Jen’s Journal – December 14, 2019

Day 168: Cracker Barrel, Corpus Christi, TX

Sunny and warm.

I like Corpus Christi. It is big enough to find any store or service you might need, and just a short car ride over a bridge brings you to Padre Island National Seashore, THE LONGEST UNDEVELOPED BARRIER ISLAND IN THE WORLD with nearly 70 miles of amazing coastline.

The beach is beautiful and there really aren’t a lot of people here. Just pelicans, sandhill cranes, and ghost crabs. Kemps Ridley sea turtles lay eggs here in the spring.

And garbage, sadly. The way the currents in the Gulf of Mexico flow, most of the garbage that ends up in the gulf flows to Padre Island. An interpretive sign at the Visitor Center told us we were free to pick up a garbage bag and help clean up the beach. We did. We walked less than a quarter mile and had maybe twenty pounds. The tide was going out and some of the stuff was heavy, like fishing line and hooks tangled with seaweed. Much of the trash is pieces of single-use beverage containers. I give people benefit of the doubt – dropping the trash probably happened by accident.

But I found myself despising the people who walked on the beach without picking up trash. Not nice of me. When I walked down the beach later, I was one of those people, too, because I didn’t have a bag. So I cooled it on the bad feelings.

Then I couldn’t help it. I picked up half a dozen plastic bag remnants so the sea turtles wouldn’t try to eat them.

WE ARE FRIENDS OF PADRE ISLAND!

I make Padre Island sound like a trash heap, but it’s not that bad. But if you look for trash, you will find it. I found it delightful to walk along the beach. And it has to follow that, with the gulf currents like they are, this is an excellent beach combing spot.

We didn’t build this, but love it!

Tom drove Arvi on the beach! For a minute. We are not comfortable driving this expensive vehicle on the beach.

It was one of those days where the air feels so nice that it just feels good to be alive.

Okay, I just have one question: Is it cool to ride a horse on the beach, or anywhere, and not pay attention to what is being left behind from the horse?