Day 11 – Sept 9

Tonight I took a walk on a sunny, sandy beach, on an island in the Gulf of Mexico.  But that was at the end of the day, let me back up to the beginning first (how is that for a teaser!)

I left Baton Rogue this morning and started towards New Orleans.  I was not sure what to expect after hurricane Isaac went through not that long ago.  Well, the closer I got, the more damage I could see.  It was very hit or miss.  A tree down here, a tree down there.  Lots of places had branches that had been picked up  and put into piles.  Soon I started seeing more piles of furniture or carpet or insulation that had been put into piles along the street.  In most places the water had already receded and things would have looked normal if it were not for the piles of “rubbish”.  In some places if you looked close you could figure out how high the water had been at one point, but again, generally things looked “normal”.  There were a few places that still had “Relief Centers” set up where people could go.  I have never been through an area shortly after a hurricane; it is hard to imagine what these areas really looked like after the 20+ inches of rain that happened in some areas.  More on the hurricane affects in a little while.

After reaching New Orleans, one of things I wanted to do was drive across the Lake Pontchatrain bridge.  This is the lake just outside of New Orleans.  The bridge is over 23 miles (yes miles) long.  It felt weird to drive on a bridge when you can’t see what is on the other side!

After crossing the bridge, I headed to the gulf coast west of New Orleans.  This was the first place I got the see the Gulf of Mexico.  To my surprise, the road was closed due to clean-up of the roads after hurricane Isaac yet (see photos).  They were still using heavy equipment to clean up debris that was ashore and cleaning the beach sand off the roads!  This type of beach clean-up/damage continued until Biloxi Mississippi which is 91 miles west of New Orleans!

So tonight I am staying at Dauphin Island Campground on Dauphin Island which is off the coast near Mobil Alabama.  Tonight I took a 3.5 mile bridge to reach the island.  Tomorrow I am going to take a ferry from the island which will put me back on the main land but on the east side of Mobile.  If I was to return over the bridge and drive to the same point the ferry will drop me off, it is about 2.5 hour drive.  The ferry will leave at 8:00 a.m. and is about 35 minutes.  For $8.00 and the time it sounds like fun!  Two ferry rides on 1 trip.  If you look at the last photo I attached, the end of the gray line is the island I am on tonight.  To the right where the tip of land comes out is where the ferry will take me tomorrow and it will save me driving all the way around Mobil Bay..

As I started out saying, I took a walk on the sandy island beach tonight.  It was really nice; the sun was shining and the waves were gently rolling in.  Note: One of the things you could see from the beach was the oil drilling riggs out in the gulf (see the 4th photo).

What a great way to finish another great day on this trip.