Continued: Day Two - Wednesday, July 26 - Austin to Port Lavaca.
I realized yesterday that y'all probably have no idea where in Texas all this is, so here's a map that will give you a clue. This is a county map; at the time of this trip, I lived in the north central part of the state, just two counties south of the Red River and the TX/OK state line (Denton County). Travis County is where Austin is located. The line I drew is really only a vague approximation of our actual route, based on the counties we visited.
By this point in the trip, we had covered Austin through Goliad. We were kind of tired and needed to find someplace to stay for the night. I was under the impression we were going to stay in Victoria, so we'd only have a short hop to Refugio and down to Corpus Christi the next day, but it was only four in the afternoon and hey, neither of us had been down to Port Lavaca. So.....
The Victoria County courthouse, built in 1892. This one's not actually in use today; across the street from it is a much more modern building, built in 1967. What struck me about Victoria was how different it was from the rest of this part of the state. It had a skyline, of sorts, punctuated with a bank building and the like. Victoria has a population of just around 50,000, boasts two university campuses (U of Houston at Victoria, and Victoria College), and is situated as kind of the "big city" between Corpus Christi and Houston (it's about equi-distant from San Antonio and Austin, as well). I live in a suburb of Dallas that boasts a population of around 90,000 people, so I wasn't all that impressed, just thrown off given the small towns nearby.
We hit Victoria just as the business day was ending, so we hit some small traffic in the square and took the extra time to examine the monuments. This part of the state was host to several Indian tribes (the Karankawa were last reported to be seen here in 1840, before they fled to Mexico), and this particular area was notable for being the only primarily Mexican portion of Coahuila y Tejas (the name of the state Texas was a part of under Mexican rule) at the time of the Revolution.
We stayed the night in Port Lavaca, in Calhoun County, on the Texas coast. This was another county seat, but the historical courthouse was a huge mess from renovation, and the county annex building was utterly unremarkable. We checked in at Best Western, then went in search of food. I heard from the desk clerk about a bar and seafood grill in Indianola, so we went out in search of it. Fifteen miles of coastal cattle fields later, we found no such place, but we did find Indianola, a "Gulf Coast ghost town." Utterly unremarkable (just a few RV parks and a gas station), except for it's role in history. Indianola as a working seaport town was wiped out by a hurricane in the latter half of the 19th century, but it was a strategic point for the Confederacy. It was here that underwater mines were first invented and tested for use by the Confederate navy. The Union did occupy Port Lavaca in December 1863, but they would leave in June 1864.
By this point in the trip, we had covered Austin through Goliad. We were kind of tired and needed to find someplace to stay for the night. I was under the impression we were going to stay in Victoria, so we'd only have a short hop to Refugio and down to Corpus Christi the next day, but it was only four in the afternoon and hey, neither of us had been down to Port Lavaca. So.....
The Victoria County courthouse, built in 1892. This one's not actually in use today; across the street from it is a much more modern building, built in 1967. What struck me about Victoria was how different it was from the rest of this part of the state. It had a skyline, of sorts, punctuated with a bank building and the like. Victoria has a population of just around 50,000, boasts two university campuses (U of Houston at Victoria, and Victoria College), and is situated as kind of the "big city" between Corpus Christi and Houston (it's about equi-distant from San Antonio and Austin, as well). I live in a suburb of Dallas that boasts a population of around 90,000 people, so I wasn't all that impressed, just thrown off given the small towns nearby.
We hit Victoria just as the business day was ending, so we hit some small traffic in the square and took the extra time to examine the monuments. This part of the state was host to several Indian tribes (the Karankawa were last reported to be seen here in 1840, before they fled to Mexico), and this particular area was notable for being the only primarily Mexican portion of Coahuila y Tejas (the name of the state Texas was a part of under Mexican rule) at the time of the Revolution.
We stayed the night in Port Lavaca, in Calhoun County, on the Texas coast. This was another county seat, but the historical courthouse was a huge mess from renovation, and the county annex building was utterly unremarkable. We checked in at Best Western, then went in search of food. I heard from the desk clerk about a bar and seafood grill in Indianola, so we went out in search of it. Fifteen miles of coastal cattle fields later, we found no such place, but we did find Indianola, a "Gulf Coast ghost town." Utterly unremarkable (just a few RV parks and a gas station), except for it's role in history. Indianola as a working seaport town was wiped out by a hurricane in the latter half of the 19th century, but it was a strategic point for the Confederacy. It was here that underwater mines were first invented and tested for use by the Confederate navy. The Union did occupy Port Lavaca in December 1863, but they would leave in June 1864.
(You should try and find a copy of Charlie Robison's "Indianola", by the way. Great song.)
Indianola was also where La Salle first landed in what would become the United States, and there is a marker and even a statue in Indianola to commemorate that.
Back in Port Lavaca, we ended up at a bar for dinner. Randy and I were the only customers, other than the two regulars who were there to harass the one waitress/bartender. The food was pretty good (shrimp for both of us), but one of the regulars, for whom Randy had a whole list of colorful nicknames, kept trying to get us to go fishing with him and kept putting his arms around my boyfriend. We stayed long enough to finish dinner and catch a little of the Astros game, then went back to the motel for a decent night's sleep.
Day Three - Thursday, July 27 - Refugio to Rockport
First stop on Thursday was in Refugio, for the courthouse. Pictured above is the Texas Revolution monument on the town square (Randy's on the phone). Refugio was cool because it was the first Irish settlement we came across; it was part of a land grant given to Empresario James Power. The name comes from the mission that was located here, Our Lady of Refuge. The town's name, however, is pronounced "reh-FEW-ree-o" (goodness knows why; I think it's a slurred version of the Spanish).
Refugio County courthouse, built in 1911. Hard to get a good picture of it since it's surrounded by trees and the morning was kind of foggy.
The drive southwest into San Patricio County was pretty uneventful and not very pretty. The county seat of San Patricio is Sinton, a town currently known for it's high school baseball team. Their mascot is the Scorpions. Sinton is also home to "Texas' largest squirrel," which I didn't get a picture of, sadly.
The San Patricio County courthouse. It's pretty big compared to most of the ones we saw (it reminded me of a high school), and from what we could tell, it was THE place to be in the county.
The San Patricio doughboy. Remarkable because it was the only strictly WWI monument I found on this trip (I believe it's the only one we've seen so far, actually). It was erected between the world wars, and if the sun had been shining you'd be able to tell that it's a very silvery statue. We weren't able to tell if it was the metal or paint.
From Sinton we headed down into Corpus Christi, in search of what proved to be elusive history.
The Nueces County courthouse. It was built in 1914, has survived countless hurricanes and tropical storms, and was abandoned in the 1970s. This is in Corpus Christi; the new courthouse is not close by, and isn't a particularly "pretty" building (the windows reflect gold, which I thought was tacky-looking), but I love this one. It's fenced off, to keep out vagrants, and it was reacquired by the state in the last six years or so (I last saw it in 2001, and I don't recall there being a fence or any sign of reconstruction). There's a sign that says the Texas Historical Commission is working to restore it, and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that renovation was supposed to be completely by July 2005 (the Texas Historical Commission's latest information says the first phase of restoration was completed in May 2006, just before our visit, which is plain from the picture. No word on whether further phases ever took place - I'd appreciate an update if you have one). This courthouse faces the ocean, which is about two hundred yards away - think of the weather it has survived!
The island on the USS Lexington. The Lex is a WWII-era aircraft carrier, now operated by the US Navy as a museum. She's docked in Corpus Christi bay. Bit of personal trivia - when my mom was in the Navy, this ship was in service as a training ship in Pensacola, Florida. My dad wants to retire and work as a volunteer on this ship. Anyway, being a bit of a Navy brat, the Lex was a big part of this trip for me. You can tour the whole thing, and they operate a program for Boy Scouts called "Live Aboard," where Scout troops can come and spend a weekend on the ship. My brother's troop did this once. It's pretty cool; they live in crew quarters and participate in various exercises designed to teach them how the Navy operates.
The plane in view in that picture is an F-14 Tomcat, the plane featured in Top Gun.
Me on the bridge. I'm a little windblown (okay, I'm a lot windblown).
Ahoy!
Randy complained that I made him look like a convict after getting this picture, the one of him in the Gonzales gallows, and also one I took of him in the Gonzales jail.
Randy's kinda tall, and aircraft carriers aren't really made for guys his size, so there was a lot of head-bumping and whatnot as we toured the ship.
After the Lex, we had lunch at Whataburger (we figured it was fitting, since the chain was founded in Corpus Christi), and headed to Rockport. Randy had an interview on a radio show in Houston and we needed to find our motel so he could use a landline.
Rockport's a pretty cool seashore town. Not really a tourist trap like a lot of other places (Port Lavaca was the exception - it's a shrimping town, so there is absolutely no tourist industry). We got into town early enough to go searching for the courthouse. We found it, but it was built in the 1950s and was a little too "sterile" for my taste. So while Randy got his picture, I found this:
I really like old churches. This is an Episcopal church that was built sometime before 1950. There was a beautiful Catholic church in town, too, but no good angle for pictures.
Randy did the interview (knocked it out of the park, really - it was about the 2006 November election and the effect of independent candidates in the gubernatorial race on the down-ballot....you know what, it's political and he did awesome, that's all the necessary information :-). We watched some baseball and just kicked back for awhile, then decided to head out in search of dinner.
The Fulton Mansion. We found it on the way to dinner. It was completed in 1877, and was the home of Robert Fulton, a Texas Revolution hero who later became a cattle baron. It was closed by the time we got there, but the grounds were beautiful and I really loved the house itself. The view from the porch is amazing (and I'm sure it was even better before the paved roads and tourists' boats came along), but my camera lens kept fogging up because of the humidity around here.
We had dinner at a place called The Boiling Pot in Fulton, where Randy convinced me to try crab legs. I'd never had crab legs (I'm a terrible seafood novice, really, even now), and I have to say, I was not disappointed. This place was really laid back and clearly a local favorite, and we had a blast.
Full of cajun food and sleepy from the day in total (it was very windy all day, because we caught the back end of some storms that hit further up the coast). So it was back to the motel, where Randy read and I watched a baseball game. It was a great ending to the day, and to our time on our own.
Day 4 - Friday, July 28 (Port Aransas!!)
We got up on Friday morning and hit the grocery store for supplies (food and BEvERages for 25 people). Then we drove down to Port Aransas and drop the stuff off at the condos, drove back to Corpus Christi to pick someone up at the airport, and then back to Port A.
I saw dolphins while we were on the ferry from Aransas Pass to Port Aransas!!
Randy made cajun-seasoned tilapia for lunch, and we hit the pool while waiting for everyone to arrive.
We hung out a banner and put groceries away in three different condos.
You can sort of tell how nice the condos were in this shot. They were pretty new; the first had three stories, and two balconies. The top floor was just the master bedroom, with king-size bed, and bathroom, with jacuzzi tub.
More waiting and drinking, still on the first afternoon.
Once more people had arrived and we weren't really waiting on anyone specific, we gathered the troops and headed out to a restaurant called the Crazy Cajun.
Me and Tony, a friend from UT. His first time having crab, and of course I was showing off.
We opted not to head to the beach that first night, but first thing the next morning.
The rest of the weekend was pretty cut-and-dried. Beach, pool, beer, football, more beer, barbeque, grilling, beer, etc. Some YCT work had to get done - stuffing envelopes for a fundraiser. I worked on that with some others while Randy and Jenn (our friend Patrick's wife; she wasn't a YCT-er but thanks to Patrick has become one of us) grilled burgers and shrimp. Randy and I went for a walk on the beach Saturday night and saw some shooting stars. Sunday morning, we got up early to clean and have our state board meeting.
Randy retired as state chairman on Sunday, and David was elected as our new chairman.
Some pics from the rest of the weekend:
Trying to throw David into the pool.
Tony, making "sand angels." I thought he was playing dead.
View of the ocean.
Horrible picture of me as we're packing up to leave.
We had some friends with us in the car on the way home, so we didn't stop in Bee County for the last of the courthouse shots. We made it back to Austin, dropped the girls off, and then worked on unloading the truck. Somehow we ended up with more stuff on the way home than on the way down.
The Nueces County courthouse. It was built in 1914, has survived countless hurricanes and tropical storms, and was abandoned in the 1970s. This is in Corpus Christi; the new courthouse is not close by, and isn't a particularly "pretty" building (the windows reflect gold, which I thought was tacky-looking), but I love this one. It's fenced off, to keep out vagrants, and it was reacquired by the state in the last six years or so (I last saw it in 2001, and I don't recall there being a fence or any sign of reconstruction). There's a sign that says the Texas Historical Commission is working to restore it, and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that renovation was supposed to be completely by July 2005 (the Texas Historical Commission's latest information says the first phase of restoration was completed in May 2006, just before our visit, which is plain from the picture. No word on whether further phases ever took place - I'd appreciate an update if you have one). This courthouse faces the ocean, which is about two hundred yards away - think of the weather it has survived!
The island on the USS Lexington. The Lex is a WWII-era aircraft carrier, now operated by the US Navy as a museum. She's docked in Corpus Christi bay. Bit of personal trivia - when my mom was in the Navy, this ship was in service as a training ship in Pensacola, Florida. My dad wants to retire and work as a volunteer on this ship. Anyway, being a bit of a Navy brat, the Lex was a big part of this trip for me. You can tour the whole thing, and they operate a program for Boy Scouts called "Live Aboard," where Scout troops can come and spend a weekend on the ship. My brother's troop did this once. It's pretty cool; they live in crew quarters and participate in various exercises designed to teach them how the Navy operates.
The plane in view in that picture is an F-14 Tomcat, the plane featured in Top Gun.
Me on the bridge. I'm a little windblown (okay, I'm a lot windblown).
Ahoy!
Randy complained that I made him look like a convict after getting this picture, the one of him in the Gonzales gallows, and also one I took of him in the Gonzales jail.
Randy's kinda tall, and aircraft carriers aren't really made for guys his size, so there was a lot of head-bumping and whatnot as we toured the ship.
After the Lex, we had lunch at Whataburger (we figured it was fitting, since the chain was founded in Corpus Christi), and headed to Rockport. Randy had an interview on a radio show in Houston and we needed to find our motel so he could use a landline.
Rockport's a pretty cool seashore town. Not really a tourist trap like a lot of other places (Port Lavaca was the exception - it's a shrimping town, so there is absolutely no tourist industry). We got into town early enough to go searching for the courthouse. We found it, but it was built in the 1950s and was a little too "sterile" for my taste. So while Randy got his picture, I found this:
I really like old churches. This is an Episcopal church that was built sometime before 1950. There was a beautiful Catholic church in town, too, but no good angle for pictures.
Randy did the interview (knocked it out of the park, really - it was about the 2006 November election and the effect of independent candidates in the gubernatorial race on the down-ballot....you know what, it's political and he did awesome, that's all the necessary information :-). We watched some baseball and just kicked back for awhile, then decided to head out in search of dinner.
The Fulton Mansion. We found it on the way to dinner. It was completed in 1877, and was the home of Robert Fulton, a Texas Revolution hero who later became a cattle baron. It was closed by the time we got there, but the grounds were beautiful and I really loved the house itself. The view from the porch is amazing (and I'm sure it was even better before the paved roads and tourists' boats came along), but my camera lens kept fogging up because of the humidity around here.
We had dinner at a place called The Boiling Pot in Fulton, where Randy convinced me to try crab legs. I'd never had crab legs (I'm a terrible seafood novice, really, even now), and I have to say, I was not disappointed. This place was really laid back and clearly a local favorite, and we had a blast.
Full of cajun food and sleepy from the day in total (it was very windy all day, because we caught the back end of some storms that hit further up the coast). So it was back to the motel, where Randy read and I watched a baseball game. It was a great ending to the day, and to our time on our own.
Day 4 - Friday, July 28 (Port Aransas!!)
We got up on Friday morning and hit the grocery store for supplies (food and BEvERages for 25 people). Then we drove down to Port Aransas and drop the stuff off at the condos, drove back to Corpus Christi to pick someone up at the airport, and then back to Port A.
I saw dolphins while we were on the ferry from Aransas Pass to Port Aransas!!
Randy made cajun-seasoned tilapia for lunch, and we hit the pool while waiting for everyone to arrive.
We hung out a banner and put groceries away in three different condos.
You can sort of tell how nice the condos were in this shot. They were pretty new; the first had three stories, and two balconies. The top floor was just the master bedroom, with king-size bed, and bathroom, with jacuzzi tub.
More waiting and drinking, still on the first afternoon.
Once more people had arrived and we weren't really waiting on anyone specific, we gathered the troops and headed out to a restaurant called the Crazy Cajun.
Me and Tony, a friend from UT. His first time having crab, and of course I was showing off.
We opted not to head to the beach that first night, but first thing the next morning.
The rest of the weekend was pretty cut-and-dried. Beach, pool, beer, football, more beer, barbeque, grilling, beer, etc. Some YCT work had to get done - stuffing envelopes for a fundraiser. I worked on that with some others while Randy and Jenn (our friend Patrick's wife; she wasn't a YCT-er but thanks to Patrick has become one of us) grilled burgers and shrimp. Randy and I went for a walk on the beach Saturday night and saw some shooting stars. Sunday morning, we got up early to clean and have our state board meeting.
Randy retired as state chairman on Sunday, and David was elected as our new chairman.
Some pics from the rest of the weekend:
Trying to throw David into the pool.
Tony, making "sand angels." I thought he was playing dead.
View of the ocean.
Horrible picture of me as we're packing up to leave.
We had some friends with us in the car on the way home, so we didn't stop in Bee County for the last of the courthouse shots. We made it back to Austin, dropped the girls off, and then worked on unloading the truck. Somehow we ended up with more stuff on the way home than on the way down.
And so ends the tale of our 2006 Texas Independence Tour. Hopefully these posts were as educational for you as the trip itself was for us!
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