Our interim solution to riding in the heat is to not ride. With heat indices this last week of 105 to 110, and “dangerous heat” warnings on weather.com, we think our solution is a good one.
Our solution wouldn’t have been possible, however, if not for the friendliness and generosity of three “local workers”. Though their homes are in the Houston area, these three work for a structural steel company out of Houston that has a large local contract at Formosa Chemical plant, just across the bridge from the campground.
The guys stay in trailers down here in Port Lavaca during their workweek (Monday through Thursday noon or so), in a pleasant city-sponsored campground right on the Gulf in Lavaca Bay.
The campground
The Lighthouse Beach campground where we’re staying is a unique little eco-system of its own. Nestled at the foot of the long, attractive bridge leading into town over the Lavaca Bay inlet, the campground has several fishing piers, a parking lot and boat launch, a nature and birding walk, and a bird-watching pavilion.
The campground boasts a small recreation room equipped with its own bathrooms, laundry facilities, a TV, a clean kitchen, a few shelves of books for swapping, and a dozen jigsaw puzzles. The tables are the plastic, fold-out Wal-Mart kind, with simple meeting-hall chairs. In summers, the air conditioning is probably the best part of the recreation room. In spring, winter and fall, I’d bet the porch swing out front is a big attraction.
There are three levels of housing at the campground, as well as day use facilities.
First are the approximately ten tent sites with picnic tables under very small metal pavilions. The sites have trashcans, they’re near bathrooms and showers, but they’ve got no water or electricity, and no shade during the day. They cost only $10 a night, plus the $3 entry fee.
Next are the sites for the weekend or longer-term travel trailers or campers. These sites have concrete pavilions with picnic tables, better shade, a better location than the tent sites, and electricity and running water. These are $35 a night, plus the entry fee.
Finally, there’s a section for the much longer-term residents – those who pay a steady monthly rent. Some of these sites boast shade trees; they all have full hook-ups for water, sewer and electricity, and each one has a picnic table. They’ve got a much quieter location, most of them have a nice view of the bay, and they are near the camp hosts.
Last but not least are the day use facilities, which are the same as the tent sites, in addition to the boat launch and fishing piers. Many day-use folks use the piers for fishing, and large numbers of Mexican families use the picnic/tent areas for extended family get-togethers, especially on weekends.
The bathroom/shower buildings get extremely hot and they attract mosquitoes in droves. Sitting to do your business is a bit disconcerting, as is taking a shower with a small cloud of mosquitoes floating around. The buildings have no breeze, no fan, and no air conditioning. Each stall sports a live crab crawling around; they’re obviously escapees from the local marsh, attracted by the water from the showers.
Considering how beautiful the location is, we’ve been disappointed by the cleanliness standards. The campground is run by the City of Port Lavaca, along with an adjacent public swimming pool. It’s not as bad as some campgrounds we’ve been in, but it seems a shame that the general care is pretty sloppy.
They will put toilet paper in the bathroom stalls, and pick up the big stuff, but they don’t clean the toilets or the floors. The women’s toilet in the recreation room has had the same mess in it for the last ten days. After a busy weekend nine days ago, cans and bottles and shoes and toys were dropped in the water and the marsh areas along the nature walk and birding areas, and they’ve still not been cleaned up.
It’s really a shame considering what incredible potential this place has.
The guys
We have thoroughly enjoyed our new “roommates” and hosts, Chris, Josh and Roger. Chris is 32 and is in his own trailer, borrowed from a friend. Roger is 47, Josh is 28, and the two of them are sharing a trailer Roger bought. We have been staying in one of the bedrooms in Roger’s trailer.
Each of the guys is clean and amazingly tidy. The trailer is quite clean, too, which is very nice for us. They never leave dishes in the sink, they take the trash out every day, and they confine their clothing and personal belongings to their own spaces. Even the bathroom is clean!
Roger, Josh, and Chris are each individual enough to make life interesting, but we’ve realized there’s a certain commonality – they each have a direct and simple approach to things; there’s not a feeling of anything hidden or murky – we can pretty much trust what they say to be what they mean.
They all like to laugh, they all listen, and they all have their own entertaining stories. They’ve been very kind and considerate, never going anywhere without asking us if we need or want something.
All non-smokers, these guys are quite fit in a lifestyle sense of being fit, not the working-out-at-the-gym sense. We love the age range – each one offers a different viewpoint; and we love the way they keep up a steady good-natured banter with each other.
They work outside, and we’ve noticed that outside work tends to mellow people. They also love to fish; the first night here they’d caught a trout off the pier and Roger grilled it for dinner.
We’ve noticed over the years that travel tends to provide a balancing aspect to people, and these guys fall into that. They travel, even if only to various work sites, so they still learn a lot and observe a great deal. Living in somewhat unconventional circumstances like they are – half the week working here and half the week at home in Houston – requires developing a certain set of skills. That makes it a lot easier for us to relate to each other, since we travel full-time, and they can relate to it at least a bit.
Roger is a foreman at the job, while Chris and Josh are crane operators; they’ve worked together over the past few years at least.
We haven’t seen too much of Chris, though he was the first one we met while getting our blogs all written and posted in the recreation room. He went to the store for water, and ended up giving us several bottles so we’d be ready the next day. He also told Roger and Josh about us, causing them to come over and meet us as well.
Josh is the youngest of the three guys (though not by much). Tall and slender, he was extremely good at baseball in high school, so much so that he actually tried out for the Houston Astros. He’s got a very entertaining style of speaking, and is quick with on-the-spot humor; we’ve laughed very hard at his quips more than once.
Josh is quick to help out without being asked – if he sees Roger doing anything that would go easier with help, he’s off immediately to lend a hand.
Roger is the cook of the group. He loves cooking, and it shows in the quality of the meals he’s prepared. We’ve already had a salsa-crab-shrimp dip he made from scratch, grilled jumbo shrimp, grilled trout, fried jumbo shrimp, French fries, chili hot dogs, and grilled steak. He appreciates real veggies – he buys them fresh when he can’t grow his own.
After an incredible dinner the first night, Roger sent Chris out to the store for cheesecake, vanilla Blue Bell ice cream, and Hershey’s chocolate sauce. Talk about heaven on earth!
We love the shopping expeditions – the guys go in together on shopping, buying food for their lunches at work and buying one to two days worth of evening meals at a time. Chelsea and I felt a bit like little chicks following the mother hen around as we roamed the local Wal-Mart looking for interesting things to eat, following Roger around.
Not only is Roger a good cook, he’s a tequila connoisseur, and he knows all the best restaurants locally. On Thursday and Sunday, when the other guys were in Houston, Roger took us to a local Mexican restaurant. I haven’t had a cheese enchilada and chile relleno that good in years and years. Chelsea ordered a different meal each time, so she got a wider sampling than I did, and both her meals were absolutely delicious.
All told, we’re having a peaceful, productive, and entertaining time here with the guys, and we’re incredibly appreciative of being “adopted” during this heat.