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.

Sea Rim, Days 2 and 3

When we arrived at the campground office at 8:25 a.m. on the next day, our campground lady had great news. We could stay at our current site for two more nights. I paid up, unhitched, and went on an 11 mile hike on the beach with Callie. When we came back, I wanted to do something special for supper. The campground lady recommended a place called Roadaire Roadhouse for really local shrimp and live music. About half-hour drive away, we managed to find the place. With temperatures in the 80’s, full sun and no parking in the shade, it was not a good place for Callie to stay in the truck. We went to plan B, which was a grocery store called Food Marketbasket (or something like that). 

I bought two pounds of gulf shrimp, fettuccine, garlic, jalapeno, tomatoes, and mushrooms and cooked up this dish in the Brew Hut, washed down with Shiner Juicy IPA.

That night the wind howled all night long, although there was no rain. On the next morning, the beach was gone. I mean it had literally disappeared under water. The strong offshore winds blew the waves right up to the grassy sand dunes. A woman riding an atv who helps maintain the beach told me that she would have needed a boat to do her job that morning.

Due to the inaccessibility of the beach, Callie and I walked the boardwalk and some of the day use area roads. One area was called the Blue Crab Day Use Loop. It lived up to its name, and gave Callie something to think about.

The high tides also washed up a dead alligator. This one was partly eaten by the time we arrived.

There were still plenty of live alligators moving about. In this photo, you can see the two bumps, which belong to the eyes of a large mama alligator. The one bump in the foreground of the photo is one of her babies.

Momma was not happy to see Callie and I standing on a picnic table taking pictures. As she moved towards us in a big hurry, I stopped taking photos and retreated to the parking lot.

That concludes our time at Sea Rim State Park. We continue west-bound on the gulf.

Making Friends

Last night, a long-time friend asked my wife whether or not I would make any new friends on this trip south.  My wife laughed at that and told her that maybe I would talk to some people on the road, but it wasn’t likely I would make new friends. Of course, my wife is right. 

Most people who are out here full-time or even part-time don’t really seem to be out here to make friends.  They might talk a bit about things in common, but then we al move along in whatever direction we are headed.  I met a nice guy named Charlie who has been on the road for a few years.  Originally from Minnesota, he’s headed back take care of doctors’ visits and business.  He is a retired long-distance trucker who lives in a Kia Soul.

I met another unexpected friend on the beach early in the morning while walking Callie. This friend didn’t have much to say so I turned around and headed the other direction.

He/she was about 3-4 feet long.  I asked a fisherman whether gators are rare on the beach.  He said, “Yeah, I never see them here.  Except for the last two weeks, they’ve been showing up, including a dead eight-footer.

This little fellow was alive and had moved off the beach when I walked through a couple of hours later.

You never know what you’re going to see on the beach.

I think I discovered the world’s largest piece of sushi.  It was about two feet long.

I’ve been spending my days taking long walks on the edge of the waves, reading my Kindle, and generally relaxing.  For supper, I had boudin, a Cajun specialty featuring seasoned rice and pork in a sausage casing.  It tasted better than it looked. Ideally, one would heat boudin up in the oven, but the Brew Hut doesn’t feature an oven, so I steamed them in my cast iron skillet.

Indian Creek Recreational Area

The thunderstorms started after I fell asleep and continued all night long.  Callie and I took a short walk along the river after the sun came up, but the North Little Rock neighborhood outside the rv park was a bit sketchy; I don’t run as fast as I used to, although I would hope that Callie would serve as a deterrent to anyone with bad motives.  When a dog terrorizes women and small children, you would hope that she would come through for a real bad guy.  I considered walking across the Clinton Park (metal) bridge, but that seemed to be a bad idea with thunder and lightning in the immediate area.

We took off south about 8 a.m. and followed Hwy 167 through periods of torrential rain and some small hail.  There were a few road signs that caught my eye.  One attorney advertised:  “One call, y’all.”  There’s a guy in Milwaukee with tv ads that say “One call, that’s all.”  Tickled my funny bone but I have a former attorney’s sense of humor.

A sign outside a rural church proclaimed:  “People use duct tape to fix everything; God uses welds.”

Eventually, we made it to Indian Creek Recreational Area, southeast of Woodworth Recreational Area.  The park employee said she had plenty of openings on a Thursday night and hooked me up with a beautiful waterfront campsite for $25 (10% over 50 discount).

This is the view from my back window:

The park employee did warn me to be careful about going out after dark near the water.  We have entered alligator country.  With more rain expected, I will probably be tucked in by sunset.

I’ll use this opportunity with electrical hook-ups to recharge everything, dump my tanks and prepare for some free camping without hook-ups on the Gulf of Mexico.