Trip#4 26 March to 2 April 2018

Our original plan for this trip was to travel to East Texas since neither one of us had ever spent time in this area. But as we got closer to our departure date, the weather forecast showed the area we planned to visit was going to get 4-6 inches of rain while we were there. So we changed our plans and decided to visit the Texas Gulf Coast.

26 March 2018

We departed Fort Worth and drove through to Galveston. We figured that our niece , Lauren, was due for her first baby to be born around this time and we wanted to be able to visit. The drive was pretty straight forward. We took the toll road around the east side of Houston rather than go through the center of Houston with the traffic and construction. We did have to go over the Houston Ship Channel bridge and were very happy to see the truck could drag up that steep bridge without breaking a sweat. Total drive was seven and a half hours given the distance and Houston traffic. We stayed at the Sand Piper RV resort at the end of the sea wall. Good place to stay. Easy walk to the beach and easy drive to Houston and the Galveston Island Sites. Sites were all level and plenty of room to maneuver our big rig. Water pressure was a bit low but otherwise a good place to stay. 

27- 28 March 2018

Lauren had her baby the morning of 27 March, so we drove up to the north side of Houston to see the Happy mother and father and their precious new Baby Girl, Olivia. Everyone was doing grand and Lauren did not look like she had even had a baby! Leslie got to hold Olivia, which made her day! The next day we went into downtown Galveston to explore the old town and had lunch at the German Beer Garden. A very relaxing time. 

29 March 2018

We left Galveston and drove to Corpus Christi. We were really surprised how barren and flat this part of Texas is given its proximity to the coast. We pulled into Corpus after a five hour drive. We stayed at the Colonia Del Rey RV Park. A bit tight maneuvering for our big rig but doable. Site was nice and flat. Seems to be a lot of long duration folks in this RV resort. It was nice, clean if a little bit packed.

29-31 March 2018

The first day we drove into Corpus, and a great lunch and toured the USS Lexington. That is one big ship! We spent over four hours on the ship and still did not see everything before it closed for the day. We took the long way back by going out on the island and driving down through the state park. The next day we went to Padre Island National Sea Shore and drove down the beach for about 15 miles. The beach is beautiful and goes for more than 60 miles. But beyond 15 miles, the sand gets softer and we really did not want to test the limits of the truck. 

1 April 2018

We left Corpus Christi and drove to New Braunfels Texas. It was about a five hour drive with very little traffic. We really just wanted to break the drive home up into two segments. We stayed at the River Ranch RV Resort, which is sandwiched between the freeway (I-35) and the Guadalupe Bridge. They advertise that they are big rig compatible but it is really tight. We ended up tail slapping another rig trying to turn into our site. No one was hurt but there was almost $10k damage to the two rigs. Getting out the next morning was difficult also. We saw another rig back into a table trying to get into another site. I would not suggest this RV Park for big rigs. Beyond that, there was little road noise and it is right on the Guadalupe River, so it was pleasant place to stay. That evening we drove to Gruene, Texas and went to the Grist Mill for a delicious dinner. 

2 April 2018

After a rough time maneuvering to get out of the RV Park, it was an uneventful trip back to Fort Worth. It was with great regret that we put the Wander back into storage at United RV but we knew the time was close for when we would be back in it fulltime.