I am trying to make this blog a bit less onerous, and in the spirit of the old adage "pictures speak louder than words," I will keep this short and sweet.
We have been in Texas for nearly a week. First in Galveston at the very nice Jamaica Beach RV Park, and now in Port Aransas, at the even nicer Gulf Waters RV Resort.
Do we like Texas? Hmmm. I would have to say, not yet. Although every place we go is a new experience and part of our adventure, I don't think any of the four of us would purposely come back to south Texas to stay for any length of time. The two RV parks we have stayed in, though, have been extremely enjoyable. But I just heard this one in Port Aransas has coyotes and rattlesnakes near the beach! Have to be extra careful with Buddy.
Some unfortunate news: Beau is pretty incapacitated with a bad toe joint. He stubbed it, sparking an old injury (a heavy maple kitchen cabinet fell on his toes back in 2007). He is in a lot of pain and hobbling around like an old man. The x-ray didn't find anything broken or dislocated, but if he has sprained or torn a ligament, his recovery could be long and, for him, frustrating. (This also means that I have to ensure the stubborn mule takes it a bit easier. Good luck to me!)
Some pictures and quick explanations of our Texas sojourns.
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| Welcome to Texas, y'all! |
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| On the left, the high-tech bikers Dave and Joyce. On the right, the Clampetts and their bikes. |
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| Hard to see, but most of these sunsets feature horses in the field. There were about eight or so horses right next to our RV park. Weird looking sun, huh? |
While in Galveston we visited the Oil Rig Museum, which is basically a converted MODU (Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit). It was quite amazing to see the complexity of oil drilling and rigs, and the technology and equipment required to find, drill, and pump oil. Here are a few facts you may not know about drilling:
- A jack-up rig is a MODU with three or more legs that are jacked down to contact the sea floor, then these continue to be jacked until the entire hull of the oil rig is out of the water.
- The cost to operate a drill ship is $445,000 a day (no wonder fuel costs so much!).
- A blowout preventer is typically a stack of remotely controlled sealing assemblies. The final sealing elements, the shear rams, are powerful enough to cut through a pipe as they seal off the hole in the event of an emergency.
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| The famous oil rig fire and blowout specialist, Red Adair, honored at the museum. |
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| This rope contraption is called a "Billy Pugh" and is used to transport personnel on and off rigs and ships. |
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| Have no clue who these roughnecks are. |
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| Galveston Bay |
Later, we dined at Joes' Crab Shack. Two blurry photos of our dinner:
Dorfs on Golf
Our RV park in Galveston had a really cute mini golf course on site. I will finish up with these photos of our hilarious mini tournament. I have no idea if Dave and I won or lost -- and who cares?
Explanation: Some holes had a spinner that had a variety of silly things you had to do while playing. Both Joyce and I were "lucky" enough to land the spinner on one saying we had to bend over, put our heads on our clubs, and spin five times before playing.
We both fell down.
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| Spin out! |
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| Me after my spin. We are both hysterical here. |
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| Still laughing... |
Dave's spinner stopped on the instruction saying he had to play with his putter behind his back.
Nice form, Dave!
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| All this and we were sober!! |
Tanks, Panky
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