To Galveston- Friday, August 3, 2018

     After breakfast, we left San Antonio with the idea that we would end up in Galveston, but we were going to take the scenic route to get the two places that Scott really wanted to go to first, even though they were basically in the opposite direction.

     Our first stop was the Treue der Union monument in Comfort, Texas.  There were many German settlers who immigrated to Texas back in the 1800s.  Most of these were opposed to slavery and when the Civil War broke out, many of them wished to stay loyal to the Union.  In 1862, when the Confederates declared martial law in central Texas, a group of them tried to escape to Mexico.  When the rebels chased them, many of them drowned in the Neuces River, and those that didn’t were massacred.  34 died in all.  The bodies that could be recovered were buried here in 1866, and this monument was placed here at that time.  That makes it one of the earliest monuments from the Civil War, and one of the very to Unionists this far South.  Scott wanted to visit here because of both the German and Union ties it has.   The monument itself is all in German, but there are plaques around it that are in English.  “Treue der Union” means “True to the Union,” or “Loyal to the Union.”  A 36-star US flag, like the kind flown in 1866, is flying here at half-staff all of the time.  While we took pictures, we saw lots of reddish brown ants hard at work nearby. 

     Less then a half-hour drive away through the dry Texas hill country was Luckenbach, made famous in the song.  “Let’s go to Luckenbach Texas, with Willie and Waylon and the boys.  …Out in Luckenbach, Texas, ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain.”  This like dot on the map was where Willie Nelson got some regular gigs when the Nashville establishment was not yet ready for his style of music.  A sign there reads, “Luckenbach, TX- Pop. 3” and that’s probably accurate.  There used to be a post office here, but that was closed down years ago.  The post office is now a gift shop with a bar in the back.  There’s a stage for live music out back, and a dance hall nearby.  Judging from the parking lot size, they must pull people from all around here.  We went into the store to buy some souvenirs.   Brian S. wanted us to get him a shirt that said “Luckenbach” on it, and Scott wanted one to.  Scott also bought a rusty metal sign that said “Luckenbach,” which might look really cool hanging in the basement.  We had heard a rooster crowing when we parked and were surprised to see him strutting around on the floor inside the store.  Unfortunately, the live music wasn’t scheduled to start until about 1:00 and we had a way to go today.  Still, Scott thought it was appropriate to have a Lone Star Beer (which was surprisingly good), and imagined what it must be like there when the music is going.  It was an idyllic spot, to be sure.  It’s easy to see how the song was inspired.

     We got some sandwiches and gas on the road and drove for most of the afternoon in order to get to Galveston.  After we passed through hill country and saw a wine making region.  Julie bought some peaches at a roadside stand and said they were delicious.  We passed through Lyndon Johnson’s hometown, and swung by Austin again.  We saw lots of animals, including goats recently shorn sheep.   There were lots of buzzards in various places, often circling around something we couldn’t see.  We were surprised to see zebras and gemsbok and other exotic looking antelope, and when Scott Googled the name of the place, we learned that they were there to be hunted by people who pay a large fee.  We wanted to see an armadillo, and Julie might have spotted a dead one on the side of the road, but with the temperature pushing 100, they aren’t likely to be out in the open.    Traffic got slow as we went through downtown Houston at the start of rush hour, and we had a big scare just as it started to open up again.  Two or three panels drywall blew off of the car in front of us.  He had them strapped to his roof, but they became airborne and smashed on the road in front of us.  We were on busy expressways, and there was no place to pull over at the time.  There may be a few dings on the car now.  We’re glad we paid for insurance.  We continued on.

     Julie got excited as we started seeing palm trees and flocks of pelicans because that meant we were getting close to Galveston.  We checked into our hotel (and Julie discovered that her driver’s license is missing.  We’ve done some looking for that.  Our hotel this time is a cheapy little dive and the has a musty stale beer smell, but it’s right on the beach on Galveston Island.   We’re just down from an amusement pier called Pleasure Pier.  It got a ferris wheel, a roller coaster, and those kinds of rides, and we figured it would have fun food.  We strolled down the street along the beach towards the pier.  Since we didn’t find anyplace else along the way, we figured we’d eat there, but we found that you had to be a pretty big admission price to even walk down the pier.  So instead, we ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company right at the start of it.  We figured it would be airconditioned there, and we picked through the menu to find things that didn’t have shrimp, since neither of us like that.   We ate well there, but of course, Julie wanted to walk on the beach.

     When we got down to the water itself, we found that the Gulf water is bathwater warm.   We both put our feet in, but we weren’t really dressed to do anymore than that.  Scott was carrying a lot of electronics- his camera, Julie’s phone, etc.- and didn’t want to get them wet.  He did use his mp3 player and speaker to try to get some shots of Julie with Glen Campbell’s “Galveston” playing.  We watched the birds, including the little sandpipers that Scott loves to see run around and the small flocks of pelicans that were flying gracefully overhead.  All of the pelicans seemed to be headed north, and we wondered if they all nested in the same place at night.  We stayed down on the beach until the sun went down.  By then we had walked back to our hotel’s area and we went back in for the night.