A sunny but windy start to our relaxing day on Galveston Island, TX. I decide to walk about the RV park and walk on every road and trail within the park. 6.8km – not bad. Barb goes to the beach and is almost blown back to the park by the onshore winds from the gulf. She sees a few Man-O-War jellyfish on the sand and watches seabirds dance in the wind.
Typical beach houses
Galveston Island beach
The day has been set aside for housekeeping type activities and one will be laundry. Quarters acquired for the machines from the office and laundry is done while showers are taken. No excitement here folks.
Our van amongst trailers
Early after lunch Barb decided to go and float in the lazy river pool they have here. She arrived to find nobody else in the river and so stepped into the water. Minutes later she was back at the van exclaiming that the pools are not heated !
The clouds have now taken over the sky as a harbinger of the weather that will arrive overnight. The wind prevents using the griddle and so we cook in the van on the induction cooktop. We enjoyed chicken fajitas for dinner along with margaritas. After dinner a little reading and then we settled in for a movie, tonight the Swedish version of “The girl with the dragon tattoo”. Dark, sinister and so well filmed.
Tonight we are expecting a cold front to come through with wind and rain. The temperature should be cooler tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Early rise (6:30am), cool temperature (6C), the shower will likely take a while to warm up….. Do I have to get up?
We’re off again today, further Westward. We had to make a small repair to the bike cover last evening as one of the cords that keep the cover snug to the bikes broke. With that done it left only the normal electrical and water disconnects to be done before heading out. After a shower and breakfast.
Showers here get a 3/10 for lack of privacy, security and the ‘eww’ factor. The shower buildings are great, and kept very clean but the showers only have curtains (lack of security for belongings), are open to each other top and bottom (privacy concerns) and because they’re open at the bottom water and filth from your neighbour can spray your way. Thus we showered early when everyone else was asleep. Unfortunately that meant that we warmed the water for all who followed. Brrrr again.
Breakfast was light (coffee, banana & yoghurt) and before we knew it we were pulling out of the site. Farewell Palmetto Island State Park! If back this way we will probably stay here again.
Our route zig-zagged us across country towards I-10. We saw thousands of acres of flooded fields and couldn’t figure them out. The water levels were at times higher than the roads we were driving. Google solved the mystery, they are rice fields from which the farmers harvest crawfish (crayfish). Evidently commercial crawfish farming began in the 1980s when a farmer could make a good living on several hundred acres, now at least 1000 acres is needed to make a go of it. The farmers bag the crawfish in 40lb bags which is the most commonly purchased size.
Crawfish farming
Texas!
Our first stop of the day was at Space Center Houston (SCH) located adjacent to the Johnson Space Center where all NASA astronauts train and all space flights are managed and monitored.
Problem: we retirees forgot that it is March break and the place was crawling with kiddies and their families.
As we had previously visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida some years ago, many of the exhibits described the same events. There is of course new items and stories from the ISS, JWST, Artemis and the future Mars program so it was easily still worth visiting. We also got to see a Space-X Falcon 9 booster up close which was cool as was the tour of the 747 that ferried Space Shuttles across the country after they landed in California.
Space Center Houston, Houston, TX
We were scheduled to take a tour of the astronaut training facility but the stupid mobile/online registration system unexpectedly cancelled our reservation and it was too late in the day to book another.
From SCH we headed South, wait, which way? Yep, South to a Buc-ee’s in Texas City. Buc-ee’s is a chain of truck stops in and around Texas known for their cleanliness and size, Texas-sized.
Buc-ee’s, Texas City, TX
We started at the gas pumps where we got fuel for a good price from one of what appeared to be 100 or so gas pumps. Never went to see how many truck pumps they had on the other side of the building. The ‘store’ looks more like a Walmart super center when you walk in. HUGE. They appear to sell anything and everything. Lots of food from snacks to hot sandwiches, fresh baked goods, soda pop fountains, coffee (lots of coffee), housewares, camping goods, art, clothing, alcohol, tobacco, bags of ice (ice machines surrounded the building). It was reported to me that the bathrooms are also immaculate and spacious. You can also have a shower here should you need one.
Anyway, we got a few snacks and a couple of hot brisket sandwiches for dinner and headed out towards Galveston island, our stop for the next couple of nights. Barb had snagged a site at the Jamaica Beach RV Resort that became available when someone cancelled. Barb would finally get some beach time.
