Padre Island TX

SUN May 23

What a great day. Today I went out to Padre Island and had a blast just hanging out on the beach, reading and eating good food.

Except for going to get something to eat I spent my time at the National Park Service P.I. National Seashore because I have a National Park Service Golden Age Passport and don’t have to pay and they had the best facilities. I joined a Park Ranger on a 45-minute beach tour and she explained how along this area of Texas coastline up to 17 Gulf currents converge and besides making that a very good fishing area it also brings in a lot of seaweed and trash.

The wind has been blowing in from the Gulf at a steady 25-30 MPH with gusts to 35 for the last 2 days and that means very high salty-air humidity and buffeting the trailer around at night.

But the water is great. 820 and lots of waves to swim in. I have spent more time in the water here in the last 2 days than I did in the San Diego waters in the 23 years I spent there. And I have gotten lots of use out of a sports towel that Di & Gus gave me a couple of years back.

A couple of things I learned about beaches here. “…in Texas all beaches are public highways and all traffic laws apply…” Yep you can drive on a lot of the beaches in your car but be careful of getting stuck in loose sand; bet the local tow companies just love to charge to pull folks out. Also here the County charges a fee to park on the beach, $12.00 for a 1-year permit, so keep driving or pay for the permit.