January 18-21, 2017
From the strip mall I drove east to
Port Isabel, the closest free parking to South Padre Island and the
beach.
Port Isabel (at least the parking lot)
is filled with blindingly white, elderly people who drive vehicles
from curiously exotic locales such as Wisconsin and Minnesota. Yeah,
if I lived there I'd also be in the south of Texas during January.
There are also some longer-termed
resident. A converted school bus parked on the other side of the lot
and this lady (who had once had a ToyHome) decided I was her new best
friend.
Betty lives in her Toyata Tundra/motels
and is very nice – and more than a little odd. I'm beginning to
think that everyone who does this long-term travel thing is odd.
Except me, of course.
She introduced me to the free bus to
South Padre Island and we had a bus tour of the island. I think I
may have written about the island for Canadian Traveller but somehow
the overbearing condos and hotels seem less of insult when on paper.
Much of the island looks like the kind of place that wouldn't welcome
someone of my limited means. I couldn't even find free parking for
the beaches although there may have been some. The day was crappy
and we went back to Port Isabel.
Happily the weather cleared up and
Betty and I went to the park at the end of the island. The park is a
mix of Canadian snowbirds that have rigs parked there for the season
and locals who probably work in the big hotels and have brought the
kids to the beach for the day. The beach is a wide band of sand and
provides great views of shrimping boats coming home and windsurfers
flying over the waves.
Betty left early to find somewhere to
watch football while the boys and I enjoyed the weather.
Port Isabel would have been a nice
place to chill for a while, but I couldn't handle Betty any longer.
She kept pulling trash out of her truck and offering it to me as a
gift. How many little packets of fake syrup can one girl use?
Took off and started north to the other
Padre Island, the one with the National Park.
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