One begins to understand the true feeling of the bayou when taking a drive on Route 10 through southern Louisiana. The majority of the time we drove hovered twenty feet above the swamps and rivers, catching glimpses of gators, pelicans and other multi-colored birds, fishermen, crawfish farms, and Spanish moss draped trees. Our friend Hank in Cartersville, GA has a duck hunting camp no more then 30 minutes from where we were in Grand Chenier, LA. Although we were unable to visit due to time constraints, there is little to do but to sit back and appreciate another gem on the southern edge of the United States. After two hours we entered Beaumont, TX with hungry stomachs in tow and couldn’t pass up the first sign we saw for Boiled Crawfish. The stand off of Rte 10 was run by three local guys who spent their days catching, cleaning, selling and always eating the little crawdads. Per the owner’s request we tried them on the spot and we plowed through many pounds of crawfish (bite the tail and suck the head) unable to slow down our consumption of the delicious, spicy guys. The young owner, in his cowboy boots and all, had just moved back to his home town in Louisiana to run the crawfish business but he was also preparing for law school in the fall. He wished us well on our trip, reminded us of the importance of wearing a seatbelt, and then we jumped back in the Outlander knowing we had an hour to get to the Galveston Island State Park campsite.
Pelicans lined the Gulf of Mexico as we arrived at the Ferry to take us onto Galveston Island with about 30 minutes left to check-in. It was a site as the boat ferried us and Wyatt in our car across the water onto the island. After a quick drive to the southwestern side of the island we found our campsite, set up our tent, and took Wyatt to experience the ocean for the first time as we strolled across the sandy beach at dusk.
Galveston was once known as the richest city in Texas but their prosperity suddenly came to a halt on September 8, 1900, when the deadliest natural disaster in United States history hit Galveston Island. A storm with winds exceeding 120 miles per hour and tidal surge devastated the island and killed more than 6,000 people. Today it is a popular destination for Houstonians when they want to escape to the beach for a weekend. We enjoyed the evening sunset and awoke bright and early to drive into Houston to get our visas for India. After a day wait for the paperwork to be processed we hit the road for Jaci’s old stomping grounds - Austin, TX.
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