Mammoth Goes to Matagorda Day 5

Friday, January 14 2022

Matagorda Bay to South Padre KOA Holiday
Planned Time: 5:09
Actual: 5:34
 

Bye, Colorado River!

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Matagorda Bay Nature Park

 

 

Bye, Penguin

Headed to South Padre. It was very foggy this morning. I got up early--seven-ten or so--and the heavy dew overnight had everything dripping. One would almost think it had rained, but you could tell by the pattern of the wetness that it had not. The water was clustered underneath the shelters and the overhangs of edges.

The fog burned off quickly, but we hit another patch when we set out and crossed Matagorda Bay at Port Lavaca. Getting over to 77 south I relied on google and it steered me wrong, as usual, taking one of its six-mile "shortcuts" on a county road. I used to avoid FMs, but some of the FMs down here aren't so bad. But NO NO NO county roads! Stupid google maps.

Note there seem to be a couple of really nice private RV parks on that big bay (the south side of Matagorda Bay). They may be geared to long stays, but if not we can check them out.

Lot of hawks on the drive, and even a pair of Caracara and then later, a pair of osprey. They seemed to be far from water, too, but that might just mean that I couldn't see the water they were watching over. Besides, we're so close to the coast that anywhere we went was near the water.

Hello, South Padre

This KOA is very nice but so very crowded. Almost everyone has an out-of-state license plate. I saw only one Texas (not counting Bob). Ohio, Indiana, Illinois...I suspect that if you took a brisk walk around, you could count off every state in the northeast U.S., right here in this parking lot.

Which is what a KOA is--a parking lot. It only reinforces our thoughts that these are nice places to stay if you're going to be taking all-day day trips every day at a destination, or if you're only stopping for the night on the way to somewhere else. All that said, there's a boat ramp into the gulf right here, at the end of the driveway. Bob could launch his Kayak with no trouble at all.

Since Bob was still feeling poorly from aftereffects of the meal the night before, we just ate our leftover  barbequed chicken and salmon at the Mammoth RV. Then went over and talked for just a while, had a little chocolate and an argument about the what's 'er name verdict, dog walk and bed.

Over in the mud puddle just north of the RV park, there was a big, chunky bird with an absurdly long, down curved beak. Long-billed curlew, or whimbrel? When I went back later to take a picture, he had his head tucked under his wing. Annoying bird.