McKinney Falls State Park

Back on the road as we head north in preperation for heading east. I found a cheap spot with water and electric for a couple nights. The water falls feature was the main attraction. The location, near Austin Texas was great, while Austin failed to impress us. Narrow freeways and streets with older broken asphalt and cement. The Austion skyline is magnificent, and it has everything you can imagin as must haves in a city this size. But when your on the ground in and around those big beautiful and modern building, you have to pick your way past drugged out zombie homeless folks who have lost their way many years ago.

In case you didn’t know it, former president Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) was from the area. Lady Bird, LBJ’s wife and former first lady, has a special place named after her; Lady Bird Lake on the Colorado River. This place is fantastic. Miles of bike/walk/run trails along the rivers edge with flower gardens and statuary. One statue features Stevie Ray Vaughn, with his guitar in hand. One can almost hear “Voodoo Child“!

Galviston & Corpus Christi Texas

Galveston wasn’t much to look at while driving through. Industrial would sum it up in a word. But that’s a good thing as it appeared oil production was booming. For selfish me, diesel fuel was at the lowest price I’ve seen; $3.24/gal. No much further south west from the big city was our goal destination, Magnolia Beach with it’s dispersed free camping. Did I mention FREE? I’ve heard tales of this wonderous place where a feller, or fellette could park their rig at the waters edge and enjoy the coast the way it was meant to be. This was exactly what we, without hesitation, did.

Jan and I met the shop owner Ovliva. We hung out and chatted, like windsurfers do. He’s late thirties to early forties, so a young punk to be sure. His French accent is so strong I could hardly understand him. His name is Olivia. Nice guy to be sure, but not too sure he has much in the way of windsurfing hops. He wanted to teach us how to “foil”, which too is a thing here. Lots of windsurfers and foilers queued up waiting for wind when we visited. They were sure we would love foiling, but I’ll tell you, after sailing Arroyo Laguna, Baja and Jalama surf, foiling seems pretty boring. They rave about ocean rollers foiling them along, or boat wakes even.

I remember sailing great waves at Punta San Carlos. Not big waves, but 4-6 footers, one after another, after another…  After a while it’s the same bottom turn, up the face and cut back. Riding rollers or wakes would get old fast if you ask me.

Just across the island on the gulf side are stronger winds and tons of small crappy waves. The launch is just four miles south of Bird Island. Nobody in the water at all. No kiters, foilers, windsurfers, swimmers, jet skiers. The whole scene there is fishing and camping on the beach. It’s like Pismo with no rules and no dunes you can tear loose in with your Razor. Jan Baby and I concluded we would rather chop hop the crappy waves than go back and forth on the flat water; ala Lopez Lake.

It is a different world out here, that’s for sure. Jan Baby got excited. She was ready to jump back in to windsurfing, but the magic had gone away by morning. We’re going to stick with pickleball for a little longer.

DALLAS

I should mention I had lived in Texas while serving our county as a member of the United States Air Force. I was stationed in Lubbock; so flat you could see the curve of the earth – and I ain’t kiddin’ ya! Dusty too. Dust so fine it got into every nook and cranny. Lubbock was so boring, the boys (I remember you Robert Sherrick) and I one day took a road trip to Dallas. Let me tell you something. Dallas Texas 1971 is a far cry from Dallas Texas 2023!

Family Matters

Tom and Karen Wilson, Jan’s brother and sister-in-law, gave birth to three wonderful children. As luck would have it, two out of three of them were living in Texas.