Freaky Weather

Tuesday is my Monday, and I look forward to getting back to work each week. Today is the second to last day of the piping plover survey for February 25th, so I had a choice between two beaches to complete - Perdido Key or Santa Rosa. Since the weather looked iffy, I chose Perdido. Perdido takes less time as there are rarely any piping plovers there; Santa Rosa sometimes has more than a dozen.



It was a weird ride over. It started out a little drizzly til I reached the three mile bridge. The sun came out and shone on the wind tossed Pensacola Bay as I made the drive over. By the time I reached Joe Patti's, a few miles from the bridge, it was gray and stormy looking again. It continued to just be cloudy and windy the rest of the twenty mile drive.

Murphy's Law seemed to apply as soon as I reached the Perdido Key area of the park. The rain came and the wind blew, as I sat in my truck, watching new dunes shift across the roadway. Should I stay and see if it clears up, or turn around and head to the office? I had driven too far to just give up, so I read a little J.D. Salinger and waited for the rain to stop -- I'll stay out in the rain, but there was no point in starting until the rain stopped.

Within half an hour, the rain stopped. I got ready as fast as possible and headed to the north shore, not even stopping to talk to people as I wanted to get the survey done before the rain started again. The wind had died, and the weather seemed calm. I started my survey, and was happy I'd waited instead of going back to Naval Live Oaks.

By the time I was four miles into the survey, the sun was shining brightly and the clouds were drifting away. It was almost too warm for all my rain gear, but i wasn't going to get caught -- I'd stay in the gear. I stopped for a brief time at Spanish Cove to take pictures -- some of the beach plants were blooming again!



As I was trying to get some shots from underneath the plants, the clouds started moving in from the north again, and the winds blew fiercely, pushing me to the sand. I took a few more pictures and put my camera into my waterproof bag -- it was time to finish the seven mile stretch and get back to dry ground.



The rain came swift and sure, but it was refreshing. As the rains came and went, the warm, stiff breeze dried me off. For the next three hours, that's how my day went - pouring rain soaking me to the skin, brisk breezes drying me off, in an endless cycle. Rain is so much nicer when the weather isn't cold!