Camping ride through the Upper Texas Gulf Coast. Finally, some salt.

Chasing your shadow down East Texas freeways is glorious.  Especially on roads you have never ridden before.

That was me last Thursday night.  I was on highway 90 headed northeast to the Piney Woods of East Texas.  My destination was Village Creek State Park in Lumberton but the real story is the ride:  A 300 mile loop around Southeast Texas and the Upper Texas Gulf Coast in the cool breezes of early November.

Here is the route I took.  Purple is Thursday night and Red is Friday morning.

I left work about 2:30 and shot straight out 90 towards Liberty.  The highway was fantastic and the only downside was getting owned by a guy on Goldwing that I didn’t see coming in my rearview.  I don’t like going much over 70 when loaded down. 

I got to the State Park just before 5 and set up camp.  I had just finished up just as a guy in a huge fifth wheel travel trailer backed into the site next door.  I figure he might have been about twenty feet from my tent.  I picked everything up and moved it to a much more secluded spot.  I never felt like I was in the woods though.  It felt more like camping at Stephen F Austin park, that is to say that it felt like camping in a friend’s front yard.

But Thank God the State Park had one of these:

The evening was nice and relaxing.  Dinner from a pouch and a movie (Hunger Games) on my phone in the heated tent. 

My air mattress died so I didn’t get great sleep.  Up the next morning.  Since I’d done the bike camping thing before, I figured it would only take an hour or so to get packed up and ready to ride.  It took two and half hours. I am going to get bigger bags.  Things pack up great in the garage but at the campsite, it’s a different story.  I need to be able to stow and go.

After I got everything packed and on the bike, I realized that I didn’t have the bike keys!  They were STILL IN THE GODDAMN TENT!          The tent that was packed under two bags, a chair and 3 ropes. 

Thankfully, I had placed a spare key on the bike in a very accessible location.  Still, it took a couple of seconds to remember all this and the litany of filth that issued forth from my growling mouth was one for the textbooks. I grabbed the spare, apologized to any trees I might have offended and started the bike.  It was friggin’ time to go.

I was headed south to Beaumont.  Grabbed I-10 over to Winnie (worst stretch of the ride) and then took 124 South to High Island.  I loved that road.  Long and flat with green fields and a few muddy brown canals.  The sun was set to ultrabright and everything looked clean and vibrant. 

I am a coastal person. As I got closer to the ICW (Intracoastal waterway) I could feel my batteries begin to recharge (they run on salty air).  I noticed a very unlikely looking bridge in the distance.  Surely I wasn’t expected to ride over that damn thing.  No, surely not.

It looked much steeper from down the road.

Once I got on the bridge though, it was actually quite exhilarating and I had to fight the urge to stop at the top and get off.  I’m doin’ it next time (and there WILL be a next time as this is the way I will go on the big ride).

I stopped at the bottom to snap some shots and take in the ICW.  Remember, this deep ass channel goes from Boston, down through Florida and all the way over to Brownsville at the Texas/Mexico Border.  I’ve fished it many times and I love to watch the tugboats cruising down this unassuming river.

South of the channel lies High Island.

Anybody familiar with this area will know about the oil boom that occurred in the early 1900’s.  It’s pretty much why Houston is what it is.

These "Nodding Donkey" oil pumps are pretty common around here.

High Island gets its name from the salt dome it sits on.  From Wikipedia:

A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when a thick bed of evaporite minerals (mainly salt, or halite) found at depth intrudes vertically into surrounding rock strata, forming a diapir. It is important in petroleum geology because salt structures are impermeable and can lead to the formation of a stratigraphic trap [where oil and gas collect].

Salt Domes are also used to store Natural Gas.  Back in ’92, the one near Brenham exploded.  A little boy was killed and we heard the explosion 70 miles away in Houston.

I’m not sure if they store natural gas in the High Island dome but I have never heard of any issues in this area.

Finally, I made the eventual turn west towards Crystal Beach

I’d been to Crystal Beach countless times, but never from this way.  I love coming at familiar towns from different directions.  It’s like having old friends do something that surprises you (in a good way).

The ride across the Bolivar was really nice.  Remember, this area was flattened during Hurricane Ike back in 2008.  The week before the storm, we rented a beach house out here for J’s 40^th b-day party.  One week later, after the storm surge subsided, all that was left of the house was, literally, a dark spot on the sand (More IKE stuff here).

Bolivar after Hurricane Ike

The community is coming back nicely.  The area will always have a storm wracked look to it though.  It’s just the nature of life out here.  Every 20 years or so, the Gulf rises up to reset the land.

I passed through Crystal Beach to my favorite part of the ride, the Ferry from Bolivar to Galveston.  Everyone should ride this Ferry at some point!

image from Bolivar Chamber of Commerce

I’ve never ridden a bike onto a boat before.  It was friggin’ cool!.

The ride across the bay is about 20 minutes.  Just enough time to relax, stretch legs and take pictures.  The Ferry ride is just one big, orgasmic photo opp.

Lets get to it…

The flags were flying at Half mast in respect of the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

You can see some interesting ships on this ride.  A few years back, J and I saw the USS Texas (attack submarine) launched from the Port of Galveston to Galveston Bay.

No such luck today though.  Still, there was maritime eye candy to be had…

...and one lonely Sailboat.

And a buttload of seagulls.

They were our fighter escort across the bay.

As we got close to shore, I got ready to go.

You can't tell but I'm smiling :)

Off the Ferry and through the Historical Strand district.  I could go on and on about the Strand but I’m only going to pick one thing to highlight right now.  The last time we were there with the kids, we met an amazing artist named Elizabeth Punches.  She graciously invited us into her studio.  Her work is amazing (my art commentary does not do justice).  See it here: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethPunchesStudioAndGallery.  I wanted to stop by but I was really behind schedule.

I stopped at Yaga’s for “a quick” lunch.

Recommendation:  DON’T go to Yaga’s.  The food, service and facilities were terrible.  I think it may be the only bad meal I’ve ever had on the Strand.

Nice view though.

Over the causeway to connect up with Highway 6. I’ve never been on this road before.  It skirts Houston to the west and goes all the up past 59.  The first bit was really cool.  Did you know that there was a military dirigible (think nazi-sub hunting blimp) base in Hitchcock back in WW2?  I didn’t.

Santa Fe is about where the magic ended.  Then it was just solid traffic and stoplights all the way up to Richmond.  I took Richmond to Eldridge because I lived there during College.  Nice to see the old neighborhood.  I took Eldridge all the way home.

What a great ride.  I didn’t feel the same level of sadness that I felt during the first camping ride.  I’ve gotten better at this. The packing, the prep work, the being alone.  Its getting easier.  

I still missed my wife and kids and I felt a little guilty that they weren’t experiencing what I was.  But it was much less pronounced than last time.  

I found areas in my packing and gear approach that will need work.  

I got a taste of what the coastal ride will be like (fucking glorious) and hardened myself to long days in the saddle (5.5 hours from camp to garage).

If anything, riding along the coast surpassed my expectations. More please!

…And here is something that I wasn’t going to include in this entry.  It looks like this trip may be happening in April instead of September!!! More on that happy detail later J

Crunching the Numbers

Guess what.  Its budget time.  Time to find out what all this shit will cost.  Time to break down every bit of enjoyment and adventure and assign a dollar value (with taxes included).

You see, if we start the budget process now, we can walk away as soon as it starts to look scary.  We can take time to mentally process the numbers and go back.  After one or two nervous breakdowns, it will get done, right?  I hope so.

I started by figuring out all the lodging, then food, then fuel.  I then had a panic attack and had to stop.  I think the total for all of this was around 3 grand.

Second round will be adding in required equipment like trailer rentals, parking the return vehicle at Miami airport for a week and any maintenance costs associated with the truck or bike.

Keep in mind that this will include a 5-day family trip to Orlando with all the trimmings.

I also need to factor in my flight back to Miami from Houston and the family’s flights from Houston to Miami.  Remember, the plan is for me to drive the Armada (with a bike trailer) out to Miami before the trip and then fly home.  J and the kids would then fly out to Miami, pick up the Armada and meet me down in Key Largo for the last leg of the ride to Key West.  We will then trailer the bike and drive north to Wally…ahem…Disney World.

I would also like to add a few hundred dollars to donate to a charity while on the ride. (explained in a future blog post)

My desire to stash away cash is always in a war with my desire to go do things.  College is expensive.  You can never save enough for retirement (I have real world examples of how important this is). But you have to live for the here and now as well.

As all of this adds up, I am forced to ask the difficult question.  If we can’t afford this trip right now, what do I do?  Do I change the plan and maybe shorten the route/activities?  I guess we could just hit the Texas Gulf coast.  I could then meet J and the kids in South Padre.  This would be lot cheaper. 

Or do I just reschedule the whole damn thing for another year when things look better? 

No. 

There are always 100 reasons not to do something. 

Stash the cash now, suck it up, go have the adventure. 

In 15 years, my kids won’t remember how much money I saved in 2012, they will remember that Mom and Dad took them to Key West, Disney World and across the country back home, all of us together.