Adventure 237: Gulf Coast RV Park/Beaumont, Texas/Post A

The winded 'gator giving up the chase.

After I won all the Grackles in Galveston, we merrily set out on an extremely pleasant drive to Beaumont, Texas. The first part of the drive mirrored the coast line, and the road surface was nearly as low as the gulf. Evidence of the deluge of two days ago was pooled along the sides of the road, which made me think the road surface was covered in water just days earlier. But not today. Today the gulf was as blue as the sky, the bright sun glittered overhead, and a gentle breeze pushed us along. We drove onto the free ferry which portaged us over to Bolivar Peninsula, a long low finger of land that led us up and over an vast estuary (The middle of swampy nowhere). By eleven we were in Beaumont, just a bit disappointed that the Monday music hadn't begun (We found out the events start in April). Naturally, we soothed our feelings by eating a willy willy good burger at Willy's Burger stand. We shared one burger and a stack of onion rings. Willy Willy Bad for You, but Willy Willy Good! Then the Madness hit. Not only are we going to go to Houston to watch the Zags in the Sweet Sixteen, but our good buddies, the Ulmen's are flying in to San Antonio, driving three and a half hours to Houston, and joining us in the craziness. They're even sleeping on our kitchen table. We can't wait. It's very likely that we'll watch not only Friday night's game, but also  the Sunday game as well. As fervent Robert Frost fans, we figure we'll not necessarily pass this way again. After all this fuss and a bit of walking in down town Beaumont, we went for a bike ride out to Tyrell Park, which houses a very well designed botanical garden and a giant swamp called the Cattail Marsh. We rode the tandem around the edge and across the middle of the marsh (About eight miles on gravel and dirt). We scattered many birds, but the real excitement was seeing the seven foot alligator walking from one part of the swamp up and over the berm to another. The thing eyeballed us, and obviously thought we looked like a couple nice morsels. It turned our way so I high tailed it, just barely avoiding spinning out in the gravel. Stumpy's surgically repaired leg came off the pedal and  her knee starting flapping in the spoke like a playing card card in a kid's bike, except that it didn't go flapity-flap like cardboard, it went pingity-ping like titanium. Once she cleared her knee of the spoke, we sped out of there like we were motorized. Once we were safely back on pavement, we calmed ourselves with a brief respite of wintling, thanking creation that alligator land speed is limited. Whew! For dinner, we broke our eat out only once a day rule and went to a local Cajun Fish house. It was only medium, but not because it wasn't good. We're just not huge fans of Southern fried delicacies (But when engulfed). Tomorrow, we're heading out to the Big Thicket, which I believe is some of the last of the original flora and fauna in the area. We may do some other exploring as well. Who knows? When you have alligators motivating you, anything is possible. Needless to say, life is good, especially today. 


 Lots of big boats swimming around the ferry route.

 Fric and Frac nestled in row three.

 Don't Mess with Texas.

 The bridge at the end of Bolivar Peninsula. Quite a hump.

 The middle of swampy nowhere

 You can't see it, but standing water is evident on both sides of this road.

 We ate our burger inside this old Airstream. Quite fitting, I thought.

 But willy willy bad.

 Art shot of the day.

 The Cattail March.

 The alligator crossed the road right there in front of us.

 Really cute bird house in the botanical garden.

 Japanese fountain.

 Azaleas.

 Boudin balls.

 Shrimp Po' Boy and Gumbo.

 Fish Tacos (Our homemade versions were better. Is that biased?).

Another beautifully soft Texas night.