Waking up our last morning in Houston we were ready to hit the coast. Like it was in almost every place we had been to it was again not the easiest to leave. We liked Houston and had gotten used to calling Sam & Brian’s house home. Nonetheless though the open road was calling. First stop for the next few days was only a little over an hour away in Galveston. Before any of that though we had to get out of the city.
The route to get from Sam & Brian’s house to the highway generally took us all of 30 seconds every time we had tried to go on it. Today however would be a different day. The road is set up like this. On your left is a 2 story raised highway with a small sidewalk against it on road level. There are 2 traffic lanes, both 1 way going towards the highway. On your right are a few small businesses with parking lots (these lots are only on the front end of the business). Not too far ahead of us on this small stretch of road a semi truck attempted to back in to a business. The driver must have been very new as he was having trouble and somehow managed to get the trucks back end stuck on a 3-foot tall railing. He then tried to go forward again but could not. It was stuck, as was every single car and truck behind it.
So here we were 30 seconds from our departure point. There were a few trucks and jeeps ahead of us that managed to drive onto the sidewalk and drive around the stuck semi truck. A few other cars were able to drive backwards on the sidewalk next to the businesses. As we didn’t feel that Bubbles was tall enough to drive onto the sidewalk on our left and as it was raining we didn’t want to chance getting stuck in mud on the sidewalk on our right. At this point it was just us and a few low cars in front of us and 2 semi trucks behind us. The drivers of these trucks walked up to see what was going on. On their way back to their trucks we asked what was happening. We were told that the guy must have been very new as they would have never attempted what he did. They said that a crane was being sent to lift the truck off of the fence. This didn’t sound good and meant we were going to be there for a while. We sat back, made lunch and thought how funny this situation was turning out. Not much we could do though. At this point it had been about an hour and a half and we see a police officer walking up and telling us that they are having every car on our stretch of road back up to get out of there. After a few minutes we see the big semi trucks behind us backing up. We turn Bubbles around and follow the trucks out past a line of police cars and drive on down another road. We are free!
Finally back on the road we eventually get on the highway towards the coast. After about an hour or so we start to see the ocean and cross a few bridges and arrive on Galveston Island. As it had been rainy and quite windy on our drive down we opted to check into the campground and rest for the evening. As our campground was on the beach (as were many on the gulf) we took a walk on the beach admiring the ocean and laughing about our semi truck situation back in Houston before calling it quits for the day.
The next day we woke up ready to hit the town. After eating breakfast we called an Uber and we were off. Galveston turned out to be much bigger than either of us had expected. It was also much older than we had thought as well. Its downtown was beautiful with most of the buildings being built in the late 1800’s. We wandered storefront to storefront trying free samples where we could. We were also surprised that you could buy beers to go from most of the stores (these stores were not corner stores or bodegas, just normal souvenir stores that also sold single beers to go). From downtown we walked to the harbor area-watching fisherman bring in their catches from the morning. We stopped for a while watching pelicans sit just feet away from the fisherman waiting for a stray fish to come their way. After walking around for a bit more we stopped by a restaurant called Fish Tales. A sign outside the restaurant said it was “National Margarita Day” so we thought, why not. After a tasty drink we called an Uber again and headed back to the campsite for the night.
The next day we woke up and after a breakfast and a stop at the local grocery store we were off. Today we were headed to Port Aransas. We drove south down Galveston Island hopping back onto the mainland near Surfside Beach then continued south. Starting here were the first glimpses that we caught of the damage that hurricane Harvey had done in late August, 6 months prior. It was pretty devastating as for at least a few of the small towns that we passed through it looked like the hurricane could have just happened last week, not 6 months ago. Roofs were off houses, cars were just laying wherever the storm surge pushed them and the tops of palm trees were nowhere to be seen. It was a pretty gruesome scene. As we headed on we hoped that Port Aransas had faired a little better.
In order to get to Port Aransas we could either drive to Corpus Christi and take a bridge to the island (a 30 mile detour) or take a small ferry. We decided to take the ferry option. We had taken a 7-hour ferry from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland back in July and were pretty excited to see what this one was like. As we approached the ferry we found out that it was nothing like the mammoth one that we were on in Canada. For this ferry the ride would only be about the size of 4 football fields. Small ferryboats zipped from side to side. As we approached we were put in a line and almost immediately followed the car in front of us onto the boat. The boat could hold about 16 cars (depending on length) and in less than 10 minutes we were across and in Port Aransas. For those of you wondering why there was not a bridge as we had thought when we approached the only answer we could come up with is that there are a large number of oil company properties around the area and possibly they could not build a short bridge tall enough for an oil barge to pass underneath. We made our way through the town to our campground and after another relaxing beach walk we called it a night.
The next day we woke up and headed back into town. We parked Bubbles at Roberts Point Park, which overlooks the Port Aransas harbor. It was pretty neat as we watched gargantuan oil tankers pass through the small channel and passed this little town. We then decided to make use of our bikes for the day and we hit the road. As the town was not that big we made it around pretty fast. Port Aransas had suffered a lot of hurricane damage as well. As it was a tourist town faster efforts were being made to get the town up and running for the summer season but reminders of Harvey were everywhere. From what we could see in town, 1/3 of the businesses were up and running, 1/3 were under construction and the rest were abandoned or in some state of disrepair. It was a little strange being there although we did feel good about putting money back into the local economy. In Port Aransas we stopped at their local brewery called “The Brewery” (it is a small town afterall). We were told that they had just reopened the previous day and were back up and running at 100% again. From the brewery we rode over to MacDaddy’s Family Kitchen for some Texas BBQ before riding back to Bubbles, driving back to the campground and taking another walk on the beach.
The next day we woke up ready for a driving day. Today we would be headed to South Padre Island, the most southern point in Texas. From Port Aransas we headed inland stopping first in Corpus Christi. As it was Sunday not too much was happening in town. We parked Bubbles and walked around their port area, which was pretty neat. There were a few restaurants, shops and a nice park. Most people were probably at church we thought. From Corpus Christi we hopped on 77 south and continued on down towards South Padre. Before heading over to the island we did stop in Brownsville, (the actual southern most town in Texas) which while the buildings did look pretty nice, overall looked like it could use a little sprucing up. Oh well, we came for the beach anyway! After another half hour drive or so we crossed over our final bridge and we were on the island! We checked in to our campground got set up and started to plan our next day.
We awoke the next morning with the fog starting to lift on the island. After consulting some maps we realized that South Padre wasn’t that big and the town also had some great biking lanes to ride on. The area where most things are on the island is only about 4 miles long (and maybe ¼ mile wide) and the road right next to the beach had a dedicated bike lane so we decided to leave Bubbles in the campground for the day, throw on a backpack and see the island by bike. We hopped on our bikes and we were off. We rode to about the middle of the town where we locked our bikes up and started to walk the beach. It was still quite foggy which made it pretty neat. There was a good number of people walking the beach but you would only see them when they were about 100 feet from you. Slowly but surly however the fog lifted and we could see almost the entire beautiful beach. From the beach we hopped back onto our bikes stopping for coffee then a little lunch at a small beach park that we found. We then rode as far north as we could stopping at different points on the beach. South Padre is a big college spring break destination and we had come just before the craziness had started. We saw a few college students (with school flags hanging from hotel balconies) on the beach but we were told that the beach becomes one big mob of people when the spring break season hits its full stride. We were glad we were not here for that. After stopping a few more times at beach vantage points and for a beer at Padre Island Brewing we headed back to the campground. As we normally don’t go out for dinner and there was a restaurant directly next to the campground we decided to treat ourselves to a great seafood dinner. It was a great end to a beautiful beach day.
After spending time at three of Texas’s biggest and well-known beach spots we both decided, without hesitation that South Padre Island was the best. The beach was beautiful, the restaurants were great and if you have a bike you will be all set to go.
Next up….We head back to central Texas to explore the Hill Country and Austin.
