Finally in Louisiana....

On Sunday, March 23rd we woke up at the rest area and I will emphasize again that Texas has some nice rest areas.  Check these pictures out!  Mosaics in the bathroom?  Really?

That morning we took our toothbrushes into the restroom and had to laugh.  We were feeling like hippies...hot, tired, dirty, living out of a trailer on the road, Don complaining about his long hair....we felt compelled to take pictures.....we needed a hot shower and breakfast!

Don the hippie...

Julie the hippie...

So it was time to go the last few miles out of Texas, but not without a few stops, Home Depot (the 4th stop??) and an auto parts store. First, the truck stop in Winnie for a shower.  Since the Love's truck stop had been our best shower yet we figured we would have a similar experience.  Well....for Julie it was fine, but not so for Don who paid $7 for a cold shower!  Oh well..can't win them all!


Next stop Home Depot in Beaumont, Texas.  While the repairs in Allen as the Drurys was a necessity and definitely made a huge difference it wasn't enough.  Don wanted another steel bar to go across the front, which he cut in the parking lot, and we needed to tighten the bolts for each individual tower post.  

The bolts in each tower needed to be tightened

I hope she makes it!

Back to work...

 Next stop the Auto Parts store where we bought new lights for the "kitchen" and free-on for the AC.

Did we say that this was a lot more work than we thought?????

And did I say that was the last stop?  We drove out of Beaumont toward Port Arthur (last stop in Texas).  Julie assessed the map and realized that we were likely not going to be anywhere near a gas station for some time so we decided to go into Port Arthur for gas.  My iPhone failed us....there was no gas station and it was a pretty depressed town.  Just as we were about to give up we found one....it was cash-only and we were definitely the minority.  Big bonus, a free soda with $30 purchase!

Then we were over the bridge and in Louisiana.

Our friends from Mustang Island told us to stay off I-10 and so we took back roads through the Lousiana Bayou along the coast.  It was really beautiful and different!  Julie was researching parks to stay and snapping pictures along the way.....here is a sampling...

Another ferry...

  


















And then we decided it was time for lunch so we stopped at the local pizza joint for lunch.

We heated up some burritos in the microwave and took a group picture!!!









 And some more pictures from the drive through the Bayou.....

And finally we got to our first Louisiana State Park.....near Abbeville, in SW Louisiana.

Our Last Full Day in Texas

Saturday March 22nd was our last full day in Texas and was all work and no play...Julie found a Walmart that was within 10 miles of camp, jumped in the van and left Don behind to tackle on cleaning up camp.  She bought a small vacuum and groceries.  Now that we had the frig working again, we could buy some perishables.  But the real urgent need was the vacuum.  It seemed like half the sand from the beach had ended up in the van and trailer.

After cleaning up we hit the road....destination: Rest area outside Winnie, Texas.  Not very exciting but we wanted to put in some miles and save on a nights camping charges.  Besides Texas has some nice rest areas.  (Funny the things that you consider on the road).  And along the way Julie found a Laundromat in Refugio, Texas.  Frankly after getting there she was wishing she hadn't found it, but what do you do.  We need to clean the sheets,  blankets and some clothes.  Don left behind most of his t-shirts and shorts so until we can get him some clothes we will be doing a lot of laundry.   So the stopped in the very small and depressed town of Refugio to do our laundry.

Only picture of the day!

The rest of the day and into the evening we drove....through Houston (sorry Michael, we didn't even stop) and headed for the border and the rest stop at Winnie, Texas.  It was a stressful evening with the box on the trailer.   Seems the rails were starting to rip and the bad roads through Houston did not help.  Don proclaimed the roads to be worse than Denver (sorry again Michael).   But we finally pulled into the rest area about 10pm, almost 2400 miles driven, we climbed into the trailer, wrestled with fan and got some shut eye.

Another Day in Mustang Island

Our second day on Mustang Island was a day of kayaking.  Julie's kayak got its inaugural ride!  One of the reasons we stayed in the park was because of the kayaking trails that it offered.  However, one of our neighboring campers gave us a heads up that there was better kayaking a few miles away.  So we opted to do that and drive down to Aransas Pass, which also meant going over a ferry.  Don's first car ferry experience.

We had to wait for the oil ship to pass first...

 The whole ferry process was really interesting. Each ferry held about 30-40 cars.  It was a short wait to fill the ferry and go (however we did have to wait for the Oil Tanker to go by first).

After the ferry we only had a couple miles drive to the Lighthouse Lakes Trails, which was a series of kayaking trails.   

Julie, Sheba and Don, the kayaking threesome!

I think Julie had more fun kayaking than Don!  It was pretty shallow but Julie was tooling around trying to break in her new kayak.  Even Don had to admit that she was moving pretty good.  Perhaps having Sheba on his kayak gave him a handicap.  Unfortunately we weren't able to get to the lighthouse, all trails leading to it were just too shallow.  However, we also met up with a fellow in the middle of the lake and sat and talk to him for an hour or so.  Joe,  he was retired and spent most of his time traveling too.  He had many stories to share.  He was currently staying with his son, whom lived on Padre Island.  We really enjoyed chatting with him.  

After an afternoon of kayaking we humped the kayaks back on the van and headed back to camp.  Not without stopping at a gas station for wood, beers, hotdogs and chips.  We came back to camp, showered and chatted with our new neighbors.  We met a really cool couple that was living on the road in their RV with their three kids and family pooch.  They were coming from the same areas that we were heading so they gave us lots of good tips for the future.  We were both really inspired by them.  They have been on the road for about 8 months.  He was working from the road, telecommuting for the most part, she was home-schooling their 3 boys.  They seems to really love it! 

Our attempt at a beachside campfire picture!

And to wrap up the day, we grabbed the cooler, dog, chairs, hotdogs and headed out to the beach.  We drove about a 1/2 mile down the beach, parked and Don dug a pit for a campfire.  It took a flare and motor oil to get it started but finally we started roasting the hotdogs and drank beer on the beach.  Good times!  Neither of us have ever had a campfire on the beach and were excited to do it!  A good way to end the day and a good way to end our time on Mustang Island!