We are on the bus and ready to be on our way
Larry and Nina Magnuson
Joyce and Speedy Gilligan
Dot and Don Lewis
Gary and Ethel Schnau
Bob and Vivian Maharas
Lee and Mary Benfield
A member of the family who owns the business gave us an introduction to the shrimping business when we first arrived. This young man is the son of the current President of the company. He says he has worked every job in the place and now gives these tours as well as manages part of the operations of the business. He is a busy guy!
Darlene Onken and Her Opponent
Darlene
Darlene Onken raised her hand fast and was one of the two people who were in the shrimp deveining contest. Her opponent had done some deveining before and had the advantage. Darlene did really well but the other gentleman won the 1 1/2 pounds of shrimp. Darlene did go home with the shrimp deveining tool though!
Shrimp Deveining Tool
Now the tool has a shrimp on it
Instructions were given on how to devein a shrimp correctly and the two contestants each had five shrimp to devein. The first one done was the winner.
Josie Fehring in the yellow and Pam Davis
in the brown watching the action
in the brown watching the action
Darlene Onken and Roland Heuton
This net is a small version of what is dragged behind
the back of the shrimp boat to catch the shrimp.
The other half of the net
Our guide, pictured above, showed us how the sea turtles and smaller fish escape from the net instead of dying with the shrimp they catch. Their fate is not much better, however, since dolphins take turns eating the small fish that escape the nets.
After we learned how the nets work we took a
tour of the shrimp boat itself.
Darlene, Roland and Larry (off to the right)
Joyce and Speedy coming aboard
Here comes our bus driver, Jim, to take a tour of the shrimp boat
This is the brine tank which is used for the fast
freezing process of the shrimp
Lee, Gary and Ethel listening to the Guide
View from the Shrimp Boat
Our Guide on the Shrimp Boat - He has worked
for the company for over 40 years
This guy is a "header"
As a header, he is actually removing the head from the shrimp at an absolutely incredible pace. It normally takes him about 5 minutes to decapitate the shrimp and fill the orange basket beside him with shrimp bodies. These "headers" sit on the floor on these little benches for four hours at a time heading the shrimp. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be able to get up much less move around after that. They actually tried giving these guys padded seats with backs but after a couple of trips, the headers wanted their old small benches back because the cushier ones caused them to slow down.
This is the dining room of the shrimp boat.
This is the crew's bunks. There are four in here. The captain gets a room by himself but it is mighty tiny and has equipment in it. These are not what you would call plush accommodations!
This is the Pilot House - the most spacious of all the rooms.
After the tour of the shrimp boat, we went back into the first building where they had drawings for various prizes.
Joyce Gilligan won a hat
Vivian won an insulated mug and a couple
of others on our bus won some items.
Texas Gold Shrimp has a Gift Shop and all the proceeds from the sales of these items goes to the Gladys Porter Zoo for the turtle rescue efforts. Last year they donated over $1,000 to that program.
After the door prizes were handed out, we were served some fresh brown shrimp and cocktail sauce. They asked that we try some of the shrimp without the sauce so that we could tell what fresh shrimp tastes like. It certainly has a much stronger flavor than what we've purchased at the grocery store. It was really good. After this trip and all the information we have now on wild caught vs imported farm raised shrimp, we will be a lot picker about what we buy from now on. Our tour guide told us that the shrimp we buy at Walmart, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Joe's Crab Shack and many grocery stores are foreign farm raised shrimp. Here in Texas we can get wild caught shrimp at Louie's Back Yard, Schlitterbahn's, Dirty Al's, Pelican Station, HEB and a couple of places in McAllen. What we found interesting is that one of our local grocery store chains in Iowa, HyVee, sells wild caught shrimp. Good for HyVee!!
Each of us received a portion about this big to try.
They boiled it in large pots in this room.
Dot and Don Lewis
After all of us were on the bus again, Jim headed us over to Pelican Station in Port Isabel for dinner. They were wild caught shrimp and it was delicious!
Pelican Station
We are starting to sit down and get our menus
Josie Fehring, Bob and Vivian, and others checking out the menu
View from our Table at Pelican Station
Our table for 23!
Same table - other direction!
Then it was time to head home! I think I can speak for all of us that this was a great trip. We learned a lot and it was a beautiful day to boot!
