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Wanderung 11

A Tantalizing Taste of the Texas Tropical Trail

January-February 2006

Monday, February 6th, 2006 - Another Volksmarch in Port Aransas, Texas.

There was still one more Volksmarch in Port Aransas that we had not done, so after breakfast (and hopefully setting up the new solar cells) we headed up that way. After a short detour to Fisherman's Wharf to sign up for a bird watching boat trip the next morning we found the walk box at the Tarpon Inn, collected our start cards and a set of directions, and were on our way. In contrast to our previous walk just a couple of days earlier, this walk was cold and blustery. I kept my jacket, hat, and gloves on for most of the walk, and still felt cold, particularly when we were on the beach and the wind came whipping at us across the dunes. Walking south along the beach the wind was at our backs and not much of a factor in our walk, but boy when we turned around to walk back did it slap us in the face. Going north the wind was so strong we had to walk hunched over, and at times both Monika and I walked with our eyes closed because of the stinging sand. As my sister once remarked after I mentioned bandaging blisters during a particularly grueling walk, "And you do this for FUN?"

The footing for the beach part of this walk, however, was just great. We walked on the wet sand just above the ebbing tide, and that gave us as cushiony a surface as you could hope for. On each step my heel would sink in about a half an inch and as my foot rolled forward it would also sink in just enough to leave an outline in the sand. Our gait was a little slower than normal and we exercised more leg muscles than with our typical stride, but our feet got none of the pounding that a walk on city pavement typically gives us. An added plus was that the whole beach had shells and we could watch for interesting ones as we walked along.

The surf was quite high that day and no one was swimming, but we saw three guys and a girl taking in their surfboards and another four guys getting their sailboards ready to go. The people with surfboards all wore wetsuits, which made sense given the bodacious wind we were experiencing, but the sailboard people did not. Maybe they were planning on staying upright while sailing along, but based on my experience there would be absolutely no way that they could avoid falling off those things at some point. Certainly when I tried out Detlef's sailboard years ago I fell off repeatedly even with gentle breezes and almost no waves. These folks were certainly much more skilled than I was, but the surf was really, really heavy and the wind was gusting to at least 25 miles per hour, minimum, so I figured that sooner or later those guys would hit the wrong combination of wave and wind gust and go over the side one way or the other. On a sailboard it is easy to either have a wind gust catch the sail and pull you over on to the leeward side, or if you are leaned way back into the wind a sudden lull in the wind can result in falling in on the windward side. When you get just the right balance in strong winds and waves, however, a sailboard gives a quite exhilarating ride, something like the rush you get by riding a motorcycle very fast.

After lunch we drove back to the outskirts of Corpus Christi to get a couple of prescriptions filled at a Wal-Mart and still got back to camp in time to turn on the water heater and take some hot showers. With increased practice we were both getting used to the small shower space, and it was so nice being able to wash off the salt, sand, and oil. As the sky had gradually cleared during the afternoon, I fooled around some more with the solar cells to find the best angle to get them to work well. After a simple dinner we once again read for a bit and then turned in for the night, fully expecting our usual restful slumber, lulled to sleep by the rhythmic crashing of the waves on the shore.

That night, however, turned out to be anything but restful. Around 10 p.m. we awakened to the shrill peeping of some kind of alarm, and it seemed to be coming from the just outside the trailer. I finally got up in my pajamas to explore and found that our spare battery unit that was connected to boost the battery outside had completely discharged and was apparently emitting a "low battery" warning. Stumbling with sleep I took it inside to figure out how to turn it off, but none of the switches had the slightest effect on it. Finally it occurred to me that the only way to shut it up was to charge it up a bit, so I lugged it back outside to the truck and plugged it into the cigarette lighter for a bit, and that finally turned it off. Leaving it locked up in the truck, I thought we were home free for the night and turned in again.

But along about 2 a.m. in the morning, low and behold another shrill peeping filled the air. This time it was a "low battery" warning for the trailer's main battery. That also didn't have any kind of cutoff switch, so I was forced to once again slip my shoes on and run outside in my pajamas to disconnect the battery completely, which thankfully silenced the alarm, albeit at the cost of turning off everything in the trailer including the refrigerator. Still, once I could calm down from the alarms of the night, at least I could get back to sleep knowing (hoping?) that no more electronic alerts would interrupt our slumber!

Copyright 2006 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Prolog Map Epilog

January 06
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February 2006
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