G&T's Excellent Adventure

SUN., FEB 11 thru SAT., MARCH 30th, 2024

As I’ve stated ad nauseum, we return to Galveston every spring for medical follow-ups. This time we’re staying at the Galveston Island KOA for 3 months. It’s also a chance for us to connect with visiting friends, family and this beautiful island… with a sprinkling of our yearly medical appointments in the mix. We’re fortunate that the beach is a short walk from our campground, even if it means at this time of year there’s often a 20+ mph wind blowing at the beach! The Hannafords are parked next to us which is always fun. 

Our back-in site has a view of an open field where cattle roam occasionally. We also have periodic bird sightings as there is a catch-and-release pond nearby, and we are treated to beautiful sunsets frequently. 

The campground is inhabited with “Winter Texans”, the term associated with those traveling south from the midwest to escape their winters. It’s mostly seniors and the campground offers activities to keep everyone occupied… there was a Mardi Gras Parade, a Valentine’s Day gathering with champagne, and they have live music weekly plus the occasional bingo game. They also have a Lazy River which is ridiculously fun.

This spring they had a visit from the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. So fun to see it in person. There are currently 6 active Weinermobiles around the country. At 27 ft long, it cruises an average of 500 miles per week. Two young women drove this one. They are signed on by Oscar Meyer for a year then their gig is up. But what fun for them to be able to tour the country.

While parked in Galveston for an extended stay, we had booked a 12-night Caribbean Cruise and had the best time! There were 8 of us that went. I’ve previously posted about that adventure. The link is here:
https://troychronicles.com/southern-caribbean-cruise/

We enjoyed a fun weekend (March 8th & 9th, 2024) with the Tise family… as always we have the BEST time together! We can’t thank them enough for making the trip down from Austin to visit the pod… during spring break no less when the island is crowded. We were joined by NH friends, who are camped here for a few weeks, which made it even more enjoyable. There was a constant 25 mph wind on Saturday here in Galveston. Therefore, sitting outside wasn’t an option although we did go for a beach walk! We fit 11 in our tiny home and had a blast chatting, eating, and playing Blank Slate!

We’ve had a great week playing with our Old Stage Campground NH buddies! We hadn’t seen Denice & Brad and Wendy & Vin for 2 1/2 years. We picked up right where we left off! That’s just one of the amazing things about this RV lifestyle. Our expanded pod of 8 had so much fun! Denice & Brad arrived first then Wendy & Vin about a week later. We enjoyed Happy Hour, walks on the beach, playing cornhole, celebrating Denice’s birthday and then 6 days later Brad’s birthday. Wendy & Vin hosted us all for dinner one evening and Wendy made 100 dumplings from scratch! They were delicious and then they introduced us to the game Sequence. Very fun! 

We all enjoyed a day of heading into downtown Galveston, ‘linner’ on the Strand and exploring the East End of the Island with its plentiful barge traffic and a new nature trail. Downtown we saw the historic Galveston Cotton Exchange building, Tilman Fertitta’s $150 million yacht named “Boardwalk”, and Battleship Texas which is not yet open to the public. It was launched in 1912 and is a veteran of both World Wars. It’s being restored and will permanently reside at Pier 20 in Galveston. 

On Thursday, March 28th, (2024) we visited the Texas City Dike. It’s the longest man-made fishing pier in the world stretching 5.3 miles into Galveston Bay. A man-made wonder. There’s also about 5 miles of beaches. 

The road behind the Texas City Dike is Skyline Drive where there is a scale model of Halfmoon Shoal Lighthouse. The lighthouse was located 2 1/2 miles off the Texas City shoreline from 1855 to 1900. Skyline Drive is also a nice spot to see wildflowers. We were hoping to see Bluebonnets, but instead we saw lots of Pink Evening Primrose also called Pinkladies.

Texas City is a busy deepwater port. It also has lots of petroleum-refining and is a petrochemical-manufacturing center. We saw lots of barge traffic and about 12 dolphins feeding off the end of the pier. Could I get a decent photo of any of them? No! I got a fin here and there and a partial body. In addition to dolphins, we saw Great Blue Herons, brown and white pelicans, Laughing Gulls and a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. A fun visit to this area!

We visited Laffite’s Cove Nature Preserve the day after visiting the Texas City Dike. Always fun when I can see birds and ducks!

Our April (2024) Galveston adventures will continue in the next post…