Rooftop Tenting On A Remote Beach /// Efrt S5•Ep11

Welcome to another episode of the epic family road trip. This week began with us driving out of Exploration Outfitters with our new jeep fully retrofitted and expedition ready. For our maiden voyage we headed to South Padre Island National Seashore in Texas. So we made it down to San Padre and we got our passes to head out onto the beach and apparently we can drive as far as we can go on the beach and it's gonna be a lot fun. It's awesome being back at the ocean and driving right along the water and crashing waves. Once we arrived we set up camp on the beach with beautiful white sand dunes behind us and the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico in our view. That's the feeling when you drive all day and you finally get to the beach. This is San Padre Islands, beautiful place. This is also our first night camping in the new jeep tent and all that so it's gonna be exciting. It's adjustable so you can put it on. As the sun went down we cooked a beautiful meal over a campfire using our new front runner grill. Ready? Ready? So we've just driven into mile 25 of the beach here. There's not much beach to drive on right now because the tide is so far in but we're looking for a camp spot and this one could be okay but it's on a bit of a slope so we're thinking we'll go back I don't know about a half a mile or less and there's the 25 mile marker and it looked like a bit of a level spot there so that's what we're gonna do. And the plan is to not get stuck but if we do get stuck we're anxious to use the dead man recovery device that we have. In any case we're heading back there now. Places we're using rocks to level but here because we're on a slope we did the exact opposite, dug a hole for each wheel and now we're sitting pretty level. Let's take a look. Perfectly level. Is that level or too much? It's kind of a windy chilly rainy day but first thing we do when we get to camp is we set up our tents so we have a place to go if it rains. We set up the awning on an angle so the rain can run off of it and we get a fire going. That's what it's all about, getting some comfort. We have a fire going, it's really warm, shelter and food and water that makes life good out here in company. So we've got all of those and we're gonna have a good night. The tide's in really close, it's not too far from the jeeps there but it'll work its way out overnight and then we'll head on down the beach. We're at mile 25, it goes to mile 60. I don't know if we're gonna make it all the way to the bottom but we're gonna try. The other thing is we have now both Long Range America auxiliary tanks on Vandy and on Worsley and that is what gives us the confidence to go all the way to the bottom of back. So we're using our main tanks now, we always have that auxiliary to kick into if we get low. The last thing I'm going to show you is right here, that is called the original fire reflector. So this thing is amazing for a couple of reasons. One, when you got heavy wind coming off the beach like that, you can see the fire's just burning nicely behind that wind and the other thing is this is called the fire reflector because it works like a parabolic arch and it reflects the heat back on everybody sitting there and you can open it up wider and have a bigger group of people sitting here but it is just amazing. We had a tiny little fire this morning, it was a chilly morning and the heat on our legs was just awesome and the last thing about this is the glow at night creates such a sense of community. So these are going to be on the market in March I think and get yourself one. Good morning, it is February 20th and a chilly morning here on the coast. This is what they call the National Seashore and it is just a beautiful stretch of, in fact it's the longest stretch of undeveloped seashore in North America, if not the world I think, and we're about halfway down this morning and we're going to see if we can drive all the way down 60 miles or so but it's just an incredible place. There's all kinds of bird wildlife here and right now we've got a bit of a chilly morning going on. I'm in a sweatshirt, coat and flip-flops. That's Texas for you. So for those of you who want to know more about the National Seashore here, which is Padre Island in Texas, so you go, it's like a national park. You come in through the gates, you pay 25 bucks per vehicle and then there's no charge for camping. So you can stay up to seven days and then you renew and you can stay another seven days. So 14 days total for 25 bucks, can't go wrong, but if you have a two-wheel drive vehicle or even a small motorhome, you can get on the first part of the beach. It's really hard packed, that's where a lot of people are within the first mile of the entrance. But then as you start coming further in, it gets into deep sand and you need, you definitely need a four-wheel drive vehicle and high clearance because it's in some spots very deep. Yesterday afternoon we were coming in and the tide was right up so you don't have any of the hard beach to drive on, just the soft sand. So we had it in four-wheel drive and we kept moving and had no problem. But the nice thing is you can camp wherever you want in this entire 60 mile stretch. You just find a spot you like, you pull over, you set up camp, which is what we've got. We've got both vehicles back to back here and we camped sideways today because the tide was in so high we were on a slope. Sometimes we pull in straight and have the tents toward the ocean, but we all often get heavy winds off the ocean, so we'll turn it the other way around. But yeah, there's all kinds of options. If you have a Jeep or Toyota or some kind of four-wheel drive camper vehicle, you can camp anywhere in here, which is just awesome. It's so quiet other than the sound of the ocean and the waves. We haven't seen anybody all day yesterday since we got past say mile 10. I haven't seen anyone all day and all night and here we are this morning waking up to a quiet, remote, beautiful beach. So I'm sure it's warmer at different times of year. This is the middle of February, so it's a little chilly, but the first day we got here the sun was up and it was incredibly warm, so it comes and goes. It's supposed to be sunny again in a day or two. Unfortunately, we'll be on our, we'll be out of here by then, but yeah, check out Padre Island National Seashore. It is wonderful for overland camping. Gosh, everywhere we stay per person and Lando. Lando gets at least 10, but he found that, I don't know what it is, a piece of fencing or something, and we found a ton of those, I don't know if they're, they look like onion sacks. Anyway, we'll get them in the bag and haul them out of here, but you see a lot of trash washing in. It must come in during storms because I don't think people are actually littering here, but anyway, there's quite a bit of plastic, so anytime you come camping, we learn that from no matter where they are, they pick up, each person picks up five to ten pieces of trash. It's a good habit to get into. In the meantime, we'll see you down the road.