Ferry Crossing

Thursday morning, I took the ferry crossing from Galveston Island to Port Bolivar. My map program told me I would drive 37 less miles, but it would take 30 minutes longer. The extra time is for waiting to board the ferry. I waited about 45 minutes.

It was worth it. I'm a "water person". Living on a boat would be the only thing better than living in an RV. I would not even attempt to travel on a boat by myself. I would live by myself on a boat that didn't move out of the harbor.

I was in the middle aisle, so I opened my door a little and stood on the running board to take pictures, the crossing only takes 18 minutes, there was a lot of ship traffic in this little area, they were all criss-crossing in front of each other.

I will miss being near the water, but will not miss the heat.

I'm heading North/East to find some inland lakes and rivers.

San Luis Pass County Park

June 12 and 13

This park is on West Bay under the toll bridge just west of Galveston Island. The address is in Freeport, TX but if you look at a map its not that far west.

When I first arrived, I wasn't sure if I liked the park. I paid for one night and reserved a 2nd night. After walking around and getting a feel for the layout of the RV park and the rest of the county park, I decided that I liked it here. The RV park is nothing special but the surrounding beaches and Bay area scenery are worth staying longer.
The RV park is actually on a small island, the only way on or off is across a small bridge with a locked gate. You have to enter the security code on the keypad to open the gate.

I took a long walk on Sunday evening all around the bay, it was low tide and I could walk on some of the sand through what would be a marshy area in the morning.

Low tide and the shells were "walking"

What happens to these crabs? Do they die?

There were thousands of shells all around.



I walked all along the shore until I came to the underneath of the Toll Bridge. You can walk under this bridge and be on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. There were a lot of people fishing and using nets under the bridge. I decided to wait until morning to do that walk. I went back the way I came and sat on a bench and watched the birds and the water and all of the fishermen(women). It was dusk and lights came on near the fishing pier, its almost a full moon, and the park was well lit. 

Monday morning I went out walking again.

I went behind the coach to a path

there was a crab pot in the water.

Someone in the campground is having Crab for dinner tonite

I went under the bridge and walked along the shore of the Gulf.

I found some rocks to sit on and relaxed listening to the waves.

I went back to this spot on Monday evening and the water was at least 20 feet away from the rocks at low tide.

A group of school kids had arrived to use the pavilion in the park and I heard the teachers talking about the park buildings being rebuilt after Hurrican Ike. Some of it was just finished last year. The price of RV sites here is high - $35.00 night, but the scenery is great. Maybe the cost is due to the hurricane damage. The park  office has a long porch with swings hanging from the ceiling, I sat for awhile and watched the birds in the Bay before returning to the coach.

It's almost 7pm on Tuesday and I'm getting ready to go for a walk, as much as I like being near the water, it's too hot here this time of year. I can only go walking in the morning and evening. I hate air conditioning and usually turn it off in the evening and open the windows and ceiling vents. I have two more days on Galveston Island and then I'm heading north. Not sure if it will be any cooler  traveling through eastern Texas and Arkansas and Missouri. I'll have to watch out for storms again. After I get things settled at home and have my garage sale, I'll head to Northern Michigan or Wisconsin for awhile. There's a National Park near Lake Superior.

Along the Gulf Coast

June 9th to 12th, 2011

Posting pictures to Blogger is taking forever and I can leave comments on some blogs but not on others.
I posted South Padre pictures of Diane, Karl and Collin on Facebook today and it was much faster than adding photos to this blog. So, it's not my computer, its Blogger.

I've been driving through a lot of small towns and in this area many are connected by bridges. I have come across several weight restricted roads and was not sure if I was reading the signs correctly. So I went around to the alternate roads. Some signs would have a weight limit "per axle" -  other signs did not say per axle.

click on photo to enlarge to read print

When I left San Antonio on Thursday I headed south and east to travel along the Gulf Coast. Thursday night I stayed in Victoria and walked around the town on Friday morning.

The town of Seadrift was having a Shrimp Festival, I drove through town to see if I could find an RV Park - to turn on the A/C for the cat and still be close enough to walk to the festival. I drove past the area of the festival, they had a $5 entrance fee - I'm thinking this included the music for the evening. I did not see any inviting parks, so I kept on driving. I went to Port O'Connor, I had read about a ferry that will take you out the the lighthouse at the Matagorda State Park.  I had also read that the ferry had an electrical fire and was not repaired or replaced but that you could go out on other boats. I went to the town to try and find some information. This town is all about fishing, I have never seen so many pickup trucks towing boats in one place. No luck with finding a boat to go to the lighthouse. So I kept on going and ended up in Palacios, TX.

Friday night I stayed in Palacios, TX at Serendipity Marina and RV Park. This is just the type of place I like to be, on the water, with lots of boats around and I was able to walk into town. I stopped at a Mexican Restaurant and ordered some shrimp tacos (since I didn't attend the Shrimp Fest) they were fantastic and very big. I also walked all along the harbor and waterfront. There were more areas I would have liked to walk around and explore, but it was too hot. This would be a great place to come back to in the winter.

My site was near this ramp

On Saturday after traveling east for awhile, I decided to go south again to the coast. I stayed at the Matagorda Nature Park it is operated by the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority). It is a very nice park with large sites. Each site has a concrete pad, a gravel pad with picnic table and a very large grassy area. A lot of the sites had a trailer plus tents and there was still plenty of room left between sites. This park bordered the Colorado River and the Gulf. Again, I was able to do a lot of walking - this time along the seawalls and beaches and the long fishing pier. You can buy a permit to park on the beach. $10 annual fee. Some people were camped on the beach. The only thing I didn't like about this park was all of the traffic going back and forth to the beach at all hours. The RV Park is off to the side of the road that goes down to the beach, and it was Saturday night, so there were probably people from the area going down to the beach for the evening. The campers would load up their pickup trucks and take a ride to the beach. It's not that far, I walked all around the area. 

Sunday morning I headed towards Galveston, stopped by the State Park - no RV sites available. Then I went to an RV park down the road, they were full, but they gave me the directions to a nearby county park with RV sites.

San Antonio to Galveston Island is only 254 miles or around four hours of driving time - it took me 3 days to get there. It will be difficult to turn north and head away from the beaches.