Galveston Again

As planned, we traveled back to Galveston to spend the day. The Sea Turtle Rehab center was closed because of their efforts to help with the Deep Well Oil Rig disaster from June. Instead we headed to Galveston Island State Park where trails are for hiking and bird watching. They also have camping right on the Gulf - I don't know - a little too out in the elements! The walk was brisk, a tidge cold and windy, didn't see many birds and was puzzled as to why a trail was called Clapper Rail Trail until one of the interpret signs showed a Clapper Rail bird! Dah. And, we saw one! Went back into the city proper to spend time again at the harbor and found a huge cruise ship was loading to depart within an hour. That ship is huge! We were alarmed when we first drove into the city to hear gunfire. Turned out that the town was re-enacting the Battle of Galveston of January 1, 1863. Only 1 week later because of New Years Day the previous week. Lots of people, the city of Galveston has been restored to the 1860's architect. Lovely. We should have spent more time walking the shops and stores, but oh well. We then drove over to Clary's Seafood Restaurant - the main reason why we wanted to get back to Galveston - we figured it was 16 years since we had been there - and our idea of what we had experienced was different. As you say, you never can go back. However, the food was outstanding. Same table, same owner and waiters, was delicious. We had remembered the inside as alot of red decor. Hurricane Ike wiped them out - left the building intact but took everything inside and out to Galveston Bay. So, of course didn't look the same. It took almost two years for the restaurant to reopen, and we are glad we visited it. Memories.


We knew of a storm coming in last night and did it come! High winds, RV shook with the 40 mile hour gusts, then the lightning and rain came in about 4am. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep last night. It's still raining and very windy right now, so we'll hunker down today and just be a veg.

Galveston

Yesterday we went to Galveston (it's an island) to sightsee. We first went to the harbor where there is a museum dedicated to off-shore oil drilling. Well, what can I say? They need to do some big-time PR because of the recent disaster of the oil rig explosion this past June. Dave felt that the museum really didn't do justice to what is going on - the equipment that you saw was very old, just painted, didn't show what the living quarters are like - just pictures, what they did show was well marked, just was catering to the oil business and how great they are. We got a much bigger wow factor by just watching the harbor activity, oils rigs in for service, pilot boats taken pilots to ships to guide them in,tugs, boats, ferry, ships in dry-dock, etc.

From the museum we headed over to the Gulf - they call it the seawall - and we walked along the beach for awhile. This picture - if you can see the guy in red hugging the seawall - we assumed he is homeless. Did see a number of folks like this. This seawall has sustained tremendous damage also. After walking the beach we headed to a Mexican restaurant we had eaten at many years ago. Was still just as good. We saw where Hurrican Ike had taken it's toll on Galveston - there were many buildings that were abandoned and were either in the process of being torn down or had been torn down and was now just vacant land. Everywhere we looked there were billboards saying that if you had "Ike" damage, time was running out (this by law firms, naturally). Even at the entrance to the campground we know that two buildings were torn down due to the damage from Ike. I want to talk with the office folk - they have lived here all their lives and I want to hear what it is like during a hurricane, do they leave? do they stay and how do they stay? how bad is insurance - if you can get it, etc. Just an overall picture. Still want to go back to Galveston one more time before we leave - there is a NOAA Sea Turtle rehab center there and we want to go to Clary's Restaurant.

TEXAS!

As my brother-in-law Danny said, "It's a BIG state!" He was an over-the-road 18wheeler truck driver and told me about how it took 2 days just to cross Texas on his way to San Francisco. And he's right - seemed our 170 miles was a forever drive. We left Louisiana yesterday morning, had a quick hike to Clear Lake, which is about 20 miles southeast of Houston and 20 miles north of Galveston. We are right by the Johnson Space Center - all streets and roads are named for constellations/stars/rocket boosters/spaceships, etc. We love this warmer weather - it was 75 when we got settled yesterday, last evening got to 43. Everyone is bundled up, we have our windows open during the day, they freeze, we thaw. It's good.

The campground we are at - Marina Bay RV Resort - is very very nice. Concrete pads, 2 pools to swim in, very lovely bathhouses if you want to shower there, we look out to a river with all kinds of birds, and - expensive. We are paying 3 times more here than we did at the previous site for same thing - electric, water, sewer hookup. That's okay - this is like staying at the Ritz when you could have stayed at Motel 6.

Today we are heading to Galveston - I want to dip my toes into the Gulf and do sightseeing. We have been to Galveston before, had super memories, and are looking forward to going to Clary's Seafood Restaurant. They serve seasoned boiled shrimp in a huge bowl - their main finger food before you even get an appetizer. Yi! Will stay here for a week then head again more south towards Corpus Christie - probably will stay put for about 2 to 3 weeks.

Coushatti Casino and Resort

Yesterday we went to the Coushatti Casino just north of where we are camping. Our first impression was - wow, the colors. This casino is owned and operated by seven families (clans) of the Coushatti Indian Tribe of Louisiana. The motiff and decorations were all Indian flare. Very lovely. There is over 100,000 sqare feet of gaming areas, slots, live poker tables, craps, high rolling areas, etc. Very impressive. However. Since it is Indian owned and maintained, and the Federal government has no say in the way it's run, smoking was galore! We eventually got to the smoke-free area but by then we reeked of smoke, our hair stunk, and our eyes were watering big time. We got a huge WOW! factor when we walked through the smoking area (you had to to get to bathrooms, food, drinks) and saw some folks sitting at a slot with a cigarette in their hand, oxygen tube stuck in their noses, and their other hand just hitting punching the buttons. Amazing. There is a discrepancy (on my part) as to how much we won/lost and I think about 35 dollars total. You know when to hold them and you know when to fold them. We quit before it got too bad.

We had their buffet lunch and it was really good. Every kind of food was there for you - Asian, Creole, Cajun, good ole American, salads, sandwiches, pizza, you name it and it was there. I think Dave's two favorite dishes were the Jalapeno okra and greens and the chocolate (bark) candy cookies. I think mine was the collard greens and then the carrot cake. Our stomachs hurt so bad after ward - I don't think we ate or stuffed ourselves, but hurt for hours. All in all - it was fun. I think it's been about 10 years since Dave and I have been to a casino and probably will be another 10 years! Don't like to see money go away like that.

Biggest Tupelo Tree? sure!

What a bust! We drove and drove and drove down these little roads and found nothing. Back tracked, looked again, nothing. I am trusting it's still there, oh well. Dave needed some pieces parts for those lights he was installing so we headed to Lake Charles and to Lowes. While he was there I was surfing the Garmin for sights to see and found 2 museums right in downtown. Off we went. Both closed. We drove the lakeshore drive where there are enormous mansions facing Lake Charles (it eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico). Lake Charles is a major hub for petroleum and off shore drilling as well as fishing. Lots of traffic going up and down the river which connects the Lake to the Gulf. The boat houses that they erected on the lake side of the mansions were huge some looked like at least 2000 square feet of party house with their boat up on slings. And some boat houses were built with at least 30 foot tall pilons supporting it - when a hurricane comes through the water rises that much - the boat house can float up the pilons and not get washed away. Across the lake (it's about a mile wide) there are huge river boats that house casinos. Again, just like most places in the States, have to float out about one foot on the water every couple of hours.

The casino we are going to today is on Indian land, the Coushatti Indians own a big portion of land here. From what some of the other campers have said, this casino (there are 17 total around Lake Charles) is the best. We plan to spend the day there although I don't like to gamble - seeing our money go away so quickly. We will only go in with a certain amount and play till it's doubled (GREAT!) or bust. Then partake of their famous buffett for a late lunch/early dinner.

We have decided we are very done with Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Enough of bayous, humidity, very poor environment. Need to get to Texas which we will do this Wednesday. Hopefully will be there, around there, for at least 2 months. And it's much warmer.

Dark and spooky

We spent yesterday doing things around the RV, specifically Dave had another project - installing more reading lights over the couch. I cleaned out closets, washed some things, did a little of this and that - traditional things that my mother said on New Year's Day, "make sure you are active and doing things that are important to you to do this next year, like cleaning, pay bills, cook, talk to family, go for a walk, etc." I did all this, and made pork and saurekrat and dumplings in the crock pot. Mom is smiling from heaven!

At 4:30pm we all lost power here at the campground. Good thing the food was done by then or we would have been waiting for a very long time. By 8pm it came back on, we think something major happened down the road since all the cell towers in the area and the community as well was dark. We had no cell service, no electricity, no heat, no nothing. This place was really dark! Some of the Class As (motor homes) cranked up their generators to get the electricity going - probably were watching some football game or such and had to keep it going and also to give them heat. Temp outside was nice at 60 during the day but as soon as the sun went down - brrr. Glad the electricity came on because generators are noisy!

We also decided not to go to Lafayette to the Tabasco headquarters at Avery Island - it's about 1 1/2 hours from here which means we would be in the truck for 3 hours. Instead we are heading a little north today to go see the world's larges Tupelo tree in Kinder. At least it's outside. Tomorrow is definitely casino day - we wanted to wait until all the weekend folks have left. We are looking forward to the day there.

Humbled on the Bayou

The weather was beautiful yesterday so we decided to head out to the Sabine National Wildlife Area south of Lake Charles. This area is the largest refuge in Louisiana. At the southern end is the Gulf of Mexico. We drove the Creole Nature Trail south and got to Holly Beach on the Gulf, we were shocked at how high the homes are built - made of cement pilons and they were about 3 stories up at the base of the home. And these homes were not cheap! Looked like haciendas of Mexico. Stucco, cement, very pleasing to the eye. But of course, the rest of the town was pure devistation from all the hurricanes. Mostly Katrina, but others that have come through. All you see are foundations of homes or homes totally destroyed and off foundations, extremely large fishing vessels swept up on land and at the ports. We have heard about how bad this area gets with hurricane destruction, but to see it after so many years - amazing. If there is a home now, it's built up on stilts and made of cement. And, there is ALWAYS a large 5th wheel RV and a doulie (double tires in the back) truck sitting at the home. This is for - hitch up the RV, get your stuff in the RV, and get they heck out when a hurricane is approaching. If you look closely at the picture on the left you will see a huge fishing vessel on it's side at the port. We saw this same size ship way up on land as we were driving around. Were very surprised when the road we were traveling suddenly ended and you had to take a ferry across to pick up the road and continue. We think that due to hurricanes a bridge could not withstand the power of nature, therefore you had to be ferried across the river and this river empties to the Gulf about a mile down. First time we got a ferry ride for free. Lasted about 3 minutes once the ferry left one side and coasted across. Saw some huge ocean going vessells there in Cameron, and this river is part of the Intercoastal Waterway.


We got to Fausta's Cajun Restaurant for dinner and it was super. I guess I can't eat that kind of food - my stomach rebelled almost immediately. Today we will do some things around the RV, going to have some champaign tonite for the New Years, then tomorrow again sit - supposed to be severe thunderstorms coming in - don't want to stray too far. Temp in the 70's and very humid. Think Sunday we will head to Lafayette to do some touring. Happy New Year everyone!