Day 12 (6/7/21) – miles traveled: ~ 375 miles

Locations: several – Dauphin Island beach in Alabama, Pass Christian beach in Mississippi, then Grand Isle State Park, Louisiana

Science: air quality data at three beaches, a few fires at Grand Isle State Park campground

I ended up leaving Ft. Pickens early in the morning because I didn’t like the vibe of the campground and I continued to be thoroughly embarrassed about my parking job the night before – it is so intense when you are the last to arrive at a crowded campground – everyone is sitting there with their after-dinner beers/cocktails watching you (an obvious “Yankee” no doubt) trying to park a tiny trailer (someone even called it my “baby trailer”)…….not unlike the scene when you are the last to arrive at a mooring spot with your sailboat…….

The beaches in Alabama and MS were gorgeous – beautiful green water, minor waves, white sand……

Dauphin Island, AL -- 

Pass Christian, MS -- 

Grand Isle State Park, on the other hand, was super windy and kicking up exquisite and very fine black sand. It was striking – the photos don’t quite capture the effect, but the water was reflecting as black with whitecaps frothing on each wave.

Here Is a video where I try to demonstrate the sand effect--

The folks camping at Grand Isle were very focused on grabbing dinner right out of the water, including this family that even carted in lobster/crab traps from their site.

Here is a video of them getting ready to deploy the traps --

When night fell here, there was a strange cricket or frog that made a weird sound like “nono” – I tried to figure out what it was, but never caught it. This was also the first spot I really ran into bad bugs……the storms along the Gulf had resulted in some major freshwater flooding in the lowlands (which included most of my "campsite") and the resulting mosquitos were numerous and fierce.