Moody Mansion

Kerry drove down today to go see the Moody Mansion with me...we had a coupon, so it was very reasonable, 10.50 for the both of us together. What a beautiful showplace for the city of Galveston! You watch a little movie in the beginning about the colonel who bought the mansion from a widow and raised his big family there...the mansion was built in 1892 and has withstood hurricanes and still looks beautiful despite needing restoration after Hurricane Ike in 2008. That's one thing we noticed about the residents of Galveston, there are signs everywhere marking water lines from when the water came through the city.

Water level at the side door from hurricane

This doorway is on the ground floor of the mansion and the water was at 6.5 ft., flooding the original kitchen, plant room and storage areas of the house.

The house was constructed of two walls of brick with space between to run later duct work and electrical wiring. I'm sure the double walls helped the house withstand hurricane forces and helped insulate it as well. How do you describe the wealthy trappings of this house? I can't begin to explain it, but I'll try---a floor to ceiling stained glass window on the stair landing leading to the second floor, the gold trim, the ornate ceilings and fresco walls, the complicated carved wood trim in the house, the furniture, the tiled fireplaces...I've seen mansions of famous people from this era in different parts of the country and this one really is amazing!

Tiled porch outside front door of mansion

We were not allowed to take photos inside the house, because it is a private collection, but you can buy postcards of the interior if you want to remember the elegance and opulence of the home. What struck us were how some of the rooms had upholstered walls---the French Rocco reception room had walls of silk fabric stapled to the plaster walls and 23 carat gold trim. The living room was less formal than some of the other rooms and had a dramatic Palladian arch that framed the fireplace. The dining room fireplace had a chimney piece hunting scene in bas relief painted to simulate bronze. Let's keep going here, I'm on a roll. How about the glazed plasterwork frieze has neo-classical urns and scrolls, and the fireplace andirons were silver plated! What was really surprising to me was how plain the upstairs was in contrast! Very plain bedrooms, no carpet, just area rugs...simple furnishings, simple woodwork trim, very plain Jane.....it was like the downstairs was the show and the upstairs rooms were the frugal side of the Moody family. There was a set of shelves in one of the bathrooms that contained old medicines, some of which brought back memories....Paregoric....that was an opiate drug, I do believe, that my mom used to give us kids when we had upset stomachs and diarrhea. Pabasol with paregoric, this was the fifties, mind you!.....very interesting collection of medicines and old packaging...Vaseline still looks the same, Burma Shave, Alka Seltzer...After the tour, Kerry and I headed to Star Drug store for lunch...

Here's the water line sign at the drugstore...we sat at the soda fountain counter and had a good lunch...sandwiches and soup....Kerry had what we used to call a "Green River"...or a lime phosphate along with her soup and sandwich......

Time for Kerry to head back home to Spring.....I'll be visiting her one more time on Monday, then Eldy and I will hit the road for points west on Tuesday! Bye for now.....

Galveston Ferry

We were looking for something inexpensive to do today, so we decided to check out the Galveston Ferry that goes over to Bolivar Island. It doesn't get much cheaper than FREE! The Texas state department of transportation= Texas taxpayers (?) pays the costs of running this ferry service back and forth across to Bolivar Island. The ferry holds up to 60 vehicles, and they can carry semis, RVs, etc. There seemed to be a full load both ways today. We decided to be walk ons today, so we left our car behind thinking that we could walk around on the island. Well, it's a little bigger than we thought, and a little too far to walk to anything. So we rode the ferry to the island and straight back, we never got off. You can see dolphins for free as well, so I got excited about that, but couldn't get any good photos coming or going. The dolphins were just barely showing themselves. The ferryboat was fun! I could have ridden it all day back and forth, back and forth, trying to get some good dolphin photos. It's a good thing we had jackets and sweaters with us. It's ALWAYS colder on the water! The gulls rode with us on the tanks on the side of the boat both coming and going...maybe they are commuters! :-)

Then there was another bunch of them at the stern. The captain announced you were only allowed to feed the gulls at the back of the boat, so guess they were waiting for handouts. No one was feeding them or the frenzied fliers would have been even worse than they were--hundreds of them were following and dive bombing the ferry...Wait a minute...I should have said it like this--we were followed by a feeding frenzy of frequent fliers as we ferried across! We went past Seawolf Park (home of a WWII destroyer escort and a sub), which we will visit on another day....we went past a concrete (?) tanker that is a roost for birds, we saw lots and lots of freighters/tankers out in the gulf AND we saw some dolphins from a distance...I think it was about a 20 minute ride across to the island, very enjoyable--however, it's strictly a no frills ferry service. We both love being out on the water.....we'll do again soon, next time we'll bring our car, our bikes and explore what's on Bolivar. From what I understand, it got hit pretty hard by the hurricane, and it's mostly residential.....probably not too much to do or see there. But that's ok, it's fun to get there and back--cheap entertainment for Sparky!

Harbor Tour

A 45 min.  harbor tour for 10.00? and it's called Dolphin Baywatch Tours? We're in!  We toured the harbor today with a very funny captain of the Baywatch Tours...we saw dolphins, finally! Never saw a single one while we were in Florida or in the keys, surprisingly. But today we saw at least ten or more, lazily swimming around in the harbor, chasing our boat for a bit...we learned about the ships that come into the harbor, like the ship that comes in bringing over 400 truckloads of bananas, the Del Monte ship..we saw Pelican Bay where there is a WWII destroyer Escort, and a submarine (separate tour for those) and we learned a little about the drilling rigs. We saw a Carnival ship waiting to head out on a cruise later today... I guess any ship over 300 feet coming into Galveston has to have a certified boat pilot come out before the ship enters the harbor, the pilot boards the ship and personally commandeers it in to the harbor.

Pilots' Association-pilot boats

I love Galveston! The architecture is so cool..there are so many neat Victorian houses along the streets near the Strand, the little shopping district in town...the Strand street is full of historical buildings with neat trim and gingerbread. We browsed in the shops earlier today while waiting to take the harbor cruise.

We went into a great candy store and got Eldy some more exotic flavors of jellybeans...on Saturdays, there's a guy there who makes taffy by hand, the old fashioned way, pulling it and stretching it.

We saw this couple standing in one of the open store fronts--we didn't stop in to see how much they were selling for. Not sure why you'd want one or both, but who knows why people buy the things they do? The guy had a severe case of the shakes! So he was animated in a not-so-good way...No doors on many of the stores, they just opened up wide for passersby to come in and browse....reminded me of the shops in the Florida keys--wide open, no glass.

The ideal couple?

Then Eldy saw this cute couple and just had to take their photo! This was in front of Truffles, the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory...yum! I was a good girl, I didn't buy any! (uh, honey, you bought some fudge at the other jellybean candy shop, remember? E. reminds me)

Welcome to our newest followers, PB & J Adventures, a family traveling the southeastern United States. And they like disc golf, too!

The wind is back today, it doesn't stay away very long...but they are gentle winds...we'll see what the winds bring for us tomorrow...

Kemah Boardwalk Revisited

These people are nuts!

One of my elementary grade school friends lives in Houston, and when we were first thinking of coming to the area, he invited us to get together at Landry's, at the Kemah boardwalk. Of course we'd love to do that! I hadn't seen him in about 45 years, give or take a few, so we met for dinner. Eldy and I walked around the boardwalk and watched the kids on the rides while we were waiting for our friends to arrive. It was fun to see the Kemah boardwalk at night. It was not crowded at all and most of the rides were going. I'm not a ride person. Anything that drops suddenly or corkscrew twists it absolutely, unequivocably OUT! Now Eldy IS a ride person, but even though I love him to pieces, I ain't gonna ride something that is going to make me pee my pants or throw up. So he just had to watch as well. We watched The Inverter (photo at the left) swing people back and forth higher and higher, then turning them completely upside down and HOLDING them there for what seemed an eternity, then swung them back down again. Ugh! I was losing my appetite quickly. Then we watched people ride up a 140 ft. tower called The Drop Zone and then the machine released the brackets holding the platform of people and they went into a freefall drop that stopped at the last minute.  I thought I was going to throw up! [I've always been an empathetic person, so I really felt their nausea.] That little girl in the photo who looks absolutely full of glee on the ride up? She went on it TWICE!

They've got a really OLD wooden roller coaster there as well---I pass!  BAWK, BAWK! BAWK! What the heck was that? (Chicken, says E.) Yep, that's me! Here's another view of the Inverter.....by this time, I was really feeling woozy, so it was time to head indoors for dinner....

We met my friend Dana Beebe and his significant other, Stania at Landry's. We had a great time. We didn't do as much reminiscing, as we talked about his business, DTC--The Deepwater Technology Company and then conversation moved to  how life brings us to where we are currently...which for both of us, is in a wonderful place...Eldy and I retired and living our dreams of traveling and seeing the country, Dana being CEO of his own company and making the world a better place with his company's developing technologies at the forefront of future subsea technology....We talked a lot about how difficult it was to find the right person in our lives, too...that sometimes you have to go through a lot of life's more unpleasant experiences to eventually find the right person to share your life with, and when the time is right, you will! And we both have!  It was a wonderful evening spent in great company.....Thank you, Dana and Stania!

Jeannie and childhood friend, Dana

The nice weather continues...we'll see what's happening tomorrow!.......bye for now.......

Movie Tavern

Movie Tavern? Interesting concept! Convert a movie theater into a dinner theater complete with drinks, beer, and wine, a variety of menu items from sliders to quesadillas to desserts, and watch the movie while you eat a complete meal! There are tables in front of you, a little on the high side as far as sitting at a table when you are in comfortable movie seats, but big enough for two people to have everything they need to eat...Eldy had a cheeseburger and the best popcorn he ever had, he says, Kerry had chips and spinach artichoke dip, and I had the chicken quesadilla. It was all very delicious! We watched the movie The Eagle. This movie starring Tatum Channing (a handsome, not as well known actor) Donald Sutherland, and Jamie Bell, is about a Roman soldier trying to redeem the honor of his fallen father and his regiment...there's more to the plot, but it was nice to see a guy's (?) movie for a change that doesn't have a single important female role in it. You know, where a beautiful woman falls in love with the man, they run from something or someone, she trips and falls, he has to stop and rescue her, putting himself in danger, yada yada yada. Nope, not a single important female. It's all about male bonding in this movie, based on similar times and scenes from the Gladiator or The Centurion. We really enjoyed it and the dinner! I've never seen anything quite like that where dinner is served and a movie watched at the same time. You would think the wait staff would be intrusive while you are trying to watch the movie, but they aren't.  You push a button at the table for service, if you need it, and they only wait on you when you want them to. The bill is served towards the end of the movie, and very discreetly so it truly was an enjoyable experience....The Movie Tavern, on Tomball Parkway, in Houston, TX....

Earlier today, we had to take my bike to the bike shop to get a punctured tire fixed. Somehow I picked up a big spiked nail on the side roads around here and WHO-O-O-SH! Flat in no time, got a nice mile walk in back to the campground....We went to Webster Bike Shop on Nasa Parkway, after checking around on the internet. It seemed to be the closest store that we knew our way around town to find. Terrific selection of bikes...wow! The store was huge, and bikes everywhere--up in the air, down on the ground....Great service and fast, too...very reasonable...boy, did they have interesting bikes there!...if you are interested, check out the Brompton bike on their website..it's a portable bike, but I have no idea how much they cost, I just liked the photo of it! It's made in London, so it's probably expensive. (Why does she always gravitate towards the expensive stuff?  asks E.) I have no idea. I'm strongly attracted to the visual side of things--color, design, shape, THEN I look to see  how much it costs. I like it but I don't buy it! I recognize good stuff when I see it! That's why I'm with my Eldy!  (Awwwwww.....)

Busy day....great to see Kerry again....we'll wait a few days, let her get some more studying done, then hook up with her later. It's over an hour's drive one way, and the traffic can be TERRIBLE with different highways shutting down at different times of the day for construction...in the mean time, it's going to be in the sixties coming up in the next couple of days and SUNNY--woo-hoo! AND, NO WIND!!!!! (See photo on the right)  Time to maybe see the dolphins, ride the free ferry boat to Bolivar Island, head over to Galveston State Park, who knows where Eldo wants to go?  We'll see tomorrow!

Sunny Galveston

Today we went exploring some more in Galveston. We wanted to check out the Galveston Island State Park so we did! Five dollars a person gets you into the park...there are somewhat rough biking trails, nothing paved...there is still a lot of damage from Hurricane Ike in 2008. Trees are dead, there is very little shade in the park, but there are some nice campgrounds and the views of the bay and the beach are beautiful. There are kayak and canoe paddling trails. With a map and GPS coordinates provided by the park, even a directionally challenged person like me could go out paddling and not get lost! Prices are reasonable in the campgrounds, ranging from 15.00 a day for just water, to about 25.00 a day for water and electric on the beach side.

We love the beautiful houses that are being built along the bay drive coming back into Galveston. Just out of curiosity, we drove into a place called Beachside Village and picked up a piece of literature that sounded too good to be true! It was a listing of the LOT prices...they have reverted back to 2003 pricing after the devastating plummeting of real estate in the area. Let's just say you wanted to buy a lot in Beachside Village, the development. Only lot prices were given off from the beach side but here's one....a lot in the center of the development that sold for $210,000 in 2009 is now selling for $99,500 this year. What a bargain! I admire anyone who is willing to stay in a hurricane hit area and start over. That takes grit and determination and a good insurance company...I'm curious as to what new construction is required to have when rebuilding in a hurricane prone location. All the new houses have metal roofs and they all are built on stilts or pylons...

Love the different colors of all these houses!

Time for more outdoor activities, Eldo! There's a golf course nearby, only 8.00 for seniors, whaddya say, dear?  Even warmer tomorrow...sixties! see you on the golf course?  (I'm getting rusty! Sparky says)

Houston RV show

Why would we go to another RV show, when we already have a great 2010 Tiffin Phaeton that we love? To see what vendors are there, to sign up for free camping stays, to see if we have buyer's remorse, (NOPE!), for something to do, and to eat the candy all the vendors put out! (just kidding on that last one, but I do have a sweet tooth for chocolate like Snickers, M&M's peanut and Tootsie Rolls....)

Here's something you don't see very often any more....a shoeshine guy! I'm trying to remember that last time I did see one, I think it was in Chicago in the fifties, when my dad used to get his shoes shined at the Chicago and Northwestern station before catching his train home to the burbs. These guys were at the show, and look, a cowboy, to boot! (groan!) But I haven't seen very many guys with the cowboy hats around here, guys! That is a touristy stereotype, I'm sure!

We did walk around and go into quite a few RV's...we wanted to see what the Tiffin Phaeton 2011's looked like--dark wood and everything had scrolls on it, dark inside...we wanted to look at other brands like Monaco's slide within a slide (they didn't have one or we missed it), and we looked at a couple Dutch Stars (by Newmar)...there were tons of fifth wheels there and travel trailers as well. We stopped at a well stocked Camping World section and Eldy debated on a satellite dish receiver. He decided to wait....There's ALWAYS something at Camping World RVers could use or something to look at that you put on your wish list....we went a little overboard when we got our first coach..we thought we needed lots of things made for RVers, but things we could have found in our own shopping at Walmart or Dollar Stores...such things as plate separators (use bubble wrap or that rubber shelf liner you can cut up), collapsible trash containers, special dish drainers to fit the small sinks, refrigerator bars to keep your stuff from falling out when you open the door, collapsible lightweight tables (we do use those a lot)...all kinds of shower stick on soap holders, and wood racks for this, that, and the other.....

Foretravel Phenix

The Phenix kitchen

The most interesting part of the show, perhaps, was seeing a high dollar coach, the Foretravel RV, the Phenix. It was the most expensive coach there, and it was the BOTTOM of the line for Fore Travel, price was a mere $934,900.00 plus tax. The only other high end coaches were all under $500,000.  (ONLY!!!!!)  I've always wondered what you get for that kind of money...this one had a walk in marble shower, Silestone countertops, (is that better than Corian?) a deluxe cooktop stove, solid walnut wood cabinetry, rope lighting in the ceiling and inside the sides of the side windows, heated floors, adjustable king size bed, and more stuff and signs that said, "DON'T TOUCH", "DON'T SIT" "PLEASE DON'T OPEN". The outside was beautiful and so was the inside...There were probably more features that I just didn't notice on the inside, but it was a little over the top with the decor in the ceiling and all around. All in all, after walking around and looking for fun, we just love our own coach with it's cottage colors of teal, tan, beige--the light cabinetry, the residential fridge and all the rest of the features we do have. It's us. The quality is excellent and we are very happy with it, and we really didn't see anything we liked better! ...looking around just reinforced what a fantastic coach we do have, and what a fantastic buy it was when we got it.

The Phenix living room

The SHOWER

Time to go home, Eldo...to our lovely Phaeton!  We have to come up with a name for it...maybe we should have a contest! Until later......