Road trip

May 7th, 2007 · No Comments

We needed an ocean fix, I’m not used to be living so far from shore. We took a ride to Galveston down Rte 3005 along the shore to south Galveston then to Freeport. In Freeport we found Rte 36 and followed to Rte 35. 35 wanders through mostly open space, farms, ranches, wild life preserves before winding up in Corpus Cristi. Going home, we took US 59 through Victoria back into Houston and home.

We took the coastal road down along Galveston. There are barrier islands along the entire coast down here. They are less than a few hundred feet wide in many spots; a couple of miles wide at the widest spots. They are so empty once you get out of the top section that is nearest to Houston. There are a few small clusters of houses, but mostly it is empty. There were people standing chest deep in this surf fishing.

After Galveston you have to drive inland at Freeport, home of Dow and some refineries. I hopped out of the car at the top of the bridge going over from the island and realized there was only a two foot jersey barrier between me and a very long drop down. I took the pictures real fast. These chemical plants and refineries are amazing. There are pipes going every which way, all different sizes. Refining oil can’t always have been this complicated. These plants are like chemists versions of Rube Goldberg machines.

Then nothing, and more nothing. Hundreds of miles of very flat ranch land, corn farms and wild life sanctuaries with an occasional small town tossed in along the route. Only down here can you see wild life sanctuaries with signs for ‘hunter’s parking’. We also passed the ‘Christian Brotherhood of Motorcycle Riders’. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of them and figured it’d be better not to ask.

Along the coast all the towns we traveled through had Irish or Scottish names on the streets and businesses. Inland everything had German names. We did travel through San Patricio county, named after the infamous, or famous depending on who you ask Saint Patrick’s Battalion.

Corpus Cristi is like a small version of Providence. There is an amusement park on the ocean. More tall buildings than I expected, all of which were banks which was surprising.

The first and only hills we saw were in Victoria. There we went from flat prairie like lands to hilly, swampy wooded areas and back each mile. I never think of Texas as having swamps. But there they were.