YOLO heading east inTexas Feb 2022

 We headed east towards Austin, TX to visit more sailing friends.  This time, Jim and Susan hosted us for a couple of nights while we swapped tales and had a look around their quaint new hometown of Wimberley.  A very comfortable home with nature right out their back door and all around.  This cute chameleon sculpture was in the park area nearby.

This interesting rock style of building is called 'giraffe',  It's not hard to understand why.

Jim and Susie after our breakfast out.  We wandered the shops that were open and I found a little collapsible colander.  We'd had one on the boat years ago that was really just a macaroni trampoline; it bounced the pasta all over the galley, but this one seemed like it might work better for the van.

This giant painted cowboy boot decorated the outside of a shop.

This rattlesnake skeleton wound its way through the grill of this truck from Texas.  It was parked outside of a neat little rock shop where the owner had just returned from the big rock and mineral show in Quartzsite, AZ.  She was still unloading boxes of new treasures that we, unfortunately, didn't have time to stick around and discover once they were unpacked.

We visited the local 'Swimming Hole' in a park.  This tree looked to be a great spot to jump into the water from the ring hanging on it.  The water was a lovely teal color, too.

Our stay coincided with the near "snowpoclypse", a freezing rain and snow event that threatened to shut down the entire Austin area for the second time in two years.  Folks were preparing for lengthy power outages, checking batteries and stocking up on food and fuel.  YOLO was coated in a quarter inch of ice.  I nearly broke the door handle trying to get the door opened.  

Although the authorities cautioned residents to stay home and off the treacherous, icy roads, Jason decided that was the time for us to leave.  We're standing in the driveway waiting for the ice to melt off the windshield enough so we could see (we didn't bring a scraper as we thought we were heading to warmer climes).

As we headed southeast, the air warmed, the ice began to melt and fly off the van in sheets.  There was little traffic out on any of the roads as the sane folks of Austin stayed put for the day.  Once we were ice-free, we began to enjoy the scenery and realized we were in an area that sold the pecan pies that Jim and Susie had talked about. A whole pie was more than we wanted or needed, but these pecan bars were just perfect to enjoy the rich, decadent taste.

Eventually, we reached the beach on the Gulf of Mexico and found a little town called Indianola where we could park for free on the beach.  It was a cute location where you could stay for up to 14 days for free.   We needed to hunker down for a strong wind event and parked facing into the wind so we didn't rock all night.  Here is Jason checking out our spot to park.

After the rough waves, I found some interesting things washed ashore.  Some beach glass and pretty shells.

More shells from the beach.  A cool old glass stopper from a perfume bottle, a piece of broken china, some purple glass and a piece of rounded old dark green glass from something with an unusual shape turned up in my beachcombing search.

Jason relaxing out of the wind in Indianola.

More treasures from the sand.

Our view from the van.  The hot pink pavilions are iconic for this beach park. 

Onward we drove, once the wind died down, to Matagorda Beach park.  A very long boardwalk crossed over the dunes to the water.  This shot is from only half way out.  I spotted some dolphins or small black whales out beyond the end of the boardwalk.

This is the view looking back towards the parking lot where we stayed.  It was a long walk out and back.

We met another vanlifer who had wanted to go park on the beach the night before.  We'd warned him about getting stuck in soft sand, but he did it anyway and got stuck.  The next morning, he was once again parked in the lot near us.  Jason wanted to take his dog, Lula for a walk.  The edge of the marshy inlet is 'paved' with these huge slabs of pink granite.  They all have the channels from a drill, so we wondered if these were the offcast blocks from some quarry providing granite for building.  We ended up seeing these granite slabs at several places along the beaches in different states, being used to stabilize the sand and keep it from eroding. 

The bridge to our next location took us over the ICW (IntraCoastal Waterway).  Barges pushed by tugs were the prominent traffic on the ICW.

A colorful line of cabins along the road.  Reminds me of that song, "Little Boxes".

A catfish head on the beach.  Guess the rest was dinner for someone or someting?

And this litte white stingray was upside down in the surf, too.

This is actually an egg case for a whelk.

This ultralight pilot came in close and fast for several passes over the island parking lot where we parked.  This area is still unrebuilt after recent hurricane damage.  That pier on the left goes nowhere and there is no way to get to it.

We parked right alongside the ICW for the night.  

That useless bit of pier at sunset near Surfside Beach.

Could this be our next honeymoon cottage?

Another beach parking opportunity along the gulf.  So far, we're liking this free beach parking, though we do have to be careful to stick to the hardpacked sand or shells so we don't get stuck.

This cute little shell had me stumped.  Perhaps a baby crab of some sort?  

Also some lumps of coal and a whelk shell on the beach.

To continue east, we took the free ferry from Galveston across the water to Port Bolivar.  It's free going west to east, but only a couple of bucks to go the other way.  This tanker turned around right in front of our ferry.

Looking down at YOLO from the 2nd level on the car ferry.  The rooftop is still the original white.

Jason walking along the beach looking at the shells.  We didn't like the looks of this sand for our heavy van, so parked across the street.  Mosquito city, unfortunately!

These huge cranes impressed Jason with their size and lifting capabilities at this refinery we passed.

I've seen these squiggly sand extrusions all over the world, but they never cease to amaze me.  They are so fragile, too.  

Found this toy car in the sand.  You might recognize it from the Pixar movie Cars.

We stopped to look at this old drilling platform.  Then we noticed the guy in the center of the photo with a flame torch, cutting the metal up to scrap/recycle it.

The next waterway required us to catch another free ferry or drive a hundred miles to go up and around the water.  The regular ferry was still being repaired from hurricane damage so this temporary ferry was set up to handle vehicles.  This statue of an alligator was at the ferry loading location.  YOLO is in the background waiting in line.

YOLO got stuck on the ferry loading ramp.  A bolt under the rear step got caught in their gridwork.  The long overhang caught on the ramp and we stalled the loading process until someone found a jack and some wood to make the angle for loading a bit better.

Jason adjusting the boards so the nails sticking out don't puncture the tires.  The ferry loading lady thought she had a truck jack in her truck, but it was missing, so one of the other ferry guys jacked the van up and we drove it over the wooden ramp and got it on the ferry.  Getting off was not a problem.  The ferry folks were very nice about it and were very appreciative of the way we handled the situation.  It's all part of the adventure, right?

We got off the ferry and headed east to try to find Rutherford Beach, a place another vanlifer had told us about in Louisiana.

YOLO at Rutherford Beach, LA Feb 2022

 We finally reached Rutherford Beach, Louisiana in the late afternoon, after dealing with the ferry crossing near Port Arthur.  This is another beach parking community and we loved it here.  Karen's face in the sea creature cutout, a leftover from the previous park that has been resurrected.

The entire place was wiped off the face of the Earth by Hurricane Laura in August of 2020.  With 150 mph winds and a 10-foot tidal surge when it made landfall near Cameron, Laura demolished everything in its path, and this town never recovered.  We still saw wrecked cars and trucks out in the middle of the marshes, unable to be recovered.  

The RV campgrounds were filled with the workers from Texas who were building the natural gas exporting facility that just came online; its first export left the week before we got here.  Now even the RV parks are looking deserted, the workers returning to Texas; there is nothing here to rebuild this area now.

There are several PortaJohns here and trash bins that get cleared weekly.  One of the vanlifers here also found a working water pipe and another put a tap/petcock on it so we could all have clean water, too.  Free water, free toilets, free trash removal, free beach parking, free oysters, free crabs.....no wonder some of these folks are spending months here.  What used to be a popular waterfront community park is now the domain of vanlifers, campers and trailers, with the local hooligans who still come out to spin donuts in the sand.

YOLO backed up to the Gulf, Jason kicking back behind the van.  The big green school bus belonged to a family with three kids, ages 3-10 with them.  They were extremely nice and I found out later they had seven other grown children!  They've been here for months.  They think to leave but keep coming back because they like it so much.

Oysters on the rocks of the breakwater at Rutherford Beach during low tide.  Yes, you can eat these oysters and several folks here did so.

Blowing snow?  Nope, just different colors of sand leaving pretty patterns on the shore.

Chuck, Jason and Jay heading to our crabbing spot on Valentine's Day.  Chuck had been shown this 'secret' crabbing hole and he offered to take us crabbing there.  He provided the chicken legs and string for the bait and showed us how to troll the crabs in slowly and net them.

I'm retrieving the chicken leg, but the crab let go this time.  Jay is helping me by netting the ones that get close enough to grab with the net.  Jay built out a school bus, popped the top and added an extension to make it big enough for his entire family.  It was huge.

A female blue crab tangled in the net.  Eric had loaned us his truck and the net, too, as long as we caught some crabs for him.  Females have the bright red claws.  We threw the females over the into the water on the other side so we wouldn't catch them again.  Those claws are deadly sharp and they drew blood on me and Jason and Jay.  Only Chuck remained bloodless this day.  

Jason tried to push the logjam of sticks away from the lock so we wouldn't get our strings caught in them.  He wasn't entirely successful, but we still got tons of crabs.

Chuck was like a machine!  Toss in the chicken leg and pull out a crab.  And his were mostly the males we could keep.  His honey hole produced this day!  We're planning to feed all the folks on the beach tonight.  Crab Fest!

We crabbed for hours, catching hundreds.  There is no limit on these and you don't need a license to catch them.  We missed lunch completely, so by the time we got back to the beach we were all starving.  We knew it would be a while before could get the fire going, get the big cooking pot boiling and put the crabs in to boil.  It would take several batches to cook all the crabs we caught.  In the meantime, Zalena had made her family some split pea soup and offered some to Jason and me to tide us over.  It was delicious and we went back to the green bus for seconds.

The kids had fun playing with the crabs, getting them to grab onto the sticks.  You can see the mighty claw of this one wants to pinch something.

A big male blue crab.

Chuck sorting through the two buckets of crabs we caught (mostly he caught).  He wants to finish building out his bus, sell it and move to Suriname with his dog, Hades, to hunt gold.  We were the only folks he'd met that had ever been there, but he didn't want to heed our warnings.  Good luck, Chuck.

The cooking pot is heating up.  We had lots of crabs to cook! We figured we caught 120+ to feed us and threw back the smaller ones and females.

Eric (in the brown shirt) had loaned us his truck.  His three kids, plus Jay's five kids, plus eight adults made quite the throng to feed.  It was cold and dark by the time we finally got to eat, but nobody willing to work at eating crabs went hungry. 

 The aftermath the next morning behind Chuck's bus.  We still had a partial trayful left uneaten, with a pile of discarded shells tossed in the sand.  And Chuck had part of a bucket of them that were still live and uncooked.  He put them in a submerged cistern to try to keep them alive until he could cook them later, but I think he eventually let most of them go.  Crabs are the only meal where I'm hungrier after I've eaten than when I started!  They're so much work to eat.  I wouldn't even pick the meat out of the leftovers.

A beach plant growing in a star shape farther down the beach.

Every day, we saw burns taking place, with huge plumes of smoke blowing across the landscape.  They burn the tall dry grass to encourage new growth and discourage unwanted animals (we saw lots of crocs along the waterways).  The myriad of channels of water here near the shore ensure none of the fires get out of control.

The kids found a turtle one day and were trying to scrub its shell clean and remove the green growth on it.  A lady camping in her trailer came by and scolded them, telling them they shouldn't be doing that and they should put the turtle back where they found it.  The turtle didn't seem to care either way....

Two other campers were going to see the cemetery that was badly disturbed by the hurricane here in Cameron a few years ago.  Jason and I had noticed them on our way here and invited ourselves to go along to explore.  Jason is checking out the broken vaults and headstones.

Crypts were filled with water and headstones were scattered about by the hurricane.  Someone had removed any bodies or skeletons; we never saw any bones.  

The devastation with upturned graves was a bit unsettling, even after all this time.

It was kind of a spooky spectacle, but someone has methodically been working to restore order to this mayhem.

Restored graves all have a 4-inch thick slab of grey granite atop them.  Hopefully, that will be heavy enough to withstand any future hurricanes.

Seems strange to see new mound of earth in this context.

After four nights here, the longest we've stayed anyplace on the road, we finally tore ourselves away.  Chuck was going to take us to his oyster-gathering place and we were going to make oyster stew.  The family in the green bus had driven to Port Arthur the day before and did some shopping for us, so I had half and half to make a batch of stew for us, too.  Jason, however, decided it was time to head on, so we used the half and half I'd bought for our coffee instead.  Rutherford Beach is a place I'd surely return to if we have the chance.