WALTZING ACROSS TEXAS

Ah. Texas, the second most populous and the second largest of the 50 states. Crossing it is no mean feat; from Galveston (our first stop) to El Paso (at the New Mexico border) is almost 790 miles/1,271 kms and takes about 11 hours or so. I am assuming it takes 11 hours if you take I10, follow the speed limit in Texas which is 80 mph/128 kmh and never stop. Yes, the speed limit is 80 miles per hour, there are no restrictions on cell phone use or texting while driving, which can be pretty scary as cars pass you at that speed and you see the driver chatting away or trying to text and drive at the same time. We didn't make it across in 11 hours in our RV, we made three stops in Texas for a total of six nights.

Our first stop, Galveston,  a coastal city located on Galveston Island and Pelican Island, has a population of 47,762 and is located on the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles/80 kms south of Houston. Although the weather was, once again, cold and rainy (is it us?) we liked Galveston a lot. Driving down the strip (even on a dull, dark rainy day) we could imagine what a great vacation spot this would be in warmer weather. Beach on one side and hotels, tourist shops, restaurants and bistros on the other, in some strange way Galveston reminded me of an extremely small Miami without the glitz. We've established that Erik and I love seafood and there was an abundance of fish shops to choose from.


To get to Galveston from Louisiana we chose to drive Hwy. 124 then down to State Hwy. 87. Even though it was a dark and very rainy day the drive was pretty. We like the Gulf Coast and the proximity to water.  The ferry, an extension of Hwy 87, took us from Port Bolivar to Galveston, a 2 mile/3.2 km ride that takes about 18 minutes but takes you across one of the busiest waterways in the world. Through the Bolivar Roads Channel flows the commerce of the Port of Houston, the nations largest inland port, as well as other Galveston and Trinity Bay communities. Approximately 7,000 ships visit the Port of Houston each year. While on the ferry I managed to get a couple of photos through the rain but I didn't catch the incredible amount of ships passing through.While on this 18 minute journey on the ferry we were entertained by a group of porpoises or perhaps dolphins gliding through the water, something else I didn't catch on film. It really was a bustling harbour.

Even though it was raining the whole time we were in Galveston (Jamacia Beach, actually) we would welcome the chance to go there again in the spring or fall and really see all that Galveston has to offer. Our RV park was right across the street from the beach, a very wide beach with soft whitish sand, and we did get one semi-nice morning when the dogs and I had a good run.

Leaving Galveston after our two night stay we intended to avoid I10 as much as possible and perhaps take a more scenic route. By continuing west along 87 and picking up I45 or another route that would get us to San Antonio with perhaps a bit more scenery than I10 seemed like a good plan. Even through the rain and fog you could see the ride along 87 was picturesque and would be quite beautiful and serene in the sunshine. Newfoundland on steroids sprang to mind as the brightly coloured houses sitting on their stilts passed us by. Because of the heavy rain and gusting winds it was impossible to stop the car and get out to take photos. These were taken from inside the car as we drove along.

This house was a vivid green.

A popular shade of blue.

Purple was also a colour of choice for many homeowners.

Our plan to stay off I10 for as long as possible and enjoy the scenic route didn't work quite as well as we had hoped. Gladys was constantly harping at us to turn right, turn right, turn right, make a u-turn, turn right. She was determined to get us up to I10 as quickly as possible. While we tried very hard to ignore Gladys' constant nagging we managed to travel about an hour when we relented and allowed her to take us to I10. The rain was pouring down by now with fog and the pretty scenery was just a rain soaked very dark blur.  By following Gladys' instruction, we reached the outskirts of Houston two and a half hours later. We were a mere 50 miles/80kms away from our starting point. Seems we were taking a scenic route in bad weather that was taking us nowhere. Okay, so Gladys Garmin is always right. One strange and very annoying thing we discovered about trying to get around and/or out of Houston was this: the highway system. There are toll roads but you can only go on them if you have a Zip-pass which, of course, we didn't have. You aren't aware of this Zip-pass thingy until you are about to enter the freeway when it's almost too late and there's your first sighting that you need a Zip-pass to get on. There is also a B road that runs parallel to this Zip-pass road but it leads straight on to the Zip-pass. Most confusing.

Entrance to the Alamo

San Antonio is the seventh most populous city in the United States and the second most populous city in the state of Texas, with a population of 1,409,019 and the home of the Alamo. San Antonio is a huge city that is growing at an alarming rate. The parts that we saw (it was really raining there!) looked quite run down but we did stick mainly to the main routes and, in fairness, didn't get out much. Remember it was now pouring and cold cold cold. Our RV park was in a dodgy looking neighbourhood but once inside it was completely gated and secure and comfortable. San Antonio is a massive network of highways and underpasses and overpasses, extremely busy and driving is no picnic when you don't know where you are going. Thankfully Gladys had forgiven us our indiscretion of the day before and helped us get around. We drove to the downtown area to find the Alamo but parking there is pretty much non-existent so back to the RV we went. Erik did spend a few hours exploring the Alamo (bus stopped right outside our RV park). We were surprised to find the Alamo has been completely absorbed into the city and is now located right in the centre of this huge metropolis. Erik's impression of the Alamo was not only was it hugely interesting, it was a little awe inspiring to be on the site where so much history had been made. There wasn't a lot to see, basically an old fort, it was more the experience of being in a place where so much drama and history had unfolded. It was an opportunity to learn not just the ramifications of the historical events surrounding the battle, but there was information going back to when the Alamo was still a functioning Spanish Mission. The Riverwalk, an amalgamation of restaurants, bistros, bars and shops, that runs along the San Antonio River and adjacent to the Alamo, is a tourist destination in its own right. In good weather it is teeming with tourists and locals. Erik was able to get a few good photos of the Riverwalk, albeit not too busy in the winter months.

 

Inside the Alamo

Riverwalk

Riverwalk

We only stayed in San Antonio for two nights before we headed west again, searching for the illusive sunny weather that seemed to keep avoiding us. We know this winter is exceptionally cold with frost in places that don't normally get frost, but jeez. We needed a break. So west we went.

The thing about Texas is this; even though it is a highly populated state it's also a very large state with lots of barren land that just kind of sits there. Once you get outside of the limits of the big cities of Texas (Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, El Paso and Austin all rank as some of the largest cities in the US, and they are big), there is a lot of empty space. You pass miles of highways and smaller roads with tiny little towns consisting of perhaps a gas station or not and a general store or not dotted along them. Once you head west from San Antonio your next big city is El Paso, a seven hour drive or 548 miles/882 km, with not a whole lot in between. We only want to spend four hours at one time driving and with stops for walks for the dogs and stretching breaks and a bit of lunch it can stretch to five hours and that is more than enough. We also wanted to head straight into New Mexico, by-passing El Paso for Las Cruces, NM. In order to do this we picked a point on the map that was approximately four hours away and we chose Fort Stockton. Perhaps you have heard of Fort Stockton? No? That's okay because no one has heard of Fort Stockton. Our choosing was completely arbitrary.

The Texas landscape is diverse and resembles both the south and the southwest US. Although Texas is popularly thought to be desert, less than 10 percent of the land area is^. Traveling from east to west, as we did along I10, you drive through swamps, wood, rolling plains and rugged hills, and finally the desert and mountains bordering on New Mexico and Mexico. About an hour west of San Antonio we noticed the topography was changing drastically and suddenly we were in the great plains

Our drive to Fort Stockton was pretty straight forward on I10 with the sort of scenery in these pictures. Pretty stunning really and you may notice that the sun is starting to peek out and the sky has decided to turn blue. Fort Stockton itself was a very small town with one supermarket and a Ford dealership where we were able to get the oil changed in our truck. Other than that it was an RV park where we could park for a couple of nights, despair the lack of fish or good meat or anything resembling a vegetable in the supermarket, and be glad we were dry and warm and cozy in our home away from home. It was raining again.

Can you see Roy Rogers?

New Mexico is a place that both Erik and I were intrigued about. Neither of us had ever been there before and everything we had ever read about or seen about New Mexico seemed to be romantic, peaceful and serene. We were very excited to now be headed there, Las Cruces to be exact. Driving from Fort Stockton along I10 again there was nothing until El Paso except the little towns in the distance. The scenery was pretty spectacular even if it was repetitious and put us in mind of every western movie we had ever seen as kids. Better than the scenery was the weather which seemed to be making an effort to clear up for us.

El Paso

I took this photo as we drove through the urban sprawl that is El Paso and wondered how that song that goes.....'Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl'....could possibly relate to this huge, busy and crowded modern day city with a gazillion cars screaming at full speed down the highways and freeways.

That brings up another subject about Texas.....the amount of songs that are written about Texan towns, like Galveston, where we visited. And yes we did hum it a lot while there. But also Deep In the Heart of Texas, Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind, San Antonio Rose, Dallas, All  My Exes Live in Texas, Yellow Rose of Texas, and on and on and on. In fact, there is a website that has chronicled the best 100 songs about Texas in order of preference.

It's a State with plenty of Churches, gun shoppes, Tex-Mex restaurants, sophisticated cities, small little towns with not much going on, beautiful towns on the Gulf, miles and miles of plains where cattle roam, oil rigs, high speed limits and plenty of pick-up trucks. So much variety and diversity in Texas and not enough time to see or experience it all. We have a date with Las Cruces, New Mexico and warmer weather (we sincerely hope) to enjoy.