Texas Travels with Longhorn Willie - Part 1

We left Indianapolis on Thursday, April 16th around noon and drove over 525 miles to Forrest City, Arkansas where we spent the night in a Holiday Inn Express.  Up early the next day we set our sites on our first destination, Galveston, Texas.  We arrived in Galveston around 7:30pm to pouring rain.  They got 5 inches in 3 hours.  We were a day early for our camping spot so we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott on Galveston Island.

I promised Susan the Beach and that is what she got.  We drove to dinner in the pouring rain and had a great seafood dinner at Nick's on the Seawall.

We had breakfast and headed to Galveston Island State Park to sign in and get our campsite near the beach.  We stopped at the ranger station and took care of the paperwork.  With all the rain the night before most of the sites were flooded.  They were in the process of pumping water.

We decided to head into LaMarque, Texas to visit Susan's twin sister and go through things their mother had left for both of them.  That gave the park ground crew time to pump water from the campsites. Due to the weather we decided to take Sally to dinner back at Nick's.  That is where we met up with our Texas Tour Guide, Longhorn Willie.

On Sunday morning we awakened to a beautiful sunrise on the beach.

I cooked bacon and eggs on the grill and Susan made a great cup of coffee to start our first full day at the beach.

Sally came to visit and we took a walk on the beach.  We drove along the seawall and stopped for lunch at a place called Shrimp-N-Stuff.  The place was packed and the food was great.  We both had shrimp po-boys.  Sally stayed for dinner and I grilled fresh red snapper and red fish, and Susan prepared veggies for the grill..

On Monday Sally picked us up and we met their older sister Bobbe and brother-in-law for lunch at a great Mexican restaurant off the Strand.

After lunch we visited a number of shops on the Strand in Galveston and then went to a show on the 1900 hurricane that claimed close to 10,000 lives.  That hurricane was devastating and lead to the building of the seawall, which raised the level above the gulf by 17 feet and miles along the coast.  More on the hurricane later.

We visited Moody Gardens and the flowers were beautiful.  Plenty of butterflies.

Oil Drilling Platform in the harbor for repairs

Inland at the Galveston Island State Park

The Hotel Galvez is a favorite place for Susan and I.  We have stayed here 2-3 times, and had her mothers 90th birthday party in the hotel.  The Galvez was one of the only buildings left standing after the 1900 hurricane.

On Tuesday night we decided to cook Lobster Tails on the grill.  Another great meal.

With the previous weekends rain the mosquito's arrived in force Tuesday night.  By Wednesday night 4/23/15 they covered us, the camper, and the camper interior.  We spent a good hour each night killing as many as possible inside.  Mosquito spray and bug lights did nothing to help and by Thursday morning we were covered with bites and more than ready to leave.  

We headed to Kerrville, TX and Fredericksburg, TX for a short visit.  We hit I-45 in the middle of Houston rush hour and made it to the Guadalupe RV Resort in Kerrville by noon.  We checked in and got our site.  The RV Park is on the Guadalupe River.

We headed for Fredericksburg, TX, which is an old German town.  We walked the streets and visited a number of shops.  We had lunch at the Fredericksburg Brewing Company.  Great German food and of course the beer was some of the best we've had.

After lunch we went to the National Museum of The Pacific War.  Admiral Charles Nimetz was born in Fredericksburg.  We spent several hours touring the museum, gardens and the George H. W. Bush Gallery which was part of the museum complex.

Later in the afternoon we drove North of Fredericksburg to the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and took some pictures.  Blue Bonnets covered the shoulders of the road and fields.  We drove down to Luckenbach, TX where Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings became famous playing their music in the old music hall (Didn't take any photos).

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area:  17 mile north of Fredericksburg, TX.  Enchanted Rock covers 640 acres and rises approximately 425 feet above the surrounding terrain to an elevation 0f 1,825 feet.  It is the largest pink granite monadnock in the U.S. The prominent granite dome is visible for many miles in the surrounding plain is known to geologists as a monadnock.  The rock is actually the visible above ground part of a segmented ridge, the surface expression of a large igneous batholith called the "Town Mountain Granite" of middle Precambrian material that intruded into earlier metamorphic schist, called Packsaddle Schist.

We returned to Fredericksburg and decided to have dinner at the Fredericksburg Brewing Company since we liked lunch so much.  We headed back to the Guadalupe RV Resort for the night.  On Friday, April 24th we headed to West Texas and Big Bend National Park.  Story to continue in Part 2.