Nor-Wester!

A huge black sky rolled in as we were hitching up to leave the island just now. The temperature dropped from a muggy and hot 80 F down to a crisp and cool 60 F in less than a minute, accompanied by huge drops of driving rain blowing at a 45-degree angle! Hasta luego, Mistang Island!

Surfboards and Shrimp, Exit Stage Left

Bye, Bye, Beach

Heading out from Mustang Island tomorrow. Been here 3 weeks in 95% tropical humidity (latitude is the same as the bottom third of the Baja). We were here later last year and the humidity was not a problem. We're going back to Kerrville, Texas, so we can dry out! Gonna miss the nice 25-degree days, though!

Above:  Helloooo?

Above:  That's what I'M talkin' about!

Above:  This one's for Dave

Above: My future retirement home

Surf's Up

Got some fresh shrimp from a girl whose father runs some shrimp boats out of Palacio, north of here, in the Gulf of Mexico. They were HUGE and were great on the barbie!  Five bucks a pound -- we got 10 pounds and split them with our pals from South Dakota (he just happens to know how to cook them to perfection, and they WERE!)

We took the ferry over to Aransas pass the other day and saw a few big tugs pushing barges through the pass. It has been foggy and hot, 99% humidity for most of last week. Everything is damp in the camper, even the dogs. Not a real big fan of this :(

Went to a board shop in Port Aransas and checked out all the cool surfboards, etc., this week.  It is very tempting...

Above:  Gorgeous, huge, and delicious Gulf shrimp on the barbie!  (Note Corona cerveza in hand of the pit master)

Above:  Lots of beautiful surfboards at the Board Shop in PA

Above:  Huge selection of board wax (can't get the Beach Boys' tunes out of my head!)

Above:  A very cool board

Above:  Big tugboat pushing a barge in Aransas Pass off the Gulf of Mexico

Mustang Island, Texas

We left Kerrville yesterday and headed over to Mustang Island, and are currently camping on the Gulf of Mexico.  It's much warmer and more humid here (see the weather widget on the right-hand side bar of this blog for current weather conditions wherever we are), and the beach has a very fine white sand.  There are a lot more shells on the beach than in Oregon, and most are not broken because there is no heavy surf here.  There are lots of charter outfits over here that will take you fishing for blue marlin, sailfish, red fish, snapper, tuna, or trout. 

This is Texas, and you can drive on the beaches here, so there are a lot of vehicles all along the shores with people sitting out in lawn chairs enjoying the day, or some have fishing poles attached to their pickup tailgates and they are fishing right from shore that way. 

I asked a guy who was walking up from shore with a 5-gallon plastic bucket, and he had some shrimp that he'd caught.  He was going down to a big jetty to the north of here to fish for sheephead fish.  He said they look like a sheep and have teeth.  We'll have to go down to the jetty later to see if he caught one and get a photo if he did. 

Above:  On the way to Corpus Christi from San Antonio