On the way out to Brownsville, we took the most direct route after leaving the Florida panhandle. But on the way back home we wanted to drive along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast as much as possible. That meant that we were going to have to take ferries on the way back (they were all free, by the way).

The first ferry landing, at Port Aransas, Texas, was very busy and there was almost no wait. The Texas DOT had about six ferry boats running, although each boat only carried about a dozen vehicles. In our RV, it almost felt like we were RVing at sea!

Here’s a sister ship to the ferry boat we were on at Port Aransas:

The next ferry ride was on a much larger vessel. This one carried about 50 vehicles, including several RVs. There was only one ferry boat running, so there was a little wait at the ferry landing. This crossing – at Galveston, Texas – was about a 20 minute ride across one of the busiest harbors along the Texas coast, the ship channel into Galveston Bay that leads to Houston.

Dale enjoyed feeding the seagulls from the stern with a couple other ladies.

There were a number of tugs pushing oil barges through the channel as we crossed.

Further on up the road, after crossing into Louisiana, we made our final sea voyage at Cameron. The ferry here was a side loader, so we unhooked the Jeep and Dale drove on board first. The captain had me load last, right across the bow of the boat, so that I would be the first one off.

We had a freeloader on the crossing, too lazy to fly across the channel, I suppose.

After this last ferry crossing, we drove through the Louisiana bayou that has been ravaged by recent hurricanes. It was an interesting drive. There were many bare concrete slabs and foundations where houses had been blown away and many people seem to have decided not to rebuild, opting, instead, to live in RVs with outbuildings and pole barns to shade them and to store things in. The houses we did see were all brand new, the result of FEMA and flood insurance payouts, no doubt.

You can see that the people that have rebuilt and live here now are anticipating flood conditions in the future:

We spent last night in Defuniak Springs, Florida, and are on our way to Gainesville today to visit Kyle and Kelly again.