MidAmerica tour

[krigl]

This time we're attempting to complete our journey from Longview to Lufkin...


But there's a police car in the way.


As I edged slowly ever closer, hoping to gently nudge him out of the way, I saw that he was eating something held in greasy paper in one hand, and watching a Jeff Favignano trucking vid on his mobile in the other. Suddenly he looked up to see me staring down at him, his eyes met mine, he started his engine and very slowly backed away just enough to let me through, before returning to his vid. What a champ.


Soon after we arrived at an unmarked, unnamed settlement.


It seems quite large, so I though the name might be written somewhere. Perhaps the name is on the water tower? Nope.


The church? Nope.


Ah, there it is: Tenaha. Checked it out and it checks out.


We pass the local woodyard as I congratulate myself on my detective-like powers.


Moving on now. Lufkin lies ahead.










And here we are, back in Lufkin for the last time.


Local zoo. No animals to be seen, sadly.


Steel things to deliver, but where?


Kurthes, kurthes, I lisped, craning my neck to find a delivery point.






Ah yes, here it is. A road construction site. I've brought you a veritable Avalanche of Steel Things, enjoy.


A last few views of Lufkin, then. The old train-crossing-the-roads-at-an-angle thing never gets old.


That garbage collection simulator DLC is inching ever closer.




Time for a penultimate repaint and modification.


Very fancy.




Still seeing new things in Lufkin. Next time - southwards from Lufkin to Beaumont, or rather through it to a southern part of Houston.
Krigl

[krigl]

Today we make our final journey from Lufkin – south past Beaumont almost to Houston’s Bayport.


After the tub grinder, we have another cargo related to the forestry industry to haul.


It’s destined for export, or so it seems as we’re taking it to the port.


Getting to the jobsite involves passing through a small place near Lufkin, named Huntington.




Okay… getting there is quite involved.


Love these forestry jobs. And there’s a Tub Grinder hard at work, doing its thing.


Our cargo, however, is a mobile Forestry Mulcher, which looks like a cross between a small combine harvester and a bulldozer.






Passing through Woodville, which lies on the road we took earlier from Huntsville eastwards to Jasper. The cowboy and his friend are evidently still deep in conversation.


Southwards once more.


Farm? CIA listening post? Your guess is as good as mine.




Long gone are the days of endless tree tunnels, sparse landscapes and cookie-cutter towns with nothing to see. And long gone are the days when I would tour a state or country and only post a few sets of images…


Mulchers are high performance machines that need a lot of maintenance to keep them running well. They are also dangerous to be around – I saw one photo of a mulcher with the words on the cockpit “Stay back 400 FT”. Four hundred feet? For safety? O-kay…


Is that… Dad?


Passing through an unmarked town appropriately named Lumberville. There are quite a lot of forestry jobsites in this part of the DLC, as there should be, I guess. No time to visit all of them, sadly.






Church in or near Beaumont. We’re not going to visit the town properly until part 5 of the tour, and right now we’re just passing through, as the port is part of Houston.


Suburb of Beaumont, I guess.






A short stretch of more open road takes us westwards towards Houston’s port.


Hey! Where did they all come from?


The port lies ahead. Next time – some fine views from the port and interchange, and a little bit of Beaumont as we start our final journey in Part 4 of the Texas tour.
Krigl

[krigl]

Delivering a mulcher to Houston's port today, and then setting off on our final journey in east Texas from Beaumont to Texarkana.


First, a couple of spectacular views from the interchange near the port.








Righty-ho, mulcher delivery time.




That's where we're headed.


Got to get through security first.


In amongst the containers.




And we're done. Time for one last wash and brush up, and then we've got a trailer to pick up at the local HQ.


Our final look for east Texas - going all out on the chicken lights now. My idiot fitter missed some off the right side, didn't notice till now. Still, luckily you can't look at both sides at the same time, so probably no one will notice.


Interior's still the same, just can't be bothered to change it. Nice variety of gauge backlights with this mod though.


Picking up a cargo of Pelleted Animal Food (41,887lb) from Equos Power in Beaumont.


Nice matching trailer skin with this one. Tricked it out with all the mod cons for this special occasion.


Stretch limo. Leaving Beaumont without checking it out - we'll be back here at the start of Part 5.








Northwards we go.




It's a long trip up the entire eastern border of Texas with Louisiana (and a small part of Arkansas at the end) to our right.


Mostly countryside and unmarked settlements line the way, no major cities at all.


One day it will just be a road parallel to one particular state line amidst many other roads all around, but right now it's the frontier of ATS. Beyond it lies nothing where some day soon something shall be. I hope.


And here's the first of those unmarked settlements - Buna.


Two more sets to go. Next time we pass through Jasper, Bronson and Tenaha.
Cheers! Krigl

[krigl]

Today - the penultimate section of Part 4 of the Texas tour. We're driving northwards from Beaumont towards Texarkana.




Some lovely countryside on this route.








Attractive ranch entrance just outside Jasper.


Does he come out to challenge all-comers to heroic bull-ridin' rodeo showdowns? 'Cause this ain't my first rodeo.


Main St. Jasper.






Live It To The Max seems to be a really popular Christian youth musical. They're performing it everywhere right now.


Frac tanks.




A cottage in the village of Bronson.












Various ranches and smaller homes line the route.








Tenaha, I believe.




We'll end this part of the tour next time.
Krigl

[krigl]

This time we arrive in Texarkana and finish our final trip in Part 4 of the Texas tour.


The Vortex jobsite glimpsed through the trees near Tenaha.


Another forestry jobsite. I have a feeling forestry's going to be big in Arkansas too.


A Texan patriot.




Approaching the final town before Texarkana - Marshall.


A road that heads nowhere right now.


Ditto.




Last stretch now.


Rest stop.


Accident spotted just ahead. Slammed on the brakes before I hit the red bus.




Vroom. It's been great journeying with Karen.




Arrival in Texarkana.






We'll have a closer look at the place in Part 6.




Time to drop off the animal pellets.


East Texas has been pretty nice, very green, not overly varied, but fine.


Now we're heading back to my other thread... the tour of Texas will continue in the New Year.


We've got ProMods' northern Norway to tour. But before that we're going to do a little more ATS trucking with my 'Trucker' profile, this time based in Arizona and making trips all around, including into Mexico!
Thanks for looking in!! Krigl

[krigl]

Starting off Part 5 (and 6) of the Texas DLC tour today.

Here's the map:


We're doing the blue stuff in Part 5.


It's daybreak, and we're at a jobsite nestled in the woodlands on the border between Texas and Louisiana to pick up a forestry forwarder that needs taking to the docks in Beaumont just to the south.






The warm, golden rays of the sun are winking through the trees as we head along the access road.


We're kicking up a fair amount of dust, which actually looks okay in ATS, and terrible in ETS2. I wonder why.


We need to turn left for Beaumont. The road extends all the way up to Texarkana in the right-hand, northerly direction.


Yep, still attached. Off we go, then!


In part 5 of the tour we'll be visiting the Gulf Coast of Texas, starting with the heavily urbanized and industrialised triangle of three cities - Beaumont, Houston (much of which I've already visited) and Galveston/Bolivar (which are awesome).


Then we'll head westwards along the inland road via Victoria to Laredo on the Mexican border, with a detour to San Antonio one last time.


And then down south to Brownsville at the lowest tip of Texas.


And then finally eastwards back to Houston along the coast via Corpus Christi.


From what I've seen so far this seems likely to be the nicest part of the whole Texas tour.


We're passing through the centre of Beaumont now. Not for the first time this week I'm getting a bit of an unexpected but cool Himalayan vibe.


Then we're going to continue straight on to the final part, part 6, which will cover the northern region of Texas except for most roads that lead directly to Oklahoma. We'll do those during the Oklahoma tour later this year, hopefully.


Approaching the port now.


Driving the Kenworth W900 again, as I want to try out the 'tuning pack'. It's a classic, good-looking truck, I think.




Time to complete our first delivery of Part 5.






A nice dockyard area, love the ships, quite low-key industrial zone by Texan standards, though.


However, Beaumont has an epic jobsite area with a chemical plant (or something like that) and flour mill stuck next to each other, pretty impressive. We'll check them out later.




What's the opposite of 'rush hour'? This is it.


Our next job is for Avalanche Steel.


Next time - Train Axles to Houston's riverside Haddock shipyard (which no doubt belongs to the massive Haddock-Floyd shipping conglomerate) - visiting by daylight this time.
Cheers! Krigl

[krigl]

Today we pick up train axles at Beaumont's Avalanche Steel facility and take them - somewhat bizarrely - to the Haddock Shipyard in Houston.


Hmm. Maybe they're not actually train axles, but weights for the dockworkers' gym?


Leaving Avalanche. See ya, Barret!




Calm Beaumont view.




Beaumont Visitor Center and museum.


While it's not as bad as Abilene, the Beaumont area sometimes feels a little bland, like Beatrix Potter's eponymous pigling.


Have you heard the Tale of Pigling Bland?


Not... from a farmer.




A brief stretch of open space.


And a large truck stop.




Although we're somewhat inland, there still plenty of water to be seen around here.






Houston up ahead, I think.


Haddock Shipyard off the starboard bow.


I've brought a bottle of Loch Lomond just in case the Captain's in.




Nice to see the shipyard by daylight this time.




Even dressed my truck up like Captain Haddock, but he wasn't there.


Gave the whisky to the workers. Refused a smoke, accepted the invitation to play cards. So we all had a great game of UNO.


After that it was time to get ourselves repainted for our next trip from Beaumont to fantastic Bolivar and Galveston - Next time.
Cheers! Krigl

[krigl]

Got time for another set today. We finish off our visit to Beaumont with a look at its large chemical plant and pick up a double trailer of flour to take to the docks in the awesome coastal town of Galveston, though we're not going to make it all the way there today.


Off to get a change of clothes.


Nice and shiny.


Making tracks for the industrial estate.




Beaumont's shopping and leisure area.




It's also a decent town, really.


This place is great! Feels very authentic.






Our task is to pick up some latent bread from the neighbouring flour mill, however.






Time to get out of town and head for the seaside.






Old family owned pumps, perhaps, pushed out of business by the major players, like Gallon.


So many choices...


Can't be far to the sea now.




Oh, look! Can it be?!!


Yes! The sea! The Gulf of Mexico!




Let's make sandcastles.


Next time - we pass through picturesque Bolivar and take the very cool-looking ferry over to Galveston, a fantastic place.
Thanks for taking the time! Krigl

[krigl]

In this set we pass through the pleasant seaside settlement of Bolivar to the ferry terminal, and cross the water to Galveston.


Our first Gulf Coast beach.


Seaside dwellings of Bolivar.






Harpoon Harbour. Captain Haddock would feel right at home here.


Those strange things on legs up ahead turned out to be the ferries.


One last view of the lighthouse.


Never seen a ferry like this one before.


Beautifully modelled. Someone put a lot of care and attention into these.


Over the water we go. Toooooooooooot.


We've reached the opposite side, where Galveston awaits. In my other thread I introduced the Gulf Coast of Texas as The Best Bit of the whole DLC, and Galveston certainly lives up to the hype in my head.




Off we roll - destination Galveston's container port.


What is that in the distance behind the trees? An oil rig?




Galveston/Bolivar somehow manages to be both monumental and picturesque, with a lot of 'value' squeezed into quite a small area.












We've arrived at the port.




Let's make that delivery then.


Next time - we tour more of this great little town.
Cheers! Krigl

[krigl]

Checking out the cool and unusual architecture in Galveston, Texas today.


Dropping off the flour at the container port.






Took a while to get the paperwork done.


Let's find somewhere to sleep.




Nice. Perhaps an evening swim before I turn in?


And a garage behind, convenient for tomorrow morning. Great.


Went for another reskin the next morning.






Port in the morning light.




Ready to help.




Heading for the more picturesque part of town now.






Sidney Sherman, renowned aquarist.


The very distinctive Sacred Heart Church, completed in 1904 in the Moorish, Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque styles, according to the plaque. What a mixture! Looks good though.


This is the Bishop's Palace: "an ornate delight of colored stone, intricately carved ornaments, rare woods, stained-glass windows, bronze dragons and other sculptures, luxury materials and furnishings, and impressive fireplaces from around the world (including one lined with pure silver!)." Indeed. Good luck getting that through the eye of a needle.


And this is the Texas Heroes monument, with fine statues that were cast in Rome.


Someone actually modelled these statues like this. Stunning work!!


And this is St Patrick's Church. Galveston has so much more stuff to see that didn't make it into the game, it looks like a tourist Mecca. I wonder why it turned out that way? Oh, okay, it was the largest town in Texas for a while, and after a devastating hurricane, re-emerged as a centre for illegal gambling (and drinking, probably) and tourism (right) during the Prohibition era. No wonder it has so many fine churches. Gratitude and fear, money and guilt...


We'll take our leave of Galveston next time, with a cargo of Boom Lifts for Houston.
Cheers! Krigl