To Port Aransas

Today was a day of travel. We crossed a large portion of the state -- from Amarillo to Port Aransas, Texas. The terrain around Port Aransas is similar to that around Amarillo (very flat), only much wetter. However, there was a lot of variety in between -- over 600 miles worth of variety.

I generally prefer to take a little time as I travel to stop and see at least a few of the sites along the way. Today, however, was focused on just getting here.

I really like the coast. I would love to be able to live in the Corpus Christi area in the winter and in the Mountains of New Mexico in the summer. I doubt that will ever happen, but I can dream can't I? To me, the only real drawback of the coast is the humidity. I'm used to a relative humidity that rarely gets above 30% in the Panhandle. I think it must be well over 85% here in Port Aransas.

There have been very heavy rains here in the last few days. The farmland approaching Corpus Christi was standing in water. The corn is 4-6 inches high and coming along nicely. The oat crop looks healthy, but most of it looks to be destined for grazing. They will be planting cotton soon.

There has been a lot of construction here on Mustang Island since the last time that I was here. There are many more condominiums and resort hotels than I remembered. However, there are still long stretches of beach and barrier dunes that are undeveloped.

I enjoy seeing the coastal waterfowl in the tidal flats. There were large numbers of white pelicans as well as herons, egrets, and of course, seagulls. Tomorrow, as we go out in the Gulf of Mexico fishing, we will certainly see other waterfowl.

We are scheduled to take an 8-hour trip out of Dolphin Docks tomorrow. Check-in time is 6:30 a.m. and we depart at 7:00. I think we will be fishing for Red Snapper and Amber Jack primarily. However, we'll find out for certain when we get there.

I have had the opportunity to go deep-sea fishing several times. This will be my son's first trip out. I hope that he enjoys it. He seems to be excited about it. We both have patches to wear to hopefully prevent seasickness. I don't want to take the chance of being miserable and ruining the trip so we're taking the "wimpy" way out.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to let you know how the trip went.