A Day on the Island

Ernie and Marie Imig, Millie and Joe Wooton, and I are ready to order lunch at Blackbeard's restaurant.  (Joe wasn't showing in the original picture so Bruce pasted him in from another picture.)

Blackbeard's is one of many nice restaurants on "the Island."  The Island is the nickname for South Padre Island (SPI).  Situated at the tip of a barrier island on the South Texas Gulf Coast, SPI is a popular place and only a 40-minute drive from Fun N Sun.

As we were getting ready to leave Blackbeard's, we heard a rushing sound like a BIG lawnmower.   As we looked out the window, a helicopter landed in the restaurant's parking lot.  

The story behind this is that a worker on the high rise (see background) was struck by an object falling off the crane.   We watched as a "cherry picker" lowered the injured worker to the ground (it seemed to take forever).  Then an ambulance drove into the lot and EMTs carried the worker on a stretcher into the waiting Valley Air Care helicopter to fly him to a hospital.  Sadly, he was pronounced dead on arrival.