Gulf State Park (still here)

Signed up for more days, so we will be leaving Sunday. Oct 31.  Spent the day riding my bike, visiting the pier, and walking the beach.  Barb was busy catching up on her book reading and playing Solitare on the computer.  The weather has made a big change, from hot and humid to much cooler with low humidity.

                                           Our campsite for 5 nights

                                          End of Pier looking to shore

                                          Gulf State Park Beach with city of Gulf Shores in background

                                           End of Pier looking out in gulf

                                           Spanish Mackerel  (they were catching a lot of them)

                                           Sand Piper

Gulf State Park, Alabama

We are at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL.  Got here Tues. afternoon.  It has been very hot and humid the last several days.  This morning a storm blew in dumping quite a lot of rain.  Yesterday we spent most of the day at the new swimming pool which just opened labor day.  We also checked out the new pier.  In the afternoon Barb mentioned that the couple camped across from us looked familiar.  About 5:30 the husband came over to invite us to go to eat with them.  It was then that we found out it was the couple that camped beside us at Big Bend.  They are from  Florida.  We all went out for a seafood dinner  and had a good time discussing every place we had been.  It is another coincidence that we run into someone we had seen a thousand miles ago.   Also we didn't see any oil on beach,  but that may change today as we are going to take a long beach walk.

                                           New pier at Gulf SP

                                           Deep cleaning sand.  In middle are seagulls

                                           More deep cleaning with local tv coverage

                                           Barb in fountain

                                           Barb in pool

                                           Me in fountain

Fontainebleau State Park Mandeville, LA

Night before last stayed at Sam Houston Jones State Park in western Louisiana.  At the moment we are staying at the Fontainebleau SP  which is on the northern shore of Lake  Pontchartrain, LA.  It is very hot with a high humidity, and our camper does not have air conditioning.  It is a beautiful campground and we road the bikes all over.  Would like to go swimming but signs say "High Bacteria, swimming not advised". 

                                           Moss on Cypress tree in swamp

                                           Found a sign but no gators

                                           This is not our camper but there is a story here.  Met the owners in Yosemite, and talked for an hour.  They are a nice couple from Maine,  and doing a circle of the country like us. They have a Shadow cruiser camper like us and met us by talking camper talk.   They are in their 70's  and have been traveling for a long time.   We seen them in New Mexico and Galveston Island and then again Monday night they camped near us.   We both have different agenda's,  so thought it a coincidence that we kept seeing each other.

                                           sunset over Lake Pontchartrain

                                           Now where is the switch to turn on the fountain

                                           Me with Lake Pontchartrain

Galveston Island State Park

Leaving Galveston Island SP today.  It is very hot and quite windy.  Had a little rain late last night.  Yesterday we walked about 3 miles up and down the beach, but no pics as there was too much sand and salt air blowing.  Beautiful beach.  The park reopened last year after having been distroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.  There are 2 areas to camp, out by the beach or back by the bay.  We are back by the bay.  When the tide came in it was about 15 feet from our camper.  This morning we have been watching the Pelicans dive for fish and watching other birds.   There is also a lot of kayakers here.

                                            Hurricane Ike damage at State Park

                                           our campsite

                                           view looking out our back door

                                           Pelicans diving

                                           Fisherman seen out back door

Stephen F. Austin State Park, Close to Houston, TX

Last night we ended up at Triple R RV park outside of Crystal City, TX.  We got the last site.  It is a beautiful park, the only problem we were parked under a pecan tree and all night long pecans kept falling off the tree and hitting our roof.  It made for hard sleeping.  Before in the afternoon we hit the Judge Roy Bean museum in Langtry, TX.  Today we made it almost to Houston.   We are at the Stephen F. Austin SP.  Due to the weather (It is extremly hot)  we didn't head for South Texas.  This afternoon  took a bike over the many trails at the park.  Seen 3 armadillo's and many deer, very little, not like Ohio deer.

                                           Real bar Judge Roy Bean Held court

                                           Very bad pecan tree

                                          Armadillo

                                                    Brazos river in background

Big Bend National Park Part 2

Here is more, guess I had too many pics for one post, It would not let me add any more.

                                                     Santa Elena canyon  (Mexico on left US on right)
                                                     Barb walking in Rio Grande

                                           Chisos Mountains (In center of Park)
                                           The high campground that we wanted to stay at was
                                            closed for improvement.

                                           Roadrunner   (in our campground)

Big Bend National Park Part 1

Spent 2 nights at Big Bend NP.  Camped in 2 different campgrounds both on the Rio Grande. It was very hot near 100 F. It is a beautiful and interesting place and we really enjoyed it.  We are now camped at Sanderson, TX on our way to Gulf of Mexico beaches.  Here are a few of the many pictures we took.

                                           2 Peaks called Mule Ears

                                            Javelina's   (look like pig's but not related)
                                             In our campground

                                           Coyote in our campground

                                           Rio Grande with Mexico on other side

                                           Old homestead in US with Mexico in background

                                                     Standing in Rio Grande Mex on left

                                                     Time to fill up

                                           Mountains in Mexico

                                           Trinkets for sale  (can be fined if you buy)

                                           The sellers across the river

                                           More items for sale (you put money in jar)

                                           Seller

                                           See horse and rider on hill  Rio Grande behind Barb

Camping at Balmorhea State Park in Texas

We didn't quite make it to Big Bend NP.  Somehow we went thru 2 time changes  and now we are in central time and time to stop for the night.   We are at Balmorhea State Park.   It is a beautiful park with natural spring putting out 1 million gallons of water per hour.  They have a huge lake enclosed with concrete wall to look like a pool, with natural rock bottom.  It is 25 feet deep in some places, with water temp all year 72 - 76F.  It is used by scuba divers and swimmers.   It is open all the time.  Camping is only $14 per night with electric.  Great place.  Remember no cell service at Big Bend NP so may be days till next post.

                                          tarantula  about 4 inches long

                                           Speed limit on I10

                                           Spring fed lake