Swimming along the Gulf

What starts out Friday as a leisurely drive along the Gulf Coast to scout out Galveston attractions almost becomes a long swim home when the weather turns nasty and torrential rainfall drowns our plans.  We manage to scurry into the Lone Star Flight Museum before the bottom falls out.  While most of the airplanes housed here are old favorites that we’ve seen many times before, it is nice to note that many of these planes are airworthy and available for a flight experience flight from the museum.

As we pull into Galveston along the seawall we are amazed to find RVs, campers and pickups with cooker and flatbed trailers attached parked in the seawall parking spaces lining this road. The RVs and Campers are even set up with slides out and levelers down.  A quick visit to the Visitor Center supplies the answer to this unusual parking arrangement.  Turns out, we are a day early for the Mardi Gras parade that will proceed down Seawall Blvd. 

The vehicles now lining the route will have primo views of the entire gala.  The hostess at the visitor center assures us that the parking is legal “kinda.”  All you have to do is acquire a $25 annual seawall parking pass, then pay the $60 fine ($30 for ignoring the rules and $30 for overnight parking) for each night that your rig is parked on the parade route.  She tells us, “It’s cheaper than a hotel room and the ultimate festivity location.”

We return home to thankfully discover our RV still anchored in place having not yet floated away in spite of Nature’s repeated attempts to inundate it.  The storms seem to have laser guidance to our location and after another full day of continuous cloudbursts on Monday you can’t blame us for running outside at sunset to worship the tardily appearing sun just as it escapes below the horizon.  Here are pics from our trip and from our fleeting glimpse of the sun’s appearance late Monday:

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• About the Author

About Sunny Weathers

Pilot, motorcyclist and full time RVer. Follow me as I travel all over the US in my Country Coach RV volunteering, making new friends and pursuing a constant outdoor temperature between 70F and 80F. I'll share the fun and the tribulations and any great survival tricks I learn!