October 23, 2011

Texas

So far on our trip the weather has been pretty much ideal.  We had one afternoon in southwest Wyoming where we had a few short periods of rain and that cleared quickly.  The rest of the time has been mostly sunny and mild with some windy days.  Today started much the same.  A little morning high cloudiness which left quickly and warm temperature.  As we headed west things changed some.  The sky north and west of us started to darken.  Not dramatically but noticeably grayer.  We had clear blue sky with lots  of sun.  We stopped about ten miles east of the Texas/Louisiana border for gas and when we left the carbus we felt the change.  The temperature was 85 and the humidity was well over 50%.  Normal for here but the first time we had seen it this trip.  You’d think that with high humidity and approaching threatening skies that some precipitation would follow.  Nope.  In Oklahoma, also experiencing drought conditions, the local news weather people were very enthusiastic when they could predict a chance of rain.  The weather people here have developed a different attitude.  Even with all the signs and instrumentation saying rain could happen their approach is more “I’ll believe it when I see it”.

Today we ended up in Port Arthur.  Pretty much the eastern end of the Texas Gulf Coast.  Y’all (that’s southern speak :)  )  probably remember that Port Arthur is the home town of Janis Joplin.  If you didn’t remember that, now you know.  This area was also home to several other notables including country singer/actor Tex Ritter and Mildred Ella " Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, perhaps the greatest female all-around athlete ever.

To get to Port Arthur we had to go over a bridge. 

 

The Rainbow Bridge (right) has a 680 foot main span and a vertical clearance of 177.0 feet.  Built so that tallest US ship could go under it.  It never did however. Bridge on left with shorter span(s) and lower height was built after ship decommissioned I guess.  Neat to drive over .