Padre Island

South of Corpus Christi and about 150 miles from San Antonio lies the longest undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world. This national seashore is 70 miles of sandy beaches, flower covered grasslands, and tidelands. It is one of the most important US nesting beaches for endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles, and is globally important for migrating birds. On one side is the Gulf of Mexico and the other side is Laguna Madre, one of only six hypersaline lagoons in the world. All this and a beachside campground with cool water showers, flush toilets, and only $4/night. And if we want the real beach camping, on the sand, it is free. So we have settled in. But, it is not quite paradise for the first few days. The temperature is 94, and the wind is blowing, feels like the fan is on the furnace and you are standing in front of it. Oh, and did I mention the humidity? That is a literal wet slap in the face.

Full moon rising over the gulf

Since a  cold front was coming into the Texas Hills our escape to here was to avoid the really cool temps, but as it approaches out first night the pressure gradients are getting squeezed and it is close to 95% humidity. We are sticky. Our clothes are damp. It is hot. We sleep fitfully on top of our blankets with all windows open and a wind blowing about 20 mph through our van and we are still too hot. I wake at midnight and it is down to 89. I wake at 2 and it is 84. I wake at 4 and it is 79. That is the low of the night. We stagger up in the morning and I say OK. I can do one more of these nights and then we will need some air conditioning if this continues or we need to leave here. But the next day the weather turns and cools off and by afternoon it is 65 and has a wind chill that sends me looking for my jacket buried somewhere in a closet. Two days of clouds and then it really is a paradise.

Back to 85-90 during the day and 65-70 at night. We are in shorts and t's and sandals morning til night. We spend 10 days here laying in the sun, reading, walking the miles of beaches and visiting with other campers. Got our hammock (thanks Jennine!) set up under a shade shelter on the beach during the day and take our chairs out to the water's edge. We are here for the rising of the harvest moon over the water, the meteor showers, and a fly over of the space station. Night skies are dark and it is warm outside. What a treat!
Town is only about 18 miles up the island where the causeway comes in and there is a HEB store (like a  Whole Foods/QFC like superstore) and a few miles farther away is everything else a person could need. We stock up on fresh shrimp, meat to BBQ, fresh tamales, veggies and cool drinks every few days. Only downside is the blue man of war jelly fish that keep us wading only and not swimming, and the very poor cell service. Even with our new booster antenna it is still spotty. But we did manage to get a call out to the truck repair shop and re-schedule our installation date so that we could stay on the beach longer.