Day 20 – Second Goal Achieved!

We travelled all of east Texas from the Gulf shore north through Texarkana to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, which was the second goal of this trip. It was such a different drive than heading south through flat and arid west Texas.

East Texas was interesting in that we began to see more hills and much more vegetation. The further north we went the larger the trees became. Also, we crossed over many bayous. I had to look up the definition for bayou (slow moving water way that feeds a larger body of water) because they looked like muddy rivers or sloughs to us.

 In addition, there was a noticeable difference too in the grocery stores that gave them a more cajun feel.  For example, the Walmart in Beaumont, TX, had display shelves of seasonings for shrimp and crawfish boils, gumbo, and jambalaya. They were at the entrance to the store, where in the northwest seasonal foods are displayed. And they had hand crank flour sifters, like my mom used to have, hanging on the endcaps of shelves. Meat cases had piles of ham hocks and pigs feet. It is interesting to see how stores vary depending on the local culture.

One thing we hadn’t counted on as we drove north was that during our week along the Gulf there had been a large weather system that went through the plains states. Evidently, it caused widespread flooding which we hadn’t heard anything about (we rarely hear national news while traveling). The first we heard of the flooding was when we entered our destination into the navigation system and it said, “Your destination may take you into a flood zone”. Yikes! Needless to say, I started Googling the road conditions. Luckily, the flooding had happened about a week prior, so although we saw some flooded areas and high water, it didn’t impact our drive.

Objective number two. The Crater of Diamonds State Park is a large field in what used to be a volcano. 

Millenia ago the volcano erupted and the magma brought to the surface diamonds. In 1906, a man bought the property and while getting the fields ready for planting, he saw something glittery. Well, it turned out to be a diamond!

Although, there has never been a successful commercial operation in the crater, people have found many diamonds over the years. For a $15 daily entrance fee, you can keep all the diamonds you find! Alas, although we searched acres and acres, all we found was some jasper and agate. However, we can say we had the experience and check that goal off our list.