Wednesday, May 12, 2021

May 12, 2021 Ferry Princess

 

May 12, 2021
 

 

It was noisy in the night so I snuggled with my humas.

Bang!!!  Around midnight, a huge thunderstorm presented itself.  Loud bangs, and lots of lightening.  And we were dry and went back to sleep.  When we woke, we had to wade through ‘Lake Hannah’ to get to the truck.  I carried walking shoes to the truck, wearing flip flops as I sloshed through the water.  But at least it wasn’t raining now and I could get a walk in.  As I headed to the beach, I saw that the parking lot there was totally under water.  What fun!

When I got back, we decided to actually turn on the TV for the first time on this trip.  Apparently, a pipeline got hacked and gas in the southeast is in panic mode.  Oh well, not much we can do about it now.  If you don’t hear from us for a while, we may be stranded on some roadside in Alabama or something!

We readied Hannah and started a new adventure.  When we drove into Corpus Christi yesterday, we took a lot of the freeways we would be taking today on our way out.  Lots of traffic, small quick turns… not ideal when towing.  So we decided to try the ferry across Aransas Pass.  Based on the map, it would drop us right at highway 35 which is how we decided to travel north.  No freeways.  And we are soooo happy we did that.  It literally saved us a boatload of time and energy.  The crossing is only about a quarter mile and it was easy peasy!  The road from the ferry landing is a rural road with occasional structures.  There are more bridges and water crossings.

HWY 35 heads north, parallel to the coast.  From the road, for the most part you cannot see the water, but you know that it is there.  It is rural, passing through small towns.  We see RV parks here and there but what you don’t see is all the toys associated with beach activities.  No paddleboards, kayaks or even boats for that matter.  Maybe because it is a gray day, cloudy with occasional rain, the activity level is low, but based on what we see, it just seems to be a laid back area all the way up the coast. 

It is a pretty ride through farmlands, wetlands, over rivers and through old, tiny communities with tiny houses on huge properties.  And of course… at least one Dairy Queen along the way…  It is quite cool today, not even 70.   Quite refreshing.

At Angleton, we catch 288 south and decide to drive up Galveston Island.  There are dozens of oil refineries or maybe hundreds of them, or maybe millions of them.  We will fill up our tank one last time before leaving Texas!  So far, fuel has not been a problem.

At the end of 288 is Surfside Beach.  This is where we turn north.  Every house is on stilts, and they are in every color and shade of color you can imagine, a la Caribbean.  Blues, greens, yellow, purple, and all sorts of fun colors.  And all of them are hurricane ready.  This is the theme as we drive up the island.  As we approach the actual city of Galveston, high rises come into view.  This is a tourist mecca.  Hotels, restaurants and colorful condos line the boulevard on the west side.  On the east is the gulf and a beautiful promenade for walking which stretches for miles.  Parking is paid for on your phone, but what if you don’t have a smart phone?  Isn’t that discriminating?

From here, we had a choice…  drive along Galveston Bay which means navigating into Houston and all of its busy freeways, or taking a 3 mile ferry ride to Point Bolivar…  Since we are so experienced in ferrydom, the decision was easy.  Spouse was a little disappointed that we were not in the very front… until the ocean spray started hitting the forward vehicles!  We still got spray though.

We found an RV park a wee ways up the road and parked ourselves.  Spouse washed the truck.  Poor guy!

I am still feeling the affects of the f’n blood sucking varmints.  We saw a nature trail on Galveston Island but scoffed at it as we passed it by.  We were not going to give those ‘BSV’s more of our blood.

Today, my glasses did not fog up when I went outside.  Yes, a beautiful day it is…

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