South Padre Island 2020

South Padre Island was recommended to us by some RV friends and was our first stop on “winter tour”.  It’s at southern-most point of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico and bordered on the south by Mexico.  By my account, it looks and feels just like Florida.  SPI is a barrier island that is only a half mile or so wide, but about 40 miles long.  Most of it is parkland or uninhabitable but all of it has great beaches. The portion that is occupied consists of upscale hotels, condos, houses, and RV parks. The weather is quite nice in January – warm and humid – great for walking the beach.  Our campground was very tight, but quite “resorty”.  Like many of the places we stay, it is dominated by seniors this time of year.  Adjacent to our campground is Pier 19, which a a weathered wooden pier with a long and narrow restaurant that looks like it did 40 years ago.  Turns out it is a favorite of the locals and our kind of dive for breakfast and happy hour.   

In addition to beach walks, we visited the South Padre Island Birding And Nature Center.  This is a sanctuary primarily for migrating birds as well as an alligator and sea turtle rescue site.  We saw and photographed a lot alligators and exotic birds – Suzanne was in heaven.  Also, we did a couple of day hikes in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge which in about 20 miles away on mainland Texas.  The wildlife refuge is home to a lot of animals including ocelots, deer, alligators, feral pigs, and (of all things) nilgai antelope.  It turns out that someone imported them from Pakistan or India in the 1930’s, they escaped, and have been prolifically breeding since throughout south Texas.  They weigh over 500 pounds and are regularly hunted.  Although we didn’t actually see any, we saw plenty of tracks and waste.

On a side note, we stayed a night in Houston and visited with Tyler and Kerry Peters on our way to San Padre.  It was great to catch up with them and meet their newest family member, Gavin.  Driving through the entirety of Houston at rush hour(s) in 60 feet of vehicles was quite the experience.  It was great practice for LA next month.