05 Mar Since Texas is big, this post will be big!
Glen Campbell was an amazing artist. I so enjoy his music. But, contrary to the lyrics in the song, Galveston, which goes like this:
“I still see her standing by the water,
Standing there looking out to sea.
And is she waiting there for me,
On the beach where we used to run?
Galveston, oh!”
Dave and I saw fog…lots of it. I’ll explain.
So our travels leaving Lake Ponchartrain were pretty uneventful, which when you are pulling a 37’ home on wheels behind you, you so appreciate uneventful very much. The sweet spot on that day’s travels was stopping at the Atchafalaya Welcome Center, located in the heart of the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation’s largest river swamp and a National Heritage Area. There we were able to stretch our legs and get some photos of the resident alligator. Safely up on an awesome swamp boardwalk.
Welcome to Texas
Gator at Atchafalaya Basin
Our first intended destination was the Bolivar Flats of Texas. Here our goal was to bring Clifford and Christopher Robin onto the beach to do some, I kid you not, beach camping. You thought Dave was excited about that bridge over Lake Ponchartrain. That was nothing compared to the prospect of us waking up looking at the Gulf of Mexico. Sweet right!
About thirty minutes from what should have been our destination for the night we came upon a bridge that would take us to this stop. At the crest of said bridge, the fog was unbelievable. It was so thick, that we needed to pull over a few times, just to allow a vehicle to pass, since following their lights gave us some perspective on where we were on the road. We were about 8 miles from the flats, but my nerves got the best of me and no doubt my nerves got the best of Dave too. Google maps showed a campground close by, even though we couldn’t see it. Dave agreed and we pulled in. Lazy D&D RV resort, our gratitude in showing up on google maps just when we needed to pull over for the night. Or two 🙂
Bolivar Flats TX- Gulf of Mexico behind the fog
Camp friends
Next morning we still had a foggy mess! Drove on the beach that we had hoped to camp on. I think the Gulf of Mexico was there. Just couldn’t see it. I’m sure the water and the wonderful birds that supposedly inhabit this area are fabulous to see. As Dave and I have said several times already..guess we will have to catch this next time. Hopped onto the free vehicle/people ferry (can you imagine a free ferry from Hoboken to NYC? ) to explore Galveston. Once you left the seawall area, the fog was minimal. But along the sea, nada, nothing, zippo. It was crazy. You knew the water was there, still couldn’t see it. The experience was not a complete loss. Enjoyed walking around Galveston’s Strand District before we headed back to CR.
Galveston TX
Adrienne our superb waiter and me at lunch
Getting free rides on the ferry
We had wanted to keep heading south towards Corpus Cristi and Padre Island National Seashore, but as we are figuring out, we have to ability to change course as we see fit. Since the fog was still hanging on, we changed plans and headed towards Shiner Texas, in our now passionate desire to find sun, and some warmer weather, and less fog. What a trip it was, bringing the 5th Wheel on this free ferry, along with some tractor trailers, passenger cars, and pedestrians. Crazy.
Christopher Robin, Clifford and us on the ferry to Galveston
No trip to Shiner Texas is complete without a visit to Spoetzl Brewery. So we did. Insert photo of my hubby with a big ‘ol smile on his face. Add to that, the great camping spot we found at a local town park for less than what a trip to a movie for the two of us would cost. Not another camper at this ten site campground. Temperature was cooler than we were thinking Texas to be, but at last the fog was gone. Yeah!
Campground Shiner TX
Not sure they were happy to see us walking around the town campground.
Spoetzl Brewery
Remember in a post earlier, I shared about camping at places like wineries, breweries, and farms? Well, our stop the next day was at the Texas Air Museum in San Antonio TX www.texasairmuseum.org. The founder and director of this gem of a museum joined the military during WWII at the age of 14. He is a veteran of WW2, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm. Wow. Our cost to stay overnight parked next to old military planes was a well spent tour of this unbelievable collection of relics. This site, nestled between an active airstrip and a large cemetery (talk about quiet) ranks high on our interesting places to stay. Really grateful for these unique opportunities.
Texas Air Musuem
Our campsite at the Air Musuem
Dave being Dave again
We didn’t linger too long here because we had a good ride to our first National Park of this trip. Big Bend here we come. Out early we began our drive. Can you believe that fog found us (or we found fog) again for a short while.
Hallie Stillwell
We had a hard time getting a spot to camp inside the park, so we stayed about 10 miles from the park entrance at Stillwell Store and RV Park. This ranch had been owned by Hallie Stillwell, a pioneer rancher who made quite a statement about being a strong independent woman at at time when women weren’t thought of in that way. We enjoyed the museum on the ranch that was dedicated to sharing her life. https://stillwellstore.com/hall-of-fame/. Take a moment and find out some of the reasons we enjoyed our stay here.
Another, as typical in most campgrounds, was meeting kind and enjoyable folk to share conversation with. This time around was no exception. Mary and Paul from Kansas, Doug and Jane from New York, wonderful people we had the pleasure of spending some time with.
Mary is quite the masterful quilt maker and travels with sewing machines on board while Paul spends time sleuthing for gorgeous rocks in the area. Was such a testimony of how life lived onboard an RV truly can be a fulfilled one. And Jane’s willingness to sell their home to go on a “crazy” journey because she can’t imagine doing this with anyone else! I do love people.
Big Bend National Park
It was time to explore Big Bend the next day. WOW! The vastness and majesty of this place can’t be appreciated by words alone. From driving along the Ross Maxell Scenic Drive, to hiking the Santa Elena Canyon Trail and seeing the Rio Grande, we just were in awe.
Santa Elena Canyon Trail
A sweet little side story….Dave wanted to do a second hike this day to see “balanced rock”. I wasn’t in for round two, but wanted him to do this. After bouncing down a six mile drive, literally, on what they call an “improved road”, we ended up in the middle of nowhere. There was one car in this little area. I kissed Dave goodbye for what he thought would be about an hour and half hike. I grabbed a mountain of books to look through and wait. Can’t lie. I was a bit unsettled.
Why I bothered to pick up my phone and try to FaceTime my daughter and my friend, I can’t explain. There is no cell service here. Or so I thought. Next thing I know I’m happily catching up and time flies. As I was gabbing, several more cars showed up. All I kept thinking, was how on earth their cars made it down this “road”. One man looks over at me as he’s getting ready to hike in, sees me talking, and asks if I’m talking to myself. :). I show him my girlfriend Lissa and he laughs, amazed that we were able to connect. Another couple hiking out tells me “your husband wanted us to tell you he is fine”.
We have a new fondness for what we thought were wild boar. Turns out they are called javelina, and we saw several as we drove along. Oh, and remember Road Runner and Wile E Coyote from the cartoon, well road runners are real! Small but definitely fast and super cute.
Hot Springs on the Rio Grande
There is so much to see around Big Bend and the weather was finally cooperating a bit more, so we extended our trip a few days. Explored Terlingua Ghost Town, drove a crazy road in Lajitas, and plunked ourselves after a short hike into a hot spring along the Rio Grande. Met a family of five traveling since September. Mom Nicole said they were “road schooling” their kids while showing them this great country. I love that “road schooling”. Check out their IG account, Blessed without Boundaries”. Pretty sweet.
self explanatory 🙂
As exciting as all these days are turning out, we need to sit tight sometimes and just catch up on “household” stuff. I’m telling you, housework and real life obligations like bills and laundry wouldn’t be so unappealing for me if I had the views we had at Stillwell Store. Inspired for sure. Had hoped to leave early the next morning, but Dave scratched his cornea we think, so we paid for an extra day so Dave could just rest. I had read online that chamomile or green tea was beneficial in the healing process. We had none. Asked our new friend Mary if she had any but did not. A couple of hours later there is a knock on our door. Mary had gone around the campground asking for tea for us! Blessings arrive at the most unexpected time sometimes.
Terlingua Ghost Town
Lajitas TX
Javalinas
Resting was a great thing for Dave this day. I was happy to end my day having tea with our sweet new friend and running after a javalina pack foraging through the campground with Mary to get some photos
Here’s to believing that tomorrow we will get on the road again.
For Us, It’s Not Abad Day 🙂