Padre Island National Seashore…Corpus Christi Texas.

Yes I did…..Finally……After 60 days in one place,mostly in the horizontal position……Vegging…..I put the rubber to the road……Didn't go that far,just a 3 and a half hour drive to the north and a little to the east,but nevertheless,a movement.

So here I am on the beach at the Padre Island National Seashore on a (free for camping) beach.A $10.00 entry fee,(good for 7 days) gets you into the Park.

And yes,…..I have company……Actually he has company…….Me.

That's fellow blogger Ivan of Road trip 2011.He dropped in on me last week in Mission and we made tentative plans that I could hire him as my “Sacrificial Lamb”whereby he could scout ahead for some nice camping spots on the beach in the Corpus Christi area.

And if anyone can sniff out boondocking places……This guy can……He sent e-mails with pictures of several local areas and I was hooked……rubber spinning on the road.

Actually we missed one member of the group from our “Group Photo” above.And that's Hailey,Ivan's faithful travelling companion.So here goes Hailey,you get your own personal photo.So don't look so dejected.

Here’s a few local scenes of our new digs,starting with our camping spot here in the surprisingly hard packed sand.

Actually when I came off the pavement and onto the beach yesterday,I wasn't so sure I wanted to venture out,but surprisingly even the soft looking stuff was hard packed and easy to drag a trailer over…………So Far 

I found out after this bumpy ride that it would have been better to come up the beach below the tide line as its smooth like a highway,although a little corrosive I guess.You can see our nearest neighbour in the blue van….I hate it when I have crowds like this.

Lots of shorebirds.

 

In fact as we were sitting having a happy hour,I noticed about 10 different varieties of shore bird scampering along the shore line just a few yards away.

And off in the distance in this poor telephoto shot, is an oil rig,one of several in the area here on the gulf of Mexico….Not BP I hope…..Luckily last summers spill didn't come this way.

 

Note the White Pelican that was captured in the telephoto shot.

So!….We both have agreed that this spot will make a great operations base for exploring the area,as there is lots to see here.I’m looking forward to looking around Corpus Christi,a city of just under 300 thousand peeps.Coming through on the expressway,(Boy! I love these Texas highways)…It does look like a nice city.

And of course all the surrounding area both out here on the island and off,like Port Aransas,Rockport,Fulton and of course the winter home of the Whooping Crane,”Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.”All of these, a nice easy day trip away.Actually here on the Island we are about 30 minutes away from the city,just far enough away to enjoy the night-time sky.

 

So,I’ve run out of fresh photo’s….I want to spend at least a week in this area and see and tour the “Lexington”(WW 2 Aircraft Carrier),it’s high on my to-do list along with the nature tours of the area.

More on the history and layout of this beautiful island in another blog entry.Did you know its the longest undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world.

If interested,here is a link to my present location on Google maps. http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=9318