January 22-24, 2015 Pascagoula and Biloxi , Mississippi

Cloudy, rainy so we went to Pascagoula to check out the river. They are calling it a blueway- which is a water trail for boaters. The river is sometimes called the Singing River because of the occasional  eerie sound that is best heard on still evenings. Legend claims it is the death chant of the Pascagoula tribe that committed mass suicide in the river’s waters rather than submit to the defeat at the hands of the Biloxi Indians. The town  is also the birthplace of Jimmy Buffet.

Round Island lighthouse in Pascagoula. You used to be able to tour it, but it was damaged by Katrina. Downtown Pascagoula Anchor mall is anchored by an anchor.

 

The historic Pascagoula Central Fire co building has been remodeled into a restaurant.  We went to lunch at Bozo’s seafood market. It is the highest rated restaurant in town. I liked the voodoo potato chips and the Slap ya mama cajun seafood boil.

 

John with the special a  shrimp poboy and shrimp gumbo. He also has a ginger ale that is sweetened with sugar cane. The food lived up to it’s ratings.  Diesel just keeps getting cheaper. If this keeps up we can fill the tank for less than $200.

The Pascagoula River from the bridge in town. Lots of marshes and cypress bogs. We will be back with the boats. It rained real hard last night. I put out the measuring cup that is 4 inches deep before the serious rain started and it over flowed by morning. John another one out when he got up and it had one and half inches in it before the storm stopped.

  

Waking up to sunshine in the bus is such a treat after all the weeks of clouds and rain we have seen down here. The top of the second photo is part of the 4 panel mosaic on the bridge by the beach in Ocean Springs.  The bottom is a detail from one of the other panels.

We went to Biloxi, which is just across the bridge today. Biloxi has been the place to play, party and beach since right after WWII. In the 60’s there were casinos in barges right off the coast. When Hurricane Camille came with 210 mph winds and 15 foot storm surge it washed the barges right through town taking out all the buildings in the way. Biloxi rebuilt, with big casinos on the ground at beach front. Hurricane Katrina with a 28 foot storm surge once again destroyed much of Biloxi near the coast. It has rebuilt again, with huge high rise casinos on the beach.  John on the porch of the visitors center a grand old historic building that was restored after the hurricanes.

The light house is made out of cast iron. It was built in the early 1800’s and has survived all the hurricanes. Katrina broke the windows and blew the door off, but it was restored and still standing. The large building behind it is the visitors center.  I saw this he man sunbathing on the beach.

 

Here is my he man walking on the beach. It was a little chilly, 55 degrees. Enough to be beautiful, but too cold to sunbathe. After the beach we went to the Fire museum, but it had just closed.

So I bought us lunch at the Fillin’ Station on the patio in the sun. They were out of fresh oysters so we had gumbo and red beans and rice. I took this photo of this RV because at a distance I thought it was a cool decorated bus, then I thought it was a donut wagon. It says Bag of Donuts on it. But I looked it up on the internet and they are a popular band from New Orleans. Interesting name for a band. On our way out of Biloxi we stopped at the only smoke free casino, the Palace and I gambled. Went in with $20 and came out with $102. Not bad. Made a profit, even with buying lunch.

 

We watched sunset from the fishing pier at the park. In the second photo you can kind of see the trees on Deer Island. It is one of the barrier islands off the coast.

John caught me hiding from the cold wind behind this post in the sunset.