This is an early Blog, sort of. We are witnessing so much hurricane destruction. And I have to wonder, does the rest of the country know what it looks like on the Gulf Coast? After driving from Galveston on Sunday to Pensacola on Tuesday - five states in two days, a certain record for us - we are stunned to see what has happened to the Gulf, especially in Mississippi, but NOLA and Florida and even starting in Texas. Of course, maybe most people did see all of this on TV since it began, but we did not, so, seeing it now, four months later, it is rough. I just can hardly see how some areas will ever recover - Gulfport MS comes to mind, and eastern parts of New Orleans - both areas are block after block, mile after mile of NOTHING LEFT TO SAVE. It is unreal. In New Orleans, from the I-10, you can witness for yourself the neighborhoods with no one living in them, cars "parked" (read: abandoned) willy-nilly all over the street, no stores open, windows and doors busted and not replaced - black holes into empty houses - blue tarps being the roofing material of choice, debris everywhere. It is simply not believable. And we thought that was bad, then we drove along the "scenic" Rt. 90 through Gulfport and Biloxi. This area is not ever going to be the same. Ever. After being in this area this past April and May, we looked forward to returning on our way home - driving along the Gulf Coast, doing all the tourist things in NOLA we didn't do during JazzFest, eating seafood and walking the boardwalk along the Gulf. Well, too late now. There is nothing, nothing left along the Gulf in Gulfport. The boardwalk is torn up and the houses and businesses, churches and motels, are all gone. Every block or so there is may be a part of a house, or a Fema trailer parked where the house used to be. There are piles of debris everywhere, clothes and sheets and insulation flapping in the live oaks, the ones that made it. A lot of the trees are now lying in the surf of the Gulf. They have machines on the beach, sifting through the sand, trying to clean it up, foot by foot. The Beach is full of metal and wood and plastic and God knows what. It is simply an unbelievably huge clean up job. And then, when we see new construction still going on, say, in Pensacola, right on the Beach Front of course, it seems so absurd. First of all, Why? and secondly, seems like all new construction should stop until those people with no place to live get some help with clean up. Of course, a lot of the destruction in Gulfport's front line was of some pretty high end places, people with insurance and some place else to go. We only saw the tip of that iceberg. But a of couple blocks in from the Waterfront, damage is still pretty severe. And along the Gulf, to drive along and realize that there used to be Houses there...it is just mind boggling.
Needless to say, there were no State Park campgrounds open along this route. That's the least of their problems.
We rushed through this area - drive drive drive. We landed in Florida on Tuesday. And there is still plenty of reconstruction going on here - St.George State Park, our choice for tonight, is closed from damage due to Dennis in July...who knows how it has fared since. Bush can talk all he wants about brotherly love and spirits being unbroken, but man, my spirit would be broken. I would never be able to deal with this devastation. Of course some of this building right on the beach seems pretty stupid to begin with, especially in a Hurricane Plane, but still...
Anyway, we're on our way to Miami. Kevin's folks are there and we will be too, in a week or so. Plus I have some Silcoxes near Clearwater to visit. And then we will be headed up the East Coast, along the Atlantic, toward the Land of Pleasant Living. Today in Santa Rosa Beach we were offered Soft Shell Crabs as a lunch special...no, thanks, we'll wait. Florida State Parks look really good - our only one so far has been Henderson, near Pensacola, and it was better than most state parks we've experienced anywhere - the bathhouse not only had soap but paper towels as well! and hot showers too! It was awesome! So we look forward to the Florida State Park trail.
And I need to clarify somethig about my generator whine from Padre Island - a story so to speak. The gentleman I referred to, who ran his generator more than we would have liked, had a close encounter days before we arrived on site. Apparently his neighbors the week before were a couple from Alaska. Just before 10 PM one night, when generators had to comply to the turn-off rule, our Generator Man was visited by the Alaskan Man, his neighbor, who had a Gun. The Alaskan Man's approach was, "Turn off that f-ing generator or I will shoot you", I guess. And of course the AlaskanGunMan was thrown out of the park. But, this just goes to show you how high emotions can run with this generator thing. There is a time and a place and a reason. And it's good I didn't have a gun.
Gas has gotten very high now in Florida - nothing less than $2.30 or so. And no more Tex-Mex lunches, now it's gumbo. Perfect timing though, if you ask me - I was just starting to say, no more quesadillas please!
Temp - 70 degrees. Gotta love it. Bye for now. Pictures to follow.
