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.

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.

Sea Rim State Park

From Rutherford Beach, we drove west to Cameron, Louisiana. Our intent was to stay at the campground by the jetty to wash up, dump the Brew Hut’s tanks, and hook up to electric for a night. Instead, as we followed google’s directions from Cameron to the jetty, we ended up on a road with serious construction and low hanging electric wires.

A flagman informed me that I was on a restricted road and needed to turn around. He also said that the jetty campground had closed. Yeah, I could have called ahead, should have called ahead but didn’t call ahead. There wasn’t any easy place to turn around, so I executed one of those complicated turnarounds on a two lane, narrow shouldered road with a pickup truck and 16 foot trailer. I got back up to the main highway and crossed the channel on the Cameron Ferry.

I can’t imagine an easier ferry crossing with the Brew Hut. I paid the $1 fee, lined up behind the pickup truck on the right, and drove straight off the front on the other side. I then drove to Port Arthur, Texas. At Port Arthur, I turned south and drove to Sea Rim State Park (after calling ahead).

The daily entry at Sea Rim State Park was $10 and then $13 for partial hookups (electric, water, and dump station privileges). The lady at the front desk told me on the phone that there were three campsites left, and she would hold one of them for me if I arrived in the next two hours. There were still two spots left when I arrived. Site 6 looked too much like gator habitat to me. They do have gators in this park, and some of them are in the ponds around the campsites. I chose Site 15, which wasn’t the prettiest, but it was a nice big site with short grass all around. It was only available for one night, but the nice campground lady told me to check back at 8:30 a.m., and she might have a different site available for the next night.

While Rutherford Beach was very nice, the state park beach was amazing. More than five miles of beach to walk on, and leashed dogs were allowed on the beach. Callie and I had found our Texas happy spot.

Rutherford Beach

I stayed at Rutherford Beach near Creole, Louisiana from Friday until Tuesday. There was a lot to like about Rutherford Beach: free, weekly maintained dumpster and porta-potty, covered pavilion with picnic tables and charcoal grills, Cameron County Sheriff beach patrols, and miles of beach to walk.

As per my custom, Callie and I took long walks early in the morning (5-7 miles), read and lounged in the afternoon, and went to bed at sunset. Most days, I was able to use my solar panel to recharge and top off my battery during the afternoon. We celebrated the end of light each day with a couple of IPA’s, my Kindle, and some Netflix.

We did have a couple of bad things happen. Callie was attacked by an off-leash pit bull. Of course, she didn’t back down to the much bigger dog, and I ended up picking her up and holding her above my chest to keep the dogs from fighting. The pit bull kept spinning around me trying to bite Callie.  The pit bull's owner  was unable to get his dog under control by voice or attaching the leash. While carrying Callie, I walked over to their RV where the middle-aged daughter was able to leash the pit bull. We emerged relatively unscathed except for a long scratch on my leg from the pit bull jumping on me to get at Callie. Julia said that I shouldn’t have wasted good bourbon to clean the scratch, but it was closer than my first aid kit.

The other bad thing that happened is my laptop went on the fritz. It wouldn’t power up at all. When I gave it a rest and it did power up, the touch pad no longer worked. I couldn’t blog or do anything else. On a rainy afternoon, I drove up to Walmart and bought a cheap usb mouse, which did work with the laptop. Then today, when I turned on the laptop, the touchpad began working again. Oh, well.

Walking on the beach, I was struck by the struggle of life and death on the gulf. The life isn’t always easy to see, but death tends to show itself on what washes ashore. This sea turtle was covered with flies. I can only hope that it died from old age. I didn’t see any evidence of injury or trauma.

After the dog attack, it was time to move on to the Texas 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.

Louisiana Gulf

Today,  I had a bit more excitement during the travel day that I would have liked.  The drive to the gulf from Indian Creek was only about two hours.  About half-way there,google maps sent me down a road that was not a major highway (short cut).  Unfortunately, there was high water on the road, and a waiting deputy sheriff advised that I go back. 

Now, if I was in a car, that would be no problem to turn around.However, there was water on both high water on both sides of the road, and turning around the Scamp just wasn’t possible.  I needed to back up about a mile to get to a spot to turn around.  Fortunately, there was no traffic or people to laugh at my long distance backing.

Even on the major highways, there was high water on both sides, but the road itself was dry.

We made a big circle around the flooded roads and eventually made it to the free beach. The weather was cloudy, but it was comfortable for beach walking.  The second adventure came when I decided to let Callie off-leash.  She has always stayed close to me at home, but we aren’t home.  Callie decided that it would be fun to play keep-away from me and would jump away every time I got close enough to try to put the leash back on her.

Eventually, and fortunately, she had to stop for number two, and I swooped in and attached the leash.  Callie let me know that she didn’t think that was fair, but at that point, all was fair.  We had a nice afternoon of sitting outside the Scamp. I read a book and drank a Lagunitas IPA, while Callie captured flies in the air and ate them.

It’s raining again, which projects to be a frequent occurrence over the next week.  No matter, I can hear the waves and see the gulf out my back window.  We’re going to hang here for a few days unless something changes.