Freeport, Texas
Our next destination, San Luis Pass County Park in Freeport, Texas, was only about 240 miles away, the skies in New Braunfels were clear and sunny so, we decided to load up the trike early in the morning to get a good start on our drive with the hope of arriving early and, maybe, get a head start on some relaxation. Everything was packed and the only item remaining was to retract the two main living area slides in the 5-wheel…and that’s when everything came to a screeching halt! Only one of the main slides moved in, the second one was immovable! We checked everything, and one of our camp neighbors came over to lend a hand and some advice, only for the slide to stubbornly remain in place. Resigned, after over an hour of trying to get it to work, we called an RV repair company that makes “house calls”. Of course, we were informed that it would take a few hours to get someone to our location.
The waiting began, and we prepared for the worst by coordinating a longer stay with the office. Thankfully they were very understanding and didn’t have anyone set to come in right behind us. Walking back, our neighbor met us to inform us that the RV tech was already on site and waiting for us. After explaining the situation to the tech, and walking him through everything we had attempted, he indicated that we had basically conducted all of the tests he was preparing to try. The next step? He asked us to activate the slide just so he could see and hear what might be happening to get a better idea of the issue. Shrugging our shoulders, expecting the slide to stay put, we pressed the “retract” button. Guess what?! The hydraulics whirred, and the room slid right in without a hitch. It came to a full close as if nothing had ever happened! Bewildered, we looked amongst ourselves and the tech said; “That happens sometimes”. After moving the slide in and out several more times, just to be sure it was now truly working, we told the tech it looked like we wouldn’t need his services after all. He then let us know, that he would call into his office to inform them that he didn’t need to do any service work for us and he’d already been in the same RV park to assist someone else. Didn’t matter. The company charged us both the $100 trip charge and a half hour of service time (another $65) rather than the full one hour minimum charge. Can you say, WTH?!?!
Well, that left a bad taste in our mouths as we hit the road, three hours later than expected. Our one hope was that we could arrive at the next destination prior to dark. With the last rays of the sun irradiating they sky, an incredibly colorful sunset welcomed us through the gates! The park was nearly empty so, the camp Host let us “pick our spot”. Both he, his wife and the alternate host were incredibly friendly and helpful, making sure that we were able to get our camper set up without any issues. And you know that we needed all of the positive energy we could get!
“Sunsets are proof that endings can be beautiful too.”
-Beau Taplin, Author and social media personality
For all galleries below, click on a photo to view an enlarged version and use arrows for a slideshow
(May not format larger on mobile devices)
The RV park in San Luis Pass County Park, is small yet quaint with numerous amenities, including fishing in the pass from the shore area as, well as from their piers! Yet to get to the beaches of the gulf, all we had to do was venture out the gate.
Surrounding the park is the beach side community of Surfside Beach, which has a number of interesting activities, sights and beaches. Again, we had encountered beaches that were very wide with fine, yet hard-packed sand along the gulf coast, yet the one difference here was the abundance of shells on the beach! And why wouldn’t there be with over 600 known shell species here?!
Vehicle access to the public beaches is easy, and like further south, it is legal to drive and camp on them with a permit, so we imagine that during the peak season it’s usually pretty busy. For us, however, it was serene and perfect for a nice, quiet lunch!
Another activity to do in the area is salt water surf fishing from the beaches or from the jetties at the entrance into the Freeport Harbor Channel. The jetties are very long and extend quite a distance into the Gulf waters. Ideal for taking a stroll, we sauntered along, watching the locals fishing, picking up ideas for what we might need to add to our own tackle box in order to try our luck! Talking with a couple of the locals we were successful in getting their recommendations on bait and gear that they prefer for enticing the coastal fish to bite.
While driving, an interesting sign caught our eye! It said, “Crabbing Pier”. We couldn’t pass that up! Researching our fishing licenses, as long as we had a salt water stamp in Texas, we were good to go! Locally, it meant we’d be fishing for Blue Crab and the Stone Crab. But did we need special gear? Nope! Simple is best with these guys. A piece of raw meat (one that is more fibrous so the crabs can hold onto is best), a very long string, and a net with holes large enough to allow the small ones to escape, yet small enough to ensnare the larger, legal sized ones.
We grabbed our assortment of “specialty” crabbing gear and left-over scrap pork rib meat, and headed out to conquer the sport of crabbing! For Curtis it took only two attempts to feel a tell-tale “tug” and he slowly brought up his custom line and bait rig to the surface. To our delight, a nice little blue crab was holding on with an attitude that indicated…”It’s Mine”! Curtis’ attempt to remove the crab from the bait only resulted in it deciding that his fingers would make a more scrumptious meal. Ouch! (well, Curtis had a different expression than ouch) And Curtis couldn’t even exact retribution because he wasn’t legal (blue crabs have to be 5” across their shell to be a legal catch). The only thing he could do is grapple with it to get it back into the water. Quite the standoff!
Even though we left without any legal crabs, it was still entertaining casting our line in, watching them hold on, fighting to keep their prize, and endeavoring to net the little guys before they let go and swam away. Boy they’ve got determination!
“We don’t own the planet earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.”
-Steve Irwin, Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist.
Touring inland, we decided to visit the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. They boast that it is one of the richest and most diverse wildlife environments on earth, counting more than 320 species of birds, 95 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 130 species of butterflies and dragonflies. It’s known for year-round birding, as it is part of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail lying within the Central Flyway Migration Corridor, which includes both coastal and trans-oceanic bird migration paths. With this kind of wildlife diversity, we were excited for a viewing experience!
When we arrived at the small visitor center, the park host informed us that a nesting pair of alligators were easily visible from the viewing boardwalk just behind the visitor center…wait, what??! Are we talking about, LIVE, WILD ALLIGATORS?! In Texas?! Apparently so!
Armed with the informational pamphlets provided, we began searching for the nesting alligators, to hopefully get a quick picture. We had only walked about 50’ along the viewing boardwalk when Curtis stopped, pointed, and said…”there they are”! Sure enough, two alligators were lounging along the edge of a very small island within a pond, guarding a clearly identifiable “nest” area. We carefully and quietly proceeded down the walkway, to get a little closer. They must be very used to people because they didn’t seem to move at all. After about 10 minutes, Laura stated they probably were fakes placed for photo opportunities, when one of the gators opened it’s mouth nice and wide, exposing all of it’s flesh tearing teeth, turned it’s head ever so slightly our way and winked! We looked at each other, laughed and proclaimed them to be ALIVE after all.
It was time to get back in the truck for our safari along the “Big Slough Auto Tour”. We had our keyed map prepared for the 7-mile jaunt, ready to stop at the number of viewing areas along the way and excited to take in the wondrous sights of the reputed abundant wildlife! As we proceeded to drive through, we quickly realized, DO NOT ROLL DOWN THE WINDOWS! The entire planet’s mosquito population were all living within the refuge; they were HUGE, HUNGRY and ready to pounce! Parting the incoming “tide” of mosquitoes with our truck, we made our way to each of the 14 viewing areas searching for the abundance of birds that surely must be visible from the roadway, especially since it’s in a location where multitudes of migrating birds should’ve arrived by this time of year. Well, here’s the interesting part of the story; they were all gone! Yep, none of the tens of thousands of migrating birds, nor year round birds, were there! We shook our heads at each viewing location, of course from the protection of our truck which was hermitically sealed, safe from the mosquitoes, and wondered what was going on? The only thing we could surmise from our experience, was that the 1 TRILLION helicopter sized mosquitoes must have eaten them all. Oh well, on to the next adventure here!
“The echoes of beauty you’ve seen, resound through dying coals of a campfire.”
-Ernest Hemingway, American novelist and journalist
With mother nature tamed and the campground’s large fire ring right next to the bay, we were lured into getting a roaring fire going. We enjoyed relaxing with our glass of wine while watching the colorful sunset display reflecting on the waters of the pass. About an hour after dusk, our attention was diverted as we noticed a few “fins” out in the bay area. Porpoising dolphins were stealthily hunting for a night time treat of their own! It was fun and enthralling watching them swim around. We could always tell when one caught something as they would dart about, causing a lot of splashing!
The local white pelicans also wanted in on the action, so we had another glass of wine while we observed them gracefully gliding along the surface in straight lines, only to quickly change course swimming to and fro, as they stalked their dinner. Of course, if any anglers were about, they had no problem flitting off to take advantage of easier offerings.
After the fire turned to coals, and we were good and relaxed, we knew it was time to retire to the camper. A tranquil night, indeed!
The next day, Curtis decided it was time to try a little surf side fishing from one of the campground piers. Mostly he ended up just watching his bobber flying along the surface due to the “extreme” bay current in this area. (Note: the rip current is severe enough that there is a $500 fine for simply wading into the water in the bay here. Sadly, there have been a number of drownings in the past few years at this location to warrant this). While Curtis was “fishing”, which really was more of a comical show of the racing bobber, another camper, Howard, came over to talk, and informed us that we were in the right spot for catching (and not just fishing), however we needed to be using a different rig set up. He took pity on Curtis, giving him a complete jig setup; double leader, hook and weight, and he told us to use shrimp as our bait. The key with this setup is to have a heavy enough weight on one leader that sinks to the bottom, while it allows the leader with the shrimp to “float” a few inches above, tempting the fish to bite. Thanking him, Curtis was off to purchase more of the necessary items to replicate this set up. (Thankfully, he did so…you’ll see why…)
Later the same evening, Curtis was eager to try again at the same spot. After a couple of hours, he, unfortunately, returned to the camper without any fish. I asked how did the fishing go, he replied: “The fishing went really well, although it was more like feeding the fish, as they simply stripped the shrimp from the hook without getting ‘caught’”! Apparently we also needed to learn how to hook the shrimp properly to alleviate this particular issue.
The Oleander City – Galveston, Texas
The next day as the sun was shining brightly and the forecast was for clear skies and warmer weather we decided to hop on our trike and motor on up to Galveston for the day. As we were driving, we were surprised to see how many new homes had recently been built! All are very colorful and of course are built on very large and tall foundational piers! As we neared the city, we found that the highway runs alongside the long, continuous beach providing us with a great view of the Gulf coast.
We made our way through the city, taking in the sights of some of the homes of bygone eras as we drove into the old historic downtown area. It was almost noon by the time we parked, so we decided to find a restaurant for lunch, discovering the Shark Shack! The name alone made this an easy choice; how appropriate for a coastal area. We each ordered the Texas Red Fish tacos, opting for the “blackened” seasoning and it was simply amazing! Some of the tastiest fish tacos we’ve ever had!
We let our server know this, and got to chatting with her. She asked if we were here for the Christmas parade happening later that afternoon, something we weren’t aware of, but now added it to our list.
“Land was created to provide a place for ships to visit.”
-Brooks Atkinson, Chief theatre critic for the New York Times, 1925 to 1960.
After our fantastic lunch, we were off to the Galveston Historic Seaport to see the 1877 tall ship “Elissa”. We choose the self-guided tour so we could take as much time aboard as we wanted. The Elissa is a beautiful ship from the onset, and as you walk up to her and take in the overall size you realize there is a lot to see. As we made our way around the top deck, we were really impressed with the overall condition of the ship and then found out that, even though this ship was built in 1877, it has been fully restored, is still a capable sailing vessel today, and with her summer day sailing schedule, she is considered one of the oldest and longest continuously sailed vessels in the world.
Below the top deck, you wind your way through the various passageways and corridors, and are provided with a wealth of information that is very entertaining and educational to read. With the various levels below, the numerous compartments, cabins, holds and mechanical areas, we started wondering just how large this ship really was and if we would be able to find our way back out!
Our ticket also allowed us to peruse the Ship to Shore Museum adjacent to the ship’s dock. The exhibits are based upon documented experiences of immigrants and is designed to put the visitor into their shoes, boarding a ship and sailing to Galveston port in the 1800’s. The overall life experience, continues as one disembarks from the ship, and enters into the city. There is a lot of historical information regarding the very early development of Galveston as a port city, and the museum does a fantastic job of bringing this “all to life”! If you are planning to visit Galveston, we would highly recommend taking the tours of the Elissa and the Ship to Shore Museum, you won’t be disappointed!
It was time to head back towards Old Galveston Square to see more of the sights in the downtown area to find a spot to enjoy the annual Galveston Christmas Parade! We quickly grabbed a cold holiday beer and one the few remaining street side tables for two to watch the festivities. The parade includes the typical school marching bands, small floats and participants tossing out candy and trinkets to the kids along the way. However, this was a first for us seeing a Christmas parade with most everyone in shorts since the weather was in the mid 70’s! The most novel entrants and ones we will never see in Colorado?! Decorated golf carts! Everyone had a blast and sure enough, Santa Clause even made an appearance at the very end of the parade riding on top of a huge red firetruck! After the Christmas festivities, Curtis exclaimed that it was time to find our own holiday cheer and track down the local ice cream shop! (Anyone shocked?)
For our final day in the area, we decided to try our luck at fishing again. After gathering up our bait, frozen shrimp, fishing poles and new tackle rigs, we made our way over to one of the campground pier areas to cast our lines and hopefully catch some fish this time. Armed with Curtis’ newly begotten knowledge for how to “hook” a shrimp so that it would stay on the hook a little better, we got down to business. The winds had died down, and the heavier weights worked better in the currents, so it didn’t take long for us to begin to feel some nibbles! We did learn one more important thing regarding our new tackle setup. You’re basically fishing with a baby crib mobile that you can easily trap in a lot of rip-rap along the bottom as you’re reeling it in. Remember all of that new rigging that Curtis went off to buy? Well, both of us ended up donating one whole set each to Poseidon’s lair.
Overall, Laura was the most successful with the catching, by landing and a monster 1-2 pound catfish and, about the same size, sea trout. And after successfully releasing the little buggers to gain in size for a future angler, we returned to fishing and that was about it; fishing and not catching.
As we were packing up our fishing gear we were treated to one last phenomenal sunset!
“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset.”
-Richie Norton, American author and entrepreneur.
English 
The first part of your post I simply had to laugh as we are well aware of the joys of owning campers of all kinds but thank God I’m able to do any repairs myself. The fishing expeditions have been hilarious but hey, practice makes perfect. The ship looks really interesting and you can get a little sense by how it is built, why the English owned the seas and oceans around the world for a long time and allowed England to be the largest land owner in the world. It’s those unexpected little breakdowns that can make for a great trip or a shortened one, so hopefully your trip will be less eventful in that area!
Yes, all we’ve chosen to do is laugh! And purchasing spare parts is apparently all it takes for the issues to go away. But we’re prepared now and can continue learning about and experiencing each area that we visit. The fun continues!
Love the parade photos! Wonderful serendipity. You both make excellent students of life, learning as you go.
Indeed! While trodding off on adventures researched from afar, it’s definitely important to also immerse oneself in recommendations made by the locals. One lesson that is clear; we need more time!