Saturday , 4/3/21: Port O’Connor | |
For a throw away day, it was pretty action packed. We saw a sign for a Saturday market just 5 miles down the road towards Port Indianola, a little town we were heading towards anyway. The market was tiny, but it was right on the Gulf, the people were friendly, and the guy booked to provide the music entertainment was really good. Armed with a 12 string guitar, a foot-switch operated vocal harmonizer, and a terrific voice, he sounded great. He blew me away when he nailed Stevie Windwood’s high notes in “Can’t Find My Way Home”. The highlight of the market was the traveling tavern run by two friendly gals. | |
The Saturday market was tiny, but it was right on the Gulf coast. | |
I guess he calls himself Magnus. I looked it up and it means “great”. OK, a bit pretentious but he really was darn good. | |
The traveling tavern seems like a great idea. | |
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Originally named Indian Point, Port Indianola is the end of the line for Hwy 316. For being such a small village in nowheresville, it sure has a large history. Founded by Germans for Germans in the 1840s, it was once an important commercial community. Alas, Galveston and then Houston eclipsed Port Indianola by a long shot. The origin of the name Indianola is kind of interesting. As previously mentioned, the original name was Indian Point, so they kept the “Indian” part of the original name. “Ola” was added because it is Spanish for wave, like an ocean wave. They added this because of the waves of German people coming to the area.
One other Port Indianola tidbit is that Angelina Eberly, the crazy lady that saved Austin with her canon (I had mentioned a few days back), had a thriving hotel in Port Indianola. At the time, she was worth some $50,000, which was a princely sum back then.
There are other towns called Indianola in the US. BB King made Indianola, Mississippi somewhat famous with his album, Indianola Mississippi Seeds, one of my favorite BB King albums. I wonder how these other Indianolas got their name.
Anyway, we were surprised by Port Indianola. Port Lavaca is rough around the edges and everywhere else. Magnolia Beach is much nicer but it still has a handful of pack-rat horders with cluttered up yards and broken down shacks. Port Indianola is mostly quite nice, with sturdy colorful homes proudly standing on tall stilts just daring a category 5 hurricane to take them on. Behind the spit of land facing the Gulf that Port Indianola is planted on, is a labyrinth of bayous, bays, lakes, ponds, channels, and back sloughs. It looks like a fisherman’s paradise.
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This is a typical home in Port Indianola. It looks high enough to avoid any hurricane storm surge. | |
Several of the homes had backyards with access to miles of bayous. | |
This area must be a fisherman’s paradise. All these waterways have access to the Gulf. | |
A great Gulf coast scene. | |
I can’t get enough of these homes on stilts. | |
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For a real out-of-the-way town at the end of an obscure road, we suggest Port O’Connor. This place turned out to be a hidden gem. A town of maybe a 1000 people, it is a real beauty. All the homes, mostly all on stilts, are well maintained, colorful, orderly, and proud. The beach is clean and nearly as inviting as Rockport’s beach.
We zig-zagged the streets just because it was such a pleasant day to walk and Port O’Connor was such a pleasant place. In one neighborhood, we ran across a gigantic red trailer converted to a BBQ smoke kitchen. When we showed some interest in the behemoth traveling smoke house, the two friendly gentlemen manning the grill called us over to chat.
They have been competing in BBQ competitions for 18 years and this trailer was their brand new traveling kitchen. They were firing it up for the first time and asked if we’d like to sample some ribs. Well, you don’t have to twist our arms when it comes to Texas BBQ, our new favorite meat choice. They used a light coating of a sweet sauce in the beginning of their grilling, but that was it as far as sauce goes. The ribs were delicious and we practically gnawed the bone down to a nub, like a dog, to get every hint of flavor. BBQ competitions are serious business in Texas.
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The homes in Port O”Connor were wonderful pastel castles. | |
The beach at Port O’Connor. We believe it was low tide in this picture and that in high tide most of this sand is underwater. Well, that is our theory. | |
These two guys are competitive BBQers. This is their brand new trailer. We got to sample their award winning ribs (actually, they didn’t say if they ever won any awards, but the ribs were tasty). Here, they are showing off a slow smoked half chicken. I almost snatched it. | |
This house, with the great observation deck and cupola, was for sale. | |
This very sea worthy fishing boat is a far cry from the decrepit boats just down the road in Seadrift. | |
A subdivision on the water. | |
That looks ominous. I didn’t see any alligators and I was looking pretty hard. I thought that an alligator would make for a great photo - just before being eaten. | |
Lastly, we checked out Seadrift, a small run down port town that was more like Port Lavaca than Port O’Conner. The harbor at Seadrift was large with scores of working boats, but none looked sea worthy to me. Yet people were tending to their nets and stocking their bait, many getting ready to launch. | |
Seadrift’s harbor berthed a lot of hard working fishing boats. | |
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Once back at V-Jer, I hauled out my guitar and Spark 40 amp for the first time. It felt great to wail on my guitar while playing my tracks. Little Sparky did its job well.
Our new neighbor complimented me. That felt good. They are full-time RVers, however, this was their first boondocking experience. They are traveling in a homemade converted van. The husband snuck over to the US from Cuba and spoke little English. The wife said they were married for 24 years. While on the road, they pick up odd jobs to support themselves. Their favorite job is camp hosting. They also work at vineyards and at markets and basically anything they can nail down. She said about her husband, “he doesn’t speak much English, but he can work hard.” I think she pimps him out for work.
The campground is filling up for the Easter weekend. There are some huge monster rigs set up. One 5th wheel has a record 5 bump-outs. I have noticed that a lot of people in Texas put their RVs and/or monster trailers under a metal-roof carport and live in them full-time, not bothering with a house. On the other end of the spectrum are several small tents set up by the water. V-Jer, of course, is well on the smaller end of the spectrum - we like it just the way it is.
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Local wild spring flowers. | |
This map gives an idea of our area. We are camping at Magnolia Beach. Indianola and Port O’Conner are very nice “un-touristy” places. Port Lavaca and Seadrift are pretty rough. | | | | |
