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The Beach Road and a Trip to Rockport

 There’s a road of sand on the beach that runs most of the length of Mustang Island. It doesn’t seem to extend into the town proper (north of Avenue G on the map), and the Mustang Island State Park has two big rock jetties that prevent you from driving through the park on the beach, but it starts up again past the jetties and continues down until the island dissolves into wetlands and passes that separate it from Padre Island. Every sort of vehicle drives on the road, from fat-tired electric bikes to great big RVs, but the majority of the traffic is golf carts and pickup trucks. They love golf carts around here, and they love pickups everywhere in Texas. The town has bulldozers that are often on the beach flattening things out and smoothing and tamping down the On the Beach Road. There are only a few access points to the road on the beach; the northernmost access is at Avenue G, then the next place you can get on and off is the road alongside where we are camped. It’s Access Road 1A, then as you head southward, there’s also Access Roads 1, 2, and 3—the last of which is nearest to the state park.


The On the Beach Rd is a popular way to travel
along the shoreline of Mustang Island

We have not driven on the beach road, but I did try taking my bike down there. Almost wiped out immediately, so I’m staying on concrete. The number of RVs and campers on the beach is amazing. The rule is you can camp on the beach with an official beach parking permit (it’s only $12 annually), but only three days of every month. There’s always a cluster of RVs, vans, and tents south of where we are, and a few farther north, but the beach right by us is more a day use place, with picnickers and kite flyers. Of course it’s been a bit too cold for much beach activity the past few days, as the polar vortex extended even down to where we are, but there are still RVs camped down the way.

But just before it got chilly, a group of people who are work campers at our RV park went down to the beach and built an amazing sand castle. I didn't know they were doing it or I would have gone down to help, but as it was, I just happened upon it when I went down to the beach later, and I admired the completed castle.

An elaborate sand castle down on the shore

This week, we took a drive into Rockport on the mainland, to get new back tires and an oil change for the van at Craig’s Tire Service. To get to Rockport, you go to the Port Aransas harbor, take the ferry across the Corpus Christi ship lane, then drive over a causeway to Harbor Island, and then across a bridge to the town of Aransas Pass. Then northeast a bit on Highway 35 to Rockport, which is a coast town on the mainland. While Mike stayed with the van at Craig’s, I wandered around the town of Rockport, which is sort of spread out—it was not like a typical downtown, at least not anywhere that I saw. I knew there was a quilt shop so I walked down to it, and then on another block to a coffee shop (it was a chilly and windy walk). The coffee house had an Alice in Wonderland theme, decorated with artwork and quotations from Lewis Carroll, and all the coffee drinks were Wonderland-inspired also. I had an Off With Her Head which warmed me up and gave me a sugar high.

The list of Lewis Carroll named coffee drinks
at the Main Street Coffee House in Rockport

With the van re-tired and oil changed, we headed back to the island, back down the coastal highway, over the bridge, along the causeway, onto the ferry, and back to the town harbor. By the time we’d returned, it was dinner time, so we stopped at Grumbles Seafood Restaurant overlooking the harbor and had crab cakes and shrimp and a huge pile of delicious French fries. It was a nice way to stay occupied on a chilly gray day on the coast.


Grumbles Seafood Co. on the harbor in Port Aransas


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