We usually like to take a winter weekend on Galveston Island and camp behind the sand dunes along the Gulf of Mexico. This year the winter was not very nice, so we have finally made our annual trip at the end of March.

Although the park is only about 10 mile below the city of Galveston and within sight of a beach house community, there is something about being along the dunes that feels elemental. This isn't some well-tended beach of a resort; no, this is natural seashore with seaweed, driftwood, a dead fish or two, and lots of willets, dowitchers, dunlins, plovers, and sanderlings scurrying about the surf looking for a meal. The dunes have natural vegetation that is scrubby with an occasional bright patch of flowers. And in the evening you can often see a harrier flying low over the scrub in search of dinner.

Kite-Surfing
Here's a nifty new kick -- kite-surfing. You stand in the surf on a board that seems to be a cross between a surfboard and a wakeboard. Then you launch a large, controllable kite that pulls you along the shoreline. We watched four of these guys go down the coast. It sure looked like a lot of fun. I'm thinking we might be able to rent one of these and give it a try sometime. I'm psyched!

Our Oil Spill
If it made the news in your part of the world, fighting through all the pervasive non-information about the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, you know that we had an oil spill in the ship channel at Galveston as an incoming ship collided with a barge. We were very fortunate that prompt response by emergency personnel kept both the spill and the damage to a minimum. Few birds were affected and the great majority of the oil was contained and cleaned up. What remains has now moved down the coast some hundred plus miles and is coming ashore in the form of tar balls. We saw no evidence of the spill along the coastline.

The Bay Side of the Island
Since Galveston Island is a barrier island, it lies between the gulf on one side and a bay on the other, and the park stretches the width of the island, from gulf to bay. Along the bay are wetlands and flats that are entirely different in character from the gulf shore. Here is where you can see the herons and egrets, the spoonbills, and other shorebirds. Walking the paths and trails here is a totally different experience than the beach just a mile to the east.

San Luis Pass
We took a ride down the island to its end at the San Luis Pass. The 1-1/2 mile bridge across the pass connects Galveston Island to Follett's Island. We spent some time at the pass having a picnic lunch by a small tidal pool, enjoying the birds, seeing some wildflowers, and watching other folks. 

Rinsing Off The Weekend
Well, the weekend is over, but the sand and salt will stay with us if we don't give Bam-Bam a bit of a rinse. So here is Don at the coin-wash putting things back in order. Boy, do these places eat quarters!

Killer Bees
On our way home we experienced an event I have never experienced before in 55 years of driving. We blasted into a huge swarm of bees at 60 mph! 

When I say a swarm of bees, I mean it sounded like a machine gun going rat-a-tat-tat as they hit the windshield. At first I thought it was gravel, but there was no gravel truck nearby or any loose gravel on the road.

The entire front of the RV was covered with bee carcasses -- and this was only 60 miles after it had received that good washing! When we arrived home it took me over half an hour to clean the windshield and front of the coach. And this was not a good cleaning job, but one to allow me to put it away without feeling too guilty.

Forget chickens crossing roads; the real question is why would a swarm of bees want to cross an eight lane tollway?

Thanks for visiting.

Our First Outing
After a full week of unpacking the old RV, sorting, culling, arranging and rearranging, we finally have our new motorhome, "Bam-Bam" (Linda's name for it), packed and ready to go. So with everything all set, we headed to the state park for our first night. 

Since this thing is 8 feet longer, almost a foot wider, and almost 2 feet taller than the old one, we looked forward to the drive. The route to the park was perfect with some busy suburban streets, some freeway, some country roads, and of course backing into the campsite. I'm pleased to report that all three of us, Don, Linda, and Bam-Bam earned high grades.

Along with deer and bluebirds, we saw some rabbits and lots of things beginning to green. And with our recent rains Big Creek, which runs through the park, was full and running fast. Yes, despite it still being a bit chilly, spring is definitely arriving.

Thanks for visiting.

A Day At Brazos Bend In January
The holidays are over and the Polar Vortex has left us, so we took some time this past Friday to visit nearby Brazos Bend State Park.It was an overcast, but pleasant, 67 degree day, and there was plenty of activity around the park’s small lakes. And the winter colors tend toward a variety of shades of brown (not white, thank goodness) which give the park a different beauty than it has in spring and summer.

We wondered about the park taking care not to step on the alligators which were out along the banks of the lakes. Linda did come close however, walking about three feet past a good sized gator while looking the other way.

After a fine walk with lots of picture-taking and binocular-peering, we found a picnic bench by one of the lakes and tucked in. We watched a raft of black-bellied whistling ducks.

Don got to talking with a couple from Kentucky who are in the middle of a six-month RV tour (Don’s dream). They had never seen the black-bellies before, so that started the conversation.

Winter Wildlife
It was a wonderful day of turtles, gators, and water birds. Most of the birds are here all year long, but their numbers can change (increase or decrease) in the winter. Enjoy!

We wandered up into Arkansas this past week to watch Linda’s grandniece play soccer for Hendrix college. It was a family visit as both Linda’s brother and sister-in-law and her niece and her husband were in town for the games. It was good to see everyone and share some time with them.

A Few Minor Problems
Our first night out a little problem popped up with the RV. It seems we had sprung a leak in our plumbing, and it was not something I could easily fix on the road. What to do — continue on or turn around and go home? That was not a difficult question for us to answer. So we filled some water jugs and headed on.

The next day we began feeling a familiar (and unwelcome) vibration at about 60 mph. A month ago we had the same vibration, and it turned out to be a tire that was starting to separate. A new tire was needed then. I suspected the same problem. Sure enough, at Williams Tire in Benton, Arkansas, they found that the tread of the outer right rear tire was starting to separate. This time I just figured my previous set of tires came from a defective batch, and had six new ones installed. My month-old tire became the spare.

Back on the road all was good and we rolled through the balance of our trip smoothly.

Toad Suck, Pickles Gap, and Woolly Hollow
You just have to love Arkansas. You can’t make up names like these; they are just part of the fabric of the culture. Yes, every state has some funny names (Cut-And-Shoot, TX; Bird-In-Hand, PA), but Arkansas somehow seems to have a few more than its share. It will take another trip or two for us to visit Possum Grape, Skunk Hollow, Smackover, Goobertown, and who knows what other Arkansas delights.

Our plan was to stay at the Toad Suck Corps of Engineers Park located along the Arkansas River. However the park was closed as part of our federal government’s absurd and unnecessary shutdown (Thanks, Ted Cruz).

So we changed our plans and drove to the other side of Pickles Gap to Woolly Hollow State Park. Woolly Hollow was very nice, with great camp sites. It was a bit farther from Hendrix College, but since there was no traffic of any account the extra miles did not mean much.

The Hendrix Warriors
Soccer was the prime reason for the trip. Hannah was an all-state player in New Mexico and now is ripping it up in the Southern Athletic Association. As a freshman, she started every game as a defender for the Warriors. Now as a sophomore she has been moved to attack and currently leads the team in both goals and assists.

When we first saw the game on Friday evening, Hendrix looked a bit out of synch and lost to Berry College. But the team came back on Sunday with a very strong 5 – 3 win over Oglethorpe. Hannah played well and contributed two assists and a goal to the victory.

Saturday while Hannah had some quality time with her parents and grandparents, I headed to the stadium to see a bit of Division III football. What can I say? When it’s Saturday in October, ya just gotta watch some ball. And boy, did I! It was a great, back-and-forth game that came down to the very last play which unfortunately ended inside the one yard line for Hendrix. They lost to Washington Univ. of St Louis 45 – 41.