We just landed in Goliad Texas, the last stop before we arrive at our winter site in Edcouch Texas. Since we left Mississippi last week the weather has been great. We have had bright blue skies with temperatures in the 80s during the day and lows in the 50s at night. Now, if the weather could just stay this way all winter!
We left Hattiesburg MS on Tuesday the 29th headed for Lafayette Louisiana about 230 miles southwest. On the way we changed our mind about our selected campground and picked a different one. We were going to stay at the Catfish Heaven Aqua Farm but changed to the Poche’s RV Park near Breaux Bridge LA. The reason for the change was that it looked to us like there was more to see in the Breaux Bridge area. Breaux Bridge turned out to not be so great but we would not have seen this little town any other way so it was worth it.
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| Our site at Poche’s RV Park near Breaux Bridge LA |
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| Our site is in the middle |
Poche’s was one of those places we could have stayed longer at. The park looks to have been recently purchased and they have spent a lot of money on the place. The sites are good sized and located around a large man-made pond/lake. I walked the lake and it is about ¾ of a mile around it. Just across the road is another man-made lake of the same size. We believe that these were used at one time as fish farms. Anyway, our site was located in between the 2 lakes. It was real nice to see water out of all of the windows. It was also very secluded so we didn’t even pull down our blinds at night.
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| Looks like we are a boat now! |
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| Sunrise and..... |
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| Sunset |
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| The bride where the town gets it's name, or, is it the other way around? |
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| We parked in a Catholic School Parking lot and this was in front of our space. Not being Catholic I don't know why this is here. Maybe I need to be a priest to park here? |
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| Downtown Breaux Bridge LA |
We planned to walk around the rustic town, explore some stores, and then eat some local seafood. We did walk the town and looked into the stores. There is not a lot here but, what was, looked like it would have been fun to explore. Oh well, next time!
We took the recommendation for a restaurant from the Camp Host at the RV Park. She suggested a few places but said the freshest seafood was at the Le Café. She said it is nothing fancy, small, and the seafood is all fried but it was really good. She also said that they had the best Catfish in the area. Catfish was what I was wanting too! So the Le Café is where we went to have dinner.
The Le Café really is very small! It was so small I had a hard time parking our big ass truck in front of it. Inside there is only room for about 10 seated guests. Mostly it seemed that people came here to get to go orders. I ordered the catfish and shrimp and Patty got just the shrimp. The food came with French fries and Coleslaw. I also ordered the onion rings because the girl at the counter said they were great.
I am not sure how they fried the catfish but it was not greasy at all. The shrimp was a little greasy but they were so fresh they tasted like they just came out of the gulf! The fries were great too; crisp and hot! Oh, and the onion rings, the best rings I think I have ever had! The catfish was the best that I have had and reminded me of the catfish I used to get in Indiana when I was a kid. Le Café had the best fried seafood I have ever had! OK, did I say the food was really, really good! I was the kind of good that when you were full you had a real hard time to stop eating. And when you did stop eating, you had already way too much. It was that kind of good!
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| I started eating the cat fish already.. |
On the 1st of October we picked up and moved 200 miles to Houston Texas. We are now in Texas where we will be for the next 5-6 months. We stayed at the Turtle Bayou RV Park. We decided to stay here for 3 nights instead of our usual 2 nights. We have been through Houston many times but have not explored here at all.
The Turtle Bayou RV Park is right on the east bound side of Route 10. We were going West so we had to exit 10 onto a small access road that seemed it was just for the Park that was on the Eastbound side of 10. The access road was full of large holes and took us under route 10. This was an under 5mph trip from one side of 10 to the other.
The first thing the camp host said was that they didn’t have any space for us! Then she said we could park next to the highway behind the dumpster. The space didn’t have sewer either but the cost was just $15 a night. We were here and we were not planning to stay in the park all day so we took it. When I said that we were near route 10, I mean right on the Highway! We were parked parallel to 10 so it looked like the eastbound cars were coming into our RV for a visit.
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| Top of the line site! |
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| Nice pictures of inside the Park and Turtle Bayou. |
So now we have 2 full days to explore the Houston area. We decided to do a Murder Mystery Dinner cruise, visit the NASA Johnson Space center, and visit the Boardwalk in Kemah. All of these things were about 20 miles from where we were staying. Also, none of them were really in Houston proper. We really could visit here longer too as we really only scratched the surface here. We seem to do that a lot!
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| I did a little upgrade to our bathroom fixture. The handles on the original plastic one broke so I just replaced the whole fixture. |
The dinner cruise was nice. I say nice and not great because we have been spoiled with dinner cruises in Europe. This cruise in relation to other cruises in the US was great though, especially the beginning of the cruise.
The cruise left port at 7pm so the sun was still up and we could see the surrounding area in daylight. Also, as the sun set, the view was fantastic! After hanging outside we headed back inside for dinner. The food was great as US dinner cruises go. We have had some really bad food on some in our US cruises in the past.
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| Our dinner cruise boat. |
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| Patty looking at the boardwalk and the sunset. |
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| Sites along the water. |
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| The aquarium. |
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| Cool restaurant! |
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| Patty and the sunset again. |
The murder mystery was good too. I had forgotten how lame this type entertainment can be. After you remember how these things are done though, it really is a fun time, just somewhat lame. By the way, as a spoiler, Kitty Litter was the murderer tonight!
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| Part of the murder mystery. This woman's dress left nothing to the imagination! |
On Saturday the 3rd we went to the Johnson Space Center. The space enter is a little pricey; makes me think they are using the money to pay for the next launch! Parking was $6 and the entrance ticket was $20 a piece after a $3 discount because we purchased and printed our ticket online. So the afternoon cost a total of $46 for about 3 hours of exploring.
The highlight is the 90 minute tram tour that is included. The tour mostly takes you around the center and shows you where the moon launch control was and where the new stuff is being done. Mind you, we are traveling in a tram on the outside of these buildings and being told that is what was and is happening on the inside; not very enlightening. For me, it was nice to see just what the place looks like, how open it is and that was OK for me.
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| Toilet aboard the space station. Doesn't look very comfortable. I didn't see any magazines! |
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| Apollo space suit. |
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| Moon lander. |
There were 2 stops on the tram, one for the mock-up training center and one for the Saturn V rocket that was to be used for the last Apollo mission, number 18. The Apollo 18 mission was canceled due to budget cuts in the 70s and so the rocket was not used. The Saturn V rocket is now in a huge climate controlled room to preserve it as a museum piece. It is really something to see this rocket! It is just amazing to me that we did this stuff almost 45 years ago now.
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| Red stone rocket |
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| Saturn V rocket |
The mock-up building is pretty cool too. You walk around along a walkway above the center. You can see the mock-up of half of the international space station as well as mock-ups of future Mars mission stuff. This place reminded me of mock-ups of rail vehicle builds I had been involved in during my career. It is very heady stuff for sure!
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| Half of the international space station mock-up for training purposes. |
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| The Orion Mars lander |
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| Just some cool stuff! |
After the space center we traveled the few miles to the Kemah Boardwalk. The good thing here was that we found a place to park on a Saturday night for free! We were not sure what we would find here at the boardwalk but we thought it might be nice to see it. The boardwalk is a cleaned up version of the huge boardwalks on the East Coast that we are used to. It is mainly a place for kids and young adults, not really our thing.
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| Cool yard set up for fall on our walk to the boardwalk in Kemah |
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| View of the ocean from our walk to the boardwalk |
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| Nice wooden roller coaster at the boardwalk. |
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| View from the boardwalk |
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| Board walk in Kemah |
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| Saw this on our way back to the truck from the boardwalk. |
After the boardwalk we found a 4.5 star Bistro about a mile away located on the water. The Opus Bistro was great as well as pricey. We got a nice table outside on the water with the ducks. The weather was great as was view and the company! However, this was the most we spent on dining out in a very long time! It was a great night out to finish our stay in the Houston area!
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| View from our table at the Opus Bistro. |
We are staying at the Angels In Goliad RV Park. The park is in town but right on the southern edge. This is another Passport America Park so the price is half price at $15 a night, not bad for a full hook-up pull through site. This is a nice quiet park with mostly resident RVers in it. The residents are not like the ones in most places, the residents here are in very nice newer RVs. The place is only about a quarter full. The park host said that the park is like this most of the time as there just isn’t much to do here. The closest Walmart is 45 minutes away!
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| Our site in Angels in Goliad RV Park |
On Monday the 5th we went out to see the little there is here to see. The town was formed around the mid 1700s and is the leftovers from the Spanish fort and mission that were here before.
We first visited the downtown that is all registered as a national historic site. The old courthouse is a magnificent building, really hard to believe that it was part of this small town. In front of the courthouse is the hanging tree where capital justice was accomplished. No appeal process in those days; guilty, string up the rope and Let 'em swing!
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| Very nice courthouse |
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| Historic downtown Goliad. |
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| The hanging tree! |
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| After the hanging, you can have dinner at the Hanging Tree Restaurant. |
After the downtown visit, we headed a short ways out of town to the old Spanish mission. The mission is owned by the Texas state parks commission. There is a small charge to visit the mission and go through the museum. We have seen many missions now and this is one of the best preserved ones. This was the first we have seen with a museum too. The most unique thing about this mission was that it was where the first fight of the Texas revolution was fought. It was worth the $3, but really, when you have seen one mission you have seen all of them.
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| Very nice job of restoration of the mission |
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| Inside the mission |
We leave here tomorrow and travel to Natures Resort in Edcouch Texas and our new site number 19.
Stay Tuned!
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