The next morning we set off for Bobby and Libbys place just north of Dallas. One thing we did notice was the price of diesel was getting cheaper - down to $3.33 a gallon or 87 cents a litre. It's almost a pleasure to pull in and fill the truck up at that price. They say the USA is now totally self sufficient for oil so OPEC is dropping the world price, bet thats not working back in Australia?
We finally arrived at Bobbys and simply parked the trailer on the street out front of their house and plugged the power in. This is what you do in TX, well in the town of Josephine anyway. So with no further ado we made our presence known.
It was great catching up with Bobby and Libbby again, the last time we saw them was the day before we left from Dallas at the end of our last trip. Needless to say that first night we spent hours talking and having a wine or two. One topic that came up was the "Polar Vortex" that was hitting the northern states of the USA and which was predicted to affect the southern states - right down to the Gulf. This meant Dallas was going to get cold too. Well for four days the daytime temp didn't get much over 4-5c and even down to minus 4 at night. So the girls went shopping at girl places and Bobby and I went our seperate way. First stop was the car yards to check out trucks - damn they do them well here in the USA! I did however resist the temptation to go for a test drive - for now anyway!!!
Our next stop was Costco, never having been to one before it was an experience - loved that fact that all the "bloke" stuff is situated at the front of the store - large screen TV's and electronics and then the beer and wine. Great product placement - certainly gets the men past the front door. We checked out all the good stuff including a Yamaha sound bar - mmm a want not a need so left that alone. Next were some LED lights. Those that know me are very well aware I have a thing for LED lights so I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to walk out of there empty handed - homeward bound with an18 foot length of colour changing, fancy pattern, remote controllled lights - and at a cost of only $35!! I was in LED heaven!!
Bobby and I arrived back to an empty house so it was off to the "theatre" room to watch a bloke movie or two - something we did more than once because it really was just too cold to do much else outdoors..... those winds blowing across the plains of Texas kept us whimpy Aussies inside in the beautifully heated house. Never let it be said that I am the only gadget nut in our house - Rose and Libby arrived home carrying in the Yamaha sound bar that I had mentioned seeing earlier in the day. Next morning it was installed - oh yeah - now we're rocking!!!
At nights we passed the time playing games, Rose and I learnt to play domino's - as a kid i just joined the dots or stood them on their end and watched them drop, but Bobby and LIbby taught us how the game is played like an adult!
After several days of game playing, shopping, talking etc it was time to hit the road. I backed the trailer down the street and off we went. Thanks Bobby and Libby for a wonderful time.
Our next official stop was Port Aransas near Corpus Christie however decided to break the trip up and stopped at the town of New Braunfels. Again Passport America came to the rescue with another half price RV park - the Lazy L & L Campgound. We picked this park because it was not on the interstate or near a train line so we were happy to drive the extra 12 miles west to the park. As we drove we looked at one another hoping that we had made the right decision - the road was pretty winding and quite narrow.
We finally arrived at the park and all our doubts were gone, it was a truly beautiful park - so beautiful in fact that we wished we could have stayed more than the one night to explore the area - next trip!
With the last hours of daylight we walked the park and took some photo's.
Definately not enough time in this park.
Next morning it was onwards to Port Aransas, arriving mid afternoon at Gulf Waters RV Resort to a huge greeting from Kathy and Jay. It was great to see them again. As we were setting up this bloke from the site beside us introduces himself saying, "Hi I'm Dave - I am sure Kathy has warned you about me but unfortunately you're stuck with me for the next week!" Rose and I looked at each other wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. Hoowever that afternoon's happy hour drinks was the just the beginning of a fun, laughter filled week - Dave certainly kept us all entertained with his quick and witty one liners and stories. Dave and his lovely wife Faye had stayed at Gulf Waters last year and loved it so much they bought the site, a new truck and 5th wheeler and are now full timers staying down there for six months of the year. Another great friendship formed and we will no doubt catch up with this crew again.
A cold Gulf morning and the sun is trying to peek through
The run of bad weather continued to follow us - we did however manage to hit the beach a couple of mornings for a much needed walk.
Weeks end and it was time to move on to our next destination - Galverston Tx. Our journey started with a five minute, free ferry trip to Aransas Pass.
We often decide not to follow the major interstates, taking some of the less truck populated secondary roads. We did this on this leg of our journey and came across a nuclear power plant - high razor wire and security cameras surrounding it. A quick flick open of the ipad and we were learning all about this, and other similar plants throughout the world. Very interesting!
We arrived in Galverston and after driving through and getting stopped at about 20 sets of traffic lights we pulled into the Sandpiper RV Resort. This campground sits alongside the beach front and once again were forced inside due to the gusty and cold winds. Luckily we had a really good view from our back window.
The view from our back window
We have been to Galveston before and even then were impressed with the beautiful old homes in the downtown area so we parked the truck down one of the side streets and hit the pavement with our cameras in hand. Photo taking can build up quite a thirst so we stopped at a local liquor store to purchase a few liquid refreshments.
We had one final thing that we wanted to do while in the area and that was travel the 70 miles up to Houston Tx to visit a couple we met at the Harley Davidson 110th anniversary at Milwaulki last year. Daniel runs and owns his own business, Cut Throat Customs (motor bike building) in Houston. Before heading up the interstate we stopped to top the tank up with fuel at what must have been the slowest fuel pump in all of Texas. It took 25 minutes to pump 25 gallons - yep - one gallon per minute!!
We arrived at Daniels workshop where he and his lovely wife Heather were rewiring a bike harness. We had a few hours catching up with them and talking about the bike show in Las Vegas where they caught up with fellow Aussie's Shaun and Sheree - also bike builders.
Catch ups all done it was time to leave Texas - the Lone Star State and also known as the Six Flag State which refers to the number of flags or Governments that have controlled Texas:
Under Spain: 1519-1685 and 1690-1821
Under France; 1685-1690
Under Mexico; 1821-1836
Texas as a Republic; 1836-1845
Under the Confederacy; 1861-1865
Under the Union; 1865- present
Thank you Texas - it has been fun!
What a great week we had with you both, look forward to the day our paths cross again. Safe travels and we'll be following your posts to see what kind of trouble Ron gets into.
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