Padre Island Truck Stop

Well, we left Padre Island National Seashore after only two nights. If you like surf fishing or maybe birdwatching, Padre Island might be okay for longer, but for cycling (either with or without motor) it is flat. While the beach is impressive, it is all a little boring.

The real reason for leaving, however, is because it was like living at a truck stop. The Malaquite campground is a long strip of mostly RV sites, each site about 25 feet wide. Half are on pavement and look like over size parking spaces. The campground has no electrical or water hookups at the sites, typical for an National Park Service campground. This means the big RVs run their generators --- a lot! We had a motorhome with a loud one right next to us with the exhaust pointed right at the van. He ran it for at least eight hours a day. What was especially hard was that he fired it up at 5pm and turned it off at 10pm (which was required) and restarted it before 7am. If this were a lawnmower or snowblower, you'd need ear protectors.

While this was our personal hell, things weren't much better elsewhere in the campground, even if there had been other sites to move to. We've overnighted at truck stops that seemed quieter.

Needless to to say, after the second night of going to bed with a splitting headache, we packed up the bikes and van and headed off towards Big Band National Park, which is our main target this trip. Did Ellen mention that Texas is BIG! Big Bend is nearly 600 miles from Padre Island. We decided to split the distance and stop at Amistad National Recreation Area, which is on the way.

When we stopped at the visitor center to get information about their campgrounds, we noticed that there was also a state park, Sequoia Canyon State Park nearby. So we opted for it. What a choice--It is a delightful small park on a hilltop wit only abut 25 sites. It is really quiet (electrical hookups); there is a full moon; it is cool and dry and there has been an owl hooting in the distance. Did I mention the hot showers and free WiFi? They have a tour of the canyon's pre-historic pictographs tomorrow, so we might just stay a while.

Time for a good night's sleep.