The forecast was for thunderstorms from Austin east to the state line for several days. Our last night at Lockhart State Park featured lightning so close that I couldn’t count past one before the thunder clapped. The power went out but the rain didn’t amount to much. The power came back on so we could run the a/c but the thunder continued to grumble all around us. It was still grumbling the next morning. Heading east on I-10 we could see black clouds to the northeast and to the southeast. It was just a matter of time before we hit the line of thunderstorms.

The rain came down in sheets, visibility reduced to scary levels and the wind was blowing the motorhome all over the highway, not a fun thing when you’re sharing the road with a lot of eighteen-wheelers. The promised rest area never materialized, or maybe we couldn’t see it with the rain, so Al pulled off at an interchange that featured a bank on one corner and a gas station on the other, both without power. He parked and we ate lunch while we waited out the storm. The parking lot flooded with six inches of water and once again the lightning and thunder were almost simultaneous, repeating over and over again. I looked at the weather on the iPhone and sure enough, there was a line of t-storms fifty miles long moving rapidly north and going right through our present location. No kidding. But as advertised, the storm blew through and we were on the road again. Which was more than could be said for the driver of a FedEx eighteen-wheeler who was being extricated from a field next to the highway where he was facing the wrong direction. That must have been some gust.

During the storm, Al had called Galveston Island State Park and was able to get reservations for three nights. We had been to Galveston in 2002 but were curious about how it had recovered from Hurricane Ike in 2008. As it turned out, you had to look closely to see the evidence of the damage, the biggest clue being that everything was freshly painted. The park facilities had been completely obliterated by the storm and there had been doubt as to whether it would ever reopen. It’s not the same as it was, but the Gulf of Mexico is still there on one side and West Bay is still there on the other side. You can still see wonderful birds like roseate spoonbills, white ibis, brown pelicans, even a magnificent frigate bird, along with more common birds like great egrets, tri-colored heron, willets, laughing gulls, various sizes of terns.



Here's our neighbor across the bayou to the north of our campsire.




This is the view from the other window of the motorhome, out across West Bay toward the mainland. If you have really good eyes you can see a blur above the upper band of water--that's the mainland. The air was pretty soupy our entire visit, typical semi-tropical maritime.

Here's Al enjoying the breeze off the Gulf of Mexico. Great beaches here and unless you are right in the city, not that many people. This is a public access boardwalk across the dunes, one of many public access points down the island.

They also have seafood in Galveston, lots of seafood. We couldn’t find the Cajun place where we had eaten on our previous visit and all the rebuilt restaurants seemed a bit glossy, so we headed for Katy’s Seafood near the fishing boats and bought two pounds of shrimp, medium, head off but raw. I had some cherry tomatoes left over from stripping my garden before we left and they were getting a little soft, so I halved them and threw them in some olive oil along with some garlic and some “Cajun seasoning.” When this was cooked down, it was just a matter of adding the shrimp (which I had peeled but left the tails on) and stirring for a few minute until they were pink. See the photo. It was actually too much for two of us to eat, so we had leftovers in an omelet for breakfast. This all cost less than one restaurant meal and we pigged out on a lot more shrimp.

The next day I bought some grouper fillet and cooked it according to Emeril’s directions. No photo, but it was really good along with some oil-and-vinegar-dressed potato salad and some creamy cole slaw, both (motor)home-made. The fillet was big enough that I had to save half for dinner the next day when I served it on top of a salad. I’d never eaten grouper before but it’s one of those things you read about, so I had to try it. A firm-fleshed white fish with a fillet thickness of about an inch and a half at the thickest. If I were to cook it again, I’d probably use it in a fish stew.

I’ve said it before, that we move like Napoleon’s army, on our stomachs. Next stop: Cajun country.