Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Spent last night battling an inordinate amount of mosquitos that came through Roku’s kitty door. I must have smashed 20 just against the wall and mirror while reading in bed. Grrrooooooss! I hate it worse when they splat blood, knowing it’s mine! TC was doing the same in the “living room” and they were even biting him, which is not usual. My suggestion is to put screen material in the kitty door to keep the boogers out; Tony’s idea is to go somewhere without mosquitos.
Today we lamely planned eating at the much lauded “Don’s” in Scott, LA, changed course midstream and went to view the Acadian Village in Lafayette. The houses were interesting, but I didn’t get a feeling for their lives, as the explanation part of the “museum” was sparse.
Now it’s on to Don’s for lunch. Googled it, there are three Don’s, but we know this one is right on 167, so head there. Ended up at the one downtown, headed back to 167 and found Don’s Seafood and Meat Market. No idea, but they said they make their own boudin so in we went. A meat market, little store, hot boudin steamin’ in the pots. We were also told we must try their cracklins, as they have meat on them. Now, these aren’t the kind of cracklins you get in a bag, these are real pig skins, with a skim of meat. I took a bite, handed the rest in its napkin back to the counter chick, have been trying to get the taste out of my tongue for two hours. Blech! We will be having boudin sandwiches tomorrow though.
Had epic crawfish etoufee tonight along with the fried pickles.
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| Fried Pickles |
Tomorrow we’re off to Texas, almost 2/3’s of the way home!
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Reluctantly leaving sweet, mosquito and feral hog-ridden Palmetto State Park, with both gps’s set for Beaumont, TX. It was a lovely drive through crawfish farms, spring-green fields full of beef cows and horses, crops and luscious lawns. The sky was brilliantly, 80 degrees sunny. Clouds and rain came and went. Traffic backed up, we went over tall bridges and saw flat land and rivers. It was delightful.
I was reading the news on my tab and it reported that there had been a little shoot ‘em up in Beaumont. Hm, sounds like an interesting town to be visiting. Stopped in the Texas Welcome Center – “Don’t Mess with Texas!” – and asked our host about the gun play, her reply: “I heard that the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce employees took the gun away. Now that’s the kind of people I want to be around – not afraid.” OK, we’re in Texas. Picked up a few camping pamphlets and booked.
Found Gulf Coast RV, right off I 10, behind a fence; very organized, cold pool. Damn these hot weather people and their unwillingness to heat their pools in the winter! Kind of a large parking lot, spaces with grass in between. But, breakfast, which we forced ourselves to get up for consisted of waffles in the shape of ….. Texas! We also talked with several tables of very nice people, comparing stories, geographies, places seen. Yum yum.
Drove south through more flat, green country. Galveston was a particularly pretty place, and yes, I Googled the lyrics and sang. What we didn’t know is that spring break had struck, and the traffic was slow going, the bikinis were lotsa showing. Seemed more a family spring break than the college kind, but maybe the young came out at night to suck face. Be careful kids!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Have you ever been in a physical place, standing in a geographic area, in which you feel as if you’ve arrived home? You go through life thinking, “I have a home in Burien/Seattle/Poulsbo and that is my home, that is where I am comfortable, the only place I’ll be comfortable, the only place I’ll call my home.” I felt that way at San Luis Pass County Park.
The sites are hidden from the graceful, curving San Luis Pass Bridge, and from the road, AND from the parking lot. We entered the office to confirm our registration from the day before – I had called ahead and they couldn’t find us – meeting up with the office woman, and five 7 – 10 year old boys holding two buckets. As I straightened stuff out, Ton-Ton asked what was in the buckets, and the little brown-skinned sunburned sandy barefoot smelly boys showed us the little fish they had used a cast net to catch. They ranged in size from an inch to about 4”. They asked the office woman if they could feed the fish, and we turned around to see the three big aquariums with fish in them that they were hopping on one foot to approach. She led them behind the tanks and pretty soon we were all crouched in front of the glass, watching as various larger fish snapped up the poor boogers. The boys, of course, LOVED watching the carnage. I was pretty grossed out, and Tony was intrigued, like all boys are. What an introduction to our new home-for-a-night.
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| San Luis Co Park, Freeport, TX |
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| San Luis Co Park Fishers |
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| San Luis Pass, TX |
We had a pull through so didn’t have to detach the car – heaven. As we settled in we noticed the HUGE expensive rig next to us was getting a wash and wax by an Hispanic guy. Trailer on the other side had a picnic table full of kids and a dad. We all exchanged hellos and got down to setting up for the night. Kitty Boy was let loose and happily prowled around, mostly underneath Blue. After he’d had a little freedom we plopped him back into the rig and headed with our chairs for the beach.
We sat out there in the sun that we had so missed for the last month, watched the dolphins shooting out of the water, the kids running wild, boats fishing their own “sweet spot”, and many, many fishers from the park. It was a beautiful feeling of utter peace and happiness, on my part anyway. I did a long walk around this little beach to see what kind of shells were there – not much, just a bunch of small, dirty conchs. Most of them had tenants, but I found a few without. I thought.
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| Dolphin at San Luis, TX |
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| Dolphin at San Luis |
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| Dolphin Fin at San Luis, TX |
Our “dad neighbor” and his kids came out to collect their fishing poles and we had a lovely long talk with him. He said he and his 15 year old boy sometimes stay out fishing until 3:00 in the morning, catching or not. He’s worked a non-union job at the refinery for 13 years, makes ok money, but it’s a roller coaster. I gave the kids WSF tattoos which the little ones liked.
We also met a group of grandparents with their grandkids who were fishing and shooting the shit. I talked with one woman who grew up around Freeport and says they come back to this park all the time. She was a delight. We talked about our shared love of the show Swamp People – she is CRAZY about them all. We told her Tony had seen Willie in a Walmart, and she said she got RJ’s autograph.
Going back to blue to cook up our boudin, we talked with “Joe”, the rig washer, and his handler Ray. It was by now about 7:30 and he’d been working since 1:00. He had also driven from Houston at the instruction of Ray to do this job. We don’t know what he got paid, but are betting there was no overtime involved. Ray treated him pretty dismissively; he wasn’t mean to him, just played the boss role as second nature to the relationship. When Ray wasn’t around, and he wasn’t much, Joe told Tony it wasn’t the best relationship, but he had been working for Ray for two years. He knocked on our door to say goodbye, and gave Tony his name – which wasn’t “Joe” by the way – and we bid him good luck and good health. Nice guy. The next morning TC helped Ray get a door open on the rig, and told him how hard “Joe” had worked, how nice he was. Ray agreed without much enthusiasm. We did like the fact that Ray’s skinny, tall wife knew more about the rig than he did.
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Are staying in an RPI (our $10 a night club) park with the hopeful name of Bay View RV Park in Rockport-Fulton, TX. It’s a big mother, and the greeting wasn’t exactly cheerful. We trundled off with our packet in hand to site # 195. Lots of windblown oaks and big old spaces. It also boasts the much-coveted TWO pools and hot tubs – one each for adults and kids! We were right across from the bathroom/laundry, plenty of folks filling the spots although it wasn’t crowded, big family across from us. It had promise, but alas, that promise has not been fulfilled. Old park, office staff stand-offish (tense from buying this piece o’ shit park perhaps, hm?), one pool and both hot tubs closed, other pool in hideous shape, but swimmable.
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| #7 Seems Important to Me..... |
The site geography is well done, lots of trees, no bugs, friendly people. Easy in and out to the sweet towns of Rockport and Fulton for lots of fun in the sun at the beach. It is nice to take a swim, although when we went in the hillbilly family was in, splashing and yelling and throwing stuff. They were having a blast and I like that, but I want an adult pool back! It was decidedly murky by the time they all left, and we attributed that, as usual, to the urine factor. Another odd thing - a pet cemetary. I think Sparky killed himself over someone naming him that.
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| Bay View Pet Cem - Sparky |
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| Kitty in Bayview Tree |
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| Kitty Boy in Bayvew Tree |
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| Kitty Boy in Bayview Tree |
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| Kitty Boy in Bayview Tree |
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| Rockport Beach and Swimmers |
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| What I found on the Beach at Rockport |
Friday, March 23, 2012
Finished with Rockport-Fulton area. Bayview RV Park was mediocre, needs so much capital poured into it to bring it up to par. New owners are struggling to do this. Weather wasn’t stellar during our stay – one really nice day – but the beach was great.
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| Kitty Boy Walk at Riviera, TX |
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| Blue and TC at Beautiful Riviera Park |
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| Where's the Kitty Boy? |
The only thing lacking is a pool, but there is a beach at the picnic/fishing park across the street. Unfortunately, as with many places in the south, the beach was filthy with litter – not a few napkins or bottles, but probably several industrial bags full. I just don’t understand this toss it out the window or leave it wherever you are attitude. It’s insufferable to us, so we clean up where and when we can.
Off we drove, reluctantly, south again to San Benito and the First Colony Mobile and RV Park. The RV Park Review website was correct, once again – friendliest bunch of people we’ve met since Naples in Maine. AND! The pool is actually functioning, as well as the hot tub. The only thing about the place that’s odd is the parking - it’s like parallel parking on a median between two streets. Doesn’t leave much room for putting chairs out or the awning, and we’re a bit worried about Roku being on the street. The rest of the park is a big open field, so I don’t know what’s worse. Pics and more on this camping fun later.
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