June 18th, 2006
We reached a milestone! We are in Alabama! Florida is such a big state, that we had begun to feel like we would never get out of the state. But here we are in Orange Beach AL. The day was much tougher than we expected, especially after our “high” of yesterday. The traffic out of Milton was amazingly heavy, but we had been warned that one of the hurricanes took out a bridge on I-10, and that the traffic was being routed onto Hwy 90. That didn’t seem to account for all of it, however, as traffic was really heavy all day.
We wanted to get through Pensacola early, following our “Sunday morning in big cities” method, but we had some downright scary bridges to go over, and then we hit a very hilly section just before Pensacola. The scenery was gorgeous, but with the traffic and the short steep roller coaster hills, and losing our chains on the hills, we didn’t take as much advantage of the views as we could have, I guess. I must say, the houses were absolutely gorgeous on that hilly section. It’s already obvious that the smaller home there will be tear-downs, to be replaced by large stately homes. If we had to have hills and head and side winds, I’m glad we got to be distracted so effectively, with the houses and the ocean views.
Pensacola itself was easy to navigate – we went through on the ocean route – and made me want to be able to spend some time there exploring it. We will definitely plan on coming back.
The far side of Pensacola was our scariest section to date. We had at least 25-30 mph head and side winds, and heavy traffic, with narrow shoulders littered with road debris, and the heat index was in the high nineties. We needed to go up over a short and very steep bridge in the midst of all this. We just crept up that bridge, with our front wheels being jerked sideways with the gusts of winds, and had to absolutely creep down the other side. I have never been so relieved to have something behind me!
The good news is that within a few miles we headed straight west on the Gulf Beach Hwy, and those winds turned into blessed tailwinds. Suddenly we were just flying down the road!
What an unbelievable change it was, in just a few miles. Suddenly here we were on a long strand of beach, and in a resort area. We got checked into a hotel, and drove the strip a little bit to see what was here. This the first time we’ve seen really dramatic damage from the hurricanes. The one that nailed this area was Ivan, and for the first time on our trip, we are seeing whole sections of housing just gone – and I mean just gone. It’s an awesome feeling! In chatting with locals, however, they confirmed what we were observing, that Ivan has actually kicked off a huge boom in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.
Ivan is still a big specter here – many areas are still damaged, and as is true all over the hurricane-hit areas, workers are hard to come by, never mind materials and supplies. One owner of a local restaurant talked about the Katrina-hit areas, and said “I want to tell them that they will be waiting a while…life moves so slowly in getting back to normal”! And of course, normal will be completely re-defined given the fact that there has been so much damage!
Real estate is headline material in all the newspapers here – the front-page article today deals with the settlement of a long-running feud over where the boundaries are between the local communities- there are so many developments going in that each side is vying to annex, and territorial disputes have arisen. Can you imagine what it must be like for the developer not knowing which set of laws and regulations they will need to follow, and what tax structure they will have?
There is mixed feeling locally about the changes. The business owners are delighted for the obvious increase in potential sales, and the tourists love the increased number of choices, but the old-timers mourn the passing of an era. And no one wants a South Florida on his or her hands, with the traffic and over development and crime problems.