It was time for another road trip from our park in Mission, Texas and we decided that we needed a beach fix. Only problem was we are 90 miles away from the water. We both love spending time near the ocean and on the beach. What were we thinking when we decided to stay in south Texas so far from the ocean for the winter???
Well the weather was perfect in the area and with temperatures in the high eighties it was time for us to make the easterly 90 mile dash across state highway 83. The road is great and moves quite well considering that there is a seemingly continuum of towns from Mission through Harlingen. Los Fresno is the last small town we passed through on the way to Port Isabel and South Padre Island. We certainly watched our speed based upon the number of Law Enforcement cars we saw.
Port Isabel itself is a quaint little beach town with the typical beachy shops selling boogie boards, sunglasses, towels, swimsuits and sunscreen. There is also a small number of restaurants and one we heard about we had planned to stop at before leaving the area. But the only thing between us and the beach was the causeway and we didn’t dawdle around the town of Port Isabel…
We drove north on South Padre Island past all the pay to enter parks and pulled into beach access number four and parked the SUV, collected our beach stuff, our lunch and walked a short distance 
across the sand to the waiting surf of the Gulf of Mexico… Ahhhhhhhhh, how pleasant it was to breathe in the fresh sea air with that smell of salt air and the sound of the waves crashing into the beach. We sat down and prepped our lunch only to look up and see a group of cowboys on a beach ride, how fun! While eating our lunch we were watched carefully by a group of sea gulls and it was entertaining to see them fighting over territory and squawking at one another. After lunch on the beach and a couple of hours relaxing, sunning, wading in the surf, and collecting shells we were both put back into a great mindset…. Yep, we should have stayed closer to the beach… What were we thinking???
We are going to make a few day trips down that way when we get to Mission. We, too, enjoy the beach. Pretty cool about the cowboys.
ReplyDeleteThere are not a lot of choices of RV parks real close to/or on SPI. I stayed on Mustang Island last year at Pioneer Resort and really liked it there.
ReplyDeleteWe LOVED going to SPI while we were in the RGV. You really should try Dirty Al's restaurant, we always had great food.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about staying right on the coast, we found our rig was corroding and rusting on any exposed metal !!
The beach seems to recharge our internal batteries ...
Have fun ... TnT
Fond memories of South Padre!
ReplyDeleteWhat will Johnny Manziel do for an encore?
how about a national championship ring to go with the trophy?
DeleteThe beaches there are awesome glad you enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteSouth Padre Island is on our list of winter destinations someday, and Port Aransas as well! Maybe next year! so many destinations....so few winters....
ReplyDeleteYou are right, while we were researching the RGV we were surprised by the distances.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great day. So sorry you had to go 90 miles to get your water fix. I know exactly what you mean. I have a hard time staying anywhere very far away from the water. That's at least one nice thing about being in Florida for the winter, you can stay pretty close to the water in a lot of different place. But I might like to try Texas and South Padre. Only in Texas, cowboys on the beach!
ReplyDeleteNext time you winter in Texas, check out the Rockport, Port Aransas area. It's not quite as far south but we have the Gulf right here and it really helps on those days when you just need a beach fix. This is our 2nd year here and we really like it.
ReplyDeleteLove the cowboys on the beach! The last time we saw that was in the Carmague in the south of France. Glad to see you enjoying a day at the beach.
ReplyDeleteThis is also a blog I had planned to do...you beat me to it. Nice pictures. Nothing I like better than to walk forever on this beach!!! We are finally going tomorrow. Let's see what shells we can come up with...
ReplyDeleteOur beach might not be on SPI, and our skies might not be as blue as yours, but we're just a couple hundred feet from the Atlantic here in SC ... like you, we prefer being close to water when we can ;-)
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