Texas - Day 55 - Goose Island to Goliad

Goliad State Park, Goliad

Sunday, 27 December 2020

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.

a first view

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

Whooping Crane

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?

Crested Caracara

For several weeks now I've been seeing some kind of bird of prey that I wasn't familiar with, and I saw them again in this area.  My best guess is a Crested Caracara, because it's big enough (about 2' long) and I've seen a black bird with white on its head and a white tail and white wing tips.

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.

Refugio County Courthouse in Refugio

This courthouse was built in 1917, but it was enlarged and updated in 1951 and, from the looks of this building, they modernized the character out of it.  I grew up in the '50s and my impression has always been that it was a beige decade.  From the looks of some of these public buildings from that era, I can see why I thought that.  And then, the Eisenhowers were exactly trend-setters.

Across the street is a park covering a city block with an unusual statue in the center.

Memorial to King
and his men

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.

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.

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.

Goliad County Courthouse
in Goliad

This courthouse was built in 1894.  There are a number of trees surrounding the building, some of which are part of the county's history, like the Hanging Tree.

The Hanging Tree

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:

And early figures in this area:

And early area history:

These "regulators" were
essentially vigilantes.

And then there's the Bull Durham sign:

This head isn't visible in the
photo at right.

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):

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:

marker part #1

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.

Texas - Days 52 - 54 - Rockport

Goose Island State Park, Rockport

Thursday, 24 through Saturday 26 December 2020

I'd say this Christmas period could be divided into 3 different parcels.  There's the section where David and Anna and I and the dogs, and sometimes the cat, were all together at the little house they rented.  There's the much shorter section where Anna and I left David in charge of the critters and drove into town to check out antique shops and sightsee.  And there's the section where the critters and I were alone in the state park.

Section one: It was nice to have family to share Christmas with.  Anna was amazingly well organized, even bringing a little decorated Christmas tree to put presents under.  She and David had this whole Christmas dinner planned and brought with them not only all the ingredients for appetizers and multiple dishes for dinner and dessert, but also storage dishes to put the leftovers in.  Incredible.  I only organized Momma's coffee cake, and that didn't even turn out very well so my contribution fell flat (in a way).

I'd asked that we all wear masks for this visit.  I'd listened to all the top scientists who said don't visit family, and if you do at least wear a mask and socially distance.  On top of that I'd recently sat for an hour with my mouth hanging open in the dentist's office, knowing the staff believed themselves to be free of the virus but also knowing you don't have to have symptoms (such as a fever) to transmit the virus.  I felt terribly vulnerable and didn't want to risk infecting my family.  So this Christmas will stand out in my memory, at least, for that reason.  When it came to actual eating, they sat at one end of the dining area and I sat at the other, and we replaced our masks after each bite.  (And that's sure one way of noticing how much you're eating.)

They were both nice to help me walk the dogs, which is always a bit of relief to only have one dog to rein in.  Though I hadn't seen any unusual number of stickers back at the camping area, the grassy yard around the little house they'd rented was packed with them.  Which of course both dogs immediately started to find every time we set foot outside.  That made walking not nearly as much fun as we'd hoped, but stickers are after all a part of life in Texas.

We had one bit of excitement with Lily.  For much of the time, I left her in the RV to sleep in the peace and quiet due to the dogs being elsewhere.  But one time, I brought her over to the house so she could have a larger space to explore and roam around in.  The critters all seem to appreciate having more room than our little 24' x 8' space provides.  Even though Lily spent a lot of time looking out the windows, I wasn't worried about her trying to get out because she's never made any serious efforts before.  Well, this time I was wrong.

She managed to slip out the door and dodged immediately under the RV where we couldn't get to her.  Like an idiot I raced off the porch after her and right away confronted the sticker problem.  David kindly went to get my sandals and Anna heroically cut off one side of Lily's possible escape routes.  It took quite a while but I was able to distract her while Anna got in behind her and grabbed her.  Absolutely not what I expected of Lily, but you just never know with cats.

Section two: Anna had found online an antique shop she wanted to visit, and I always enjoy these trips and went with her.  The first place she'd found turned out to not be open on Christmas Eve, but the 2nd place was.  It's just as well I'm severely constrained by the non-existent extra space I have in the RV, or I'd end up buying stuff I like but don't really need.  Anna made up for my non-buying by finding several things she'd been looking for.  After that we found 2 more places that weren't open on Christmas Eve and called it good.

In town I noticed a new building that was for lease with a sign saying, "Can Finish to Suite" and wondered if that was intentional or if they just didn't know how to spell.

Fulton Mansion

Anna drove me closer to the water than I'd been, including to the Fulton Mansion State Historic Site, which I hadn't heard about.  

When the home was built in 1877, it was the only one in the area with gas lighting, central heating, and indoor hot and cold running water.  The Texas Historical Commission operates it now, but their tours don't include Christmas Eve, we learned.

Section three: We had some really nice sunrises and sunsets while I stayed there.  I have trouble taking photos of them because my camera needs me to hold still for as long as the shutter says to, which I can't always do.  But here's one I got.

a sunset

The waterfront campsites at this state park consisted of the utility hookups and picnic table being housed in what the park called a cabana.

our cabana

Pretty basic, but then so was the structure they called a cabana that my family stayed in on Padre Island many years ago - 3 concrete block walls with a partitioned shower area and a tin roof.

Only a few feet beyond this cabana photo is a seawall that's only a few feet above the water level at high tide.  Early in the mornings, large numbers of ducks gathered in front of our cabana, apparently feeding.  My guess is that there's some sort of outfall - maybe for sewage, though I didn't see or smell anything untoward - that produced the food that drew these ducks there.  Here's a video I took one morning.

Okay, the video's not there.  I spent 4 hours and 15 minutes - all of yesterday afternoon - waiting for a less-than-2-minute video to download.  And when I was finally able to click "Select" to stick it on this page, it disappeared.  Imagine to yourself what my feeling was to have waited waited waited for so long, only to have it vanish into thin air.  

So this morning I've decided to wait until I have a stronger internet signal and try again.  I've posted a couple of videos to this blog before and it never took longer than 10 or 15 minutes, so I'm hoping the problem was just the signal being too weak.

Instead, here are a couple of photos I took at the same time as the video.

One disappointment was that while I was here I finally had conditions where I could see that conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn - lack of clouds and lack of trees.  But just too much time had passed since the actual conjunction, and by the time I saw them they were obviously separate stars.  Because a full moon lasts much longer, I'd hoped to see what others had seen.  Such a shame, but oh well.  I'll have another chance in 2040.

Still, the critters and I liked staying here.  The dogs got sand, which they love, without also getting the roar of ocean waves, which terrify Gracie.  I'm sure we'll try to come back sometime.

Texas - Day 51 - to Rockport

Goose Island State Park, Rockport

Wednesday, 23 December 2020

today's route

On the road

At Lake Corpus Christi State Park, we saw deer and several types of egrets and Great Blue Herons, and we continued to see them as we drove mostly east toward Rockport.

We passed flat farmland and plowed land, with occasional islands of trees.  Lots of mesquite and cows.

In Sinton, pop. 5,676, we found another county courthouse.

San Patricio County Courthouse
in Sinton

And about 45 miles down the road was Rockport, pop. 8,778.  I had 2 errands to do in town before heading to the campground.

I found an HEB for groceries.  And I found a laundromat, called Pirate Coin Laundry.  I was a little worried about the implications of that name, but I've learned that the local high school calls itself the Rockport-Fulton Pirates.

Fulton is the next-door town, with a population of 1,358, and though the line between the 2 towns is invisible to drivers, they see themselves as distinct towns.

In 2017, Category 4 Hurricane Harvey directly hit San Jose Island, which is a barrier island protecting Rockport and Fulton from the Gulf of Mexico.  Because there's almost nothing on this island besides sand, the force of the hurricane was scarcely dented when it went straight on to the towns.  The damage can no longer be seen easily, indicating a massive effort by the townspeople to clean up and rebuild.  There are large areas of open space and parks that may well once have had buildings on them, but they now present a pleasant picture to visitors.  Incidental note of interest: there will never be another hurricane named Harvey; they've retired the name.  Good call.

From there I crossed the LBJ Causeway, that separates Aransas Bay from Copano Bay.  It had occurred to me I might have trouble with a long bridge, so I took the precaution of checking a street view on Google and was reassured to see it was a nice flat 4-lane bridge.  Imagine my dismay to learn that only the northeast half of the bridge is flat.  The southwest half rises abruptly to accommodate tall ships that want to move from one bay to another, and I was actually on the approach to the bridge before I saw what I'd have to deal with.  So I followed my new coping technique of moving to the inside lane and going the speed I was comfortable with and not worrying about other drivers, since they could easily go around me.  But that was a tense moment.

Then on to Goose Island State Park.  I tried to stay here 3 years ago but hadn't made advance reservations and only learned the campground was closed due to hurricane damage when I actually showed up here.  Now it's impossible to see where the damage was - here too there's been an enormous amount of work.

I was lucky enough to get a campsite on the water.  Anna and David got into town not long after I did and came over to see us for a short visit.  Nice to see them again and they gave me detailed directions to the cottage they'd rented for the next few days, so we could go over tomorrow to visit.

Texas - Day 50 - Giddings, La Grange, Columbus, Louise

Lake Corpus Christi State Park, Mathis

Tuesday, 22 December 2020

On the 2nd of our early morning walks at Lake Somerville, I saw a skunk walking quickly (for a skunk) across the road near our campsite.  Dexter wasn't sure what he was looking at, which was good, and he took the out-of-sight-out-of-mind attitude when the skunk disappeared into the brush, which was even better.  Gracie missed it all.

today's route

On the road

Today was a very long drive (as you can see above) that took us through 3 quintessentially east Texas population hubs as well as many smaller towns.

A half hour down the road from Lake Somerville State Park is the town of Giddings, pop. 4,881.  The high school athletes are known as the Buffaloes (per signs around town).  Giddings is also the site for the Texas Wendish Museum.  The Wends emigrated from eastern Germany, arriving here in the mid-1800s.  Since Giddings itself wasn't founded until 1871, that makes the Wends very early settlers here.

Giddings is also a county seat, with a courthouse built in the 1890s.  Why don't modern courthouses look as happy as this?  Yes, we should take the law very seriously, but that doesn't mean we need to be grumpy about it.

Lee County Courthouse in Giddings

A few miles down the road is the unincorporated town of Warda, also settled by the Wends.

The town of La Grange, pop. 4,641, is only about 20 miles down the road from Giddings.  It was founded in 1837 and named in honor of Marquis de Lafayette, whose castle in France was named Château de la Grange-Bléneau.  La Grange is the county seat for Fayette County, also named in honor of Lafayette, whose death in 1834 obviously did not signal the death of American gratitude for his services to the country.

Fayette County Courthouse
in La Grange

About a half block from the courthouse, I found the Texas Quilt Museum.   http://texasquiltmuseum.org  I'll have to come back sometime when this virus is licked.

the museum is in 2
historic buildings (above)

Not far outside of town, we passed Sanctuary Serengeti, with large fields of a wide variety of African animals - zebras being the most easily identifiable.  A startling sight for those who aren't expecting it, like me.

Coming into Columbus, another 25 miles down the road from La Grange, we crossed the Colorado River on a new bridge.  Next to it was the original bridge, I think, but it looked like it had been shrink-wrapped.  The entire bridge.  Not in the usual shrink-wrap material, but still entirely encased in some kind of tight material.  It really looked odd.  

Because we'd left last night's campground at 7:30 this morning, I decided it was time for a rest stop.  We were lucky to find a parking place only a couple of blocks from the town square, where we found another county courthouse.

Colorado County Courthouse

A sign nearby said this courthouse was "built in 1891 in Second Empire style with locally made brick."  It "features a Neo-classic copper dome and a working, four-face Seth Thomas clock.  A magnificent stained glass dome is above the original 1890 judge's bench, bailiff box, and witness stand in the District Courtroom.  The dome was added after a 1909 hurricane destroyed the original tower.  The present building is the third courthouse located on this site."

And then there's the information on the historical marker shown below left.

about the courthouse

1883 water system improvements

detail from water tower photo (right)

the 1883 water tower
(see marker above)

The courthouse and the water tower are the only buildings on the town square.  But across the street I saw this gorgeous building.

Stafford Bank and Opera
House - 1886

detail of bank/opera house

The bank building is on the first floor and the opera house is on the second floor.  I'm sure that made sense in 1886.

Columbus has an oddity as part of its history, a man known as Three-legged Willie, and a tree that's now known as the same.

this is the man

this is the tree

this is the history

There are historical markers all over town.  Here are 2 more I saw that seemed interesting.

1st Texas drugstore

earliest Texas Rangers

Columbus has 3,655 residents.  Note that all 3 of these county seats are actually pretty low on residents, yet all 3 look and act like thriving towns.

From Columbus, we drove out into farmland with lots of cows.  We passed the Texas Bull Institute, but I couldn't find anything about it online.  You'd think they'd want to distinguish themselves from all the bull that gets thrown around by Texas politicians.

Here and there we came across towns in varying sizes of small, from Garwood, pop. 1,000, to Nada, pop. 165 (in an apparently self-fulfilling prophecy).

At El Campo, pop. 11,602, we passed a vet's office with the sign: "We Woof You a Meowy Christmas."  El Campo is by far the largest town in Wharton County, but the town of Wharton (pop. about 8,800) is the county seat.

I passed a sign that read: "Havoline Oil - Born in Texas."  Of course I looked that up, but online it says Havoline oil was created in New York, so I'm not sure where that claim came from.

Then I came to the town of Louise, which is where I'd been aiming for.  The highway department didn't give it a sign, but online I learned it has 935 residents.

US Post Office in Louise

The town put up a welcoming sign that says, "Clean Country Air to Share."  And Louise is Home of the Hornets, according to another sign.  Still another town with a Hornets mascot.  Kind of odd, when you think about it.  Apparently, a prime source of income in this town is rice growing, along with a little oil and gas.

My Daddy once taught a course to the student cadets at Texas A&M, and he assigned them to pick a small town in Texas and write about it.  This was long long before the internet and personal computers, so information-gathering would have looked much different from today.  One of his students had chosen the town of Louise, and my sister wrote me about the extraordinary good taste this young man had shown in making his choice, and in beginning his report: "The lovely name of the town of Louise only hints at its good qualities."

From there, we crossed the Navidad River, which was absolutely enormous, though since it's formed entirely from runoff, and not springs, it may have been really shallow and I was seeing everything it had.

I passed a homemade sign saying, "China Joe - Got to Go" which meant nothing to me until I saw the separate Trump sign.  I sure am glad we've got the internet now so we can all stay well-informed and exchange competing ideas.

At Victoria, pop. 63,149, I decided we needed another rest break.  Victoria is the county seat, a fact that I completely missed and so also missed the courthouse.  I guess I'll have to go back.

Another reason I'll have to go back is to visit the Museum of the Coastal Bend at Victoria College, which I think is part of the University of Houston.  I accidentally parked at the college and stumbled on the museum, which was closed.  The "Coastal Bend" is where the state of Texas stops running nearly east/west and starts curving south to the Mexico border.  I saw signs saying the museum explained why this is "where Texas history began" and described "13,000 years of history in the Texas Coastal Bend."  The Texas Gulf Coast is packed with interesting historical events, including pirates and immigrants and refugees.

In Victoria is a business called White Trash Services, which seemed to show a sense of humor.  Their motto: No Trash Left Behind.

Near the town of Raisin I saw a highway sign that said, "Changing Signs Ahead."  I never did figure out what that meant but had a mental image of someone running onto the highway and suddenly switching the signs, over and over during the day.  Like a Keystone Cops movie.

At Fannin I passed McMillan's World Famous BBQ, and maybe it is, though I saw a poor review in Texas Monthly.

Also at Fannin is the Fannin Battleground State Historic Site.  It commemorates a battle in 1836 in the Texas Revolution, where Col. James Fannin and his Texian forces were surrounded by Mexican soldiers, who captured and later executed them.

I was driving on US 59 when I saw a sign saying it was "future interstate corridor for I-69."  A little farther down the road I saw another sign saying it was the Sen. Lloyd Bentsen Highway.  I remember Lloyd Bentsen quite well, as he was running for senator in the first election I was allowed to vote in.

The land I was driving through didn't seem at all coastal to me, which makes sense since you can see by the map above that I wasn't actually all that close to the Gulf.  I passed farmland, cows, hills and oaks.  Nope, not coastal.

I passed a sign for Historic Berclair, established in 1889.  It's an unincorporated town that claimed 253 residents in 2000, which was a while ago.  I didn't actually see any residents, myself.  I did see a sign that said, "Friendly People, Cattle, Oil, Hunting - Where President George Bush Hunts."  I don't know which George Bush hunts/hunted here.  And honestly, my first impression of that sign was that they had friendly cattle and oil and hunting here, as well as friendly people.  And maybe they did.

I passed through the towns of Goliad, pop. 1,908, and Beeville, pop. 12,863, both of which are, like Victoria, county seats.  And when I was planning today's route, I completely missed that fact and therefore missed seeing the county courthouses.  I'm pretty sure I missed it because, by insisting on going through Louise, I was greatly extending the length of today's drive and I mostly focused on getting to the campground, rather than on what I could see on the way.  But I'd like to go back and pick them up if I have time.

I passed 3 inspection stations for commercial motor vehicles today, all of them spaced widely apart, and not one of them open.  Today's a Tuesday, which I usually think of as a working day, so I wondered why.

At the town of Skidmore (Home of the Bobcats and the Ladycats, they say), I started heading west on a state highway and suddenly the land got very flat.  It was still farmland, there were still cows and goats and a large wind farm, but it was very flat.  Much more coastal.

And I'm still seeing lots of Trump flags and signs.

I remembered staying at Lake Corpus Christi State Park 3 years ago, so I knew exactly the campsite I wanted, and I was lucky enough to be able to reserve it.  What I hadn't remembered is that the place is full of stickers, which Dexter immediately started finding as soon as he stepped off the paved road.

I remembered that part of the campground was oriented around an inlet from the lake, and that there was enough water in it to support a large number of ducks.  On this visit, though, there wasn't even a hint that the inlet had ever existed.  I mean, the place for it was still there but not a drop of water, let alone ducks.  It really made a different atmosphere, somehow.

Every campsite was taken - I suppose folks planning to stay for Christmas in a few days.  And as usual, at least half of them had dogs.  So I was very thankful I'd gotten a site at the end of the row near the lake and near a picnic area, so we could get away from all of that for some walks (when I could get Gracie to ignore the noises of the little kids and keep Dexter's feet free of stickers).