Gorgeous day in Galveston

Today we hit the jackpot.
The sun rose in a cloudless sky - there is a cool breeze and it has been cloudless all day. High in the upper 70's. Even by Gulf coast standards this is a great day.
We had a leisurely breakfast (Sally's Special Pancakes, maple syrup and bacon), then we said a leisurely goodbye to the Canadian friends we have just made (they are going off to live the winter life boondocking on the sea shore further south). We then took a leisurely wander round one of the nature trails, followed by a leisurely walk to the beach (after parking the van 20 yards from the beach. We returned for a leisurely nap with a cool breeze blowing through the trailer. Then we gathered three weeks of washing and I have come to the local washateria, called Soaps, to do a leisurely (ha!) mega clothes wash. I am writing this blog as the three loads are going through the wash cycle. (another 4 minutes to go).
On our wander round we have seen the return of the Roseatte Spoonbill, Red tailed hawks, blue heron, large white egret and White Tailed Kite.
Tomorrow we move on towards San Antonia to do a remake of The Alamo.

Leaving Louisiana

Tuesday

In leaving Sam Houston Jones State Park we were leaving Louisiana and the Cajun culture we had come to see this trip. In some ways I felt that I had not seen enough, yet we knew that we had had enough of Louisiana, not that there were any bad experiences, quite the reverse, just that we knew it was time to move on.

We rose early today and were on the road by 10.10. One of the things I have noticed with Sally that I think may be the result of her diet is that she is waking much earlier and has been alert much earlier in the morning, which has been great. We bumped along the rough Louisiana Interstate 10 and crossed the Sabine River to land in Texas. The first thing I noticed is that the roads are much smoother.

We were planning to stop at Galveston State Park, now Galveston is a town built on an island, well really a 20 mile long sand spit which has been cut off from the land. We found it difficult to understand the scale of the waterway it is built on. It is at the mouth of what is called the Bay area, this bay is about 15 miles wide. The Intracoastal Waterway is the strip of water between the sand islands and the mainland. This waterway is up to 10 miles wide and stretches for many tens of miles along the southern coast of Texas. It is part of the offshore sand strip which is a couple of hundred miles long and goes from Louisiana to Mexico.

This was a long trip for us – 180 miles – and we were both weary and stiff by the time we arrived in Galveston, only to find that the State Park was 9 miles the other side of it. Still it is a beautiful park, if you like sand dunes and wetlands. We had the choice of a site right by the sea shore, but out of site because of a fence/hedge, or a waterside site on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway, so we chose the waterside site. We have a great view right across the waterway. Out of the trailer window we can watch pelicans dive bombing the fish, Macawber like herons, waiting for something to turn up, large Red Tailed Hawks soaring across the wetland, an Osprey perched on a stake sticking out of the water and Killdeer skittering round the wet sand/pools. I have been keeping a good lookout for dolphin, but have not any confirmed sitings. But it is very relaxing just sitting watching.

As we were leaving Sam Houston Jones S.P. we met a couple of Canadians, who were also on their way to Galveston, so we endeavoured to meet up when we arrived. I had to go back to the Rangers office this morning and ran into them. They have moved onto the Intracoastal campsite and invited us to eat with them, we have just come back from a lovely time spent with them.

National Wetlands Area

Since arriving in Lake Charles we had planned to tour the National Wetlands Area, which is to the south of the city, on the way to the coast. Well Today, Friday, was the day. We set off early and drove South. As we left the city behind we drove across a wide level plain, the cattle fields gave way to rice fields then marshes.

It was very, very flat and very,very big. We made several stops along the way, looking at the wetland birds, many heron and egret, lots of hawks and osprey.
Also we saw at least six alligators during our trip.
We headed south to the sea, then followed the sea shore for about 25 miles, crossing the Calcaseiu river by ferry, we watched dolphins doing somersaults out tf the water as we crossed. We stopped on the beach for lunch, it was deserted, you could see for about 10 miles in each direction and it was deserted. Just mile after mile of sand beach. This, we realised, was the first time we had been to the seaside on this trip!
By the way, we saw no oil on the beaches or in the salt marshes.
I get the feeling that the tales of pollution have been greatly exaggerated for the benefit of those claiming restitution. We actually drove the car on to the beach at Helen Beach, but were advised by notice that 'donuts, figure of eights and wheelies' were forbidden. The area was very desolate in places, in others there was all sorts of activity, shrimp boats, oil wells, several helicopter bases, to supply the oil rigs, dormitories. We then frove up the other side of the Calcaseiu River, which was really an estuary about 5 miles wide, through another wetland area. In all the wetlands here seem to be a coastal strip of land about 30 miles wide and following the coast for about 100 miles. it was a fascinating day, and surprisingly plenty to see. So we were quite weaqry by the time we got back to the trailer, so we built a nice campfire and had burgers for tea.