Day 61 - March 9th - Last Resort RV Resort

Finally we see the Gulf of Mexico.
After breakfast and domestic cleaning up around ELTORO went on a little familiarization tour of our surroundings. Headed east along the Gulf on the access immediately along the water. Stopped frequently to take snaps of the water, the seabirds, the piers ( everyone seems to have one 1/4 mile out into the Gulf), and just generally wandered along taking in the sites. Went by one area where some seafood restaurants were conveniently placed adjacent to the street. Now you know Denice's nose for food. Well it smelled so darn good that we had to stop and have lunch. The place was called "Moon Dog". We chose to eat outside as the weather is HOT and HUMID here. It was a little breezy, but OK. Took a while for our food to come, but that was OK as we were right on the beach and found the movement of the boats, and the seabirds interesting to us "Landlubbers". Denice even lucked out and got a great shot of a dolphin, that we are sharing here. After lunch of Blackened Tuna, and a fillet of some kind of other fish (I'm not sure what it was as the menu didn't say, but it was the special of the day, and it was good) we continued down the coast and over the Causeway over Copano Bay to Lamar. This is about a two mile long causeway with an elevated bridge in the center to allow boat passage. From there we turned right, toward Goose Island State Park. It was getting on in the day so we decided to leave the state park for another day, and just go and see the "Big Tree". We had been advised that we had to go and see it, and it is truly remarkable.
The Big Tree of Lamar is one of the most famous in the world.The giant live oak is a charter member of the Live Oak Society of America, and has been the subject of one of Ripley's "Believe It or Not" cartoons.
It is measured to be more than 35 feet in circumference, 44 feet in height and has a crown spread of 89 feet. The Texas Forest Service estimates the tree to be over 1,000 years old.
The Big Tree is also known as the Lamar Oak, Bishop's Oak and the Goose Island Oak. It is recognized as the State Champion Coastal live oak. It is said to have been a council tree for the Carancahua Indians and for the white men who came after them.

We had originally planned on buying some groceries today, but tomorrow is another day. We just bought a loaf of bread at the Shell Service Station Convenience Store and went home a cooked some wennies on the Barbie and had "Hot Dogs" for supper. Some times the simple easy meal just hits the spot!! After supper met our next door neighbors. They are what we would call locals as they are only from Houston, and come this direction quite often for a week or so. They are a good source of info for Texas, so will grill them a little more as time goes on to find the interest spots in Texas. They did tell me that if going on to Florida, we should not spent too much time in Mississippi and Lousianna, as in those states they still seem to think the Civil War is still going on. In Florida the state park in Destin is a must. It is an all service state park, maybe a little expensive at about $35/night, but in a beautiful forest with a 3 mile long beach!!! Checking on themap I find that Destin is on the Gulf, but up near the top of Florida. Did a quick calculation on "Streets and Trips" and find it only 788 miles from here. It would sure be nice, buy since we are committed here for a month, I guess will have to wait for another year.