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The 208 miles drive to Port Isabel mainly ran parallel to, but a few miles inland of, the Gulf of Mexico. The weather although only in the mid 40's outside was clear and sunny which made for a pleasant drive on US highway 77. This portion of US 77 had more hawks/falcons/kites per mile than any road we have travelled in the USA. We saw our first "Crested Caracara", actually 4 of them feasting on a dead animal by the roadside. We recognised some of the birds of prey but there were so many, if we had stopped for them all we would still have been travelling now. To make us feel we were nearing the Gulf coast again, US 77 was lined with tall evenly spaced palm trees for the last few miles (complete with birds of prey). The other feature of US 77 was the amount of Oil & Gas fields (not always visible) on either side.
Outdoor Resorts
The site we chose for our months stay (Outdoor Resorts) is rather grand & relatively expensive but its location (really close to South Padre Island) and our tardiness in making reservations make it a good choice. The Resort and all of the lots are privately owned. Some owners rent out their space to touring RV's when they are not in residence. Many of the lots are occupied by permanently sited Park Model homes. This resort is interlaced with canals and many lots are situated on the canals to allow boat moorage alongside. The canals give the boaters access to the Intracoastal channel and then the open sea. Road access to the Resort is via a privately owned pontoon bridge and when a tall boat wishes to pass, the center section of the bridge motors to the side to allow passage - luckily this does not happen all that often as it is a very slow procedure. The facilities available include Indoor (heated) & outdoor swimming pools & hot tubs, 3 Tennis Courts, Shuffleboard, Basketball, Volleyball, Table Tennis, Library, Restaurant, 18 hole Par 3 golf course, Fitness room, large function room which had daily line dance classes which are very well patronised, and many organised activities including supper dances most Saturdays.
Port Isabel/South Padre Island
This area is much more developed commercially than Port Aransas. South Padre Island is the nearest we have come to a European style resort. The hotels/condominiums are arranged along the beachfront with a few bars & restaurants in between. It is feasible to walk out to a bar or restaurant without having to take the car. The few miles of beach in front of the hotels is for foot traffic only but another 20 miles is available for driving or walking on. An hourly "free" tram service operates from Port Isabel across the bridge to South Padre Island - up one side of the island and loops back on the other side. The bridge 
between Port Isabel & South Padre Island has Pelican warning lights (A true Pelican Crossing?). When the wind is blowing from the North the many Pelicans flying back & forth are liable to stall and land on the roadway of the bridge. The lights warn motorists to be careful as there may be Pelicans on the road.
Rio Grande Valley
The area to the west of South Padre Island is known as the Rio Grande Valley as it is bounded on the south side by the Rio Grande which enters the Gulf of Mexico south of South padre Island. This area which has many entry points to Mexico is experiencing an economic upturn due to the free trade agreement between the USA & Mexico. Major cities/towns include Brownsville, Harlingen, McAllen! and Edinburg! (someone dropped an h?). If the present rate of expansion continues many of these cities/towns will become joined, forming a very large city indeed.
Weather
The weather on our arrival was rather cool and the Rio Grande Valley had enjoyed some frosts in the night to such an extent that the hardware stores had sold out their years supply of space heaters. The weather since has been mainly dry with temperatures in the 50's to 70's. The hot humid weather seems to have taken a holiday but we are not complaining. There seems to be a fair amount of cloud and wind at this time of year as the cold winter air from the north and the hot air from the Gulf of Mexico push and shove each other around (it sort of reminds us of a GOOD May at home). We did experience another spectacular electrical storm complete with tropical downpour. Fortunately this occurred in the late evening and the only real downside was a temporary loss of signal on the satellite.
Activities
Since Outdoor Resorts was rich in facilities we made use of as many as possible. The Library provided many good books, some Video's and even had Audio Books. We resisted the temptation to sign out the Audio Books as we always fell asleep when listening to them at home. We played shuffleboard & table tennis and used the indoor swimming pool on a few occasions. Linda was muttering about using the fitness room on a daily basis as an exercise in keeping the weight down. Wullie was quite alarmed at the thought of such a painfully boring daily chore that he quickly suggested the purchase of 2 tennis rackets and some balls. This was a much more pleasant way of getting our daily exercise. By the end of our stay we could even "serve" with reasonable accuracy and Linda feels we are a match for McWhinnie & Messer of Agilent fame?
We had been in e-mail contact with Gin & Robert friends from New Mexico and had told them we would be spending a month in Port Isabel. The tradition of New Mexico coincidence continued as Gin & Robert have friends who are resident at Outdoor Resorts all winter. They visited with their friends and inquired at the office on the "Off Chance" that we were residing there. We were quite surprised & delighted to see them arrive at our RV for a visit (we don't get too many visitors) with their friends Cal & Oneida Klatt. We spent a lovely evening in their company at a C&W dance in the function hall. We spent some time in company of Cal & Oneida after Gin & Robert had gone home (to sell their house). We attended the "all you can eat chicken dinner" ($6.50 each) and enjoyed a game of Bitch Rummy afterwards with Cal & Oneida and friends (13 of us in all & several decks of cards). It's called Bitch Rummy because with so many people you can have a good bitch (moan) about the worlds woes and put them right while awaiting your turn. Cal & Oneida live in a very attractive Park Home alongside one of the many canals. They have a sailing boat and to our amazement we watched as their resident Osprey arrived to roost for the night on top of the mast?
Walked many of the miles of beach on South Padre, where although there are no Sand Dollars there are many other types of shells. There isn't as much beach fishing here as there was in Port Aransas but quite a lot of fishing around the coastal inlets.
Birdwatching
This area is a birdwatchers heaven with two National Wildlife Refuge's and numerous other designated sites on what they call the South section of the Coastal Birding Trail. The best locations we visited were the Laguna Atascosa NWR, Santa Ana NWR, National Aubudon's Sabal Palm reserve and the boardwalk on South Padre Island. White & Brown Pelicans (I think I invented a new species last month - Grey? This should have been Brown, Sorry!), Cormorants, Ospreys, Herons, Egrets and many other sea birds are part of the everyday landscape of Port Isabel & South Padre. We added many new birds to our collection but were particularly excited by sightings of Bittern, King Rail, Black Skimmer, Great Kiskadee, 
White Tipped Dove, Long Billed Thrasher, Chacalaca, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Buff Bellied Hummingbird, Golden Fronted & Ladder Backed Woodpeckers. Our two favourite sightings were the Green Jay - because of its bright & vivid colours and a pair of Aplomado Falcons - they were nearly extinct due to pesticides but have been reintroduced to the wild relatively successfully in this area. Harris, White Tailed & Red Tailed Hawks, White Tailed Kites, Northern Cardinals, Pyrrhuloxia, Northern Mockingbirds, Marbled Godwit and flocks of Red Winged Blackbirds were just some of those we had seen elsewhere.
When driving around Laguna Atascosa beach area, Ospreys sitting on the beach are quite a common site which to us from Scotland is amazing. Perhaps what is even more amazing is that nearly every Osprey has a freshly caught fish held securely in its claws, truly rich feeding grounds for all the birds.
Restaurants
As expected Seafood restaurants predominate but all types are available. The population of this area increases dramatically in the winter with the influx of "Winter Texans" and many restaurants provide bargain priced earlybird specials. If you eat between 5.00 & 7.00 p.m. you save a few dollars and are served, in most cases, a more manageable portion. For good value seafood we enjoyed Pirates Landing in Port Isabel. More upmarket Seafood (with sauces) we enjoyed at Amberjack on South Padre. Marcello's, an Italian restaurant in Port Isabel was also very good if a tad more expensive. There is a huge choice and we must say that we never had a bad experience anywhere.
One we never visited, mainly due to Wullie putting his foot down, was the South Padre Island Brewing Company (Microbrewery & Restaurant). Every time we visited the Island Linda would say "we have been here X days and haven't visited the Brewery yet?" but Wullie just said well I suppose we will get round to it.
We have have enjoyed our three months relaxing on the Gulf of Mexico, it is now time to head north/west for Big Bend National Park, where we hope the weather will allow us to get our boots on and hike in the mountains once again. Please join us!
Miles travelled this month: 1,395
Accumulative miles: 40,842
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