Wrapping up Buccaneer … and Leaving the Gnats Behind

Tuesday, 16 April
Shields RV Park — NCBC Gulfport, Mississippi
Temps: Lo 68F / Hi 81F (20C / 27C)

We made the move from Waveland to Gulfport yesterday.  Before I get to the now, however, I want to wrap up our last two days at Buccaneer State Park.

Saturday, 13 April

Another beautiful blue-sky day with sunshine.  At 73F (23C) the temp was comfortable; and humidity was non-existent … an excellent day for a walk across the 2.1 mile (3.4 km) long St Louis Bay Bridge, which connects Bay St Louis to Pass Christian.  Of course, what goes across must come back, so we doubled up on the miles.  It was a pleasant walk, with only a slight grade nearing the halfway point where the bridge arcs over the water to allow passage for tall vessels.  Vehicle traffic was light, and except for the occasional biker, walker, or jogger, we had the pedestrian path that runs along the gulf side of the bridge to ourselves … which added to our pleasure, of course.

There are two of these pylons at either end of the bridge;
all with the same etched artwork by Marty Wilson.

The bridge, which carries US Route 90 over the bay, was heavily damaged by Katrina.  The new bridge was built by placing a new deck on the piers that survived the storm surge.  Here are before and after photos from the web.

Since neither Bay St Louis, nor Pass Christian, have soaring skylines; there wasn’t much to photograph as far as views were concerned.  But the decorative copper bas-relief plaques embedded every 1/10th of a mile afforded opportunities to click the shutter.

On the Pass Christian side of the bridge, we walked over to the nearby park to rest for a bit and nibble on some snacks before making the return trek to Bay St Louis.  Pleasantly tired, we spent the rest of the day doing not much of anything.

Sunday, 14 April

Around 1:00a, we woke up to loud claps of thunder and raindrops beating down on the roof.  Lightning in the distance lit up the sky.  Neither the weather radio, nor the weather channel on TV — or the weather sites on the internet, for that matter — had any alerts or warnings posted.  An hour later all was quiet, and we went back to sleep.

Screenshot of the radar as the worst of the storm was passing over us.

The rain beating a tattoo on the roof woke us up around 6:00a.  Still no watches or warnings, but this time it was obvious that the storm passing overhead with loud booms and lightning was going to be longer-lasting.  And so started our last day at Buccaneer State Park.  It was noon by the time the liquid stuff falling from the sky dried up and the sun peeked through the skies.

Wanting to do one last beach walk, we headed out after lunch.  We were surprised to see that the surf and wind damage from this thunderstorm was considerable, with large chunks of the beach washed away in a couple of spots … something we had not seen when the two previous storms came through the area.  There was also a considerable amount of sand washed onto the road, and the pedestrian/biking path was covered with sand as well.  Cleaning up after storms — no matter the size — must be a fulltime job around here.  It seems to me that a higher wall along the road would help, but that doesn’t seem to be part of the plans.  All we’ve heard on the local news reports is that they are putting up netting, and attempting to rebuild the sand dunes by planting grasses.  (Sorry; no photos as I didn’t take my camera with me.)

I believe the red waxy substance covering this dead sea turtle is a signal to the
clean-up crew that it has been counted and the carcass can be removed.
[photographed on 12 April]

As a P.S. to the dead turtles I reported.  I received acknowledgement today (16 April) that my reports had been received and that both events were documented.  The second email I received on the subject came from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and included a hotline number for reporting strandings —
1-888-SOS-DOLPHIN (1-888-767-3657).  The hotline is answered 24-7 and is good for both dolphin and sea turtle strandings.  I hope you will make note of it.

Monday, 15 April

We had a short drive to make the move from Waveland to Gulfport.  Had it not been for the gnats, we probably would have found ways to delay our departure, but we’d had enough of them.  At 9:30a we were on our way under overcast skies that threatened rain at any moment.  Although the speed limit on Beach Boulevard is 25 mph (40 kph), we opted to go that route to enjoy a scenic 6-mile (9½ km) drive to the St Louis Bay Bridge, which carries US-90 over the water and onward to Gulfport.  There wasn’t much to see, I’m afraid, as thick fog hid the scenery from our eyes.  But we did drive by the beach where our dead sea turtle was lying just in time to see it being removed by the clean-up crew.

24 easy miles (38 km) puts us at our campground in Gulfport, Mississippi.

The marine fog did not impair visibility on the road and by 10:30a we were pulling into Shields RV Park onboard NCBC Gulfport.  (Onboard, by the way, seems to be a common way of referring to all things located on naval bases; makes me chuckle every time I see the terminology as it reminds me of being onboard a ship.)  A few short minutes later we were getting settled into a corner site reserved for short-timers … those staying less than 14 days.  We’ll be here for just seven days for the weekly rate of $120.  (A warning to those who are eligible to stay at military campgrounds: you’ll hear trains tootin’ and chuggin’ at all times of the day and night if you decide to stay here.)

Site 10 is a 50A FHU pull-through just inside the entrance to Shields RV Park.

NCBC stands for Naval Construction Battalion Center.  This is the home of the Atlantic Fleet Seabees [from CB … above], whose unofficial motto is “The difficult we do at once; the impossible take a bit longer.”  Serving since 1942, they are the ones that build bases, roadways, airstrips … and much more.  Their work has taken them all over the world, including Antarctica, where they built and expanded scientific research bases in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.  They are also called upon to support disaster recovery efforts world-wide, and were heavily involved in rebuilding the Gulf Coast area following Hurricane Katrina.

Wearing a sailor’s cap, the mascot of the Fighting Seabees “brandishes a pipe wrench
in one hand, a hammer in another, and a machine gun in two other hands.”

When we arrived in Gulfport, our plan was to make the most of our short travel day with a long walk on the wide expanse of beach just a few miles away.  Since the weather remained overcast and wasn’t inviting, we switched to an alternate plan — a drive to Keesler AFB in Biloxi to replenish the larder.  NCBC Gulfport does have a commissary, but we had an ulterior motive or two for going to Keesler.  First, Mui wanted a quick trip down memory lane since this was where he received his technical training after completing basic training at Lackland AFB in Texas back in 1982-83.  Second, we wanted to check out the FamCamp for a possible future stay.  Nice enough campground, I suppose, but we didn’t much care for the ambiance … too many long-term residents, both students and snowbirders.

We returned home to the sad news of the Boston Marathon bombings.  What a stupid, senseless act of terror.  What on earth did the perpetrators accomplish by killing three young people — one of whom was just 8 years old.  I hope people will mourn the dead, keep the wounded in their thoughts, and go on with daily life as usual.  Giving terrorists — homegrown or otherwise — the satisfaction of disrupting our lives is to hand them a victory.  Something Mui and I are not willing to do!

Back to Today … Tuesday, 16 April

The sky was still overcast and dull when the Star Spangled Banner blared over the PA system at 8:00a.  For those not familiar with life on a military base, this is a daily occurrence and follows shortly after Reveille.  No problem, we’d been up for several hours already and were ready to get down to chores.  For Mui that meant washing the rig and the toad, both of which had considerable sand/salt spray from yesterday’s short drive down Beach Road.

Just as he was getting started, the campground manager stopped by to tell us that they were going to have to cut the power to our site so that repairs could be made to the power pedestal on the site behind us.  He offered to move us to a different site, but we needed to exercise the generator anyway, so we decided to stay put and sort-of-boondock for a couple of hours.

Surprisingly little noise filtered inside the Phaeton as the work went on outside.

By 1:00p, Mui was done with his chores.  His timing coincided with the sun finally making an appearance.  After he got cleaned up and we had a light lunch, we drove over to the beach for a long walk.  Although it was quite hot in the sun, a nice breeze coming off the water kept us comfortable.

Before leaving for the beach, we had a message from Judy (of Travels with Emma) wondering where we were as she was overnighting near Biloxi.  I quickly sent her a response and asked if she wanted to get together for dinner somewhere.  Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out … next time, Judy.

Since Mui had his heart set on dinner out, we proceeded with our plans sans Judy.  The information packet the campground manager gave us when we arrived yesterday listed a few restaurants, so we checked them out on TripAdvisor and settled on the Blow Fly Inn.  Yuck!  What a name, right?  The restaurant’s website tells the story of how the name originated:

The Blow Fly Inn was started as a happenstance operation (originally nicknamed Hickory’s BBQ) in 1961 by Albert & Mary Malone.  As the story goes, Al’s good friend Mac (who had a restaurant in the vicinity) was constantly being asked “Where’s Al’s Place?”  Well, one day after too many inquiries, Mac gave in to his frustrations and replied, “Yeah, I’ll tell you—Go to Pass Rd., take a right and follow the string of blow flies.”  Before long Hickory’s was better known as the “Blow Fly Inn.”

Featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives,” this casual restaurant serves good food; and has a very nice setting overlooking Bayou Bernard.  That there were no gnats — or blow flies — to keep us from enjoying our meal at one of the tables on the deck was a bonus ;-)

The peaceful scenery adds to our dining pleasure.

The name of the restaurant may leave a lot to be desired, but the food doesn’t.

Mui ordered a seafood Caesar salad that was filled with copious amounts of lump crab meat, shrimp, and grilled fish.  I ordered the fresh fish of the day — flounder.  Somehow, I thought it was going to be served grilled, but it came fried instead.  Served over a bed of penne pasta and a remoulade type sauce with bits of crawfish and shrimp in it, the dish turned out to be incredibly yummy.  And, while the flounder may have been fried, it wasn’t the tiniest bit greasy.  Under the crisply fried batter, the fish was flaky and moist — some of the best I’ve had anywhere.  I had just started eating when the waitress showed up with another piece of fish, saying that I was supposed to have two pieces.  Half the pasta and that second piece of fish will be lunch tomorrow.

We wrapped up our meal with the Blow Fly Inn’s signature dessert — a tasty banana pudding.

A two-thumbs up dinner!

We left the Blow Fly Inn before sunset and drove back to the base via the Beach Road.  Our hopes for a colorful sunset were quickly dashed, we returned home without further dalliance.

Short though our time in Gulfport is, I have a few outings under consideration.  Several depend on the weather, however, so we’ll see how things shake out.