Utilitarian Stay in Port Arthur TX

Actually, our stay was not all utilitarian as we had some fun too. We stayed here mainly to do errands and annual appointments. I picked the post picture because in driving around we saw gas refineries about every 10 miles. Refineries are the main employer in this area and we found good fuel prices too! We also found several Catholic Churches with fish fries on the Fridays of Lent, so we had Friday meals from three different Knights of Columbus councils. One weekend we attended mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church & Shrine. The Internet has the following information about Our Lady of Guadalupe: Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Roman Catholicism, the Virgin Mary in her appearance before St. Juan Diego in a vision in 1531. The name also refers to the Marian apparition itself. Our Lady of Guadalupe holds a special place in the religious life of Mexico and is one of the most popular religious devotions. Her image has played an important role as a national symbol of Mexico.

According to tradition, Mary appeared to Juan Diego, who was an Aztec convert to Christianity, on December 9 and again on December 12, 1531. During her first apparition she requested that a shrine to her be built on the spot where she appeared, Tepeyac Hill (now in a suburb of Mexico City). The bishop demanded a sign before he would approve construction of a church, however. Mary then appeared a second time to Juan Diego and ordered him to collect roses. In a second audience with the bishop, Juan Diego opened his cloak, letting dozens of roses fall to the floor and revealing the image of Mary imprinted on the inside of the cloak—the image that is now venerated in the Basilica of Guadalupe.

The traditional view has been questioned by various scholars and ecclesiastics, including the former abbot of the Basilica of Guadalupe. The primary objection is that there is no documentary evidence for the apparition until 1648; critics claim that documents purporting to be from the 16th century are actually from the 17th. Critics have also noted that the bishop approached by Juan Diego was not consecrated until 1534, and he makes no mention of Juan Diego or of Our Lady of Guadalupe in his writings. Defenders of the Virgin of Guadalupe—including Pope John Paul II, who canonized Juan Diego and declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the patroness of the Americas—accept the authenticity of the early documents and point also to various oral accounts of the apparition.

In Port Arthur, we were close enough to Livingston Texas where we're domiciled and have established "relationships" with doctors and the VA (for Anita). So we went to Livingston one day for doctors' appointments, getting our mail and VA for Anita, then on another day we went for Anita's annual lady checkups. In Port Arthur, we both saw the dentist and got deep cleanings. We had an appointment in Bossier City LA to get our slide out motor replaced, so we drove our camper there one day after getting four new tires on it (remember we had a flat in Mexico), and dropped our camper off at the service center at the end of their business day. We stayed at the Horseshoe Casino Hotel that night. The next day our camper was ready around 3pm, so we picked it up and drove to Florien LA, where our bikes had been stored with our boat. We were pleased to see our boat and bikes were just as we left them before we went to Mexico. We got our bike rack and bikes on to the camper and drove back to Port Arthur and made it back right after sunset. Needless to say, that was a tiring 36 hours!

While in Port Arthur, we saw the Museum of the Gulf Coast, walked a couple of nature trails, Steve went fishing and we took a boat tour. On Easter Sunday we attended mass at the St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica in Beaumont TX. We got there about an hour before mass to see the church and the grounds, founded in 1907. It's a beautiful church inside and the acoustics were great for the pipe organ and musicians in the choir loft. With the organ, trumpets and drums, it was a little difficult to hear the singers, even though they were quite loud too. It was a beautiful mass and we were glad we went. Our Easter dinner was at a local cafeteria-style restaurant called Luby's.