Day 12 – Run Along the Brazos, Hometown Heroic Hurler, A Taste of the Gulf Coast

If you get up in the morning and run 3½ miles through the woods along the Brazos River, but forget to turn on your Strava, did you really do it? Anyway, it was already 86% humidity just as the sun came up and it was a very tropical feeling for this old guy from arid California.

We decided to drive down Highway 6 to get to Galveston Island. This highway goes through Houston suburbs such as Sugarland and Missouri City – in this section the highway is a little like an updated version of Beach Blvd., with miles and miles of strip malls and traffic signals.

The town of Alvin, TX is right on this route and when we stopped for supplies, we learned that it is also the hometown of the legendary Angels pitcher, Nolan Ryan. It says so right on the city limits sign.

The state campground on Galveston Island was booked for the weekend, but we got a night at an RV resort we found in the Good Sam book. It’s right on the beach a couple of miles away from the main Galveston beach. We tried some of the local seafood at an eatery up the road.

After dinner we took a walk to the ‘Historic Galveston Pleasure Pier’ – roller coasters, arcades and other thrill rides. The surly security guard at the entrance told us we could not get in without forking over $10 each, so we turned around and left. We took a short car tour of the old town section down by the cruise ship terminals. This looks like where all the people go to buy souvenirs when they disembark the cruise ships. On the way back to the campsite, we drove through some of the back streets and older island neighborhoods.

 

Tomorrow:  Lafayette, LA   

Day 11 – Barnyard Fauna, LBJ Ranch, Spanish Moss

Today’s update is being typed within our new ‘bug room’ next to the campfire, but more on that later.

We woke up before dawn this morning to the soothing call of the KOA rooster. When we stepped out of our Aliner, we were greeted by a group of hens gathered in our campsite. This was a considerably more domesticated form of nature than the one we had yesterday.

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Ranch is a National Park now and features a free driving tour of the grounds. Since it was just down the road from our camp and it was on the way to our next stop we took a look. The visitor center has interesting information and a short film about LBJ and Lady Bird. The ranch has its own airfield, complete with the presidential plane used to bring the president to the ranch. The plane is called ‘Air Force One Half’ because the air strip could not handle Air Force One (it had to stay at a larger airport while the smaller plane came to the ranch). The ranch is where LBJ was born, and it’s where he is buried.

The ranch is still a working cattle ranch (the cattle have LBJ engraved on their horns) and we had to stop the car for them a few times as they crossed the road. After our tour, and while we were traveling down the highway, we saw the effects of Lady Bird’s efforts to beautify the roadways (which was part of her larger project to ensure environmental protection nationwide) embodied by the many wildflowers in bloom.

Just outside of Houston, we left the highway for a couple of miles and arrived at Stephen F. Austin State Park. The humidity and the Spanish Moss hanging from the trees let us know we were now getting into The South. The park is green and lush and not crowded at all.

Karen checked out the wildlife bulletin board and came back with this report: beware of coral snakes, copperhead snakes, brown recluse spiders and black widows. Hey, I guess we really are in the south now! There’s lots of bugs here, too. So, we’re sitting in our new Coleman screen room. It’s a good thing we practiced setting it up before we came – it only took about two minutes to get it ready. We are also having a big campfire tonight. There were ‘burn bans’ at the previous two campsites and we want to use all the wood before we get into Louisiana. Also, this is the first night in nearly a week when the wind has not been blowing.

Tomorrow: Galveston Island

Addendum:  Cell signal was too weak last night to upload. We saw fireflies come out in great numbers right at dusk. The light show continued well into the evening. The ‘3-D’ effect of looking out into the woods and seeing the flickering lights from the grass up into the tops of the trees was amazing for those of us not used to seeing such things.

Day 10 – Snake in San Angelo, Venison Vendor, Historic Fredricksburg, TX

I got up early this morning and took a run through the various nature trails around the campground. I didn’t see any wildlife until I returned to our campsite and saw a 5’ long snake next to our trailer. After alerting Karen (she was duly impressed!), I snapped a couple of photos and sent them off to our retained herpetologist, George Blakely, to see if he could identify it for us. Within a few minutes, he replied with his opinion that it was a non-venomous Great Basin Gopher snake or a Bull Snake. That made us feel a little better, but we decided to hit the highway right after breakfast anyway. In the meantime, the snake wandered off in search of his own breakfast.

On the way out of camp, we caught sight of some bison that live in the state park.

We are trying to stay away from the major interstate highways, so our route is taking us in a southeasterly direction through central Texas. We continued down Highway 87 and saw more deer carcasses strewn along the road – that really gets the appetite going. When we reached the town of Eden, at the intersection with Highway 83, we stopped for gas. Right next door was a venison store, so Karen went in and bought some venison dry salami – this should make for some good snacking later.

Fredricksburg is in the ‘Hill Country’ near Austin. We did not realize until we got there that this is a rather historic area. Over time it has changed a little, and now it sort of reminds me of a Texas-style Solvang. German settlers have been in the area since the 1850’s and the town has lots of authentic German restaurants (most of them closed on Wednesday!) to go along with the fancy clothing and furniture boutiques. It also has a cool ‘five-and-dime’ store called Dooley’s that has many odds and ends you don’t normally see in today’s stores.

 

Fredricksburg is also the birthplace of Admiral Chester Nimitz, USN, who was a notable figure in the Pacific Theater of WWII. There is an extensive museum complex dedicated to the soldiers who were involved in the Pacific during the war. The museum even has the conning tower from a WWII submarine (the U.S.S Pintado) mounted on the lawn at the museum entrance.

Because the restaurant where we wanted to dine was closed today, we opted for the Fredricksburg microbrewery, where we had some locally-made bratwurst and sauerkraut to go along with some local beer and wine.

Tomorrow:  Stephen F. Austin State Park, San Felipe, TX 

Day 9 – Saucer Shaped Flapjacks, Vanquished Venison, San Angelo Scenery – May 1, 2018

The Cowboy Café in downtown Roswell, located right across the street from the Roswell Farm Supply Store, is the place where the locals get carbed-up for their workday. After a hearty breakfast of flying saucer-sized pancakes, biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon, we went east on the 380 toward Texas.

You immediately climb out of the pecan orchards and dairy pastures up to over 4000’ as you leave Roswell. After crossing into Texas, you go through the town of Brownfield, which should really be called Redfield since the freshly plowed cotton fields have a brick red color to them. Scattered among the fields are many oil well pumps, a few flaming methane pipes, and lots of huge wind turbines. It’s been very windy for the past two days and from the looks of the landscape, this is not an unusual occurrence.

Turning south on Highway 87, we entered some hilly country dotted with large groves of mountain laurel trees near the town of Big Spring (Karen checked some Wiki facts and found that the opening scenes of the 1969 film, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ were shot in Big Spring. 

From this town all the way to San Angelo I saw dozens of freshly-road-killed deer along both sides of the highway. It must be migration season or something. In any case, it’s not a good season from a deer’s perspective.

San Angelo State Park is on the reservoir of O.C. Fisher Lake. The lake was having a ‘bad hair’ day when I snapped a picture on my brief afternoon nature walk. At least I got a few good shots of the local wildflowers. Dinner tonight is Walmart rotisserie chicken and salad. 

No fire or BBq allowed. Burn Ban in effect.

Tomorrow:  The hill country of Texas.

Thru Texas- day 1

Well, we are out of New Mexico and dropping down into Texas from the north.We are headed South, eventually meeting up with Interstate 10 again. It seems I have become the keeper of the maps, navigator, reservationist. We seem to be spending more time in Tx than we planned, but that's OK. We have some interesting stops coming up.

Today's park boasted long horn cattle and bison viewing. I dont know what kind of cruel trick the State of Texas Parks is playing but the only ones we saw are of the metal, two dimensional type. Apparently, we are also to be on the lookout for mama fox and her kits and porcupines. Nature has chewed me up already. I have bites all around my ears, face and neck. Like Carrie Underwood, there will be no pics!

After consulting with Jim Mertz as to my choice of pie or carrot cake from the Cowboy Cafe; his urging that I "go with the locals' resulted in Pecan Pie for desert tonite. So much for clean eating and losing weight this trip! I may be on a quest for The Best Carrot cake....

The weather has started getting noticeably more humid, cant go as long without a shower!!