Galveston, Oh, Galveston

I heard you might have had some storms last night. I hope all is well. Night before last, we went to bed under a tornado watch. We stayed awake through the worst of it; we got about 1/2 " of rain and some hail, though not large enough to damage the truck or trailer. Some folks about 50 miles from us got baseball-size hail. We were very fortunate. It seems that the weather has been a big factor on this trip.

Since San Antonio was celebrating Fiesta, the Hispanic equivalent to Mardi Gras, we decided to bypass it and head south to Galveston for a little R&R. And, boy did we need the R&R after our driving experience in Houston. Thinking we would avoid downtown Houston, we took the Sam Houston toll road around in order to connect with I-45 South to Galveston. They collected $4.50 toll and we drove on. Then, about 10 miles down, they collected another $4.50. Another 5 miles and, you guessed it, another $4.50. All this without any warnings. Rip off!! And, the traffic was still terrible. Once on the island, we still had to drive 15 or more miles to our RV park. We were exhausted. Thankfully, the RV park is nice; we can see the Gulf from our front window.

Today we strolled "The Strand", in the historic section of Galveston. I found it particularly interesting having read the book, Isaac's Storm, about the devastating hurricane that hit here in 1900. I could imagine how high the water was in downtown when I looked up at the buildings. I've included a couple of pics. Having said that, not much is mentioned here about that hurricane. It's Ike that every mentions. We're staying on the end of the island that caught the worst of it. Almost every house, condominium complex, restaurant here is either new or heavily renovated. And there are hundreds, maybe thousands of residences here.

The water here is not blue and clear like that on the Gulf coast of Florida and Alabama. It's very muddy. Could be because of the recent storm that developed over the Gulf and hit Mississippi. One can drive onto the beach and park here on this end of the island. That's nice.

One more thing, the hill country of Texas that we left yesterday is on my list of places to visit again, perhaps in the fall of the year. We like the small town of Beurne (pronounced Burney). It reminded me of some of the small English towns that have a quiet river flowing through them with ducks and even swans gently gliding by. I could live here. But then, I say that about a lot of places. Just not southwest Texas!

We're going to mosey toward home tomorrow. Maybe be there by the weekend.

Later.