Texas Archives | Page 6 of 9 | Funky Texas Traveler

Jun 03 2017

Guadalupe River Choices – from Luxury to Camping

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.

Ask three Texans about their favorite Guadalupe River Escapes and you will get three answers that are poles apart.

In a three part series, a couple of us got together to tell you where we think you’ll get the most out of your trip to the river.

Eric Johansen kicks off the series below. Eric swears by the River Inn in Hunt, Texas where you can just sit back and relax or use the Inn as a base to explore Kerrville, Lost Maples and other Texas treasures.

For a more rustic river experience, Mick Mikulenka is a die-hard Waltonia Lodges fan, also on Highway 39 outside of Ingram. Waltonia has been around since 1923 and connects you to an earlier, more simple time spent at the river but with some updates.

In the last of the series, I’ll share a story about camping and tubing on the River Road near New Braunfels many years ago. You need to experience this Texan rite of passage and do the River Road camp/tube thing at least once in your life.

It’s going to be a long summer. Why not try all three? [Read more…]

May 17 2017

Tubing & Camping on River Road – Guadalupe

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.

Most go Texas tubing on the Guadalupe River while still in Pampers Easy Ups – Lucky Kids!

I was relatively late to this party, having grown up on Marine Corps bases on the east and west coast. For me, fun in the water meant one of three things. The easiest was jumping through a sprinkler, usually after a fresh mowing so that tiny little trims of grass clung to your wet feet and calves.

Or our parents would help us set up a bright yellow Slip N Slide Wave Rider , strategically stretched out in the yard to avoid roots and rocks that would shorten our ride and the Slip N Slide longevity. With my little, prepubescent belly, I looked like an emperor penguin tobogganing to the sea. Or we went to the beach. I don’t remember any other option until I was a preteen.

Texas tubing on the Guadalupe for the first time

[Read more…]

Mar 28 2017

Galveston – A City Frozen in Time

How the 1900 Storm shaped Galveston

Galveston’s sudden destruction in the 1900 storm helped create a jewel on the Texas coast that you can explore endlessly. She feels like a Victorian coastal city preserved in amber, almost like a Pompeii. (To skip a little history lesson and get to enjoying Galveston, click here.)

1024px-The_William_Lewis_Moody_Home-690x400 Galveston - A City Frozen in Time — ***By I am Jim (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia***

On September 8, 1900, Galveston had a population of 36,000 people and was flush with financial power and prestige. When sun rose the next morning, an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 had died in the deadliest natural disaster in US history. In comparison, Pompeii lost only 2,000 of her 20,000 residents in the eruption of Vesuvius.

Galveston before and after the storm

Maybe if Galveston had aged more gradually, she wouldn’t be so unique. Before Sept 8, 1900, Galveston was the belle of the southern port cities. With a stranglehold on shipping west of New Orleans, she built an ornate business district in the Strand, palatial mansions and houses of worship that looked like stone wedding cakes.

Galveston_-_1900_homes-Public-domain-via-Wikimedia-Commons-690x400 Galveston - A City Frozen in Time — **[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons**

After the storm, the area north of Broadway was torn up but a wall of debris from beach front neighborhoods mitigated the storm surge somwhat. The area south of Broadway looked like a weed eater whacked it down to the soil. Human and animal carcasses lay where the water had receded. [Read more…]

Mar 10 2017

South Padre Island’s Pet Rescuers

Taking your dog to the beach is fun for both you and your pup. But sometimes your dog bolts and gets away. Bad people sometimes bring their dogs and cats to the Texas coast to leave them.

Cash got lucky

That’s probably what happened to Cash (short for Johnny Cash), a four-month old Australian Shepherd mix. He was eating out of a garbage can outside the Denny’s on South Padre Island, his stomach distended. Cash was very lethargic. Some caring Islander drove him up Padre Boulevard to the South Padre Island Friends of Animal Rescue storefront. After seeing a vet and getting treated, he recuperated nicely surrounded by two-legged and four-legged companions.

A tiny and humble animal rescue group

The southern tip of the longest barrier island in Texas (and the world) will be overrun for most of March by Spring Breakers. In April, Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) will bring thousands of families from throughout the Rio Grande Valley and Mexico to the beach.

South Padre Island Friends of Animal Rescue storefront will take care of the lost or abandoned animals like Cash. Others are like Hope, hit by a car and left on the road until somebody carried her to the Friends. Now minus her front leg, Hope is a bit of an island celebrity. And this tiny and humble no-kill animal rescue is a happy and uplifting place. It’s not the big budget organization that runs depressing, late-night commercials of sad-eyed dogs and cats who then haunt your dreams.

Hop-a-long Hope at the South Padre Island Friends of Animal Rescue

[Read more…]

Mar 02 2017

Visting Terlingua – Big Bend ghost town that refused to die!

Terlingua, a Big Bend ghost town refuses to die.

Like thousands of other little towns in Texas, Terlingua ghost town would have dried up and blown away were it not for Texans’ reverence for chili And the advent of our brand of outlaw country music.

JerryJeffWalkerVivaTerlingua Visting Terlingua - Big Bend ghost town that refused to die! — What was a Terlingua? Jerry Jeff Walker

Jerry Jeff Walker’s 1973 live album, Viva Terlingua introduced Texas anthems like “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” and “London Homesick Blues” with that unforgettable line about going “home with the armadillos.

Chili and Texas Outlaw Country Music saved Terlingua

I’m not sure Jerry Jeff had been to Terlingua at that time of the album’s creation. Walker recorded Viva Terlingua at Luckenbach, another Texas town that owes its continued existence to Willie and Waylon and the Boys.

But chili legends Wick Fowler and Frank X. Tolbert knew it well. And in 1967, they chose the town as ground zero for their impossibly ambitious Terlingua International Championship Chili Cook-off. [Read more…]