Beaches, Tourism, and Oil

Hard sleeping on the beaches may sound romantic, but it's not as easy as it sounds throughout Florida. During my first year in Florida, I'd tried my hand at sleeping one night on it's shoreline.

I'll never do it again. Sand fleas, lack of protection, it was a night that left me exhausted into the rising sun...add on a really bad case of sunburn within hours of sunrise.

Trust me, save your money and go your hand at some Outer banks foreclosures if at all possible.

This morning while the sun was coming up I caught some PBS broadcasts regarding the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While hard questions 'are' being asked in our capitol by politicians facing BP representatives, some getting 'PR' time through interviews come across as trying to downplay the dilemma. Later it was admitted Florida is aggressively attempting to do the same tactic that was seen decades ago in 'Jaws'...inviting people down, putting up 'swim at own risk' signs, and advising people to use dish detergent and water to wash off oil.

One interviewed vacationer gave an account of her getting some on her foot, seems the press are wanting to interview people treating this no different than jellyfish.

Another report admitted that there is a potential that Florida water could be contaminated, up to and including Florida's East Coast. One mention was made of a period of or about a week, at the same time sounding like it was more 'forward thinking'.

At the time of the report, comments were made of the scent of oil being caught by individuals on Florida's coastline. Images of birds encased in slime aren't being found, and what 'is' mentioned of oil are 'tar-balls' and 'sheen'. Another term being used is 'tar paddy'.

If you're homeless, you don't need either the health risk posed by the oil or the safety risk of being targeted by people already mad at the beach.