Trip to Galveston

The bride and I took a drive we have been wanting to take since September 13, the day hurricane Ike paid us a visit. We have wanted to take the drive down to Galveston, take the ferry, and go over to the Bolivar Peninsula to see the damage. About 2 pm on Friday afternoon after she had finished some major cleaning around the house, or at least got to a stopping point, and I was done working the church building remodeling, we headed out in her favorite way to travel, her convertible. It was really a bit cool, low 60's, to be wearing shorts and driving highway speed with the top down but the sun was out 100% and we just couldn't resist. Each time we got over the water it cooled down a few degrees and it was windy but overall it was great.

We drove the speed limit to Galveston, turned down 61st street and headed out to the West end to see what it was like down there. The moment we turned on to 61st, there was still a sailboat perched right by the road, in a parking lot, like it was parked there for the night, then a few blocks another, then another. The housing edition on the left side of 61st not too far across the small bay was obviously heavily flooded by the surge. Most of the businesses just off of i-45 & 61st were closed but as you got closer to the seawall, more and more were open, and many others were under repair. Traffic was fairly heavy. We turned right and drove to the West. Almost anything situated at ground level was damaged or flooded. Many of the condos were under repair, trying to get ready for the summer season. Unfortunately, there was no beach extending out from the seawall. The waves lapped right up on to the rocks all the way down. We didn't go too far before making a uturn and deciding to go ahead and drive to the Bolivar ferry. The city seems to have brought sand in to a couple of sections across from the Convention center area to rebuild the beach between about 3 of the jetties. Every pier, structure, everything on the beach side is gone. Technically the Flagship hotel is still there but heavily damaged, everything else that was over the water is gone. Murdoch's and those places are nothing but pilings in the sand now. We didn't drive to the strand or around in the neighborhoods but there was obviously a great deal of flooding damage and many blue tarps still on roofs. A fair number of eating spots were open and some hotels but its going to take a long time for it to be back to normal.

We went ahead and drove to catch the ferry and waited well over an hour for our turn to take the ride. The ferry ride is one of our all time favorite things to do in Galveston and it has not changed. Sitting in the convertible with the top down, while the gulls fly over head is not the most comfortable feeling in the world though, we manage to get on without getting pooped on. By the time we got on the ferry it was time to put the top up, it was just too cool.

Well, there's much more to say about Bolivar but I better get to work now. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about what we saw or didn't see on the Peninsula. I will say this, the further east we travelled the worse it got.

Thanks for reading,
de