Gulf Island National Seashore

I left off giving my impressions and observations of the effects of Katrina. That was all the way along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Pascagoula MS. Gulf Island National Seashore near Ocean Springs MS. was in that range. We took some pictures and they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but I think in this case it is not! Anyway we weren’t out of it yet. Although here in Mississippi construction was moving right along and there was quite a bit of pride in the rebuilding in evidence. There were lots of signs referencing the spirit that a hurricane wasn’t going to keep them down. Mostly ‘open for business’, ‘opening soon’, and that kind of thing, but there were a few that plainly referenced coming back from Katrina. The Waffle House seemed to be the business most quick to recover. I guess they figured people are going to want to eat. Although even the Waffle House had at least one sign up with no building to go with it. And there were still many vacant lots and lots with nothing but a slab foundation. In the park the effects were most notable by the looking at the trees and walking down to the fishing pier and boat docks which were in the process of being replaced. It took a while to figure out the trees. I’m going to say that these are in part ‘live’ or ‘pin’ oak although I’m not positive. Suffice to say they were something like that. Anyway, they looked funny (!), but I think I figured it out. Katrina was a huge storm and as a result the sustained winds lasted longer than most hurricanes (I did read that somewhere). So it was apparent that these winds stripped most of the smaller branches off the trees and left some pretty stark but stout trees. Now what you see is a rather large bare tree with leaves growing on the remaining heavy branches. They are not your customary globe shaped tree. Of course there are lots of trees that were snapped off as well but it was the oaks (?) that looked most strange.

OK! Enough! So how was Gulf Island Seashore you asked? Just OK! Nothing really to write home about. So I won’t. Oh, except that it did have alligators and foxes. I got a picture of an alligator but we missed the red fox. He sure was pretty. I say he, but of course I don’t know? I’ll go with ‘he’ because sometimes that’s the way it is in the animal world, males are just prettier! Anyway ‘he’ came out of the woods right in front of us as we were driving through the park and kind of sauntered along diagonally across the road and back into the woods. What a sight! A beautiful red color and tail up and strutting and everything. Cool! So that was it for here.