Across a causeway from Galveston lies Pelican Island, home to a branch of Texas A & M, Seawolf Park and many oil production support facilities.
The Texas A & M facilities are very tidy. There are docks at the edge of the campus where research and oil support vessels are moored. We spotted many ROTC or naval personnel strolling between classes. They look very young.
Most of the remainder of the inhabited part of the island is dedicated to oil production facilities. There are numerous oil platforms that are not currently drilling tied up along Galveston Bay. They are huge. There are some massive rigs which appear to be secured in place when drilling solely by an array of anchors. Other rigs have elaborate spud arrangements so they can be floated into place where they lower the the spuds through the rig superstructure all the way to the seafloor and then jack the rig up into the air for drilling operations. The rigs must be enormously expensive because millions of dollars worth of cranes and other equipment is secured to the rigs and that’s only the stuff visible from the outside.
On the way home, we found two adjacent fresh seafood markets in an obscure portion of the waterfront. On the left was Samson’s and on the right was Katie’s. They are so close together that the only thing that seems to separate the two markets is some corrugated sheet metal. We did not want to favor one market over the other so Peggy went into Samson’s and bought a bunch of corpulent shrimp (is that an oxymoron?) while I was next door purchasing wahoo steaks and scallops. About $50 later, we jumped back into the truck but we could easily have spent about four times as much in these markets purchasing a whole bunch of their tasty-looking seafood. The RV freezer got filled up today. Neither store had a plastic de-veiner for shrimp so Peggy generously processed the chubby little guys with a sharp knife and fingers. Shrimp Scampi for dinner tonight.
We curtailed our exploring early today so we could go home and relax before our travel day tomorrow. We did take a stroll down to the beach behind our RV park so Peggy could get her shoes wet in the Gulf of Mexico. Peggy also forged on and went to a nearby Schlotsky’s where they had Cinnabon rolls but no bagels. If there was ever a proper name for a place that sells bagels, it seems Schlotsky’s would fit the bill.
We shot a few pix. You can see some of them if you click here

I started the day by dumping our waste tanks. After all the bad stuff had gone down the sewer hookup, I did my usual pipe washing routine when I spotted some alarming defects in our 3 year old sewer hose. After that, the first item on today’s agenda was to find an RV parts store and replace the soon-to-be-embarrassing-if-not-replaced defective parts. We headed to a place called Ron Hoover RV & Marine here on Galveston Island where we soon found the name should be Ron Hoover Marine because they had no RV supplies. A nice guy at the desk told me that Ron Hoover has two locations and only 10 miles away was Ron Hoover RV & no boats. $50 later, we were out the door with a new 20′ system just like the one I am replacing.
A couple years ago we passed through this area and stopped at a Galveston landmark, the Moody Mansion. The folks operating the place at that time only offered accompanied tours a couple times a day and it did not work out with our schedule. Now we are back in Galveston with ample fooling around time so we drove over and walked up to the admission stand which is located in the adjacent garage. Now the Mansion has self-guided tours with little electronic doodads that explain what you are looking at when appropriate.
The Moody family seemed to own a good bit of Galveston with interests in cotton, shipping, insurance and banking along with most of the other really profitable businesses in town. They accumulated considerable wealth and bought the Mansion from a lady named Willis who started building in 1895. In 1900, the Moody family moved in for an eighty year stay.
The Mansion is pretty impressive from the outside. Exterior walls are built from limestone block and clay brick. Interior walls are mostly beautiful woodwork with a considerable amount of casing and molding around everything. The walls in a couple downstairs rooms are padded fabrics with ornate designs. The main bathrooms even have bidets in addition to toilets, massive cast iron tubs and showers and marble sinks. There are whistle tubes to communicate with the butler’s pantry, an elevator, a dumbwaiter and both gas and electric lighting. The bedrooms are spacious. One bedroom even has a big tub across from the bed. The dining room is particularly opulent with amazing woodwork on floors, walls, doors, windows and the ceiling. These folks had a nice house.
There are about 30 rooms you can wander through on the first and second floors. The basement and third floor are not open to the public. I understand the third floor was never really completed on the interior and was not really used by the residents. There was ample living space for a big family using just the first and second floors. The basement must have housed the kitchen at one time because there is a dumbwaiter in the butler’s pantry that only goes down. The house must have had a great architect because the systems were state-of-the-art for 1900. Two furnaces in the basement (coal and wood), central ventilation, central heating, electrical and gas distribution and full water and sewer plumbing are installed in addition to the whistle tube system. The occupants must have been comfy.
The Moody Mansion is on Broadway/J Street/IH-45 at 27th right in the middle of town. Entry fee is $12 a head.
A few pix of the house can be seen if you click here

After yesterday being spent in the city, we elected to go off into nature today. Not far from our RV park is another free State of Texas ferry that will allow everyone except those with fuel cans in their vehicles to board and ride across the busy shipping lane leading from the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston Bay. We are staying on the Galveston side but not 20 minutes after we boarded we were driving off the ferry onto the Bolivar Peninsula.
Bolivar Peninsula is actually a long sand bar between the Bay and the Gulf. We drove east on TX-87 through some little shoreline communities where most of the houses are built up off the ground atop columns, some of them more than 20′ high. Must flood around there. About 50 miles later, we turned off on some side roads to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.
Anahuac sits in the middle of an enormous flat area and is riddled with ponds and waterways. The water here must be full of tasty stuff to eat because thousands of wading birds, ducks, geese, cormorants, coots, roseate spoonbills, turtles, gallinules, ospreys, songbirds and alligators all were busy feeding. There is a great loop drive around a big marsh called Shoveler Pond and we liked the scenery so much we circled it twice.
By the time we were done exploring, it was late afternoon so we headed the 60 miles back to the ferry but not before spotting a big group of javelinas grazing in some farmer’s field. When we stopped to take pictures, they bolted for the brush. The ride on the ferry was enhanced by the addition of another fabulous Texas sunset. The sunrises and sunsets here in Texas have been stunning.
For some birdy and ferry pix, click here

Peggy had the choice of where to go today and she chose downtown Galveston. We began our drive by going to the furthest northeast point of Galveston Island and gazing out over the shipping channel that leads from the Gulf of Mexico into Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay and up into the Houston area. Many anchored and some moving freighters in addition to a monster dredge were spotted. The dredge seems to be clearing out the sand from the channel bottom and piping the spoil over to the beach along Galveston’s Seawall and Pleasure Pier shoreline a few miles west.
We soon retraced our steps back into the city of Galveston and took a long cruise down Seawall Boulevard which has many businesses and hotels on one side and the Seawall, the Pleasure Pier and the Gulf on the other. Near the pier we found the business end of the dredge pipeline where many pieces of equipment toiled to distribute the spoil onto the beach. They had to work fast because the pipe was spewing out enormous volumes of wet sand in a continuous stream.
Along the way we spotted the Gumbo Diner and their sign touting their beignets, basically really tasty pieces of fried dough with powdered sugar on top. Once inside, I noted they also serve chicken fried steak which I am on a quest to find the finest example. It ain’t at the Gumbo Diner but their garlic mashed potatoes, fries and fish were very tasty. The beignets were also pretty tasty but I am quite sure they are bad for me and maybe everyone.
Since Peggy was driving, we then started a chaotic but rewarding amble through many Galveston streets, admiring the spectacular architecture of the buildings in this little coastal town. There must be 1000 really gorgeous houses in superb shape and probably twice that number that are, sadly, deteriorating. Although most of the residential structures are two-story rectangles, the architectural wizardry used to make each one unique is astounding. There must have been a plentiful supply of good architects here in the early 20th century.
Seawall and house pix can be seen if you click here

Today was a travel day. We loaded up our stuff and departed from Bay View RV Park in Fulton and headed mostly east toward Galveston Island. It was about 185 miles on Texas back roads and it was a great drive. Our Garmin took us down a couple roads that were not too snazzy but we were on well-paved TX-35 most of the way. Near Galveston, we turned south on TX-6 and followed it all the way to Galveston Island. Passing through the city of Galveston we drove by many gorgeous old houses built back in the early 1900’s. A few miles later, we pulled over at the Sandpiper RV and backed into our spot.
At this time, with our Good Sam discount, a spot in the park costs $41 a night. The park only has about 40 spots but it is right on the beach, has cable TV, wi-fi, full hookups and paved spots. At the time we arrived, there must have been some excavation work in progress on the beach which resulted in an overpowering stench of crude oil and crap. Peggy asked the lady at the desk if there was a dead and rotting whale on the beach but she said “no.” Fortunately, either they covered up the stinky layer or the wind changed and the stench went away.
We were on the road more than 4 hours during today’s drive. That is about the maximum time we are willing to drive in one day. After setting up the trailer, we crawled inside for some extended lounging. We will go explore Galveston tomorrow.

There were no entries on our “to do” list so we went exploring along the Intracoastal Waterway, Aransas Pass and across the Texas ferry at Port Aransas. Most of the drive from Fulton to Aransas Pass is through open coastal marsh although there are some residential sections. The homes on the sand hills and atop pile foundations are quite nice. The houses in the low spots are pretty dingy, maybe because this coastline gets hit by hurricanes and storm surges that only leave the fancy houses standing.
At Aransas Pass we turned southwest across a bay and marshy area sprinkled with oil drilling equipment, including two enormous ocean drilling platforms. They appear to be the largest pieces of equipment I have ever seen. A standard 82-ton American crane with a long boom was parked next to one of the platforms and it looked like a toy.
Adjacent to where the platforms were parked, we boarded the free ferry across one of the passages from the Intracoastal Waterway to the Gulf of Mexico and disembarked into the town of Port Aransas. The weather was kind of crummy with light rain so we took an exploratory drive around the Port Aransas area without too much getting out of the truck. There are quite a few really nice homes but most of the places seems occupied by substantial beach houses, most of them at least 10′ off the ground supported by numerous wood columns. I guess residents only store what they can afford to lose on the first floor because the ocean does make periodic unwanted incursions into this area during hurricanes and storms. Those with houses built on grade swim.
Despite the rain, plenty of sea birds were present for our enjoyment and we spotted what appeared to be groups of bottle-nosed dolphins cruising around the ferry slips and nearby saltwater lagoons. Many Texans were out fishing and we saw some that were having good luck when working along the weirs adjacent to the ocean passage.
We finally grew bored with exploring the streets around Port Aransas so we re-boarded the ferry and headed back for the Bay View RV park in Fulton. I’m glad I dumped the stinky tanks yesterday because otherwise I would have been sitting out in the rain doing it today. We will depart from the Rockport area tomorrow. The scenery is good here, particularly the live oak forests. The wildlife we saw around here was amazing in its diversity. The seafood is pretty good, too. The park is okay for the price but their sewer systems and wi-fi are shaky.
We got a few pictures along the way and you can see ’em if you click here

Today was a day for mundane, miserable chores. We started the day with our usual enriched coffee and showers but soon had to knuckle down and take care of business. We wrote and addressed our mail, Peggy did some laundry, I dumped the tanks into the park’s partially blocked sewer system, we went to the Lack of Activity Center to access the internet and send in blog entries and photos then we drove to the post office and sent the mail.
After a short drive down the Fulton and Rockport waterfront, we went to a grocery store down here called HEB. It seems that all the locals congregate in the HEB so they can obstruct shoppers by blocking access to anything you may want or idly standing around the cashiers so even exiting the store is challenging. Prices in the HEB are not that great but they do have a fabulous meat section extending across two walls of the store. They must love sausage here because there is an abundance of varieties, mostly with the words “mesquite” and “jalapeno” on the packaging. The rest of the day we spent making Peggy’s fabulous beef stew and watching movies. We are so boring.

We had no chores today so we elected to go exploring. We decided to head east about 35 miles to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The roads are nice, two-lane blacktops all the way to the Refuge and we were able to drive substantially slower than the posted limit. We were attempting to spot unique local species but soon found we would not need to look hard to see kestrels. There were lots of them perched on the power lines awaiting creatures too stupid to remain motionless around these predators. They are not large but they maneuver like fighter planes and seem quite well fed.
We finally pulled up to the Refuge’s Claude F. Lard (no kidding) Visitor Center and showed them our Federal geezer access card and were told to move along without coughing up the $5 entry fee. We had just driven away from the Lard Visitor Center when we spotted our first alligator lounging alongside a big pond. He appeared to be grinning, maybe awaiting the next sucker.
We continued on the big loop road that passes through the Refuge, stopping at some viewpoints and a massive observation tower that allows vistas over the oak forest to be seen. From the tower we could see some distant whooping cranes, ruddy ducks, egrets and great blue herons. We noted a few cara-caras, some of them dining on formerly slow prey. Deer were browsing along the loop. Many northern mockingbirds perform aerobatics in and out of the surrounding brush, frequently under the gaze of the kestrels. Black Vultures patrol the skies. More alligators relaxed near ponds next to the road. It was a nice drive.
On the way out of the Refuge, we spotted a nice nine-ringed armadillo rooting around for tasty bits in a pasture next to our route. These are truly bizarre, albeit well-armored, creatures. Aransas NWR is a great place to spot critters and we had a great time.
See some pix by clicking here

Every so often, our magnificent Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup truck and geezer transporter needs some preventative maintenance and today was the day. We drove Charlotte down to Minit Man 10-Minute Oil Change in Rockport. Almost immediately, the guy running the show came out, directed me into an appropriate bay and sent a flunky into the inspection pit to drop the drain plug. They topped off all the fluids, filled up the crankcase, put the proper air pressure into all the tires and had us on our way in about ten minutes. Good name, I guess.
We followed up on our chores by taking our Vornado heater we bought in 2014 in Coos Bay, Oregon, to the local mailing center to ship it back to Kansas for repair or replacement. It sort of crapped out a while back and, considering the exorbitant price for their heaters, we thought we should take them up on their 5 year guarantee.
Even returning it is problematic. Pesky consumers, like us, are required to call Vornado’s Disgruntled Consumer Abuse Line to get a pre-approval to return their failed products. When eventually connected with our personal abuser, numerous questions were asked, like the unit’s serial number, another number from the bottom of the failed component and which side I dress on. Only after this painful but necessary series of steps will the manufacturer e-mail a pre-paid mailing label to us to print, carry around and ultimately securely fix to the box we use to send the heater to the reluctant manufacturer. We did not save the original box so the mailing company only charged us $17 to bubble wrap the cull unit and box it up for pre-paid shipping.
We left with vague, recently-screwed feelings but soon they abated and we took off on a slow drive around the peninsula which separates Copano Bay and Aransas Bay. The road is a mostly-paved pathway along a slough and the Gulf of Mexico and many smart Texans or Jack Texans have built impressive estates with big architecturally inappropriate houses erected thereon. Other Texans have fashioned more rustic estates with decaying single-wide mobile homes surrounded by rusting junk and moderate piles of trash. Some of the trailers have been upgraded through the addition of unreinforced ashlar masonry structures entirely supported by the foundationless mobile home’s sturdy framing. There are many forms of interesting construction here.
We completed our circle by rewarding ourselves with tasty seafood dinners at Fulton Seafood Cafe and Deli. Peggy had Cajun grouper that she said was okay and I had the shrimp scampi which was great. Only about $45 later, we split and made our way back to Bay View RV Resort and the Barbarian Invader.
We got a few pix you can see by clicking here

Today we stowed all our loose stuff, hooked the Barbarian Invader to Charlotte and departed from Colorado River RV Park in Columbus. Because of our TT membership, our cost to stay for the last week was $0.00. Colorado River is a great campground with views of the river and tons of animals to watch.
We drove south for about 3 hours on Texas single-lane blacktops most of the way and it was splendid. The countryside is gorgeous, making a slow transition from hilly oak forest to flat tidal marsh near the Gulf of Mexico. The flat lands near the Gulf are peppered with sloughs, dikes, ponds and estuaries and the wildlife certainly changes with the environment. Up at Columbus we saw lots of deer, cardinals, fat yellow-bellied squirrels, warblers and common grackles. Near the coast we encountered cara-caras, great blue heron, snowy egrets, whooping cranes, ruddy ducks, lots of kestrels and the ubiquitous grackles.
We eventually ended up on US-35 and pulled off into the Bay View RV Resort in Fulton. Fulton is a tiny town next to Rockport which is a bit larger than a tiny town. On our last pass through this area, we stayed at this park. In 2015 the management assigned us a spot that, because of some maintenance and grading issues, made it impossible to level our fifth wheel. We drove to the office and bitched and were promptly awarded a different location which was level, roomy and overlooking the lake.
This time, the grumpy girl at the counter assigned us to Space 131 which was substantially too short for our 34 foot long trailer, had no place to park our tow vehicle and also had a sewer connection cleverly located under the adjacent tenant’s outdoor porch carpet and boots. Fortunately for us, a campground employee named Chuck drove up in his golf cart and noted there was a problem. He called the grumpy lady and we were miraculously re-assigned to Space 192 which is spacious, has a visible sewer connection and is located perfectly for us to get a great satellite signal.