2nd Post - High Island, TX

We left Dauphin Island early on Saturday (4/6) and had a long drive.  We hit I-10 at Grand Bay, AL and drove all the way across lower Mississippi and Louisiana to Winnie, TX.  At Winnie, we took Hwy 124 south about 20 miles to High Island, TX.  Like I said, it was a long drive – right at 9 hours and 438 miles.  Except for a couple of really rough sections near Beaux Bridge, LA, it was mostly a good ride.  West of Baton Rouge we crossed the 20-mile bridge across the Atchafalaya Basin which is always interesting.

We checked into the High Island RV Park and the first thing I did was set up the satellite dish and tune in the Auburn/Virginia Final Four basketball game.  I think Auburn should have won the game, but they lost it by one point right at the end.  War Eagle anyway!!

On Sunday we went to the High Island Baptist Church for worship services.  We were discouraged by the small congregation (only 7 besides us), but they are persevering and we enjoyed the service. A couple of the folks remembered us from when we had been here in years past. After church service, we went into Winnie and ate lunch at Macho’s Mexican Restaurant – kind of crowded and loud with questionable service, but the food was very good (when we finally got it).  We were going to go to the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge for a Sunday afternoon ride-thru, but about the time we got through lunch, a huge line of T-storms came through, so we postponed that venture. Back at camp, we spent a rainy afternoon watching the Braves and reading.

Monday started off cloudy with a couple of showers, but later cleared off with sunshine (and wind). We left early and went to Anahuac NWR (pronounced Anna-wok) for the auto-tour drive through. We saw lots of birds including a couple of our favorites – a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and an American Bittern. There were also lots of alligators.

After Anahuac NWR, we went back to High Island and rode down the beach to Rollover Pass at Gilchrist, TX.  This is an inlet from the Gulf of Mexico to the bay.  Here’s a couple of pictures where the pass goes under the highway.

There’s always lots of birds here and especially today they were all hunkered down due to the wind. We saw all kinds of shore birds – Brown Pelicans, White Pelicans, Black Skimmers, Royal Terns, Common Terns, Laughing Gulls, Whimbrels, Willets, Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, and several species of sandpipers.

After Rollover Pass, we rode on down to Crystal Beach to a place called Hard Heads Icehouse & Grill and had a Cheeseburger (LaVerne) and a Fried Shrimp Basket for a late lunch/early supper.

Today (Tuesday) it was more of the same – riding & birding. We rode down the Bolivar Peninsula about 25 miles to the end where the ferry goes across the Galveston Bay to Galveston.  Right at the end is Ft. Travis Park which has great views of the ferry terminal and Galveston across the bay.

Just up from Ft. Travis is a road that goes out to the beach to Bolivar Flats. Like many of the beaches down here, you can drive along them.  We rode down the beach to the point where they have it blocked off from traffic because of Sea Turtle nesting.  We always know we are welcome here because of the sign they have up for us.

Still seeing lots of birds – got a good closeup of an Osprey and a good shot of a Mississippi Kite.  On the way back to camp, we stopped by Rollover Pass and saw all the same birds as yesterday – no wind today!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is moving day – headed on west.  Will be stopping off at a state park near Gonzales, TX for one night, then on to Choke Canyon State Park south of San Antonio for the weekend.