Date:         Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:33:34 -0500
Reply-To:     mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject:      Re: brief trip report
In-Reply-To:  <20130412033938.1FD4S.38073.imail@eastrmwml304>
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---- Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET> wrote:
>
> We camped on the beach east of High Island just outside McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge.  This is along a very narrow beach where Texas in its great wisdom had built a highway along the ocean to promote tourism.  Formerly, the highway went all the way to Port Arthur on the Lousiana border.  Flattening dunes to build a highway is not wise.  The highway is no more, some 80 miles of it.  The surf and storm surges over the years collapsed it, and eroded the beach until only a narrow strip remains.  In places, remnants of the highway form a good surface to park and camp.  We took advantage.
>
> However, on the occasion when we were there, though Texas's tidal amplitude is usually only about a foot, and we had checked the tidal forecasts, strong southeasterly winds had built the surf above forecast levels.  We woke in the middle of the night with the van rocking from the wind.  We stepped out to find the surf crashing against the lip of highway that was a couple of feet above the beach, and we thought it better to pack it in.  We retreated to an Audubon Society refuge where members are allowed to camp in a parking lot.  The next day we drove along the beach again, to find that the surf had washed over our former campsite, and tides had been 3 feet above forecast levels due to the unexpected strong winds.  Good thing we had moved.
>
>

Oh, I meant to mention that Bolivar is the town that washed away in Hurricane Ike a few years ago.  That was the giant storm that destroyed or severely damaged a good part of Galveston including closing the medical school there for a year.

Well, I can report that there are more houses than ever in Bolivar, most but not all on  piers 25 feet high .

I remember when most beach houses in Texas were simply cabanas or plywood shacks, expected to wash away on occasion, but no great loss.  People wanted to be at the beach, but watching television in air conditioned comfort was not the point.  The houses there now are permanent residences no different from those in inland cities, except for being up in the air.  There are no dunes left, and nothing is between the houses and the Gulf except nothing.

David McNeely