To access the travelogue that goes with these pictures click here:
2005 Trip Travelogue #8 Galveston to Victoria via Freeport, Brazora & Bay City -- Cureo & Goliad
The first exciting thing we did in Texas was take the free ferry across the Galveston Ship Channel. Now that was fun in the motorhome with our little Saturn in tow.
We are approaching the ferry in this pic. That is the pilot house of the ferry in the middle of the pic. The actual crossover from land to ferry takes place between those two towers at the end of that narrow funnel onto the ferry. Once on the ferry workers guide you to either side of the pilot house where there are three rows of vehicles. The pic on the right is taken from our motorhome windowshield as we are making the crossing. People in the automobiles were able to exit their vehicle and roam aournd the deck. Many occupied their time feeding seagulls. We were so tightly packed we could not get out of our door.
We passed by a variety of vessels on our way across the busy Galveston Ship Channel.
Finally we are docked and the vehicles ahead of me and on the sides have exited the ferry. We are starting to roll, it is our turn to exit. Just after bouncing off the ferry we are on a wide boulevard in Galveston headed for the famous Seawall Boulevard a few blocks away.
This was March 19 and Spring Break is supposed to be in full swing. We were expecting Galveston Beach to be chockabock teenagers. The following is what we saw. Does it look like Spring Break is in full swing? The protrusions from the beach into the Gulf are seawalls. The road we are traveling is aptly named Seawall Boulevard. We are traveling from the east end of Galveston Island to the western tip. As you can see from the first pic the beach is all but deserted.
This pic is of a deserted seawall. Fishermen were on some of the seawalls just not this one.
At the extreme western end of Galveston Island we turned north and across the Intracoastal waterway. The bridge over the Intracoastal is high enough that huge barge tows can slide under with no problem. It was from this bridge that Joyce took a picture looking east along the Intracoastal waterway. That is the western end of Galveston Island to your right. Then Joyce took a pic out of the other side of the motorhome looking west into Freeport and their port and refinery area.
As we passed through the small town of Bay City, Texas Joyce spotted this cute murial. The building was beside a RR track so the murial was fitting. Note the Jazz players hanging out of the window.
We stopped in Victoria because there was an RV-Park in Victoria. We could not find a campground listing for Cuero and Cuero is where wanted to go. Cuero just happens to be the hub of several wildflower loops. We are here a week or so early for the main wildflower bloom but we enjoyed ourselves just the same. Cuero is ranching country. The wildflowers are predominantly in pasture areas and along the roadside. Here are some of the flowers we saw on our drives around Cuero.
The flowers were not at their zenith yet but they were still pretty.
Mesquite & huisache trees were visible in nearly every pasture. Some were starting to sprout new growth like this huisache tree.
To finish off our day we stopped by the small historic Texas town of Goliad. This is one of the first communities settled by Europeans/Americans in what is now Texas. At that time this territory was part of Mexico. The Goliad Courthouse is a set on a Square in the center of the city. Note the European architecture. On the ground of the courthouse is the famous "Hanging-Tree".
If you ever wanted to know what a "Hanging-Tree" looked like this is one. Actually the picture above and to the right are the same hanging-tree.
As we were driving back to Victoria and our motorhome a terrible looking storm came up. Joyce took these pics of a tornado trying to form. As far as we know it never touched the ground.
The tornado may never have touched the ground but you can bet the rain was a deluge.
These pics were from March 19th and 20th.
To access the travelogue that goes with these pictures click here:
2005 Trip Travelogue #8 Galveston to Victoria via Freeport, Brazora & Bay City -- Cureo & Goliad
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