The Beach and the Birth of Texas

Location: Paula's Vineyard and RV Resort; Crystal Beach, Texas
(click pictures to enlarge)

Crystal Beach is on the Bolivar Peninsula which runs parallel to the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Galveston. The Bolivar Ferry still runs 24 hours a day, free of charge, between the peninsula and Galveston. About half of the peninsula is home to weekend warriors that visit the beach and stay in their beach houses. None of the hundreds of beach houses are older than 6 years old. That is because every one was wiped out by Hurricane Ike in 2008. When Ike came ashore it pushed a wall of water 17 to 20 feet high across the peninsula and Galveston Island destroying everything in its path. Ike is the 3rd most costliest storm in U.S. history behind only Katrina and Andrew. A rough guess is that about half of the places on the peninsula have been rebuilt.

I chose this campground because it had concrete campsites and they were part of the Passport America club. I wanted the concrete so I could slide under Liberty to lubricate her main slide. The concrete keeps me from laying it sand burrs or fire ants. It worked well and Liberty is in good shape. When I checked in, I was told they are no longer with Passport America so the campsite was more expensive. The need for the concrete pad outweighed the extra cost so I paid up for 2 nights. I will move tomorrow to a campground just up the road that is more to my liking.

Campsite at Paula's Vineyard and RV Resort

I drove into the Houston area today to see the place were Texas won it's freedom. The place is where the Battle of San Jacinto was fought. The Army of Texas, led by Sam Houston, defeated a stronger force of Mexicans led by their dictator Santa Anna. It wasn't long after that decisive victory that Texas became the Republic of Texas. It was an independent nation prior to becoming a state. The battle site is commemorated with a giant column, 567 feet tall. It is 12 feet taller than the Washington Monument which would have prompted my mother, a daughter of Texas, to say, "everything is bigger and better in Texas".

In the same area as the Texas Monument, is the battleship, U.S.S. Texas (BB-35). The ship was launched in  1912 and saw duty in both world wars. In World War II, she saw action in North Africa, Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She is the only pre-world war I battleship, called "dreadnoughts", left in the world. The word "dreadnought" came from the name of the first big battleship built in the world by the British and her name was the H.M.S. Dreadnought. After she came online, every country that had a blue water Navy started building the big battleships, the Texas being one of those. She was decommissioned in 1948.

This visitor spent the night on Freedom and hitched a ride. He jumped off somewhere before Lake Charles. I hope he didn't have a family that is wondering where he went. Maybe he was just a crazy old lizard that wanted to travel around.

This the roadway leading from Winnie, Texas on I-10 down to High Island, Texas which is on the Gulf of Mexico. It is long and straight with only a few vehicles.

This intersection is where you turn right and enter the Bolivar Peninsula. The road to the left used to go all the way to Port Arthur, Texas but it has been closed for many years. I have been thru this intersection many times in my life and each time it is exciting to see the Gulf again. It was that way again yesterday and I hope it will be that way forever.

This picture was taken out my side window. I started to crop the side mirror out of the picture but changed my mind. The reflection sort of adds something to the picture.

You can drive on the beach if you feel lucky. If you get stuck with the tide coming in, you better have very good insurance. I parked for a little while but kept Freedom on solid ground.

Another picture of the Gulf and beach. The peninsula is about 25 miles long with very few people on the beaches.

Yet another Gulf/beach picture

And another

I like this one the best because I was able to catch several gulls taking off in flight.

The Bolivar Ferry and Old Glory

The Texas Monument

One of the views from the observation deck of the monument.

This view is also from the observation deck and has the Battleship, Texas in the picture.

The U.S.S. Texas, (BB-35)

Looking straight on her bow

And of course the bench picture with the Texas in the background. You wouldn't be sitting in this bench very long because some "texas-sized" skeeters were hanging around. A couple of them took a chunk out of my leg.

A nice picture of Freedom in the parking lot all by herself with the Texas Monument in the background.

Same parking lot as the last picture but now with the Texas in the background.

This is the Lynchburg Ferry. It is another free ferry provided by the state of Texas. This is the oldest operating ferry in Texas.

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

Visiting Family in Cajun Country

Location: Frog City RV Park; Duson (near Lafayette), Louisiana
(click pictures to enlarge)

I arrived here about 12:30 last Saturday (10/18/2014). The main purpose of the stop was to visit with my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and 2 nieces. The visits were great with many stories and remembrances from years gone by. She also cooked some really good chicken/sausage gumbo, fried shrimp and some not so good crawfish etouffee'. But as good as the food was, the visiting with everyone was the best.

In between visits, I was able to explore a little bit of an area that I was already familiar. I stopped by the Evangeline Oak after eating some good BBQ and corn on the cob at my youngest nieces' house in St. Martinville. The Oak is the meeting place of the two people in Judge Felix Voorhies' version of Henry Wadsworth Longfellows poem "Evangeline". Bayou Teche flows gently by in the background of the oak.

I also went to Avery Island to see how Tabasco Sauce is made. The tour was interesting and I bought a bottle of their new flavor, Smoked Chipotle.

This is the campground in Duson. It is a pretty nice one with a good laundry and level sites. The truck stop next door is convenient to gas up but some of the 18 wheelers were idling long into the night.

 

 

This is the Evangeline Oak where Evangeline and Gabriel fictitiously met in Longfellows poem. The poem is about a woman who searched far and wide for the love of her life. They were separated when the Acadians where expelled from Nova Scotia back in 1755. It was during that expulsion that the Acadians wandered around looking for a homeland. After a while they found the swamplands of south central Louisiana. It was a desolate place where they felt secure from every being displaced again. After mixing with some of the locals they eventually became what is now known as Cajuns.   

 

Looking at the Oak from the backside.

 

Another view of the oak.

 

The Bayou Teche flowing behind the oak.

 

On the way to Avery Island, I stopped by the town of Delcambe to see the shrimp boats. The town is the place where the locals can buy shrimp directly from the shrimpers. Dozens of boats line the bayou that leads to the gulf.

 

You can see Avery Island in the distance as it rises up compared to the low-lying flat land. The "island" is really a salt dome with about 16 feet of soil covering it. It was the first salt dome in the U.S. to be mined for salt beginning back in the 1860's. That salt mining continues today on Avery Island. 

 

This is the factory where Tabasco Sauce is produced. The business has been in the McIlhenny family since the late 1800's. Edmund McIlhenny is the one who planted the Capsicum Peppers and perfected the recipe. The peppers are grown on the island and in South America. The peppers are hand picked and each year a family member chooses the best plants from that production year to get the seeds for the next years planting. Some of the seeds are stored in a bank vault to keep them safe.

 

The production line of Tabasco Sauce

 

 

 

The Tabasco country store at Avery Island

 

 

Another picture for my Yankee friends. This is sugar cane. It is one of the main crops grown in south-central Louisiana. It is near harvest time.

This post if from the time I was in Lafayette. I moved to another campground today. I am now in Texas and will make another post probably tomorrow.


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

Vacation from Retirement and Moving Day

Location: Heart of Haynesville RV Campground; Mansfield, Louisiana
(click pictures to enlarge)

It's been two weeks since I've posted to the blog. I'm back in an area that is very familiar to me and although I tried to look at it with the eyes of an explorer seeing it for the first time, it didn't work. I hope I didn't anger too many readers by not posting in so long.

Well, I am ready to move on. I started getting the "hitch itch" about day three. It has been good to see the family and friends after being away for six months. I was able to do some maintenance on Liberty and took her to the dealership for some warranty work. My ceiling fan started making a noise like one of the bearings was going out and it's replacement is covered by the warranty. One of my slide toppers (awning over the slide-out) started acting up but I was told it wasn't covered by warranty. I will decide if I replace it or not sometime later. I have lost confidence in the quality of the RV technicians who are working for the dealership. If I get it replaced, it will be somewhere else. I also changed the anode rod in the water heater, cleaned the screen leading to the water pump, reorganized some of the storage and lastly gave Liberty her first bath. I would like to get underneath her to clean and lubricate the main slide but there are a lot of sand burrs and some fire ants in this campground. Rolling around on the ground is not advisable.

There are several things still on my "to do" list but will get to them when I come back next month. Tomorrow I'll be heading to south Louisiana to visit with my sister and her family who live in Lafayette. I will be at a campground near the town of Duson. Lafayette is the area where my family lived when I was 13 and 14 years of age. It is also the place where I graduated college; University of Southwestern Louisiana. They changed the name after I graduated to The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. It didn't bother me too much because I was not very active in the college life. By the time I got to college, I was married and had one child so that took up most of my spare time.

I'm anxious to hit the road again. I think I'm spoiled in that I need to be moving every 3 or 4 days. Hopefully, I won't have forgotten how to hitch up. :)

I'm sorry for the short post, but not a lot happened in the last two weeks that I think would be of interest to anyone but me. I should be on the move again starting tomorrow so the posts should be back to at least every other day.

I'll end with a few pictures.

Tucker Wayne and Olivia Grace

Olivia Grace figuring out the
world

Uncle Brandon feeding Olivia Grace

The Crazy Ole Man, Tucker Wayne and
Jerry

My Children and Grandchildren
Brandon, Brittanie, Olivia, Tucker, Jerry and me.

I put this picture in here for some of the
readers that are Yankees. This is a cotton
field.

Liberty's water heater. The anode
is behind that nut in the bottom
center of the picture.

Old anode, New anode. She did her job.
That deterioration is from one year of water
from about 70 different sources.

Liberty's first bath.

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

Three Campground Pics and Back in Louisiana

Location: Heart of the Haynesville RV Campground; Mansfield, Louisiana
(click pictures to enlarge)

I left the banks of the Mississippi River last Friday morning with a rainbow in the sky. Severe storms blew through the area during the night. Heavy rain with 50 mph winds were predicted. Both items showed up at the Tom Sawyer Campground on the river. Liberty was rocking and rolling in the wind but handled it well as she has in the past. It rained hard at times and was driven by the wind. I have not found a single leak anywhere in Liberty so I'm happy. With the predicted wind and rain, I debated about bringing the slides in before the storm hit but decided to leave them out. We have ridden out storms like this before without any problems other than me worrying. The heaviest storms passed over around midnight followed by rain showers until early morning. When I went outside the following morning, there was a nice rainbow in the sky as a reminder that God wouldn't create another great flood.

The Morning After Rainbow

The last towboat and tow before I pulled out

I had a long tow of about 230 miles ahead of me so I emptied my tanks and took on a full load of fresh water. The fresh water was to serve as weight ballast in Liberty during the trip. High wind gusts were predicted along my travel path. This is typical behind such heavy storms. The storms blow through so fast and with such fury it is as if it creates a vacuum that is being filled by the high wind gusts following it. This is a lesson that the current administration should learn. When Obama pulled out of Iraq he created a vacuum that is now being filled. Of the three choices of Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way, it seems he choose the last for way too long. Maybe he has wised up, hopefully.

The next campground was to be just off of the interstate in Hope, Arkansas. The name was "something" Motel and RV Park. It was ok for an overnight stay but I wouldn't stay there any longer. There were about 6 other RV in the park but they looked like they had been there for a while. A couple of guys were sitting in lawn chairs and looked totally spaced out as if they were on something stronger than coffee. Although it the campground had full hook-ups, I only connected to electric. I knew the place was questionable before I left Tom Sawyer, that is the other reason why I filled my fresh water tank so I wouldn't have to connect to the water at Hope. It was good enough for a one-nighter.

Overnight stay in Hope, Ark

I pulled out of Hope, Arkansas early and arrived at the Heart of Haynesville Campground in Mansfield, Louisiana right about noon. This campground was built when the Natural Gas Boom hit this area a few years ago. There are about 150 campsites here but since the price of natural gas fell there are only about 20 sites filled. The owner has bought several FEMA trailers with hopes of renting them out to transient workers in the area. Looks like only one has been rented so far. I have full hook-ups and plan to stay here for a week or two before heading further south to see my sister and oldest son. I'll then spend a week or so in east Texas before returning around the 1st or 2nd week in November. I have a list of things to take care of while I'm in my home area. There are so many, I had to write them down to make sense of them. So far, the only things I've done besides visiting with 2 of my children, 1 of my grandkids and ex-wife was to go to Home Depot for things around the RV. I also have many people to see before heading to south Texas for the coldest part of the winter and then onward to the western and northwestern states.

Hearth of the Haynesville Campground

Olivia Grace trying to figure
out who I am.

Olivia Grace and the
Crazy Ole Man

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

Watching the Towboats Work and Taking it Easy

Location: Tom Sawyer Campground; West Memphis, Arkansas
(click the pictures to enlarge)

This is the second post today, but now I am up-to-date.

I left Cape Girardeau yesterday morning and arrived here at West Memphis around 1:00 p.m. I chose this campground and this campsite because it sits right on the edge of the Mississippi River. I can watch the towboats pushing their cargo up and down river right from my campsite. A boat with barges passes by about every 30 minutes. It is very relaxing. I have no plans to see or explore anything else in the area, just relaxing.

Bad weather is scheduled to come through the area tonight. If it comes through early enough and doesn't cause any damage I plan to leave tomorrow morning and head west.

The Mississippi River from my door

Gives an idea how close I am
 



It filled up quickly after I took this
picture



Entrance to the campground

A little artistic touch?

My own 'thinking bench'

A view of everything

One of the many towboats. One
passes by about every 30 minutes

The campground

The campground

The campground, river and towboat
as seen from a treehouse

From the treehouse

Typical towboat and barges

The treehouse

The river and shade trees

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