Winter Texans!

A Gathering of Winter Texans on South Padre Island

Most people call them “Snowbirds” out West, that is retired folks, many with with RV’s, who flee cold(er) environs during the winter months and fly or haul off to friendly, sunny places; like Arizona for instance!  Arizona, particularly the area east of Phoenix (Mesa/Apache Junction) is filled with mega-RV resorts, hundreds of RV spaces for rent, many for a whole winter season; and, yes, Snowbirds are in great abundance in sunny Arizona throughout the winter months. 

But down here in Texas they do it, well, differently.  Right or wrong, Texans are, indeed, different/distinct, and damn proud of it; “Don’t Mess With Texas” is their official state slogan, I believe.  And “don’t mess” with calling those intrepid RV travelers seeking warmth in Winter months on the Texas Gulf Snowbirds;  No sir (or ma’am), down here they are “Winter Texans”.  Indeed, signs are everywhere on the Internet and posted in front of RV resorts proclaiming, “Welcome Winter Texans!”

For a short while, a week and a half actually, we became “Winter Texans” ourselves, first venturing from Hill Country (Fredericksburg KOA) all the way down some 360 miles to the very southernmost part of Texas near Brownsville, to a resort haven called South Padre Island right on the southern Texas Gulf.  We arrived there on the afternoon of Monday, January 13, our “cozy” little RV Park in reality a massive 500 space County Park called Isla Blanca.  It was a mini-city of Winter Texans all by itself…  30+ states and a  half dozen Canadian Provinces represented therein.   We check license plates wherever we park the 5^th Wheel as an inexpensive hobby; which, in Isla Blanca, also amounts to good exercise as it’s probably about a two or three mile hike to get around to all the RV spaces.

 Surprisingly enough, this monster RV park was a delightful, quiet retreat for a week.  It’s out in the middle of nowhere, for one, on a very small island, no road noise at all; and most of the folks here, during the winter months at least, are old far__, I mean genteel folk of the retired sort.  That is, they are not into throwing wild, loud, all night parties.  And RV spaces, at least in our section, were spaced far apart from each other, very long and very wide, an RV’rs dream.  We had a huge “backyard”, and side-yards, with our own cacti and grassy areas for garden scenery; in short it was one of the best RV sites for space and solitude we’d ever been in, while, somewhat paradoxically, also being the largest park, by far, we’ve ever frequented.  AND, it was only 200 yards or so removed from the long expanse of white sand beach.  I think we were in “Winter Texan Heaven!”  

Winter Texans for a week on South Padre Island

Our spacious backyard at Isla Blanca Park, S. Padre Isl.

Uncrowded beach - South Padre Island, TX

We, indeed, had a quite enjoyable week there, quality time on the beach, great seaside/seafood restaurants, all that good stuff.  One day we dined in a beachside café, and I had steamed mussels to start, capped by lobster tail, absolute “ fresh seafood heaven!”, for me at least… well, okay, the lobster was probably shipped in from Maine/New England, but still…..!

Beachside dining with Elaine

For starters, steamed mussels

My entree choice was lobster tail, from Maine, of course!

During that week so very far down South in Texas, we also saw border patrols everywhere.  Twice, we went through border checks where at least one agent eyed the stacked suitcases in the back seat of our Chevy and asked, “what do you have in the back of your truck? (“well, I can’t lie, they’re stuffed with dope and cocaine,  sir!”… NOT REALLY)... and then (his follow-up question),  "anybody riding back there (ie, in the trailer)?”… “No Sir, Absolutely NOT; I mean I wouldn't exactly call hiding under the bed riding, no Sir!”... or something like that.  Thankfully, I refrained from any actual smart ass responses, and we were cleared in each case, without further search, possibly including a sniffing drug dog,  to continue on; all part of the fun!

The next Monday, Jan. 20^th, we headed up the Texas Gulf Coast to another little island resort haven called Port Aransas, very near Corpus Christi.  Here we were yet again parked right on the gulf, albeit in a much smaller, private RV park called, appropriately enough, On the Beach RV Park.  Weather has been decent, not super warm (high 60’s to low 70’s), but hey, we ain’t complaining!

 

Home (almost) on the beach, Port Aransas, TX

Monday afternoon we dined harbor-side while our young waiter told us that those 30+ foot fishing/pleasure boats docked outside our windows were largely owned by “rick folks” (duh!) who largely rented out their boats to others (mostly rich types as well, no doubt) for upwards of several hundred dollars a day.  He also told us there was a waiting list several years long for such rentals.  Our waiter appeared perfectly sober and sane in telling us this; and who were we to question him?  Anyhow, there’s much more “money” here than we’ll ever see.

At the Private Boat Harbor, Port Aransas

You can also drive on the beach here.  Signs at beach access points indicate all Texas highway laws apply, with posted speeds and all that good stuff.  On principle, I’m not a fan of beach driving.  Environmentally, it just doesn’t seem like a good thing.  But I stretched my “principles” for just a brief 15 minutes or so (hey, everything’s negotiable, even your own principles) to drive the Big Chevy out on the beach the day before we left Port Aransas.  Here we are at land's end on Wednesday (Jan22).

A matter of compromised principles - But the Chevy demanded beach time!

We had planned to stay in Port Aransas through Thursday night, but the inclement weather that we’d been mostly dodging for nearly seven months now started closing in on Southeastern Texas (that would include Port Aransas) later in the week. So we high-tailed it outta there a day early, taking the most direct route possible to Louisiana, which in this case involved a quarter mile ferry ride across the channel separating the island from the mainland.  Our truck and trailer took up nearly one whole side of the small ferry. 
 

Hogging space on the Port Aransas to Aransas Pass Ferry

 The sea journey was smooth, and quick, on the shortest ferry route I’ve ever seen; and we were soon back on the mainland and chugging on to the heart of Cajun Country in Lafayette, Louisiana; where I guess, during our short stay there, we might have to call ourselves “Winter Cajuns”.