Gulf Coast of Texas

 

Magnolia Beach, TX

I had an uneventful overnight at the rest area, got an early start towards the Gulf Coast. When I was looking for a place to camp, I found dispersed camping at  Magnolia Beach  so I made sure I went to check it out. The beach faces northeast on Magnolia Bay. There were quite a few places to park and camp. It looked like all the others parked on the beach were fishing. I didn't trust what I read online, so I booked a county campground up the coast, but this place would have worked fine. I parked on the beach and made lunch and then took a quick walk down to a virtual cache at the end. 

Quintana Beach

Quintana Beach County Park is right on the coast and right next to Freeport LNG Propane where they process deliver and transfer to ships. There were very large ships coming and going the whole time I was there.  After dark, their deck lights lite up the whole campground. 

I enjoyed the weekend walking on the beach and riding the Jangurandi and finding the geocaches in the area. The was a geocache right in the park, only about 400' from my space. I went out to the Quintana jetty and talked to locals fishing. They were catching "Speckled Trout" about 16 to 20 inches.  This really put me in a Jimmy Buffett mood, "get jalost in the reggae mon and walk along the beach."  

👀Here is a link to my Photos. 👀

Quintana Beach

Jagurandi

 

Boulder Beach Campground - Lake Mead Recreation Area - Hoover Dam

04032026 - 04052026  Popular campground for Boaters and Family Weekends. I arrived just after lunch and got all set up in space 13. The campground was pretty full which is expected for a holiday. This is a nice area for the e-bike, so I unpacked Jagurandi and took off down to the beach area. I spoke with a Park Ranger that golf-carted by and received a great introduction to the Historic Railroad Trail. You can ride all the way to the Hoover Dam and the other way, all the way into Boulder City. The Ranger gave me maps and directions. 

Ready for some supper, I returned to camp and started to make a salad. That is when I noticed the refrigerator was not staying cold. It was getting power, but the compressor was not running. After finishing my supper, I decided to give it until the morning, thinking that it will work itself out and start running. In the morning I used Ai to help me troubleshoot and through this troubleshooting process I determined the problem was a component that cannot practically be replaced. For example: start relay, overload protector, control board or a locked compressor. So I ordered a new refrigerator. To be delivered on the 7th. So I will be heading home to receive and install. But before I do that, I can last another night without the refrigerator and I still need to ride to the Hoover Dam.

At about 1400 I took off on the e-bike, a 6+ mile ride to the Dam on the Historic Railroad trail that goes through a series of tunnels where the railway delivered materials and parts for the Dam. When the building was over, the railway just rotted away until they made it into a hiking/biking trail. The ride was easy on a e-bike but it was epic nonetheless. The views were outstanding and the tour of the Hoover Dam was nice. There was a Virtual cache at the Dam site about a Dog that worked with the builders. Tragically, one day the dog was killed when a truck ran over him. There is a plaque memorial at the spot it happened. 

With the ride complete, I went and bought a bag of ice to keep cool until I return home tomorrow. In the morning, ready to pull out, I discovered all the 110V outlets were not working! Now what? To be continued………….

Here are the photos I took