I went to South Padre Island this weekend. I left Saturday afternoon and came home this morning. I pretty much piled clothes into a bag, picked up my cameras and left. About a five hour drive down. I had a blast and recommend it to anyone looking for some sun. If you’re looking for a quiet spot on the beach, drive far enough and you’ll find it. Rescuing autos turned out to be a popular past time. First thing I did was wander up to the end of TX-100. There was a group of people at beach access #6 with an old 4×4 that waved me down; their battery was dead and needed a jump. After getting them running, I drove out onto the beach and promptly got myself stuck in the sand. I pondered sitting there and digging myself out later, but I had no idea if the tide was going to come up further. Up drives a couple guys in a Ford 4×4. I ask them for a pull, they said they needed to pull somebody else but didn’t have a rope. I pulled out my new recovery strap and head up the beach to help pull this other chap out of the sand. Then we come back and pull myself out. On the way out I pull out a car stuck on a sand berm. I was covered in head to toe in sand. All this within three hours of arriving!
I gave up on camping on the beach. I wasn’t quite sure where to park, the wind was kicking up and I didn’t have a tent. The big motorcycle rally was this weekend (tons of traffic all Saturday night), finding a room was difficult. Sunday morning I went back to the beach and pretty much spent all day there. A guy near #6 rented ATVs; I was hoping I could rent one and drive up the beach with it, but this was not the case. Nevertheless I rented one and drove around his six acre track on the bay. The rental guy showed me this pickup axle-deep in water out in the bay. The story was some guy drove out there when the tide was out, having now idea where the tide came in. So, tide came in and his truck is standed. While I was riding, another 4×4 pulled up a few guys hopped out with several coils of rope in attempt to tow it out. I never found out if they succeeded or not.
The daytime was very sunny and warm; it wasn’t hot but the sunlight would heat a person up. The beaches were clean and so was the water, with an emerald color at a distance. I received a nice sun burn after just a few minutes in the sun without a shirt on without sunscreen. My wooden boardwalk thing for Burning Man came in handy for driving on when on loose, dry sand.
Sunday night I landed a $29/night room at Motel 6. I left Monday morning to come home. Overall I pulled three vehicles out. I learned a few things: great place to go in October; let air out of tires to 15 p.s.i. while on the beach; get tide information; island practically shuts down after 8 p.m. I don’t speak any Spanish, but pulling out a recovery strap does a great job of getting intentions across without trying to understand each other.
