January 31, 2005

January 31, 2005

Livingston to Galveston, Texas

DAY 227

 

Today was cold and raining. That didn't dampen our enthusiasm for "hitting the road". We were at YMCA Of The Ozarks for 6 weeks, and Rainbow's End / C.A.R.E. Centre for 6 weeks, with 3 weeks of travel in between, so we've only been on the road for 3 out of the last 15 weeks.

This morning, I walked Ginger for the last time, and introduced Ginger and Rodney to Mary Lu, who is going to walk Ginger in the mornings. Then we headed off to Livingston, to run errands. We had to buy some groceries, drop off a souvenir Loonie for our waiter at the Mexican Restaurant, buy diesel, pick up our last piece of mail at the Post Office, and refill a propane tank.

Our original plan was to hook up the trailer and haul it around with us while running errands, then leave Livingston heading south on the main highway to Houston, Hwy. 59. However, after reviewing the map last night, we decided to head south on the secondary highway that the Rainbow's End / C.A.R.E. is located, Hwy. 146. This enabled us to go into Livingston to run errands without the trailer. When we got back to C.A.R.E., we hitched up and headed out, at noon, south on Hwy. 146. By taking Hwy. 146, we skirted the eastern edge of Houston, instead of having to drive all the way through Houston, if we had taken Hwy. 59.

After driving south for an hour or so, about halfway to Houston, we pulled into a small road side rest area to have lunch. I pulled the rig off the road onto the grass, and immediately sunk very deeply. It had been raining heavily all morning. I spun my wheels a bit, and just sunk in deeper. I shifted to 4 wheel drive, and gave it a try. That was a bit of an improvement, but I still wasn't able to get out. I shifted to 4 wheel drive "low", and managed to crawl out of the mud and back onto the asphalt, all six of Dee-Dee's tires spinning and throwing up mud. Woo-Hoo ... four wheelin' in Texas. I think when the local cowboys go four wheelin', they don't haul 11,000 pounds of trailer along with them. Once I got the rig back onto the asphalt, I looked in the mirrors, at the grass I had just been on. What had been a nicely manicured lawn area a few minutes before was now this very deeply rutted mud patch. Oops ! I pulled out of the rest area and continued down the road, stopping in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in the next town, to have lunch. When I got out of thetruck, I saw that the front of the trailer was covered in mud all the way to the roof line, as were the sides of the truck. Even the front hood of the truck had mud on it from the front tires spinning in the mud while turned slightly.

After lunch, we continued south on Hwy. 146 to Liberty, where Hwy. 146 merged with Hwy. 90, heading west for 6 miles to Dayton, before Hwy 146 split off and headed south again. After crossing Interstate 10, Hwy. 146 runs along "Refinery Row" on the eastern outskirts of Houston. Peeeuuuwww ! ! ! Through Baytown, along the shore line of Trinity Bay, then through Texas City, and along the shore line of Galveston Bay. Just before the Gulf Of Mexico coast line, Hwy. 146 ends at Interstate 45. Onto Interstate 45 for a couple of miles, then across the long causeway to Galveston Island, and the city of Galveston. Through the city of Galveston, then we turned west along the beach / seawall, following the beach for 11 miles to Galveston Island State Park.

We are camped tonight on the beach, on the Gulf Of Mexico, in Galveston Island State Park. That would be wonderful, except that it's cold, windy, and raining, as it has been all day. Oh, well ... win some, lose some. We're going to leave here tomorrow morning. The weather will continue to be poor for a few days, and there's no sense paying the high rates that this prime real estate commands, for the privilege of camping on the Gulf Of Mexico beach, while it's cold, windy, and raining. It sure would be nice to camp here in nice weather, though. We took Bo for a very brief walk along the beach shortly after we arrived. It was getting dark, it was cold, the rain got heavier, the signs on the beach say “beware of poisonous snakes in the grass”, so we didn’t stay out there long. Bo seems to know his way around a beach. He must have spent time on Gulf Shores in Alabama, a few miles south of where we adopted him.

DSK