Day 10. Movng from Galveston Island to Rockport TX

Transition from one place to another with a trailer has its anxious moments but today was smooth. There was some consternation as we approached the old San Luis Pass toll gate . It is VERY narrow and there was about 6-8 inches of clearance on either side for the trailer. I deliberately took off the additional rear view mirrors  attached to the truck and put them on again "Up the road". That worked well. A crossing is $2.00 for all vehicles.

We drove only two roads for any length at all. TX 36 (named after the 36th Infantry Regiment **see more later in this blog) which took us out of Freeport and to Columbia Point, about 30 miles. 

Coming over the Intracoastal Waterway in Freeport.
Looking NE. Gulf of Mexico on the right

Then it was follow TX 35 all the way to Rockport. Very interesting country here as it is excellent farmland with some cattle in places, with industry in oil and other business all around. It is really "buzzing" with activity. The main crops are cotton, grain sorghum, corn, soybeans and other specialty crops which continue to be a major economic driver  in Matagorda County. There are many building projects going on on this area and yesterday I showed you the large pipeine that was being layed. I found out that Freeport has built a huge LNG port and is gathering , through these pipelines, as much natural gas as they can to process into LNG to be shipped to buyers all over the world. Propane is used to cool the Natural gas and through a complicated process  it is changed to liquid at -250 F and stored for shipment and sale. 
We also saw many large (150' high X 1700 'long) buidings being built in the Bay City area , Do not know what those were ,but will check it out  and let you know when we do. They were quite intriguing

Lunch today was at a convenient place in a large store parking lot and it was just happened to be across from a DQ. Now we had not bought any DQ yet as Ruth has a rule that a stop at a DQ  has to be in the afternoon, before three o'clock and not close to lunch. Hmmm, but I twisted her arm and we stopped for some ice cream. She loves the Hetah Bar Flurry, I tried the Banana Cream PIe Fuurry with fresh bananas. There are many DQ's in Texas! Yea! Oh, it is true that Ruth's arm twists easily.

Lunch stop just happened to be across from the Dairy Queen.
Sure we bought some! YUM.

I didn't take any pictures of the new campsite yet (Hard to call them RV parks after so many years of camping.) But we arrived in time to get set up, do some shopping and check on a place to get the oil changed . That will be done early in the morning when it is less busy. We shopped and secured the supplies we needed for a week  and had a diner out . Ruth had  scallops that were super. I ordered the "Vera Cruz' linguini and for one of the few times in my life , I ate less than one third of the meal. I was disappointed  with the shrimp especially, and even though it was grilled, it was tough, and crisp and did not have any flavor whatsoever. I talked to the waitress, but she says that is the way it comes. Hmmm.  She will tell the cooks for whatever good that does in the future. This is a highly recommeended Restaurant here.

So we are here, and tomorrow start to explore the area's bird life. There are some 100 or more birding sites recommended that can be visited from here. Some we have done in the past, and some will be new. Final picture tonight is of the growth of corn that is already happening here in middle ,south Texas.

The corn is coming up and this was one of the manyfields growing.
The tallest was about 7 inches tall.

 **An intersting tidbit is that the road numbered "36" under the Texas Road system, is named after the 36th Infantry Battalion that fought in both WW1 and WW2. In WW2 they trained at 4 different camps, in the 1940's and in 1942 were sent over to Africa to invade that Continent. They stayed with the move to the mainland through Italy , Anzio, and up the Italian peninsula, and finally invading Southern France. Chasing the German army out of the "C.....Pocket"  and back into the Rhineland.  They were the rescuers of Auswhich and defeated the Germans in many of the war's battles. They were decimated, however, and lost many men.  One of their Battalions, the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery was the "Lost Battalion". They were sent to the Pacifc in 1942  and were captured by the Japanese, and assigned to slave labor on the "Burma Railroad" ("Bridge on the River Kwai"), some were shipped by boat to Japanese prison camps, many suffered horribly,, some who were  torpedoed were rescued by US submarines and told the story of the "Lost Battalion". Their story is one worth reading about, for WW2 buffs.

See you tomorrow.