Blue Roads Journal: Louisiana with a banjo on my knee

Odometer 27,947 miles

Trip meter 194 miles

Sunday the 27th

Before I start today's blog (Monday) I'd like to do a quick paragraph or two about Sunday- our last full day in Galveston. The weather was supposed to be iffy on Sunday so we thought we'd do some grocery shopping, beach combing, and see the Bishop's Palace in downtown Galveston.

The House should really be called the Gresham house as it was built by Colonel Walter Gresham in 1892, and was sold to the church in 1923. Much to our disappointment, we were told during the tour of the house that we could not photograph the interior, which is beautifully finished with mahogany, oak, and walnut.

The house was built with a steel frame and stone exterior, which has helped it survive all the hurricanes since- including the 1900 hurricane that destroyed 90% of the buildings in Galveston. Monday the 28th

We headed out from Galveston today bound for Meyers Landing in Louisiana. A little fun and games before we could get moving. Joan spotted a Valero station yesterday that had diesel for $3.69 a gallon- almost 10 cents a gallon cheaper than anywhere else- but there's a catch. This was a convenience store with the typical tight in-tighter-out- driveway flow that is impossible for a 36.5 foot motorhome with a toad. That can't be enough of a challenge so throw in a pump that only gives 27 gallons at a time- making you run your credit card 3 times to fill up. Well- we took on the challenge! Joan drove the car, I drove the MH- we nearly blocked the entire driveway for 30 minutes while the ran the card 3 times- people were looking daggers at us- mission accomplished! We stopped down the road and coupled the car on to the motorhome and headed for the ferry terminal.

The traffic was light and we rolled right on to the ferry and crossed the ship channel to Port Bolivar. We drove along Texas route 87 towards Port Arthur and the Louisiana border. Route 87 follows the beach so closely we could see the waves hitting the beach, and it proved too much for us- we had to stop! We had a quick lunch and then walked the beach picking up shells and watching the waves hit the beach.

Back on the road we have to make some tracks if we want to get to Meyers Landing before dark. The Valero dance we did this morning getting our diesel saved us $11.25 but it took a fair amount of time too. Our route today is designed to keep us off the interstate and as close to the Gulf as possible. The route also crosses many bays and bayous, some have bridges, but at least two have ferries.

This photo is Joan in front of our motorhome on the second ferry of the day going to Cameron, LA.

The roads in this part of Louisiana are very narrow and have virtually no shoulder, so even if we were tempted we could not have stopped off in between towns. We pulled into Meyers Landing on the edge of Lake Arthur at 4:30 and took a quick tour of the park before we did our set-up on the motorhome.

Turns out that this area has seen some significant flooding in the previous week. We were wondering why most of the ditches alongside the road looked so wet. The woman at the park office showed us the headlines from yesterday's paper and it was all about flooding in the area.