Wind, Rain, Woods & Bad Power.

 Location: Sandy Creek Campground (COE); Jasper, Texas

I put Galveston in my side mirror early in the morning. I had been monitoring the weather for a few days. There was a strong cold front headed my way and it was anticipated to stall right on top of the coast. High winds and heavy rains were predicted for the coast and about 75 miles inland. The winds bothered me most because they were saying gusts may get as high as 45-50 mph. Flooding was also predicted for the county where my next campground was located. Hmmm,,,, best to get hitched up early so I would have more options to "wait and see" or "make a run for it". 

I started hitching up around 8:00 am in the dry. The front had stalled north and west of Galveston by about 30 miles. That was good news. The bad news it was stalled about 5 miles north of the campground I was heading towards. The towing would take about 3 hours so it was unpredictable what the front would do while I driving to the next campground. After getting hitched, I decided to make a run for it and monitor the weather as I drove. Hey, I didn't break the law by texting, I was just looking at my weather app. I knew I could stop somewhere along the way if the front decided to move south into my area of travel. 

Surprisingly, the front, with strong thunderstorms training to the northeast, stayed about 10 miles north of the campground for my entire trip. After arriving early and getting Liberty2 set up, the rains came and it's been raining on and off since. Someone, with some pull upstairs, kept the storms and high winds off of me until I could get set up. Thanks ya'll.

I can't visit Galveston Island without driving by the "teapot house". I'm glad to see the people who fixed it up a few years ago is still doing a good job. For a decade or more, it was just rusting away.

Last view of the seawall with an angry Gulf of Mexico.

I only rode the Bolivar Ferry once on this trip and it was while I was leaving. Notice the ocean going ships at anchor in the background. They are waiting their turn to enter the Port of Houston. I learned about a website named "Harbor Traffic" when I was up in the Great Lakes area. It will give you information about the ships. It also works for the inland rivers and waterways. 

This picture was taken from the observation deck of the ferry. As usual, I was able to look directly down on Liberty2's roof. I took some pictures of the roof for documentation. 

After leaving the beach houses in the Crystal Beach area, there is about 15 miles of smooth road running parallel to the beach. 

The Gulf is threatening to take out the road and Texdot is fighting back with tons of rip-rap. Several decades ago, this road use to go all the way to Port Arthur but the Gulf took it and TexDot gave it back to the gulf. That beach house structure is the last one before reaching the city of High Island. 

 I even took a chance and stopped at a Walmart in Woodville, Texas, which is about 15 miles from the campground. I needed to stock up on some things for my 5 day stay in case the weather kept me confined to the campground. Half of the parking lot was blocked off while they were setting up outdoor products which confined all parking into one area. I had to circle back out to the highway and re-enter the parking lot before finding a place big enough for Liberty2 to park. I've never had an experience in a Walmart like this one. The majority of patrons were senior citizens and most were very rude. While I was going down aisles looking for something, two different people hurried me along by almost bumping my heels with their buggy (that's a shopping cart for my Yankee friends). Two ladies cut in front of me on an aisle then just stopped to shop. Since there was someone coming the other direction, I just had to wait. I got what I needed and put it directly into Liberty2's refrigerator. I'll remember this bad shopping experience for a while and will not be back to the Walmart in Woodville.

This campground is tucked away nicely in the woods alongside Steinhagen Reservoir. There is about 2 miles of very rough county road before getting to the campground entrance. A lot of the area inside the campground has standing water from the last storms and current rain. I was hoping my campsite wasn't flooded and I was please to see it dry. It was an easy back in site with a level spot to park. On Friday, I thought the power had went off due to storms but after about an hour I went to check the pedestal and found out my Surge Guard had trip. The breaker in the box hadn't tripped so I thought maybe my Surge Guard went kaput. I took it to an empty site, plugged it in and it worked just fine. I returned to my campsite and reconnected. My Surge Guard went a little crazy before turning off. I then heard some crackling inside the pedestal box and was pretty sure some of the wires were arcing. I told the camp hosts about it and thought, since it was Good Friday, I would have to wait at least a day. More surprises. They said a Corps of Engineer electrician was on duty and would be there soon. Within 30 minutes, he showed up, looked inside the box, saw some melted wires and replaced everything. Afterwards, everything worked fine including my Surge Guard. From the time of reporting the problem, to me having power enough to turn on my ceramic heater (50 degrees), was about 2 hours. I was very impressed.

Peacefully tuck back into the woods.

This is the lake shore about 50 yards from my campsite.

Looking the other way along the shore.

Today is day 3 of 5 at this campground. My next stop will be my home-base in Mansfield, Louisiana. I'll try to do a trip wrap up post before I leave here. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe, I'll Cya down the road.