Farewell, Airstream and farewell, friends

Taking small roads past tiny towns, ramshackle housing, shrimp trucks, fancy condos on stilts and the skeletons of older houses destroyed by Hurricane Ike, we arrived at Galveston Island State Park.
It was here that we would spend our final night in the Airstream, and our final evening with Dan and Marlene.
So we all had a farewell dinner of sorts.
With the wind picking up and evidence of weather destruction abounding, we selected a spot on the inner lagoon rather than on the blustery Gulf itself.
Gaping at the glorious orange and fuchsia pre-storm sunset, we started out with Daniel’s famous homemade margaritas (and apple juice for the older girls), before moving on to snacks and salads. Working by the light of the full moon and their trusty headlamps, Daniel and Dan worked hard over a tiny barbeque, returning with stacks of fat shrimp, steaks, bacon and tuna.
It was a fun night, so we went to bed reluctantly, knowing that we wouldn’t be back in the Airstream for months.
We awoke the next morning, taking extra time over breakfast before tackling the task of cleaning and packing up the Airstream for its voyage across the Atlantic. By that evening – after a late lunch with Dan and Marlene at IHOP across the street from a choppy Gulf – we had dropped off the trailer for shipping. We were no longer Trailer People.