Don’t you just hate it when Friday the 13th falls on a Sunday? It was not one of best days. We left South Padre Island with mixed feelings.
The beach was nice, the wind never let up – 20 miles an hour from the south – except for a grey and cool period. And the Texas Spring Break was filling every available nook and cranny with people. The brief period before these arrivals was great. The county park was a lovely if crowded campground and the people around us were very nice. It was a very short walk from our door to the beach and the beach runs forever. It is not likely we will hurry back; there are other places that are more pleasant and less crowded with less wind.
As we drove up US 77 the traffic was heavy, but moving right along. There were a lot of people on the move on this Sunday. Somewhere near the middle of King Ranch which 77 cuts through for miles, there was a Border Patrol Inspection stop. As we formed into two lanes and moved toward the inspectors, a car swerved into our lane, pulled up way to the right of the lane and stopped with his four-way flashers on. Not knowing what was happening I pulled way left and moved up along side. He pulled in his side view mirror and signaled me through. The clearance was very tight. It was so tight that the minor protuberance of our water heater cover coupled with a twitch on the wheel, or maybe a bump in the road, reached out and snatched his mirror (which he had let go of) off of his car. It was not pretty. I pulled up after the inspection area and waited for him. We were both angry. We both cooled down and exchanged paperwork and went on our way. Two days later there is no apparent sign of the contact on Gee 2 The black marks rubbed off and I removed and straightened the grill cover that got dinged. We shall see what the damage to his car was, probably more.
Two hours later with Carol at the wheel we pulled into a gas station. I think it was Victoria, TX but don’t hold me too it. The station was tight and I got out and guided Carol into a perfect location to fill the tank. The fill cap is on the very back of Gee 2 set in a couple of feet from the left edge. This almost always requires an outside spotter. Also, this is ten feet behind the rear axle. It really swings to the side when you turn the steering wheel. After we filled, I offered to get down and give some guidance as we pulled out into traffic. Carol told me to stay seated – driver is boss! (She explains she thought I intended to go out in the street to stop traffic). As she pulled forward she began her turn to line up with the exit and big pickup trucks kept blocking our way even as they wanted us to move so they could get to the pump. In the distraction neither of us remembered the swing and the left corner hit the big RED post that protects the pumps. I got down, surveyed the damage and had Carol pull the wheel the other way to clear the car (tow’d ) out of the pump it was almost hitting. Still flustered I jumped back aboard and failed to comment as Carol pulled the wheel back to the right to get to the far driveway. THUMP! THUMP! from the rear. Traffic cleared at that moment and we pulled into it and immediately entered the expressway. We pulled onto the shoulder as soon as we could and discovered that we had taken a fair amount of RED paint with us on the rear of the coach and the side of the car.
The intense application of elbow grease and strong detergent has removed almost all sign of the paint from both vehicles and a new marker light cover graces the left rear corner of Gee 2. The RAV 4 will require some professional attention at Vogel’s upon our return so Carol’s “beautiful munchkin” will be restored to its virginal glory.
The weather on the 13th was lovely and hot, Carol’s favorite kind of weather. It would have been nice to stop and enjoy it, but I wanted to get past Houston while the traffic was still light (only by LA standards could that be called light). Using our campground books, we located a likely overnight stop in Winnie, TX (yeah, I haven’t a clue either). It was a very nice parking lot with grass between paved parking slots behind a motel next to I 10. For a dinner appetizer I scrubbed at the RED paint, removing quite a bit. In the middle of the night I had a bad thought and woke up to find the refrigerator was not cooling and freezing adequately, by now it was the 14th but it had started on the 13th. I removed stuff that really didn’t need to be in the freezer to let air flow better and pushed the temperature control to its coldest and prayed it would be alright in the morning. It was. We must have not gotten the door closed fully at some point. We will have to defrost it soon.
Now fully past the 13th the weather brightened again and we moved on down the road. Not being able to take the tedium of I 10 across Louisiana, not to mention the lumpety, lumpety of the road (familiar to anyone who has traversed western Louisiana and eastern Texas on the worst Interstate in the system) we turned off onto the Creole Trail, route 14, across the Creole Country of southernmost Louisiana. It is low flat land mostly at 0 feet above sea level with rice paddies and oil and gas fields as far as the eye can see. The high spots are the bridges over the bayous and the people are very pleasant and friendly to us northerners. We made our way to Morgan City, the Lake End Park city campground and found a spot we want to return to. Here is a picture taken through the windshield before the clouds came the rain began to fall. 
I built a campfire and we had cocktails at the fire once Carol was satisfied she had removed all of the RED that was removable without application of power tools. This is the first time we have had the weather and the time and space to build a fire. It was very nice.
Today we took a tour of an offshore oil rig. It is the first one built called Mr Charlie. The tour was very interesting and it was exciting to go out onto the drilling floor, even if it is only used as a training platform these days. The equipment is massive and my respect for the “roughnecks” who make their living working in this very dangerous environment is greatly heightened. I am appending some pictures taken there.
Tomorrow we will move on. The weather is not good enough to hold us and we need to be in Cordele, GA, at the Super WalMart, Saturday morning at 9:30 to link up with the Fingerlakers to caravan into the Rally at Perry Georgia.