Texas 2023:
Day 11-14 - South Padre Island

	Tuesday, January 31, 2023: As expected, it was raining when we awoke. Nothing too bad, just a constant, steady wetness. We packed all of our gear inside the tent, and then Debbie handed it out and Tom stowed it in the van. Once everything was out, Tom took off the rainfly, collapsed and packaged the tent, and then rolled up the footprint. Soon, the only sign that would let anyone know we'd been there was the giant dry square from under the tent and the corresponding dry rectangle from under the van.
	The birds were out, digging for ants like they had been the previous night.
	Speaking of breakfast, we decided to treat ourselves to fast food for breakfast this morning, stopping at Whataburger in Roma, Texas, ...
	... for two breakfast taquitos, the cutest hash brown sticks, and two Diet Dr. Peppers.
	All along this part of the border, there are these small towns with historic old buildings, like this one housing the Rio Brewing Company.
	We saw several banners congratulating the high school mariachi band for doing well at regional or state competitions. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of those banners, so we're using this picture to tell the story.
	The city building for Rio Grande City, Texas, looked fancy with its pretty dome.
	Just before 10 AM, we arrived at La Plaza Mall in McAllen, Texas, ...
	... and headed inside to the LEGO Store. It was still before opening, and the store manager teased us by having the door propped open as he cleaned the glass.
	While we waited for the official opening time, we checked out the models in the front window. We especially admired the nice parts usage on the Eiffel Tower. Who would have thought to use gray hot dogs to represent arched iron support beams?
	When the manager opened the doors, Debbie went immediately to the Pick and Build wall, filling her cup with several sizes of white tiles, small coral plates, and big yellow scaffolding pieces.
	She added the Friends Mobile Bubble Tea set to complete the visit.
	Next, we stopped at Dick's Sporting Goods to pick up some waterproofing spray in case we needed to touch up the tent with all the rain we've been having. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in the store, ...
	... so we walked next door to Target where they had plenty. While we were there, we checked the Cards Against Humanity display looking for Clam-o-naise and were shocked to see that not only didn't they have it, they didn't even have a spot for it. Sigh.
	While we were in the big city, we thought we'd treat our van, Septimus, to a nice car wash. We stopped at a Blue Wave Express car wash and got a basic wash which erased all of the mud and dirt from the last ten days.
	At an intersection leaving the shopping area, Debbie spotted this sign proclaiming the city of McAllen, Texas, as the "Official South Pole of Texas." Hmm. Is there an unofficial one?
	We made our way south and east, stopping in Brownsville, Texas, at a Church's Texas Chicken. There are three different logos for this fast food chain, under the names of Church's Chicken, Church's Texas Chicken, and Texas Chicken, which is used outside of the US. The current logo, since 2019, is the green and yellow Church's Texas Chicken logo, like the one on the outside of this one, ...
	... even though it doesn't use that logo on the box. Texas is prominently mentioned though.
	But honestly, as long as they have fried okra and the world's best honey biscuit, they can use whatever logos they want.
	We headed through Brownsville to Boca Chica, stopping at the light at the corner of Boca Chica Boulevard and Indiana Avenue, which seemed quite fitting.
	We passed a flatbed semi trailer hauling a big steel pipe. We smiled as we watched it pass by, knowing that it was likely scrap steel from something SpaceX no longer needed.
	There was a brand new Stripes gas station being built at the southeastern corner of the intersection. It will likely be finished next time we visit this area.
	We made our way down Texas Highway 4 and entered the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge.
	Even though this tanker truck says liquid nitrogen on its side, it is probably empty after leaving the SpaceX facility.
	We followed several heavy trucks along the road, hauling materials for the many road improvement projects underway out here.
	Here, the westbound lane was just removed and lots of bulldozers were busy re-grading and replacing the roadway.
	There was interesting street art along the way.
	SpaceX's production facility started to be visible out of the rainy gloom, ...
	... and as we got nearer, we were able to see massive steel works at the Sanchez Site, including these transporter bases and what looked like the bottom of a heavy booster in some stage of disassembly.
	The overcast skies just made everything seem surreal, especially the Starbase sign with the two megabays barely visible in the haze behind it.
	There was only one of these buildings here when we were last here, so it was amazing to see how much had changed.
	We could just make out the Rocket Garden containing Booster 4, SN15, Starship 24, and Starship 20. Starship 24 is the ship most likely to take part in the first orbital test flight. They were moving cranes around it to remove the lifting hooks from the nose and cover the gaps with heat shield tiles.
	The top part of a booster with grid fins attached to it sat outside the smallest of the buildings. We couldn't tell if it was being assembled or in the process of being scrapped.
	It is still amazing to us that the production facility is just open for all to see. There are security stations to prevent unauthorized people from going through, but SpaceX is doing all of this work right out in the public eye. It is so awesome that they are embracing the public desire to see what is going on, rather than performing all this work in secret.
	The wall around the facility appeared to be shipping containers painted black.
	These two satellite dishes make up the SpaceX South Texas Tracking Station.
	Check out the roof on the SpaceX Cafe at the end of Starbase. The wings on the sides are salvaged Starship flaps!
	We headed toward the launch operations area, ...
	... and could just make out Starship 25 on the test stand.
	We couldn't quite see the top of the ship clearly, but what we could see looked impressive. The last here we were here, Starship didn't have any heat shield tiles since they were only doing low altitude tests.
	The ground support equipment (GSE) tanks are also new. There were some low, horizontally-mounted tanks here before, but the tall black tanks are all new.
	As with Starbase, the fencing around the launch pad has been upgraded as well.
	It was nice to see Starhopper still here.
	Wow. That's the booster on the tower. Right there.
	Part of the FAA environmental impact report mandated that SpaceX do more to protect the surrounding wetlands.
	These tanks are also new. Some of these are liquid nitrogen, some are liquid methane, and some are liquid oxygen.
	We parked and looked at the booster for a while. The pedestal for the orbital launch mount was here last time, but the entire tower structure was not here, ...
	... and neither were the chopsticks, which will be used to catch both the booster and Starship when they return to the launch pad for landing.
	We got an up close view of Lab Padre's Rover Cam 2.0 setup, which is pretty much a camera mounted on top of a truck, with a directional satellite dish on the back. We couldn't tell what its power source was, but we assumed that the entire cargo area was filled with batteries.
	This one was a little more established, with an actual mast, guy wires, and what appeared to be a communications station in a cargo container next to it. This one may belong to NASASpaceFlight, or it may be shared among several streamers.
	They've been very busy building stuff. There were only a few permanant buildings here last here, with lots of large semi-permanent tent structures. Some of these buildings appear to have multiple floors, and the ones with windows near the top appear to be offices.
	Heading back toward Starbase, we saw the SpaceX Cafe again, ...
	... with what appeared to be outdoor seating and a large yard for food trucks.
	They've put up a large solar array farm at the eastern end of their property. They are probably the same solar array panels used in the Tesla roof.
	Here's the tracking station again, with a "rhinoceros" in front of it. That's what the streamers call these big gray tanks in their drone flyover videos.
	They have their own medical center on site, which makes a lot of sense. It is twenty miles back to the edge of town, and who knows how far beyond that to medical treatment.
	These buildings replaced the semi-permanent tents that were here last time In here is where they weld the steel ring sections together and attach the tanks and electronics to form completed sections. One of these buildings also stores the Raptor engines before they get installed on boosters or Starships. They need 39 engines on every Super Heavy/Starship combination: 33 on the Super Heavy booster and six on Starship.
	That's the back of the mid-bay along the road, and one of the mega-bays is just visible through the fog.
	Part of Booster 10 was outside the mid-bay, with grid fins attached to it.
	The Stargate building was still there. It is technology research center that specializes in radio frequency research and is a collaboration between SpaceX and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV).
	This is the area known as the shipyard, with partially completed sections for Booster 11 and the nose cone for Starship 28 awaiting integration.
	We took one last look at the Starbase sign as we headed out of the complex.
	The tail section of a partially scrapped booster sat on the test stand known as the "can crusher" at the end of the Sanchez Site. This test fixture has mechanical rams that simulate the force of 33 Raptors at full power to verify that the booster will survive the launch.
	It seemed fitting that we were behind a tanker for liquid nitrogen as we left the facility. There was a different numbered truck still at the tank farm when we were there.
	These giant structures are the transport mounts for either Starship or Booster.
	We made our way back west on Texas Highway 4 to the Customs and Border Protection checkpoint, where the officer barely looked at us and waved us through.
	Someone is looking to cash in on the SpaceX fueled economic boom happening down here. This sign was for a new housing subdivision named "Lunar Estates," ...
	... and not far down the road was a business park under development named "Launchpad Crossing."
	Heading north from Brownsville, we drove through the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge before arriving at ...
	... the H-E-B in Port Isabel. Let's do some grocery shopping!
	Our first stop was to buy some local Texas beer, ...
	... and then some adorable Texas-shaped meat and cheese. We also bought some essentials like milk, bread, cheese, deli-sliced turkey, ramen, fruit, Diet Coke, and snacks that we hadn't seen before.
	Sushi! We both choose one container of sushi for dinner later that night.
	We drove through the continuing rain and high winds, over the Queen Isabella Causeway ...
	... and onto South Padre Island, ...
	... and then to the South Padre Island KOA Holiday, our destination for the next four nights.
	They've made a few changes since we were last here, including building a new office for registration right at the entrance. It makes a lot more sense to have your registration be right as you enter, rather than to have it be at the back of the park.
	They also completely renovated the sites along the entrance road. When we were here last, there were probably ten or a dozen sites, with five or six tent sites along this row. The only sites that remain now are these three tent sites, and they have been upgraded significantly, with each getting a shelter and sitting area. Nice!
	We drove to waterfront cabin number 6. Let's take a tour, shall we? This is the front room, just to the right as you enter the door on the side of the building. The couch contains a hide-a-bed. The sliding doors at the end of the cabin open onto a private deck.
	There is a tiny but full kitchen, with a full-sized refrigerator, microwave, two-burner cooktop, coffee maker, toaster, sink, etc.
	This is the view looking toward the back from the front of cabin and the small hallway to the back bedroom. Across from the door in the hallway, which is the bathroom, are a set of bunk beds built into the wall.
	Here's the bathroom. There is a shower stall to the left of the sink.
	The bedroom in the back has a queen-sized bed, a small dresser, and a TV mounted on a shelf above a clothing rod.
	Here's the deck off the front of the cabin, containing a bench seat and a small side table.
	Off the deck is private patio with a table and four chairs that are right on the waterfront.
	With almost all of our stuff carried in from the van, we settled in for some well-deserved hot chocolate.
	Is that a fin out there? Debbie caught something moving out of the corner of her eye, ...
	... and sure enough, it was the fin of a dolphin. Lots of them, actually. We saw what looked like three or four distinct fins swimming and diving in the bay right outside our deck.
	There were lots of pelicans flying low over the water, braving the strong winds that were blowing steadily from the north.
	Every now and then, Debbie would open the patio doors and take a photo of the wildlife, ...
	... like these ducks that were waiting out the storm and occasionally diving for a meal.
	There were dozens of ducks and seagulls just sitting on the water, content to float while the wind howled.
	We unpacked our yummy Mexican snacks, ...
	... watched the birds, ...
	... and saw an even bigger pod of dolphins patrolling the bay. There were five or six fins in several groups this time.
	Debbie assembled her Mobile Boba Tea LEGO set, which she really purchased just for the boba tea pieces.
	Tom downloaded the YouTube app on the cabin's Amazon Fire TV and started streaming the Lab Padre Starbase Plex channel. It was going to be all-SpaceX, all-the-time for the next four days.
	Just after 7:30 PM, the power went out. Looking around the complex, it appeared the power was out in just the cabins as the rest of the complex was still all lit up. Tom activated several of our trusty battery powered camp lights, stuck one on the refrigerator door, ...
	... and put another one in the bathroom where Debbie had been taking a shower when the power failed.
	We called the KOA after-hours emergency phone number, and someone showed up a few minutes later to investigate.
	By 8:10 PM, the power was back on and all was right with the world. We relaxed for several more hours, talked about our plans for the next day, played Scrabble, and eventually went to bed.
	Wednesday, February 1, 2023: We slept well and were in no hurry to get up this morning. The wind was still blowing pretty hard, which is common for South Padre Island.
	We sat at the breakfast table and watched the herons and other wading birds walk along the beach that had been exposed by the low tide.
	There was lots to see, and it was fascinating to watch which birds hunted alone, and which went in groups.
	Lucky Charms is the best!
	We streamed the Lab Padre Plex camera on the TV again, and occasionally mixed in a few of the other channels covering the goings-on at Starbase.
	There's a Coast Guard Station a mile or so away, and we watched patrol boats make circuits of the bay.
	Septimus sat alone in the parking area. As far as we could tell, we were the only ones staying in the cabins for now.
	Occasionally, a car would drive up and look around, or park near the laundry facilities, but mostly we had the area to ourselves.
	Here's a view from the back of the bedroom looking forward toward the ocean. You can see the clothing rod with our coats on it, and the now-empty cooler under it, and the bunk beds in the hallway across from the bathroom. We were using the bunk beds as storage, with our clothing on the lower bunk and our gear bags on the upper.
	Tom repaired the magnetic blind control on the right-hand sliding door so that we could raise the blinds, and then realized that the windows were covered with sea spray. A quick wipe with a paper towel and they were crystal clear.
	Debbie managed to get a shot of a bird carrying what looks like a nice fish dinner as it flew low across the water.
	Gloomy weather deserves hot food, so Tom made a quick run to McDonald's for lunch. Debbie enjoyed using their mobile app to customize her Quarter Pounder meal just the way she wanted it. Tom felt a little bad for using curbside in this unseasonable cold weather, especially when the McDonald's worker brought the food out wearing a heavy winter parka.
	Just before 5 PM, the weather started to clear up. The blowing rain and spray was gone, and the high winds were clearing the fog rapidly.
	We could see the islands marking the channel on the far side of the bay, ...
	... and a few minutes later, we could see the SpaceX high bays and the rocket garden for the first time since checking in.
	A little further off, the booster and launch tower, or at least the lower half of it, was now visible.
	A few hours later, it was very easy to see the facility, and we were even more pleased with our choice of location.
	We pulled our chairs to the sliding glass doors and sat there watching the lights of SpaceX while we drank our Texas beer and ate our meat and cheese from the Texas-shaped container. That container was so cute that once it was empty, we washed it and made ice cubes in it.
	Since they operate around the clock at Starbase, they have flood lights that keep the place lit up at night.
	Now that the weather had improved, we were fascinated by what we could see from our cabin across the bay.
	We were also watching the shipping as it departed from the Port of Brownsville, ...
	... including this brightly lit tug as it made its way through the channel to the open ocean. It's passing right in front of SpaceX in this shot.
	The visibility got better as the night drew on, with more lights visible on the far shore.
	The wind had been howling all night, and around 8:30 PM, the power went out again. It was a much bigger deal this time, however, as all of the lights in the KOA were out, not just the cabins.
	We shut down our laptops and got out our phones, playing Scabble to pass the time while we waited for them to restore power.
	Every now and then, we would go to a window to see what was going on in the park, and we'd see KOA staff with flashlights prowling around or golf carts moving from electrical box to electrical box. After an hour without power, the cabin was starting to cool down, so we broke out our camping blankets.
	As we were getting ready for bed around 10:30 PM, the power was still out. Some emergency lights around the parking area were on, but everything else was still dark. We loaded all of our frozen jugs and perishable food from the refrigerator to our cooler and put it outside to stay cold. We intentionally turned on the bedroom light so that we would know when power was restored and went to sleep. Around 11:45 PM, we woke up when all of the lights came back on and we heard the heating system kick on. We shed our extra layers, unpacked the cooler, and went back to sleep.
	Thursday, February 2, 2023: We woke around 8:00 AM, draped our Kijaro Kubie camping blankets around us, and slowly started our morning.
	A gigantic cargo ship came into the bay, and we watched as it slowly traversed from the inlet to the channel leading to the Port of Brownsville terminal.
	It was still a solid overcast sky, with strong winds that hadn't shown any signs of letting up. We were impressed with the patio furniture though. It hadn't moved at all even though the winds had been gusting to nearly 30 miles per hour.
	The tide was out, and we watched the birds along the shore line, including this gull, which may be a laughing gull or a Franklin's gull, ...
	... and this snowy egret, which we hadn't yet seen here this visit.
	We decided to venture out to get lunch and see some more of the island. Here's a view of wonderful cabin #6 from our van as we were getting ready to leave.
	We were fascinated by the way they had remodeled the tent sites and couldn't stop looking at them and photographing them. Here and here are photos of how it looked two years earlier.
	The Isla Blanca County Park entrance is just past the KOA. We had thought about camping there, but decided against it. We really like the South Padre Island KOA, and you can't beat the views we've had from our nice cabin.
	We drove up Padre Boulevard which is the main street on the island.
	There were no signs of life in the many beach-related shops, ...
	... or the outdoor attractions. In a month or so, this place will be overrun with Spring Breakers, but for now, it was just a sleepy little coastal town in the off-season.
	We went straight to El Chilango Taqueria, which we had found the last time we were here.
	It was 11:30 AM, and we were the only customers in the place. We ordered two taco plates, beef for Debbie and chicken for Tom, and two Diet Cokes, and found a seat by the window.
	A few minutes after ordering, a server brought over two bottles of sauces, one green and one red, and a cup of hot noodle soup for each of us. It was in a vegetable broth and it was delicious. We later learned that it is called fideo and is a traditional Mexican soup.
	Less than ten minutes after arriving, we had our lunches. Debbie's five beef tacos were served with chopped onions and cilantro, with more grilled onions on the side. Tom's five chicken tacos were served with onions and lettuce and coated in a green sauce, with lime wedges on the side. Both were made with corn tortillas and served with two cucumber slices. It was just as we had remembered it: incredibly flavorful and delicious.
	We left the taqueria and headed north up the strip, checking out the sand sculptures on the side of the road. What keeps them together with all of the rain and wind? Hmmm.
	The water tower features a three umbrella motif that we had seen on the welcome sign when we arrived on the island.
	We drove north until we got to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, where we turned around and headed back south.
	Check out the giant turtle on the front of the Turtle Island gift shop.
	We got a better shot of a U-Haul that we already had a picture of. This one is for West Virginia, and features the Green Bank Observatory's famous radio telescope and the Drake Equation, which tries to estimate the number of active extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy. Heady stuff for the side of U-Haul truck.
	There are some really beautiful beachfront homes here.
	Behind this sand sculpture is Starbase Dispensery. It seems like the locals are embracing Starbase and SpaceX.
	Turtle! Turtle on Parade! Debbie spotted this statue on a side road. This is "Ila" by artist Malia Quinn. It is one of eleven turtle statue on the Sea Turtle Art Trail. Let's go hunting for more!
	Our next turtle scupture is named "Crush" by artist Chelsea Ferdigan.
	This one was outside of a restaurant, and we didn't see the information sign for it, so we don't know its name or who it is by.
	Debbie noticed the three umbrella design on this manhole cover and hopped out to get a closer look. Whoever is responsible for South Padre Island's branding is doing a great job. It isn't often that you see color on a manhole cover.
	The umbrella motif was on the sidewalks as well, with what appeared to be two designs: this one featuring the three umbrellas and the words "South Padre Island," ...
	... and this one with just the umbrellas.
	The sand sculpture outside of the Blue Bay Inn and Suites looked like Ganesha, one of the deities of the Hindu religion.
	There was a very large sand sculpture outside of the Chamber of Commerce building, with a castle and Welcome sign built into it.
	About an hour after we originally left, we returned to the KOA, ...
	... and got a good photo of the new registration building at the entrance.
	Here's a shot of the marina area and how it looked in 2021, ...
	... and the former location of the Pier 19 restaurant where we got take-out the last time we were here. The entire pier, including the restaurant, burned down a little less than a year ago in late February 2022.
	This great blue heron was standing at the end of the concrete near the remains of the pier, ...
	... and took off shortly after posing for the previous picture.
	Another one stood vigil on a pillar near by.
	We went back to our cabin, and watched the birds from heated comfort, including this gull catching a fish, ...
	... and yet another great blue heron stalking something unseen under the water.
	The visibility had improved tremendously, ...
	... and Starbase was clearly visible now. We could even see Starship 26 in the middle high bay. Here is how it looked in 2021.
	We could see the full launch tower and the tops of the tank farm.
	Here's a great shot of Booster 7 on the orbital launch mount and Starship 25 nearby on the a test stand.
	A bird landed on our patio briefly. Even standing on the ground it was getting hit pretty hard by the wind. After a few minutes, it hopped up onto the rail, rested for a second, and then just spread its wings and was carried off the patio and out over the ocean. No jumping. No running. Just wings out and it was gone.
	What's that? Is that clear sky?
	Another gigantic cargo ship crossed the bay, ...
	... departing from the port of Brownsville and heading to the open sea.
	We watched as the sun tried to break through the clouds briefly.
	Around 6:30 PM, just after the sun had set, we decided that it might be a great time to go back over to Starbase and see it at night so we grabbed our coats and headed to the van.
	Hey! It's clear enough to see the moon. And it looks like there are vehicles at the first cabin in the row. Yay! We aren't the only people here who aren't in an RV.
	Queen Isabella Causeway looked beautiful in the dusk, as were the lights of Port Isabel on the other side of the causeway.
	The Sapphire Condominiums stood out with their signature green tops lit up.
	We headed onto the bridge, ...
	... amazed at the visibility after the dense fog and rain of the past few days. Sunset looked like a bright red band of paint just above the horizon.
	Check out the Port Isabel Lighthouse on the north side of the road, ...
	... and Hopper Haus on the south. They have a sign reading "Barbase" at the bottom of the building. Nice.
	We stopped for dinner at Whataburger before heading toward Brownsville, ...
	... and arrived at Starbase just about an hour after leaving the KOA. The Starbase sign was lit up beautifully as we arrived.
	This truck is Lab Padre's Rover Cam 1.0, parked right outside the main gate at Starbase. After having spent countless hours both here and at home watching the various feeds provided by Lab Padre, it was a lot of fun to identify where their cameras were located.
	Here's the view looking into the main gate, with parts of Booster 10 visible on the right side of the photo and the nose cone section of Starship 28 visible near the middle of the photo.
	We drove past the Starbase complex and over to the launch pad area.
	Not only have they improved their fencing, they've installed awesome LED lighting around the entire property. Oh, and that's the launch tower peeking out over the fence with the cool lighting.
	We turned around at our customary place, just beyond Lab Padre's Rover Cam 2.0.
	We admired Booster 7 on the launch pad for a while, and we were thrilled to be able to see the entire booster and launch tower.
	As we headed back toward Starbase, we noticed this building that we hadn't noticed before. Because it was dark, we could see that there were people inside still working, surely doing important SpaceX-y things.
	We approached the SpaceX Cafe at the end of Starbase, and Debbie noticed some big red letters visible through the windows.
	We pulled into a parking spot and got this picture of the sign which clearly reads "MARS."
	We were sure this was Gwen Shotwell having drinks with Elon Musk and other SpaceX employees after a long day on the job. Maybe not. But maybe.
	We pulled into another parking spot to get another shot of the cafe, with its cool Starship flap roof over the entrance.
	We zoomed in another red neon sign which clearly says "OCCUPY MARS" which is one of SpaceX's slogans, emphasizing that one of the companies goals is to one day colonize Mars.
	Check out the branding on this SpaceX Emergency Operations car parked outside.
	As we left, we could see Booster 9 in the high bay on the right, and Starship 26 in the high bay on the left ...
	... and then we were back at the main gate again with parts of Starship 27 and Booster 10 visible.
	Even at night, the roof over the entrance to the Stargate building looks cool.
	We drove slowly by the entrance at the main gate, ...
	... and showed up on Lab Padre's Rover Cam 1.0 feed, with the glow of Debbie's iPhone visible as she ...
	... took this picture.
	We could see the rocket garden as we drove by, with Booster 4, Starship 15, Starship 24, and Starship 20 gleaming in the light from the flood lights. Starship 15 is the one that landed successfully after a high altitude test in May 2021.
	As we passed the Stargate building, Debbie noticed a red gleam coming from the back wall visible though the upper windows.
	Zooming in, she could tell that it was a neon sign that says "Only the paranoid survive," which is a quote from former Intel CEO Andrew Grove that companies must adapt when massive change occurs.
	We got one last great shot of the Starbase sign as we departed. Farewell, Starbase, until we see you again.
	We passed by the Ad Astra School, set up by SpaceX for the children of SpaceX employees. The only thing really visible was the lighting on the fence surrounding the property.
	As we got to the Customs and Border Protection inpection post at the end of Highway 4, we were again waved right through after the Border Patrol officer saw us.
	We turned off Highway 4 onto Indiana Avenue, which made us smile since we were likely the only vehicle with Indiana plates in the area tonight.
	As we passed the Port of Brownsville, we saw dozens of tanker trucks lined up by this fuel farm and we wondered how many of them were getting refills before heading over to Starbase.
	As we arrived back in Port Isabel, we were both taken by this building lit up with blue lights.
	We could see the distinctive lights of the Sapphire towers as we headed back over the Queen Isabella Causeway, ...
	... and arrived back on South Padre Island.
	Around 11:30 PM, Tom noticed on the NASASpaceFlight livestream that the barge that left Kennedy Space Center last month with equipment headed for Starbase was nearing the Port of Brownsville. He fired up his Marine Traffic app on his phone and quickly found that the tugboat Miss Lizzy was station keeping about 6 nautical miles outside of the bay.
	She had left Cape Canaveral on January 20th, and was expected in the Port of Brownsville earlier today. We guessed, correctly as it turned out, that she would wait until daylight tomorrow to bring her barge into the channel. We finally turned in for bed just after midnight, having had a thoroughly enjoyable day.
	Friday, February 3, 2023: Good morning, South Padre Island. The day dawned with overcast skies and continued cold weather, which was perfectly fine for us in our cozy little cabin.
	Every morning, this bird was king of the thing that sticks up during low tide.
	During breakfast, rather than watch more SpaceX, we streamed an eagle cam from Big Bear Valley in California where Jackie and Storm have recently laid two eggs.
	Around 9:00 AM, we walked over to the nearby building to do laundry. We were the only ones there, so we had were able to do three loads at once. We fed our quarters into the machines and walked back to the cabin.
	Barge! The barge from Kennedy Space Center is here!
	We watched as Miss Lizzy pulled her cargo through the channel, assisted by a tug from Port of Brownsville.
	Here's a close up of Miss Lizzy, ...
	... and here's the front of the barge. It was carrying various pieces of ground support equipment that weren't needed at the Florida launch site, including parts of a water deluge system that will be installed on the orbital launch mount here to try to lessen the damage caused by the Raptor engines when they are fired.
	There were water tanks on board as well, and what looked like high-pressure helium tanks that may be for the new testing facility that they are building at the Massey Road Facility. The tug Signet Ranger was at the back of the barge, no doubt helping to keep the barge in the center of the channel with the high winds that were still blowing.
	We watched until the barge was towed out of site at the far end of the channel.
	A little while later, we noticed a single brave windsurfer in the bay. Well, you need wind to wind-surf, and there was still plenty out there.
	Our tent, now officially named Olana Prime, was still wet from the rainstorm that we had the night before coming here so Tom set her up on the deck to dry out. Doesn't she look like she's sad to be out there? Those big eyes ... please don't make her stay out here in the cold. In less than an hour, all of the moisture had dried and we were able to put her away again, safe and warm in her carrying bag in the van.
	By 12:30 PM, Miss Lizzy had finally docked at the port and the SpaceX video feeds were abuzz with speculation about when it would be unloaded and where the equipment would go.
	Debbie got this shot of a pelican taking off, about to fly off to the right. She had noticed that we never saw any pelicans fly any direction other than from left to right across the bay. We wondered if they flew as far as they could to the right, and then were respawned back on the map at the left side of the bay. We're such nerds.
	At 3:45 PM, a completely unexpected event happened. The sun came out. SUN! It lasted just long enough to get a few pictures, and then the clouds moved in again.
	We got a good look at Starbase in the full sun, ...
	... and Booster 7 on the launch pad and Starship 25 on the sub-orbital launch mount.
	A heron waded through the water right outside our cabin. Seriously, if we weren't here for everything SpaceX, we'd be here to watch the birds. It was ridiculously easy to bird-watch from this cabin.
	Just before 5 PM, we gave up waiting for the sun to come back out and decided to have drinks on the patio anyway. We dragged two of the chairs from the little seating area, which was still in the full blast of the wind, to a more sheltered area closer to the cabin. Cheers!
	Holy crap! Is that sunshine out there?
	Just before sunset, the sun had dropped below the cloud cover, lighting up Starship at the pad. Look at that stainless steel gleam! In the foreground, a Coast Guard pilot ship was leading a monster cargo ship out to the sea, and a dolphin watching cruise was coming back to port just to left of the KOA.
	That monster ship, the AP Revlin, slowly made its way across the bay. It was amazing to see something that large go by so close.
	Look at that. The sun. We have missed you.
	What a gorgeous sunset.
	We noticed a light on in the last cabin in the row as more people moved in.
	The NASASpaceFlight camera that was on the beach looking back at the launch mount was to be able to see the sunset long after we could. We enjoyed our last night in the cabin, packed up some of our stuff that had been spread about, and started looking forward to being back on the road again.  Day 15 >