3/25 Galveston Beach #2

The weather was much better today, so I decided to do some sightseeing.  As you may have seen in the news, there was another oil spill in Houston/Galveston Harbor after one oil tanker hit an oil barge mid-ship and caused a rupture in the tanks on Saturday.  Since then, the harbor has been closed.  They did let one big cruise ship come in on Sunday, but no other ships have been allowed in or out while they clean up.  I counted 14 big ships in the Gulf today waiting to come in, but I am sure there were more than I could see.  Can you see them lined up on the horizon in this photo?

 

Ah, some actual sunshine started breaking through!  It was a little warmer, also.  This is Pleasure Pier, but it is closed except on weekends, so I could not get any cotton candy.  Darn.  Actually, I am not sure they even had any.

Galveston is really an island, connected by a long causeway.  The opening to the Port of Galveston and the Port of Houston is five or six miles from this pier, down on the northeastern point of the island.  There is a park there, but the cleanup crews have it closed to the public--for their safety, they say, so I could not drive down there.

While the ports are extremely industrial with lots of refineries and oil tankers, the island itself is very much a seaside resort town.  You would not know that all that is just  a few miles away.  Here is a photo looking down the beach to the west, from the pier.

The island is very pretty in most places.  Nearly all the seaside houses are brand new, mostly because the old ones were swept away by Hurricane Ike.  Also, they are all up on stilts, with only parking and storage underneath.  Most are painted in very pretty pastel colors.  These are not too far from the state park where I am staying.  (The state park is about 15 miles from the harbor, so I have not seen any oil at all on the beach, either in the built-up area near the piers or in the park.)

 

 I picked up a Jimmy John sandwich and a hand-packed pint of my favorite Ben & Jerry's mint chocolate chunk, so I am in good shape for dinner tonight!

Just before sunset, I decided to take a beach walk.  Love how the sun lights up the houses in the distance.

I think this is a willet.

And I know for sure this is a laughing gull.  You can tell it by its coloring and the tiny bit of white around its eye.

I think this is a sanderling.  A good time to see shorebirds is right at low tide, which is when I always like to walk on the beach. 

 

One thing I have already learned about the sand here:  it sticks to your shoes like crazy.  You cannot just bang your shoes together and have it fall off.  The first day I walked out to the beach, I wore my good sandals and had to wash them off when I got back.  Then I had to wash my feet in my shower to get the sand off of them!  Today, I wore my Croc sandals and stopped in the park shower room to stick my feet under the shower.  Course I got my jacket wet turning the shower on, but at least that didn't have any sand on it!  

3/23 Galveston Beach State Park, Galveston, TX

I had never been to this part of Texas, so thought it would be a good place to explore for a few days. Once I got to the San Antonio area, I noticed that there was green grass and leaves starting to pop out on some trees.  Nice to see an actual Spring! 

Unfortunately, the warm weather and sun of the western part of Texas was not in evidence when I arrived at the beachfront campground, just a lot of fog.  The state park is about 10 miles away from the town area of Galveston, so it is nice and quiet here farther down the beach.  However, there were a couple of unofficial greeters to meet me.  These are laughing gulls guarding the entrance. 

This is what used to be the back part of a large oval campground with 50 sites.  There were actually three such loops in this state park, but Hurricane Ike wiped out all of the buildings and most of the campground.  Only 12 sites in each of three campgrounds were usable.  The roads are not in very good shape, but at least they are there.  They have rebuilt the beach store and registration office, two restrooms, and the nature center across the road, but need funding to rebuild the campgrounds.

The fog cleared this morning, and the drizzle stopped for a while, so I decided to go out for a walk.  I thought all the warning signs were a bit much, especially since the green flag sign said it was calm and good swimming!  (Made this picture bigger so you could read at least some of the signs.)

 And just onto the beach was this unique sign.  Never had to worry about snakes in dunes before.

One nice thing about state parks, especially in bad weather, is that beaches are often deserted.  I chatted with a young couple with two small children, but other than that, I had the place to myself.

 

I started to take a walk, but the rain started again, so I headed back home where it was warm and dry!  Did not see any tar balls, but there was another oil leak in Galveston Harbor yesterday, so there is still hope and I will continue looking for souvenirs.

 

Tomorrow I pick up a rental car and will do some sightseeing.  I have a ton of food I need to eat, so no grocery shopping needed.  I try to carry a lot of everything, and I really stocked up a couple of days ago at a grocery store in San Antonio I really like.  There are some museums and a nature center to visit, plus I want to walk around in the area where there are some shops and a public beach in the town. 

3/21 Potter's Creek Campground, Canyon Lake, TX

This is a place I have been to before and find it is a very pleasant place to spend a day or a week.  It's a U.S. Corp of Engineering facility, which means it is half-price for seniors who have the federal pass that gets you into national parks.  I like to stay in COE parks because they are always well-maintained and have electric and water, and often even full-hookups.  They also tend to be in scenic places along rivers, dams, and reservoirs that the COE has constructed and maintains.  I have never yet found one I did not like!

Potter's Creek is quite a ways off I-10 but a pleasant drive in a rural, hilly area north of San Antonio.  worth going out of my way.

This one has a couple of woodsy areas, but I prefer a more open site, preferably grassy, where I can get a good satellite signal.  Good TV, good cell service for internet, and pleasant place to get some work done.  Here are some photos.  Notice that the camping pads are very large and spread apart enough to make for privacy, that is other than the tenters across from me who decided to party until 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  (You sometimes do get partiers on weekends, which is one hazard of camping, but I was leaving the next morning, so did not really care too much.)

 

I was here in November, 2012, and enjoyed seeing the very small Texas whitetail deer who hung around, trying to steal food from our table.  Ever had to shoo a deer away?  These were very persistent and not very shy.  Did not see them this time.

3/18 Balmorhea State Park, West Texas Oasis

I entered Texas today, and thought a picture of this was interesting:

Actually, driving along I-10 in Texas is pretty boring.  Most of it looks exactly like this, and you can drive hundreds of miles with it looking exactly the same.  Nice part is that the freeways are smooth, mostly empty, with a speed limit of 80 MPH, at least once you got past the mess around El Paso.

I did get off the freeway for the last 20 miles to the campground I had reservations at.  More of the same.  No traffic at all.

I was able to stop right in the middle of the road to take a photo of this interesting little chapel.  There are a lot of old windmills, falling down houses, and other buildings that go back to the 1800s.

This house was really pretty substantial, being made of rock with a tin roof.

Interesting little building, but what is a dive shop doing in the desert? 

Balmorhea is an interesting place.  There is NOTHING around this area, but more of that same dry Texas scenery and this state park. 

 

The reason for the state park is San Solomon Springs.  It is a natural spring with 33 million gallons of water flowing out of it each day.  The water is ancient and flows underground out of mountains 20 miles away.  A quick Google search found this site that has more explanation:  http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155855/

 

Way back in the 1930s, the CCC dug out the springs and built this large pool.  They left the bottom with natural rocks.  Unlike most pools, this was has a lot of fish and is up to 25' deep.  In fact, snorkeling or scuba diving are very popular here. 

 

The water leaves the spring and is used for agriculture in the area.  Pretty good current.



Don't know if you can see them, but there are a lot of little fish swimming here.

Surprisingly nice campground and picnic areas.  Actually, I have been here before, way back in 2012.

 

Not very many people around the little nearby town, but it is supposed to be busy during the hot summer.  I thought this little restaurant was cute with the cowboys out front.

3/16 Elephant Butte SP

I have not posted for quite a while, so here is an update:

• I left Rockhound State Park, planning on stopping at the Chiricahua National Monument, but had a really sore shoulder, and ended up getting it checked out in a nearby small town emergency room.  Found a decent campground for the night.  I was disappointed I had missed this mountain national monument, but someday, I hope to go back there. 
• Next day, drove to Elephant Butte State Park near Deming, NM, where I had made reservations for six days.

I had heard wonderful things about this campground, so I was very disappointed that I did not like it at all.  It even had excellent reviews in the campground review source I use.  So, the question is why other people liked this place and I did not.  Hmmmm.

Over the past almost two years, I have found that people who camp have a large variety of what they like in a campground, so I guess I should have asked more questions before I committed myself to almost a week in this place.  For example, I like an open site, away from trees or anything that will interfere with my satellite TV signal.  Other people like the woodsy feel and want lots of shade.  I also want electric service, and possibly water, although that is not as important because I can live off my fresh water tanks.  Others insist on full hookups, but that pretty much limits you to commercial campgrounds, while I much prefer state and national parks because you get more space between RVs and a lot more privacy.

I also like something to look at--mountains, lake, scenery in general. I spend a lot of time inside my motorhome because I almost always have work to get done, so it is nice to have a view.  I also like to be in a place with birds and other animals, and also with interesting vegetation.  (See my last post photos of flowers.)  I like to have a pleasant place to walk where I can see flowers and take photos.

Anyway, this place turned out to be horribly dusty with the sites not well maintained, so even they were dusty.  The lake was a long way away, and in between were nothing but pseudo-asphalt roads that had crumbled into dirt, and to get all the way down to the lake, you would have had to walk most of the way on sandy dirt roads.  The worst was a dust storm for almost two days with strong winds that made even stepping out of the door unpleasant. 

So I took a couple of photos, did some cooking, and got a LOT of work done!  Here are a couple of not-too-good photos. The first is taken during one of the dust storm days, and the last was taken the day I left when it was sunny and clear.

3/11 Rockhound State Park, Deming, NM

Yes, I am headed east and back home.  Spent a few days here, but did not find any good rocks. It was a pretty drive along I-10 getting here, however.

The campground is on a slight slope at the base of a mountain.  Nice view from my site up to the mountain and over the desert plains in the distance.

Those mountains in the distance are a very long way away!  And there isn't much in between, either.

This is a long view of the campground, from the road to Deming.  Love the isolation and quiet.  Well, except for the construction around the bathroom facilities that starts at 7:30 am!

I took a 1.1 mile walk on a hiking trail that circles the campground. 

 

Another view of the campground from the hiking trail.

 

Even though there has been hardly any rain, there are still some small wildflowers in bloom, but sometimes you really have to look for them:

 

This was a whole field of little yellow something-or-others.  Lots of birds on the trail, but I have no idea what they were.