Heading Inland

We had a storm this morning.  It started last night with some rain but the skies really opened up this morning.  So we took our time in getting up and getting breakfast to let the storm blow over.

I had covered the bikes but they blew over during the night so the covers were full of wet sand.  Kind of a mess when putting the bikes back on the rack.

And the tide seemed to come in a lot farther this morning than yesterday.  Where we had 50 feet of beach between us and the water yesterday, a few of the RVs parked on the beach had water lapping at their tires this morning.  Maybe it was the storm, maybe the higher wind.  We saw several people pack up and leave this morning.

And we decided to leave also.  This is a great place, it’s a lot of fun camping on the beach, but it’s time to move on.  Adventure calls.

After a last long walk on the beach, we left Padre Island and headed south.  A little over an hour’s driving took us to King Ranch, something that looked interesting enough for a stop.

King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States, covering 825,000 acres.   This one ranch is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. They also have interests in several other countries.  Started by Richard King, a riverboat captain, in 1853, this is one of these businesses that just grew into a whole bunch of different areas.  He didn’t like any of the saddles that were available, so he started making his own.  Before long, he was making saddles for many other people.  He got into oil and gas exploration, publishing, cattle breeding, race horses, citrus farming, to name just a few ventures.  Those familiar with the Ford F-Series pickups will recognize the King Ranch version, which is usually the highest end option package and sports the Running W brand.

We didn’t have a lot of time and got there too late to participate in any of the tours, but we did see the video in their visitor center.  We also drove to the saddle store in downtown Kingsville.  Saddles are still made there, along with lots of other high-end leather goods such as handbags and clothing.

Leaving here we drove another couple hours south, ending up in Harlingen, in the parking lot of a Bass Pro Shop.  We haven’t decided on the final itinerary for tomorrow yet, but it will probably include the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.