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