Part 4:  San Antonio, Galveston, TX and South Toledo Bend, LA

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The Trip

The photos below are what we saw.

A short distance down the street we got our first view of the Riverwalk.

Some of the canals hosted tour boats that annotated some of the more prominent buildings.

Near the Alamo we came upon this interesting sculpture.

The Tower of the Americas near the convention center.

Vince has a workmate that bought the Alamo Brewery near downtown.  The owner was kind enough to give us a personal tour of the facility.

The brewery had a large tasting and food service area that was used to host events.

We left Alamo Brewing and headed to the Alamo ruins and then on to the Riverwalk again for lunch.  Vince was kind enough to photo Kathleen and I in front of a water sculpture.

Next morning Vince headed back to Dallas and we headed east to Galveston to see our buddy Len.  Since on-street parking in Galveston is tightly monitored, Len had us put Thor in his "toy box" (workshop).

We headed down to Willie G's for dinner and had a seat with a bay view.  In port was a replica of Magellan's ship that sailed around the world for first (known) the time.

As the sun set, ships and equipment across the bay became silhouettes.  In the center of the photo above is the U.S.S. Texas battleship as well as several drilling rigs in port for refurbishment.

The following day, Len became our personal tour guide and we drove the length of Galveston Island.  As we cruised the beach we realized that the locals have turned surf fishing into an art.

There were many trucks parked near the water's edge with fishing lines in the water.  Close-by, one of the fishermen was sailing this huge kite.  Note the size relative to the full-size pickup.

At the east end of Galveston Island we spotted a large number of ships in the Houston ship channel waiting for assigned berths for loading/unloading.  The ships can only pass into the channel when piloted by an approved harbor pilot.

We continued east onto Bolivar Island to a restaurant on the inter-coastal waterway.  Sadly, the restaurant was closed but a huge barge array came by while we were stopped.  This tug is pushing 2 barges at once, side-by-side.

"What's in that barge?" I asked myself.  A crop-of-a-zoom answers the question.

Since the chosen restaurant was closed, we headed west back to Galveston and got a seat at Katy's dock-side seafood restaurant.  We had a great view of the harbor.

Kathleen, Len and Vince.  The food and drinks were great.  The next day Kathleen and I took our EUCs for a roll on the Galveston Seawall.  Our feet gave out before we ran out of seawall.  The wall has a triple-width sidewalk and with view people it made for a great ride.



Next day we headed out to the Galveston Train Museum.  This steamer is in the entryway to the museum.



This steam powered tractor did duty in the nearby farms.



An operational diesel locomotive previously used by the ATSF in passenger service.



Later in the day we got to see the inside of the Hotel Galves.  Very ornate and well restored.  Above is the front desk.



The floors had awesome hand-set tile mosaics.



The whole lobby was mosaic.



The outside pool deck had nice palms.  The wind was howling: note the whitecaps on the Gulf of Mexico.



Len prepared steaks for us.  They were tasty and properly cooked.



After dinner we did the "Art Walk".  Many towns have "theme animals".  In Munich, we saw lions.  Here, we saw turtles.



We left Galveston and headed northeast toward Sam Rayburn reservoir and spent a night at a (not-too-nice) Forest Service campground on the lake.  It was windy and cold, so we retreated to Thor.  The following day we continued east to South Toledo Bend State Park in Louisiana.  I picked the site on a whim without any other information than a place name on a map.  We were ecstatic when we saw the facilities.  We got a site with a deck.  The park had one dock for every two sites.  The water is visible behind Thor.  It was so nice that we elected to stay two nights.  And the bonus: it was $13.00 a day with the senior discount.



The park had new, smooth asphalt roads so we took advantage of them to ride our EUCs.  There was almost no traffic and with no wind and moderate temperatures, this was the best roll so far on this trip.  We rolled twice a day and once on the departure day.  This was a selfie at the park's (closed) visitor's center.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2023, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.