The weekend of the Alabama football game I decided to go home. I left on Thursday and made the six hour drive down to the Rio Grande Valley. One of the things I love about being home is the proximity of South Padre Island. SPI is about a 45 minute drive from my parent’s house so my boyfriend and I decided to have a date night at one of our favorite restaurants there.
 
When I lived in the RGV, I’d go to SPI often so I thought it was just going to be another typical drive/trip there. My favorite part of the drive is going over the Queen Isabella Causeway. At the causeway’s highest point you can get a really good view of SPI and the water below, and there’s nothing like a sunset at South Padre. These are the things I look forward to anytime I go.
 
However, this time around things were different on the island. I was caught completely off guard when we were greeted by A&M flags everywhere as soon as we exited the causeway. A local Aggie club coordinated a tailgate weekend at the island for the Texas A&M vs. Alabama game, so there were people wearing maroon everywhere. At 9 P.M. on Friday night they even held a small Midnight Yell. My boyfriend and I finished our dinner and were able to catch the tail end of it and jumped right into yelling the yells displayed on a huge screen that had been set up and sang the War Hymn along with the rest of the crowd. It was inspiring to see Aggies gathered 400 miles away from our beloved Kyle Field carrying out traditions that we all know and love. Not only that, but to see Aggies of all ages there. One of the most memorable parts of that night was seeing an elderly couple driving a golf cart down Padre Blvd, Aggie flag flying and the War Hymn blasting. South Padre holds many fun and memorable memories for me and this was a new one to add to that collection.

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Jessica Martinez
Jessica is a PhD student in the department of Human Resource Development