The Devastation Tour, Feb 11, Wednesday

Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009



We got to Galveston and Gilchrist, TX-- Gilchrist was COMPLETEY wiped out by Hurricane Ike--imagine if you will, ANY beachfront community--the Hamptons, Virginia Beach, Seaside, etc~~just wiped off the earth-- it was so so sad-- there were house pilings left standing in some places, cars still overturned, and some people had spray painted their address on the side of their house-- many years ago when we had gone to Galveston on a tour, they told us that in the HURRICANE of 1913 , houses were lifted up and redeposited in somebody elses yard-- some houses were butt up against another house--- so I guess that people anticipated that their house may be moved--?--

we took a ferry into Galveston, and found that MOST, if not all, of the magnificent houses there had been flooded--- but work was being done on almost all of them--most looked like they were fine on the outside, but you could see that they had been damaged, in some way. Windows were boarded up, roofs were torn up, and water damage was evident from the outside--- lawns and shrubs were dead from the floods--Many stores were boarded up -- Ike hit there on Sept 13--5 months ago--the clean up just seems so overwhelming--
the elevation there was -20!--that's MINUS 20-- (20 feet BELOW sea level)

But, fiddle dee dee--- let's EAT!
so we found a cute place in town called "The Mosquito Cafe" ~~"one bite is all it takes"-- We shared a turkey, brie, lettuce, and apple sandwich with garlic mayo and cranberry slaw-- we had a lemon square for dessert, and then we hit the road towards Round Top Texas-- We have read about the giant antiques market there ( not this time of year, sadly)-- and thought MAYBE there would be some residual juicy stuff there---NOT--

so we poked around a few shops along the road on the way to Round Top



We got to Round Top in the dark ( population 77)-- now, I wonder. . .if somebody DIES or is BORN, do they go up and cross out the number like they do on TV?--I mean, it was one of those green road-type signs, so they probably have to send it to the Road Department, or something-

-

anyway, Round Top was tucked in for the night so we decided to move on-- We had called my friend Karen who lives in Simonton, to do the POP IN, but she was on a client call ( OR she had caller ID and was runnin for the hills?)--We finally got ahold of her and she had all kinds of helpful info, like how to pronounce LUBBOCK--can you guess??? give it your best shot!-

-I said LOO---BOCK--"nope," she said, helpfully, ''you'll get your ass kicked if you say LOO--BOCK---it's LUB---BUCK"-----Isn't this FUN how I tell y'all how to PRO--NOUNCE everything???????



So we've reached Round Top, Round Top is sleeping, so we move on toward Fredericksburg, TX (where we got a HOT TIP that there were many many shops and antiques and a really cute town) and my GPS says there's ONE hotel between here and there--I call the hotel to make reservations and then totally rely on her to get us there, through winding , dark, dark, darkest, backroads, er, I mean tertiary roads--

HOW DOES ANYBODY GET ANYWHERE WITHOUT ONE OF THESE THINGS??? We were just exclaiming ( how exactly does one EXCLAIM?) about how UN--FUN this trip would be if you had to have your head in the map all the time--- Heck , Sue wouldn't have been able to see the cows, the cows "doing it", the dead skunks, the DEAD cow, the HAWKS (or falcons?)

one note on my GPS-- My portable one is nicknamed MEGGIE ( she's a Garmin, but her predecessor was a Megellan and had the name Meggie), but she's out of date, ( by a month or 2) and the one built into my car is named Ditsy Daisy-- 'cause she's unreliable ( she keeps giving me locations 1000 miles away, won't let me program her whilst moving ( stupid when you have another person in car), but she DOES track the trail I've been on so I can get back from somewhere AND she's up to date). I also have a talking radar detector--when they all get to talking Sue thinks it's pretty noisy in there??? Especially when my alarm clock went off in the way back , buried beneath all the stuff-- no way to get to it--maddening!



Sue has taken on a NEW wildlife interest---SKUNKS! we come across a squashed one every 25 miles or so--she's never seen so many, she says--"oh what nice stripes that one has", she clucks--I ask her if she wants to pull over--- I have a really sharp knife and she could skin it--- I also have some gloves in the way back--she wasn't really interested in that--While Sue was studying the cows, yet again, she saw a dead one --- just laying in the field??? hope it wasn't one of them MAD COWS
We stayed in Geddings, TX tonight-- mileage : 2518
no toilet trouble tonight
Later~
Mar