Visiting the Texas Gulf Coast

After leaving Louisiana, we headed for the gulf coast of Texas. There are 8 state parks along the coast and 6 of them have camping. Since we’d already been to Galveston Island SP two times, we decided to check out some of the other parks.

We started with Sea Rim SP in Sabine Pass.

I read reviews (usually) and nearly everyone complained about the nonstop barrage of mosquitoes year round. And, yep!, they are that bad!! But knowing in advance made it much more bearable. A liberal dose of bug spray and a bit of tolerance toned it down to mildly annoying.

The Gambusia Nature Trail Boardwalk is named for the small gambusia fish you will see in the marsh. It has several interpretive signs and covered benches along the .7 mile trail.

We saw plenty gambusia, along with a couple water snakes and some turtles. We only saw one small flock of American Coots. In case you ever wanted to know, a flock of coots is called a commotion! Most people assume coots are ducks but what makes then so different is the fact they do not have webbed feet…

This picture is from the Cornell University "All About Birds" website
This picture is from the Cornell University website “All About Birds”

You can drive along the east and west beaches for miles, with the center section reserved for non-motorized travel. While we did in fact do that, I’ll be darned it I know what I did with the pictures!

We set a day aside to go into Sabine Pass to see the lighthouse (which I believe is technically in Louisiana).

We were getting ready to leave when we saw the Lucky Johnny trawler heading out into the gulf.

Our time at Sea Rim was over much too soon, but that means we’ll just have to go back another time!

Our next stop was Mustang Island SP outside of Corpus Christi. This was a place that had been on my To-Do list for years and I was quite excited about our stay. Unfortunately, my excitement vanished when we arrived. Not because it wasn’t everything I had hoped. But because the transfer case in my Jeep had grenaded somewhere along the way. We now knew what that sound was we had heard 😦 He discovered when the t-case grenaded, it also took out the front drive shaft, ripped out several wires AND put a hole in the fuel line. Oh joy! He did all the repairs he could do at the campground and found a shop at our next stop to complete the job. So….he spent our time there “mechanic-ing” and I read books. I did manage a walk on the beach, but my heart just wasn’t into it but then I found something weird in the surf…

No one seemed to know exactly what is was/is, so I’ve dubbed it my Texas Gulf Coast Alien.

The only other picture I took the entire 4 days was an early spring promise of a beautiful yucca plant flower bud…

Looking back on it, it could have been so much worse. We could have been 5 miles down the beach when it happened or on the highway doing 60 mph. But knowing that did not help how I felt at the time! So,with high hopes of a repaired Jeep, we headed off to Laredo. More about that next time!

Where Have You Been the Last 2 Years?!?!?

I know, I know. We’ve been missing in action as far as updating the blog, but I am going to try to re-motivate myself. We’ve been lots of fantastic places and I’ve struggled with where do I pick back up. Do I go back to where we have been? Or do I just start with what’s been happening recently? The “plan” I’ve come up with is to get you all up to speed on where we are, what’s going on and what’s coming up first, then, throw in random places from the past. So with that in mind, here goes…

2024

We had a major change at the end of 2023, we opted to stop selling Christmas trees for Hayes Farms. It was a tough decision. It was a huge part of our lives for the last 5 years. We had gone to Florida in October with the plan of selling trees, but, things change. We still sell fireworks for New Years so we started 2024 in Florida. We spent our first night back on the road at our favorite Harvest Host, Southern Grace Lavender Farm. It is always a pleasure to stay there and it breaks up the long drive out of Florida. Then we headed west to Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, AL. From here, it was an easy drive into Mobile. We missed their Mardi Gras celebration by 1 day, which was kind of OK with me. I’m not a fan of big crowds or impossible to find parking. After doing a Google search, we found The Oyster City Brewing Company

This is Dane, our bartender. Apparently taking a selfie, before taking our picture sounded fun. It’s not the first time it has happened and I’m actually a bit disappointed now when it doesn’t happen.

We walked the boardwalk trail passed the “hiding tree”. It is said that it was a hiding place for Confederate soliders trying to escape capture after loosing the battle of Fort Blakeley….

Next, we headed to Palmetto Island State Park in Abbeville, LA. In case you don’t know, all Louisiana state parks offer a camping discount for people 62 and over! Score! It pays to have an old man for a husband, hehehe. My main reason for stopping there is they have 3 ponds/lakes that are connected by a kayak trail, but the weather had no plans to cooperated with me. Don’t let the patches of blue sky fool you, it was cold!

Instead we decided to check out the local, come on! you know what’s coming…brewery. Adopted Dog Brewery in Lafayette did not disappoint!

Josie

There are many impressive live oak trees in the area, but this one really stood out to me. It definitely has a desire to live!

Up next, 17 Days to Cross Texas