EXPLORING SULPHUR, LOUISIANA

In the morning, before leaving the park, I went for a 40 minute bike ride. The trail into the woods was wet, muddy and rough. Puddles big enough to reflect trees, and forest turned to swamp greeted me.


The trail was about ten feet wide with off-shoots three feet wide. I parked the bike and walked deeper into the woods.


A type of berry grows here and I spotted a beautiful red cardinal munching away. It must have moved because I couldn’t find it when I got the picture on the computer.


It was about 8 a.m. The woods echoed with  voices of thousands of birds. At a clearing, from a distance, deer were feeding. Every living thing is hungry.


The birds feed on two different kind of red berries. This is a low growing variety, more robust than the tall bush type.


Long needle pines shed their needles in winter and everything was covered with them. A yellow blossom found a cushion as though it grew there. I think the birds like the flowers, too.


We moved on to the city of Sulphur which is heavily industrial. The skyline looks like a massive planetary city of smokestacks and oil derricks. From the Brimstone Museum we learned that sulphur comes up out of the ground by the Frasch method, which is drilling for it like oil. Thus the derricks. It comes out of the ground as a liquid, then solidifies. It is then broken up into a powder. The three dimensional wall carving above is from the Sulphur Library where we stopped, hoping to get an internet signal.
We visited the City Art Gallery as well. No pictures. They had a decent exhibit and are building a private collection. Notable was the artist  Neinweig, who paints with mud. Beautiful work.


We parked for the night at Suphur VFW post 8107. Veteran, Glen,  told me about an obscure law. The City of Sulphur does not allow drinking on Sunday. Bars and liquor stores close; you cannot buy it, nor serve it. So, this VFW has professional wrestling matches on Sunday. He shakes his head. “Everyone crosses the bridge into Lake Charles and Sulphur loses the revenue.”  Such is life.