Leaving for the Season

It is Memorial Day Week-End which means the start of summer which is the start of high season at our beach condo.  So Where are we?  At Carol's mom house in a state that is still on lock down.  On top of all that, it is rainy and cool here.  Oh well.  The last couple of weeks at the condo were interesting and nice.

Why interesting?  Well we learned a couple of new things in April and May about the area despite the corona virus.  Like did you know there are forest fires/grass fires along the coast?  Yeah one night on the local 10 o'clock news they start talking about the 6 fires in the area. Huh?!  So further story was that I 10 was closed at one exit because of the fire and another was around Bellingrath Gardens.  We knew we were under a drought advisory.  Hey if you only get 0.10" of rain in a month (yes less than a single inch in a month) and the next month is dry it is not hard to assume droughts were a concern.  What we had not considered was that humidity was really low (like 20%) and it was quite windy so it was not that hard for a controlled burn to get out of control and the other one - who knows.  Anyway, it is common enough that the TV guys had a catch term for it to get your attention.  Even the state had a term - fire advisory.  They spoke just like they do for the fires out west - the Bellingrath fire is 20% contained X number of acres have burned and Y buildings.  To say the least, we were surprised.   Oh, and for those who don't know the area.  Bellingrath is a former fishing retreat for an early Coca Cola bottling exec where he fished and wife gardened.  Right on a bayou close to the gulf itself so an area I would expect to be wet.  The gardens and home are available to tour.

The nice part?  Long car drives, sitting on our balcony and staring at the beach/water and walking on the beach.  We did not get to go to the fairs that we had expected to visit or go out to eat much, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  We explored the area on long drives with my convertible top down.  It is also very relaxing to just stare at the waves.  Any dolphins today?  No.  But I did see skate rays while I was walking the beach as well as their egg casings/mermaids’ purse.  (See Video)   Then all the tourists started to show up - time to let them enjoy the area and us to go away for a while.