Goodbye Mustang Island Area (Mostly Pictures)

Location: Mustang Island State Park; Corpus Christi, Texas

Still at Stop #7

Today is the seventh day here at Mustang Island. Seven days are the maximum time I stay at a place when on the road. That amount of time seems about right to do some exploring around the area and to have a lazy day or two. The big draw at this park, for me, is the close access to the beach. Anyone can drive on the majority of Texas beaches. Texas has made a point to keep them as public places instead of semi-owned and controlled by commercial or residential parties. So, when I'm camped here, I can jump in Freedom and be on the beach within minutes. The other day I drove about ten miles on the beach between the State Park and Port Aransas. 

I've enjoyed my time here even though two cold fronts have passed through which brought a little rain and cooler temperatures but mostly wind and haze. I expected as much and was one of the reasons for the seven day stay. I figured maybe three to four decent weather days out of the seven. 

The remainder of this post will be mainly pictures with captions. They aren't in any particular order since they are from different times over the last few days. I won't post the pictures from a massive bridge construction site I visited. In fact, as I started taking the pictures of the site, I thought to myself, I'm the only one that would be interested in this, so I didn't take many. It was hard to whittle the 100's of pictures I've taken around the area to just these, but here goes:

One of the sunrises over the Gulf

The gulls were up early too.

I guess the gulls woke the pelicans up because they were flying somewhere in as a straight a line as they could with the wind.

Freedom at sunrise

A couple pelicans found a smooth spot of water to sit and fish. It was the only smooth spot for miles. I bet they come there regularly.

Another sunrise picture

I'm running out of things to say.

A long drive along the beach.

A combination of surf fishing and sitting/thinking. Either way, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

As I got closer to Port Aransas, the beach widened out a lot. They blade the beach on a regular basis. I saw two graders working on the day I passed through. Imagine this place on a hot summer weekend. I'm glad I'm here in the off-season.

This is near the State Park. Those are picnic tables and are available for use.

There were a few tent campers on the beach within the State Park limits. They definitely should have put up some kind of wind-break. I'm guessing after a while, they will just become part of the dunes unless they leave.

The long open road to Padre Island National Seashore. It's a nice drive but the beach is the same as everywhere else

The City of Corpus Christi seems to have annexed a lot of open land for future development. 

This home-made RV belongs to a guy named Patrick. He is one of the camp hosts at the bay-side campground (Windsurfer). I stopped and talked with him for a little bit. He's from Montana and travels around the country, like a crazy person. He came to Padre Island to camp and after two weeks was ready to leave when they offered him the camp host gig. He will be here a few weeks now. 

Three large off-shore drilling platforms at Port Aransas. It looked like they were getting some repairs done while in port. They are massive and can be seen for miles. Industry and tourism, co-existing. I like it.

I like this picture the most. It sort of sums up why I came here. That is Freedom waiting on me to return after walking up the beach for awhile. No one was around and it was perfect weather for a thinking/exploring walk.

I couldn't remember the last selfie I posted so I figured out how to do it on my new cell phone.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed back to Goliad. That place seems to be located exactly where I need it to be when I need it. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.