We played on the west side of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of weeks. Too bad the sun didn’t want to come to come out and play also!
After our airboat ride, we continued to travel along the Gulf shore on the small back roads just to experience the region. Our destination was the town of Creole, Louisiana. We had found some beach camping in the town that was big rig friend. It did not disappoint!
Here we are, parked on Rutherford Beach, with only a dune between us and the Gulf of Mexico.It was windy, and there were no facilities other than an outhouse, but we didn’t care.The sunset the first night did not disappoint. You could really see the oil drilling platforms out in the Gulf.
We had a lovely couple of days enjoying the scenery. It was a tad windy, but we didn’t complain.
Janelle and I worked on a paper-piecing quilting project together. There are twelve blocks in all in the project. We seem to finish one block a year! Four down, eight to go!Jim and Janelle walked the shoreline one foggy morning. My sore knee and I stayed behind (FYI, the knee is FINALLY doing better).
After a few days on the beach, it was finally time to get Janelle back to Galveston. She had eager undergrad students awaiting the return of their favorite teaching assistant!
We once again stayed at the Sandpiper RV Resort on Galveston Island, right on the Gulf and only a 3 minute drive from Janelle’s house. That’s us under the yellow arrow.
There is not much to tell about our Galveston. The majority of the time it was foggy and rainy. After our initial arrival, it was almost a week before we could see the Gulf again. We had mostly a lot of family time which we all enjoyed. (Leola…I’m counting on you to join me in doing all the touristy things when we eventually meet up on the Island.)
I did attend one of Janelle’s practices for the Galveston Community Band. It was a hoot!!! I’ve attended many of my girl’s concerts, but never a practice. It was enlightening to see what goes into pulling a piece together with all those instruments. The practices are held in the chapel of the First Baptist Church.
I was struck by the stained glass windows in the chapel. I discreetly took a picture of this one during practice. “In Memory of the members of the Second and Third Baptist Churches lost in the storm of September 8, 1900.” A hurricane hit Galveston before hurricanes had names, so this hurricane is called The Great Storm of 1900. Thousands of lives were lost on the Island. The storm is cited as being ” the deadliest natural disaster in United States history.”
Every few months, the art galleries downtown host “Art Walk”. Basically, you spend an evening wandering from gallery to gallery drinking free wine and maybe buying some art. Again, it was a rainy night, but that didn’t stop the people from coming out, us included.One of the artists is in Janelle’s community band. She makes jewelry from a substance called Fordite. I’m totally borrowing the following explanation from Wikipedia; ” Fordite, also known as Detroit agate or Motor City agate,[1] is old automotive paint which has hardened sufficiently to be cut and polished.[2] It was formed from the buildup of layers of enamel paint slag on tracks and skids on which cars were hand spray-painted (a now automated process), which have been baked numerous times.[3] In recent times the material has been recycled into jewelry.[4] ” So yes, that is layers of paint that was applied to cars back in my home state of Michigan!And this is closeup detail of a bracelet made from Fordite. Very interesting!On one of the few non-foggy/rainy days we had, it was time for some yard work. Jim trimmed tree branches and Janelle mowed her backyard. Note Janelle has on her hiking boots. She has only wore sandals once to do yard work…fire ants quickly taught her that was NOT a good idea.
After ten days with Janelle, it was time to head out. We had planned on spending more time in Texas, but the long-term weather forecast was not in our favor. The coast of Texas was damp and cold. The interior of Texas was not as damp, but still cold. It was time to head west to the desert.
Finally —- a picture of Jim. Yay!!!!
So nice to see Janelle enjoying the adventure with you!