Drill Baby Drill

We stayed at a mobile home community between Houston and Galveston. It has about 11 sites set aside for RV’ers. It’s far enough from the Interstate that you don’t hear the traffic. The residents are quiet, except for the guy who starts up his motorcycle at 3:30 a.m. every morning. 

The day before we visited Galveston, David went online and found a bike trail in Galveston. In the morning he loaded the bikes in the truck. Half-way to Galveston he realized that the back wheels were still in the trailer, so we turned around to get them. I didn’t have high expectations of Galveston. I had heard that it’s pretty run-down. The drive there is unattractive--oil refineries and strip malls the entire way. When you first drive onto the island, it’s ugly. There’s nothing natural. It’s totally developed with wall to wall ugly stores and businesses. A brown haze sits on top. Once you get farther onto the island, some of the residential areas are nice, and there is some nature in the form of a few small, manicured parks. 
We drove down Seawall Blvd. A white-sand beach is on one side, hotels and restaurants on the other. The bike trail was the sidewalk next to the beach. In some places there was a sheer drop-off of several feet, dangerous if you’re on a bike. Lots of people were walking on the sidewalk. “I don’t want to bike on that,” said David. 

We got some information from the visitor’s center. Then we had a picnic at Kempner Park. It was pretty with big trees and some columned remains of a building. 
We walked over to a picnic table and spread out our plastic tablecloth. A man nearby was holding his unleashed dog. He said his dog would run over but was friendly and wouldn’t bite. He let go of the dog. The big dog raced over to us and jumped onto the table. The man yelled at him. The dog jumped down, ran back to the man, turned around and rushed back to us, jumping on the table again. This happened repeatedly until the man grabbed his dog and took him to the far end of the park. Our tablecloth was torn, but at least we hadn’t put food on the table!

Parts of Galveston are run down and poor-looking. Other neighborhoods are nice, with elegant renovated Victorian homes. The hurricane of 1900 pretty much razed the island and killed around 8,000 people. In 2008, hurricane Ike did significant damage, and, according to the woman at the visitor’s center, 25% of the population just picked up and left. 

After our picnic we paid $8 each to visit Exxon’s Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum. The museum clearly explains every aspect of drilling from start to finish with detailed exhibits, models, videos and equipment. Off-shore drilling is a huge operation that involves seismology, geology, engineering, etc. Part of the museum is an actual decommissioned oil rig. You can walk around two levels of platforms and see all the equipment. “Safety First” signs are everywhere. No mention is made of the 2010 BP oil rig explosion and spill that killed 11 people, released over 205 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, impacted 320 miles of Louisiana shoreline, destroyed the livelihood of many fishermen and killed who knows how much marine life. 

No oil drilling accident is mentioned or even the potential for one. After visiting the museum you would think offshore drilling is the best thing ever invented with no drawbacks whatsoever. Nothing negative at all is mentioned. There is even an extensive section on how off-shore drilling has benefited marine life and improved their habitat. Maybe they should pay us to visit the museum!

There weren’t as many tourists on this side of the island compared to the beach side. There are a few other museums on Harborside Blvd. The Strand, a street of upscale shops and restaurants, is touristy but attractive and reminiscent architecturally of New Orleans. After that we stopped and looked at some fancy mansions, including the medieval castle-looking Bishop’s Palace. All in all Galveston is worth a visit, if only to reflect on its past and present intricacies.