Memorial Day Weekend

We hope everyone is enjoying themselves at the mid point of the weekend.

We are for sure. Shari and I ventured to Crystal Beach yesterday afternoon amongst the tourist and weekender's who have come to enjoy their holiday weekend at our beach. The first thing we noticed is our local grocery and gas station was packed with tourist, the High Island motel and cafe are open, the High Island RV Park is nearly full and our local Fruit Stand is alive and well.

As we drove the beach road we noticed that the RV parks were jammed packed, literally hundreds of tents and campers on the thin 9 mile strip of beach between High Island and Gilchrist which narrowwed to a dozen feet to about 75 yards from the road to the water at low tide. It was great to see fishermen, kids playing ball, kites flying, campfire's and coolers on our injured beaches. The giant earth movers were still, some owners working on their land, some just enjoying the weekend.

Gilchrist had what I guess was a 100% increase in houses standing, several new ones and the 9 or so surviving houses roofed, sided and signs of life inside. I guess 20 or more houses are repaired and occupied once again. I counted no less than 18 RV's on old homesites with people living or visiting there this weekend. There are no businesses left in that town except for Coastal Components Construction company, which was nearly wiped away by Ike and now sports a new facility where they build custom modular homes and put them on giant piers with hugh decks below the house....the GOOD news is that there is a brand new row of floor and roof joists in front ready for construction of someone's dream beach home once again.

There are signs posted along Hwy 87 from "Budweiser" which read "Bolivar is Back".....and we must agree. The accommodations at the beach are minimal. Crystal Palace Motel is open, Stingree Restaurant is open, Gulf Coast Market "Big Store" is open and has fuel, and here are 3 or 4 vendors ranging from a "Hot Food" stand to Papa John's portable pizza trailer but take it from me....restrooms are at a premium. If you are not buying, eating, sleeping or paying bring your own porta pottie....walk-in's are not welcome.

All in all it was a good drive and we got to see some more of our displaced friends who have moved back "home". There is a good article in the Beaumont Enterprise on my web site about Crystal Beach and the Bolivar Peninsula in general as well as a story on the front page of the Galveston Daily News .

Today before the Indy 500 we will inventory the food and supplies in the MH since our last two trips were to the repair shop and to the casino...food may be lacking. This gives us time to shop and load for our outing the first week of June. Tomorrow I plan to unload all of the bays and sort the used items from the "space wasted" items which I do this time every year.