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Feeling good and rested! It's time for a little more riding and sight-seeing today. This morning, my sister asked me along on a little excursion to a little store she likes to go to. In this town, a little store will sometime translate into a small house that has been converted into a shop of some kind. Sure enough, that's where we went. We are off to "La Tiendita" or little store. They have a bunch of odds and ends but a steady stream of people in and out so they must be doing OK. We shopped for a while and checked out the assortment of knick-knacks for sale.
After spending a little time at the little store just window shopping, we got back to the house and I decided I would go for a ride. First is lunch with one of my many nephews who happens to be an ATF agent. Luckily, I have a lot of nephews and you would be hard pressed to know which one is the ATF guy. He invited me to his office downtown so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see where he works. You have to call ahead so someone meets you at the secured door to get in or you are going to sit in the hallway looking the fool! Now, the rules are pretty simple. You can take pictures but they can in no way be identifying pictures of any of the stuff they use or of them since they do a lot of undercover work.
With the rule firmly in place, we went to his office where he had quite the collection of odd stuff he has picked up along the way. The most noticeable was a relic from a gang house raid. It is about the size of a bandana and made of cloth. It has a drawing of a woman wearing a sombrero which says "charco" on it. That's gang speak for Corpus Christi and means "the puddle". He had a bunch of other odd stuff like 5 deer racks, some javelin tusks that were all mounted. He gave me a small coin like token that had ATF on it and some drawing. It was pretty cool looking. I guess all the law enforcement agents in Texas, at least, trade these with each other’s department and he had a few. I later showed mine to my friend Mando and he practically drooled. He and his kids belong to a group called PathFinders, which is kind of like Boy Scouts but is run by their churches. Their groups each design the tokens and trade them at their meets. He figured if he had mine, he could trade for a boat load of others. Sorry, Mando, this one stays with me! So, back to my nephew. He also showed me their gun confiscation room and holy crap! There was hardly a space in that room to fit another gun! I asked if this was my shopping opportunity, which was met with much laughter! Well, you can’t blame me for trying at least. We had lunch in a building nearby. Lo and behold but who should be running the lunch place but Mr. Porter, the old high school band teacher! I wasn't in band mostly due to a lack of talent but some of my friends were; so I knew Mr. Porter as well. I said hi to Mr. Porter and then my nephew and I enjoyed a good lunch. This place is really hidden away and unless someone shows you where it is, you aren’t finding it! I guess people tell each other about this place a lot because there were plenty of people around! We finished off lunch so I let my nephew get back to his work and I got back on the bike.
I decided to go ahead and ride over the Harbor Bridge to North Beach, an old haunt of ours. I was a little nervous because I couldn't remember if the bridge was paved or had steel grates. I hate riding across steel grates because they make you wobble! Turns out it is paved and the ride was smooth. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to stop on the bridge so no pictures from the bridge where the views are fantastic!
I rode over to North Beach, which used to be a hot spot but now is just pretty run down. The State Aquarium is around here and the last time I remember going in there was when the kids were young. We took them there, along with my folks. We all got to pet stingrays that I have got to say feels weird. Not at all what you would expect! The USS Lexington, a retired war ship is also decommissioned here. It sits as a floating museum now and a tour can take a while because they take you all over the place on the ship.
I even road by a shop with a huge shark as the entrance. I don't know how comfortable I would feel walking into a shark's mouth to go shopping myself. Sharks are caught around here all the time and occasionally you do hear of a shark attack. I can't remember the last time a shark attack was fatal but I do remember a girl losing an arm while I lived here. Right around the corner from North Beach is the Super Track Grand Prix. When we were young, we would come race go-carts here. You could also shoot water balloons at each other with this neat sling shot which held the water balloons. There were other things here but those two are the ones I remember most. Turns out in talking to Mando that this was one of his job sites long ago and he poured the concrete for the track! Not much left of this old place anymore. It is abandoned and in very poor shape. You can barely see the track anymore.
I rode around a bit but there isn’t much to see around here and since it is a weekday, the beach is pretty empty. The hotels are practically at the water’s edge so if you get a room here, you open the door and bam, there’s the beach and Gulf of Mexico!
I came back across the bridge and rode the waterfront for a bit. I saw this jet mounted on a pole and I had to stop and take a picture. It was a Blue Angels jet! As a kid, they were stationed at the local Naval Air Station and every year they did their aerial acrobatics thing in the sky. I remember going with my parents as a kid and thinking even then "No way, No how, am I ever doing that!" They were great to watch though. Now as an adult and parent, there is no way I would take my kids to watch that. There are just too many accidents at these air shows anymore.
So I’m off to lunch again. I arranged with Mando to meet up for a little lunch. We met up at Rudy's BBQ which is near the place Mando is working right now. He left his crew with some instructions and we headed to lunch. I wasn't starving yet so I just had a small piece of polish sausage and man was it good. We talked for a while and then Mando had to go back to work. Sucker!
I spent most of the rest of the day just riding around town and seeing what has changed since I lived here. In the evening, it was once again time to hit my missed foods and such places. This time we had to go over to the original Snowballs! This place isn't in the best part of town but if you want a real treat, you take your chances. You can get a huge Raspa (snow cone) cheap and choose from over a hundred flavors. Hell, they'll put ice cream or a pickle on top if you want! The place opens at 4:00 pm and the line is steady until they shut the window for the night! Now, they used to be open during the day back then and I do not know if they open during the day on weekends only. But, come during the day, and you'll have to work your way through swarms of honey bees. Everybody spills sugary syrup and the bees come clean it up. The bees are harmless though. As long as you don't swipe at them, they leave you alone. I have never been stung by a bee while there. I am allergic to Yellow Jacket wasps so most flying insects tend to put me on edge but the bees here are so mild, it doesn’t bother me at all.
I had my raspa and headed back to the house to await the sugar crash which was I knew was coming soon enough. Sure enough, it hit me, and I couldn't wait to crawl into bed.
Following is some detail on the pictures:
Pic 1 - La Tiendita: Out messing around with my sister and we happened across "La Tiendita". This is a place where even a house can become a store overnight.
Pic 2 - Gang Signs: This was a relic from an ATF raid on a gang house. Yes, an agent in the family. It says "Charco". Means puddle in Spanish. That's what the gangs call Corpus Christi.
Pic 3 - ATF: This is in my nephew’s office. He had 5 racks like this hanging. I’m wishing our deer were this big.
Pic 4 - North Beach: So, I rode my bike over the Harbor Bridge from a few pics back. This is North Beach. It used to be a big tourist draw but pretty run down area now.
Pic 5 - The Aquarium: Another shot of the state aquarium
Pic 6 - Ship Ahoy: From North Beach, I was able to get real close to the USS Lexington for this shot.
Pic 7 - Blue Angels: Blue Angels jet on a stick. They used to be based at the Naval Air Station here and as a kid, we would go watch them perform their aerial acrobatics.
Pic 8 - Jaws: How's this for an entrance to a curio shop? Nice reminder of what you can catch from the beach!
Pic 9 - North Beach: Middle of the week so not much action on North Beach. Weekends can still get a little crowded here.
Pic 10 - Race Time: Super Track Grand Prix was a cool place to go race go-karts and do water balloon grenades you fired from a huge slingshot.
Pic 11 - No More Racing: This is what is left of the go-kart place. It’s falling apart and the track is completely overgrown. This place was around when my kids were little. Tourist stuff just moved further and this ended up all by itself and died out.
Pic 12 - BBQ: Rudy's BBQ. I hear they are great. Went with my friend but not very hungry so only got a small piece of polish sausage. It was good though.
Pic 13 - Raspas: What a way to end the night. We went to Sno-Ball where they make you a huge snow cone in one of over a hundred flavors. The place opens at 4:00 and the line is steady till closing. Come during daylight and the bees are swarming all over the place.
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