South Padre Island, TX

Peggy shops South Padre Island.  We enjoy the wide beach here and the seafood is excellent.

We learn that we don't have the right papers to get into Belize or Guatemala so we abort the trip through Mexico.  Instead we will head west across Texas.  I will continue to work on my bucket list.  Before we leave Brownsville Peggy drags me across the border to do some Mexican shopping.  We wait in line for over an hour to get back in the US.  We are the only gringos I see.

Shark Attack

Kite Boarding

Drilling Platform

Getting ready to kite board

Mitch trying to cross the border into Mexico

US Border Patrol

Mexico border crossing at Brownsville, TX

December 14
Today is Sky Blue's birthday, so we have a party and everybody gets ice cream.

Yipee! Happy birthday to me, I'm 3 years old today.

South Padre Island, TX

We take a ferry to Mustang Island and bypass Corpus Christi.  We get on the big highway that takes us all the way to Brownsville.  We will stay three nights on South Padre Island while we wait for some documentation to catch up with us and we get ready to enter Mexico.

Peace

Mitch on the beach at South Padre Island

The 4-legged kids enjoying the beach

Woof! Woof!

I'm so very pretty

Surf's up

Portuguese Man-of-War

Galveston, TX

Once we cross into Texas we abandon the interstate and use coastal roads.  We go through several miles of refineries.  Gas here is $2.92/gal.  Peggy rescues a puppy from certain death on the highway.

We visit McFadden National Wildlife Refuge on the Bolivar Peninsula and take the dogs for a long walk on the beach.  We find lots of beach glass here.  We board the Gibb Gilchrist which ferries us over to Galveston.  After our first Mexican meal in a while, we tour the historic Pleasure Pier.  We park for the night all the way out at the tippy tip of Galveston Beach.  Every time I visit this town I think of Glen Campbell.

12/10/12
At 3:30 AM  we are awakened by strong winds and heavy rain.  We decide to move from a soft sandy beach to hard pavement in town.  At dawn the storm continues to rage so we set up base camp at McDonald's.  By noon the wind and rain subside so we continue south through Galveston.

One of many oil refineries in this area

Part of the refinery

Gibb Gilchrist Ferry

Gulls over top of the ferry

Gibb Gilchrist ferry mascot

sailing + water = fun

Another ferry boat like the one we were on 

Pleasure Pier

Sculpture near Galveston Island Historic Pier

Galveston Beach

Pier on Galveston Beach

Pier on Galveston Beach

Galveston Beach

RV on Galveston Beach

Fort Pickens, Florida

We take a walk on the beach and then tour Fort Pickens.  Built in 1834 and given to the Florida state park in 1947, it guarded the entrance to Pensacola Bay.  The early fort used 12.1 million bricks to build. It contains several batteries of large cannons.

We get on the interstate in Pensacola and cruise through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  New Orleans on a Saturday night is really crowded.  We park at a truck stop for the night.

Santa Rosa Island beach-I am here now!

White sand everywhere

A very beautiful place

Brown pelicans enjoying the day

Wildlife on the walkway out to the beach

Walking back from the beach to the campground

Officer quarters at Ft. Pickens

Ft. Pickens

Inside Ft. Pickens

12.1 million bricks make up Ft. Pickens

One of several batteries of cannons

More of Ft. Pickens

Santa Rosa Island, Florida

We continue west across the Florida panhandle and cross onto Santa Rosa Island, Gulf Islands National Seashore, a long skinny barrier island below Pensacola.  We take a site at Fort Pickens campground.  The folks around here shovel sand like we shovel snow.

Yes, I stepped right in the middle of this fire ant nest and yes, I was bitten
repeatedly.

Indian Pass near Port St. Joe, Florida

Our campsite is opposite St. Vincent Island, a 12,400 acre undisturbed barrier island.  It's 8 miles long and 4 miles wide and noted for its wilderness. We take a two and one half mile walk on Indian Pass Beach.

St. Vincent Island

Indian Pass Beach

Indian Pass near Port St. Joe, Florida

Peggy takes the dogs for a short run on Turkey Point Beach and then we arrive at Indian Pass Campground.  this is one of our favorite campgrounds because it is right on the beach, it is at the end of a dead-end road, and sites are only $29.  The first thing we do is take a walk on the beach.  Poudre tires easily.

Sunshine, knitting, the beach, what more could a woman want!

Ocholockonee Bay, Florida

We say goodbye to Terry and Dawn and start our circumnavigation of the Gulf of Mexico.  We intersect the gulf coast at Ochlockonee Bay and park for the night at a boat rap on Metcalf Point.

My wonderful brother and I