R-V There Yet?

 Well, once again, it’s time to head to Galveston and spend a week with our oldest two granddaughters Ayden and Gracie.

We left Rockport on July 31st and headed to the Galveston Beach State Park.  Our route took us up Hwy 35 from Rockport and along some coastal roads toward Freeport and crossing to Galveston Island at Surfside.  Farm to Market RD 512 was the road that we took for a good portion of the trip.  The road was great and didn’t go through any major towns.    The road also made a wide swing around the South Texas Nuclear Power Plant giving us a good view of the facility.

One of the few towns that we went through was Wadsworth.  A couple of miles east of Wadsworth the road crosses Peyton Creek and there is an “S” curve.  When we slowed for the curve we were surprised by a 4-foot alligator  crossing the road.  Thank goodness we were at reduced speed or we would have had some new boots and perhaps a purse.  The trip was only about 200 miles.

When we arrived at the park, we would found that they were burning brush across the street from the RV locations.

Our reservations excluded Saturday night, so we decided not to pick up the kids until Sunday.  As it turned out, there was a cancellation and we were allowed to stay Saturday.

So, on Friday, we decided to look around at the communities where we may wish to live when we grow up and stop travelling.   We headed up Hwy 6 from Galveston to Sugarland and Richmond where a new Sun City is being developed.  There was just grading going on there.  Hwy 6 is really grown up, 6-lanes nearly all the way with new residential developments and strip malls along the way.

When we crossed the I-45 bridge over the inter-coastal waterway we could see a row of barges being directed through the small opening under the railroad bridge.

Our return took us south along some back roads through Needville to Surfside and through Jamaica Beach back to the park.  Along the way we looked at various properties, particularly in the areas where the homes are on canals.  Tinka made a practice of jumping out to grab real estate flyers.

On Saturday we headed to the ferry that would take us to the Bolivar Peninsula where we went swimming.  Here is the lighthouse on the shore as we approached Bolivar.

The horizon was dotted with pleasure boats and ships waiting to enter the Houston Ship Channel.

After a day at the beach we concluded the evening with dinner at De Coix’s, our favorite restaurants in Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Pinensula.  They have the best crab nachos.  It’s a good thing that they don’t enforce the no shoe rule.  Rick left his crocs on the beach.

Sunday we headed to Madisonville to meet Justin, Rick’s youngest son, who was bringing the girls half way.  We made it back to the beach by about 3:30 and had the girls on the beach by 4:00.  Shortly after we hit the beach, a ranger showed up and informed us that, due to the impending arrival of Tropical Storm Edouard, we had to leave the park by 2:00 PM on Monday.  This news greeted the bunch like a lump of lead.

On Monday morning, we let the kids go to the beach again for a short period.  In the sand……..

And in the surf.

It appears that everyone was on the move and leaving the area.  These two shots look at the beach in each direction.

Well, two huricanes in three weeks is more than we bargained for.  Watching the trajectory of the storm, we packed up our group and headed about 140 miles in a northeasterly direction to the Escapees Rainbow Park in Livingston, TX. (Our real home.)

To preserve our sanity, we’re anxious to head back to the beach as soon as possible.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 10:53 am and is filed under Texas, Texas Coast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.