Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring Break Has Sprung...

Yesterday while out in the boat, we checked out traffic on the causeway. That's our "barometer" of how packed the island is... if traffic is backed up on the causeway, it will be a zoo trying to get around on the island.

Maybe because of the economy, perhaps because of the warnings about the violence in nearby Mexico, most predictions were for a smaller spring break crowd this year. Judging by the traffic on the causeway, I'm saying that's probably not the case: it was backed up the entire length of the causeway and into Port Isabel. In years past, we've seen the traffic backed up all the way through Port Isabel and several miles out of town! No idea how far back into town it went, 'cause we were on the water and had no intention of driving the truck anywhere.

This morning on the local news, we heard they are now predicting the biggest spring break crowd in 5 years. 100,000+ screaming college (and younger) kids. It makes an impact on an "end of the road" town... one way in, the same way out. The weather has been mostly decent for this week - Texas Week, when most of the colleges in the state are out.

I am hearing that the Mexican resorts like Cancun and Acapulco are way off in spring break visitation this year, so maybe the kids that would have gone there have come here. They leave a mess on the beach and the streets (I don't get that), but the area can really use the economic shot in the arm.

For us, it's a really good time to be out on the water (instead of on the roads). ;-)

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