We got to experience a month living on the US-Mexico border in Brownsville, TX. There were a number of cultural adjustments required to acclimate to our new location, beginning with our shock in discovering that the local hardware store felt the need to carry no less than seven different kinds of scorpion spray. But hey, at least we’re living the dream, right? Brownsville’s population is 94% Hispanic, which meant discovering that shops like Target and CVS had all their store signage and loudspeaker announcements in Spanish. Even the local Chinese restaurant was entirely manned by Spanish speaking staff. We also learned through our RV resort about the popularity of medical tourism in the region, with cheap Botox and dentistry available right over the border.
Unfortunately our arrival coincided with extreme cold throughout the US, requiring a sharp eye metering the amount of propane being burned for heat until we could refill and a healthy amount of cursing while viewing the extended forecast. While this was bad for us, it was even worse for the sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. Due to the cold water temps, the cold blooded turtles became unable to eat or swim, making them extremely vulnerable to predators. Lucky for the turtles, there is an excellent rehab center in South Padre Island who provided temporary accommodations for 160 turtles scooped up in the chilly gulf waters over the Christmas weekend. Once the temperatures warmed, the turtles got to return to their watery home, being lovingly carried into the water by the volunteers. Tracey was happy to be able to attend, although seeing the rehab team carrying several hundred pound turtles into the still-icy-for-humans water made her glad to be merely a bystander for the festivities.
Faithful readers of this blog might already know that we’re always looking forward to where our next meal is coming from. The food in Brownsville was disappointing, not because the places we went weren’t good, there just is very little variety in town. Thankfully, we were also close to South Padre Island aka “party paradise for spring break keg stands on the beach”. We had some great seafood and got to enjoy some frozen drinks on the beach, the latter leading Brian to dub SPI as the “Myrtle Beach of the West”.
What We Did:
Viewed the SpaceX Starships – The Mars-bound rocket manufacturer owned by Twitter’s super villain himself, Elon Musk. The rockets are pretty much out in the open and you can walk up within ten feet of them. The facility is near the Gulf of Mexico, which allowed our Jeep to earn it’s “drive on the beach” merit badge. The proximity to the Gulf also means you have to pass thru US Immigration when returning from the facility, despite never leaving the country.
South Padre Island Sandcastle Village
Sea Turtle Inc turtle rehabilitation facility
Visited the border wall and the Rio Grande – We were a bit surprised to find the river wasn’t very “grand” the month we were there. The wall and border crossing looked pretty old, not from the recent political wall building, and appeared to have workers crossing by foot to get to work. The natural water border between the US and Mexico was extremely narrow and mostly a dried up creek. While the weather in the area was nice (Christmas weekend being the drastic exception), it was a bit like living in a wind tunnel, which may have contributed to the drought.
Where We Stayed:
Tropical Trails RV Resort, a newer luxury RV park that was still being expanded. There were lots of planned activities. Unfortunately most were during the day, as most of the campers were retired and didn’t share our daily quota of spreadsheets, meetings, and deadlines. This was the first park that we’ve been to that had sites with giant canopies to park under.
Where We Ate:
Laguna Bob’s
La Scala
Wing Barn
Lotus Cafe
Vermillion