Texas at Last!

We finally got to Texas at last! After five and a half months of travel through states we had been to with our first RV we were excited to put a new state on our RV map of America.

Everything is bigger in Texas

Texas is larger than life. They say “everything is bigger in Texas” and it certainly seemed to be true. We passed refineries that appeared to go on forever. And highways that never end. Plus there were huge farms and ranches dotting the landscape.

Noting 2 hurricanes’ destruction

We left Southwestern Louisiana, excited to be finally going to a state that we have never explored. As we approached the Lake Charles area of Louisiana we began to notice the terrible wrath of hurricanes Laura and Eta. There were downed trees galore and more blue tarp roofs than we could count! Our good friends from New Orleans, Holly and Paul, have many family members in this area. They had told us of the devastation. But seeing it first hand was a real eye opener. Our hearts go out to all of those people who lost their homes and had destruction to their property.

In fact the destruction and debris was so bad that we needed to detour off Interstate 10 for several miles. This actually happened again in Texas, where we got off of I10 and made a big loop through farmland and got back on I10 a few miles further west. What we we do without our trusty GPS?

Texas at last!

           

Crossing into Texas with our little dash menagerie

Suddenly, and with great excitement, we saw it! The sign welcoming us to Texas. We had finally arrived in the Lone Star State. A mile or so later we noticed the Texas Welcome Center so we pulled in to have lunch.

Now don’t get too excited. Lunch on the road is usually just peanut butter with jelly or banana. We don’t want to waste too much time pulled off the road. Steve and I are always far too excited to arrive at our next destination and start exploring. But even PB and J tastes mighty good when you’re hungry!

Beautiful Welcome Center

This Welcome Center was wonderful. There were fantastic sculptures dotted in the landscape which made our lunch stop an artistic event. It always amazes us to see just how much art there is in public places. I guess being an artist myself, it really jumps out and grabs my attention. So awesome!

Scenes from the highway

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the traffic!

A new road under construction to hopefully alleviate some of the traffic congestion

As I said before “everything is bigger in Texas”. Oh boy. It’s no joke. Farms and ranches stretch for miles. Oil refineries seem to go on forever. The highway system seems to be a maze of endless roads. And the traffic rivaled Atlanta Georgia. But it was the H-E-B Supermarkets that were the epitome of that saying. They carried everything and anything, including nopales (cactus paddles) and every kind of chile imaginable. Plus they had restaurants inside and complete garden stores outside.

Jetstream RV Resort at NASA

Finally after several detours and bumper to bumper traffic,  we arrived at our destination. We were staying at Jetstream RV Resort at NASA for 5 nights. And when we pulled in through the gates we had wished we were staying longer. It was such a gorgeous RV park with awesome amenities. Jetstream was right off the highway with easy access to downtown Houston. It was also a short drive to the NASA Space Center. And an easy drive to Galveston Island.

As we settled in we were indeed quite happy to be in Texas at last!