Texas 2024:
Day 4 - Brownsville, TX

	Saturday, April 13, 2024: After a good night's sleep, we walked over to the motel lobby and made some waffles for breakfast. We brought them back to our room and enjoyed them along with ice cold Diet Cokes. After breakfast, we took a brief look at the hotel pool before starting our drive over to South Padre Island.
	As we drove past the Port of Brownsville, we finally discovered that these huge shapes were not parts of the second SpaceX launch tower, but instead were new buildings going up at the port.
	We also noticed what appeared to be new branding at the container facility.
	We crossed what we privately refer to as "Dead Pelican Bridge," elated that there was only a single dead pelican this time. We could see people fishing in the waters below, and could just make out the SpaceX megabays in the distance.
	Our first stop this morning was at our favorite H-E-B store. In our rush to leave our house on Wednesday, we had neglected to bring a few things and wanted to pick up replacements, and we also enjoy shopping for regional things when we go places.
	Just inside the front doors we were presented with a tantalizing display of local beer.
	As tempting as pineapple pickle beer was, we didn't buy any, but we did buy two different six packs from Texas breweries.
	Mmmmm, Moon Pies. They had the same Solar Eclipse Survival Kits that we had purchased for our eclipse party on Monday. We didn't need to buy theirs, however, because we already had a box back at our hotel room.
	Here are some contenders for the most interesting products that we saw that we don't have back in Indiana. First up: tubs of bacon fat. There are no words.
	Next up: Duncan Hines presents Dolly Parton's Creamy Buttercream Frosting. If it doesn't look like Dolly's hairdo when you open the can, you can probably get a full refund.
	One of the primary items we were here for was sunscreen. Yes, we drove to south Texas in April and managed to not pack any sunscreen. We don't know how it happened either. Out of all of the interesting scents available, we chose a bottle of birthday cake scented SPF 50. Yum!
	With our shopping complete, we headed through Port Isabel, ...
	... and over the causeway, ...
	... to beautiful South Padre Island. For the first time, we noticed that there were parking spots behind the welcome sign so that people can park and take their photo with the sign.
	We've stayed at the South Padre Island KOA the other times we've come here, but when we tried to book the type of waterfront bungalow that we stayed in last time, they no longer showed up in their inventory. We decided that we would stop in while we were here and see what changes were being made.
	We were delighted to see that the three premium tent sites were still here. We felt like we'd dodged a bullet by not booking one this time when we drove by and the only occupied site was blaring music from one of the two cars parked there. That would have driven us crazy.
	The pier where the restaurant had been was still vacant, but now the entire end of the little peninsula was completely bare of any buildings. There used to be six bungalows here, as well as two silo-shaped buildings containing a store and the laundry facility.
	There was an intriguing sign just past the barricades that read "SpaceX Parking Only." It was early on a Saturday morning, and there were no cars there.
	New bathrooms had been built near the middle of the campground. We stopped at the new office to ask about the missing cabins and learned that that area was being redeveloped as premium RV sites and that SpaceX was using the area for their employees to fly the SpaceX hovercraft over to Starbase. You read that correctly: the SpaceX hovercraft.
	We left the KOA and drove to Isla Blanca State Park for some fact-finding about their camping facilities. We parked near the Jesus Christ of the Fisherman Statue, ...
	... and walked out to the big stones that make up the breakwater ...
	... to take a look at Starbase across the water.
	As a spectator, this is the closest to the rocket that you can get on launch day. It's just under five miles from here to the launch pad.
	Oh, yeah. We look gooooood! Tom was sporting his brand new sunglasses that he had purchased at H-E-B.
	We were a little surprised that the park was so very empty.
	We found a spot in a nearly empty parking lot and walked on the boardwalk out to the beach.
	It was a gorgeous day. Sunny but not too hot. There were a few people out on the beach, but not many.
	We noticed a red flag flying on the dunes above the beach. The sign below the flag indicated that the flag meant there was heavy surf and dangerous currents.
	A grackle perched on one of the shower stalls along the boardwalk and watched us walk by.
	We took a look at the condos further north up the beach. The iconic Sapphire Towers are on the left.
	Just off the boardwalk, we could see cactuses blooming with pretty orange blossoms.
	Driving back toward the park entrance, we noticed that the streets were all named for oceans or seas, but that several were misspelled. Can you tell what letter is missing?
	What about this one?
	Check out that cool gazebo on the right. And don't miss the big white blimp on the left.
	We headed to our favorite lunch spot on the island, El Chilango Taqueria. We were pleasantly surprised to find a full parking lot. The other times that we'd been here, both in January, we were the only customers here. Now it was hoppin'. Yay!
	Debbie ordered the shrimp tacos, which came with lettuce and a spicy green sauce, ...
	... and Tom ordered the tacos al pastor, which came with onions and cilantro. We did a two-taco swap so that we could each have both kinds. Everything was delicious, as always.
	During our meal, we talked about whether we needed to stay in Brownsville for two more days, then discussed our plans to take I-10 east to New Orleans before heading home. That got us listing the stretches of I-10 we hadn't driven and soon we were planning to head west to pick up I-10 in Fort Stockton before heading east.
	As we reached the other side of the causeway and entered Port Isabel, we were excitely planning our upcoming I-10 trek.
	We took time to admire the Port Isabel Lighthouse as we drove past, ...
	... and Debbie was able to get photos of this manhole cover, ...
	... and this one for her collection.
	As we drove through town, we saw the first of a series of dolphin statues. You know what that means. Photo safari!
	We prowled the streets of Port Isabel looking for more, quickly finding this pink dolphin statue, ...
	... and this cool checkered blue one.
	We drove past the seahorse castle on our way back to our hotel, both of us eager to plan the next part of our trip.
	Five hours later, the trip was re-planned and we celebrated by picking up fried okra from the nearby Church's Chicken to have with our leftovers from Black-eyed Pea. It was almost as good as being there.
	Shortly after sundown, we headed back over to Starbase to have a look at it in the dark. We love that to get to Starbase from our hotel, you take either Minnesota Avenue or Indiana Avenue down to Highway 4. How perfect is that?
	We stopped at the new Stripes gas station to have a look inside and bought candy bars and a bottle of water.
	Massey's test facility was all lit up, even at 8:30 PM on a Saturday night. Work never stops at Starbase.
	There were very few cars on the road, and we felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.
	The railing on the privacy fence in front of the Ad Astra school was lit up.
	Starbase is like a beacon in the darkness of the wetlands.
	The production facility looks so beautiful at night.
	All of the cars that had blocked the Starbase sign earlier in the day yesterday were gone, and we could see it clearly as we drove past.
	Doesn't the restaurant look beautiful?
	We drove to the launch facility, ...
	... and got a breathtaking view of the Gateway to Mars sign.
	Here it is with the launch tower visible. Imagine how beautiful that would look if there was a fully-stacked Starship on the pad.
	We didn't see many people at the site, but we could hear banging sounds coming from the direction of the launch tower as crews worked on the chopsticks to get them ready for the next flight.
	We parked the van and got out to take it all in. It is very surreal to be able to get this close to a launch facility. Starhopper looked like a giant robot standing guard over the site.
	Looking over the wetlands to the east, we could see the lights of the Port Isabel on the left and the lights of South Padre Island on the right.
	We watched as the elevator descended from the very top of the launch tower. The views from the top must be spectacular.
	Gorgeous.
	We pulled into a spot at the restaurant, ...
	... to get a closer look at this Cybertruck parked in the lot. Yes, they look funny, and we're not sure they qualify as a truck, but they look very futuristic and cool.
	If this restaurant was open to the public, we'd eat every meal there while we were here.
	The crane that is inside the Starfactory building gives a sense of scale to this shot.
	You can just make out the shadow of a Starship in the highbay through the open doorway.
	Here's a zoomed-in shot.
	The red light from the "Only the Paranoid Survive" sign in the Stargate building was visible as we drove by.
	Goodbye for now, Starbase.
	We were the only people at the Border Patrol Checkpoint this late on Saturday night, and the agent on duty waved us through with only a very brief look at us.
	The next time we are here, we will definitely eat at the food truck park in Brownsville.  Day 5 >