Greetings from SPI!

South Padre Island is beautiful and relaxing - we hate to return to reality. I'm typing this as I look out the window of our 11th floor condo, where we have an ocean view of the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, it's NOTHING like the Gulf of Mexico we see from the top of the Surfside bridge! We have enjoyed the view, walked on the beach, gone bay fishing in a boat named Danny B, seen a sand castle contest, and eaten a boatload of seafood. Anne Mueller gave us a list of restaurants to try and she never steered us wrong! The only unfortunate thing about the stay has been the red tide, or algea bloom, that is drifing down from south of Corpus. Everyone has a little "red tide cough" and we never went into the beach water because of it. Instead of sitting on the beach we sat on our balcony and watched the beach since the air was better eleven stories up.

This leads me to the explanation of why I rode in the back of a patrol car yesterday. David and Brian were going to go wade fishing in the bay while Lynnette and I checked out the completed sand castle competiton. The competition was on the beach of the county park, so they drove us the 2 -3 blocks from our hotel to the park. When we got there the line of cars waiting to go in was really long so we told them we'd walk the rest of the way so we didn't hold up their fishing. Little did we know, the competiton was still a long way from the entrance, at least in terms of chemo legs. Before we even got to the beach I knew I'd made a bad mistake and was already trying to figure out how on earth I would get back to the entrance of the park, much less the hotel. The red tide was also worse at beach level and my chest was working hard to breathe. Lynnette got a good dose of living w/ a chemo patient - we had to stop and rest my legs, she had to give me a hand up and down steps AND she had to help me get back to the park entrance.

She solved this problem by going up to a Cameron County Constable car and spinning a tale of woe about her friend who was recovering from chemotherapy. I helped by whipping off my wig before he got a good look at me and after much discussion he agreed to take us to the front gate of the park. I apologized profusely when I got in the backseat of the cruiser, but he wasn't real chatty. If he had only been a little more friendly we would have taken photos for our kids! When we made it back to the entrance Lynnette and I tried our best to open our doors and he said "I'll have to let you out". PROOF that this was our first time in the back of a patrol car! There is a free shuttle that runs the length of the island and we sat and waited for it to pick us up and deliver us to the front door of the Sheraton. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

We've had a great time, are glad we weren't here for Spring Break, and can't wait to come back. Unfortunately, we'll see you all back in Lake Jackson!

Rhonda