Nuestro Pod Gets Out and About Again

Hello – to all my fellow Pods, Nuestro Pod here, on the road again.  I’ was sitting here in the hot South TX sun just waiting and I was getting irritated.  Normally, my owners take me out about every other week.  But I had not been out in 6 week or so. OK, so one of my owners wasn’t here for a month and so what if the temps have been consistently around 100.  I still wanted to go somewhere, anywhere. 

Last week I overheard my owners saying they were planning to take me out after the school started.  Well school started last Monday.  I found out we were going to Isla Blanca County park on South Padre Island, we have been there several times before, but who care I get to go somewhere.  Because of the “dumb” county park check out time of 12 noon, my owners decided to hook me up and go down first thing Saturday morning and pay for 2 nights, even though we left around 6 PM Sunday. 

As usual the ride down was uneventful.  The ride over the Queen Isabella causeway bridge is always fun, and a nice view.  We stopped at the park HQ and my owners went in to pick a spot for us to stay.  While I wait outside they went in.  When they came back out they said they had not been able to get one of the spots they wanted, so they settled for one that wasn’t too far from where they had wanted to stay.  Upon arriving at the site they were really concerned.  Not only was in pretty uneven it looked like it would be hard to position me so the R-Dome would fit.  So after 10-15 minutes and my owners walking to look at some other sites the decision was made to go back to the office and request another site.  The site they picked was really neat.  (See pictures below).  One of the biggest problems I have found in the past was sand burrs.  They get into the tread of my tires and into the bottom of my owners shoes.  They are a pain for my owner to keep the out of the floor mats in my nice TV, so being on a concrete pad was heaven.  They set the rug and my R-dome so the one end was just onto the grass and could be staked down.  We had a real nice breeze off the Gulf, so to take advantage of it my owners opened up the side of my R-dome facing the breeze.  They said it was really nice, especially since the temps inland were going to be in the 100-105 range.  It was about 10 degrees cooler here and the humidity was lower than it had been. 

After enjoying the R-dome for awhile they took their beach chairs and went down to the beach.  I heard the say when they got back that it was really nice to be able to sit on the beach and have the water come up and wash over their feet.  After they rinsed off, and dried off they took off in my TV.  They said they were going to take a drive north on the island and then stop off at the World Birding Center boardwalk to see what birds might be out and about.  (See pictures below).  After relaxing in their lounge chairs for awhile and getting a bite to eat they took another walk on the beach.  When they got back it was dark but it was still really nice out.  Of course my A/C had been on since I got plugged into shore power so I was nice and cool.  They finally came in and had got a good night’s sleep. 

After they got up and had breakfast on Sunday Paul went out to take the garbage to the dumpster.  He looked over toward the Brownsville ship channel and saw an oil platform being towed out toward the gulf.  (See picture below).  Of the 3-4 times we have been here twice we have seen rigs being pulled to the gulf.  Paul had seen another ship which looked like it was on its way into the port of Brownsville. So my owners got in my TV and left to see if they could get some pictures then they said they were going to run to Walmart and go back to the north part of the island and walk the beach up there.  When they got back, they said they had a real nice walk, not nearly as many people up there as down on this end.  They also talked about all the For Sale signs for property on the gulf side and Laguna Madre side of the road.  They said it’s sad because these dunes are such a beautiful and natural area.  But they did say that the very north part of the island had been purchased by the National Wildlife Service and would not be developed.  By the time they got back the breeze had picked up so they sat in my R-Dome and read for awhile.  About 5:00 they took another walk on the beach and came back to pack me up and pull me the short 45 min. ride home.  I heard them say this was a really great weekend.  I really enjoyed it too.  They said they would probably get back on their normal routine and take me out every other weekend.  I would like that a lot.

Happy Podding

Nuesto Pod and TV at Isla Blanca Park Site C109

It is a really nice site for a weekend

Big Blue Heron at the World Birding Center Boardwalk on So Padre Island

White Ibis at the Birding Center

Tri Color Heron hunting for a snack

Egret just hanging out

Oil platform being towed out into the Gulf of Mexico for placement

Tanker coming in the Brownsville ship channel.  Notice the 18-20 ft boat at the bow of the ship for

comparison.