Monday, Monday, Not much to say today.

Delanera RV Park
Galveston Island, TX
1:15 p.m. 74* F, sunny but still slightly windy

It's Monday, here in Galveston, TX and it's sunny and beautiful with just a slight breeze.  Enough that we still don't need to turn on our air (unheard of for Mr. C who hates humidity).  We've opened the windows wide and have the ceiling exhaust fans going and it's just beautiful.

I feel a need for a slight explanation for this trip.  I try to let people know where we are located, where we are staying and our opinion on the RV park and/or sight seeing activities we engage in.  However, we do not travel for the sight seeing activities, we mainly travel to just relax and see our beautiful USA.  So I don't have many stories or pictures of special sight seeing or touristy places to see.  We're just relaxing, enjoying the sun and sea and letting nature takes its course.

I have a fascination with sea shells etc.  This isn't the best place we've ever been for cool sea shells, although as previously reported, we have found some to add to the collection.  I had read that the Bolivar Peninsula (across the Galveston Bay from Galveston) had an area that was great for sea shell and sea glass collection, so we decided to check it out today.  There is a ferry service from Galveston Island across the Bay to the Bolivar Pensula.  You can take your car (or truck, semi, trailer, motorhome, motorcycle) on the ferry, or you can park your vehicle and walk onto the ferry to go across.

We knew we were only planning to visit one particular place, called No Name Beach in an article I found on-line.  We really were uncomfortable taking our big butt truck on the Ferry, but after seeing it loaded for trips in each direction, we wouldn't hesitate to take it if we went again.  This stretch of travel (TX Highway 87) is actually considered a "road" by our Streets and Trips program--using the ferry.  The less than 3 mile trip across the bay takes about 20 minutes, plus time for loading and unloading vechicles.  At least one ferry operates 24/7 and others are put in service as needed.
We were warned that the trip back might take up to 2 hours just to get on the ferry and if we didn't need our truck, to just walk on and ride across, which is what we did.  Although, for the record, the cars, trucks, motorhomes, motorcycles, and trailers waiting to get on for the trip back all got on the first ferry and there was no 2 hour wait for anyone.

We passed "Sea Wolf" Park, where an old WWII submarine and a battleship are located for tours and a historical park is set up.

This was a fun trip.  The sun and slight breeze made it a bit chilly (light sweater/jacket weather) but being out in the open enjoying the fresh air and sun and sea were wonderful.  There was also an area inside you could ride if the weather were inclement.

We saw all kinds of sea birds, tankers, pilot boats, other various and sundry boats

 and best of all some dolphins (or porpoises, as I believe they are rightly called).  They were so quickly in and out of the water that there was no way to get a picture of them, but it was so much fun to see one dark colored one on the way TO Bolivar Peninsula and a small pod in front of a tourist type dolphin cruise boat on the way back to Galveston.    



I could have gladly spent the day riding back and forth across the bay, and the best part about it is that it was FREE.  It's actually considered "part" of TX 87, and as such it's a 'free'way so to speak.




Once on the Bolivar Peninsula, we followed a small path just off the Ferry to the beach and indeed, there were tons of sea shells.  Unfortunately, we weren't there at the optimal low tide, or I'm sure it would have been even better, but we did make some interesting finds.

  Most were broken, but lots of "mother of pearl" type shell pieces, a small crab claw (minus the crab, not a clue where he was, probably in some creature's belly), a couple nice shells, but nothing really out of this world wonderful.  I did find one conch type shell, I was so excited, I picked it up, just to see the hermit crab scuttle deep inside the shell.  There was a tiny cone type shell "caught" on the hermit crab shell and I went to pick it off and realized it had a resident snail, so both those shells went back into the Gulf.  We walked the length of this beach 4 times for a total of over 1 mile. Although it was a fairly slow pace, most of the time I was walking in the water and/or bending over picking things up, so I feel I got my exercise today.  It was great.  I would recommend anyone going here to be sure to wear shoes with sturdy soles, as there are lots of broken shells, and trash, including broken bottles strewn along this beach.  Whether transient people live here or it's partyers, or just trash washed up from elsewhere, I do not know, but there was LOTS of trash.

Once back on board the Ferry headed, back to Galveston, we saw people feeding the gulls at the back of the Ferry, boy was that an interesting sight.

We saw a few other interesting sights as we drove back and forth between our RV park and the Ferry.

Pleasure Pier Amusement Park

and a huge beautiful Hotel Resort.

On the way back to the RV park, we stopped for lunch, and then returned to the trailer for the rest of the day, probably.  This is the life, no demands, nothing we have to do or any time schedule to keep, it's just relaxing.

I'm a tiny bit sun burned, in the face, and full of both fun and food and feel like a nice nap would be in order, but don't want to miss a minute of this lovely sunshine.  So, I'll close for now and hope you'll join me as we continue to enjoy our relaxing journey.  Back to the clay table now.  Smiles, Sue C