Sunday, 27 December 2020
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| today's route |
The Big Tree
One of the reasons people come to Goose Island State Park is to visit this tree. It's said to be world famous (among those in the know, I guess) since 1969 when it was named Texas State Champion Virginia Live Oak. In 2003 a bigger tree was discovered in Brazoria County (farther south along the Gulf coast), but this one is still considered one of the largest live oaks in the US.
Actually, despite being bested in the size category, The Big Tree may actually be the oldest living live oak in the world. This oddity is explained by the fact that these trees tend to grow larger the farther inland they are, while those closer to the coast can be stunted in size by the climate. Regardless, anyone with half an eye can tell that this is one big tree. It's estimated to be between one and two thousand years old.
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| a first view |
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| from the other side |
As you can see, a stunted tree. There were a huge batch of Robins there when we visited, making lots of noise. (I think of Robins as being fairly quiet, but that's obviously wrong.)
We were lucky and got there early on a Sunday morning, so there was no one else around and I could walk the dogs around the area. We'd just barely gotten back into the RV and were starting on our way when 2 other cars pulled up, so we only just made it.
Wildlife
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| Whooping Crane |
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| Sandhill Crane |
Aransas County is the winter home of the last remaining wild flock of whooping cranes. Anna and I had seen some cranes when we were out driving, but I didn't know which kind they were.
After consulting the bird book, I can say that what I saw today were 12 Sandhill Cranes and 2 Whooping Cranes.
Driving out of the park I saw 6 deer: 1 was definitely an adult, 2 were fawns (isn't this the wrong time of year?), and 3 others looked like they were maybe a year old. They were all in one group, and then I saw others scattered around. This signifies an awful lot of deer in this park because there's just not that much road to drive down, and I saw a lot of deer along it.
Back to town for a wash
I haven't washed the poor RV since Grand Junction, CO, which was 3 months ago, but after sitting in the sand and salt air in the Rockport area, I figured I'd better at least try to hose it off. The only carwash I could find that had room for a large vehicle was back over the bridge in Rockport, and I seriously weighed just how necessary I thought this hosing off might be. But fear of rust before I'd even finished my trip won out and back over the bridge I went. It was made easier by this being Sunday morning when there's so little traffic.
As it turned out, I could only do a half-assed job of cleaning. It was an outdoor, roofless area of an ordinary car wash, with the usual sprayer-on-a-rotating-arm arrangement. So you know how that arm or the hose gets caught on various pieces of an ordinary car? Well, it got caught a lot more on my tall RV. Plus, I wasn't prepared to get on the ground to do a better job of aiming the nozzle at my undercarriage. Plusplus the arm wasn't long enough to let me get to the driver's side very effectively. So I ended up spending more laundromat quarters and getting only half the RV sprayed off. But I guess that's better than getting none of it sprayed off, and I'll just have to find someone to finish the job soon.
Before I leave Rockport, I should mention that it's a county seat. The courthouse is so unprepossessing, though, that I didn't even bother to take a photo. I learned later that the courthouse had been demolished by Hurricane Harvey and what I was looking at had originally been an Ace Hardware store. Which explains why it didn't look like a photogenic county courthouse. They're working on plans to build a new one.
On the road
As I prepared to go back across the bridge yet again, I passed a turnoff for something called Live Oak Point Lodge - Fulton, with a smaller sign saying HEB Members. I can't find useful information online, but Anna and I speculated that maybe HEB employees are considered members and are allowed to stay here under some kind of program?
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| Crested Caracara |
With this photo I found online, you can see why I think that's what I've been seeing. They actually belong in Mexico and points farther south, but they appear in far southern Arizona and throughout central and south Texas year-round. So I think this is it. Or these are they.
About 35 miles down the road we came to Refugio, pop. 2,890. Established in 1837, it's the county seat.
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| Refugio County Courthouse in Refugio |
Across the street is a park covering a city block with an unusual statue in the center.
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| Memorial to King and his men |
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| close-up of statue |
I lightened these photos as much as I could, but you still have to look closely to see the band of metal plaques attached to the statue's stand at about eye level. I found those almost impossible to read because of weathering. Fortunately, I found them on a website that says they're actually a historical marker. https://www.hmdb.org/Amon-B-King They explain the massacre of Capt. Amon King and his men by the Mexican army during the Texas Revolution.
Near the statue is a large tablet that explains the 1937 controversy over the appearance of the new statue and the reason it was created to look like this.
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| Odd that they'd have a plaque to explain to us visitors that the local good ol' boys didn't care for this Art Deco statue. |
Across the street from this park I saw a house I really liked, but it looked privately owned so all I did was take a photo.
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| That orange stuff was wrapped around half the park where the statue was, though I never figured out why. I couldn't cut it out of this photo without chopping off too much of the house. |
Leaving town I passed a business called Acid Services. As far as I can tell from an online check, they acidize wells for the oil & gas extraction business. Is there any government oversight by anybody into just what's being injected in the water tables?
It's only about 25 miles between Refugio and Goliad and I had an odd selection of radio stations to choose from. Corpus Christi NPR plays classical music between 9 and 3 every day, and most of what they play seems to be designed to put me to sleep - obviously unsuited for highway driving. I found many country-western stations, 2 sports stations, several religious stations, and 2 Spanish-language stations.
Goliad, pop. 1,908, claims great age by Texas's standards, having been established in 1749. It too is a county seat.
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| Goliad County Courthouse in Goliad |
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| The Hanging Tree |
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| that same tree and others on the courthouse grounds |
There were quite a few historical markers in town on various subjects. For instance, early government in the area:
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And early figures in this area:
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And early area history:
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| These "regulators" were essentially vigilantes. |
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And then there's the Bull Durham sign:
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| This head isn't visible in the photo at right. |
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| This shows the whole wall advertisement except the bull's head, shown at left. |
Then last, but by no means least, is the Presidio de Nuestra Senora de Loreto de la Bahia (Fort of Our Lady of Loreto of the Bay):
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In the photo above right you can see a historical marker, and I've got it blown up below, though it's weathered so much that even enlarged like this it's hard to read:
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| marker part #1 |
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| marker part #2 |
This fort (aka presidio) was the site of a massacre of hundreds of Texian soldiers by Mexican forces and became a rallying cry for the rest of the Texas Revolutionary War: "Remember Goliad!" https://en.wikipedia.org/Goliad-massacre
By the time I got here it was Sunday afternoon, and there were masses of people at the presidio, touring and picnicking and generally making it impossible for me to even find a parking place, let alone walk the dogs. However, the state park was about halfway between the presidio and the town, so that's where we went.
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