Last few days adventures

Fort Walton Beach, through Alabama & Mississippi to Monroe, on to Texas

Friends in Florida, Worst Beach Ever, Bug attacks in a Birdless Wilderness, High Civilization in North East Louisiana, and other post hurricane observations

From Jacksonville, Florida, mshollie and I drove from the Atlantic to Florida's Gulf Coast. We availied ourself of a short free winery tour at De Funiac Springs, then took a look at De Funiac's cute old town, before heading out to the coast to Fort Walton Beach, where tal_greywolf showed us the Indian Mound, took us out to dinner, and put us up for the night.

The next morning Tal took us to "The Breakfast Place". After dropping him off at work we took care of some evacuee business; change of addresses to Austin, and stopped by a Salvation Army building that was a busy evacuee processing center. We still havn't gotten registered with FEMA (despite trying various ways), and there was a several day wait there, but we did register with the Red Cross.

While there we both took a can of water from one of the ice chests. It's Anhauser Busch Not For Sale Water in white cans. It tasted stale and metalic. Hollie & I are usually up for a nice cold container of water, but we didn't finish these.

Late morning we got together with fellow New Orleans evacuee Cristina (of National Ahh Spa Day). Cristina and her 15 month old daughter Ayala were staying with her dad in Fort Walton Beach, where she had grown up.

We packed up some soft drinks and Hollie and Cristina put on cute matching bathing suits for a visit to nearby Navarre Beach. Cristina hadn't been there since before Ayala was born. The sign for the turn-off said "Navarre Beach: Florida's Best Kept Secret". We were looking forward to a pleasant beach day. When we got there, we found that the auto turn-off to the clothing optional area was closed, the road still covered in vast dunes not cleared from Ivan last year &/or Dennis earlier this year. Still, the white sand looked nice and we started hoofing it. Cristina noted that the usually very clear water was all cloudy with strange black particles like asphalt in it. In the background was the fishing pier,the middle segment missing since Ivan. After we'd gone a ways Cristina started getting bitten by some bugs. We stopped to spray on bug repelent, but as soon as we stayed in one place for a while the nasty biting flies came on us in droves. (Someone later told us they were "Alabama flies".) Cristina said she'd never encountered anything like this. Even the Backwoods Off only slowed them down a bit. Retreat! We headed back towards the car at a brisk trot, with Cristina setting the pace in front with Ayala on her hip. When we got to the parking lot we realized that Hollie, who's had less exprience walking in sand, was red-faced and out of breath. Worst Day at the Beach Ever! After showers, Chinese food, and naps, Cristina took us to a friend's high-end subdivision, where we had a gorgeous complex with a gigantic swimming pool and a hot tub all to ourselves. Best pool ever!

Cristina left her clarinet in New Orleans, but when she found out I'd brought one of my trombones in the car (the c. 1913 White "King") she contemplated getting another clarinet, and noted her dad played accordian. This was the closest I've come to playing in a band again since leaving New Orleans.

The next morning Cristina made us French Toast and bacon (Nicest hostess ever!) before Hollie and I hit the road West. Lots of Hurricane Ivan damage evident, including one of the spans of the highway connecting Pensacola Beach with Pensacola still had large sections knocked out. Despite much damage still not repaired, it was good seeing Pensacola back in business.

Further west through Alabama, it was hard to tell where the Ivan damage ended and the Katrina damage began. We started heading inland at Mobile. Since Florida the love-bugs were out in vast clouds over the highways. I'd seen love-bug season while driving through northern Florida before, but never anything like this. I stopped every 90 minutes to clear bug corpses from enough of my windshield to see out of. I realized I hadn't seen any birds the whole day's drive-- and for that matter, no sea-gulls at the beach the previous day. I presume the birds were driven off by the storm, but it was strange that they were still gone some 2 weeks later.

Hurricane damage was especially evident in and around Hattiesburg, but the city seemed up & running. No problem finding gas.

The bugs and damage continued up to Jackson, MS. When we crossed the Mississippi River in to Lousiana, suddenly there were birds again, and no bugs.

Along I-20, those entering Louisiana from Mississippi find a liquor store before they get to the state welcome center. Priorities.

North east Louisiana was once one of the continent's great centers of civilization. But that was some 2,500 years ago.
As we were making good time, I made an unschedualed detour off the interstate to visit Poverty Point. This is a vast paleo-Indian site, with huge mound constructions. Excavations show trade goods from as far away as Michigan. Poverty Point is remarkable not just for its size, but also how early it was-- much of its heyday being pre-ceramic.

After our quick look around Poverty Point, on to Monroe, Louisiana. As Poverty Point had extensive trade contacts but no pottery, Monroe has an NPR station but as yet no Starbucks. They do, however, have a Copelands, which we nostalgically ate a mostly not bad meal at.

Lots of fellow refugees in Monroe. We talked to one who has spent the whole time since Katrina in a Motel 6 room. We're glad our situation is somewhat better than that.

Next day, we hit the road again early. We heard a Kermit Ruffins song on the radio while passing through Ruston.

Hollie & I are now at Bonner & Robbie's place in South Austin. They took us out to eat at Threadgil's last night.

And that catches things up.

Update

All of the Riverbend band are known to have gotten out of the city alive.