November 24,2008

Woke up to fog. By the time we had coffee and tea the sun started to come out of the shroud. A very nice start to the day. After breakfast we headed off to Big Thicket National Preserve.

First we stopped to get something to drink at the gas station across the lake. While making our purchase Jerry told the clerk that they could make a bundle raising the gas price. She told us that that was price gouging and it was illegal. Hurricane Ike proved that there are quite a few individuals who would like to make a profit from raising gas prices. That was a major problem during evacuation. On this trip I have notices some of the damage left by Ike. And also how slow the recovery is going. Far too many houses with blue tarps for roofs.

We arrived at Big Thicket visitor’s center to gather information. Amazing building. Clean and beautiful. The education center was well put together with informative displays. The staff was very friendly and even offered us lemons from one of the staff’s garden.

After a large downpour of rain we were on our way. Walked three miles on the Turkey Trail. Hurricane Ike changed this landscape forever. It was still a pleasant walk. One surprise for me was the downed Swamp Chestnut Oak. I could not believe how yellow the wood appeared. I estimated the rings and it seemed to be 70 to 80 years old. There were many large cypress trees and just as I looked up to see how tall one was a beautiful pileated woodpecker landed on the side of the tree. If only it were the Ivory-billed.

We went to the Pitcher Plant Trail. It was very handicapped accessible. It was dry but it had pitcher plants, thousands of them. We walked the boardwalk and a little off trail bushwhacking. I tripped and fell. I hurt my pride and realized once again that I do not like to fall. Took a picture of a crawdad chimney just before the big fall.


After our walk we went to eat at the B B Que Pit. Texas bar-b-que is made with beef and with a tomato based sauce. Our sandwich was with chopped meat. It was a bit to salty for our taste. Jerry called the place " A walk back in time". It was hard not to look at the old photos on the wall and think back in time. I asked Jerry who wrote Lil Abner and he said "Al Capp". I pointed to one of the walls and he was amazed. There on the wall, framed, was a large sketch of Lil Abner, and Al Capp signed it! When I say large, it was about two-foot square. It was a gift to the owner. How nice is that?

Arriving at the "Tink" we noticed an armadillo near the restrooms. Jerry took several shots with his camera. I remember thinking that this is such a usual thing for people in Texas to see that they might think Jerry a little crazy for taking the time to photograph an armadillo! We have planned our next leg of the trip to Inks Lake. Hopefully we will have a place to stay. This is beginning to be interesting.