3.) Padre Island National Seashore

I awake on my first morning on The Road, to a cement colored sky, overcast and windy.  A 'V' shaped pod of pelicans glide silently over head to greet the morning with me.  I still haven't completely shaken the feeling that taking off like this was a mistake and waking up in a strange new place is slightly unsettling.   I tell myself this is a huge lifestyle change and it will take some getting used to.  In my notebook I actually write the words DON'T GIVE UP!  

I wander through the pavilion, down a wooden ramp to the sand and dip my toes into the Gulf of Mexico.  Icy cold and angry with white caps and sea foam.  Both the sea and the sky are the muted grey color of old movies.  Small dunes, speckled with shrubs and grasses form a barrier between the beach and the flat desolation of the rest of the island. It's sort of depressing, not the greatest place to start a trip like this. but I make way back to the jeep anyway.  I saddle up and take to the sand.  Dozens of RV's, motors homes, and tents are stretched along the beach.  A few people bundled up in sweats are tending small fires,  some adjusting fishing poles.  Before long i've gone almost 18 miles and I realize I'm low on fuel, and have a long way back to the closest gas station so I'm forced to turn around.

When i get back to the pavilion, the sky over it is filled with color.  Hundreds of kites hover in the wind.  Some shaped like killer whales, frogs, turtles, I think I even saw a ladybug.  It's some sort of competition but I don't stick around to get the details.  I take this wash of color against the low clouds as a sign that things are on their way up.

It's time to move West!