Arrival in Palacios

The forecast called for rain this morning.  And I heard the pitter patter of rain on the roof a couple of times overnight.  It was enough to trigger the rain sensor and close the roof vent.  Since we are now below the weather, the mode has changed from keeping the heat in to getting the heat ​out​.  Rain makes that more difficult.

We drove through the teeth of a severe thunderstorm.  Probably one of the worst rain I have ever driven through.  The sky was black and the rain came down in buckets.  Add to this the narrow lanes due to construction on Interstate 10, large trucks barreling by way too fast, and visibility reduced down to almost zero and it made for some white-knuckle driving.

We wanted to avoid the Interstate and Houston so we took Route 87 along the Bolivar Peninsula, which is right on the Gulf.  This put us on the car ferry to get to Galveston Island.  First time I have had the RV on a ferry.  The rain was starting to let up when we got on the ferry, but the workers still were drenched.  I was a little surprised we didn’t rock around more due to the high winds and rough waters, but I did notice that those cars in the front of the ferry going the other way got splashed by the waves coming over the bow.  We were in the back, so we missed all that fun.

We parked the RV on the street downtown, paid the $2.25 for an hour of parking, and walked around for a bit.  The rain had stopped by this point, but there was evidence of flooding everywhere.

Galveston is a tourist town, but in January, especially after a heavy rain, there are no tourist to be found.  So everything was deserted.  Some of the touristy shops weren’t even open.

When our hour expired, we headed towards the Walmart to pick up some groceries.  Heading along the main road, we needed to turn left, but every side street to the left was under several inches of water.  After a couple miles, I finally found an un-flooded street and we were able to pick up our groceries, but it just makes me wonder how often this happens around here.  I saw many cars driving through the water like it wasn’t even there, leaving a significant wake behind them.  Can’t be too good for the cars...

We drove along the shoreline after leaving Galveston and found a stretch where there is public beach access for vehicles.  Some of these stretches allow camping on the beach.  We’ll have to do that someday.  We did take one of these access roads and drove the RV on the beach.  There aren’t too many places where this can be done.

We arrived in Palacios around 4:30 this afternoon.  We were met by our Group Leader, Kenneth, and his wife, Lisa.  We will probably meet the others tomorrow or at least during our first group meeting on Sunday evening.

Our GL told us that they had a lot of rain here as well and several of the RV sites were still flooded.  We found one that was relatively dry and parked.  It was good to finally be here.  1500 miles is a lot of driving.

Our location is the Texas Baptist Encampment, a Christian camp and retreat center that claims to be the oldest camp west of the Mississippi River.  It has been around since 1902.  I’ll probably get more pictures and details tomorrow.

195 Miles traveled today

1511 Miles total