Boondocking.

Red flag: Magnolia Beach, Texas.

____ Day 8: Away from Schulenburg, mid-morning, onto Victoria with a long shopping list of everything we will need for the next installment of the adventure. We are entering the World of Boondocking with supplies from Wally’s World. Boondocking is the name given to living off the grid in a RV without paying anything for your parking spot. Facilities will be sparse, distant or non-existent and all food and water has to be taken for the planned length of stay in your chosen wilderness. Boondocking sites were once passed on by word of mouth or found by chance but now there is an app for your phone and plenty of information on the Internet. Magnolia Beach is on Google Maps along-side the words “Free RV Camping.” We arrived at 2.30 in the afternoon and neatly split the 200 yard gap between two travel trailers. 

____ Day 9: Our arrival in warm sunshine was followed by a stormy night and the worry of possible beach erosion. Parked only 20 yards from the high-tide line; I got dressed and went out to check the safety of the Mack, twice. Fortunately the beach is made up of hard-packed crushed sea-shells and very little sand; there was no noticeable difference to the shore-line throughout the day as the rain and strong winds continued until dusk. Magnolia Beach is on the mainland side of the Intra-Coastal Waterway and sheltered from the Gulf of Mexico by Matagorda Island. It was a day to stay inside, play crib and wonder if we had picked a good time to visit the South Texas coast.

____ Day 10: There are two types of Boondocker: the Nomad and the Snowbird. The Snowbirds are from the frozen North and escaping from the cold, harsh North American Winters; the Nomads are living full-time in RVs and each and every one is escaping from something or other. With an overcast but dry Saturday; we had a chance to meet many of our neighbours as Snowbirds and Nomads came to check-out the ex-fire truck on the beach.

____ Day 11: Another dull but dry day as we rode the bikes to the nearby village of Indianola; once the largest seaport in Texas before hurricanes destroyed the town in the 1860’s and Galveston took away the sea traffic. Now it is the site of a few scattered houses on stilts and the Indianola Fishing Marina. We took advantage of the all-you–can-eat pancake breakfast as plenty of veterans came to fish-free on Remembrance Day. The solar panels struggled to keep up with the demand of the last few cloudy days and the generator was needed to give the house batteries a charge; the first time since the system’s installation. Probably due to the shorter daylight hours of November with the interior lights being used so much more. Might need to get some candles. 

Parked by the shore at Magnolia Beach

The first camels in America arrived at Indianola shortly before the Ameican Civil War. They fought for the South.

Our neighbours on the hard-packed shingle beach.

Many local buildings have suffered from the ravages of the wind.

Big ships and barges pass close to shore as they navigate the Intracoastal Waterway.