Port Aransas

[CycleTex87 2991]

What’s the story in Port A for the 4th fireworks show?  Canceled or going on with the show?

[justhookit 4192]

Cancelled. Deep Sea Roundup also cancelled.

[CycleTex87 2991]

17 hours ago, justhookit said:

Cancelled. Deep Sea Roundup also cancelled.

Bummer. Wasn’t going out for the fishing tournament this year. Maybe the town won’t be as crowded the week after the 4th when we’re down there. 

[bschoolprof 6281]

Made it down here. Beaches aren’t too bad right now. Setting about 20 yards away from fellow beach goers. Not planning on eating out (brought our own food).

[justhookit 4192]

Yeah I was on the beach for a few hours late afternoon yesterday and again for about an hour this morning. It’s not bad at all yet. By Thursday it’s going to be a shitshow again.

up until late last week the water has been really pretty. Clear green and even blue some days. Now, not so much to say the least.

[horn4life 3819]

I just bought a travel trailer and am about to break in my inverter generator today.  We are definitely going to head down soon, but fuck Thursday through Saturday night, too many dumb shits on top of each other.  Our plan is to do Monday through Thursday and haul ass my early afternoon.

Every day I take a look at the Malaquite Beach Cam from the national Seashore.  Just to check out the surf conditions.

I just did a search and SeaGull Condos actually has a great webcam up now https://www.seagullcondos.com/live-surf-cam/?ref=portaransastex

[bschoolprof 6281]

We are leaving Thursday!  I figured it would be a real shit show. 

[Ag with kids 581]

3 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

We are leaving Thursday!  I figured it would be a real shit show. 

It's always a shit show over July 4th, both in Port A and NPI.  Now that I live on NPI I wish there was a better way for folks to get to Port A without having to cross the causeway...of course, we locals make sure there's no reason to go OTB then so we don't have to deal with that clusterfuck...

But...just remember...when you get here...you're on island time...and relax.

[bschoolprof 6281]

Mask usage seemed 50/50 (at best) at the gas station I stopped at for a beach pass. 

[Ag with kids 581]

And....

Boss Canales strikes again....

 

NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Effective immediately, all beaches within Nueces County will have a curfew from now until July 11 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Vehicular access prohibited from July 3 at 6 a.m. to July 7 at 6 a.m. This includes golf carts and all terrain vehicles.

RV Parks at IB Magee and Parde Balli Park will remain open for campers, but no one will be allowed to drive on the beach.🙄

[Anastasis 23529]

15 minutes ago, Ag with kids said:

And....

Boss Canales strikes again....

 

NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Effective immediately, all beaches within Nueces County will have a curfew from now until July 11 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Vehicular access prohibited from July 3 at 6 a.m. to July 7 at 6 a.m. This includes golf carts and all terrain vehicles.

RV Parks at IB Magee and Parde Balli Park will remain open for campers, but no one will be allowed to drive on the beach.🙄

This seems inconsequential. 

[Austinvines 318]

We were there over the weekend. Total shitshow near town with zero distancing and tons of multi-family parties on the beach. Down by the state park we could park close to the water back-to-back with a space for our canopy. That was nice.

The IGA was masked up and they were giving masks to the patriots who came in without. I especially liked the dude in the t-shirt with an AK on it and the text “‘You don’t need an AK’ ‘yeah and I don’t need a whiny bitch telling me what I don’t need.’”

Plenty of Trump flags.

[Ag with kids 581]

28 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

This seems inconsequential. 

 

28 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

This seems inconsequential. 

If someone is coming down to the beach this weekend, I think that the fact that it's closed is slightly more than inconsequential....

Just giving out info..

[Anastasis 23529]

4 minutes ago, Ag with kids said:

 

If someone is coming down to the beach this weekend, I think that the fact that it's closed is slightly more than inconsequential....

Just giving out info..

Curfew from 8pm to 6am seems inconsequential. 
 

I guess vehicular access is a bigger deal. 

[justhookit 4192]

1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

This seems inconsequential. 

They are trying to keep the crowds lower without pissing off the local businesses. It’s a fine line. The curfew bars camping and keeps the police from having to patrol and/or respond to that mess. 

[mchookem 16598]

man, i am SO glad we went when we did, this entire summer just seems like a hot mess down there. which... that's always how i view summer there and is why we never go in the summer lol

but boy, i do feel for families that have rentals thru the holiday that now aren't going to have access to the beaches. i realize people can still walk, but i'm imagining toting chairs, ice chests, pop-up canopies, not to mention kids and all the other beach gear a mile or more in 100 degree weather. talk about sucking. 😕

having said that...i can't imagine making any plans to go ANYwhere right now and not being prepared for worst case scenario. 

man...just everything kinda sucks right now 😝

[SurlyBDR 22907]

I'm just glad our trip has been booked for tomorrow through Sunday, so hopefully we can at least get 1... if not, 2 days of "normalcy"

I don't know what we'll do Friday and Saturday. 

 

 

I've been in need of getting away from work for a few days no matter how it goes 

[Ag with kids 581]

12 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Curfew from 8pm to 6am seems inconsequential. 
 

I guess vehicular access is a bigger deal. 

Vehicular access is HUGE.  If you can't drive to the beach, it's not an easy walk and there's nowhere to park your car.  There's only a few places that are right on the beach on NPI.  The rest really do require a vehicle to get to...

[Anastasis 23529]

46 minutes ago, Ag with kids said:

Vehicular access is HUGE.  If you can't drive to the beach, it's not an easy walk and there's nowhere to park your car.  There's only a few places that are right on the beach on NPI.  The rest really do require a vehicle to get to...

Not familiar with NPI's layout, but I think that somebody who rented a place in Port A for the Fourth is not going to be dissuaded from going to the beach.  They'll drop off the family right at one of the ends of the access road and go find someplace to park for the hike back. At least that is what I would probably do.

So you're gonna have a cluster fuck of cars lining up, dropping and turning around at the entry points, parked cars stacked all over the place off the beach, and people will cluster near the entry points instead of spreading out by driving down the beach.  People who would otherwise drive to a distanced point on the beach, will also be hiking up the access roads in big waves of people. Sounds like a total shit show to me.

If you want to close the beach, close the beach.  I think that all that energy would be better spent educating on and enforcing distancing and group size restrictions, but that's just a whole other type of shit show I guess.  Man, wouldn't want to be near any of this this weekend.

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by Anastasis

[justhookit 4192]

@Anastasis yeah I agree with all of that. Again, the new order bans camping and also imposes an 8pm curfew. That was a major part of it and there definitely will be people that cancel their trip altogether. It’s my understanding that they wanted to totally close the beach and the GLO or whoever at the state told them no. I think they could have imposed the restrictions we had back in April which only allowed exercising on the beach. However if they did that, town would become even more of a clusterfuck and you would end up with massive house parties. We just don’t have the police/EMS service to deal with this crap right now. Hopefully a bunch of people choose to stay home.

[dmtx 159]

Our plans are currently up in the air... we still plan to come down mid next week. It's only the four of us,b But if they extend this mandate, I don't know what to do. Our plan was to bring enough food, but also order take out.

[Hate 20167]

There is a zero percent chance I would go to Port A with those beach restrictions. It would be a huge pain in the ass to try to drag all of the beach gear down to your spot. You’d have to be there first thing in the morning to grab a spot or risk having to drag coolers, easy ups, etc through a quarter mile or more of sand just to find a spot.

[Anastasis 23529]

41 minutes ago, Hate said:

There is a zero percent chance I would go to Port A with those beach restrictions. It would be a huge pain in the ass to try to drag all of the beach gear down to your spot. You’d have to be there first thing in the morning to grab a spot or risk having to drag coolers, easy ups, etc through a quarter mile or more of sand just to find a spot.

Wonder how many blockade runners there will be running a golf cart load out to a spot to dump and then get back off the beach. 

[Ag with kids 581]

2 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Wonder how many blockade runners there will be running a golf cart load out to a spot to dump and then get back off the beach. 

If they do it like NPI, the answer will be zero.  They block the entrance to most of the access roads and unless your golf cart can drive over dunes, you're not getting on the beach.  Hell, here on NPI it only takes about 6 cops to guard total entry to the beach by vehicle...

[justhookit 4192]

We barely have 6 cops so.......

We block with sand bags and giant road barriers. It’ll take a lot of work to get around. We do have beach walks coming from some of the condos and developments that carts can use. I imagine they will block those somehow too.

a few restaurants are announcing they will be closed Friday to Monday. I bet more follow. There are going to be some starving tourists here this weekend.

edit- also we bring in DPS officers  for holidays so that will help.

Edited July 1, 2020 by justhookit

[Hate 20167]

One of these would come in handy as long as someone is willing to be the mule.

[GreenspointTexas 9883]

Unpopular opinion:

 

cars shouldnt be allowed on any texas beaches

[Ag with kids 581]

2 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Unpopular opinion:

 

cars shouldnt be allowed on any texas beaches

Why not?

 

Have you been to N Padre Island/PINS?

[horn4life 3819]

So what we need to do is send all the unemployed pedicab folks to the island to ferry folks back and forth.

 

Tough way to make a living.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

So what we need to do is send all the unemployed pedicab folks to the island to ferry folks back and forth.
 
Tough way to make a living.

Oooof level high.

Name something worse than carrying drunk overweight Texans around a humid night of Downtown Austin, River walk, ACL or HLS&R; Pedicabbing drunk sunburn Texans on sand in the afternoon heat of July 4th weekend on the STX coast!

[zman13 180]

Last night in NPI they had trucks stationed at the beach road entrances, telling people the beach access was closing at 8pm. They also had trucks driving up and down the beach, kicking people off the beach. 

[SurlyBDR 22907]

Main entrances reduced to 1 lane. Plenty of distancing on the beach today.

 

[kevwun 15971]

We are still going on our annual family trip to Rockport next week.  The house we rented has a pool and kayaks for the canal, so we will be just fine.  We don't usually go out to eat anyway, so that won't be an issue.

Edited July 2, 2020 by kevwun

[bschoolprof 6281]

Made it out just in time. 

I thought folks did  pretty good job of maintaining distance on the beaches this week.  We went to a non-crowded souvenir shop for the kiddos and everyone was masked up.  The gas station was about 50/50.  

[dmtx 159]

Can someone ask the county judge and mayor, If mass protests didnt spread the covid, why cant I drive onto the beach? Just sayin

[justhookit 4192]

1 hour ago, dmtx said:

Can someone ask the county judge and mayor, If mass protests didnt spread the covid, why cant I drive onto the beach? Just sayin

This was about reducing the number of tourists on the island this week. It worked really, really well. This had nothing to do with the virus spreading ON the beach.

[Ag with kids 581]

There's been some discussion between. some folks I know here on NPI about ADA non-compliance.  Since the beach is officially open, anyone can get on there.  However, you can't drive onto it.  Which means that disabled people are being denied access to the beach (for instance, my GF just got total knee replacement 3 weeks ago, walking to and down the beach is basically an impossibility).

Doubt anything will come of it, but it was something I hadn't thought of...

[justhookit 4192]

5 minutes ago, Ag with kids said:

There's been some discussion between. some folks I know here on NPI about ADA non-compliance.  Since the beach is officially open, anyone can get on there.  However, you can't drive onto it.  Which means that disabled people are being denied access to the beach (for instance, my GF just got total knee replacement 3 weeks ago, walking to and down the beach is basically an impossibility).

Doubt anything will come of it, but it was something I hadn't thought of...

We are letting people with disabled plates or handicapped placards drive on the beach in Port A. Y’all aren’t?

Edited July 4, 2020 by justhookit

[GreenspointTexas 9883]

Meh, most people that are disabled dont need to be out and about during a pandemic anyway

[Ag with kids 581]

51 minutes ago, justhookit said:

We are letting people with disabled plates or handicapped placards drive on the beach in Port A. Y’all aren’t?

Nope.  It was blocked all day yesterday.  Haven't checked today.  That's why they were complaining...NPI has a LOT of people on it that have handicapped plates/placards - bunch of old retirees here.

[SurlyBDR 22907]

Was anyone else nearly decapitated by the plane that decided to fly about 30 feet above the water right above everyone swimming? 

[justhookit 4192]

Lulz. We aren’t at the beach but heard about it. Police went over to the airport to try to find the guy. Not like they don’t have a million better things to be doing right now than dealing with that jackass.

[SurlyBDR 22907]

He did a few stunts after buzzing our towers, then circled back and flew off to the northeast. I highly doubt he took off from or landed at the local airport after doing that. I was walking to the water when he passed, and I honestly dont think my estimation of 30 feet above the water is much of an exaggeration! 

[justhookit 4192]

19 minutes ago, SurlyBDR said:

He did a few stunts after buzzing our towers, then circled back and flew off to the northeast. I highly doubt he took off from or landed at the local airport after doing that. I was walking to the water when he passed, and I honestly dont think my estimation of 30 feet above the water is much of an exaggeration! 

Crazy. Now we’ve got a helicopter landing on the beach. I guess that’s one way to get your shit out there without a car. Police aren’t very happy with him either.

[SurlyBDR 22907]

Holy shit! We're already back at the condo, didnt get to see that one. 

[SurlyBDR 22907]

My brother got a video (excuse his amateur vertical video skills), but not until the plane had done it's lowest pass. You can kind of see how sharply he rose then went into a left hand loop. 

[dmtx 159]

7 hours ago, justhookit said:

This was about reducing the number of tourists on the island this week. It worked really, really well. This had nothing to do with the virus spreading ON the beach.

So it was to reduce tourists from spreading the virus around in town? 

[justhookit 4192]

8 hours ago, dmtx said:

So it was to reduce tourists from spreading the virus around in town? 

No it was to reduce the number of visitors/tourists on  the island over the holiday weekend. It worked. I’m pretty sure I’ve been clear on this. I’m sorry you don’t understand.

[justhookit 4192]

Shorty’s for July 4th. Obviously they couldn’t open the bar so they did an enormous pot of jambalaya. I think they said 30 lbs rice, 60 chicken, 30 sausage. Set up a “drive-thru “ in the parking lot and sold it for 8 bucks a plate. It was really good. Also sold old t-shirts at half price. They also still have the picnic tables in the parking lot and were allowing 10 people (including employees) to hang out there. Fortunately we got the invite so hung out there all day yesterday.

 

[Armybrat 41048]

Damn.... Mrs. Brat is really jonesing for some beach time.