Padre Island, the Nyrobi Trio, and Leaving Port Aransas

Last week, we drove down to Padre Island, the next island south of us, to see the Padre Island National Seashore. It is a beautiful but desolate stretch of beach; there’s a road that goes to the visitors’ center, but past that you just drive down a road of packed sand on the beach. We wandered through the dunes, went to the visitor’s center, and on the way back we had a nice lunch at the Captain’s Diner, north of the National Seashore. It was a fine day.

Padre Island National Seashore, from the visitors’ center

We mostly stayed around the campground the rest of the week; on Saturday, the “social crafting” gathering at the tent had a special project—we all made seashell windchimes, from seashells a few folks had gathered down on the Padre Island National Seashore after a storm a couple of weeks ago. Apparently when there’s a big storm, suddenly the beaches are full of shells. I only recall one storm while we’ve been here, but I didn’t see a lot more shells up our way. Anyway, it was a fun project, and below is my creation, hanging from our camper awning.

My seashell windchime

On Sunday, I was determined to find a bike path that allegedly came all the way from the bird sanctuary at the top of Mustang Island down to near the beach access road where our campground is located. I discovered that the south end of the bike path is a little farther north than I was expecting. I also didn’t know it was mostly narrow low bridges/boardwalks without any sides, so it was a bit freaky to ride along it, though even if I’d ridden off, I would have only fallen a foot or so, and there wasn’t much water—I would have just gotten damp. It was about a 5-mile round trip, and unfortunately I didn’t see many birds. But it was nice weather, and except for the no-sides-on-the-bridges thing, it was a great bike path and a good ride!

A view from a bike: the bridge goes on forever
and ever, and it has no railings!!

Later on Sunday, we practiced a few more songs with our mandolin-playing friend Corky, and while we were playing in the tent, a new camper showed up because he’d heard us, and asked if he could bring his harmonicas up. We said sure; we had another show planned for the next day, during the campground’s Monday Happy Hour, and we figured the more the merrier on the music-making side of it. So our new bandmate, Chris, played some harp solos on the six or seven songs we had. In the meantime, Mike had told the campground staff that the name of our group was the Nairobi Trio, after a comedy bit by the late great comedian Ernie Kovacs. There was some confusion about the spelling, so we appeared on the camp bulletin board as the Nyrobi Trio, but that was good for avoiding copyright infringement. Plus, it was even more confusing that we now had four people in the trio. We drew a good-sized crowd and I think the songs were well-accepted. We had one superfan who sat right in front of us and asked a lot of questions, too. We tried to answer them. The performance ended with a rousing rendition of “Country Roads,” which was a crowd pleaser.

The Nyrobi Trio shares some songs;
L to R, Corky, Chris, Mike, and me

After we played, Mike and I headed to the Beach Lodge, a restaurant on the beach with a porch overlooking the Gulf, for one last seafood dinner before we left the next morning. We had stuffed crabs and fried shrimp, and it was a delicious meal. Pelicans wheeled around overhead to entertain us; almost everyone driving a golf cart got stuck in the sand in the parking area, so that was kind of entertaining, too.

The view from the Beach Lodge porch

Then we drove up the beach to the jetty, which we hadn’t yet walked out on. (Cramming in some last-minute sightseeing.) We didn’t see any sea turtles or dolphins, which other folks had reported, but we did see a big container ship heading out through the ship channel, with a pilot boat following. There was a pilot on the big ship to guide it through the narrow channel, and a naval signal flag consisting of a red block and a white block was the way they signaled that there was a pilot on board. Cool to learn that code, thanks to our nephew Erich!

  
Mike on the jetty and a big container ship being piloted through the channel

The island sunset was lovely, followed by the rising of a full moon right after, so we had a delightful last evening on Mustang Island.

 
Sunset                                                                Moonrise

We got up early on Tuesday to drive to Rockport, on the mainland, to get the van’s oil changed. Mike had made an appointment for 8:00 am, so we were up and at ’em even before the crack of dawn. After a quick stop at The Texan, the corner convenience store that is trying to compete with Buc-ees for all your travel needs, to grab a quick breakfast of coffee and kolaches, we headed to the ferry, and then east along the coast to Rockport. Then back to On the Beach to finish packing up, disconnecting the Scamp from shore power, and getting on the road. We had a lot of people to say goodbye to, but we still were on the road by 11:00 am, heading north toward San Antonio. More on that in my next installment!