Desite oil spill, many beaches still drawing crowds
PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. -- Marilyn Cave imagined her favorite stretch of white beach here soiled by oily muck. But Cave -- who said she has come to Pensacola Beach ``a zillion times'' -- packed up her bags from Chattanooga and came anyway.
"It looks marvelous,'' Cave, a marketing executive, said as she looked out on a beach that seemed to be mostly oil-free Sunday afternoon. "From everything we've seen on TV, we were surprised to see it looking this good. And the water is amazing''
Even with tourism taking a devastating hit this holiday weekend, the besieged beaches on Florida's Gulf Coast can still draw a crowd.
Thousands of people lined the sand here Sunday afternoon, basking under a cloudless sky and braving both strong surf and a local health advisory warning against swimming in the Gulf.
Asked why they still come to a now-notorious destination, and tourists offered a range of motivations from duty during hard times to skepticism that oil could be that big of a problem.
On a recent afternoon at the Naval Aviation Museum at the Pensacola air base, Jim and Tracy McManus were on their way to the museum gift shop with their two young sons. They traveled from Eau Claire, Wis., to Dauphin Island, Ala. Jim said they wrestled over canceling the trip as the oil crisis worsened.
``Then we just said, `Forget it,' '' Jim recalled. ``We're just going to spend some money down there because they need it.''
Kathy Sheridan held a pair of flip-flops as she walked barefoot through the surf here last week, indifferent to the congealed tar squishing beneath her.
``I've got oil on my feet,'' the sixth-grade teacher from Alabama explained as she revealed two rusty blotches on her heel and the bottom of one foot. ``It's still beach, and I still love it.''
The vagaries of the oil spill's siege on this beach can test the loyalty of even the most devoted vacationer. On June 23, Pensacola beaches were soiled by gooey petroleum. That's been the worst impact so far, but congealed bits of oil known as ``tar balls'' are common.
When Sheridan arrived, a ribbon of tar balls marked high tide up and down the beach, and it was hard to walk through the surf without stepping on them.
``It feels like bubble gum,'' said Jason Black, as he walked with his mother, Veronica, along Pensacola Beach early last week. Both were in ankle-deep water, and both had a few oily splotches on their feet to mark the trip. The next day, a yellow, almost rust-like stain covered much of the beach's wet sand.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/04/1715948/desite-oil-spill-many-beaches.html#ixzz0smYdGvAh
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