Our Last Day in Texas!

When we came to the end of our third night at Brazos Bend State Park, we realized we hadn't moved the car or left the park since we arrived. Looking back on it, we probably should have stayed a fourth night. We knew the weather forecasters called for a rainy windy day. But we thought the storms would be over by noon. So we planned to leave right at our 12:00 check-out time so the storms could clear out in front of us. But the storm system stalled, and we found ourselves driving through the 4th largest city in the United States during a rain storm!

Add in construction and narrowed lanes, and going through Houston wasn't a drive for the faint-hearted!

It was still raining when we arrived at our next destination--Walter Umphrey Campground--just south of Port Arthur, Texas. This campground overlooking the water used to be a state park. But after it was crippled by hurricane damage, the county took it over. We're sure missing our good state park rate, but we stayed because it was a great location for us to see some new territory. When we drove over the tall bridge adjacent to the park, we got an unusual aerial view of our campground. We're situated on a little finger of land at the intersection of Sabine Lake and Sabine Pass.

Surrounded by water on three sides, we have interesting views out our motor home windshield. We can see a big oil refinery that lights up like a Christmas tree at night.

Sabine Pass is a channel that cuts through to the Gulf of Mexico, allowing these huge freighters to get this far inland to the refineries that surround us.

After a rainy night, we headed out to explore our new home the next morning. To get back to the Gulf, we had to drive under fuel lines and beside refineries in a very industrial route.

Then we went on a bridge over the intracoastal waterway. We could tell that this is a much-traveled waterway, with barges and tug boats as far as we could see.

Our destination is twenty miles away, a Texas state park that we haven't visited before. We are heading to Sea Rim State Park on this cloudy morning. Off the beaten path, there's only one long road in and out of this remote beach.

As soon as we started walking the beach, we saw that this state park has the best selection of sea shells we have ever seen.

Besides plentiful shells, this beach also has interesting waves of different colors of sand. Looking down the beach made an interesting picture.

With so many swirly shells and perfect curly-q shells, Denisa couldn't help but pick up too many. Later we looked up more scientific names for these swirly shells--like whelks, conch, and moon snails. They came in all sizes, but the perfectly shaped tiny shells were beautiful evidence that we have wandered into another of God's wonders. We took this picture of some of those tiny wonders that fit inside another shell.

When we emptied that heavy sack of shells onto the beach, it was certainly the most shells we've ever collected on one beach. But it was also the most unique collection of shells.

What will Denisa do with that mound of shells?

She will use them in a tribute to the beach. So she went to work to spell out a giant "Sea Rim" in appreciation of this great state park.

Here's a close-up of some of the letters. On most beaches, it would be amazing to find one of these shells. But to have whole letters formed from them? That's just wonderful fun!

This is our last Texas state park of the season, and it was a great one! Good-bye to our favorite state park system for another year!

We drove back down that lonely twenty miles of pavement that brought us to the state park. We made a couple stops at a wildlife refuge, and a Texas ornitholigical way-side. That's what the sign outside posted, but we know that's just fancy talk for a birding site. We didn't take a single picture, so we obviously didn't see many ornithological specimens. Our last stop of the day was a Texas historical site.

The fort is no longer standing, but this park marks the sight of the Battle of Sabine Pass. During the Civil War, the Union navy recognized the importance of this waterway. They sent a fleet of boats up this narrow channel to take control of the fort and the pass. But Confederate soldiers with very good aim stopped the Union soldiers from completing their mission. Today, Sabine Pass is still an important transportation hub, as we watched one large ship after another cross in front of us. This is Hellas Explorer, a Greek ship, that is plying these Texas waters. It is setting low in the water with a load of oil it just picked up.

We could tell that this ship was coming in empty, as it was riding high in the water. This oil tanker is 183 meters (600 feet) long. That's two football fields in length! Team Adventurer is the ship's name, and she is coming up the Sabine Pass to pick up a load of oil.

We couldn't help but have questions about the massive metal apparatus that kept showing up in our pictures.

It was hard to comprehend how big this crane system really is. We assume it is used for loading heavy cargo onto ships, and we could see how big it is when compared to the ships that passed right beside it.

We enjoyed our day along the rim of the Gulf of Mexico, especially our time at Sea Rim State Park. This is our last day in Texas, and we were blessed with another great day of wandering!