Texas: Road Trip

12 November to 14 November 2015

When we arrived in Mobile, we decided that we would not be getting any closer to Texas on our Great Loop trip and thus it was time for a road trip to visit Clark's sister and family in the Galveston area of Texas.  We crossed Mississippi and Louisiana to get to Texas for a distance of approximately 475 miles each way.

We found a very unusual rest stop in Texas built over Blue Elbow Swamp.  In addition to a bronze statue of an alligator turtle, the rest stop had walkways built over the swamp and historical markers describing the scene.

Blue Elbow Swamp - Texas

Walkways over Blue Elbow Swamp at Rest Stop

Selfie at Blue Elbow Swamp

We arrived in Texas just in time to connect with Clark's sister and niece for dinner at the Red River BBQ Restaurant. After dinner we stopped by Walmart to buy work boots and socks for our next day's tasks to help Lynn set up her house now that she has moved. With all the rain over the past months, most of Texas is a mud hole and Lynn's yard is no exception!

After our late night shopping at Walmart, Clark and I headed to the Quality Inn with the plan to head over to Lynn's early the next day.  The next morning we both dressed in our scruffiest work clothes since we were not quite sure what tasks Lynn had in mind for us.  When we arrived at Lynn's place, she pointed me to the back steps where she handed me a paint brush, exterior paint, and a bucket of sand.  She requested that I mix sand in with the paint for the steps to make them non-skid.  I had never done this before so my work was trial-and-error until I got the hang of coating the steps with the sandy mixture.

While I worked on my paint project, Lynn directed Clark to the house trim and gave him a scrub brush and hose to clean off years of dirt. We both got a reprieve when the sun went down and we could no longer work.  We went to a nearby restaurant called the Top Water Grill for a great steak dinner.

I ran out of paint just short of completing my back steps project, so before returning to Lynn's the next morning, we stopped by The Home Depot for another quart of paint to finish the job.  Since only the landing needed a second coat of the sandy paint mixture, I wrapped up the steps project pretty early.

Steps I painted at Lynn's House

My next assignment was to clean out a storage pod and move the contents into the house.  I worked with Clark's niece, Janessa, to move multiple pieces of furniture.  We could not quite empty it because we ran out of places in the house to put things, but we did make a serious dent.  While we did that Clark and Lynn installed new outdoor light fixtures - a job that should have been simple that ended up being complicated and time-consuming.

Before calling it a day, Lynn had one more job for me - repair the seat in her "new" 1980-something pickup truck.  The seat had a hole along the edge that needed to be stuffed with cushion material and then sewn shut.  Lynn gave me the material, needles, scissors, etc necessary to do the job which turned out better than I expected since the old seat material was worn and needed to be darned as well as patched.

Lynn's 1980's Chevy Truck 

We wrapped up our day's work at 3:00 so that we could have some fun time in Texas.  We drove around to see the property where Lynn used to live and then drove to Fry's Electronics store where Lynn's son, Nathan, is the manager.  The store he manages has a NASA theme since the store is near NASA.

NASA Theme at Fry's Electronics Store in Houston, TX

Astronauts at Fry's Electronics Decorating for Christmas

After a quick visit with Nathan and some shopping at the store for both Lynn and ourselves, we headed to the Boardwalk in Kemah, Texas to see the sights and find a dinner. Janessa joined us there. I was excited to see the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at the boardwalk since it reminded me of the movie Forest Gump. I insisted Clark take a picture to capture the moment.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at the Kemah Boardwalk

 It would not be an amusement park without rides and games and the Kemah Boardwalk had a good share of both. The rides were very colorful.

Amusement Rides at the Boardwalk

Lynn threw us both in jail at the boardwalk!  Perhaps she did not like the work we did at her house after all.  Note how we are both dressed.  I thought it would be warmer in Texas but instead it was quite cold with a brisk wind.

Writing below the jail bars is a quote from Mark Twain - "Get your facts first then you can distort them."

Lynn threw us both in jail at the boardwalk
 

After exploring the amusements at the boardwalk, we went to Landry's Seafood for dinner.  The food was delicious!

Dinner at Landry's Seafood - fantastic meal

 When we came out of the restaurant, a police car greeted us but not your usual police car.  It reminded me of the old TV series "Car 54 - Where Are You?"  I barely remember this crazy sitcom that ran from 1961 to 1963 on American television, but it was a show I know my father enjoyed perhaps because it was set in the Bronx section of New York City, and my dad lived in Brooklyn for a few years.

Old-time Police Car at Kemah, Texas Boardwalk

After our encounter with the police car, we had to head back to our respective cars to head our separate directions.  Lynn had to go to her night-shift job, and we had to go back to the motel to pack for leaving on Sunday. Our visit to Texas was over in the blink of an eye.  We very much enjoyed our visit and wished it could have lasted longer.