Sunday, Oct 23<\/h3>\n
Once again today was mainly driving. However, there was a nice payoff this afternoon when I arrived at Padre Island National Seashore<\/em> on the Gulf coast. This marks the end of the section along the Mexican border and, hopefully, I have seen my last Border Patrol Inspection Station. All of the officers I encountered were very pleasant and most delays were negligible but I have now been “inspected” about 15 times.<\/p>\n The 200 mile drive from McAllen to Padre Island, TX was fast and featureless and the main feature of Padre Island is beach. As you know, I am not a beach person but these beaches are different in that they are also roads. The National Seashore protects about 70 miles of the narrow barrier island so there is no development except for a couple of miles at the north end where the island is accessed from Corpus Christi. If you have a four-wheel drive vehicle (and a full day) you can drive over 60 miles south along the seashore beaches. The beaches are official Texas roads and all vehicles must be street legal and insured and drivers must obey all driving regulations.<\/p>\n I first stopped at the visitor center where they have the usual orientation displays, trails and a no-driving beach. After sitting in the car for so long over the past few days this was a relaxing change of pace but I really came to drive on the beach. Even though it was a fine Sunday afternoon the beaches were not crowded and, once you got more than a mile or so from the real road, you could have half a mile to yourself. I only drove about three miles, parked and took a 20 minute walk along the beach. It was very pleasant and just what I needed to relax. You can view the map and see the experience here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even the beach right next to the visitor center was very quiet Saturday, Oct 22 This was a very boring driving day from Eagle Pass to McAllen, Texas that I did not think deserved its own post. I looked on TripAdvisor for something to do along the way but found nothing in Eagle Pass, Laredo or McAllen that I thought was worth a stop. The map and … Continue reading A Lot of Miles with a Relaxing Finish<\/span> ![\"padre-beach-visitor-center\"](\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Padre-Beach-Visitor-Center.jpg\")
Driving just a few miles south from the visitor center got you plenty of beach to yourself.![\"padre-beach\"](\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Padre-Beach.jpg\")
\nThe island is a great location for birding with over half of the species of birds in the Americas being found here at some time during the year.![\"padre-beach-birds\"](\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Padre-Beach-Birds.jpg\")
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