Farewell/Adios to Texas!

We spent 3 nights parked near the beach at Galveston Island State Park.  It was very windy on our first day, but the weather improved, giving us warm days and cool evenings.  We walked on the beach several times a day allowing Fergus the chance to play ball.  The water was too cold to enter and we were a bit dismayed with the warning sign about snakes in the sand dunes - but otherwise, it was a lovely beach and campground.  We were walking distance to a little gas station/grocery store and enjoyed the stroll to get a daily newspaper.  It was a very relaxing time until the day before we departed.  We forgot to go through our check-list and started to drive out of the park without unplugging our water and electric connections.  The water connection to the RV broke but fortunately, our electric cord was undamaged.  We lucked out and called a nearby Winnebago dealer who had a part that would fit.  The dealer's service department not only sold us the part, but squeezed us into their busy schedule and installed it - saving us lots of grief and time.  Aren't we lucky!  

As it was the Friday of the 3-day President's Day weekend and we had no reservations, we drove to Beaumont, TX, which is not a destination city.  On our way to Beaumont, we stopped at the fairgrounds in Liberty for a break and discovered it had been the site of a German POW camp during WWII.  It had housed about 800 German soldiers (Rommel's desert troops) who the local farmers used to help plant and harvest their rice crops.  It was an interesting discovery in the middle of no where.

In Beaumont, we found a rustic RV park and decided to camp there for 2 nights before heading to Louisiana.  We explored downtown Beaumont, which is along a river and had some nice old buildings with interesting architecture, however, the downtown was strangely empty with virtually no activity.  After a few efforts (I continued to take the wrong exits and/or directions trying to find our way around the town), we found the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Visitor Center.  It was sort of a sad, out-dated little museum that apparently sees few, if any visitors.  It served as an anti-climatic 'farewell' to Texas.  We were, however, amazed with the abundance of donut shops that popped up in this whole area of Texas. There were almost as many donut shops as Baptist churches! 

Overall, we enjoyed our travels through Texas, with the highlights being Big Bend National Park, Fredericksburg and the Hill Country, our visit with friends and Galveston Island.    On to Louisiana!  

Photos include a "moonrise" courtesy of a neighbor RV'er; a mansion along the beachside of Galveston Island; sunrise photos on the beach; our Tiny Tin parked and the museum in Beaumont.