in 2003. The Columbia was over east Texas at the time and pieces of debris were found near Hemphill. Here's a link to the museum's website. http://www.nasacolumbiamuseum.com
I saw lots of Trump flags and signs all day.
Much of my drive between Milam and Jasper passed through the Sabine National Forest. East Texas is known for its large wooded areas.
I saw a sign advertising Mayhaw Jelly. Not knowing what a mayhaw was, I looked it up and learned it's a berry. It comes from a mayhaw tree, which is a species of hawthorn tree, and ripens in May. Hence, May-haw (it's easy when you know how). If I'd been in a car, I'd've gone to find this jelly because it was probably pretty good. But the road didn't look like my RV belonged on it.
Jasper
I saw a sign saying "Welcome to Jasper - Jewel of the Forest" when I drove into town, but the highway department hadn't put a sign up. I learned online it had 7,590 residents in 2010, and it's the county seat.
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| Jasper County Courthouse in Jasper |
The reason I wanted to come to Jasper, though, was to honor the memory of James Byrd, Jr. When I was planning this section of my trip, I couldn't remember Mr. Byrd's name, but I could sure remember what happened to him. This is the Black man who was dragged behind a truck for miles by White supremacists, remember? It happened in 1998, which was a while ago but not long enough for me to forget. I was living in Washington at the time and heard about it even way up there. Here's the factual account of the crime. https://en.wikipedia.org/Murder-of-James-Byrd-Jr. Oddly, it sounds a lot like the beginning of John Grisham's A Time To Kill.
I learned online that the town created a park in his memory and went to visit there.
The James Byrd, Jr., Memorial Park is a nice little park with lots of play equipment and a basketball court and picnic tables and so forth.
But I was taken aback to discover that there was no information here about why this man was being honored in this way. And though this crime was committed more than 20 years ago, there's no historical marker about it.
This was a lynching that took place long long long after people were saying racism is behind us. Yet, this racist killing isn't even behind this town, let alone the larger issue being behind the country. This NPR report shows the town trying hard to minimize the crime, as if it could be swept under a rug and forgotten. https://www.npr.org/james-byrd-jr
Honestly, I was glad to see the park but seriously disheartened to see no acknowledgement of the fact that the perpetrators came from this community just like the victim did. I left town in a pretty down mood.
And drove the 11 miles to tonight's campground.
Just as a side note on a completely different subject, I stumbled on this little historical note about a Texan (of course) who refused to concede he'd lost an election for governor. https://www.msn.com/bud-kennedy-claimed-election-fraud-and-wouldn-t-leave-office
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