Feb. 12, 2018

We’re back on the road! Our stay at Padre Island National Seashore and Port Aransas was not quite what we expected- we rarely saw the sun more than 2 hours every few days, lots of wind, clouds, rain and fog, however we would daily remind ourselves that we were not shoveling snow 🙂 We both were starting to get antsy and so we are back on the road.
We moved east to a free campground on a bay- Magnolia Beach- for 5 days. It was lovely, except for the cold- highs in the 40s and wind and rain. We again reminded ourselves how lucky we are, as several of our neighbors were homeless living in tents!

 

 
Then to Brazos Bend State Park- they have alligators! however, they stay in the water when it is cold, and it was cold…This place is pretty much a swamp, so lots and lots of waterfowl. Hurricane Harvey did it’s thing here- dumping about 60inches of rain in 3 days. Look closely at these pictures- see how the lower portions of all the trees are dark brown? That’s the water level from the storm- the water was this high for several months! In places we estimated the water was 40 ft above the stream through the park and 6 ft. above the road! We met a woman whose home was flooded off it’s foundation- flood is not covered by home insurance…thousands of families are in this situation here.

Some of the trees here are HUGE! Tall but not super tall, but their “wingspan” is easily 100ft wide and where branches touch the ground they root!