Sunday, May 5, 2019

10th Post - San Augustine


Friday, May 3rd – Travel day again!  We pulled out around 8:30 and headed into Galveston to catch the ferry over to Bolivar Peninsula across Galveston Bay.  It’s about a 2 ½ mile trip and takes about 18 minutes. We got to the terminal just as the last cars were loading on in-dock ferry and there wasn’t enough room for us.  We had to wait about 30 minutes for the next one.




After we crossed the bay and got off the ferry, then it was north on the coast highway (Hwy 87) up the Bolivar Peninsula through Crystal Beach and Gilchrist to High Island.  We had been in this area a few weeks ago when we were staying in High Island – reference the 2nd Blog Post.

In High Island, we took Hwy 124 north to Winnie, stopped for fuel, then took I-10 east to Beaumont, TX.  From Beaumont, we headed north on Hwy 96 through Lumberton, Silsbee, Buna, Kirbyville, and Jasper to Pineland.  In Pineland, it was west on Hwy 83 five miles, then south on Hwy 1751 four miles to our destination – San Augustine Campground on the Sam Rayburn Reservoir (an Army Corps of Engineers park). A good 188-mile drive for the day.


We camped here almost exactly 5 years ago and met a couple named Eddy & Renee Gallaspy who were camping next door.  They live down Hwy 96 about 65 miles in Silsbee and come camping here a lot.  Eddy’s a big fisherman and this lake has great fishing.  He catches Bass and White Perch, plus huge catfish that he gets on a trot line.  Lo and behold, they are here again – in the same campsite next door to us.  We visited with them a little bit and got caught up on everything.  We had a pretty good rain that came through late afternoon.

Saturday – We had some pretty strong T-Storms come through early before daylight – lots of lightning & thunder.  It rained a little off & on until around noon, but then cleared off nicely with beautiful blue skies.  We made an early run into Jasper, found a restaurant for breakfast, then made a Walmart stop.  The rest of the day was mostly R&R.  I visited with Eddy next door (he had a little campfire going) for a while – LaVerne did some reading.  Renee went home for the night – she had Sunday School to teach Sunday morning, plus laundry to do.
Sunday (Today) – We went just outside the park gate to Rayburn Parkway Baptist Church for worship service.  We visited this church 5 years ago and remembered how friendly the people were – no change, they are still about the friendliest folks we’ve seen in a while.  Several of them work as park attendants at the campground and man the entrance gate.  Needless to say, it was a great worship service and we really enjoyed it.
After church we went to the DQ in Pineland for lunch, then made another Walmart run to Jasper.  Back at camp, we took chairs and went to visit with Eddy & Renee for a while.  Was good to see them again after 5 years.
We have decided to call an end to this Texas trip and head home. It will take about 3 days, so the first stop tomorrow (Monday) will be at Roosevelt State Park in Morton, MS.  I will do one more ‘final’ post either just before or right after we get home.

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