Apalachicola Bay

This morning we found the Florida coastline views we had hoped for yesterday.  The Gulf of Mexico was calm, like glass.  As we drove southeast from Port Saint Joe, FL we soon found ourselves enjoying spectacular views of the Apalachicola Bay 

About 5 miles offshore is St. George Island, a long narrow island that parallels the mainland. East of St. George Island is Dog Island across Saint George Sound.

It appeared we were witnessing low tide waters.  The water is clearly shallow in this area.

We soon came upon a nice small town called Carrabelle, FL. Just east of Carrabelle is a public park with a beautiful sandy beach.

The balance of our drive to Bill's sister and brother-in-law's winter retreat in Parrish, FL was via quiet backroads until we reached Tampa.  It was definitely a pleasant alternative to traveling I-75.  Below is Cathy and Ron's dwelling.

This will be our abode for the next few weeks.  Thus far our Retirement Journey has taken us 6,000+ miles through 14 states!

The Gulf

Today we saw a lot of the Gulf of Mexico.  Shortly after entering Mississippi, 

we decided on a whim to shoot down to the gulf coast shoreline and enjoy views of the water.  It was a wonderful decision.  The drive along the water in Mississippi included beautiful sandy beaches and sparkling blue water on our right and big old and new oceanfront homes on the left side of the street for long stretches.  It was a peaceful drive with little traffic.  We returned to I-10 shortly after passing through Biloxi with its seven casinos!

We then repeated the jog down to the shoreline, as planned, in Alabama and again we were not disappointed.  We stopped and enjoyed the lush sandy beaches in Gulf Shores, AL and now understand why this area has become so popular.

The air temperature was only 60 degrees (water temp: 65) yet five brave young men decided it was okay for swimming.

This family decided to feed the sea gulls and soon became quite popular.

We were very surprised to discover how short the drive from Gulf Shores, AL to the Florida state border was. Soon we were driving along the "Emerald Coast" that stretches about 100 miles from Pensacola, FL to Panama City, FL.  Sadly we were disappointed.  Where Alabama and Mississippi have done a good job preserving the view of the ocean to those traveling by car, Florida has not. This stretch of Florida had few views of the ocean except when crossing water by bridge as shown below as we entered Gulf Breeze.

We had planned to stay at Panama City but we were unable to locate our hotel and ended up driving an additional hour or so to Port Saint Joe, FL.

Bourbon Street

Bill was treated to his first visit to New Orleans today.  Pam traveled through the historic French Quarter district while in college with the touring Maranatha singing group. As we began to approach the French Quarter, we saw several horse drawn carriages with tourists.

The backdrop for the Jefferson Plaza is the Church of St. Louis, initially erected in 1724.

The area is famous for its beignets.  We found a delightful courtyard, called Cafe Beignet, that served wonderful piping hot beignets with powdered sugar and accompanied by a live jazz band.

The view below of Bourbon Street shows that we were joined by a hearty crowd on this sunny but cool 55-60 degree day.

There were lots of food vendors selling creole cooking and other traditional foods from this region. 

If paintings are your thing, local artists sell their wares throughout the French Quarter including along public plazas and sidewalks.

By mid-afternoon, Jefferson Plaza, at the heart of the French Quarter, became quite crowded.  We thought this surprising for mid-January.  The crowd was representative of most age groups. 

There were at least two wedding parties that we saw dancing in the street.  The party below was escorted by the police on loud motorcycles down main streets of town.  Immediately preceding the bride and groom was a jazz band and following the very happy couple was their wedding party and guests.

Bayous

Today we drove from Galveston Island, TX to New Orleans, LA.  One of the interesting bridge structures we travelled across between La Porte and Baytown, TX was the Fred Hartman Bridge shown below.

The view across Louisiana includes lots of bayous. Bayous are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States, notably the Mississippi River region. The state of Louisiana is famous for its bayous. 

There were long stretches of I-10 where the expressway was built on cement stilts to pass over bayous. 

The Superdome is a familiar sight in New Orleans.

Below is a picture of Rusty's house in Kenner where we will stay for a couple nights.  He too has orange trees and a grapefruit tree in back.  We enjoyed the ripe fresh fruit in addition to Rusty's tasty Gumbo for dinner!

Driving on the Beaches

One hundred and fifty years ago Galveston was one of the biggest shipping ports in North America.  Today the number of ships passing by the east end of Galveston Island continues to impress. Nowadays though, Houston is the much bigger port. Ships must pass through Galveston Harbor to reach Houston.

We were surprised to learn that we could drive our car on the beach.  Even though the sand is very hard packed, there was no mistaking that the surface was moving under us.

This section of beach upon which we drove this morning on southeast end of the island was practically deserted.  It is not hard to imagine what this island and its beaches looks like when run over by spring breakers.

In 1785, a navigator for Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish viceroy in Mexico City, named the Island: Galveztown.  The island was originally inhabited by cannibalistic Karankawa Indians who preyed upon stranded wrecked vessels in the area. 

Galveston Island has been tormented by hurricanes in 1867, 1900, 1915, 1961 (Carla), and 2008 (Ike). The 1900 hurricane was the most devastating and the 1961 hurricane was accompanied by 26 tornados!  

It appeared to us that houses built in the past 15-20 years are built about 1 story above ground level.  

Houses built since 2008 appear to be even higher!

This afternoon we decided that all beach parking on Galveston Island is actually on the beaches.  It saves Texas money.  They don't have to build or maintain any parking lots!

Galveston Island

We've been eating Texas for 3 days now.  Our San Antonio hotel has a waffle maker that makes Texas shaped waffles!  

Today we enjoyed one of our shorter drives.  Our journey from San Antonio to Galveston Island, was only 245 miles.  We left the interstate about mid-way between San Antonio and Houston in search of a much needed potty.  Guess what stopped us just short of facilities in Waelder!

 Shortly after we arrived in Galveston, we took a walk along the ocean.  The water temperature here in the Gulf of Mexico is 65 degrees, 5 degrees warmer than we had last week in Hermosa Beach, CA.  The air temperature however, at about 60 degrees today, is about 15 degrees colder than it was the day we went wading last week in the Pacific.

The view from our hotel room balcony is spectacular!

It is very pretty at sunset too.

Remember The Alamo!

Mission San Antonio de Valero was the original name of the building later named the Alamo by Texian soldiers that Bill and Pam visited along with Carl and Linda this morning in San Antonio. Alamo is the spanish name for Cottonwood. The picture below shows the front of the "Alamo" building, now a solemn shrine for the brave Texian soldiers captured in a pre-dawn ambush by the Mexican troops on March 6, 1836 and executed three weeks later.

After touring the Alamo and the "long barracks" adjacent we crossed the street and went below street level to enjoy the Riverwalk area. Along the stairs heading down was a pretty waterfall.

We proceeded to purchase tour boat tickets to enable us to enjoy the river sights in a relaxing manner.

Our tour boat captain was very entertaining and he piloted our boat for 40 minutes through the downtown district.  We saw countless restaurants and hotels along the river. We enjoyed a riverside lunch at "The Republic of Texas" restaurant shortly after our boat tour.

The balance of the afternoon was spent window shopping.  Pam enjoyed posing for the camera!

Tonight we visited the San Antonio Art Museum.  The gallery is free from 4 - 9 PM on Tuesdays!  Our lucky day.

We all agreed the American art paintings was our favorite section in this very comprehensive art gallery.Below are some samples of the paintings we saw.

At the end of day we said goodbye to Carl and Linda as they head to other parts of Texas tomorrow while we continue our journey eastward.

Spanish Missions

Today we explored the history of San Antonio.  We discovered that the National Park Service manages several missions here.  The first mission built in San Antonio in 1718 is the most famous, popularly known as the Alamo. The Alamo is managed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The National Park Service manages the four other missions, including Mission San Jose' which we visited.

We enjoyed a National Park Service Ranger guided tour of the mission grounds.  The Spaniard's primary New World task was to expand Spanish culture to whatever lands the crown claimed.  They aimed to teach the Native Americans to speak spanish, to become catholics, and learn the skills necessary for self-sufficiency. The Mission San Jose' could house up to 400 people on it's 21 acre walled in site.  

 Later we visited the north end of the Riverwalk district in San Antonio.  We were surprised to learn the Riverwalk district encompasses 15 miles of the river!  Below is a view of the river from the restaurant we ate lunch.

We carefully decided to try an authentic mexican restaurant called La Gloria Ice House.  It was a wonderful meal.  Everything we ate was carefully selected and not spicy as we wanted.  Regretfully, Linda ventured to carefully "taste" the small bowl of brown liquid placed in the middle of our table.   

The Big State

Immediately upon entering Texas yesterday we were greeted with a DOT road sign that said: 

El Paso 32 miles 
Beaumont: 861 miles  

El Paso and Beaumont are on the far west and east ends of Texas.  We think it is Texas' way of bragging about how big their state is.

Shortly after leaving Van Horn, TX and heading east, we began to notice a lot of mountains (hills?) with flat tops.  Does anyone know what these are called?

The mountain below was unique.  It looked like it had a nipple atop.

Lots of dynamite must have been used to keep the ups and downs to a minimum while travelling east on I-10 throughout Texas.  They not only carved out the interstate highway lanes but also the 2 lane road that frequently paralleled it. 

As we approached San Antonio the rolling landscape became more lush as green landscape began to appear.  The San Antonio area used to be grassy plains but the grass was wiped out many years ago while Spaniards and Native Americans resided in the area.

We made arrangements to meet Bill's cousin, Carl, and his wife, Linda, at a local Sam's Club as they arrived in San Antonio.  Carl and Linda were ready to leave their Michigan home last Thursday when they discovered the motor home's starter was dead.  Carl changed the starter in 2 degree temps in their driveway and bragged that the cardboard he was laying on easily slid in and out from under the motor home while performing the repairs.

Carl and Linda are thrilled to have finally escaped the Michigan cold and enjoy shirtsleeve weather in Texas.