A young artist/activist at the Perdido Pass rally, Orange Beach, AL:

This whole journey so far has been something I will remember and feel proud of for as long as I live, but the last 24 hours in particular have been completely life changing for me. Yesterday morning we drove to Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge to help plant grasses and other plants to hold down newly built dunes, put there to protect the rich and varied wildlife that inhabit this beautiful beach. The headline on their home page is heart-breakingly ironic in the face of what's happening there: "Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge: A safe haven for wildlife." While we were there working with the incredibly dedicated volunteers from the park and the Southeastern Wildlife Conservation, black waves began to roll in. We had begun to see helicopters by the dozens flying over while we were all digging in the 113 degree heat index, and by the time we began to wrap up the planting, the little specks and globs had become solid black beaches.  

I'm sure every one of you can understand how devastating it was to see this first hand. To be standing at the edge of my world and seeing what looks like Armageddon rolling in. We were already physically wiped out from the heat and the labour, and so this was almost more than we could handle. We shot footage and as we walked back, the work crews started to come in and set up, but even before we could make it to the boardwalk, a thousand yards away maybe, they had already been instructed to stand down. They told us that themselves. The coast guard were there too. Right under the tents with the workers. 

After we left Bon Secour we came back to get cleaned up and ready to go hear Riki Ott speak to the people of this local community. Riki consults with individuals and organizations in the spill affected areas, both as a toxicologist and as an individual who lived through the Exxon Valdez incident. She is the nations' leading expert on recovering from this kind of disaster and we couldn't have felt any better if Wonder Woman had shown up (not even if she looked just like Linda Carter :). She spoke honestly and candidly and some of what she had to say was hard to hear, but she didn't scare us either, or make us feel hopeless. She made us feel as if the power to make a change was in our own hands. 

Riki stayed at the same wonderful place where we're staying outside Fair Hope, and this morning we all walked down the boardwalk to breakfast. We talked to fishermen along the way, and some BP employees putting out more boom around the nice hotels' piers and beaches (they were deploying none around people's homes). Riki asked me to take some pictures for her next Huffington Post article. I said "Ok!". After that, we all headed down to a boom building, showed Riki the ropes and then picked up the floating hair boom bags that Amanda designed and Quincy put together last night for a test in the bay. Then we all headed to Perdido Pass for a protest rally the people of Orange Beach were holding there. I drove Riki so she could write on the way. I have to tell you, that was a pretty proud moment for me. I also got to hear her give a live phone interview in the car before she disembarked to speak to the waiting crowd at the rally. It was amazing to see so many people standing up and speaking out, and I could tell that Riki and the other speakers galvanized them. I was proud to be a part of all that too.

After the rally, we headed back, me to sort and send photos, Chris and Q to shoot more testing of solutions for safe oil dispersion. While Q and I were working, they called us into the den because Amanda, our hostess, was being featured as the lead story on the Pensacola news. This is OFFICIALLY the first time that successful use of the hair booms has been featured ANYWHERE in the media in this disaster, and this lifted all our spirits immensely. Amanda looked like she was about to crack this morning, and by this evening her energy and ideas were back, the sparkle in her eye had returned, and we all felt a little like heroes, and as if we could face another day.

Blessed be.