Stranded on the Beach

Thursday, 4 September 2014
Gulf Waters RV Resort  — Port Aransas, Texas
Temps: Hi 89F (32C) / LO 82F (28C)

This morning we headed out for our morning exercise as usual … speed-walking around the resort.  I don’t usually take my camera with me, but I did so today as there was some nice morning color in the sky.

By the time we arrived at the boardwalk, the deep colors of sunrise were gone.  Oh well … the camera came in handy for capturing something else.

Reflection of the sun’s rays lights up a patch of clouds.

By something else, I don’t mean the seaweed that continues to plague the beach, although I took some photos of it anyway.  I understand from the locals that the amount of seaweed on the beach this year isn’t normal.  We had quite a bit of it washing ashore earlier in the season.  At one point, it got so bad that there was mound after seaweed mound piled up all along the six-mile (10 km) length of the beach.  Then we went away on vacation and when we returned the seaweed seemed to have lessened considerably, with just a narrow strip of it at the water’s edge.  Well, that changed again this week.

The storm surge from Dolly not only brought large quantities of
seaweed ashore, but also pushed it much further up the beach at high tide.

Just a narrow segment of the beach near the dunes is seaweed-free and drivable.

Beach Morning Glory covers the dunes.

All we can do at the present is hope that as the weather turns cooler, the seaweed will disappear.

Now for the “stranded” piece of this post.

Just as we were about to resume our exercise walk, our eye was caught by something about 2/10ths of a mile from the GWRVR boardwalk.  Peering through the sea mist, we realized it was a trailer.  Nothing really unusual about that — we’ve seen lots of RVs of different shapes and sizes camping on the beach here.  Except that this one was perilously close to the water, and it actually looked like it was partially submerged.

We quick-stepped our way down the beach to make sure no one was inside the trailer.  It was abandoned … no hitch that we could see; the windows open; no one responding to our calls.

We have no idea what the story behind the trailer is.  When we returned to the beach in the early evening, it was gone.  A couple we spoke to told us that the trailer had been on the beach for several days, and was towed away mid-afternoon.  A mystery unsolved … for us.

To end this post on a happier note … one last scene from this morning’s walk.

We have a daytrip scheduled to San Antonio this weekend … perhaps I’ll come back with some interesting stuff to share ;-)