Jason One of the key stops in Texas for me was South Padre Island. Not for any specific reason other than I had always wanted to go back in my younger days for spring break. Seemed everyone who went had a blast and loved the area. The island is as far south in Texas as you can go and was “out of our way” for our trek west but that didn’t stop us!
After stopping in Rockport, TX near Corpus Christi for a few days we headed down for a weeks stay. There aren’t a lot of RV parks so we settled on the KOA after failing to get a site at the state park there. KOA’s (Kampgrounds of America) are almost always expensive but always very nice with wonderful amenities (that oddly enough we rarely use). We got settled into our site only to realize that the power box for our site had an issue. When I flipped the breaker to turn it on I instantly heard an electrical sizzle sound so promptly shut of off it again. Another great thing about KOA’s is that they are very responsive to things like this and instantly had a gentleman over to check it out. Turns out one of the wires connecting the plug on the inside of the box was melted and shorting out on another wire. He replaced the plug and we were good to go!
We typically don’t do much on travel days except get the RV in order and things like that. Driving usually takes a lot out of me (towing is stressful for me) so we usually just chill. However, on this day, we did drive down to a public beach access for a short walk. The beach was OK but a little dirty (debris mainly, not trash) but there was a nice breeze off the ocean and the dogs had a blast!
You might think we always have a specific plan for an area and what we will do and see. For the most part, that’s not true. We pick an area based on things to do, but then decide once we get there what we’ll see. So that evening we planned it out. Mainly wildlife refuges were on order for this leg of our journey. The weather was a little cold for beach time and as it turned out, it was cloudy pretty much the whole week we were there.
So, the main things we did were the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge (only me, Misty skipped it), the South Padre Island Birding And Nature Center and the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
The Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge was by far one of the best birding places thus far on the trip. I had an amazing time there and got so many lifers (birds I’ve seen for the very first time). We took a great bus tour at the Laguna Atascosa refuge and learned a TON from the gentleman guiding us. It wasn’t very “birdy” but fun regardless.
A highlight for Misty was visiting Sea Turtle Inc.. They are a rehab facility for, you guessed it, sea turtles! 😉 They do amazing work there and Misty purchased a shirt and hat to help give a little money towards the cause. We have a separate post just regarding it, so check it out!
Anyway, we enjoyed our time on the island and hope to visit again sometime when we can get some beach time!
