Written by Jason Goode

Wind and sand. Great combination when you are stripping paint from brickwork or removing rust from old iron. Not too great when you are 12 miles down a 4x4 accessible beach picking up the world's refuse. Thus was the North Padre Island April Beach Cleanup.

Not that the trip was all bad. Five Xterras caravanned from Austin to Corpus Christi on Friday night, four from the Austin area, one from Dallas. We had two Solar Yellows (Jason and Jessie Fisher, and Eric Stewart), One Alpine Green (Daniel and girlfriend Amanda), one Goldrush (Noah, Joan and Logan Schuster), and Amy and I in the Khaki. We reached the beach around midnight, and found the exact campsite we used for the September cleanup. Tents were set up in daylight conditions with the help of a few off-road lights. After a brief walk along the beach, we decided to call it a night.

We woke up to wind. Not a calming gulf breeze. Not a cooling draft. This was a 20-knot constant gail from the south. We ate breakfast and caravanned to the visitor center, where we met up with another Solar Yellow (Eric and Teresa Knam), and a Cloud White (Jason Griffin). After receiving instruction from the park rangers, we drove back down the beach and began picking up garbage around our camp area.

It's amazing to see what will wash up on a beach. We found bottles, shoes, light bulbs, life jackets, rope, and hundreds of items we couldn't identify. We lugged 15 bags of junk back to the visitors center, where we were greeted with lunch provided by McDonald's and free water bottles from the rangers. Then we drove back to the camp area (are you keeping count of these goings back and forth?).

Our original plan was to enjoy a day at the beach ending with a full-blown shrimp boil. Noah and I brought our surfboards. Eric rented a sea kayak. Everyone had chairs to sit and relax. Jason Griffin, the Corpus native, graciously traveled back to town and picked up fresh shrimp (right off the boat) for the boil.

The wind had other plans. All day we were pummeled with airborne sand and salt. About mid-afternoon, we began to wonder about how we would prepare the shrimp boil without getting the food, and those eating it coated with sand.

After much debate (and trial and error, which resulted in our boiling pot being nearly lost to the sea), those of us who remained decided to drive back down the beach and have the boil "tailgate-party-style" in the parking lot of the visitor's center. With the dunes and buildings blocking the wind, we enjoyed an evening of good food and camaraderie. While Noah and Joan decided to stay another night, the rest of us decided we couldn't handle being sandblasted anymore and we headed back to Austin.

Consequently, according to Noah, the next day the wind had died down, the waves had come up, and he enjoyed the best day of surfing in his life. Go figure.

All in all, the cleanup was a success. This is a good opportunity for the SWXC to do something worthwhile for the community and have fun in the process. I look forward to doing this again in September. I just hope the first-timers of this trip realize - camping at the beach in Texas is usually much more enjoyable.