10th Day of Texas vacation - Left Lake Casa Blanca International SP & drove to Mustang Island SP (Port Aransas, TX)

 Leaving Laredo & driving to Corpus Christi - 

Arrival at Mustang Island State Park - Thursday, 5 May 2022

We left Lake Casa Blanca International State Park about 11am.  Easy drive to Mustang Island State Park - not quite 3 hours.  The most exciting thing was when a Wild Turkey flew across in front of our RV just as we were coming into San Diego (Texas that is!!).  We also hit him, but he managed to dodge the RV!  I didn't take any pictures until we started the bridges across from Corpus Christi onto Padre Island.  Then instead of heading southwest onto Padre Island, we turned left & went southeast onto Mustang Island.  We easily found our space & got registered & settled in.  

It only took about an hour to get everything all settled & then we headed to the beach.  I got pictures of the RV park on the way back, so you can see it.  We walked through the park (it's a straight line parking lot with about 48 spaces.  We are at 23 on the far end from the entrance to the Gulf Coast beach.  The wind is blowing strongly & constantly.  Feels good as far as keeping the heat from being quite so oppressive, but not so good for anyone wanting to swim or boat.  They have the red flags up denoting danger in the water.

First we just walked out & to our right.  This area is fenced off with no vehicles allowed on the beach.  Only a few folks braving the wind.  We sat at one of the little cabanas & George let me get my eBird app all set up & start iding birds.  Enjoyed seeing the squadrons of Brown Pelicans fighting the strong winds.  

Our first find of our beach walking!  A Man of War Jelly fish!!!!  Highly toxic, we were happy to id it from the safety of our beach walk & not to find it by stepping on it!!  It was obviously dead & the long tentacles are dried up.  The signs warned that their sting is extremely painful & that the Rangers all carry something to wash the stings with to help a little.  It's very pretty!

We continued on down the beach, enjoying the wind, the waves, & all the bird life roaming the beach.

We made our way to the fishing pier & walked to the end of it.  Several folks fishing.  One smiling young man proudly showed off his catch, a fairly large sheepshead.  I downloaded the picture of it's teeth!  What a fish!!!  

We stayed out there a few minutes watching the fishermen (& fisherlady).  We only saw one other catch.  The tide was definitely coming in & the waves were getting bigger.

We headed back the way we came, I was clicking pictures of the feeding sandpipers, gulls, & plovers and even found one tiny little almost invisible crab!

Stopped at some of the park signage & read about the Man-Of-War & the turtles.  Hope we get to see the turtles.  Got some pictures of the long straight parking.  There is one more space at the end of the row beside us that is empty for tonight.  Pretty close quarters.  That's enough for tonight.  More adventures tomorrow.