May 22 – “East”

That Eastward leg of our trip began with a ferry ride.  We saw some dolphins before we ever left the dock.  They were following a passing shrimp boat.  Of course that made the ride across kind of anticlimactic. But ferry rides are somewhat soothing if you let them be. 

Driving through the Bolivar Peninsula, we apparently just missed the Texas Frog Fest.  Looked like fun.  And we weren’t invited to the Beauty and the Beach wedding, either.  We did see the sign, though.  Oh, and Chris won the award for most unusual roadkill pizza ingredient.  At the time I was on top with my fox spotting, but she saw bacon.  Yep, a pig.  She announced it thusly, “It’s a pig.  That was a pig.  A real (makes a motion from her nose outward simulating a snout) pig.  Roadkill razorkback.  What can I say?  You can’t beat bacon.  And speaking of wildlife, we realized that we were driving right next to the Anahuac Wildlife Refuge.  I’m beginning to understand that “wildlife” actually means birds and cows.  No moose.  Sigh. 

Our goal for this leg of the journey was to make a Vaughan family pilgrimage to Sabine Pass.  My Dad was born there.  Plus it was the site of a key Confederate victory during the Civil War.  I did a report on the battle when I was in sixth grade.  Up front, the town of Sabine Pass was not much to look at.  They did have a very nice school building, though.  But they really take care of their state park.  Very clean and crisp grounds.  The monuments were interesting.  I even remembered the statue of Dick Dowling from my sixth grade report.  They also had a cell phone tour where you just called a phone number and a mysterious voice on the other end told you about the history as you walked around.  We made a wrong turn on one of the paths, though, so it got kind of confusing.  Chris found something online about an old cemetery so we drove over to see that.  It was interesting.  Some Civil War era graves as well as a huge open grassy area in the very center.  No gravestones or anything marked the big circle.  That, our research determined, was the site of a mass burial after a yellow fever epidemic. 

As we were leaving the cemetery, Chris remembered that there was also supposed to be a famous light house somewhere around there.  And you know how Chris is about lighthouses.  This one was apparently the only one commissioned to be on a U.S. stamp.  You are supposed to be able to see it from the state park we had left earlier, so we went back.  And we couldn’t find it.  The lighthouse, I mean, not the park.  It was supposed to be on the Louisiana side, but we couldn’t even see it in the distance.  Maybe they tore it down.  One other very cool thing about the park, though … fishing.  It was free, and it was literally right on the shore of the river that was emptying into the Gulf.  We saw a family there who had already nabbed several big reds. 

We left Sabine Pass and turned our attention toward Beaumont.  We drove through Port Arthur and straight to the Texas Fire Museum.  I had heard a lot about it, and I was anxious to compare it to the one we went to on our Kentucky trip.  They had several old trucks and a little bit of memorabilia, but they were famous for their collection of patches from fire departments all over the state.  Sadly, however, I couldn’t find one from Galveston Fire Department.  I was going to offer them one, but there was no one around to receive it.  Odd.  The museum is the first floor of their fire department admin building.  We did see some fire fighters going in and out, but no museum personnel acknowledged our presence.  I hate to say it, but the museum outside of Louisville was much better.  Of course, it was a dedicated museum and had full-time personnel on site, but it also had more interesting old paraphernalia.  I’m glad we went, though.  I was able to get a picture next to the largest fire hydrant in the world, about two stories tall.  Painted like a Dalmatian. 

We wound our way back a slightly different path, but after a certain point there is only one way to get on the ferry.  We did stop at the Stingaree Restaurant for supper.    Ambiance on the intercoastal canal.  Pretty good crab balls, but the fried crab was a waste of time and energy, no matter where you order it. 

Oh, and one last stamp on the vacation passport front … Friday we tried to go to that nautical place again.  It was still closed.  This time I found a note on one of the doors.  They had had a death in their family in North Carolina, so they were closed until the weekend.  Much better explanation.  We’ll reinsert that one into our plans for sometime next week. 

So, the Sneakaway 2017 without a doubt did not go as we had hoped, what with the shingles outbreak and all.  The things we did and saw were really great, though.  Well, except for that one little issue about a moose …

Hebrews 10:19-22 says, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Father, thank you for getting us there and back.  When we started we didn’t know for sure where “there” would be, but we always knew you would be there ahead of us and with us.  Amen.