Brazos Bend State Park

We had a great time at Port Aransas.  On the day of our departure, we got up early for one more sunrise walk on the beach.

Then we were off on another adventure.  I hitched up the Brew Hut to the Nissan Frontier just like I always do.  Then I plugged in the trailer power connection, which governs the trailer’s brakes and lights.  No power.  I jiggled the connection.  Nothing.  That’s when I noticed that the wires were loose in the plug.  Actually, more than loose. Not connected at all.  Crap.  What now?  It was Sunday morning, and nothing was open.  We called an RV mobile repair service, but no one answered, and no one called back.

Finally, I went to the rv park office to see if they might have a replacement plug.  They didn’t, but a young man heard me talking about my problem and offered to rewire the plug for me.  I told him that I would I would pay him for his time.  The only problem is that he was busy with a whole lot of other things going on with his phone.  After 30 minutes, he followed me down to our site and did rewire the plug.  I watched him closely and gave him a second pair of hands when needed.  When he got to the end, he swore and told me that he messed up by not threading the wires through the plug before rewiring the connections. His phone was going off every 30 seconds, and he said that he would need to take care of something, but he would be back in no more than ten minutes to finish the job.  An hour went by.

In the end, he never came back, and we needed to vacate the site in thirty minutes because it was departure day, and the site was reserved.  I was very grateful that he showed me basically how to do the job and showed me the mistake that he had made, so I was able to get things put together myself–probably not perfect but everything worked the way it needed to.  We looked around for our helper on the way out, but he had simply vanished.  Julia called him my distracted angel.

So after the late start, we drove to Bravos Bend State Park for our last camping night together before Julia flies home, arriving during the late afternoon.  This park is a gem:  lots of hiking trails, well-spaced campsites, and abundant wildlife.  Camping in a 30 amp site was $25/night, and the separate daily entrance fee was $10. We had just enough time to go for a hike, eat dinner, and have a campfire.

We didn’t see any alligators on the first day, but Callie was on the lookout.

On the next morning, we hiked the Elm Lake loop and the 40 Acre Lake loop.  We saw at least ten alligators.  Some were far away, and some were very close up.  A big adult swung close by us and snorted loudly, sending shivers down our spines.  Generally, the trails were wide, which was a good thing.

At 40 Acre Lake, we climbed the observation tower and saw a huge adult streaming across the lake.  Then an even bigger adult. swam from the opposite side directly at the first one.  The two gators were well over ten feet long.  Just before they encountered one another, the first one stopped and turned around, while the second gave chase. There was no fight, but the second one was definitely staking out territory.  The photo below was taken from the top of the tower and shows the first alligator (center).  The second photo shows the two alligators nearly meeting.

Julia flies home Tuesday, and I start north on Wednesday without any specific itinerary.  I’ll update as I can.

Port Aransas: Sandfest

After leaving Padre Island, we drove to Mustang Island and Port Aransas.  This was the Julia-planned portion of the journey where we would stay at an rv resort and attend a festival. 

We spent more money that I would have liked, but we did have a good time.In Wisconsin, we have the luxury of good beer at nearly all of our festivals.  By good beer, I mean beer that has ample amounts of malt and hops and diverse styles.  Sandfest featured mostly Bud-style beers for $7/portion.  That didn’t work for me, so Frugal John bought a $12 plastic soda glass from the Pecos Pete soda stand (free refills all day).  Unfortunately, Pecos Pete’s assistants ran into technical problems with the syrup pumps so I ended up drinking a lot of sweet tea until the problems were sorted out.  We figure I had about 7 twenty-eight ounce cups of liquid in order to get my money’s worth.  I’m done with soda and sweet tea for awhile.  Julia had a couple of $7 Kölsch beers (a light German lager brewed at warmer ale temperatures).

 There was good music and lots of people.

The focus of Sandfest is  the sand sculptures.  The artist areas are divided into professional (with artists from all over the world), semi-pro, and amateur.  It was all great fun.  I learned a lot about the process from watching over a couple of days.  This was one of my favorites by a Bulgarian artist who appears in the foreground of one of the photos below.

I didn’t think much of the piece below in the beginning.  It looked like the artist was just creating a globe out of sand, but he was far from finished.  If you look closely, you can see that he created a hand wrapped (squeezing) around a melting ice cream cone with the ice cream representing the world/global climate change.

Here is a sand creation of sorrowful Abe Lincoln.  A Texan standing near us said, “He can’t believe we haven’t closed the southern border yet.”

We celebrated our last night in Port Aransas by dining on the second floor porch at the Bluewater Cowboy.  We ordered redfish and drum, along with sides of mac/cheese, rice pilaf, creamed corn, and local vegetables. As we were leaving, we saw this pickup truck.

Yes, the area is still rebuilding from Hurricane Harvey two years ago.  But the spirit of Port Aransas is strong.  I look forward to returning to visit someday.

We are on our way back to Houston.  Julia has a flight back early this week.

Update:  The Lincoln sand sculpture won.  The piece was entitled “Liberty Crumbling.”

Malaquite Campground

Malaquite Campground in the Padre Island National Seashore fit our needs perfectly for four nights.  While there were no electrical or water hookups, the gulf breezes kept the temperatures around 80 during the day and around 70 at night.  There was ample sun to top off the Brew Hut battery with our solar panel. The amenities were flush toilets, cold water shower (which felt refreshing during the heat of the day), fresh water, and dump station–all for $14/night and $7/night if over 62.  Of course the biggest attraction was the gulf view and wind protection provided by the sand dunes buffering the beach. No Verizon service, but I didn’t miss it.

On our second day, we drove twenty miles down the beach to Big Shell Beach which had small shells.  Little Shell Beach had no shells.  We found our biggest shells by walking a couple of miles up our own beach by the campground.  We also saw many crabs.  Julia wanted so badly to see a sea turtle, but the Turtle Patrol reported to us that only one had been sighted so far this month–none during our stay.

We found a little seafood shop with fresh local fish.  One night, I cooked red snapper.  Another night, we tried black drum.  Both were delicious.  I made French toast one morning that had Julia so happy that she performed seaside acrobatics.

On our one overcast day, we took the Port Aransas Ferry to get to Rockport, where we dined at Mac’s Pit BBQ.  I had the sliced beef sandwich, along with sides of bacon mac cheese and peach cobbler, washed down with sweet tea.

The manager was kind and welcoming, stopping to chat at our table when the lunch crowd slowed down.  In fact, he gave us his personal card, telling us that if there was anything we needed during our stay, we should call him.  I think that’s a first for me at any restaurant.

We ended our day at Rockport with Julia leaning into the wind.

Padre Balli Park

We enjoyed our four-day stay at Padre Balli Park–which was conveniently located to both Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore.  On Thursday and Friday, the area was moderately crowded.  We spent our time mostly on the beach, starting our hikes before dawn.

But as Easter approached, the crowds arrived.

On one day, we sampled the beers at Lorelei Brewing Company, which had  a delightful outdoor space.

On another day we went to the Texas Sealife Center where injured or diseased sea turtles and other creatures are nursed back to health and then released.

On Easter morning, we got up at 5:30 a.m.and attended a non-denominational Passion Play held for many years at one of Corpus Christi’s waterfront parks.

By Sunday afternoon, the beach was packed as tight as a parking lot with vehicles, dogs and people.  As campers left the full Malaquite Campground at the National Park to go home, we vultured a prime campsite protected by the dunes but still overlooking the gulf.  By Sunday night, the crowds had left, and we had the beach to ourselves.

Family Reunion

After taking the Bolivar ferry across to Galveston, I drove north about twenty miles and checked into the Tropical Gardens rv park ($20/night with Passport America discount).  I needed a couple of days to do some Brew Hut repairs/maintenance/cleaning to prepare things for my wife Julia’s arrival. 

Tropical Gardens was a very basic park that featured mostly full-time residents in older trailers; however, it was equipped with a shower and laundry facilities, along with full hook-ups.  Then I headed to Houston’s Eastlake RV resort, which was conveniently located to the Houston airport.  I’m not a big city person anymore, and Houston is a huge, sprawling city with terrible traffic and tollways that do not take cash.

I picked up Julia without too many problems and drove back for a late dinner of shrimp, pasta, wine, and a late night hot tub soaking. 

On the next morning, we pulled out under cloudy/rainy skies and drove to Padre Island.   The weather was overcast, and severe storms were predicted for that night.  We considered free beach camping but ended up checking into Padre Balli County Park's Campground.  Next to the campground, there was a restaurant and bar on the Bob Hall Pier.  We decided the price and location were right ($25/night).  We took full advantage by getting in a long walk on the first day and a nice dinner of oyster po’ boy, shrimp tacos, and good drinks.

The photo of the restaurant above was taken the day after the storms, which did turn out to be severe and gave the Brew Hut quite a shaking.  Julia felt bad enough for Callie to let her crawl in with us for comfort.  But by 8 a.m. the front had moved through.  The forecast for the next few days is for lots of sun.

Bolivar Peninsula

I left Sea Rim State Park  and followed the road back north to Port Arthur and then back south to the outer reaches of the Bolivar Peninsula.

Reviews at Campendium for Bolivar Flats free beach were favorable.  When I arrived mid-morning, there were wide expanses of open beach.  Several groups of horse campers were set up on the right side of the beach where camping is allowed for a $10 permit.

On the left side of the beach were several large fifth wheels set up back towards the sand dunes.

I asked a senior gentlemen with the horse campers where I could buy a permit, and he said that I could get one at any of the local businesses–8 miles back.  But he told me that unless I had strong feelings about camping on the right side of the beach, the left side was totally free.  He said that the horse campers all had permits because they liked to support the public beach.  If there had been a donation box/ or self-serve area for permits, I  would have kicked in my $10, but there wasn’t so I didn’t.  I pulled in behind the fifth wheel campers close to the sand dunes.

This is strictly boondocking, but with some benefits.  There is one porta-potty, and  a lot of trash barrels set up along the beach.  Also, the local sheriff’s department regularly patrolled the beach to make sure everyone stayed in line.
The beach was spectacular, and the horses were fun to watch too.

I did have a bit of excitement on the first night.  Just after dark, four horses escaped from their corral/pen and galloped close by the Brew Hut, drawing frantic barking from Callie who knew they needed to be herded back where they belonged.    Pretty soon, several kids came running after the horses, drawing more barking.  Finally, two pick-up trucks joined the hunt.  The horses ran back and forth along the beach, having a great time.  Eventually, the galloping stopped.  A young woman from the horse camp confirmed the next morning that all horses were returned to their proper places.

The wind blew and blew that night.  In fact, it blew so hard that my refrigerator flame went out.  I got it back going the next morning, and then the wind shifted to the opposite direction but kept blowing just as hard.  During these days, high tide was around 12:40 p.m. (I looked it up on the internet).  The waves were within about 20 feet of the Scamp door at high tide.  The fifth wheel trailers backed out of the beach right around 12:45 p.m. If they would have left at 11 a.m., I would have followed, but I had a pretty good idea that the waves were as high as they were going to go by 12:45.  You can get an idea from these photos how close the gulf was.

Bolivar Flats was a great place to stay for two nights.  However, after about a week of beach along the Louisiana and Texas shore, I was ready to get some of the sand out of the Brew Hut and attend to a couple of maintenance issues.  On the next morning, I hitched up and headed for the Bolivar-Galveston Ferry.