Good morning from Orange Texas!

It is Saturday morning and I have the day off and it is raining outside so a good time for another update.  The weather here is rather unusual in that the sun may be shining with hardly a cloud in the sky and suddenly it will be raining hard but it usually lasts for only half an hour or so and only in the local area.  Of course, it is very humid.  While Wisconsin has “ feels-like” temperatures during the winter due to wind chill, here they have “feels-like” temperatures during the summer due to the humidity and they are often over 100 degrees.  It’s not unusual to walk outside from an air conditioned room and have your glasses fog over.

I am still rattling around in my 23000 sq. ft. of living space but the good news is that the county caretaker of the place convinced me that there is a working water heater and if I wait long enough, I can have a nice warm shower.  I’ve been going to the women’s restroom just down the hall and turning on a couple of showers and coming back later to enjoy a nice warm shower.  Also, I purchased a “jet pack” for Wi-Fi so I can securely send off E-mails like this and even do my Internet banking right from my room.  I can even get the Packer games on-line.

The houses that Iconnect is working on are all scattered along both sides of Interstate highway 10 for 60 miles between Orange city to west of Beaumont.  As you can guess, the land is very flat and all of the roadways are only 1 to 3 feet above the bayous, rivers, and lakes.  I kind of get a kick out of crossing a bayou named Cow Bayou many different times on 4 or 5 different roadways.  Bridge City is, of course named for its many bridges and one of them is very high to allow large boat traffic and you can clearly see the Golf and bayous from there.  I went to a bookstore in Port Neches last Saturday and saw rows of oil refineries, one after the other.  Of course, they employ many of the locals including the retired owner of the house I have been working on.

During the last 2 weeks, I have worked primarily on the trailer house and the large brick house I sent pictures of in the last update.  I have done a lot of hanging doors, installing trim, cabinets and appliances, and laying down flooring, about half of the time by myself but otherwise with Steve.

Obviously, this is in the “Bible Belt”.  I’m attaching photo 1373 which is the huge Methodist Church building I have been attending worship at.  1377 is the Baptist Church building less than a block away.  917 is the Presbyterian Church building about a block away.  There are all kinds of church buildings in the area.  Some are huge like these and some are virtually run-down shacks.

I was attracted to the house shown in 1376.  It was the home of William Henry Stark who was a very successful and wealthy lumber business man.  He was the founder of the Orange Rotary Club and eventually became the National president.  In the same block are the Stark Museum of Fine Arts (603) and the park named after him.  1374 is the Lutcher Theater.  She was his wife.  Lamar State College is also close by.

Christians Together!

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