“The Voice of the Sea, Speaks to the Soul!“
-Author Unknown
South Padre Island…Our Wet Arrival and the Big Blast!
What can I say?! Laura and I were excited to get to the Gulf Coast of Texas to enjoy the sun and beach life at South Padre Island. Departing from Falcon State Park, however, Mother Nature decided that she wanted to continue to RAIN-ON-OUR-PARADE! Traveling day was a battle through 150 miles of rain and wind, which only intensified by the time we got to our new site. Now, setting up the 5th-wheel isn’t a quick, nor easy job to begin with, but the downpour added a whole new level of fun. And if that wasn’t enough entertainment value for our neighbors already, the park personnel decided to add a twist! They told us to back into our spot, which wasn’t alarming because the sites looked like typical back-in sites. However, because we were trying to rush to get settled, it didn’t register that the services (sewer, water, electrical) were on the wrong side, until we had already backed in, and no, we hadn’t noticed that all of our neighbors’ rigs were situated “front in” (typical only with pull-through sites). Sopping wet, we hopped into the truck, pulled out, found a place to turn around (which ain’t easy with a 44-footer), and then pulled in, “front in” this time.
By the time we were done, we were completely soaked through! We should’ve just changed into our bathing suits to set up. Our comedy show would’ve been ready for prime time. (Also, did you know that the iPhones won’t start charging if they detect moisture in the charging port? Not a good thing to have it pointing up in your back pocket while getting drenched. Laura found that one out the hard way; happily, her hair dryer has a cold-shot button).
One day of rain apparently wasn’t enough, nor was two, or three! After FIVE days, the storm finally blew itself out and the RV park started to come alive, mammals, birds, insects and all. The “locals” (those who’ve adopted South Padre as their winter home) welcomed us by pointing out that Isla Blanca RV Park sits just north of the Space X rocket launch tower located in Boca Chica, and we arrived just in time to view the launch of the SpaceX Starship! We would only need to walk to the jetty for “front row” seats for the launch! Locals were betting whether this particular launch would be successful, since the first launch last April ended in a “big bang and a ball of fire” (no humans or monkeys were harmed, as it had been a remote controlled flight :) ). The launch date was set for Friday, Nov 17th.
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Ostensibly, we were off with a bang! So, what was next on the list? Our dinner plates needed filling! It was time to go deep-sea fishing! As with everything, booking a guide is done online through third-party systems, and it takes a “full day” to hear back that “…your guide has been booked for the requested day, and so have all of the other fishing guides in your area”?! Eeek!! Days kept marching forward, and we thought we were going to starve to death, until finally our persistence was rewarded. A half-day trip was scheduled for the morning of the 18th, with Captain Ray Fulks of South Texas Fishing Adventures, and we were to embark on our angling adventure straight from his house in the bay of Laguna Madre at Port Isabel, a mere five miles away from us.
“We will reach out to the stars.”
-Stephen Hawking
Wouldn’t you know it?! The Starship launch was delayed for one day, owing to some silly flight control hardware that needed to be replaced. We were bummed out, thinking we would miss the entire launch, considering it now coincided with setting out on our fishing excursion. As we began floating away from Captain Ray’s dock, pointing southward nonetheless, a huge blast tore through the air, flocks of birds alighted around us, and a giant, billowing cloud caught our eye in the distance. We were witnessing the SpaceX Starship taking off from our own private yacht! Okay, yacht is a little overkill, but we truly had a unique vantage point. Not only was the launch extremely and continuously loud, we could also see ripples on the water’s surface, and feel the boat bouncing through the waves. Yet the most surprising of all was the pounding reverberations we felt in our chests from the percussions produced by the rocket as it gained in altitude! Sadly, its odd trajectory meant something was amiss and SpaceX remotely blew it up, ending its voyage. Overall, a great way to start ours though!! With the launch closing South Bay, Captain Ray pointed our vessel northward.
“Fishing is like dating; it’s all catch and release until you find a keeper.”
-Author Unknown
Excitement built as Captain Ray told of secret fishing holes within the bay. Yet our reverie of “deep-sea” fishing was dashed when, during his safety briefing, he said, “If you fall out of the boat, just stand up. The whole bay averages only about 3-feet in depth”. Huh! Well, it doesn’t really matter how deep the water is, it only matters that we catch some fish.
Perspectives realigned, we got down to it! With a little catch and release mixed in, we were both able to bag our limit of Sea Trout in a little over an hour.
Time for a change of scenery and species, Captain Ray believed that South Bay had to be reopened, so off we went to try our luck just to the outside of the bay at the shipping channel inlet!
Boy was Captain Ray right about how shallow the waters were, and it was only made worse by an outgoing tide. Good thing his boat only needed 4” of water, however I just kept bracing for the immediate stop that would jettison us into the air if he happened to misjudge the water depth. Mercifully that was not in the cards for us, however the South Bay entrapped a less fortunate boat of anglers. They were completely out of the water, aground on a large sand bar! Superstition and karma run deep in the boating community, so Captain Ray motored into position to assist. After linking enough rope from both boats together, Captain Ray slowly tightened the length and then gunned his 260hp engine. All of us were astonished when the boat actually started slowly moving forward! In about 30 seconds, the stranded boat was now unmoored, floating in the water again. The two fisherman on that boat were extremely happy and grateful that they could continue to fish! And so were we! But that, was indeed, the biggest thing we netted all day!
A rocket launch and a boat rescue! We thought we’d hit the jackpot of thrill! But we had a little further to go, as Captain Ray made his way out of the South Bay, through a shipping channel, into the Gulf of Mexico. With very choppy waters and his first choice location already claimed by another boat (with very bored looking anglers, one was even munching on a bag of Cheetos), he kept exclaiming his uncertainty about how successful this endeavor might be. Nevertheless, he positioned us at the end of one of the break water jetties at the bay entrance. Rigging our poles with live shrimp, he then told us to just lower our lines straight down over the side of the boat all the way down to the bottom…hmm, really? Skepticism aside, we were greatly surprised that as soon as we felt our sinker weight hit the sea bottom, we were rewarded with a quick strike! Repeatedly, we hauled a fish in, re-baited and lowered it to the sea floor again; we kept getting one bite after another!! Captain Ray almost couldn’t move fast enough between us. You should’ve seen how quickly the other boat full of anglers tried to get closer to our boat and emulate what we were doing. It was funny to watch them out of the corner of our eyes when we had a break in between each haul. After catching several Whitings, and a few Mangrove Snappers that Laura was lucky enough to snag, we were getting a little concerned that we might not have enough freezer space in our 5th-wheel! Calling it a day, we motored back where Captain Ray expertly cleaned and filleted our booty. Woo-hoo! We’ll be eating fish for weeks after this trip!
“Happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.”
-Roy M. Goodman, New York State Senator and Businessman
The trike comes out with the sunshine. And while South Padre’s main street was lined with places for renting golf carts for cruising, we ask, “can you really call it cruising sitting on a glorified lawn mower?” No! So we donned our leathers (actually we were in shorts, but it sounds cool), and toured around the island! One of the infamous local hangouts is Clayton’s Beach Bar, where we enjoyed a beer and walked along their pier that extends a long way out into the Gulf!
Another “must see” while in South Padre was Sea Turtle Inc., a sea turtle rescue and educational facility. Their overall goal is to nurse each rescued sea turtle back to health so they can be released. However, there are a number of turtles that are permanent “residents”, each with a different issue that jeopardized their chances for survivability in the wild. They’re the ambassadors for the facility, and Jess, one of the marine biologist interns did a great job in providing us with a tour, and answering all of our questions with expertise.
Before leaving South Padre Island, we just had to take a little time to visit one of the sweeter businesses on the island..the Sugar Shack! (wrong type of shack you perverts!) Ok, the real name of this “sweet” shop is the Sugar Kingdom, and they definitely have a huge variety of sweet indulgences. Even the most discerning connoisseurs of sugar leave in a sugar coma! Of course, you can’t have a sugar shop on a tropical island without offering ice cream. Good thing we’d ridden our bicycles and worked up a sweat, because they had one of the most unique ice cream sundaes we had ever seen! We were afraid of the sugar shock if we each had our own, so we smartly shared one, powering us on to our next destination!
Corpus Christi…Getting Blasted….Sand Blasted That Is!
After spending 10 days at South Padre Island it was time to load up the trike in the 5th-wheel and head north up the Gulf Coast to Corpus Christi! And let’s just say that we can’t get a break! No rain, but it was completely grey and high winds, with gusts in excess of 40 mph! Wouldn’t you know it, we were driving into all that wind…again! You would think that just once, we would have a tailwind!
Padre Balli Park, was where we called home. With access to the beach just on the other side of the dunes, we’d originally had dreams of frolicking in the sun and sand. The sun, however, had no regard for our plans, deciding to do a disappearing act plunging us into another cold spell. Well ok, maybe just cooler considering we know a lot of folks further north of us who were in the cold!
“What if today, we were just grateful for everything?”
-Charlie Brown, Peanuts
Thanksgiving day was rainy, perfect for cooking up Mushroom Topped Whiting Fish, Roasted Butternut Squash and Lentil Salad, Cranberry Cherry Sauce, and a Kahlua Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake. And we toasted it all with some Winterberry mulled Texas Cranberry wine. Nope! We’re not starving here.
“Meet me where the sky touches the sea.”
-Jennifer Donnelly, American Writer
Exercise was in order for the next day, so we piled into our trusty travel work horse (our F350) and headed out to visit a variety of beaches along the Gulf Coast shores. Our first stop was the beach right where we were staying at, followed by several others along the coastal area of Corpus Christi. Basically, it’s all one beach with a variety of access locations with different names for each of those locations, from Mustang Beach at the northern end, to Malaquite Beach and Padre Island National Seashore on the southern end, with a host of other “beaches” in-between! All of the locations that we visited were nice, consisting of a fine white sand with almost no rocks in sight! Had the weather been warmer and less windy (blowing 20+ mph and gusts up to 30mph; kind of reminded me of growing up in North Dakota) we would have enjoyed spending a lot more time on the beach; might even have ordered up “Sex on the Beach” to slurp up; that’s a drink in case some of you don’t know!
After getting sand blasted from our beach walks, heading inland was in order to check out the Corpus Christi Downtown Seawall walk. Starting at the northern end near the Art Museum of South Texas, we strode past Bayfront Park, ambling our way to the Norma Urban Park in front of the city marina area, and the Corpus Christi Yacht Club.
A Texas Treasure
Since it was around noon, and our walk had already been about 1-1/2 miles, we decided to look around for somewhere to go to lunch. Normally, we’d opt for something other than fast food, yet choices were sparse. As it turned out, we happened to glance across the street and what would our wandering eyes spy? A Whataburger! A chain we don’t have in Colorado, yet we noticed them as we traveled through New Mexico and western Texas. So, when in Rome… As it turns out, the particular Whataburger we ate at was a flagship and had a bronze statue of the founder, Harmon Dobson, in the lobby. Apparently the very first Whataburger is no longer standing but was less than three miles away from this particular location! After a yummy lunch, our walk back was a little brisker as we wanted to beat the impending rain. The skies were darkening again and the wind was picking up as we headed back to camp.
“November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.”
-Emily Dickinson, American Poet
Our early morning alarm on the day we were set to leave was a pack of yipping coyotes that were startlingly close! The rains and wind were finally easing, so we weren’t the only ones excited about that. Then again, we were also ready to escape the grey for warmer climes. It was time to head inland!
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