The Ferry Ride...

On leaving the scene of the wedding last week we decided to meander up the coast, seeing what we could see and taking a ferry ride between Galveston and Bolivar. It's an old custom in Cathy's family, taking a ferry ride. They knew all the ferry names and would bet on which one they got to board. It is pretty much imbedded in our family history also. If it were possible to show old school video tapes made on our family vacation ferry rides you would see that most everyone got their hair pooped in while feeding the gulls off the back of the boat. We stayed to the front of the boat this time and the only pooping was done by Ezra in his pants when the boat whistle sounded unexpectedly.  

Shrimper in the ship channel. Lots of boat traffic in the Houston Ship Channel and the Freeport Channel as well. Looks like boats coming in empty and leaving full.  

That's a big one there. 

Here you see another ferry winding it's way among the bigger traffic. 

I tried to time this shot so it looked like a near miss. These big boats left a muddy trail as their powerful props churned near the bottom. 

Pop had asked me if the concrete ship was still there so I made a photo of it for him. That's the S.S. Selma. It's made of concrete, an experiment when steel was in short supply during WW1. It launched in 1919 in Mobile, Alabama and served ports in the Gulf till 1922 when she grounded on a jetty in Tampico and cracked her hull. She was towed to Galveston for repairs but eventually deemed not worth it and grounded in the bay. 

Note the dolphin in the foreground. We saw quite a few and one inquisitive lady who happened to be standing by me on the ferry deck asked if they would bite. I really don't know if dolphins will bite or not but I have been wade fishing the surf and had a group of them fishing right there with me within yards of where I stood and They did not bite me so I told the lady no, they are not fish, they are mammals. 

The lady said "Like dinosaurs?' 

I said "mammals, Like you and me." 

Now this lady was probably the age of my older children or there about. I would guess at her school they did not talk about dinosaurs very much and dolphins not at all. Wonder what they talk about in school these days? 

My first experience with dolphins was at the Bolivar side of the ferry landing while fishing off a jetty there. I was in my early 20s and visiting a friend who lived in Galveston. It was late at night when we walked out the jetty to fish and he forgot something and headed back to the car. The jetty was lit to attract fish and while standing there waiting on my friend a school of dolphins began cavorting and feeding at the edge of the light. Now an old East Tex boy like me had not ever seen such and I figured they were dolphins but taking no chances on missed opportunity I dug in my tackle box for the largest, heaviest lure I had and began flinging out into the school. Like I said, dolphins don't bite and my lure went untouched.     

Looks like the life boat on the ferry has the same outboard I do. It's a slightly older model but if it's good enough for the ferry it good for me.