Barbara and I have been on vacation over in the Lone Star State of Texas. We spent 6 days in the “Piney Woods” of East Texas. Very relaxing, restful, peaceful, quiet, so much so that we came back a day early because we were so rested. I almost finished a book that I had wanted to read for a long time.

We were about 15 miles North of Jasper, TX at the Rayburn Country Club Resort. We took a few side trips to nearby towns, such as Lufkin, TX and Toledo Bend, LA. We were right between the Sam Rayburn Lake reservoir and the Sabine/Toledo Bend reservoirs. Most people go up there for the great fishing and golfing. The place had a 27 hole golf course. There are some beautiful homes in the area. Most of the homes sit on very large lots back in the woods.

On the way back we stopped in Lake Charles and donated a few dollars at the large casino back on the loop around the city.

We are so glad to get back home! We miss our bed, the internet, Tony’s Seafood, The Bayou Cafe, Piccadilly’s, Pirain’s Seafood, The Table Is Bread, Deep South Bar-B-Que and good Chinese food. We missed Cortana Mall and The Mall of LA.

One of the local residents, that we met in Wal-Mart, directed us to “Billy’s Bar-B-Que”, in Jasper, and we had some good Texas ribs.

Lufkin, TX was just over 60 miles from where we were and they had a IHOP. We enjoyed breakfast there one morning. In fact, Lufkin has a lot of the stores and eating places that we have in Baton Rouge, including a Ralph & Kacoo’s!

Lufkin is also the home of Lufkin Trailers. That place is awesome! It takes up many, many football fields for their buildings, almost as far as the eye can see from the highway. If you have ever seen the Winn-Dixie distribution center in North Florida on I-10, or the Nissan plant on I-55 in Mississippi, that is about how large the Lufkin Trailer plant is.

I did not see one drag race car the whole time I was gone. We did see a few old circle track cars for sale out next to the road.

The Navigation System in the car was great! We might still be in the Texas woods, lost, if we didn’t have the GPS.