Port Mansfield Texas

Port Mansfield, Texas is a dusty little community on the Laguna Madre about an hour away from us. Separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Padre Island, it is a popular fishing destination.

This area was once part of the King Ranch, and people would ride out in the bay to fish from horseback.

The town has been hit by hurricanes many times but is still surviving and known as one of the best fishing areas on the Gulf. There's no industrial development here and the waters are exceptionally clean.

Lots and lots of boat slips, mostly full on a Wednesday with 30 MPH winds.

Summer rentals seen from the back. The front faces a waterway.

Far more upscale living with a garage dock under the house, and more boat slips in the foreground.

Sometimes the boat just won't fit under the house. 

 Looks like a lot of the house would fit in the boat!

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Port Mansfield is famous for more than fishing.

The wildlife here is abundant with havalinas, 

wild turkey,

and

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Deer!

They're everywhere!

These photos were taken in a field next to several homes, but the deer wandered the streets and alleys too.

When I got out to take pictures she walked up looking for a snack.

Deer lose their antlers here in mid to late March.

Here we see all the guys hanging out together.......

and all the ladies here.

OK, more signs

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And a new one to make ya' go 'HUH?????????"

Fresh dead mullet as opposed to stale dead mullet?

The Border Patrol

Our RV park offers tours to places all over Texas and other states. We've already been to most of the areas that intrigued us so I seldom check the tours listed. When I arrived early for an exercise class one morning I wandered over to the bulletin board and found a tour of the Border Patrol Station in Brownsville.

The Border Patrol is a constant presence here. Their vehicles, white with a green diagonal stripe, greatly outnumber police cars.

I was immediately interested in finding out more about them. One early Wednesday morning John, I and   

Barb Stackman went to Brownsville for the tour. 

 It was an educational experience. We had several agents give an interesting talk about their jobs and responsibilities.

 The most unusual contraband ever found? Two hundred pounds of queso blanco - fresh Mexican cheese purchased for about $1.50 a pound in Mexico and sold for $20.00 a pound in Houston.

What nationalities other than Mexican try to sneak in? Practically all of 'em! Germans, Czechs, many Europeans posing as returning Americans or Canadians try to cross in at one of the busy checkpoints in the valley.

 What happens to confiscated vehicles? They're sold, or if an SUV or truck, converted to Border Patrol use. In one case an SUV taken in on one end of the valley was relocated to another end. The SUV had been used to smuggle cash in to Mexico, and $80,000 had been found in it. When it arrived at it's new home the mechanics found another $8,000 that missed the first inspection.

A motor home was seized and sold to a retired couple here. When they tried to go back home to the north, cocaine was found by a drug dog. The drug had been overlooked by earlier inspectors.

We got to visit the holding area, with two "visitors" in residence.

We also saw the TV surveillance room. Let me tell you, there are thousands of cameras in use. They could zoom in on a car and read the license plate. There were at least ten agents watching banks of monitors. I'm estimating Brownsville alone had 250 cameras, and we suspect they didn't show us everything.

The U S Border Patrol is the largest police force in the world, with 60,000 members.