Glen Campbell would be proud

Galveston Island, TX

Yes, I was humming the famous Glen Campbell song (apologies to those of you too young or too old to remember Glen) driving up Galveston island.

It was an interesting day of driving yesterday because as you can see from the map, I took primarily secondary roads travelling close to the Gulf the whole way. I got to see some of the countryside and I went through some small towns along the way and it really drove home that Texas is a resource state. All along the way, I saw refineries or shipping/loading facilities either in use or under construction. And from the look of all the construction, things are booming here at the moment. Projects underway before the cost of a barrel went south, no doubt.

I arrived onto Galveston Island from the south over the toll bridge along the Blue Water Parkway. Once I’d hit the coast just before heading on to the island, the method of design of the homes instantly made you realize you were in hurricane territory. Everything is built on stilts or on berms or hills. It was a beautiful drive along the beach all the way up to my RV Park near the south end of the island.

Galveston Island RV Park is one of the newest and nicest Park’s I’ve been in, more than making up for the previous night. The shower/washrooms were some of the best I’ve experienced and the cement pads were ample for the hugest rigs making my little house look even more dwarfed than usual.

After I set up, I headed along the seawall drive for my orientation cruise, and to get something to eat, a late lunch once again. Had a great steak at one of the many restaurants along the beach. As I was heading home and after an overcast and windy day, the sun came through the clouds just as the sun was setting producing a glorious sunset.

Today, I spent the morning doing some trip planning at my friendly neighbourhood Starbucks, without which I wouldn’t have been able to survive this trip, BTW. Then I was off to explore a couple of the historic homes here in Galveston. These two both survived the 1900 Hurricane which levelled much of Galveston and killed over 6000 people. They also survived Hurricane Ike, in 2008.

The first is the Moody Mansion, built in 1895 for Mrs Narcissa Willis, was interior designed by Pottier & Stymus who had just completed the White House. Colonel W. J. Moody who grew his financial empire originally from cotton, and eventually expanding into financial and land development, bought it for his wife, Libby when it came on the market. The docent told us that Col Moody didn’t really want to buy the house, but his wife wanted it so he put in a really low bid. After the bid had been submitted, the hurricane struck and the home was left in a sea of devastation around it. Now the amount he bid, $20,000, was a terrific bid, and he went ahead and bought it anyway because there was little damage to the structure or upper floors. We couldn’t take pictures inside, so I can’t show you, but Colonel Moody’s daughter Mary Moody Northern had the home restored to it’s former glory and the family allows the building to be shown to the public.

The second home I saw was Bishop’s Palace. I have to admit to not really paying attention to the history too well, but it started as a private home, to someone named Walter Grisham (I didn’t think to ask if he was any relation to John!), and then was sold to a church Bishop and so it gained the nickname Bishop’s Palace.

Then it was off for an early dinner on the pier in the old historic town. Beautiful shrimp in light parmesan batter with a light tomato sauce and angle hair pasta. Yum.