Love Bugs! And Museums

 

Today I arrived in Rockport, Texas, a small town on the Gulf of Mexico.  After the long drive yesterday, I had a colony of love bugs smashed all over the front of my 5th wheel.  The truck wasn't so bad because I had cleaned the windshield the previous night so I could see to drive today.  After I set up and unhooked the trailer, I got in the bed of the pickup so that I could stand comfortably to try to get the love bug guts off the fiberglass.  For those of you who don't know about love bugs - you are SO lucky!   These bugs float through their lives blissfully connected to a mate - until they meet with a passing car, truck or RV.  For some reason, they dry into something that could pass as blobs of crazy glue - the residue is that tenacious.

I was up there rubbing all sorts of fluids on this mess to see what would remove them and not damage the finish.  A neighbor came over to see what I was working on and said he had something that would work.  He brought back a spray bottle and a rag and proceeded to demonstrate that it was actually removing the dried mess.  OK, I like that, still lots of rubbing, but it looked like it was working better than what I had.  Of course, it was in an area that I had already attempted with some of my stuff, but  I have no idea if that helped or not.  Then he showed me the spray bottle - a spray on wax for vehicles.   OK, I'm game, I'll try anything if it works - but that required a trip to the store. 

On my way to the store, I saw the Maritime Museum that I planned on seeing while I was here.  Big decision - get the wax and work all afternoon, or wander around a museum about ships and oceans?  No contest.  I pulled in the parking lot nearby and went over to the museum. 

One of their major exhibits was about a French ship named LaBella that came over in 1684 with 3 other ships.  It sank in Matagorda Bay during a storm and was not found until 1995, in only 20' of water.  They excavated parts of the ship, many artifacts, cannons and other weapons, as well as the remains of a human.  Some of the artifacts are in this museum, while others are housed in other museums. 

Other exhibits included information about warships used in the area, information about offshore oil and gas exploration, lighthouses and many others such as fishing equipment and antique outboards, such as the 1950 Chris Craft shown below.

Remembering my mission to get the wax for bug removal, I left there and was walking to the truck when I noticed that there was an aquarium nearby that I had been planning to see.......