Awake: 6:42am Temp 66 sleep 6+27 sunny overnight @ Galveston Island, TX.
Gary & I walk the beach strip for an hr of good leg & jaw exercise. When I return, Kathy reports a phone call from our cousin Florentz, telling her that our cousin Joe passed away on Tuesday @ 79 yrs; I was saddened to hear that.
We like this campground location; so I drive over to Park Headquarters & sign up for another day (Friday). Saturday is already booked up otherwise I would have reserved that day as well.
@ 10:30 the (4) of us ride into town & this time, Lady Garmin lead us directly to the Walgreen store we couldn’t locate yesterday. Gary goes in to order a refill on his blood pressure medicine to be picked up later.
Then we tour the Ashton Villa, the oldest mansion on Broadway Street and a pacesetter for lavish high-Victorian lifestyle in Galveston in the late 1800s. Built in 1859, when Broadway was an unpaved dividing line between in-town neighborhoods & large “outlots” toward the beach. This mansion was one of Texas’ first brick homes and also featured ornate cast-iron porches, elaborate mantel-work, indoor plumbing & “gasolier” (a chandelier for burning gas) lighting. This home also survived deep flooding & served as a refuge during the 1900 Great Storm. It was the site of the first Juneteenth where slaves learned that they were free on June 19, 1865. No picture taking was allowed; that makes it difficult for copying any good ideas for when we build our future home. Our tour guide Jose, was the best!
Just (2) blocks down the street, another famous mansion with another tour& sad to say, another restriction on no picture taking. The Moody mansion, built in 1895, at a cost of $250,000, had 42 rooms covering 28,000 sq.ft. Mrs. Narcissa Willis had this mansion built after her husband died….she herself passed away a few yrs after the house was finished. Then along came the great storm. The heirs of the mansion, living in New York City, heard about Galveston Island being wiped off the map…..assumed that the mansion had little or no value, & accepted an offer from W.L. Moody Jr. of $20,000. Turns out, like the Bishops Palace & the Ashton Villa, these homes were located on a little higher ground, were very well built & had minimal damage. It was the first house to have a steel frame construction. The Moody family lived in and made this luxurious mansion the center of their family and business life for the next 50 yrs.
In 1982, the Moody mansion went through a complete renovation @ a mere cost of 22 million dollars. This place was phenomenal, to say the least!
Now Gary has a plan: pick up his medicine, than eat an early dinner @ Casey’s restaurant on Seawall Blvd. He will buy the food, I will buy the drinks. So with wine or beer, we have a great dinner meal. Kathy has a seafood plate & I have fried oysters with shrimp soup.
We do some casual grocery shopping @ Kroger before returning to our campground @ 6:45pm. Now we have to say our goodbyes & safe traveling to G & G. They plan to leave early tomorrow morning taking about (3 to 5 days) to return home. It was really nice having those guys to pal around with. Grace and Kathy enjoyed being together and shared in making some delicious meals. We did some good touring together & always had a lot to talk about. I learned so much from Gary….I just can’t talk about it. He’s my hero: the Aqua-hot leak is fixed & we are thankful to Gary for that & also thankful that he is feeling so much better health wise. We will miss them; it was great fun!
Late movie: “Island in the Sky” with John Wayne, Lloyd Nolan, Walter Abel, James Arness, Andy Devine, etc. Transport plane goes down in snowy Labrador & the crew's flying buddies devote all their energies to locating them. Meanwhile, pilot Wayne has to keep his crew's spirits up as they try to survive in frigid weather with little food & no heat. 1953. Airplanes, if you're an airplane enthusiast, it's for you.
High temp=70 Lights out:11:59pm
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