2016XC: Day 12, June 26 – Beaumont, Texas to Port Aransas, Texas
CampSite: Gulf Coast RV Resort –to– Gulf Waters RV Resort
Our first stop in Texas was in a town called Beaumont. It was a nice campground and reasonably priced. Campsites were a little close together but the place was pretty clean. We spent a little time in the pool and walking around the campground. They offered a breakfast in the morning, and we were all excited about that. The kids love cereal in the morning, though I always offer to cook, but we don’t have a waffle iron on-board, so Gabriel was psyched! What better way to start your day in Texas than a Texas-shaped-waffle!
After breakfast we got in some last minute fun in the pool. All these “Southern” pools (Louisiana and Texas, so far at least), are warm enough to almost be called hot tubs…but I like it!
These tree flowers were pretty unique. Just as I was taking the photo, thinking that they resembled a bottle-brush, one of the staff told me that they are called, “Bottle brush trees”. 🙂
Check out time was 11:00, and probably we left there around 11:30. A common theme this trip seems to be that it doesn’t matter how much time the GPS says it will take, we leave as late as we can regarding checkout, and we wind up two hours past whatever our ETA is. It’s not a big deal, just noteworthy, since we’ve been on vacation time ever since we left anyway. Sometimes we book a site from about an hour away, and God has provided those for us every time, but there’s a few we called ahead for just in case. So since we were headed to a beach resort, Steve booked a place for us in Port Aransas but we needed to be there by 6:00. We would be hustling since our GPS said ETA was 4:30.
We passed by the city of Houston, and then some ranches with fields of whatever is pictured above to the right. We couldn’t figure out what the fields were filled with, but in some areas it went on for miles and miles.
As usual, Steve and his GPS continue their love/hate relationship. Somewhere on the way without realizing it, our route changed on our GPS to include a ferry trip. Given the choice before, neither of us would have chose that route – we both we pretty anxious once we realized we were about to do just that. Was it even possible to take a camper on a ferry?! We quickly called the campsite to make sure, and they said, “Yes, that’s fine!” Ok! So we are waiting in line, nervous but excited…and here comes a freightliner, ready to pass through the same channel that we were waiting in line for the ferry to cross!
We finally board the ferry, and I make all the kids get out of the truck (just in case we sink). No sooner the ferry pulls away from the dock, it stops to let another freightliner cross from the other direction. I wasn’t able to get it in the picture, but there were a few porpoises alternately jumping out of the water in front of the freightliner, as if guiding it through the channel.
As crazy as it seemed, this was certainly one of the highlights of this trip – to our surprise!
So we cross the channel, exit the ferry, call the campground because it’s about 5:40 at this point, and hustle through town. It was a really cool, beachy town, and so exciting! We arrived at the campground, well, RV Resort would be a more appropriate name, with minutes to spare. It was a perfectly manicured place, and well worth the travel.
We learned that each site was actually privately owned, and then could be rented out in a 25/75 split between the owner of the site and the campground, sort of like a time-share I suppose.
Our site was at the back of the park, closest to the beach, ordained with pretty bricks and stones, palm trees and planters. It was really impressive – in fact, the whole place was amazing!
So we set up and headed to the beach to check it out…
If you can notice in the background, there is a truck on the beach. If there wasn’t any other reason to like it here, the’re’s that one – no permit, just drive it on – car, truck, golf cart, whatever!
Anyway, back to the camper for some dinner.
And then hanging out for the rest of the evening…
…beach day tomorrow!!!!