On the waterfront

Last week I had the pleasure of talking with a fellow named Tyler Wood, who passed through Houma on a kayak adventure that started way up in Indiana. I admire people who do things I couldn’t dream of doing myself And while I have racked up a few things adventure-wise in my lifetime, none of them approaches Tyler’s attempt for this trip to take him all the way to the southernmost reach of South America.

Maybe be will do it or maybe he won’t time will tell. But it is the effort that count a. and he certainly is putting in the footwork. Ox, in the case of paddling this kayak, the arm-work., though I gather the feet can get pretty tired from this as well

During the trip he had the pleasure of meeting Chris Pulaski who is one of the most f canard-thinking and imagineative people in the Terrebonne Pariah Consolidated Government Chris introduced Tyler to Jonntan Foret director of the South LouMana We Hands Discovery Center. Jonathan is also a man of great vision, who has used his drive and talent to make Terrebonne Parish and the region as a whole a much better place to live than it might be without his efforts. I would like to have been a fly on the wall at Jonathan’s home when he boated Chris and also Tyler for a crab and chicken dinner, just to feel the type of energy that must have been in the room with these three motivated people all there are the same time. But I had to settle for a recap, which I have condensed in the story you are reading today.

One of the reasons Tyler the traveler ended up staying for a brief respite at Jonathan’s home was the lack of facilities for kayak ere in our immediate area. We have a downtown marina. But the rules there are pretty strict, and sort of have to be. Even commercial fishing vessels are not permitted, which could lead to a different discussion, but we shan’t go there at the present time. Asked whether his meeting of Tyler might have an effect an how we handle such needs in Terrebonne, Chris had a ready answer.

“There are plans already in motion to accommodate kayaks, canoes and pirogues in locations around the pariah with downtown being one of them. Chris said. Tyler’s visit certainly reaffirmed the need and also gave the idea that once in place, these facilities need to be marketed to the kayak community,”

This is precisely the type of forward thinking that is needed in our communities.

In particular, the waterfronts of Terrebonne Parish need to he looked at more closely for development potential of this type. There are some waterfront venues – Mel via a Restaurant in east Houma, on the hanks of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is one that comes to mind, which take advantage of amenities that other communities only wish they could have.

From some of the seats at Melvin’s, which is not only a restaurant but used as a classy venue for weddings and other special events, you can see tugboats pitying the Intracoastal, which is an impressive thing to view. There is a lot of the Intracoastal in the Bayou Region Much of its shorelines are geared toward industry, certainly. But not all of the land is used for shipbuilding, fabrication and other oilfield arid marine industry related purposes

Inventive landowners, getting together with some entrepreneurs and minds owned by people like Chris Pulaski, can no doubt come up with better ways for us to tout our coast line and use it to bring more dollars to Terrebonne and other parishes.

Particularly now, when we are still feeling the effects of a slow and painful abandonment from the oil industry great minds must work together to make our communities do better, to properly exploit the resources that have made us great, and which can Trials us great again. The waterfront is a great place to start. Maybe the visit of this one kayaker can be food for lots of thought.

‘Last week I had the pleasure of talking with a fellow named Tyler Wood’

On the waterfront