Goliad Land Cruise

Goliad Land Cruise April 2012

NOTE: I was really tired after this trip. I wasn't going to write this post at all. Then I got comments and emails from some of my friends saying they wanted to hear about the trip. Okay. I did it. I didn't do it good, but I did it. I am not even going to proofread it. I'm too tired.

Waiting for these trips is becoming a problem. All I think about when I am not traveling with the Colby T. is traveling with the Colby T. This time was no exception. I watched the clock every day, both at work and in the evenings at home. I couldn't wait for bedtime to come so I could wake up one day closer to my trip.

This getaway was my longest and the farthest from home. School was out in San Antonio on Friday for Battle of Flowers. It is a holiday we get every year during Fiesta San Antonio, a big and crazy party time for the city that goes on for few weeks. I used to love it, but not even that could keep me in town on a three day weekend.

As soon as school got out, I was ready to go. Unfortunately, N2S wouldn't be out of school for another hour. I went over to Starbucks and had a coffee to pass the time. I hate how some parents get to the school and wait in line forever as if they are afraid they won't get their kids back if they wait until the crowds are gone. This time, however, I needed to join the cue and be ready the second the bell rang. I was one of about twenty parents waiting at Marshall. At an elementary school, I would have been in a line of about one hundred cars that starts cuing up at least thirty minutes before school is released.

Once N2S was in the truck, we rushed home to use the bathroom and grab the last of our stuff. Then we headed over to Pack Rats and hitched up the Colby T. We left the lot about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule because we really were in sync on the hitching process.

Traffic was awful once we got close to downtown. I was wishing we had taken another route, but both the Tom Tom and OnStar were telling us that we were following the best one. I'm pretty sure that the traffic ate up our fifteen minutes and added enough time to make us that much behind schedule. That was my least concern. It is hard to be changing lanes pulling a trailer in stop and go traffic. No matter how hard I tried to make sure I got over early, things would come up that forced a last minute lane change. I kept telling N2S that I would be happy to get out of the city.

Unfortunately, the laugh was on me. The traffic stayed heavy all the way to Floresville and beyond. Then the rest of the trip was on two lane highways. I had trucks on my tail waiting to pass at every valley. It was nerve wracking. I wanted to be a nice guy and let them all pass, but there was no shoulder or anything else that I could pull over onto. On top of that, the roads were really bumpy and I just didn't feel comfortable going over 60.

It was easy to understand all the traffic. There is a mini-oil boom going on in parts of Texas. We must have seen about a hundred makeshift RV parks. We are talking no frills. Just a crowded lot with hookups. Each one held fifty to one hundred travel trailers. All the pickups that were passing us were the oil workers heading for a beer, dinner, and their temporary quarters.

We finally arrived at the state park at about 7:30. The office was closed, but the sign said to pick a site and register in the morning. We drove the loop and looked at all of the sites. Some were being used by oil workers. You could just tell. I decided to pick one closest to the park host and near some obvious couples with decorated sites.

We unhitched and did some set up. We hooked up the water and electricity. We got the AC running to cool the camper down. We passed on the sewer hookup, because we wouldn't need that until later anyway. It was still daylight when we finished the little bit we did. I decided to make a run into town and get some groceries and pick up dinner for N2S at Whataburger while we waited for the camper to cool down. We still had our gear in the truck, but we didn't need any light to do that.

The Super S came through with the few things we needed. I got a little pack of chicken to nuke in the microwave for my dinner. Then we went to Whataburger. We sat there forever waiting for our order. They made me move up to the line and at least four other cars got theirs and left. I guess the special burgers like the A1 cheddar burger aren't as popular there. While we sat there waiting, I was absolutely amazed at the amount of traffic that passed through the town. It was a constant flow. If you were dropped off at this intersection blindfolded, you would never know you were in a small Texas town with a population less than 2,000.

Back at the camper, we brought in our gear and finished setting everything up. I got the Keurig going, nuked my chicken, then settled in to watch Biodome on TV. We got about twenty channels, but N2S picked. I was just enjoying being in the Colby T. I didn't care what was on. I messed a little with mapping out our next day's excursions, but the phone service was pretty poor. I either had one bar of 3G or 2 bars of E. Neither one of them was good enough to do anything major over the Internet.

We finally set up the bed and hit the sack at about 10:30. I read for a little while, but kept dozing off and finally gave in at around 11:00. It is humbling to admit how much pulling the trailer for two and a half hours wore me out. I must have slept pretty well, cause I only visited the bathroom once during the night.

We got up by seven. I fixed some coffee and ate an Atkin's bar for breakfast. N2S had Poptarts. We didn't buy anything for the refrigerator because we wanted to make sure it was cooling overnight. You have to be balanced to get a camper refrigerator to work right. If it wasn't cool in the morning, we were going to put more effort into balancing. Fortunately, it was perfectly cold in there. Later that day, we bought some perishables.

I went over and registered for the site. I spent longer than planned talking with the rangers. They were some of the nicest I have ever encountered. That is saying a lot. I have never met a Texas Parks and Wildlife ranger who has been anything less than wonderful. I told N2S that I respect them as much as our soldiers. They are there to keep our state parks safe and protected for us.

We got on the road for our first excursion at about 9:00AM. The plan was to go through Port Lavaca to get to Indianola. That is a historic spot where a very important port city used to be. In fact, many of the people who immigrated to Texas from Germany and surrounding areas during the eighteen hundreds entered the country through that port. A hurricane all but wiped the town out. They managed to do some rebuilding, but another hurricane dealt a death blow ten years later. There is nothing left to see but some memorial markers now. There is also a monument honoring LaSalle, as it is believed that that is where he first landed.

We were the only people down there, except one guy who pulled up to the La Salle monument and started taking pictures at the same time we were. Most of the homes, the few that were there, seemed to be summer beach homes, and looked like they were still closed up and waiting for the season to start.

From there we headed on to Victoria for lunch. We wanted to eat at a cajun place we saw on TV. It turns out it was in Sea Drift, so we ended up at another place instead. It was not very good. We were surprised how big Victoria was. I thought it was a much smaller town. We stopped at the Super WalMart hoping to find some more bacon jerky. Ours is out of it, and I like to keep it in the camper.

We planned to stop and see the Fannin Battleground on the way back to Goliad, even though we knew it was closed for construction. The ranger had told me that we could see everything from the side of the road. We drove right past the exit for the town of Fannin, thinking we would see something, but didn't. I offered to turn around, but N2S said to just go on.

We went to the Super S as soon as we got to town and bought some eggs, cheese, sausage, and red hots. The red hots were for dinner. We decided to eat in since there wasn't much to choose from in Goliad. We dropped off the groceries, used the bathroom, and walked over to the Mission Espíritu Santo State Historic Site, which is right next to the park headquarters. We took a lot of photos and then talked with a ranger. He told us about a trail we could take that would lead us to the town square. Since we were really planning on doing the State Park activities on Saturday, we went ahead and left the Mission and hit the trail.

The trail turned out to be a mile or two of wooden walkways. It was really fascinating. It was raised up above the ground and included some actual bridges over ravines and creeks. The San Antonio River was off to our left most of the time. Just as you feel that you are in the middle of nowhere, it ends at a big tree filled field near the Boy Scout headquarters. Then, you are just two blocks from the square. We walked all the way around it taking pictures.

As we walked up one side of the square, we hit a flower store called Eula's. My dad's mother's name was Eula. I had never seen another reference to it. The very next store was called Mae's. That was my grandmother's middle name. It was such a coincidence that we had to stop in. Once inside, we saw that it was really one big store. I talked with the people working and they told me the owner's name was Eula Mae! They were as amazed as I was to hear about another Eula Mae! Meanwhile, N2S had discovered peach baskets full of different flavors of taffy that was being sold by the pound. He filled up a bag, we grabbed some cold drinks, and off we went.

We found the Market House Museum, but it was closed. There was no sign saying when it would be open, but we hoped it would be the next day, if we got the chance to run back to town.

The walk back to the state park was really nice. There was a wind that would blow cool air in awesome gusts that totally refreshed us. We saw some interesting hairy caterpillars and shiny black grasshoppers with orange stripes along the way. Neither of us felt as tired as we probably were after so much time in the truck and such a long walk.

Back at the Colby T., we cooked up the red hots and deer sausage links we had bought at the store. We cleaned up the dishes then enjoyed a quiet evening together. I processed all the pictures off my Flip video recorder and N2S read his George Carlin book. I don't remember what was on the TV. Neither of us was really watching it. After awhile, we decided to turn in.

We woke up well rested on Saturday morning. I gave N2S some hot chocolate before cooking up some breakfast sausage, egg, and cheese tacos. They were pretty good. The sausage was made somewhere in the Goliad area. It didn't take long to scarf it all down.

We took the river trail and hiked around the park while it was still cool. It was a little humid by the river also. We were kind of disappointed because you almost never actually see the river. At one point, we came out onto a picnic area and had trouble regaining the trail. N2S noticed that there were four leaf clover patches all over the field. He told me that four leaf clover was lucky. I told him that I felt lucky already, just to be on such a great trip with him. I know...sappy. He stuffed his pocket with clover, and we went on to another trail that took us over the areas where they had quarried the stones that built the mission. It was interesting because it had flights of wooden stairs and winding bridges. We even found the remains of the old kiln.

At the end of the trail, we ended up in the courtyard of the Mission. We went ahead and finished touring that, since we had stopped abruptly the evening before to go to town. They have lots of things set up in one of the long buildings to show what life was like in the mission. We took a bunch of pictures then headed on to the trail that would take us across the highway to the Presidio. That one started out under a thick canopy of trees and led us down and under a highway bridge. Then we climbed back up to the highway and crossed the big bridge over the San Antonio River.

Before long, we were standing in front of a very nice monument to Zaragoza (of Cinco de Mayo fame). From there, the Presidio was off to the right, but we could look off to the left and see the Mission Espiritu and the courthouse on the square downtown. Zaragoza's birthplace is a rebuilt version of his original home. It is filled with pictures and other exhibits. There isn't much actual furniture or anything in it.

We went into the Presidio to tour it, but I was really thirsty after the long hot hike from the campground. Unfortunately, the water fountain was broken, but the clerk told us there was a gift shop across the street that sold water. We told him we would be back for our tour and headed over to get a drink. That place was closed. I tried calling the phone number to see when it would open, but it was busy. We schlepped back over to the Presidio and walked through it and the church next to it. Then, we sat on a bench under some trees and studied our geocache notes before hitting the trail again.

This time we hiked up past the Presidio to Fannin's grave. Just before we got there, we found a monument to the Angel of Goliad. It was very nice. They had her statue in the middle of a little plaza with concrete tables and benches around. All of the tables had historical information imprinted on them.

We headed on to the grave. We took a bunch of photos, then started looking for geocaches which were in the cemeteries right next door. The first was in a camouflaged pill bottle and did not have a pen, so we carried it with us. We walked about a half mile up the street to another cemetery to find the next cache, carrying the previous one with us and hoping for a pen at the second. It was hidden in the middle of the cemetery. We did not feel right messing around in there, so we blew that one off and took the other back to its hidy-hole. Before leaving it, I wrote our information on the log using a stick and a piece of grass. That's a neat trick I learned from an awesome geocacher named Cybercat.

When we reached the giftshop, it was open. We bought four bottles of ice-cold water and sat on the porch of the store to drink them before getting back in the hot sun and taking the long hike back to camp. It was nice to finally get back to the Colby T. and sit in the AC for about thirty minutes to rest our feet and cool off. I was hiking in my Topsider style shoes from New Balance. I keep tennis shoes in the camper, but forgot that I took the socks out last time I camped. Fortunately, the shoes I was using had my heavy duty inserts in them. It was like wearing tennies, but I could have used socks and a little bit more support.

While cooling off in the Colby T., we ate a quick lunch. I ate the rest of the breakfast sausage on a low carb tortilla, and N2S ate the leftover redhot on a bun. We decided that we would wait and go out for dinner later. We both wanted to take the awesome hike back to the town square, and didn't want to waste time going out for lunch.

The hike to town was uneventful. N2S and I enjoyed some nice conversation along the way. Our feet were pretty sore, so we walked at a nice leisurely pace. At the end of the trail, we went on to Ferry Street and walked about a mile down to the river. There was another cache hidden down there, and we wanted to see where the canoes got into the river. Of course, that meant that we had to hike uphill all the way back to town. It could have been rough, but there was that awesome gusty wind that kept us cool.

As we reached the square, the Courthouse bells were playing songs. It was only 2:47, so I guess the tower clock is a little fast. We headed back to Mae's to get more taffy and some cold drinks. Then we sat on the square and drank them. We noticed a man coming out of a store with a white bag. Being nosy, we went in the store to see what kind of food they had. It turned out to be a pharmacy. We looked around and bought a few things before heading on to the Market House Museum, which was closed again! As we were leaving the square, the bells went off again, and we realized we had been there for over an hour. We made one last stop at an antique store. It was a lot of fun. I, personally, like antique stores more than some museums. They have all the old stuff without all the reading.

Back at the Colby T., N2S watched part of Not Without my Daughter while I sat in the cool and dozed in and out for awhile. Then we got cleaned up and headed back towards Fannin. We were going to eat at another Cajun restaurant near the reservoir called the Lost Cajun. I thought we could try and find the battleground on the way this time. It wasn't hard to do. Going towards Victoria they had those brown historical site signs that led us straight to it. We couldn't get in, but you could see everything from the road, just like the ranger had told me.

The Lost Cajun was okay. It was in the middle of nowhere. N2S wanted steak and shrimp, but the chef wasn't there, and the server said that the kitchen staff that was there would not be able to grill a steak well.  N2S  ordered grilled alligator instead. I guess the kitchen staff that was there wasn't up to grilling anything. It was pretty disappointing. I tried to taste it, but it didn't have any taste at all. I got a boiling pot meal of shrimp, crawdads, sausage, corn, and potatoes. It was pretty good, but the shrimp was really hard to peel. The shells were sticking to the meat and it got pretty shredded. We stopped at Whataburger on the way back to the Colby T. so N2S could have something for dinner.

I spent the evening harvesting the day's photos off of the Flip again. N2S was watching detective shows and reading. Then, suddenly at 9:36, the Colby T. was filled with the sound of loud snoring. I had to wake N2S up so we could set up the bed. Then he went back to sleep. I layed there and read until about 10:15. Then I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore either. I turned off my iPhone (I was reading a book on the Nook app.) and went to bed.

We took our time getting up in the morning. Neither of us was hungry so we skipped breakfast. I did a little bit of departure prep in between cups of Keurig and watching the weekend Today show. Then we decided to go ahead and start the whole 47-step departure checklist. That involved putting everything back in its traveling spot, wiping the counters and table, sweeping and mopping the floors, and cleaning the bathroom. Then we both went out and dumped the tanks before finishing up the checklist.

My last two things on the checklist are the “walk around”, during which I look to make sure we are hitched properly, tires are okay, everything is locked, and nothing is still attached to the campground utilities, and the final obsessive complusive re-check of the checklist from top to bottom. I decided to wait on those until after we walked over to the park headquarters. N2S wanted to get a new pristine park map. Of course, I got into a lengthy gabfest with the rangers, much to his chagrin.

The trip home was uneventful until the last few minutes. We were in downtown San Antonio trying to get over to make the I-10 West exit, but I was having a hard time of it. I finally got in front of a red car, but he didn't want to be behind a trailer, so he sped up, flew around, and squeezed in front of me, inches from my bumper. I was still grumbling about it as we rounded the bend to merge onto the highway. Just then, we saw a silver car hit another car and bounce sideways across the road about fifty yards up ahead of us. I thought he was going to flip and roll, but he didn't.  All the other cars came to a screeching smoky stop right in front of us. I put on the brakes, but I honestly did not think I could stop the truck and trailer in the space available. God was smiling on us, because we did stop about three feet before hitting the car in front of us. It was that red car. He squeezed in between the two damaged cars and sped off.

I was terrified. We were on a curve, and I expected to get slammed from behind at any second. I put my emergency lights on and tried to get over to the right of the cars so I could get out of the way, but the traffic just kept coming, and it seemed to take forever for us to get past. There were plenty of people with cell phones on the scene, so once we were able to get by, I kept going. It just wasn't safe to be there in a trailer.

Back at Pack Rats, we parked the Colby T., unhitched, emptied the refrigerator, and went home. Another awesome adventure was over! Come on Corpus Christi! I'll be taking the Colby T. down there in May for the Beach to Bay. I can't wait. See... I'm watching the clock right now!!!!!!!!!

Photos of the trip may be viewed here:
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff433/jjjandrbaker/Land%20Cruise%20to%20Goliad%20TX%20%20April%202012/

Password is Goliad2012