Seriously, if we weren't traveling the perimeter of the US, I'd NEVER choose to visit the South in the summertime. Do you know how miserable it is? Mosquitoes, biting gnats, hot, humid...yuck. We ran right into the "yuck" on Day 22 at Sea Rim State Park on the Texas side of the Texas-Louisiana border. We pulled in late that night & immediately received two looks of concern from the state ranger & a local fireman--both asked, "Have you camped before on the Texas Gulf in summer?" That should've been our clue to move on, but due to our poor planning, we had no other place to sleep. We started setting up camp & soon realized making dinner outside was pointless due to the swarms of biting insects. So we grabbed some apples, scratched our dinner plans & focused on getting all the hundreds of bugs out of our van. I wish I had a photo to show of the horror, but our focus was not documenting the night, but on surviving! About 3 hours after the massacre began, our ankles were swollen (Mike counted 18 bites on one ankle alone), the ceiling of our van was stained both red & black from the killed insects, poor Bailey was cowering in a corner (reluctant to move for fear of another insect attack) & Mike & I finally turned off the light around 1 am having killed no less than 100 mosquitoes, maybe more. And then we heard another buzz...
Despite the obnoxious bugs, we woke to a beautiful view & took a quick swim in the warm, salty Gulf of Mexico. Of course, I should also mention that upon walking to the port o'potty alone first thing in the morning I read the park's safety guidelines that stated a warning that adult alligators were present in the park--hmm, glad I walked alone :/
We left my personal inferno of scary insects & reptiles & traveled eastward towards Louisiana along the coastline. Another landscape I never knew was so beautiful, however, sadly eye-opening, too. At first I was naive enough to think how wealthy the community must've been because of all the new construction, then sadly realized the construction was actually the result of Katrina.
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| Day 22: I-10, Texas. On the road to Houston we came upon the largest travel stop I have ever experienced. There were 2 gas bays each with about 24 pumps. Inside there was a fudge stand, a bakery, a deli, your average convenience-store market (but on steroids), an amazing bathroom & finally an outdoor portion that sold guns, ammo, camouflage clothing...you know everyday road trip supplies. |
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| Day 23: Sea Rim State Park, Texas. The morning after our massacre. |
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| About 10 miles away from the above photo :( |
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| New construction on the Gulf coast. (BTW, that's not rain on the windshield, but dead insects from the night before.) |
Next stop, the Big Easy!!
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