It's true, folks. The beaches in Southwest Florida are clean and pristine. White sand, blue skies, salt smell - NO OIL! NO TAR BALLS! NO BP LOAFERS - er, I mean workers. The only place in Florida that has any oil is the Panhandle. The Panhandle is light-years away from us. You guys don't travel as far to get to a different state as we do to get to the Panhandle.
The problem is, no one wants to come here, either. The economy already tanked, killing our construction business, but now the rumors of oil are killing our fishing, boating and tourism businesses. There aren't many businesses left. The tourism one, though, is actually "Death by Media." Kind of like when Dan Rather kept insisting that one of the hurricanes was headed straight for us when it wasn't anywhere near us at any time. Can't help wondering why the media is NOT attacking the current administration. Can you imagine if President Bush was still in office? I mean, first President Obama ridiculed the idea of offshore drilling. Then he announced that he was approving off-shore drilling. Immediately thereafter a disaster that makes the Exxon Valdez look like child's play, and what do we hear from the media about President Obama? What that's? You don't hear anything either? Interesting... Isn't the MAN MADE oil spill making landfall at the very same Louisiana that Hurricane Katrina went to? The Louisiana that makes its living from the waters? (I used to wonder how the verses in the Bible would happen, the ones saying that a third of the waters would be fouled and a third of the creatures living in the seas would die. That's in Revelations Chapter 8 Verses 8-11. We've seen one way it could happen!).
But, back to Florida, present-day. We are looking with concern at the oil, of course, but chances are it won't come here until it has already snaked around to the East Coast and points north.This is because of the Gulf Loop current that swooshes everything down from Louisiana around the tip of Florida and up tight against the other coast. The oil will likely follow that path as well. Unfortunately, there is so much oil that it will probably pollute everyone at some point. But we might be the last holdout in Florida where you can enjoy nice, clean, white-sand beaches. Not only that, but there are specials! Now is THE best time to come to Florida for a lovely, oil-free vacation. Put it off too long and there will likely be a lot less variety in resorts and beach front hotels. Because if business doesn't pick up soon some of them won't be able to stay up and running. All because of rumor-based hysteria. And that would be too bad, because sunset on the beach should be beautiful and not tragic. In Southwest Florida, at least, you can experience a wonderful sunset on a beautiful, clean beach.
