Month: January 2022

It’s amazing how past experiences modify our behavior, both positively and negatively, and depending on one’s perspective, the two can be the same.

          Let’s go back almost a year ago and look at the Post entitled, “The Gauntlet”. This treatise described the truncated journey of our planned first trip to California.

          Suffice to say, we had meteorological issues along the way and did not finish that trip.

          Fast-forward to yesterday in Galveston where the skies were sunny, and the temps hovered in the high seventies. It was as nice as can be!

          But…… the forecast was for a cold front, combined with some light precip, and the accompanying schmutz.

          After enduring that spell of inclement weather last year, we vowed to NEVER put ourselves in that position again.

          Not even maybe, just maybe a chance.

           Nope, we want at least two days buffer between us safely bedded down (preferably not in a Walmart parking lot) and slippery roads!

          So, we spent a half day in Galveston and then headed out.

          We had identified several things to do and see while we were there and we did want to leave some “Good Stuff” for the next visit, so we were comfortable not clinging to every last bit of daylight.

          We decided on two things to do before we left for Home Base yesterday, The Galveston Railroad Museum and then one more delectable lunch at Katie’s Seafood.

          The Train Museum was as good as we had heard.

          The focus of this Museum was not old steam locomotives, (which it did have a few of) but the 20^th century rail system in all of its glory.

          Dining cars, sleeper cars, (both First and Second Class), and a myriad of other cars were on display and were open for our perusal.     I’ve never been inside one of these dining or sleeper cars and it was quite nice imagining oneself traveling the rails seated in the Observation Car for the day and then having a nice meal before retiring for the night to one’s berth.

          The Museum is housed in the old Santa Fe Station, complete with rows of waiting benches and several “Ghost Travelers” statues that made it easier to imagine the folks of those days waiting for what was for them, a normal mode of transportation. It would be like some day in the future, Newark Airport being a Flight Museum, complete with vintage aircraft that you could visit to see what travel was like before some Star Trek transporter made it obsolete.

          We’ve always steeled ourselves against our heightened anticipation being somewhat dashed, and you’d think that  by now that we would let that all go, but we’ll never learn! The Museum was even more than we had hoped for! We came away from the Galveston Railroad Museum with a new-found appreciation for that mode of transportation and the people that worked on the lines to make it all move.

          The lunch at Katie’s was as good as the day before. Our favorite waiter, Anthony {it’s funny how you can have a ‘favorite’ when we’d only been there once!) was not on duty, but his replacement, Joel, was excellent as was everyone else we came in contact with.

          Paula has already picked out what she is going to order when we make our return trip to Galveston!

          It’s a good thing that the weather is so good here in Texas because it’s time to start Travel Season!

          The temps so far have been “Shorts and T-Shirts” weather, except for a few colder nights. So far, and for the foreseeable future, we will not be having a revival of the Great Icemaggedon of 2021 any time soon!

          We decided to get this Season underway with a short jaunt down the coast to Galveston. It helped when Glen Campbell gave us a call and asked us to visit. I called up Willie and we had a nice time singing “On the Road Again.” Willie fondly remembered our last meeting in Durango last year. It turns out that Willie and Glen have done some work together in the past and you may want to listen to “Funny How Time Slips Away”. It’s a pretty little song, it was their last duet together, recorded on Glen’s final album aptly titled, “Adios’”

          Anyway, Galveston is only about two and a half hours away from us, so away we went! We knew nothing about Galveston except that it was on the coast, situated on a barrier island, much the same way Atlantic City is. In fact, they are about the same size.

          Galveston is famous for several things, one of them being the timely debut of  Dan Rather (of CBS News fame). It was the Hurricane of 1960, Carla, which brought him to national attention. He was the news director of KHOU, out of Houston, when the storm was on its way. In fact, Dan was the only member of the news department and got to call his own shots. This was when TV Weather Radar was not in existence. Weather Radar was a fledgling in itself and luckily Dan was keen to new technology. Carla was the first major meteorological event that it was used for to try and  track it. Dan got wind of this and contacted the Meteorologist on duty and asked if he could see it. Permission granted and armed with a clear cellophane film, Dan inscribed a scale rendition of the state of Texas on it showing both the size, proximity, and direction, of the coming storm.

          The rest, as they say, is history. Dan came to national attention and that spring-boarded his career immensely.

          Luckily for us, there were no hurricanes forecasted for while we ventured south. As you can see from these photos, the weather was great! The only problem was that the beaches were so crowded! We stayed at a KOA RV Park about twenty miles south of the downtown area. The place was crazy-clean and nicely quiet!

          Our first day started at the Moody Mansion. The Moody family is one of those patriarchal Texas Families that someone like James Michener would write about in his novel, ‘Texas’ and although the Moody’s are not fiction, I’m sure that I’ve made my point.

The family lived here from 1900 until 1986. It is as opulent as the photos indicate and having just finished binging on Downton Abbey, we had a new-found appreciation for rooms such as the Butler’s Pantry and the upstairs Service Kitchen. The impact of the Moody family on the Galveston area is quite significant, banking, insurance, cotton, medical, and social, are just a few of the areas that they dabbled in. What’s nice to notice is that everyone (their contemporary’s) thought very highly of them.

          When we finished at the Mansion, we drove over to the seaport area where we spent the rest of the day. But first I needed to check in on my Shrimping Boat, the Donnie J. Me and Forrest (with his Jenny) started about the same time. Forrest went on to have a chain of his Bubba Gump restaurant’s.

           I had only one.  😊

          Lunch was had at Katie’s Seafood which, I kid you not, was right next door (as in the NEXT building) to the place where their seafood lands from the boat.

          To say that it was really, really, really good would be an understatement.

          But it was!

          I’ve never had shrimp right off the boat before and there is obviously a difference. It’s like going to Maine and having lobster. I’m sure you get my point. Paula had the ‘Catch of the Day’ which can obviously change from day to day. This day it was Golden Tilefish and I had to stop her from licking the plate.

          We’re going back today for more!

          Lunch (and dessert) finished, we walked over to the Ocean Star Drilling Platform Exhibit and Museum. This is a retired drilling platform that was built in 1969 and was used for about 20 years before settling in at the wharf-side of Galveston.

          What an incredible experience!

          There are three decks of very well thought out exhibits and examples of drilling apparatus and how they are used. All aspects of the drilling operation are covered, the drills, platforms, wellheads, piping, ships, environmental concerns, and the daily on-board life of the operators is explained so well that even the un-initiated person comes away with a clear understanding of the process.

          After leaving the Drilling Platform, we walked over a block to the heart of Galveston’s Historic District, The Strand. Here we found the usual shops and eateries that one may expect in an area like this. They have collectively done a wonderful job of keeping the buildings as true to the originals as possible, right down to the twelve-foot doors and windows at street level.

          This area is also the Cruise Port. Galveston is the fourth-largest port in the States for cruise embarkation. Royal Caribbean and Carnival are the two major lines that use this port.

          Tomorrow looks good so far in the weather department, so we’ll tackle a few more sights before heading back.

          More to follow!