FED across the U.S.
Bastrop State Park to Galveston Island State Park: 210 miles
Had awaken the morning before looking at the cloudy Texas sky and thought possible rain. So before going for the hike at Bastrop, I covered (a large barbecue cover) the bikes racked on the back of the FED. It didn't rain, but the cloud cover remained throughout the day. Woke up this morning, looked up through the loblollies and saw the same cloudiness. I unracked a bike and went for a ride; Peggy and Layla went for a hike. A little over an hour later, all three of us converged on the FED to take refuge from the rain. We dried ourselves off, racked and covered the bikes, and headed for the Gulf of Mexico.
Natural gas. Must be huge underground pockets of it in Texas. Working wells and small tanks dot the desert landscape, especially heading north out of Big Bend NP and along Interstate 10. As we approached Lake Jackson, Oyster Creek, and the end of the road at Surfside Beach, huge natural gas factories could be seen on both sides of the road.
From Surfside Beach, we headed up the gulf coast on Highway 3005, paid the $2 toll after crossing the bridge to Galveston Island, and secured a campsite at the state park... about 100 yards from the beach.
Seaweed.. lots of it washed up on the beach. As I was checking in at the park office, a woman beside me expressed concern over the state of the beach. "Do they scrape the beach?" she asked. "No," was the reply. "Well," said the woman with a resigned and a little bit of disgusted look on her face, "they should... it would look a lot nicer."
Not sharing the same opinion, we parked the FED at our campsite and, before hooking anything up, went for a walk on the beach...