Leg 6 - All The Water in Texas

I drove from Matagorda to Crystal Beach, Texas yesterday.

I got up after my eventful night and drove to the local park in case someone came to church and had me arrested as a vagrant.  In my brand-new camper van.  I sat there for about two hours while I drank coffee and wrote my piece for the day.  It was peaceful, quiet and warm but not too hot, and there were birds.  I was sitting on grass, so that was a nice change from sand.  Sometimes you need to change it up.

After that I went to a breakfast place to eat something and research my next couple moves.  It was a nice place – clean and cute with lots of chotchkey signs.  They had 80s classic rock songs playing, which was an ambiance I could relate to.  Got me in a happy traveling mood.  There is that “happy” again.

I plotted out my travels for the next two days.  That felt good.  Maybe the secret for long-term travel is to plan only a couple days out.  Plan, but not too much.  I feel like I can stick with a plan for two days.

I had my route planned to get to Galveston.  Again, I’m trying to be on a coast as much as possible.  I hopped into the van, plugged my destination into my maps and was playing blues music, watching the land roll by and didn’t notice that Siri was taking me a way I didn’t want to go.  I was really mad at her – she knew I wanted coastline!  But by the time I realized it, I couldn’t find a turnaround spot, and it was too far to go back and fix.    Then, I granted Siri a little grace, because I have learned that everything takes longer than expected, and if I wanted to get to my space by 4:00 p.m., I was going to need to be mindful of time.  She had sent me the quickest way, instead of the most scenic.

Good thing I had done my research that morning, because I found out that I would have to take a ferry from Galveston to Crystal Beach.  GOOD THING I knew that going in!  I sat and waited for the ferry for 30 minutes.  But it was free!  In CA, it would have cost at least $25.

I drove along the beach in Galveston.  It reminded me of Santa Cruz, except much longer.  There were teenagers and college students everywhere.  It was hot, the beach was beautiful, and there were chain restaurants and tiki bars all along the boardwalk.  It looked like a lot of fun, if you were early 20s.  Again, I was pressed for time, so I didn’t stop.  Good thing, too, because I just barely got to my spot in time.  I had wanted to stop and eat because I was hungry, but suspected I wasn’t going to have time.

Driving across town in Galveston was interesting.  Definitely a different look than Palacios or Matagorda.  A little more run-down, less well-kept.  The people I saw on the streets looked like Jane and Joe Worker.  There are refineries and fishing in the area, and I suspect the people I saw on the streets and coming out of their little shoe-box dingy apartments were the cogs in those wheels.  There were many Blacks and Hispanics.  I suspect those are the workers in this economy.

I had to laugh - I went down a side street, just to see the city.  I was on 41st street, and watched the perpendicular streets go by:  “O” Street, then “O ½” Street, then P Street, then P ½ Street, then R Street, then R ½ Street.  Lol!  Why the “1/2”?!

The highlight of my day was taking the ferry.  I really love boats.  We were in a vehicle queue, and you just sit there and wait until the next ferry is available.  The ferries run constantly, I think 3 or 4 are going all the time, and they pick up every 30 minutes.  It is quite the successful logistical operation.  SO many vehicles waiting.  It looks like this ferry connects Galveston to the next piece of land that then goes east.  If you don’t take the ferry, it takes about 2 hours to drive around this particular bay.  We loaded, then had to turn off our engines.  It was about 95° out (and inside my van), so I couldn’t sit inside my van – I had to get out.  I went up top to watch the journey.  It was a short journey, maybe only 20 minutes.  I saw some dolphins, and seagulls, of course, and the land slowly moving by and water all around and the wind in my hair.  I loved it.

I got to my reserved campsite with some daylight to spare.  I had been kind of kicking myself for paying $45 a night to camp.  But after some of my experiences with boondocking, I was ready to camp someplace where I felt safe.  They had said they have full hookups, but I didn’t really know what that meant.  Now I know.  It is heaven!  I can hook up my toilet and flush it straight into their septic!  That is amazing and a true gift from the Universe.  My toilet has been stinking the past couple of days, and I really need to get this figured out.  I can’t smell it when I sleep, thankfully, but I can when I drive.  Yuck.  So I took care of that first thing.  And the site had electric plug ins, so I could run the AC or fan all night and get a good night’s sleep.  Again, a gift from the Universe.  Hallelujah!  ANNNNDDDDD…there was also a water hookup.  So I could use as much water as I wanted, and I could shower, and I didn’t need to worry about using up all the water in my tanks.  Manna from Universe!  I’m so happy!

There was a Tiki bar just across the street, so I cruised over there for dinner and a drink.  I was excited to be able to do this – the beach vibe for dinner.  I had been looking for a beach vibe for dinner since I started my trip.  The place was fairly large and run by a woman and her husband who are older than me.  He bartended (they had a full bar) and she waitressed out on the floor.  They looked harried and tired.  He had no sense of humor.  I think that happens when you bartend too long.  Heck, when you do anything too long.  The classic jokes just aren’t funny anymore.  I started out trying to drink a rum punch thing that had two juices in it – I think pineapple and orange, and two rums, then a little grenadine floated on top.  I took one drink of that and was instantly transported back to the night in high school when I ate rum-soaked watermelon and threw up all night.  It is Shannon’s and my inside joke – we call it “curly fries” (because I had eaten curly fries that night, so that was what I threw up).  It was horrible.  Haven’t drank rum since.  Still don’t, apparently.  I pushed the drink back to him and ordered a beer.  Safer, beer.  No sugar to sit badly as you are trying to sleep.  Bleh.

I also ordered shrimp and grits.  I figure I’d better eat shrimp as much as I can here, since this area seems to be a shrimp mecca.  I liked it, but it was only okay.  The shrimp was overcooked.  My shrimp is better.  The grits were good but needed a little more flavor of some kind.  Not sure what would have helped – red pepper flakes?  More butter?  A little salt?  Lime?

When I first sat down at the bar, I purposefully left a spot open between me and a single older man to my left.  He attempted to talk to me initially, but I was monosyllabic and turned to my phone, so he gave up.  I’m really not interested in chatting.  Thankfully, a woman came and sat between us.  They chatted the entire time I was there.  SOOO happy I didn’t get stuck talking with him!

After dinner I attempted to go to the beach with my beach chair.  The previous night was so magical, I wanted it again.  But alas, it was not to be.  The wind was howling.  There were times walking to the beach that I had to lean into the wind to walk.  I had a few moments of wondering if a hurricane might be brewing.  But I went anyway.  And that is how people die in hurricanes…they ignore their gut.  I got to the beach, partly closing my eyes so that sand didn’t get in them.  Plunked down, stayed for about 10 minutes before I decided that it wasn’t enjoyable.  It was warm enough, but the wind was just whipping everything on the beach around, and it felt like chaos.

I trudged back to the van, took a lovely shower, watched a little movie, then turned out the light, and was out quickly.  I was so tired from the lack of sleep the night before that I was happy to turn in early.  Slept until 8:00 a.m. the next morning.  Catch-up sleep.  I woke at 2:00 a.m. when my rechargeable fan used up all its juice and shut off.  Then I was hot again.  I don’t like running the AC or fan in the van at night because it is noisy.  But I was able to get back to sleep fairly quickly and slept hard until morning.