Day 17: Dothan, AL to St. George Island, FL

Summary:
    Miles:   149
    Average: 53
    Maximum: 73

Roads:
    231, 73, 90, 73, 71, 98

My sister Susie sent me a set of roads to take that would get me off the 4-lane highways. These actually had some curves! There were lots of pine plantations along the roads. Some of these had been harvested and the ground was covered with big brush piles. It was a bit strange to see mile after mile of pines that are evenly spaced and all the same size - mother nature was never so neat!

The effects of the hurricane are evident once you get near the Gulf coast: tree limbs down, debris piles ready for pickup, standing water in the low spots. There were many convoys of power company trucks or tree-trimming trucks headed north. The news stories about lots of mutual aid are clearly an understatement.

The island is 3 or 4 miles off shore, so there is a very long causeway/bridge to get out to the island. There is one main road that runs the length of the island. This road is paved. It seems that most of the others are sand. I had two short, wet, soft sand roads to traverse to get to Susie's place. Sigh. Her drive is crushed stone and it is semi-packed - also waterlogged!

When we were unpacking the motorcycle we were attcked by swarms of mosquitoes! Imagine the Battle of Britain, with the mosquitoes as German fighters, and no Brits to go up against them! It was that bad.

The local mosquito spray truck made several trips up and down the road during the day. Hopefully that will knock down enough of the critters to make going out tomorrow bearable. I've got to get to the beach and take pictures of the Gulf!

Word is that in addition to my Mom and sister Linda being here, my brother Mike is going to ride his new motorcycle up to see me. I don't know yet what he has got.

Susie, Mom, Linda and I spent the afternoon and evening catching up on where everyone is and swapping "Do you remember?" stories. I even heard a couple of new ones :)