RV adventure travel

Camping and adventures at Galveston Beach.

After our brief visit to San Antonio Texas for a friends wedding, we buzzed out of there on I-10 making our way to Galveston Beach for our evening stop over.

After about 2 hours out of Houston I-10 came to a crawl. After finding that it was not going to open up anytime soon we got off the expressway into the Texas nowhere lands.

Now I’m an RVer I tend to prefer the non-interstate routes, but then again I’m usually not in a hurry like I was on this trip, and Fred seems to be the Interstate type these days (at least somewhat). But the frustration even got to him and we began navigating through wee state and county roads to get an alternate way to Galveston Beach. My little handheld GPS unit (a Garmin etrex legend) is a cheap one and nothing to write home about when it comes to finding roads and routes, but it does have the basic state roads on it, and tells ya where ya are, and how far to whatever waypoint, and which way (its a very “kiss-rule” kind of unit). This wee gadget was coming in handy and we managed to navigate around the traffic mess, and around Houston to Galveston Beach. The Beatles No Where Man played on the radio for a bit to really set an appropriate mood.

But alas about an hour before Dark (as we were loosing sun this time) we pulled into Galveston Beach State Park and set up our tents.

Now the State Park along with everything else that is Galveston Beach had been torn up with the hurricanes a few years back so it had taken some research to find out that it was even open.

We arrive and find a pay station and campsites with these little concrete bunkers for the picnic tables. The campsites had water and power and there was a dump station for your RV on the way out. But alas, unfortunately I didn’t have my Oyster Can (RV) this trip and it was this night while tent camping at the State Park that I would really miss it.

But heck, we had just rode through lots of nowhere so we go cruising up the beach for food.

We came across Nates Seafood Bar, and order-up beers and seafood. I had this seafood combo thing with Oysters, Shrimp and the like, while Fred had a dish with assorted kinds of shrimp. We both enjoyed the heck out of our meals..

So we stop and get a 12 pack on the way out and enjoy some of the night time beach. We chatted and wandered a bit, messed about on my portable laptop and just relaxed. Ya see there wasn’t much to do that evening at the park or in Galveston Beach. Eventually we zonked out in our tents.

Now being that this campground was on the beach, we had staked everything down well and battened down the hatches. It was a good thing too, as about 3 in the morning I was awaken by the sound of whooosssshhhhh whoossshhhhh whooosssshhhh. It was a storm a blowing in. The wind beat the tar out of the tents, and it rained. My tent held up fine and I just wrapped my head in a sheet to shut out the sounds of sleeping in a wind tunnel. But alas Fred didn’t get any sleep and said that his night was like trying to sleep in a kite (not to mention his air mattresses had died on him). I thought of my Oyster can RV and how nice it would have been to have had it that night, but alas no.

We were up early in the rainy am about sun-up with Freddy grumbling “Galveston owes me a doughnut”. So we got the closest thing to a doughnut we could find and some coffee and headed out to catch the Fiery at the end of the island.We pulled the little Kia rental onto the free fiery and crossed over to the Bolivar Peninsula. A lot of salt spray later we exited the fairy and began our drive down the peninsula.

We found that much of it was just not there anymore. We could see the shells and remains of alot of houses, stores, and more. There were lots of make-shift RV areas/parks that seemed to have just sprung up like rouge weeds taking over a garden. You could tell that there was little attempt to make or re-make these RV areas into decent RV parks.

Along with the RVs you would see brand new, freshly tacky houses being re-built. and we laughed at the sign for Sand castle Construction (we found it a fitting name).

Now there was at one time a road down the entire peninsula apparently, on the Texas State map is has the road in dots, with the words “temporally closed” on it. We had thought, hey , with all the repairs I wonder if its opened up yet? What the map should read is completely gone, and the rough remains of the Peninsula road led to bits of the Peninsula that were once there but now were beach and ocean. That little place really took a beating in the hurricanes and it still shows it. But hey, it has oil, and lots of it. We saw a little oil well and pump on almost every other acre of the place.

We zoomed onward off the Bolivar Penninsualla toward New Orleans (and after a phone call for news to the Guest house, we decided that we would repeat our fun in New Orleans approach with a visit on the way back.

A Galveston Beach Slide Show

A brief visit to San Antonio Texas

We joked, if we ran into the Knights who say Ni and they demand a shrubbery we could give em Texas as there are so many leagues of them there.

Yes, its a big and boring drive to San Antonio. We were racing the sun as we buzzed through Houston after miles and miles of Louisiana swamp and Texas shrubs, we finally saw the horizons of Houston. It was a scenic route through there all right, as the entire Houston Horizon is covered in refineries reaching to the dead heavens bellowing blackness. But the site was actually a welcome one after all of that nothing on Interstate 10.

We buzzed onward though in our race to beat the Sun to San Antonio, we did not. We pulled into my friend Richard’s place an hour or so after sun-set. You see, were were set to attend his wedding the next day. So we chatted, caught up and such that eve, and crashed in the living room.

Neither Fred or I slept too well that evening, so we were both a bit flustered this time. So we got up to head to the Walmart (found thanks to google earth and my wee garmin gps unit). There we got goodies that we had left at home, some nice stuff to wear to a wedding, and other knickknacks.

But we kept our eye out for a place to get Breakfast tacos and there it was: Fajita Taco Place Mexican restaurant. And we proceeded to order up. And I must say that this little Taco place was one of the coolest things in my brief visit to San Antonio. As the Tacos were quite a tasty treat. and the place was really affordable. You got a choice between Corn or Flour wraps, and all kinds of yummy salsas to help flavor and spice things up even more. These wonderful large Taco’s were a 1.39 a piece. Yay for cheap and yummy!

We return from Wal-mart and face stuffing refreshed and ready to take on the task of seeing our friend’s wedding. and wishing them Bon Voyage. (it was a small ceremony with just friends and family and such. ) A cake and drinks afterward and some all night fun and chatting wrapped up the evening.

Then in the morning, it was off to the Beach with us, Galveston Beach that is as we had a line of some tent camping there.

but first it was a stop off downtown San Antonio for a peek at the Alamo and the famed river walk.

I really enjoyed the historical walk around the Alamo. People had made it out to be small, but it was not tiny at all by my standards. and I toured the grounds and took the pictures I could get away with taking. Various signs and documents gave us a run down of the historical value and were educational by filling in cool details, while we also enjoyed the artifacts symbolic of the history. Its a quick visit, and our idea to buzz in and get on our way was going to work out fine.

But alas , we had to go see that San Antonio River walk thing too. So we asked around at the Alamo and found that it was just through that big hotel over there. So we walk under the Hilton and there it is:

• the famed,
• the pinnacle of WhoptieDOness,
• the most Hoidee of the Toidies,
• the oh so hyped (by a number of people),

the San Antonio river walk.

Yes, a number of people had told us how great this was, and how it was a San Antonio must-see given the quickness of our stop over. But I don’t think any of those people took into account our personalities. Ya see, The San Antonio River walk is rubbish. Its like a crappy-ass hotel shopping mall with some fake looking Six-Flags like river stuck in the middle of it. It had tacky over priced shops and bars, and a little tour-boat ride down the wee-bit of river. After the hype, well, Fred and I felt jipped. So perhaps I’ll be one of the few to say, don’t bother with the River Walk.. Take a walk around town and see some of the cities’ cool older architecture if you have time to blow, that is a much better use of your time than hanging around the gimmicky theme-park-wannabe rubbish that is the San Antonio River Walk..

Well we buzzed that town, now it was on to Camping at Galveston Beach, then (maybe) back for another visit to New Orleans for some more fun.

A San Antonio Texas Slide Show: