We crossed the state line into Texas and drove as close to the coastline as we could. We continued to see a lot of places where homes had been destroyed and many, many homes are built on stilts. We took the Bolivar Pennisula and took advantage of the free ferry over to Galveston Island. Again we saw dolphins playing around the ferry docks. Weather was cool but dry today. Galveston Island is rather long and the town itself is a decent size. We parked in the historic area and walked around for a while. We drove over to the Seawall Road and it’s a lovely drive along the water with all the hotels and touristy things on the other side of the road. Probably pretty busy in summer. The beaches here are alright; not as nice as we saw in Florida. The sand is a little coarser and sand coloured rather than white. The surf is less for sure and the beach is narrower and not quite as inviting. We walked along the boardwalk at dusk and there is a huge pier which reminded us of Santa Monica Pier with rides etc. except you have to pay to even go down the pier.
We spent the night at Walmart (despite our intel advising that the security people will tell you to leave) and it was no problem. Next day we walked the seawall for a few hours before heading further southwest. We drove out of town that afternoon and got to the village of Surfside on the western end of the island and here we drove out onto the beach. It was only for a short section so we went back to the road and found another road that lead to the beach. After chatting with a couple of fisherman, we learned we could camp on the beach so that’s what we did. It was not warm by any stretch of the imagination but after spending a little longer talking with them, we went into the rig, had a drink and watched the waves from inside! That night was cold but very soothing to hear the surf all night.
It is definitely colder here than we expected. Our RV is not insulated so we sure pile on the blankets in the evening and for bed. We turn on the furnace every once in the evening and then again in the morning to get the courage to get out of bed.
Since it was too cold to hang on the beach, we drove inland as Doug needed to get to one of his company’s offices so we chose Houston. We expected gas to be cheaper here in Texas but it’s not the case. We stopped to get some bodywork done on the truck by a guy on craigslist and then got to Doug’s office and then spent that night and the next in Houston. Doug walked his own 50 miler on the full day we were there and Fran ran some errands and caught up on her reading. It did warm up here in Houston with temps near 20C/69F. The sun shone brightly and the solar panels finally hit 100% again.
Next city was Austin with a couple of stops enroute. Here we got several things done including some additional security measures on the truck part of Tigger, laundry, propane and the like. It was COLD here; down to the 20’sF!
Friday the 9th, we flew to Bozeman, Montana to Christmas to Serena in Big Sky.
