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.

Exploring Bay St Louis … “A Place Apart”

Friday, 12 April (Part II)
Buccaneer State Park — Waveland, Mississippi
Temps: Lo 48F / Hi 80F (9C / 27C)

The storm that came through yesterday cleared the air and the humidity, leaving us with a beautiful day of blue skies, sunshine, and mild temperatures.  In other words, a perfect day for an outing.

Our day started around 6:30a.  I had spied two murals in a parking lot in Bay St Louis and wanted to photograph them before the lot filled up with cars.  Our bonus for setting out early was a beautiful sunrise … which, of course, required a few clicks of the shutter.

Despite the delay, we managed to complete the drive (about 5 miles [8 km]) in time for me to photograph the murals without hindrance.

Water pooling in the parking lot doubles our pleasure in “Welcome to Bay Saint Louis,”
a mural painted in 2009 by Joshua R. Poole.

“The Promenade” tells the living history of Bay St Louis.  Painted by John McDonald,
it was completed in 1997.  Though the mural was submerged in water and the paint film
was compromised, it survived Hurricane Katrina.

[I posted detail shots of this piece of art and the story it tells for the
Mural Monday meme.  You can find that post in my viewfinder blog … here.]

On one side of 220 Main Street, an art deco style building constructed in 1929, is an unsigned
mural advertising Coca Cola for 5¢ (yeah, right!).  On the other side of the building is a
brilliant red tree painted by Lori K. Gordon, and named “Ol’ Reliable” by a William Baxter.

After our foray to photograph murals, we picked up some scones and a loaf of artisan bread from Serious Bread and returned home to have breakfast.  The baked goods were fresh and delicious, but way too expensive … except as a special treat.

This Community Garden on Main Street may not be there long; there was a “for sale” sign (which I
opted to keep out) to the right of the bench.  What a shame to lose this green space in town.

After breakfast, we went for a stroll on the beach.  Since we planned to do a walking tour of Bay St Louis later in the day, we kept our pace slow and enjoyed the beautiful post-storm morning.  Unfortunately, our morning was marred a bit by the sight of a second dead Kemp’s Ridley turtle on the beach.  When we came here I didn’t think we’d be seeing any dead turtles, let alone two of them.  Of course, I reported this encounter to the NOAA Fisheries authorities as well.

Happy Scene … gull feeding on the beach.

Sad Scene … another dead sea turtle; I asked Mui to pose behind it for a size-perspective.
Though larger than the first turtle we saw, I think this is a Kemp’s Ridley as well.

(Later in the day, we walked this beach again, and I was able to take a photo of the sea turtle from a different angle.  Too gruesome to post as taken, I post-processed it in B&W for the Viewfinder blog … here.)

On with our day … back home for a while, and then back out again.  This time … to do a self-guided walking tour of Old Town Bay St Louis.  But first, a belated birthday lunch at 200 North Beach.  The restaurant is located in a house that was built in 1903.  Damaged by Katrina, it was restored by the owners “by reclaiming original beaded boards and exposing massive wooden beams.”  The food was tasty, and the portions were reasonably-sized … and our choice of dessert, though rather small, made up for the lack of a birthday cake yesterday.  (By the way, no fault of Mui’s that there was no birthday cake … at my request, he didn’t bake one as it would have been too much of a temptation to have one sitting on the counter waiting to be devoured!)

Clockwise from top left: Grilled Triple Tail on a bed of julienned vegies; Crab Cakes
(appetizer size, which I enjoyed with a small Caesar salad); Warm Brownie Sundae.

Thus sustained by our meal, we began our self-guided walking tour of Bay St Louis, which is said to have been settled by Bienville, a French explorer who came to the area in 1699 and named it in honor of Louis IX of France.

What started out as a change of scenery for our “exercise walks,” turned out to be a pleasant afternoon exploring the historic old town.  We began with a few places described as “off the beaten trail” in the brochure we had picked up at the Mississippi Welcome Center when we first arrived in the area, and made our way to the other sites one building at a time.  I clicked the shutter only occasionally, so if you want the full tour, you will have to do it yourself ;-)

(I already shared with you the Katrina Angel Trees we found in Bay St Louis, so I won’t include those in this blog entry.)

“Off the beaten trail,” Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church is our first stop.
Constructed in the Romanesque style in 1908, it overlooks the Mississippi Sound.
Click here for a photo of the Katrina Angel statue dedicated to the volunteers
who poured into the city to help where they might after the hurricane.

The Hancock County Courthouse and the World War II Memorial.
The courthouse was completed in 1911 at a cost of $25,000, with furnishings …
including beds and mattresses for jurors unfortunate enough to be sequestered.
The neo-classical revival structure is the tallest building in Old Town.

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart Cemetery is dedicated to the Brothers who served at
St Stanislaus College, founded in 1854, and the oldest educational institution on the Gulf Coast.

I looked for a sign indicating the age of this grand oak tree, but there was none.
My best guess is that it dates back to the same year — 1905 — as the Old City Hall,
on the grounds of which the tree is located.  The “shoofly” around the oak tree
takes its name from the French word, "chaufler," meaning "cauliflower."

One of the unexpected highlights of our tour was a stop we made at The Depot, a mission style building built in 1929 as a train station.  In all honesty, the only reason we went inside was to use the restroom.  We ended up finding not only a charming woman who shared with us an album filled with newspaper articles and pictures of the devastation wreaked by Katrina, but also a small collection of Mardi Gras costumes designed by Carter Church.  What made seeing these elaborate creations particularly special is that Church lost his business to Katrina and had to rebuild it from scratch.  (Article here.)

This two-story mission style depot, built in 1928, was a fanciful addition to the heart
of the town.  Over the decades, thousands of travelers have passed through it.
Used as a set in the 1965 movie starring Natalie Wood, This Property is Condemned,
It is now used as the Visitor Center, and also houses the Mardi Gras Museum.

We saw some Mardi Gras costumes in New Orleans, but the ones here had quite a “wow” factor.

the elaborate headpiece is worn with the help of a brace that is hidden by the feathers.
the ostrich feathers cost $800 when the costume was made in 2009; they would cost
$2400 today due to a diminished supply resulting from a bird flu epidemic in Africa.

And here are a few more photos of these elaborate costumes. As the lady at the visitor center explained, worth thousands of dollars, Mardi Gras court costumes are worn for less than 24 hours before they are stored away in an attic somewhere. Displaying them for visitors to see is a good idea IMHO.  (Each costume is exhibited with a framed copy of Carter Church’s original design.)

Can’t top these costumes for a colorful ending to this post!

Katrina Angels

Friday, 12 April
Buccaneer State Park — Waveland, Mississippi
Temps: Lo 48F / Hi 80F (9C / 27C)

She came ashore with a mighty roar; with nothing to compare that went before.
Katrina changed our lives forever with destruction, we’ll never forget.

Fr. Michael Tracey

So reads part of a plaque on the pedestal of the angel statue that stands on the grounds of Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.  The statue is dedicated to the many volunteers who poured into the area following Katrina to help as they might.

I’m not finished processing photos from today’s walk around Bay St. Louis, which, like so many towns in the region, has made a comeback after being devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.  So, a special post instead.

Katrina was no ordinary hurricane, and I can’t imagine there’s anyone around the world who hasn’t heard of it.  Leaving behind a toll of over 1,800 souls, it was one of the five deadliest hurricanes to strike in the history of the US.

My post is not about the hurricane, but rather about the angels carved from the trees that died as a result of the storm.  I found it especially poignant that living things that had died at the hands of Mother Nature — trees — were brought back to life as art.  At least three of them were carved by Dayle K. Lewis, chainsaw wood sculptor from Indiana.

The angels of DeMontluzin Street.                

One of these “angel trees” is located on Beach Boulevard, near DeMontluzin Street.   In researching it on the web, I came across several accounts that tell the story of three people who managed to survive Katrina by clinging to this old oak tree for several hours; one story mentions that a dog was amongst these survivors.  Another story mentions that the DeMontluzin family saved this tree over 100 years ago when the road was going through Bay St. Louis.  If true — and I see no reason why it wouldn’t be — that makes this Katrina survival story all the more special.

Angel Tree

I found a list of the Katrina Angel trees on the Mississippi Gulf Coast website.  The only one for which a snippet of information was provided is the one featured above.  If anyone knows of any special stories about the other trees, do share.

The next tree is located across the road from Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church on South Beach Boulevard; note the various critters included in this carving.

The final two trees are at the Cedar Rest Cemetery.

The one standing on the ground is in memory of several people, but there was no information to say whether these individuals lost their lives during (or because of) Katrina.

The third photo is the base of the tree that was carved as an angel soaring into the sky.

I have since learned that there are other carvings made from trees that died during the hurricane … specifically in Waveland.  Searching them out is going to have to wait until the next time we’re in the area.  In the meantime, I’ll go back and finish processing photos from today so I can post them before I get too far behind.