Summary of Day 2 (03/01/10) of the Southeast Texas Loop

Day 2 - Monday 03/01/10 - of my Southeast Texas Loop began with a rude awakening at about 5:30 am....

I woke up and I felt my butt was wet.... now let me say right off.... it's not a good thing for your butt to be wet when you wake up.... anywhere.... anytime.... first thing you think of.... let me restate that.... the first thing I think of ....being a guy that's 47 years old who's growing older.... feeling older.... losing some vision.... losing some memory.... losing whatever.... well I won't go there.... anyway it gets you awake real quick.... let's just leave it at that....

Let me do a little rewind here....

I set up my Thermarest sleeping mat and Coleman Exponent 15 degree sleeping bag pretty late the night before.... probably around 10:30 - 11:00 after a fruitless attempt to work on my Netbook to do a summary end of day post for Day 1.

Let me rewind a little further.... when I got to the campground at Galveston Island National Park, the first thing I noted was the design of the "shelters":

• the roof was smaller than the concrete area it covered
• the shelter had these huge circular holes in each wall

You can kinda see what I'm talking about here:

I'm not faulting the State Park System or GISP or anything.... I know what they were trying to do... creating the "breezeway" through the shelter to create air flow through there on the hot, balmy summer afternoons and evenings on the Gulf Coast.... either that or some artsy fartsy type was in charge of the State Park System just about the time when these structures were built and wanted to create the whole "porthole" effect..... it does kinda look cool when you're standing beside the shelter and looking down the line of shelters and all the "holes" line up... I wish I would've taken a picture of that... but you can probably get the picture.... pardon the pun...

So what's the point of this little analysis of the way the GISP shelters are built.... well, I guess the point is that I didn't do a good enough analysis of them...

Back to the night of Sunday, 02/28/10.... about 11:00 pm, there was a pretty good little breeze blowing off the Gulf of Mexico and it was pretty cool - probably around 45 degrees and with a 20 mph "breeze" blowing.... it was downright cold.... because of the humidity.... that's what people out west don't get.... I've been in 5 deg temps up north and out west.... but it was at 20 - 35% humidity.... no problem.... 3 layers.... cover all the skin and I'm good to go.... but let me tell you what.... you get down to 35 - 40 degrees and you throw in a stiff wind and 85 - 90% humidity and that blows away the 5 deg temps at 25% humidity any day.

So it was cold and breezy that night and the wind was picking up sand and blowing it into the shelter.... it was a good night to sleep outside.... so I positioned my mat and bag against the left wall (relative to the pic above) to get as much shelter as I could from the wind....

And I went to sleep.... deep sleep.

I woke up about 2:30 am and it was drizzling rain and the wind had shifted from the south from the Gulf of Mexico to more of a north wind.... I adjusted the position of my mat and bag to get the best shelter from the wall of the shelter (the one with the big hole in it) and went back to sleep.... for a while...

That was when I was awaked to a wet butt.....

Once I realized it wasn't anything I had done.... I turned on my headlight and looked around.....

and found myself in a pool of water an inch to an inch and a half deep inside the shelter....

The floor of the shelter was basically a sump.... you'd think a freakin' engineer would notice something like that... but like I told you I'm starting to get old....... so's anyway, the shelter floor was a low point for the wind-driven rain to collect.... and with the 2 "viewing holes" and the less than adequate roof coverage I might as well have been sleeping out on the beach...

I already had my Frogg Toggs top on so I quickly donned the bottoms and my Hi-tec hiking boots and picked up my soaking wet sleeping bag and hauled A and sleeping bag to the restrooms 50 yards from my campsite....

I opened the door of the men's bathrooms and was greeted by.....

a bathroom full of the Rugby Team from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.  There was about 30 of them down here for spring break and a rugby tournament and the wind and rain had taken down several of their tents so the unfortunate ones were taking shelter in the Men's Restroom.... just like me.

Now I had made another tactical error the night before.... I had removed several of the Ziploc bags stuffed with clothes and other stuff from the waterproof Ortlieb Panniers and had not put them back.... so the stuff inside the Ziploc bags didn't get wet but the outside of the bags were wet.... real smart.... make some work for yourself will ya!

And I had left my clothes I had taken off when I showered hanging on the picnic table to "air out".... well they aired out and "watered out"..... that's the last time I leave clothes hanging out overnight again... the last time I did this at Dinosaur Valley State Park, I woke up and the clothes were frozen.... this time they were just soaking wet and covered with sand.... I think I prefer frozen - thank you very much!

So basically I had made every mistake in the book so far on this 2nd day of my Southeast Texas Tour.... what's the saying about children, old people and IDIOTS!

But you know what.... you kinda have to stand back.... look at the situation.... shake your head.... and then just grab your belly.... and bust out with a real belly buster LAUGH!

Cause it was Stupid and Funny at the same time....

So I got busy and hung the wet stuff up in the Men' Restroom -

Hell, the weather was so bad..... even the Sea Gulls were in the campground....

you can see a sideview of the shelters here....

and the tents of the rugby team at the far end of the road....

I got everything together and back in the Panniers and Rack Bag....

While I was doing this, I talked with Chad, one of the Galveston Island State Park employees who was at the restrooms doing some maintenance... and when I heard what he told me.... it made me feel bad that I was bitching about the shelters.... here's the real story of Galveston Island State Park.... the story of GISP and Hurricane Ike....

First, let me say that when I came into the Park and pulled up to Park HQ, I thought it was odd that the Park HQ was a temporary building.... I mean normally these State Park HQ's are built like any other Government Building.... basically bombproof.... but not Hurricane Proof.... hold that thought....

Then I looked at the map that Linda at Park HQ gave me and couldn't figure out why there was only 1 road into the campground.... every State Park Campground I've been to is a one way loop.... not this one.... 1 road in.... 1 road out.... that puzzled me....

I had noticed riding in on FM 3005 that there was a few shelters, then a gap, then a few more shelters, then a big gap..... ditto....ditto.... showed the same thing on the map....

Enough with the mystery.... I'm talking to Chad and asked him how the Park fared during Ike and he tells me:

• They lost 300' of Beach which included....
• the Park HQ - GONE - WASHED AWAY INTO THE OCEAN!
• the back half of the road loop - GONE - WASHED AWAY INTO THE OCEAN!
• over half of the shelters - GONE - WASHED AWAY INTO THE OCEAN!
• one of the Restroom / Shower Buildings - GONE - WASHED AWAY INTO THE OCEAN!
• Basically they lost HALF THE PARK!!!!

I mean... this is SAD!  You can't understand the destructive forces of these Hurricanes until you see or hear about how it was BEFORE and then you see or hear about how it is AFTER!

Chad told me about losing his house in Bridge City and now I really feel bad for Chad, the folks at GISP and everybody that was affected by Hurricane Ike.  I don't know what to say.... by this time I was tearing up...

After my conversation with Chad, I spent probably an hour and a half talking to an interesting, open-minded, free thinking guy with an alternate lifestyle (No not that!) name of David G.  Let me explain! This guy is a lawyer that basically leaves his "working life" behind for long periods of time, terms out on his apartment lease, leaves with his belongings in a Honda Pilot and travels across America.... that's it - No House, No Apartment - Nothing but a vehicle, sleeping and camping gear, clothes and the road, State Parks, beaches, wherever he happens to be - he stops, sleeps in his vehicle and makes his way across America.... this time he was driving the boundary of Texas from El Paso to Beaumont / Orange and then eastward through Louisiana and on to the Eastern Seaboard of the US.

I thought I was "Discovering America" with my little bike tours.... Hell this guy left everything behind.... or took it with him.... and is really DISCOVERING AMERICA!

I asked David a ton of questions - found him very intelligent, thoughtful, personable and also found we shared a lot of views, perspectives and approaches to life and living and the great outdoors.... he gave me many things to think about....

By this time it was about 11:30 and I had given up any thought of getting to Beaumont, but I got everything loaded on the Bike....

and cruised east on FM 3005 into Galveston proper and on to Seawall Blvd (in city name for FM 3005) and past the historic Hotel Galvez.... that will be 100 years old next year.

http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/GLSHG/main.wnt

I stopped in at the Island Bicycle Company -

http://www.islandbicyclecompany.com/

and picked up a couple of tire tubes and talked with the owner, Jeff, about the bicycle tours that Island Bicycle does through the Galveston Historic District.

I got to the east end of Galveston Island and took a left on Ferry Road and onto the Boliver Ferry for a ride across East Galveston Bay to the Bolivar Peninsula....

Got off the Bolivar Ferry to a slow drizzle on Hwy 124 and headed for Crystal Beach... the Ortlieb Pannier / Handlebar Bag and Rack Pack didn't care it was raining.... they just sat there on the Old Man Mountain Racks looking cool and keeping things dry.... just like they're supposed to.... I took a little break and ate a Nature Valley Trail Mix Bar...

and arrived in Cystal Beach and the Oasis Motel a little before dark.... hauled the Bike and Panniers up the stairs and into a spacious, clean and DRY room....

http://www.crystalbeach.com/hotels.htm

After I got my clothes on to wash, I went across the street to Coconut's to eat and have a Margarita.... I met the waitress, Tiara, and the Bartender, Rhonda.... who made a very good Marg....

I finished dinner and Day 2 off with a Chocolate Eruption....

Guess the day ended better than it started!