Moving Day, the Cajun Riviera and the Circle of Life

Location: Hidden Ponds RV Park; Sulphur, Louisiana
(Click the pictures to enlarge)

I left Duson and moved to Sulphur on Wednesday. This campground is almost full and it seems most of the campers are workers in the local area. There is a lot of industrial construction going on around here. My oldest son lives here and I stopped to say goodbye before heading out west. I also wanted to explore a route I tried to do about a year ago but I got sick and couldn't go. That route is down to the Gulf of Mexico at Holly Beach and then then over to the Port Arthur, Texas area.

Hidden Ponds RV Park in Sulphur, Louisiana

I packed a lunch because I knew there would be some nice places along the way to eat it. I made a bologna sandwich with Miracle Whip, which is the real mayonnaise, not that fake stuff. Well, it was the Lite Miracle Whip, so maybe it is a little fake. Some tator chips and a bottle of water finished the makings. It was foggy when I got up this morning so I had to wait for it to burn off. At 9:00 it was still foggy so I just decided to head on and see what would happen. The fog/haze stayed around most of the day but it made for some interesting pictures. 

This is the lift bridge over the Intercoastal Waterway. It had an eerie look to it in the fog/haze. 

There is a nice parish owned park under the bridge

This is from the walk-way along the water

That little building in the back is a fish cleaning station. The pelicans and gulls are waiting for the 1st fisherman of the day. 

It was a surprise to find the park had RV connections and a couple of RV's camping. It was $12.00/day for water and electric with a 14 day maximum time.

A view of the RV location with the Lift Bridge in the back ground.

I took this picture for my Yankee friends. The sign on the telephone pole is an alligator warning. 

Holly Beach used to be called the Cajun Riviera. It is one of the few places in Louisiana with a sandy beach on the Gulf of Mexico. Although the Gulf is the southern border for Louisiana, most of the places are swampy wetlands without sandy beaches. Hurricane Rita wiped Holly Beach out in 2005. Just as it was being rebuilt, Hurricane Ike came through in 2008 and repeated what Rita had done. I was curious to see how much rebuilding had been done over the last 5 years. There are a few permanent houses but it seems a lot of people are just parking an RV on their property and leaving it there for when they come down for the weekends or vacations. That way they can haul it to safety when the next storm shows up. The beach had been eroding away for years before the storms but the two storms sped that process up. The beaches have come back pretty good and are now about 150 feet wide for several miles. It would be a nice place to spend the day.

Holly Beach on a hazy day

More Holly Beach

From the beach looking back to Freedom and the houses

More beach

They are trying to save and/or restore more beaches by placing those rip-rap jetties parallel to the beach. If you look at the area on Google Earth, you can see it is working.

Miss Mc's class likes bridges so I took these pictures. This is the bridge over Sabine Pass which is where the Sabine River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The Sabine River forms most of the border between Louisiana and Texas.

This is the bridge connecting Pleasure Island to Port Arthur. It seemed like a lot of Pleasure Island was being rebuilt, probably from the hurricanes.

These two bridges are at Bridge City, Texas. The one on the right is the Rainbow Bridge built in 1938 and the one on the left is a Cable Stayed Bridge (Veterans Memorial Bridge) built in 1990.

A road view of the Veterans Memorial Bridge with the bright yellow cable sheaths.

After leaving Holly Beach I followed the beach road into Texas and saw Port Arthur. The last time I was there, I was being born. Yep, Port Arthur was my birthtown but I don't ever remember ever being there. I drove by the hospital today and parked in a lot across the street. I was picturing my mother (29 years old) and father (32 years old) leaving the hospital with their third child. And here I am, almost 59 years later showing up to see what I can see. There are many life circles, I guess this was one for me.

A picture of the hospital in which I was born. There is a picture of the hospital on my birth certificate and I was hoping to get a new picture from the same perspective. But, they have added that part in the middle which hides the original building.

Tomorrow will be moving day again. I'll be heading to Beaumont, Texas. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road.