June 19th, 2006
Chelsea and I got a great early start today, and still had tail winds. What a treat! The terrain was as flat as could be and we sailed west right along the Perdido Key, headed up towards Gulf Shores, and then west again on Ft Morgan Parkway. We had beautiful views of ocean for the first part, and shaded roads for much of the way along the Parkway. The area along the Parkway just after Gulf Shores reminds us a lot of the sections of Florida we went through, but it suddenly changed again as we got closer to Fort Morgan. The style of houses changed to the stilt structures we had seen in Orange Beach, and we suddenly realized how close we were to water on both sides. Check out our photo gallery for the houses we saw.
One section was very interesting to us. The houses were clearly higher end, and each one was unique, but they were clustered tightly together in a very small community with zero lot lines. It would be amazing to me to spend so much on a house, and then be right on top of my neighbors, in an island atmosphere! Perhaps it’s just a wonderful tightly knit community – that would certainly have advantages.
Shortly after this community, we ran across a very interesting little community. It ran back into the dunes toward the ocean, but it certainly looked like manufactured or panel housing. It got a very low grade in terms of curb appeal, but many of the homes must have had waterfront views, and it was in the midst of a nature preserve (though the preserve was pretty scraggly and unattractive). We managed to talk to a man who was currently staying there with his family on a two-week vacation rental. He was interested in it for investment purposes, and we had a chance to chat pretty candidly. He told us that each house was actually a duplex, and that many if not most of them were held as vacation rentals by individual owners.
Apparently the houses are well built. They are nicely appointed inside. However, at least one half of every single duplex/home in the community appears to be for sale. These homes are only 2 ½ years old and sold for $125K when they were built. They are now going for $250K and up, two years later. There is another similar community going up right next door, but the new ones will all be “singles”. Supposedly the owners selling the current homes are putting their money into the new phase. We are definitely going to check into these, as we are extremely curious to see if they are manufactured homes or panel housing, and we are really curious to see who is buying out here and how hot the market is. We’ll keep you posted.
One thing that is very obvious to us here is that metal roofs must be required by the building code, as 98% of homes we’ve seen along the Parkway have the metal roofs.
We reached the Fort Morgan Ferry in wonderful time, despite all our stops for taking pictures and chatting, and we had only a 15-minute wait to get on the ferry. The ferry ride was great fun – we got to see the famous oil rigs that were the subject of so much concern during the hurricanes, and it felt absolutely wicked to be just riding on a ferry with our bikes on board. Much to our delight, the same man we met at the one community was on board with his wife and both children. We spent most of the ride in great conversation with them, and with another family that has traveled widely – the father was a teacher for the Defense Department, and they have lived all over the world. Both families are from Missouri, and the second family invited us to spend the night with them in Rolla, Missouri. The first family was from St. Louis, in the “wine country” there.
We loved Dauphin Island. We had a short easy ride from the ferry to the downtown area. At the crossroads there, we found a delightful little coffee shop named the Cow and Bean, with an entrepreneurial owner who kept everyone laughing. Only 26 years old, he has spent months working as an insurance adjustor after the hurricanes, traveling to wherever he is needed. He works on contract, and apparently it’s possible to make $150K in the first few months alone. He was quoting figures like $20K a month that he and his fiancée were making. All of the travel expenses come out of his paycheck, though, but they got themselves a camper, and just saved the money. His dream is to become a film director, so when Stacey and Alex caught up to us there, he and Alex had a good time talking about film-making, and of course, we told him about Palm Beach Film School.
After some great café mochas (our first since leaving Delray Beach!) and a sandwich, we headed down the Island to get a motel room. While back at the Cow and Bean we got to chatting with a local woman, who told us some amazing facts about the island. It seems that either Katrina or Ivan (we have to verify which one) wiped out over 200 homes on the island – they just completely disappeared! That’s a staggering statistic! She told us that some of the homes no longer even had the land under them anymore! We headed out to find the remaining motel on the island and stumbled across the area she had been talking about. You must check out our photo gallery, as I can’t describe in words what it looked like.
Mile after mile of the island was completely gone – just a few timbers standing up in some places, and the pipes from the utilities, are remaining. Some places clearly caught fire after the storms, and all that remains are charred hulks. One car was nearly unrecognizable – we just can’t imagine the strength and fury of something that could do that to a car. The paved roads were washed away in huge chunks, and the rest of it is swept with sand. Access to the remaining houses must have had to be cleared, as the whole landscape has clearly been altered.
In many cases, we could still see the clothing and furniture inside the damaged rooms, with the outside walls just ripped off, exposing the contents. Bed frames are twisted around other furniture, and utilities wires and walls and ceilings just dangle.
One amazing sight was to look through one or two of the damaged homes, and see the bright cheerful colors of a beach umbrella or two with people relaxing in the shade under the umbrellas with food and drink. What a testament to the fact that life goes on…
Sign of life are abounding, though. The place was quietly humming with surveyors, contractors, and construction workers of all kinds, and some homes had either already been rebuilt, or have just been built new since the hurricane.
We felt absolutely stunned after all this, and decided to head off the island to find accommodations. The next place was Bayou La Batre, and that’s where we are tonight. Alex will bring us back to the Cow and Bean to finish our ride tomorrow.