Mammoth Goes After Spring Migration, Day 4

Sunday 10 April 2022

Double Lake to Sea Rim State Park
Planned time: 2:17
Actual time: 3:01

Travel day to Sea Rim State Park. The day started off normal and even a little boring, which is good for a travel day. But then, expecting only a two-hour-fifteen-minute trip, we decided to stop at the Love's Travel Stop in Beaumont for gas even though it was a little out of our way.

Hate you, google maps! It was a whole lot out of the way, and the route you plotted took us on tiny back roads that were barely suitable for an RV. And then the connector from the Love's back onto I-10 going eastbound were not functional due to road construction. We had the choice of going back on the back roads or go westbound until we could exit onto a road that went southeast.

I chose westbound and I think it was a good choice, but it added fifteen minutes onto our trip. On the other hand, it let us avoid Beaumont and Nederland entirely--definitely good places to avoid.

The other issue with travel was wind--a strong, gusty south wind. When we were heading into it, it slowed us down, and when we were heading across it, it buffeted us around like a misdirected sail. Awful driving conditions, just awful.

On the way we saw a swallow-tailed kite!

You can tell when we're getting close:

We ended up making the drive in almost exactly three hours, and then we ended up having to wait at least ten minutes to check in.  I'd already advance registered and printed out my car and RV stickers, and of course they printed them out again. The Texas State Parks online registration website is excellent, but it has a certain persistent disconnect with the folks on the ground. I often print out the stickers at home and then I never end up using them.

In any event, we arrived at two p.m. and had plenty of time for walks and rests and then preparing sushi and tempura vegetables for a huge dinner. So much for my diet.

The ocean, at last!  And not too happy to see us.

 

A tern, a something, and a couple of something elses. Darn ocean birds.

 

Blue-winged teal, male following female.

Laughing gull