On the Strand

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The forecast rain started early on Monday, so we were happy to have a leisurely morning. We had provisioned at W-Mart yesterday, and so we had the necessary raw materials for a blueberry pancake breakfast -- yummy! After that, I decided to try to awake a few more systems on the trailer. Crazy as it may seem, we had never really camped in old Fred before we left home, so we had a lot to learn.

The problem was, that at home this time of year it is too cold to fool with the plumbing, so I had no idea about what works, and what might leak. I did know that the fridge worked on electric, but the gas operation was a question mark. Of course, the operation of a LP fridge is a bit of a question mark anyway -- I sort of understand it, but it still has an air of thermodynamic wizardry to me. That aside, a few days ago I figured out how to light it, and, I'll be damned, it works! Amazing -- that tiny little blue flame will keep your beer cold, and even put ice cubes in your G&T -- scientific magic of the best kind.

Today I decided to try the water system. Up to this point we had just been using bottled water, and showering in the park restrooms. We have a water-less composting toilet, which we love, but our shower and sinks were unknown quantities. I hooked the hose to the spigot at our sight, made the sign of the cross, and turned the valve. At first it looked good, no sounds of blasting water, and nothing dripping. I went inside and opened some faucets, and still good, but when I went back outside, there was water coming out of seams in the belly pan under the bathroom. Turns out the old (everything here is 40 years old) ABS drain trap under the bathroom sink had separated -- no biggie. That would just call for a trip to town to Homer Depot for some ABS cement, so not bad.

We decided not to let the rain stop us, so we put on our raincoats and headed back to Galveston city. We just toured around and looked a lot of the great old buildings there. Then we parked in the "Strand" district and had a walkabout. Cathy enjoyed the shops, and I headed down to the port to look at boats and ships, that's always good for me. We had a snack for lunch, including the requisite pina colada in a coconut shell for the boss. Later we had dinner in a Mexican place down on the seawall called "Tortuga". The fajita's were OK, but came with lame store-bought tortillas, so still no threat to the Lone Star in Kingston.

Oh, and Cathy wanted to show a couple pictures of the bathrooms here at GISP, we've never seen anything like it -- all cedar and marble inside, and with granite counter tops, Kring Point SP has some catching up to do!

Forecast is for great weather tomorrow, so we're planning on putting the kayaks in and having a paddle.

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