After watching the news last night, we realized we were fortunate to avoid all the storms in the area. Mobile, AL had 8" of rain; Destin, FL had tornadoes. We avoided everything until 7:00 this morning. After eating a bowl of cereal, we drove out to the end of Fort Morgan road. At the end of this road is Fort Morgan, along with the ferry to get to Dauphin Island. It's been a couple of years since we'd been down to the end of this road. Mobile Bay is now full of oil rigs.
We counted 12 of these oil rigs right in front of us.
After returning to the RV park, we realized that there are still thousands of kids in Alabama and Kentucky on spring break next week - most of which moved in overnight or early this morning. It's more crowded now with kids than when we were here in August. What a great spring break destination - thankfully the rains quit around 2:00pm - not that the rain stopped the kids from being outside and riding their bikes.
Clouds and big waves.
We once again walked the beaches this afternoon. It seems the storms rolled in a bunch of seaweed, which brings in the Portuguese man-of-wars with it.
They seem to be getting bigger.Info I found on-line regarding these creatures:
Although commonly called a jellyfish, the Portuguese Man-of-War is actually a colony of 4 different types of polyps with specialized functions. It is said the Man-of-War got its name a long time ago when ancient sailors thought it resembled a Portuguese war ship. The Man-of-War is usually a blue inflated body with a pink crest and the tentacles are a combination of blue, pink and purple. As beautiful as it is, it should never be touched ! A dead and dried up Man-of-War is still poisonous and capable of stinging. The tentacles can be extremely long, so even if you are not close to the floating "helmet" body you could bump into one of its highly venomous tentacles.
The man-of-war stings are very painful. Symptoms include severe shooting pain described as a shock-like sensation, and intense joint and muscle pain. Pain may be accompanied by headaches, shock, collapse, faintness, hysteria, chills, fever, nausea and vomiting and in some cases death (usually from cardiac arrest). While the initial contact may result in only a small number of stings, efforts to escape from the tentacles may cause the stinging cells that have not discharged to do so and intensify the stings. Care should be taken when removing the adhering tentacles. Severe stings can still occur even when the animal is beached or dead. The Man-of-War sting may require further medical treatment to control the pain. If any breathing difficulty occurs, CALL 911 immediately.
The man-of-war stings are very painful. Symptoms include severe shooting pain described as a shock-like sensation, and intense joint and muscle pain. Pain may be accompanied by headaches, shock, collapse, faintness, hysteria, chills, fever, nausea and vomiting and in some cases death (usually from cardiac arrest). While the initial contact may result in only a small number of stings, efforts to escape from the tentacles may cause the stinging cells that have not discharged to do so and intensify the stings. Care should be taken when removing the adhering tentacles. Severe stings can still occur even when the animal is beached or dead. The Man-of-War sting may require further medical treatment to control the pain. If any breathing difficulty occurs, CALL 911 immediately.
This is why we are afraid to get in the water! One section of the beach had hundreds of these washed up.
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