Relaxing on SPI and Touring Port Isabel

     

     The wonderful weather continues each day here on South Padre Island, and we're enjoying each and every one of them.  Neighbors keep coming and going as the weekend crowd goes home on Sundays.  It's pretty much a standard joke between Al & Nancy from Manitoba, who are camped across the street from us, to send a wise crack across the road as the neighbors move out.  "Can't keep a neighbor, eh?"  Don't worry. I've had the opportunity to send a few back their way.  I've warned him about my ties with the border, but he doesn't seem too impressed.
     On one of our fishing days, we came upon a rather large turtle at the edge of the surf, and I've since determined that it was a Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle.

I thought it was quite lucky to spot a mature female on the beach, as they are the most endangered species of sea turtle.  Their main nesting area is located down near Rancho Nuevo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and that was discovered by US scientists till the 1960's.   According to the NPS website, nesting in Texas starts in April, so I can't imagine what this female was doing on the beach.  Unfortunately, this lady was deceased when we came upon her, with trauma along her neck.  I would guess she was probably hit by a car sometime during the night.  Sea Turtle Rescue was notified, but I don't know what happened once they arrived.  Perhaps she was nesting earlier than usual, and completed her task before meeting her demise.  
     On Saturday night, we visited a local Italian restaurant, Marcello's Restaurant, over in Port Isabel, TX.  It's located right on TX Rt. 100 near the bridge over to SPI.  Kind of unusual finding an Italian restaurant in a Mexican border town, but I'll have to say, the food was delicious.  They utilized a very impressively sized wine glass, and their house chianti was very good.  I ordered the spaghetti because I like spaghetti, and Debbie ordered their Shrimp Parmesan. Both were excellent.  I tried to order a house salad with my dinner, but the waiter, Arturo, would not allow it.  "Go with the clam chowder" he insisted.  He was right.  Much better than  a salad.  After the meal, the chef came for a visit, which I always appreciate, and welcomed our comments.  It's definitely worth a stop after Saturday night Mass.
     On Sunday, we ventured over to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, which is located on the opposite side of the Laguna Madre.

 It is most famous for its preservation work with the Ocelot, which we did not see, but there was an impressive amount of migratory birds and raptors to observe.  Debbie and I dug deep and invested $4 in a 3 hour narrated tram ride around the park, which gave us the opportunity to view quite a large herd of Nilgai, which are about the size of an elk.  
The Nilgai, is Asia's largest antelope, and comes from central and northern India.  Ranchers imported the Nalgai into Texas before realizing that they are very nomadic, and fences are not going to secure them.   The grasslands located throughout the park, easily support the herd.  There are white-tail deer in the park that are hunted, and hunters are encouraged to shoot as many Nalgai as they wish.  Since these guys weigh between 200 - 600 pounds, it's a little difficult to dress and store the meat.  But our guide stressed that if prepared properly, it is very delicious.
     One of the most common raptor we spotted during our tour was the Crested Caracara.  Or, if we saw 2, our guide would call them a "pair a caracara".

 Everybody's got to be a comedian.  We saw most of them perched upon a yucca plant, atop it's flowering portion.  It made them real easy to spot.  The unique factoid regarding the caracara, is they will eat either carrion or something they have killed, which is a little unique.  The Osprey that we were able to view, will only eat something they have killed, which makes it almost impossible for an Osprey to survive in captivity.

     Today we attempted to complete a repair to the Cherokee.  Jeep is providing us with a wire harness that will keep power to the computer to aid with steering stabilization.  Seems that Jeep missed that step in the design process of the Cherokee, and occasionally it tries to go in the opposite direction I want, while towing.   But the Jeep computer system in their dealerships failed today, and we couldn't get the part out of the adjacent room at the dealership.  Computers are a wonderful tool, until they fail, and then no one knows what to do.  Can you believe, they weren't even able to do oil changes in this dealership in Brownsville, TX, because they couldn't compute the tax or print a receipt!?!  But it's all repaired now, so tomorrow, I'll get over there and get this new wire harness installed.  The wobble has only happened twice to us, but it's pretty exciting when it happens.  This should take care of it though.

     We're spending an extra week at SPI, so I've got a few more days to try my luck at surf fishing.  Wish me luck!!!