Tie o’ the Day is as close as we got to sailing during our ocean trip. Suzanne has this itty-BIGly motion sickness problem. Because of this, she has to wear a Rx patch whenever we fly, and she has to be the driver whenever we travel somewhere in a car– even if we’re going just around the block. It’s just a Suzanne thing, and even though I quite enjoy driving, I automatically ride shotgun when we’re off to the races in a motor vehicle. Boats, ferries, rafts, etc. are not even possibilities in the Suzanne universe.
On our initial drive around Dauphin Island, we were not just getting our bearings, we were surveying the damages left by Tropical Storm Gordon. AND HERE’S WHERE I’M SCREECHING TO A HALT!
Tropical Storm Gordon was just barely not blow-y enough to be a hurricane. If its winds had been blowing 1– count ’em– 1 mph harder, it would have been an official hurricane. If it’s that close, I’m declaring it a hurricane. There. Hurricane Gordon. Doesn’t that make it sound more dramatic? And drama is the point of all things, right?
Think about it: The term “tropical” before the word “storm” makes it sound like the storm is going to be fun and relaxing. It sounds like you might as well be saying, “Hey, remember to bring your tropical beach towel to the tropical beach.” Tropical drinks, tropical vacations, tropical punch. Those are all fun. Storms with winds of 73 mph are not fun, just because you use the word “tropical” in front of the word “storm.”
So we got to the island two days after “Hurricane” Gordon had passed through. The island seemed to have taken the event in stride. “Oh, that little ol’ wind and those little ol’ waves.” The island’s residents are used to these weather events. And, true enough, things looked quite normal. Bow Tie o’ the Day on my visor in the rental car noticed a bit of standing water and piles of sand along the roads by the empty vacation homes.
Sneakers Bow Tie o’ the Day poses with me by a pile o’ sand (not a sand dune) that had been scraped off the road and piled the same way we plow and pile snow here in Utah during the winter. Piles o’ white sand, piles o’ white sand, everywhere.
Sneakers Bow Tie also poses in front of one huge, blue vacation home, which happens to have been built next door to a rickety green shack. This photo doesn’t show the contrast in homes as clearly as I’d like, but I couldn’t go on private property to get a more striking picture. It’s a visual comment on the economic realities of this country. Fortunately, the dilapidated home survived as well as the pricey, new vacation home.
FYI All the houses on the island are built on “stilts” to protect them and their contents from the routine, temporary flooding caused by routine storms passing through. I refer to the houses as RumpelSTILTskin homes.
