9th Post - Galveston, TX

Wednesday, May 1^st - Another good travel day – cloudy, no rain, not too hot.  We left Goliad on Hwy 59 to Victoria, took the bypass loop around, and then again on Hwy 59 to Edna. In Edna, we took Hwy 111 east to Hwy 71, then Hwy 35 to Bay City.  More small back roads to Brazoria, Lake Jackson, and Freeport to Surfside Beach.  At Surfside Beach, we took the Bluewater Highway – the coast highway that runs 40 miles north along the coast to Galveston.  Our park, Galveston Island State Park, is about 14 miles south of Galveston, right at Jamaica Beach.  We arrived around 1:00 PM after a good 184-mile drive.  This park is right on the Gulf of Mexico and we have stayed here a few times in past years (again some great memories with our friends Ed & Judy).  The campground is a lot smaller than it used to be – Hurricane Ike in September 2008 did a lot of damage and they only refurbished about half of the sites.

Today (Thursday), we took a ride down the beach to the toll bridge and did some birding.  We didn’t see many birds under the toll bridge – the beach sand was really soft, I didn’t want to have to go to 4-wheel drive, so we cut that short.  We did see some good birds in a couple of the subdivisions and in the section of our park across the highway from the campground.

We find it interesting that as you ride along the Bluewater Highway, there will be vacation homes and condos on the beach side and right across the road might be a field full of cattle.  We saw several of those along the way.

One of the communities we find interesting is Jamaica Beach.  It is a community built on a series of canals and all the houses have water access right at their back door.

We also had a chance to ride into Galveston and ride along the Seawall.  They may have had a lot of damage from Hurricane Ike back in 2008, but you can’t tell it – it’s a booming place.

This was a short stay – we only scheduled 2 nights here.  Tomorrow is moving day again and we’re headed into the Texas Big Thicket country to San Augustine Campground on the Sam Rayburn Reservoir.