Going way up Andy Bowie Park on SPI in the late 70s with a group of kids, 2 dads and one college kid. We had about 25 horses altogether and we knew each other from going to the Hidalgo Sheriff's Posse every Saturday during rodeo season. My friend competed in barrel racing and I just liked to go and ride her big mare. We spent the day riding bareback in the dunes and in the shallows of the Laguna Madre and camped on the beach side. Me and a couple of friends slipped out in the moonlight with our horses and rode the dunes because we wanted to see the moon reflect off the still water of the Laguna. We had convinced ourselves that it would be magical. I had put a rope around the neck of the big mare and that was the only way I could stay on her back when she climbed up a dune, the rope and her mane. We laughed at each other trying to stay on our horses. We didn't realize how far away we were so we never made it to the Laguna but the ride in the dunes was fun. We got back a couple of hours later and my friend's dad was pretty peeved at our night ride. But he got over it fairly quick, he could never stay mad at his daughter for long. We had set up our tent too close to the high tide line and in the morning, the water was almost to the tent. We were so young and dumb, we didn't know and her dad had let us hoping we'd get wet, I guess. We rode the horses again in the morning for a bit and then cleaned them up at a car wash to get the sand off of them and the horse trailers and went home. Being an 8th grade kid about an hour from South Padre was pretty damn sweet.