BOLIVAR FLATS, TEXAS

This was the first of three rather odd alignments on March 16, 2017:

This was featured in the Campendium email blast that I opened as I was drinking my morning tea.  

I had already been planning to scout around Port Bolivar today for good boondocking locations.  I took the email blast as A Sign and decided to try out the Flats as a first measure.

But first I had to get across the channel.

I had been hesitant to try the Bolivar Ferry because there are plenty of pics on the internet of vehicles that had bottomed out, scraping the approach ramps severely (not to mention the vehicles).  But after riding the boats several times recently by car and by bicycle as a walk-on, I deduced that the pics must be older, because the issue it appeared well-fixed.  I had no trouble with clearances and my departure angle in getting on and off.  

That oceangoing vessel in the background cutting our path represented one of the other two weird alignments today, but I'll save that for the end of the post.  The grand finale of sorts.

This was actually my first ever on-the-beach camping.  Numerous times we've overnighted adjacent to the beach, at a private residence or public park, but I had never boondocked (notice how I linked that term - that's an odd alignment clue) right on the public beach until this trip.  As well as being DA BEACH!!, I figured it would be a good performance test for our solar-lithium system.  What better abuse for an electrical system than roaring high winds and salt spray??  Seriously, when I went to boil water for my tea, I had to close the Fantastic because the air flow was so strong that it blew out the burner on the SMEV.

Beach blogposts are so easy to do, because I don't see fit to photoprocess anything.  The colors and shadows change dramatically with each passing cloud and change in sun angle, so why alter the natural results by shifting color and lighting parameters?  Here's some show-and-tell, in the raw.

I was pleasantly surprised at how few people were here.  Greater Houston does have 6.5 million residents, and this is Spring Break week for most of them.  But in about a mile stretch of beach, there were only about four camping groups.  It's hard to get any privacy in an urban area this large - it doesn't always happen. 

One of the warnings on Campendium is to watch the weather and tides at this location.  In an area as impossibly flat as the upper Texas coast, even minor storms can raise the high tide level significantly.

Best thing to do is use an app of some sort and observe what high tide is going to look like that day.  In my case, there didn't seem to be an issue.  Here I was at high tide and the seawater was not flooding under my wheels. 

It was an unsettled, blustery day, but not storming.  My dog and I walked southeastward toward the Galveston side of the peninsula.  Those ships in the background are parked between the jetties.  

Don't even think about it. 

The public access area gives way to an area that has been partially restricted for nesting birds.  The sign is pretty funny.

Zombies everywhere these days. 

I thought they were kidding, but maybe not. 

Wouldn't you know it, I had decided not to take my DSLR and only had my cell phone for all these pics.  One could do some really interesting photography out here with a good camera.

Birds, birds, and more birds.  

The cloud conditions change, and all the lighting changes with them. 

Not everybody had as enjoyable a day as I did.  With that many birds concentrated in an area, there's bound to be a few whose time has come and who fall from the sky.  

Apparently he or she never made it back to the nest.  The entire area shoreward of the high tide line was roped off to safeguard the nests as we are at the height of breeding season.  

I promised myself I would not stuff my pockets with more shells than I could ever have a place or a use for.  I promised myself that I would collect just one single shell.  This was it.  

These markers were for a twentysomething male who was killed at this location, reportedly because he was doing donuts in the sand and flipped his vehicle on top of himself, because he wasn't wearing a seat belt (per internet entries).  The loss of life is regrettable, but life often favors those who are judicious in their behavioral decisions.  

Although the density of beachgoers was unexpectedly low, I did see a couple of weird things.

What the hell is that?!  Is it government or private?  Probably private.  Not everyone wants to spend endless DIY hours working on upgrading the electrical system on an Airstream Interstate.  Some other people prefer to work on Jeeps and Westies and Hummers and who knows what else.  

Probably unrelatedly, a military chopper did a low pass with a full complement of missles hanging from its undercarriage.  But I'm not far off the Houston Ship Channel and Texas City Ship Channel and Galveston Ship Channel with all of their special security zones and needs, so that in itself is not that unusual. 

It wouldn't be one of my overnighter blog posts without at least one obligatory back-door view shot.  Or in this case two, because the lighting conditions changed so dramatically and delightfully.

Now it's bluer than blue...

...and now it's gone gray.  

I typically check Instagram prior to turning in for the night, and thus came the day's second odd alignment.

What are electrical, water, and sewer hook-ups?

As is often the case, I slept unusually well in the Interstate, and awoke to this sight.

I first came to greater Houston 31 years ago, and not once in all that time have I ever seen the sun rise on the beach.  Last year we even stayed a night in Galveston Island State Park, but it was socked in with fog, and I saw nothing. 

I wasn't the only one who was happy to greet the new day.

A blur in the morning twilight, my dog tearing around as fast as her legs could carry her. 

The moment of truth.

How a propos that my first beach sunrise occurs on the day when I'm testing our new solar system. 

And speaking of that solar system, what about that third odd alignment?  I said it had to do with the oceangoing vessel that had cut our ferry's path the day before, as I was en route to the Flats to further test our Interstate's solar and lithium battery system.  Look closely at this pic - can you see it?

Maybe not, because you're reading this on a tiny little cell phone, aren't you?  So let me zoom in for you.

Advantage solar - no doubt about it.  To boldly go where no solar-lithium van has gone before!  But what are the odds on that name??

Sol is my new best friend.