Victoria Texas

Making our way to the Padre Islands, we keep getting nearer the coast. We saw some Hurricane Harvey damage in the Houston area – a lot of their public parks are still closed due to in-cleared debris and other damage. When we got to Victoria Texas we saw even more clear signs of Harvey. Even the RV park we were reserved in took a bunch of damage to their tiki huts near their pool area.

We also found crews occupying all of the RV parks in the areas hit by Harvey. I know that these crews are performing a much-needed service in this hard-hit area.
But its also hard to ignore the fact that these crews are also taking advantage of huge potential income opportunity. Hopefully most of the focus is on the first thought and the second aspect is simply an outcome.

When in Churchill Manitoba looking at Polar Bears, one of the Canadian couples told us that the best barbeque they had ever had was at Mumphords Place in Victoria Texas. So, even though we had been to Victoria before, we made a stop here just to take in Mumphords Place. While it was really good and we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere, were not sure that Rudy’s barbeque isn’t just a bit tastier, and a little easier to find.

We hit a gem in Victoria we never expected to find. Founded in 1854 it turns out that this area was occupied by Europeans two hundred years earlier. The Museum of the Costal Bend introduced us to the first European settlement in Texas. In 1685, very near Victoria, Robert Cavelier de La Salle, in search for the mouth of the Mississippi River, missed and found himself near current day Victoria Texas. He established a settlement here, called Fort St. Louis in deference to the King of France that funded his expedition.

The museum is dedicated to the remains of one of La Salle’s ships that was found in Matagorda Bay. La Salle loaded all the primary supplies onto the La Belle so that a warship could return to France and be re-provisioned. The La Belle sank in a storm, and its remains were discovered in the 1970’s. Louis XIV had backed the La Salle mission because all the new wealth of Spain was coming from silver mines in northern Mexico. Louis XIV figured that if the French could establish a foothold in Texas, they could eventually loot the Spanish mines and maybe concur them entirely. Sadly, the mission failed, and the occupants of Fort St. Louis were ultimately killed by local natives.

Talk to you soon!