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.

January 21, 2015 Ocean Springs, Mississippi

We got up before the crack of dawn to go on a tour of the Mississippi Sandhill Crane wildlife refuge.

The Mississipi cranes are an endangered species and non migratory. At one time there were only 30 left in the world. Their habitat the wetland pine savannah has almost disappeared, so they had no where to nest. At this refuge they have brought the number back up to 130 and working on raising that number.

We only saw about 3 cranes- some of the better bird watchers saw a few more. But we saw a great egret in the tree, a bald eagle on the nest.  After the crane tour we returned to  Davis Bayou where we are camped and  kayaked the bayou. In the first photo the third photo are mussels attached to the grass stems at low tide, a snowy egret and barnacles.  The bayou has marsh grass and here long leaf  and slash pine trees. We learned that since robins winter in the south , they know when spring is when the robins leave. Totally different from the north where when you see robins you know spring is around the corner. Another woman told me that when they see robins they know it will be cold.

 

John ahead of me in the bayou. Me with the snowy egret.

 

When we went out of the park there were some houses along the waterway. This pier had crab traps on it. Can you imagine throwing a couple off the pier, then having crab for dinner?

The channels eventually got very narrow, here I am paddling more grass rather than water. John coming out of one of the channels.

 

Parts of the bayou had live oaks instead of pines lining the banks. After boating we went into Ocean Springs – the nearest town to check it out and grocery shop.

It is a lovely little town with oak lined streets. You don’t want to drive your motor home through town, many of the oaks are very low clearance.  The oak trees are protected, it is against the law to cut off the branches and builders have to build around them. But we had the car and forged on.  On the south side of town is the gulf and a white sand beach. The slips in the marina had hooks ups, you can live on your boat here.

  

The Crooked Feather sculpture  is a thirty foot  sculpture depicting Ocean Springs original  colony of American Indians carved from a cypress log 5 feet wide and 11 feet thick.

January 17-20, 2015 Bayou Segnette, Louisiana to Davis Bayou, Mississippi

The sun has finally come out. It is in the low 60’s-70’s. It has been so nice that all I we have done is sit out in the sun and read, hike around the park, ride my bike a little, hula hoop and lay in my chair and read.

Views from the campground.

My lawn chair in the sun. Flowers are coming up too.  Blue flower, cinqefoil, pink flowers, white clover and evening primrose.

Tuesday we drove a mere 100 miles from the east side of Louisiana to the east side of Mississippi.  A sunny 70 degree day. The coast of Mississippi is a long stretch of white sand with blue gulf.  In the 1960’s it was the place to party, play and honeymoon. On the west side of the coast is the John C Stennis space center. We visited last time through here. They test rocket engines there. It has a huge buffer zone of forest around it since the engines are so loud. The rest stop at the exit has a lunar lander in it.

 

A view of the coast with lovely beaches and live oak trees and marinas. In  1969 hurricane Camille  a category 5  with winds of 210 mph and a 20 foot storm surge destroyed the Mississippi waterfront. The rebuilt it. Then in 2005 hurricane Katrina with a 28 foot storm surge washed buildings up to a half mile inland away. They are still rebuilding again. There are still lots of empty lots for sale. The new buildings are all on tall stilts. The beach front in much of Biloxi is huge casinos. the bottom floors of most of the buildings are parking garage. We also saw this Shark head family center it was called. Looked like a giant beach curio store. The last bottom photo looked like a new restaurant going in.

We are now camped at the Davis Bayou of the Gulf Island National Seashore. The bus in our camp spot.

We plan on doing some kayaking in the  beautiful marsh and forest lined bayou. Swimming is reserved for the alligators. We say this one at a scenic look out called alligator pond.

     

Sunset on the bayou was lovely.