Port Arthur - Texas

I have not been able to catch up on the dates and posting since we spent the week in Mississippi without Internet access but i have been making headway.

I will jump ahead, just for today, to the current date of TODAY! March 14, 2008

We arrived in Lake Charles, Louisiana last Sunday and we have been busy having fun and helping our friends here since we arrived. today we took a break and went to Port Arthur, Texas. This is about 50 miles from Lake Charles and way in Eastern Texas when you look at Texas.

We spent the first hour of the trip at the Texas welcome center gathering info and talking with one of the host of the center. We are trying to get our bearings as we intend to spend one month in Texas starting Sunday the 23rd, when we will leave Louisiana. Texas in a big state and we have a bunch of places we want to see and none of them are even relatively close to each other so we will be doing some car driving from strategically selected RV sites.

Today though, we went to the Museum of the Gulf Coast in That small Texas town. I mean no offense but to the naked eye there does not seem to be much of any other reason to go to this town. It appears all but vacant although they tell me that the town center relocated about two miles away from where we were at the museum.

My reason for wanting to visit this place started last year during this month when I was down here doing the alternative spring break rebuilding gig. One of our rotating Vista assistants, Shelly, told me that she had gone and asked if I had ever gone to see the Janis Joplin exhibit there. Port Arthur was her birthplace and she still has family living there. I being the guy who loved what Joplin sang and how she sang it and who has watched all of the Dick Cavett interviews with her, during the very short lived time of her notable success, before her untimely, yet self inflicted, death was rightly jealous that this young woman had gone to see this exhibit that was so close (and that I knew nothing of). I didn't even know where she was born.

Well I must tell you that the museum is just great and the music hall denoting all of the Texan, Louisianan, and other southern musicians is awesome.

The Winter bros, ZZ Top, Janis, Percy Sledge, BJ Thomas, Fats Domino, Cosimo Matassa and about 50 others of varying fame and notoriety have a place in the hall and tell and brief bit about their successes in their respective fields. I found it as thoroughly fun and interesting, maybe even more so, than being in Cleveland at the RR Hall of Fame. At least a lot less commercialized and a LOT less expensive ($3.50) to get in. 9and I didn't get a parking ticket when I visited) There are pictures of all of their illustrated guests visiting the museum thru out the years hung in their respective exhibits.

The rest of the museum is first class as well. The history of the city is fascinating as is the uniqueness of its base and people. Check it out!

Here are some photos from the day.