Mammoth Goes to Matagorda, Day 6

Sat 1/15/22 Day 6

It was nice this morning, warm and calm, with broken bits of clouds. Until about 8:30 am, when the clouds darkened and the wind picked up--and I mean, really picked up. By 9:00 the gusts were 35 mph and there were a lot of gusts. We retired indoors for breakfast.

This park

Indoors!

But after it was clear that it wasn't going to rain, Bob and T went off to see SpaceX while Molly and I went for a jog. We made the mistake of starting off southwards, away from the wind, where we were pushed off our feet a little but not that uncomfortable. When we turned north, it was brutal.

not cold at all, though. Say...sixty to sixty-five degrees, but with the wind whipping around, I kept my hoodie on. I didn't want the jacket, just the hood.

Our walk:

View of the ocean from the park

We jogged north for a long ways, finally getting ot the populated part of the island where there were buildings that made wind breaks. We tried to jog all the way to the Holiday Inn Express that we stayed at years ago, with the kids, but it was too far. When I looked it was six minutes by car, maybe two or three miles. Doable, but with that headwind, we went on for what seemed like forever with no holiday in in sight...then I checked the map again. Without my glasses on, the map looked like we hadn't moved. So we turned back.

On the way back I did take the hoodie off, and wanted to take off my long-sleeved teeshirt, too. Back at the RV park, it seems windier than it was up the island.

Note there are a couple of RV parks south of the KOA we're staying at. I wonder why we didn't check those out?

In the afternoon we went to the birding center. Awesome! And I try to use the word only when required. For sure I saw these birds (and the other guys, Ed and T, saw them too):

Virginia Rail (but I didn't get a good look at it--there was a nature photographer there who ID'ed it)
Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Coot, Red-head,

Snowy Egret

Common Gallinule

 

 

Blue-winged Teal

Tricolored Heron

 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

Pintail Duck

Mottled Duck

 

 

Neotropic Cormorant

American Oystercatcher

Roseate Spoonbill

And these things too