Port Arthur, Texas

Yesterday we drove down to Port Arthur with Jim and Bobbie. .The downtown area of Port Arthur is decimated. All businesses are closed including the several story hotel, the main building of downtown and for a couple of blocks North of town. Even a mile or so away from the gulf there is devastation and abandoned buildings and homes.  All this was from hurricane IKE in 2008.

There are huge oil refineries in the area and I took lots of pictures, but you cannot visualize it from the pictures. You can not smell it for one thing. But anyway here are some photos of the refineries. Along with some of the two bridges that span one of the canals or rivers. (I love bridges) The new one is 143 above the water and the old one is 176 above the water, and they both have short approaches.

Enjoy the pictures, and remember we love ya, each and every one, even if you do NOT send us emails.

this picture is a little crooked, I took all the pictures from the moving truck

And I could go on and on…………the place is soooooooo big it will blow your mind, even if you are sober and not on drugs.

South of the refinery we were paralleling a ship canal and followed this ship as it was heading out to sea, although it way pretty empty…….maybe it was going to stop somewhere to fill its belly before heading out to sea.

Here are a few shots of some of the other stuff, older oil rigs, boats and the yellow thing that none of us could figure out.the square things are the jacks to raise the oil rig above the water.

these are emergency life boats, and the little thing sticking up on the top is where they drive it from…..very technical, I know.

The rest are shot s of the houses that have been rebuilt after the various hurricanes. They sit way above the ground level, which is about sea level.

and a couple of final shot of the bridges.

O.K. that’s enough. I already told ya that we love ya. So give us a little love back.

Jim and Linda