We are now officially in the south: we left Galveston Island this morning and arrived in Lafayette, LA this afternoon.
The extra day in Galveston made a big difference in the drive today. The winds were virtually calm this morning when we got on the road around 9:00 am. We decided to take the ferry at the north end of the island over to the Bolivar Peninsula across the mouth of Galveston Bay. The alternative was to go north on the Interstate from Galveston to Houston and intersect I-10E just east of town. Houston is a not a pleasant city to drive through. It is the poster child for urban sprawl and has at least 6 loops around the city, all usually clogged with traffic.
The ferry option sounded interesting and would totally avoid Houston so we decided to give it a try. As mentioned, the ferry is run by the state and is totally free. Each ferry carries two lanes of cars/trucks/RVs on each side of a center superstructure with a bridge at each end. We had to wait about 45 minutes to get on the ferry, as they mixed large vehicles and cars to get a maximum balanced load on each trip. The trip is about 20 minutes long and was quite enjoyable. Even though we had to wait to get on the ferry, it was worth the wait and we avoided the Houston traffic.
After we got off of the ferry, we headed NE along the Gulf shore of the peninsula then turned north and joined I-10 just west of Beaumont, TX. There were also a lot of houses on stilts near the beach, mostly older and not as nice looking as most of the ones we saw on Galveston Island. We even saw a single-wide trailer up on stilts about 15 feet high. I have no idea how they were able to get it up there, but I guess it was home as the wheels were also off.
The GPS lady suggested taking an alternate route east on Texas, Highway 73, before getting to I-10. This route bypassed Beaumont and instead went through Port Arthur, TX before turning up towards I-10 west of Lake Charles, LA. It turned out to be a good choice as there wasn't much traffic and the road was good.
After we got on I-10, the traffic increased significantly and was almost bumper-to-bumper cars and trucks at 70 miles per hour all the way to Lafayette.
We are staying at the Bayou Wilderness RV Park in Lafayette and arrived about 3:30 pm We have stayed here several times on previous trips. It is off the highway, quiet and has all the amenities we have come to expect at an RV park on a trip.
After resting awhile, we went to dinner at our favorite Cajun restaurant nearby, Prejean's.. The food is excellent and they have live Cajun music every night. After a great meal (not health food), we returned to the RV and are heading for an early bedtime.
It's on to Pensacola, FL tomorrow. It will be another long drive, all along I-10.
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