Woke at 4 a.m. being eaten alive. The annoying buzz of mosquitoes surrounded me. Eventually that horrible sound was incessant. I turned on the little LED lamps above my pillows and began to kill.
I had fallen asleep with a wonderful breeze blowing across my bed and the temperature was perfect. I had run the air conditioning until dusk, but then had opened the windows to the oceanside winds. I laid in bed groggy and shut my window. It didn’t make sense that mosquitoes could fit through the screen, but I didn’t have full faculty of senses yet. As each vile little bloodsucker landed on me I swatted. Then I’d use both hands to smack the airborne. Once my blood began to circulate other than in the parasites’ bodies, I realized that the sound of the surf was a little loud. It was then that I discovered that my rear door was wide open. I had noticed some difficulty in it latching during the day, and apparently it wasn’t secured before I climbed into bed.
The mosquitoes haven’t been that bad here. They like shade and calm winds. There is little shade here and, even though the gale force winds of my first night had subsided, it is still windy along the ocean. I was bitten mostly when I emerged in the morning with the first cup of coffee, or if I did something outside at dusk. However, give them an open door before dawn and the largest mammal in the park, and it was a bloodlust feast. I just hoped Jesse had been spared. A bobcat could have come in!
I’ve really enjoyed this park. Camping 100 yards from the beach is pretty cool, and there are some people camped in tents right on the sand. The wildlife has been mostly pelicans, shorebirds and waterfowl, but I did see a couple of Texas alligators, loads of blue crabs in the marsh and spooked some aquatic mammal that I didn’t get a good enough look at to identify. It wasn’t large enough to be a river otter or nutria, which are found in the park along with coyotes, a few coyote/red wolf hybrids from when red wolves were still found here, and the aforementioned bobcats. The only snake I found was a dead-on-road garter snake.
I haven’t been able to post a few more pix from Kissimmee or those I’ve taken since I left Florida because the cell signal is poor here and wi-fi non-existent. Maybe I’ll find a Starbucks near Houston later this morning. Otherwise I’ll just use cell signal along the road somewhere (which is probably how I will post this!)
This morning I am headed to Laredo, which is about 425 miles and will take me about 8 hours. It sits right on the Rio Grande with Nuevo Laredo, Mexico a walk over the bridge. Tonight I hope to spend a free night at the Texas Welcome Center near Laredo where one of my boondocking guides says overnight parking is permitted and wi-fi is available. Then I will move to the state park for three nights and do some tarantula and snake hunting in the area. From there I will slowly follow the Rio Grande River west and north to Eagle Pass and Del Rio and eventually arrive in the Big Bend region.
All the best, M
I had fallen asleep with a wonderful breeze blowing across my bed and the temperature was perfect. I had run the air conditioning until dusk, but then had opened the windows to the oceanside winds. I laid in bed groggy and shut my window. It didn’t make sense that mosquitoes could fit through the screen, but I didn’t have full faculty of senses yet. As each vile little bloodsucker landed on me I swatted. Then I’d use both hands to smack the airborne. Once my blood began to circulate other than in the parasites’ bodies, I realized that the sound of the surf was a little loud. It was then that I discovered that my rear door was wide open. I had noticed some difficulty in it latching during the day, and apparently it wasn’t secured before I climbed into bed.
The mosquitoes haven’t been that bad here. They like shade and calm winds. There is little shade here and, even though the gale force winds of my first night had subsided, it is still windy along the ocean. I was bitten mostly when I emerged in the morning with the first cup of coffee, or if I did something outside at dusk. However, give them an open door before dawn and the largest mammal in the park, and it was a bloodlust feast. I just hoped Jesse had been spared. A bobcat could have come in!
I’ve really enjoyed this park. Camping 100 yards from the beach is pretty cool, and there are some people camped in tents right on the sand. The wildlife has been mostly pelicans, shorebirds and waterfowl, but I did see a couple of Texas alligators, loads of blue crabs in the marsh and spooked some aquatic mammal that I didn’t get a good enough look at to identify. It wasn’t large enough to be a river otter or nutria, which are found in the park along with coyotes, a few coyote/red wolf hybrids from when red wolves were still found here, and the aforementioned bobcats. The only snake I found was a dead-on-road garter snake.
I haven’t been able to post a few more pix from Kissimmee or those I’ve taken since I left Florida because the cell signal is poor here and wi-fi non-existent. Maybe I’ll find a Starbucks near Houston later this morning. Otherwise I’ll just use cell signal along the road somewhere (which is probably how I will post this!)
This morning I am headed to Laredo, which is about 425 miles and will take me about 8 hours. It sits right on the Rio Grande with Nuevo Laredo, Mexico a walk over the bridge. Tonight I hope to spend a free night at the Texas Welcome Center near Laredo where one of my boondocking guides says overnight parking is permitted and wi-fi is available. Then I will move to the state park for three nights and do some tarantula and snake hunting in the area. From there I will slowly follow the Rio Grande River west and north to Eagle Pass and Del Rio and eventually arrive in the Big Bend region.
All the best, M
