Up the Coast

Boca Chica Beach

We made it to Brownsville just in time.  A nasty weather front was moving in and we decided to stay put for a few days while it passed. We got hit with an ice storm one day.  Brrr, cold damp and wet.  The Rv park was tight quarters and the weather was depressing.  One day  we drove down to the beach just outside town.  Even that was odd – just  a weird vibe in this area.  You drive down this road for miles and miles and then it just ends in the Gulf.  No parking, no trees, no nothing. Not even a garbage can.   Just the water and sand and a STOP sign.  We later had lunch on South Padre Island which is lined with touristy restaurants, bars, and tee shirt shops.   We checked out the rv parks here, they were also cramped but would be better choice if staying in this area.  The rest of our time was huddled in the Biff staying warm.  Blame it on the weather but Brownsville was brown and had no charm.   No quaint little coffee shops or anything other than box stores and it is definitely a border town.  Next stop Port Aransas.

Port Aransas

What southwest Texas was to oil rigs the towns on the coast are to oil refineries and shipping ports.  And it is bustling! Port Aransas is a shipping port with large tanker ships coming from around the world.  Jack found a phone app that tracks all the ships – just type in the name of the vessel and it shows where its’ current position is via GPS.  Pretty cool.  We stayed in Aransas Pass which is across the bay from Port Aransas.   There is a free ferry that shuttles back and forth all day.  The weather was still on the bad side but taking the ferry and watching the ships was fun.  It has plenty of beaches and is close to the protected  Padre Island National Seashore.    A word about the beaches on the Texas side of the Gulf coast.    Yes, it was winter and I am sure they may be nicer in the summer.  But they all seemed very windswept with not a tree in site.  The barrier islands were mostly brown grasslands ( and there are cattle).  They let you drive on the beaches which may appeal to some folks but in my mind made them seem dirty.  And do be careful if you plan on driving on them -  four wheel drive would be required  as there can be patches of very soft sand.  We saw one person get immediately stuck thinking their vehicle could handle it.  It could not be pushed out and a tow vehicle was necessary.

Padre Island National Seashore

  The RV park here was much newer and nicer and sites much bigger.  Although it still could have been better.  Right off the bat we got a knock from our neighbor behind us asking how long we were staying.  Apparently, she felt we were too close to her rig.  "Umm, the RV park staff guided us back."     Needless to say that colored my perception of the place.  But we wanted to watch the SuperBowl and stayed for four days.  And yes we were affected by that 20 minute blackout that hit the West coast in the middle of the game.   What did we miss? Oh – Seattle scored again?  All I can say it was a sad sad day for the Broncos.

We left Port Aransas and took the back roads up to our next destination Galveston.  It was an interesting drive taking us from brown grasslands to some more wooded areas and then the massive refineries around the Houston area.  We got up close and personal to the refineries driving smack dab in the heart of some really big ones!   Ahh there is a barrier island with beaches somewhere – really??  Whew,  we crossed  over another deep water inlet and it began to look more like a beach coast you expect with iconic beach houses.  Too bad you can still see all the refineries if you look west.   

“Galveston Oh Galveston”, - is that Glen Campbell singing in my head?  We pulled into Dellanera RV  City Park and stayed the next four days.  Finally, a well spaced RV park and it was right on water.   I enjoyed this park although quite cold and windy, I was able to take some walks along the beach.  Galveston is filled with a variety of old houses with interesting architecture being revitalized (and some not so nice areas) along with the expected tourist traps of a beach town.  We did not check out Moody Garden and it was still too cold to walk around much.  It was very windy the whole time we were there making it difficult sometimes to even open the door to get out of the Biff!   I was ready to get inland and out of the wind and see the sun  maybe sometime soon.  We were in off season and by the amount of hotels and restaurants, I expect this place gets quite hopping in high season and around Mardi Gras.  All in all it is good mix of charm with enough things to do to make it a good destination.  Now if I can only get that song out of my head.