Traveling with the Longdogs

Cool Tours Takes Us On The Town

Upon arriving at Jamaica Beach RV Park, I found that two other Pink FlaminGoes were checking in just ahead of me and three others had arrived the day before. We found that we were not all going to be parked next to each other but they did manage to keep us all on the south side of the park closest to the Clubhouse. More on the park in a later post. Four of us were on the back row although we all arrived on different days. At first glance I wasn't sure if the place they assigned me would work as it was right behind the Clubhouse with a pool and worse yet, children's sprayground and playground right there. I mean, children squealing and three dachsies waiting in the RV while we toured didn't sound like a great combination; however, the hostess told me the sprayground and pool were not open and they didn't have many children this time of year. As it turned out, we had a great place with an open field where we could watch the horses from the riding group next door. Although there were some kids (so many homeschooled kids traveling these days), they were no problem. We did have some jackhammering to work on the sprayground behind us one day but they could hardly complain about a little barking when that went on and we were gone most of the time anyway.

Tuesday morning those of us already there headed down to the Seawall near the Pleasure Pier.

No, we didn't go to the Pleasure Pier....it was closed during the week anyway. We were off to take a tour of the historic East End with Cool Tours.

We had a fabulous tour with a really personable guide. Not only did she know all the history of Galveston Island, she grew up there and led rather an exciting life which she was more than happy to share.

Although we didn't need it, the mini tour bus has A/C and tinted windows (made pictures a little more challenging).

We did the one hour tour but they also have a “hop on, hop off” tour where your ticket is good for 24 hours and you can get off and on whenever you want. We learned all about the history of City of Galveston as well as Galveston Island from the time of Jean Lafitte’s pirates, it’s heyday as the Wall Street of the Southwest, the Great Storm of 1900, the building of Seawall Boulevard and the grade raising of the Island. Galveston was also a huge entry point for immigrants just like Ellis Island on the east coast. We saw many of the 19^th century homes and tree sculptures (enough to tempt Deb and I to go back and take a much longer look….later post). We learned about the Strand District with its shopping, museums, and restaurants. We drove past the art galleries, cafes and night life of Post Office Street and the Grand Opera House.

The well known Porretto Beach. Beaches near downtown charge while beaches further south on the Island are free.

This is the only painted tree statue and was done as a sculpture of the owner's dog.

We also saw boats along the harbor.

The driver's favorite seafood market.

You can take a tour to see the dolphin's or go out on a fishing boat where they provide equipment and bait.

This is Pier 21 right in the middle of it all.

This is the last decoration left from the Mardi Gras celebration which is very big in Galveston.

A quick glimpse of the Strand....more to come later on our own.

Be sure to stop at the Visitor's Center. They have lots of information and some very helpful ladies working there. The famous Juneteenth Proclamation freeing slaves was given from the third story balcony of this mansion. What, you can't see a third story balcony?

Look very closely at the bushes below the fancy railing. See the arch between the bush and the pot? Those arches were originally the first floor of the house. After the huge hurricane, they raised this part of Galveston by eight feet but were unable to jack this house up so the first floor was filled in and became part of the foundation.

This famous 72 foot monument statue was commissioned by Henry Rosenberg to honor those who fought and died in the Battle of San Jacinto to win freedom for the Republic of Texas from Mexico.

Although she is gesturing in the direction of the San Jacinto Battlefield, Galvestonians often say she is pointing the way to the Infamous Post Office Street where sailors headed to visit ladies of the night. Our tour guide told us some very interesting personal stories of her youth. She said she and her brother were lucky to graduate because they missed a lot of school. Every time ships came into port, they skipped school and helped sailors find entertainment while they were in port. The ladies of the evening (who they knew as neighbors) paid them $.15 a customer and the sailors paid them $.10 so they often made more money in a day than their Dad when ships were in town. She was a wealth of information.

Here we are back at the Pleasure Pier.....

where we had lunch at Fish Tales. Wow, delicious! I had ribs and shrimp kisses.

Everyone loved their choices. Carolyn had a grilled fish salad that was so big she took half home. Others had fish tacos or Seafood Trios. Everything was so good that we went back another day.

On the Road to Galveston

Everything was packed and ready to go last night except for the dog crates and the computer so getting ready to pull out was pretty easy. The Traveling Longdogs were more than ready to head out on the road again so we were off at 0730. We took the back roads to I-10 hopping on at Seguin.

The GPS was determined that we would head down I-10 to Houston and then go south on 45 but we had other plans. I had routed my way south through the country on Google maps. I knew the route started through Gonzales but didn't check the Google map until Luling. Hmmmm, the first page of the Google map is missing! I was already through Luling when I pulled out a trusty paper state of Texas map and I realized that I should have turned south there. No problem.....just took the next highway south. There were some lovely bluebonnets and indian paint brush along the way.

My GPS was fighting me all along the way. I must have gone 35 miles with the GPS showing "Make a U Turn". Then all of a sudden I realized that I would really have been tearing my hair out if the GPS had also been shouting "Make a U Turn" at me. No voice! I pulled over to check it out....hmmmm....it wasn't on mute. Then I went into the settings and all of a sudden the GPS started speaking Japanese. Checked the settings again. The text and writing were both set on English. What! There was no English choice on the list of languages. I spent almost four years in Japan but that was over 35 years ago and I am more than rusty. Oh well....when she started jabbering, I just looked at the GPS to see what was written and headed on out again. It was an interesting route with lots of farm to market road changes but the roads were just fine.

Some time later we sighted water!

And then our first bridge came in view.

Next came the toll bridge leading to the Blue Water Highway. Getting close!

The toll booth ($2.00) was on the far sight of the bridge. I wish I could have gotten a picture. There was very little room on each side of my RV but the funniest part was when I tried to pay the toll. The window was straight down below my truck window....way down below the window. I couldn't reach it leaning out the window so I finally had to pull forward enough to open my door and reach down to hand the guy the money. I think the opening in the window is less than 2 feet from the ground.