Park n' Drive: Sea Rim State Park

 Know before you you go - a park drive thru video. 

Sea Rim State Park

We were in Site #12, 50a/W.

The One in Which We Researched

The One in Which We Researched

We left out for Sea Rim State Park Friday evening and made it into the park long after dark (yes, it's only 2 hrs from home, but ... traffic, Houston traffic).  I called the park office to make sure we had the gate code, but I should have asked a little about the drive in - we were following the GPS, and at one point we turned right directly into the Valero refinery.  No, we didn't make a wrong turn, yes, the public road goes under the pipes and beside all the equipment.  It made both RDB and I pause. Welcome to camping on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Coming in after dark meant we had to ward off an insane amount of bugs - it reminded us of one of our very first coastal camping trips: The Battle of San Mosquito. Thankfully, I learned from that one and had Repel brand deet wipes easily accessible in the basement of our camper.  RBD and I wiped our arms and hats and pants legs down with those and were left mostly alone... 

Our camper on the right, the Gulf of Mexico on the left.

The lady at the front desk warned us that the closest gas station and grocery store would be 20 miles away, and she was right - this park is wonderfully secluded. It's also surprisingly small; only twelve camping sites (plus, for those brave enough, unlimited beach camping). We stocked up on a few staples, but still ended up driving into town Saturday and had lunch at the Neches River Wheelhouse before driving up to Village Creek State Park to get a video for our Park-n-Drive series. 

Both Sea Rim and Village Creek are smaller parks in the state park system.  Not sure that we'll be able to take the current 5th wheel over to Village Creek, though I could see myself coming back over and car camping there someday.

For this weekend, though, we were really enjoying hanging out and relaxing in the view of our site.  Just across the marshes on the horizon is the Gulf of Mexico and the sound of the waves all afternoon along with the breeze coming off the shore was enough to make you never want to leave!

Saturday night, relaxing, drinking a few beers, watching all the various bird life, I looked up from the book I was reading to see a flock of cranes flying overhead.  Pink cranes.  PINK?!  Wait, flamingoes!? 

Not my picture (I wasn't fast enough between having my head in a book and not having my phone in my hands), but I did a quick Google search of 'pink south Texas crane' and found that they were most likely Roseate Spoonbills.  Add that to the red-winged black birds that have been pecking around our site all day and this place has just become my favorite for sake of the birds!  I could stay here all week!

Until the rain comes, that is. 

Not a hurricane approaching (we wouldn't be that adventurous) but a thunderstorm bad enough, with winds strong enough (+30 mph gusts), that we were both a little nervous and researching at what speed winds will knock over a stationary camper.  (100mph, in case you're wondering).  We stayed in for the night and watched our favorite movie - seemed fitting, as he faced the fear of a windstorm, too - and eventually made our way to bed (after watching all the beach tent campers pack up and head out amidst the torrential downpour, bless them!). 

It was a rough night's sleep (#postHARVEYanxiety) but a beautiful day when we woke Sunday morning.

I fixed Bloody Marias (hubby says I'm a good bartender) as Rich continued conversations with a friend on Facebook (decent internet at this site, surprisingly).  After a crockpot soup lunch, we went for a walk on the beach.  Diesel, still not a huge fan of the water and waves, was at least willing to play a little bit and dig in the sand when we encouraged him.

I was impressed with number of intact shells on the beach - but then, with it being as far out in the sticks as it is, there's not really anyone beach combing early in the mornings.

All too soon, as it usually is, we were packing up to make the trip back home. We really liked this site - secluded, beachfront without the sand at your doorstep, and lots of bird to watch.  I sure hope we come back.

We were in site #12 at Sea Rim State Park, 50a and water, perhaps the BEST view of the Gulf and very close access to the walkway over to the beach. No camp host here, but the front gate is attended till 6:30pm and we were left completely to ourselves - no disruption from any other other campers that were in and out of the park this weekend. 

For more camping photos, go here.

Park n' Drive: Brazos Bend State Park

 Know before you go - a park drive thru video.

Brazos Bend State Park

We were in Site #110 - 50a/W

We've been here several times:

Filigree, Apogee, Pedigree, Perigee... (5th Wheel #2)

Back to Brazos Bend (5th Wheel #1)

Rainbows and Stars and Bikes and Trains (Toy Hauler)

Going Back for Seconds (Travel Trailer)

Super "Brazos" Weekend (Pop-up)

Camping Cache: Brazos Bend State Park

Found:

A Great Day Outdoors #3

A Great Day Outdoors #2

It's not that we DNF, it's that there was no Great Day Outdoors #1 ... :-(

International Observe the Moon Night 2021

The last several posts have been centered around the moon - and perhaps, I can't help it.  Even in the darkest of nights, this constant celestial creation orbits around us, shining back the sun and reminding us that the comfort of daylight is never too far away. Steady, stunning, keeping the tides in ebb and flow - that bright lunar orb is a friendly reminder that whatever new thing may come our way, the solution is as old as the time itself: be consistent, be bright, be faithful.  Its very presence is peaceful to me.

We were camping at Brazos Bend State Park for this year's International Observe the Moon Night; unlike last year, when we set up our own telescope, this year we purchased tickets to the Star Party at the George Observatory that's on site. And it was well worth the price! 

We wandered over a little before our 9pm time slot and spent a few minutes looking around the displays in the Challenger Learning Center.

It was added on to the telescope dome deck after the Challenger disaster as a way for the Houston community to grieve the loss of the astronauts and have a place for people to learn more about astro-adventuring in a hands on learning environment.  

Speaking of hands-on - I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a telescope of that size for personal use someday! Ha!

One of the displays in the lobby enlightened me to something I have never seen before: the dark side of the moon!  I had no idea that we actually had mapped it, much less that we had pictures of the lunar maria on that un-visible, far side.  How cool was this?!

In no time, we were ushered up to the observation deck, with the three major domes and several amateur astronomers who had been invited to set up their personal telescopes as well. (I say amateur, but some of the telescopes that these guys had out were incredibly impressive; we saw the rings of Saturn in one and four moons of Jupiter in another!)

The 'main' attraction is the 36" Gueymard Research Telescope that was purchased from LSU, featuring a 500-pound primary mirror to reflect the light.  IT. IS. IMPRESSIVE.

On a previous trip to the Observatory, pre-covid, we had the chance to view directly from the eye piece, and they hope to get back to that again soon, but tonight they had a digital display set up so that everyone could see what was being displayed on a computer monitor.

We were so grateful to the guys and gals who were there operating the telescope and ushering us around the observation deck - the entire facility is run by volunteers!

Having seen the moon up close, and a few of the other inhabitants of our night sky, RDB and I made our way back down the red-lighted path towards the park.  I turned to look at the moon one last time and noticed, with the hazy cloud cover, a 22* halo circling it.

The moon truly is an orbiting angel smiling down on those of us here on Earth.  I hope you'll take some time to stop and look up once in a while and smile back.

Filigree, Apogee, Pedigree, Perigee...

Well, yeah, sometimes life is just. Like. That.  Within 20 minutes of finishing fall VECCON at work on Friday, the familiar and horrid vision-squiggle of a migraine appeared.  I was determined to go camping this weekend (I needed the break from stress, obviously) so I double-dosed my Replax, downed a coca-cola (for the caffeine - I haven't drank coke or regular coffee for years now) and donned the ice helmet that R(m)B(r) sent me and shuffled my way into the truck. We were going to Brazos Bend State Park, only a little over an hour from home, and thankfully the above attempt at aborting the traditional migraine path worked long enough for us to arrive, get set up, and for me to crash on the couch.

I slept 12 hours straight.

Saturday I woke: slow, stiff, still exhausted, and with the typical brain-in-a-bucket mental fog and it-hurts-when-I-move-physically-bruised-brain-pain aftermath of a migraine.  At least we were camping. At least I had the love of my life gently caring for me (as he always does). Armed with extra strength Advil, tons of water, and loads of patience, I was ready to face the day! take it easy and do a whole lot of not much. 

No trip to Brazos Bend is complete without a gator sighting.

We drove into town for a matinee showing of the latest James Bond movie: No Time To Die (I wore earplugs to dampen out the sound).  We'd been 'preparing' for this by watching all of the other Daniel Craig Bond movies over the past week; this was a fitting end to an amazing character arc.  (Spoiler alert: you might cry when it ends.)

We hung out in the camper, and I did a little bit of loose watercolor painting - the Drawing Lab as a part of VECCON inspiring me to participate in creative work as a way to relax and refocus.

We hadn't geocached in this park, so later in the afternoon we went over to the Nature Center and grabbed two quick caches that were easily off the main trail.  I was giddy when one of the caches had a hippo hidden in it! I'll put him beside our other House Hippo in the camper. (I found our first House Hippo in the dirt at another campground.) 

The main event this weekend, though, and why I wasn't willing to just veg on the couch at home after the migraine hit on Friday, was the chance to be at this specific park on International Observe the Moon Night. 

I've written up a separate post for that here, and including a bunch of fun photos from the event.  You can read my post from last year's event here, too! It's been so neat that we've been camping for both of these nights - I'll have to make it a point to plan for that again next year!

Back at the campsite, we enjoyed the cooler evening weather (yeah, 60* nights!) and had a chance to try out our BlueSky portable fire pit for the first time - and, y'all, I LOVE it!  It uses wood pellets (same as what we use in our pellet smoker) and a 2" layer will burn for ~35-40 minutes with a minimal amount of ash left over.  I love that it's so contained, super easy to light, and that you can time it to a specific amount of time and not be held captive to a fire with wood logs all night long. This is a game changer for me!

Sunday we slept in. Had (decaf) coffee and tea. Roasted jalapeno poppers. Went for a drive thru the park for RDB's YouTube channel and I worked on getting the blog posts ready to go.  BTW - I've proofed about three times and think I caught all the grammar and spelling errors (another downside to my form of migraines: there's a lingering brain fog makes speaking/typing/talking difficult for a few days afterwards). So, forgive me if things look a little... off.  I just needed a break.

We were at Brazos Bend State Park, Burr Oak camping loop site #110 (50a/W). Really liked this site backing in - it's three parking spaces wide and very level!  I think I told RDB at least four times "I really like this site." (Again, migraine - makes me an annoying little kid b/c I can't remember if I've actually said the thing I was thinking out loud or not, so I say stuff over and over.) As we're sitting here in the late afternoon on Sunday (we always buy the extra day) I'm torn b/c I don't want to leave! It's not that I'm not excited about going back to work - I have a new hire starting tomorrow, yeah! - it's that I really love being surrounded by the trees, the lush greens, the beautiful weather, and the incredible moon and stars at night.

Oh well ...  till next time. 

We've been to Brazos Bend State Park several times (and in several different rigs) before:

Back to Brazos Bend, Rainbows and Stars and Bikes and Trains, Going Back for Seconds, and Super "Brazos" Weekend

For more camping photos, go here.

*And bonus points if you remember where today's title comes from.