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March 12 through March 18, 2004
Friday March 12:
Claire beat me awake this morning; at 7:30 it is 56 under the RV, and I comment that it does not feel as cool as yesterday. Claire remarks that the furnace has just run….oh well, I did not notice the noise. I do notice (and appreciate) the heat. :-) We decide to relax this morning rather than hike the short remaining trail in the park, vacuum the RV, shower and dump, then are on our way..... AFTER Purry gets his walk in the swamp.
Purry has never minded rain or ,as it seems, wet feet either. :-) We passed the "red building" store on the way out; it looked pretty much like other buildings along the levee road. It is Claire's turn to drive, and we lucked out! The road that had been so bad coming in was not being worked on today; the worst we encountered was a short area of fresh oil. I suppose if that does not come off underneath, it will protect the undercarriage from rust. :-) The assortment of camps, trailers, cottages, and homes along the levee is interesting. This place is neat and well kept.
It looks lived in. This boarded up cottage appears to have black solar hot water barrels on the side rear roof.
The yard seems to be mowed and ready for weekend visits.... We picked the drive to Lafayette on secondary roads to I-10, but might have gone a different way had we known where the Sam's club REALLY is; the info we had put it right at exit 100 of I-10, so we chose to cut through rural Cajun country to I-10. The drive was quite interesting through sugar cane fields and farms. Here is an unusually large barn along St. Johns Field Road, which is now well paved. :-)
The crop in the foreground appears to be newly sprouting hilled rows of sugar cane. We had turned around just before this, when the road we had thought was St Johns Field Rd turned out to be a dirt path between fields.... recovery was easy...just follow the traffic onto the nearby black topped road, and eventually you get to a NUMBERED road. We did attract observers from the house across the street as we backed around in the field road though...but they waved and appeared friendly. :-) When we reached the exit for Sam's, a short drive south, then north with no Sam's visible convinced us to do a rare thing...ASK. The western store I entered amazed me.....wall to wall saddles, western wear, the smell of fresh leather, and it's immaculate, with friendly folks rushing to help. The lady knew where Sam's was, SIX miles south on this road. YIKES, what a miss by our mapping software! As we turned around, I saw the lot full of horse trailers this western store is offering. This is truly a western superstore, right here in Lafayette LA. We found Walmart first, with a security guard who welcomed us to stay overnight, suggested a parking place, and pointed out the Sam's Club visible through the trees. Walmart's gas is $1.519/g with the shopping card. We had to go back on the busy road to enter Sam's lot. I asked a man filling his truck if he was a Sam's member, and he was. I asked him how much his price was, he said $1.55 (This is the posted price). I was disappointed, as Sam's usually gives members a five cent discount, but the way they post their prices differs from state to state. Some places you cannot buy if you are not a member, and they just post the member price. We shopped, and on the way out noticed the member gas price posted as $1.50. Oh my, the guy must not have known to swipe his Sam's card at the pump to get the lower price.... We pack away our purchases, get fuel, and return to Walmart's for the night; we prefer the bright lights and security there. A group of three RVs from Michigan are now here, so we join them. They are headed east, and we chat for a time about what we've seen. We need some Walmart stuff too, so shop some more. As always, the Walmart parking lots are the most expensive campgrounds we use...... :-)
Saturday March 13:
There is lots to do on the web page before upload this week. We decide to move to a nearby mall parking lot for the day to give Claire something to do while I compute.... I'm not sure WHY, but the first thing I did was try the WiFi card in this place, and I found a Wavecloud WiFi hotspot that WORKS! WHOOPIE!!!!! Free broadband Internet; this is a FIRST in two years!! It is strong in the Sears parking lot in the mall, near Barnes & Noble books, at N30d 10.445', W092d 04.494'. The Kensington device sees this node too, at least when we are connected to it. It works FAST, and with all our common net tools. This node proves the value of our free hotpop email service that accepts mail sent through ANY ISP with authentication; we do not know what SMTP server might be available on this node, if any, and hotpop is the only way we have to send mail. The webpage is a tuff slog, but finally gets finished near dusk..... Dinner is corned beef and cabbage.
It's a bit early, but Happy St Patty's day! It's DELICIOUS as usual! After dinner, time to upload to the sites. Upload is unbelievably QUICK, and I even reloaded lots of files that had appeared corrupted on some of our websites for years, though the sites seemed to work. Even the phone line at home is too slow to upload 50 MB of data....but this node sure did it fast. :-) Emails are sent, and just before 9PM we moved back to Walmart for the night. I'm exhausted and drop to sleep fast.
Sunday March 14:
This morning's chat brought the bad news that some pictures would not load on our website's primary URL. What now, was the upload TOO fast? :-) I had not checked the site's function after upload, being pushed for time, and not being in that mind set, as usually we have too slow a connection to do it. There were some files on the site that had incomplete filenames with no extension. I tried reloading them from the cell connection, same result. I noticed the filenames with spaces were truncating at the first space...NUTS! No, I cannot change the filename to be correct after upload either...GRRRRR. All the formerly loaded multi-word filenames are there properly, and work. Something has changed in the way this site handles the FTP uploads. No choice now if I want the site working this weekend; change all the filenames in this weeks upload to single words without spaces, then re-upload those files. This process takes a few hours, but is accomplished successfully, and a major complaint email is sent to the web host. Rain started as we went to again shop Walmart. We needed a few more things, and I wanted to use the pay phone. One of our financial websites was down, and I had business to transact; I prefer not to do that sort of thing on the cellphone. Even digital cell calls can be intercepted, and the complex equipment needed means the listeners would most certainly be up to no good. The computer is much more secure over a cellphone, as the data is encrypted before it leaves the computer. By the time we returned, rain was HEAVY, and continued for the 82 mile drive along I-10 past numerous rice fields to Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, LA. The good news; NO LEAKS where we sealed the roof in Florida. This is the first driving in real heavy rain since that time. The park ranger is a friendly, but no nonsense lady with a big automatic pistol on her hip; I'd guess the open air homo sapiens mating season in this park is CLOSED! The park has lots of pretty areas with cypress and tupelo trees springing up from swampy pools on both sides of the road. There will be time to explore these on a clear day; this is a good one to spend inside! The cellphone here is only one bar, but is Verizon digital. It works pretty well, with only a few dropped calls, and one dropped Internet connection, but it's better than I'd expect at one bar in heavy rain. Here the external cell antenna made communication possible. We'd never have walked to a pay phone in this weather! There are lots of TV stations, even some strong ones from Texas; I guess we are getting CLOSE to the border. :-) Dinner is left over vegetables from corned beef and cabbage. I'm ready to sleep after our phone calls for the week are complete....
Monday March 15:
It's 62 under the RV at 6AM and the rain has stopped. It's time to catch up on the log, as it was not top priority over the weekend. We also need to plan our trip along the coast to meet our mail south of Houston on Thursday or Friday. Claire brought in a rain soaked 128 MB Smart Card for the digital camera she found near the electric service while walking Purry. It must have dropped out of my pocket while hooking up yesterday. It had a little water inside the plastic carrying case, but these are totally encapsulated units, so we'll just air dry it and no harm done. I'm just glad she found it; these things are really tiny to see on the ground, and I had not missed it. We planned the trip as far as mail pickup, and will be able to both drive the scenic Sabine river coastal route, AND stop at the Texas info station on I-10...with only a little backtracking, and there is a Flying J thrown in for an overnight too. Claire prepared beef and barley soup for dinner while I took a bicycle off the rack to ride to the office to renew for another day. After I had ridden to the office the way we had come in, the GPS revealed the short way; there are no park roads on the GPS map, but it was obvious that a road went directly to the RV, and that cut a mile off of the trip. Oh well, I needed exercise! One trail was closed for "law enforcement training", but we walked a 1.7 mile one along the river. There were distant gunshots, some in bursts like from a firing range, so I imagine this is a dual use park with a training range on one trail.... The river walk was nice, with spring flowering trees prettily decked out all along the trail.
Large homes across the river with docks and boats whispered "money" loudly.
There is certainly prosperity in Louisiana as well as poverty...but that can be said of any place I suppose. Claire's sharp eyes picked up this forest floor "plant" I'd just glossed over.
This well camouflaged plant imitating moth has a pair of "stems" hanging toward the ground, and even "branch" imitating leading edges of it's wings. Only it's legs grasping the branch it hangs from, and it's feathery antenna on top give us a clue to its true character. What a delightful masquerade! There were deer in pens, not very wild.
Number 12 here looked almost as tame as the tagged cows we've seen, or the deer in our back yard at home. :-) We enjoyed the bald cypress ponds, still mostly in their leafless winter dormant state.
Lots of ducks and geese are on the shore, many nesting. This gander really did NOT like me, at least close to his nest!
I conceded the territory in preference to being "goosed". :-)) One poor creature was sitting on its nest, dripping blood from its beak, with a fishhook caught in its breast. A lady was looking for a ranger to report it. There was a small nature center, apparently focused on educating kids, but it's closed Mondays...oh well. The RV sends out a double visual greeting in this park when we return.
We are tired, but the meal is mostly prepared. It's evening news on TV, then bed for me. Claire watches a movie before retiring.
Tuesday March 16:
61 Under the RV at 7:30. Sleep was slow coming early in the night, but was easy this morning. :-) This is a very nice sunny day! :-) We shower, fill water on the campsite and dump on the way out. We watch a guy attach his water hose to the dump station tank cleaning hose and fill his water tank despite the large sign saying "Water unsafe to drink" posted right there. I need to stuff that hose with it's male hose threads right into my sewer hose to rinse it, and I do. I'm sure many people stuff it right into their tanks to rinse them, too. I do wonder what people think the "unsafe to drink" signs mean.... :-( The scenic drive we planned for today along the Creole Trail is easy, well marked, and different. The terrain is grassy marsh, with bayous, but few trees or high bushes.
We stop at the Sabine National Wildlife refuge visitors center. This is a small center, but well done. I take advantage of the opportunity to clean the windshield, then go in. The volunteer on the desk offers us a packet to apply as volunteers with the fish and wildlife service, but I do not think we are ready yet to stay in one place for a month or more. She says this place gives them a site and $20 a day stipend. More usual stipends are $10, or even nothing. Both she and her husband work. We decide to do a 1.5 mile trail walk until we see it; it is out in the sun, and the bridge to the parking area is not easy with the RV.
We could have parked across the road with the boats, but we had both lost our desire to do it, and have a good distance left to go today. We press on. The road turned west along the gulf coast....RIGHT along the coast!.
I'm sure this road is not open in major storms, but the water is calm today. Shrimp boats operate out there, and this is oil country too. We see the rigs off shore and processing plants along our route. On the other side of our road cattle share our scenic views.
I'd think these cows MUST be kept fairly contented, with horns like these... :-) We stop to see what is causing a tapping sound in the RV as we drive; I presume it is the loose CB ground wire that has become un-taped. I tape it up temporarily, but must bury it in sealant the next time we have a couple days we will not be moving; it's annoying. We cross the Sabine River into Texas before we know it, and turn north toward Port Arthur.
This area is much more industrial, with lots of oil industry presence, but there are pretty vistas overlooking the Gulf nearby too.
Claire notices a sign that SR87 south is closed; this is the road we intend to use tomorrow to go along the coast to Galveston, so that bears looking into. Some maps show it, others do not, and we have been a bit concerned; now we are much more so! This area has numerous high bridges to accommodate shipping, and some give good views of the port with connecting rail terminals. We continue through the city and finally join I-10. We have decided to visit the Texas visitors center this evening to clarify the route to Galveston, so re-planning may be done if necessary. We find the Street Atlas plot of the route to the Texas Info station is harder than required, as we will not need to go to Louisiana to turn around; there is a turnaround loop in Texas that lets us do exactly what we want, and go back the other way. The generator oil needs changing, so we decide to make coffee to warm it up, and do it here. This goes well, and Claire checks out the visitors center while I clean up; by the time I get there, we have 20 minutes before they close. That gives us a chance to gather any pamphlets we might be interested in, and discuss options on state parks before the guard unlocked the door to allow us to leave. We are disappointed in the cost of Texas state parks (often $18 camping plus daily admission of $3 each person), and they do not offer discounts. We had not camped in any two years ago mainly for this reason. We would sometimes pay the daily use fee to spend the day, take on water, and dump; we will probably do that this time as well. The Flying J we stop at in Orange TX posts gas at $1.559, just across the street from Pilot advertising $1.479. This is unusual for Flying J not to be competitive....we shall have to watch closely! Dinner is left over beef with barley soup, and we eat the whole thing! I'm ready for bed after catching up on the log. Claire reads for a while.
Wednesday March 17:
I finally give up trying to sleep at 4:30. Temperature is 63 degrees under the RV. Flying J has had loud oldie music playing all night long...we should have parked the other way to get the rear bedroom away from the gas island. It would have been rear low, but we could have reversed the pillows to get our heads higher than feet, and I'm sure we'd have slept better. The music was shut off just as dawn broke. Right now I'm going back to bed and sleep a bit more in this morning QUIET! :-)) It is 9:30 by the time heat in the bedroom awakes me; the sun is beating on the RV, and I'm immediately thinking about moving on. We must shower, dump and replenish the little water we've used first, but that is short work, and we are on our way before 11:00AM. We decide to take I-10 to SR125 and the Bolivar peninsula, as we have traveled most of the back roads through Port Arthur yesterday. We find the entrance ramp just across from the Flying J driveway, forgetting we wanted to fill gas at Pilot...oh well, not worth going back NOW...the gas we burn getting back from the next exit will exceed the savings. We have a fast trip through Beaumont and pick up SR 125 to the beach. By this time it is near noon, and lunch seems in order. We stop in a local supermarket parking lot, and after lunch Claire wants to check out the market; I decide to clean the generator air prefilter which is due and was not done with the oil change yesterday. An hour later all is complete and we are on our way. This part of Texas looks a lot like the Creole Trail in Louisiana, except for perhaps a few more cattle. Near the coast we pass a really TALL TV tower; this one disappears into fairly high clouds, I'd guess 1500 feet up! I guess they have a lot of area to cover.... We cross the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway.
This waterway is used for sure! When we reach the coast we turn west along the Gulf beach...the road again runs RIGHT ALONG the splashing surf and over passes to the bays, with heavy tidal currents flowing.
This whole seacoast is unique, as there are many cattle grazing on pastures just inland of the road, on land that would be prime residential property many places, then just next door there are new stilted beach front developments with houses crowded together. I must accept that people WANT to live close together, or such developments would not happen in otherwise undeveloped areas. We pass this lighthouse.
It is on the inland side of the road, a rather unusual place for lighthouses, but this road is SOOOO close to the water there would be no room on the Gulf side.. We are approaching a ferry leading across the bay to Galveston, and are motioned directly into line for a boat that has just docked. I chuckle at the "End Road Work" sign....it could just say "End Road" and be correct. :-) The ferry is fun, as always, and this cruise is courtesy of the Texas Department of Transportation, no charge. The gulls and terns play with the wind currents created by the boat.
They glide along at our speed, seeming to float motionless in the air..... We find Galveston to be a surprise; it's a beach front resort community, complete with spring break crowds.
The Walmart where we intended to stay overnight is right along the beach, and predictably has signs prohibiting truck or RV overnight parking, per city ordnance. We decide it is still early enough to go on to our planned next night's stop in Lake Jackson, only 50 miles away. The crowded conditions here would not be pleasant even if they would give us permission, which at this peak season time seems VERY unlikely. We eat a snack and move on. We notice signs prohibiting trucks below the toll bridge over San Louis Pass; we are not legally a truck, but the law of gravity still applies to our 9 ton weight if the bridge has a load limit. We notice both RVs and trucks among the traffic coming towards us...we shall see what comes ahead. This is a pleasant drive, and pretty, but the light haze dulls the view and makes photography difficult.
Folks drive right up to the water's edge in cars, fishing and swimming. I do hope those cars are rentals....and that they get them out before the tide comes in! :-) We cross the bridge after paying our $2 toll, the same as any vehicle, and are not told of any restriction ahead; we notice a two axle 10 ton limit sign on the other side....well, we meet that, barely. Shortly we see signs of road construction and a flag man....we approach, expecting to wait for one way traffic. We see a detour sign, pointing LEFT toward the nearby Gulf surf. I ask out the closed window "Is this OK for us?". The flag man must have read lips, because he nodded "Yes"... :-))
We drive 100 feet closer to the surf, and onto the BEACH. The beach is graded, well packed, and solid.
Claire drives for miles, concentrating on not becoming en-GULFED. :-)
This is not the trip we had envisioned today, but it is an unexpected adventure none the less, and we enjoy it. I'm sure glad I had not succumbed to the fleeting idea I had to leave the generator air filter off to dry after cleaning, to be replaced tonight before running it. I had decided the idea was unwise due to the high probability I'd FORGET to replace it; I'm sure the rear tires would have thrown sand into the air intake during this beach drive. The 15 mph speed limit seemed a bit low if we were to bog down in soft sand, so we move around 30, which seems safe and the handling is better too. There are RV's and tents along the beach to the right of our temporary road, and I suppose we could have stayed here overnight, but if the wind came up anywhere easterly, we would be DRENCHED with salt spray, and the tide looked like it came nearly to the beach edge when high. This is an "opportunity" we'll pass up, thank you! There are lots of new looking vehicles driving well below the high tide line also
This one looks like it's about to get it's wheels wet.... but it's folks are having lots of fun. :-) We finally get back on solid blacktop, and continue past canal front homes with boats.
We pass a horizon full of oil refineries and petrochemical plants in Clute.
We arrive in Lake Jackson after 5 PM. We must turn around once to get to the Walmart, as new roads have been built since our maps were made. The security guard comes right up to us as we sit deciding where to park, tells us we can stay as long as we like (hmmm, THAT is kinda dangerous for him to say, isn't it?), and helps us move into his suggested parking place; WHAT delightful hospitality. We've noticed that local hospitality is never better than in areas that might otherwise seem less desirable...such as this with the abundance of oil refineries within 5 miles. We notice we can get gas here for $1.529 with Walmart's shopping card...we win again! Claire mentions she saw a Ryan's restaurant nearby, and that chain had been recommended by the Cajun folks we'd chatted with at Lake Pointe Fosse State Park in Louisiana. We decided to try it, and it turned out to be a buffet with lots of Cajun dishes, but featuring corned beef and cabbage on this Saint Patrick's Day [Cajuns seldom miss ANY excuse to party. :-) ]. We'd had our corned beef and cabbage already this week, so I concentrated on the Cajun dishes, and enjoyed them, although I'm not sure of the names of everything I ate. Bourbon chicken, and a chicken breast first grilled, then cooked in a clear spicy sauce with whole tomatoes and peppers were both delicious. As usual with buffets, I grossly over ate. This is a good place, but we MUST NOT do another buffet for at least two weeks! :-) I am surprised at how much this north gulf coast of Texas retains the feel of Louisiana. The coastal land is similar, and the oil industry is similar, I suppose, so it should not be surprising the Cajun culture has crossed the state line. Further inland we had not noticed the Cajun influence last trip. We returned home to find the news was over, and the urge to lie down was overwhelming...this is an early to bed night!
Thursday March 18:
It's 66 degrees at 4AM when I find myself unable to sleep due to the parking lot sweeper…. I arise, make perked coffee to avoid running the generator, and work on the pictures and log. Claire is annoyed with the perking noise, as she has just gotten to sleep and it awakens her. I find my eyes are showing the slight but constant "burning" I associate with refinery pollution. I guess the security guard has no problem saying "stay as long as you like"; most folks will just keep moving, as will we as soon as all post office activity in Clute is complete. Claire does the Walmart shopping while I finish planning the trip as far as Laredo. We decide to go to the post office before fueling, as our route takes us back this way, and we might as well get as full as possible at this $1.529/g price; we may not see it this low again for a while if we believe the news. We eat lunch before we leave Walmart, and drive the few miles to the Clute TX post office. The lot is tight in this old style government owned post office, but there are few people in the lot so we find parking; the sign says 15 minute limit. We get our mail easily, not even an ID check; anyone who knew it was coming here could have picked it up. :-(( At least all that we expect is here. :-) The clerk says she does not think anyone will have a problem with our parking over the 15 minute limit. A half hour sorting through envelopes, and opening those which might be bills or are unidentified, leaves us with four letters to send, and we do that before returning to Walmart for fuel. As I fuel, the couple in the truck filling at the next pump warns us to head for Laredo with a full tank of gas, as there is NOTHING out that way...NOTHING. :-) It's my day to drive, and despite the weather forecast for sunny weather, it is cloudy, and even spits a few drops of rain as we start out. We see fewer oil industry facilities as we move inland, and more cattle ranches. We arrive in Bay City before 4PM, and find the Walmart easily; there are no other RVs, but soon a small class C motorhome pulling a car pulls in close beside us. Their engine is running rough, almost will not pull the load as they try to move to clear both the front and rear driving lanes in the lot. They study their map for a long time, then get out of the RV. They evidently do not hear my greeting shouted out the open kitchen window. The next time I look they are gone. I feel VERY bad for folks with mechanical problems on the road, and those folks are headed for some big ones SOON. Claire cooks stir fried tofu with broccoli, mushrooms, and onions, served over brown rice. Mmmmm Mmmmm good! Houston's PBS TV station comes in strong, so we catch up on news (I'm impressed with Paul Wolfowitz, under secretary of defense; he can express his ideas thoughtfully, without wise cracks or attempts to intimidate. I'd predict we hear more from him as the presidential campaign heats up). I do dishes, then go in to Walmart to buy a couple of things and inquire about a laundromat. I get directions to two, all referenced to local landmarks; hopefully we can find one of them in the morning. :-) I am ready for bed when I return, but run the generator first for morning coffee, and to keep the battery ready if Claire finds her favorite Thursday night TV shows. :-)
PLANS: We are headed to King Ranch in Kingsville TX along the coastal route (which we did not do two years ago), through Aransas Pass and Corpus Christie, then as directly as possible to Laredo TX over secondary roads, with a walk across the border there to Mexico. The Texas secondary roads are good, and most have speed limits of at least 55 or 60 mph, except in the few towns we will pass through. We enjoy seeing things along the roads less traveled, so should have plenty of opportunity on this drive. After Laredo, we head north if it is uncomfortably hot, or perhaps further west along the border if it is not. This is a pretty time in Texas, as spring brings the wild flowers into bloom. We have seen the Texas coast south of Kingsville extensively last trip, and see no reason to repeat those miles this trip, with the ever warming weather and ever increasing gas prices.
Until next time, ENJOY! We sure are!