Hanging around L.A. (Lower Alabama)

The sunsets at Gina and Tommy's place on the beach were fabulous--this one was the last night before we left.

We arrived at Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, Alabama, last Tuesday (Jan. 11) and I hope to get this written and posted before we leave Saturday (Jan. 22). This is an Escapees RV Park with VERY reasonable rates, large grassy sites and VERY friendly people, but the best part is that it's only about 20 miles from Gulf Shores and the beach!

There are more Outlet Stores for shopping than I've ever seen away from big cities--there's a store dedicated to every brand name you can imagine. Good thing I'm not really a shopper or I'd be spending waaaayyyyyy too much money. However, we've been going to the beach about every other day and the weather has been comfortable (mostly sunny, warm enough to be outside and NO WIND), so I'm a happy camper! There are very few shells here, but the beaches are simply beautiful!!!! The sand is sugar-white, smooth and the water is clear blue. It looks like this for 170 miles (and is the same as it was before the Deepwater Horizon disaster last summer):


This area was impacted by the big BP oil spill last year and they're still in clean-up mode so most of the beaches are covered with tire tracks where the 4-wheelers have been making daily runs looking for something to pick up. We're not sure how bad it actually got, but they certainly have enough equipment and people still working on it! When we arrived last week, we were intrigued by all the heavy equipment on the beaches from downtown Gulf Shores all the way to the west end of the beach. We talked to a local woman who said they'd been working there since early December but that it didn't look any different then than it does now--and it NOW looks pristine! We also talked to a woman who was working on the project. She said they were removing about 100 pounds a day--but that they were digging down about three feet! WOW! 2 or 3 HUGE bulldozers, at least half a dozen front-end loaders, dump trucks, several smaller bulldozers, a big oil separator and umpteen Polaris 4-wheelers with probably 1000 or more workers just looked like major OVERKILL for this project! Yes, it needed to be cleaned up, but from what we saw out at Fort Morgan where the heavy equipment will be moving next, it could have been cleaned with about a fifth of what they were using. Of course, BP is paying for it and they're providing a LOT of needed jobs for the area, so maybe it's really a good thing. These pics were taken at the downtown Gulf Shores beach park:

These pics were taken at Fort Morgan which is where the heavy equipment from Gulf Shores is supposed to be moved next (I guess the oil here is already buried under the sand):

Our friends Janice and Dean will be arriving in the area today and we're looking forward to seeing them again and hate that it will be for such a short time. I really hate to leave this beautiful area, but Saturday we'll be heading to Biloxi for the weekend to visit a long-time friend (and the casinos) then back on the road Monday to my brother's in New Iberia, Louisiana, for a few days before we proceed on to the Texas coast.

Don't be expecting another update for at least a couple of weeks (or most likely more), but we WILL be back to let everyone know where we are and what we're doing.