We are stying in a lovely KOA Holiday on South Padre Island. For those that don’t know, in the U.S there are three types of KOAs, Journey, Holiday, and Resort which is the top end. This little oasis is right on the ocean and in a beautiful spot. In fact Elon is just across the water. SpaceX launch pad is right across from us as is one of the many SpaceX office buildings around the world. We also have two employees staying here at the KOA. How do we know? Well they have their own X vehicles that are part jeep/part golf cart. They also have their own X dock where they park their hovercraft. They use the hovercraft to get to work and back. Shooting across the water to the “office”. What a life. We met an employee yesterday who drove up, parked in the X designated spot and was hopping onto the hover taxi. It was all I could do to keep my mouth closed and not let the drool pour out. Was quite embarrassing really, but when you have someone that good looking, working for SpaceX AND with a dreamy accent……….need we say more. Barb couldn’t get a picture snapped in time, dammit.
We also seem to have a Fat Albert here. If you look it up you will see many articles on the one they had in Florida. The one here is manned by the Feds for monitoring illegal immigrant’s. These 250,000 cubic-foot blimp were the first such aerostat used by the Air Force U.S Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard. They are used for counter-drug trafficking operations as well as guns and human trafficking. As we were traveling through Brownsville on our way to South Padre we say many vehicles pulled over by numerous police and the vehicles were being searched underneath, and inside. One patch of road must have had at least 7 vehicles pulled over being searched. I guess Fat Albert works. In fact we’ve been told that these blimps cannot only see what is inside vehicles, but homes, and trailers…….we have started wearing tin foil on our heads…..no shit.
Now with trafficking, so close to the Mexican border it makes sense that there would be a Fat Albert here. It also makes perfect sense that there is also a large contingent of Cartel. In fact they have a whole apartment complex, the biggest on the Island and right on the beach, how nice for them. We have made the conscious decision to stay somewhat clear of their buildings.
All in all we feel pretty safe here. Our neighbour who is very nice, carries a handgun in his belt, so if anything untoward happens we will run in his direction.