June 9 San Marcos to Port Aransas
Mileage 41303
We left San Marcos and headed for San Antonio. We got there about 1:00pm. We visited some old fort. I can't remember the name of it, but the Texans seem quite proud of it. I don't know why. Apparently they lost the battle, and all the guys in the fort got killed. Texans are weird.
I still like Hill Country. This part of the route heading south was drier, but still rolling and treed.
The San Antonio Riverwalk was quite nice. They did a great job with it. The fountains and waterfalls were quite ingenious and fun to look at. The variety of shops and restaurants is good. We didn't do the boatride, but we walked most of the length of it. We had lunch in a Mexican restaurant. I actually enjoyed the food.
It is so hard feeding Bob in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico…actually anywhere normal cause he won't eat peppers or chilis. Even in the German restaurant in Fredericksberg they had a Texan accent of green peppers and jalapenos. How about going to a Mexican restaurant and asking for no peppers?
I'd starve if it wasn't for the fact that every small Texas town boasts a clean, sparkling Dairy Queen staffed by young clerks with bouncing, perky……
We left San Antonio and decided to go all the way to the Gulf coast. The roads in Texas, although very good, are not well marked. We got lost three or four times on the way. Deb kept missing the turns when I accurately pointed them out to her. Finally, however, we got to the coast and Vincent got his first ferry ride. He was magnificent.
Bob was doing his turn in navigator position. This is a skill he will probably never excel at. Although he lived in Sunnyvale 25 years, I knew my way around better in 6 months. He doesn't know to anticipate the road and determine if the road number will change and where the turns should be.
It took us a while to find the RV park. We wound up driving about a mile up the beach before we realized it wasn't Texas 361. We finally got to the RV park around 9:00PM.
Sometimes the sand got pretty thick on our newfound highway. I had to keep it rolling. We turned back inland because it did not seem logical that all these businesses and homes would only have an access from the ocean. Sure enough we found a paved road. Guess who had been navigating?
You can tell we are not in West Texas anymore. There my vanilla wafers stayed crunchy. Not in Port Aransas.
One problem is at night that to get good ventilation in Vinnie we turn on the fan and the side windows then air sweeps over our bodies. But we are in campgrounds so we can't be naked which would be the first choice. So I went to Walmart (where America shops) and bought a medium sized set of PJs with skimpy top and shorts. The top is OK, the bottoms were XXL (jumbos). I unstitched the elastic and tied it around my waist in a big bunch. Our sex life has been greatly enhanced by the new outfit.
The heat is unbearable. The humidity makes your body sticky and wet all the time. It's as though the walls of the van are closing in on me. There is no escape. Deb won't let me use the air conditioner because she says it's unnatural, she doesn't like the noise, and we have to get used to the humidity. We haven't made love in two years. I think she's begun to put poison in my food.
Port Aransas - Gas - .919/gal!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 10 North of Rockport. Goose Bay Park
Mileage 41441
We did not go to far today distance wise, but we sure circled around it a lot. The original plan was to ride along the beach road down Los Padre Island. But guess what? It is windy again…plus the scenery is a little less than thrilling. It is marshy, flat grasslands and you can't se the ocean cause the sand dunes are in the way.
When we got up today Deb noticed oil leaking out of Vinnie. We found that the plug in our oil pan was very close to falling out. The dipstick in Vinnie, which is much, much longer than the one in Ken Wallich's car, showed no oil. If Deb hadn't noticed, the plug might have fallen out, and we would have lost all our oil. Good going, Deb!
(She made me type that. Lately, I have been getting very weak after meals.)
Can you believe it? They charge $6 to park on the beach here on the island. So we would not pay! We drove down to the National Park where we used our Golden Eagle Pass and got in for free. But it was a lot of grasslands until we got there. Don't hear me wrong! I am very glad they made parks. It had been highly overgrazed in the past and now it was lush.
The water was 86 degrees as was the air. Tons and tons of Sargasso grass washed up. More than the locals had seen for 20-30 years. Only a couple of Portugese Man o' Wars. No waves and lots of wind.
So now we are hungry. Found a little fish place along the road from the island to Corpus Christi. Bob had 6 fried foods; I had 5.
We had French Fries, fried fish, fried shrimp, hushpuppies, corn chips, and onion rings. FAT CITY!!!! Everything except the water was fried.
Plus the key lime pie matched the color of the interior of the restaurant. Are we going to get sick? Tomorrow will tell.
So we are not hungry, you know? But there is a sign for fresh shrimp. After all we are on the Gulf Coast. The first place we stopped was way too expensive. I sent the man, Bob, in alone at the second stop figuring they could do manly negotiations. He came out with shrimp. That's my Bob!!
Yes. I paid $.25 less per pound. Deb was happy, and I felt very manly. I saved us a total of almost thirty cents!
Tonight we are camped at a Texas State Campground. Already I have helped a tent-full of A&M co-eds set up their tent. They had broken a tent pole, and I, quite naturally I think, sprang to their rescue. It was all out of the goodness of my heart. Their taut young bodies and pouting young breasts with the perky nipples had nothing at all to do with my helpful act.
Bob is so full of it! I was the one who suggested to the college students that they use a splint. They were using duct tape with no internal support. Guess what? The guys had the tent that worked. They put all the girls in the one with the broken poles. I guess nothing has changed.
Nope. Guys still have that extra edge where intelligence is concerned.
Yummy shrimp. Bob cooked; I cleaned up.
She had to. I was too weak after dinner to do anything. I cooked, but she made me put more of that "special salt" on my dinner.
June 11 Goose Island, TX to Orange, TX
Mileage 41441 to 41755
I should mention that the Texas A&M coeds were very appreciative this morning because I fixed their tent. Naturally, because I was with Deb, I refused their offers of breakfast, backrubs, and wild group sex as compensation.
Windy all night and into the morning. Still windy. But if the wind died, we would be very uncomfortable with the humidity. We woke up at 6 and it was already 82 degrees. Did it ever get lower? Probably not.
We stopped at The Big Tree. The old laurel in Crystal Springs Reservoir is almost as big, but you know these Texans have to make a big deal about everything. So…it was an old oak. Macon liked it. We let him grub for acorns a while.
Port Lavaca…. The Home of the Fighting Sandcrabs.
And we saw the last of "The Best BBQ in Texas" signs. How many of these did we see?
We drive up the Gulf coast of Texas the rest of the day. It's like one big beach community punctuated with large towns containing massive refineries. It's a unique chunk of real estate. It's not really a pretty coast like California, but it's the only one around so they work with what they have. Because the coast is on the eastern shore, all the "stuff" from ships and other sources blows up on these beaches. Dirty, low surf, humid.
Everything is on stilts. Some people have decided that a 2-foot elevation is adequate. Then there are those (probably the same people who own those big trucks) who have lifted their homes way higher. We saw an elevated tree house RV today about 12 feet up.
A few thoughts about Texas now that we are about to leave….
Good roads, but poorly marked. Friendly people, good food… I'm glad I was here. It's not what I expected. It's more diverse then I had thought. Barren in the west, but lush and green in the central and eastern areas. And for some reason, we saw very few out-of-state plates in Texas….very few travelers.
Three thoughts about trucks….
What is "On Safari"?
June 12 Orange, Texas to Abbeville, LA
Mileage 41755
We left Orange, TX and headed to Big Thicket National Preserve to see "The Big Thicket" Was it ever fun! Not only did we see trees and plants, but also we got drenched in a rainstorm, attacked by mosquitoes large enough to fight back, and splattered with mud. Deb sure knows some fun spots. She owes me big for this one.
We saw a turtle! And armadillo rooting evidence! And cypress knobs!
Finally, after over a week in Texas, we reached Louisiana.
LA is waaaay different from Texas. We headed south along the Gulf. My first impression was water… lots and lots of water. Alligators and millions of birds lined the swamps and bayous.
I only recognize a few of the birds. Most dramatic are the pink roseate spoonbills. But there are bunches more. Birds love the crayfish beds which are being drained now for summer rice planting. Neat that they have dual use for the land, but we missed crayfish season.
We stopped in Abbeville, got a spot in an RV park and headed to town for some Saturday night hootin' and hollerin' in town. Fat chance! We did have a wonderful dinner in town though. A martini or two, some oysters for an appetizer, and wine with a good dinner… fried, of course.
They even managed to fry, and I kid you not, my baked potato.
Brand new campground. We are the only guests tonight. Bob did not want to stop cause no one else was here, but I thought it looked perfect being all alone.
We got back to the campground after dark and began unloading the bikes. I was wondering what was stuck in my shoe when I saw her Deb in some distress also. I was wearing moccasins, and Deb was wearing flip-flops. As I started bouncing around with my feet on fire, I asked, "Are there fire ants around here". YEOOOOOOOOWWWWW!!! Yes, there are. I had stepped into a nest of them. Not a good idea! We were jumping around like idiots. It took us about a half-hour to kill the ones in us, on our shoes, in the van, and then move to a new spot.
Some had come in on our legs and shoes, so we were hopping about trying to kill them all and not have them spread throughout the van. I got out my trusty little mini vacuum and started sucking up the buggers. We kept finding them for an hour or so. Also had to make sure they had not crawled up onto our bicycles cause the bikes get laid across the bed…wouldn't that have been awful?
June 13 Abbeville, Louisiana
Mileage 42036 to 42141
It's raining this AM. No wonder it is all so green and damp.
We didn't get very far today. We're in Lake Fausse Pointe State Park about 10 miles outside of Lafayette, LA. We got up in a rainstorm, dawdled for a while, and then drove to Lafayette. We went to the Cajun Crafts Festival, but we didn't feel like spending $3.50/ea. for a ticket so we left. We aren't buying many things on this trip. There's no place to put things. It took us quite a while to find that fair, so then we spent another half-hour trying to find the Acadian Village. They were closed. So then we decided to do what we do best. We found a restaurant and had brunch. It was a Cajun all-you--can-eat smorgasbord. Naturally, all the food was fried. I also had genuine Gumbo for the first time.
The food was not all fried…not the apple cobbler or the meatloaf or the veggies (which all had cayenne or andouille sausage in them). I'm loving the new cuisine.
I found out that Gumbo comes from two old Indian words, GUM meaning "water" and BO meaning "on fire". I just can't eat this stuff. Deb, however, slurps away happily.
We did finally visit the Acadian Cultural Center. It was very well done. It explained the history and culture clearly and completely.
Bob would not stay at the first campground we found that was close to St. Martinsville. We ending up driving way out in the boonies to find this state park. But it is nice even though miles and miles from anywhere.
Today's wild animal episode is the dropping, cascading, fuzzy caterpillars. They were everywhere. Crawling up the hoses, dropping inside the doors. We had to move sites again before Vinnie was covered in them. They also would have crept inside to visit.
We wound up at our first LA State Park. They also do things with a bit more gusto than California. The campground has air-conditioned showers which are free, boat rentals, a convenience store, and more. It's right on a small lake and bayou, which I discovered, means a slow moving waterway. We have a site with a private dock right out over the bayou. Neat place.
When we first got to the more hot and humid area, Deb was in a back-to-nature - we-have-to-get-used-to-this - turn-off-the-air-conditioner mode. No longer. The air conditioner has become her best friend.
Yes, it is. Cotton T-shirts are too heavy and do not dry quit enough. I know why they love polyester now.
It cooled a little this evening so we went for a walk. It takes longer to walk a couple of miles while watching for snakes and alligators. The ground was slick and slippery, so we had to watch our footing as well. Bob saw his first wild alligator up close and personal.
June 14 - Lake Fausse Pointe to Morgan City
Mileage 42259
We took a shortcut I mapped out this AM. On my mapping program it looked like a perfectly decent secondary road. Much preferable to backtracking over roads we had already traversed. Well, it was all dirt. And wet, muddy potholes. Bob was fretting. How much further? So, I retrieved the handy GPS and showed him where we were. We still had a ways to go, but better to continue than turning back.
She had us driving at least 400 miles on a bumpy dirt road along an alligator infested bayou. It was not my idea of fun. If we had gotten a flat, she could have been eaten by an alligator on her way to get help while I guarded the RV.
Needless to say this put a crimp in the rest of our plans. By the time we got to the main road it was almost noon. Way too hot and humid to ride a bike in south Louisiana. Also I wanted to see the Tabasco operation on Avery island and a plantation house called Shadows-on-the-Teche in New Iberia. If we rode to New Iberia, I knew we wouldn't get to see the pepper farm.
Naturally, I couldn't wait to see an old house and gardens. That's my idea of a real fun afternoon. I couldn't wait to hear about four generations of the Weeks family. It was like "Search For Tomorrow" in the south. I'm sure I'll remember it for the rest of my life.
This route I had mapped for us was 26 miles rising in elevation from 4-14 feet. Needless to say Don Axtell would not have been satisfied even though there would have been many POI (Points of Interest). After driving the planned bicycle route, I am glad we did not ride. You cannot see the bayou through all the underbrush and the road had a small or no shoulder.
Once again I boldly proved my love an undying affection for the Love of My Life. Today I walked into the jaws of the monster. Today, willingly and under my own power, I walked into the Tabasco Plant in Avery Island, LA for a factory tour.
I survived.
So now we are outside the burg of Morgan City in Southern Louisiana. Pleasant breeze. A few flies. No major bugs problems toady except these pesky little invisible spiders with crab-like pinching claws. But there are not too many of them at least.
None of the campsites are more than 10% full. I guess we are not in the season.
June 15, 1999 - Fontainebleau State Park on Lake Pontchartrain
Mileage - 42445
We left the campground and headed for Donaldsonville, which Deb wanted to see because it boasted 350 historic buildings in just a few blocks of this small town. What a find!!!
What the town fathers did was to designate each old building in town as "historic", give it a fancy name, and write a brief "history" of the building. In reality, it was a bunch of old buildings in a nondescript town. The lady at the CofC/Visitor Center was enthusiasm personified as she told us of all the "renovations" that were going on. I.e. - One of the old buildings was being painted. We walked around for a few blocks and left. Silly place.
We headed for the Mighty Mississippi. We found it, but we couldn't see it. It was up behind a levee. We followed it for about 30 miles before we finally saw it. Big.
Had to sneak up on the forbidden levee roads to get a peek at it. Who does all the mowing here alongside the roads? Labor must be really cheap.
The drive along the river was pretty though. There are a lot of stately old homes along the river and surrounding countryside.
And a lot of termite infested shacks much in need of paint and a new foundation. I sure would not want to live just on the opposite side of the road from those monster levees. Every time the river comes up I would panic.
It is very muggy today. There was even fog coming up the river this morning. Everyone is excited that it is raining and is expected to continue cause they had a dry spring. My old buddies, the mosquito family, are having a heyday with my legs. Plus those irritating little ant bites from a couple of days ago are still itching on my toes.
We got to Baton Rouge, drove on through, and finally found this campground which is very nice.
It's right on Lake Pontchartrain, which is extremely difficult to spell. I'll let Deb tell about the amazing bike route we discovered.
It's the Tamany Trace, an old railroad track made into a paved, bike route. We rode 6 miles until the route stopped (in progress) and 2 Dobermens were staring at us daring us to continue on the unpaved portion. Nope, not me. They can have the trail. But what we didn't say is that we rode for 6 miles in a straight line…no dips or swerves…flat all the way. As far as you can see the trail is straight and flat. Goes over bayous and through backyards and all of it has been totally graded…flat.
But we were glad for the bike path. Since there is so much water, there are not many alternative roads between here and there. The roads we traveled were fairly busy and most of them had little shoulder. Would not have been a good ride.It was nice to be on a protected path.
End of Week 5