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.

Stormy Day … Good Time for a Recap

Thursday, 11 April
Buccaneer State Park — Waveland, Mississippi
Temps: Lo 50F / Hi 80F (10C / 27C)

Tomorrow is actually “Today, 11 April.”  I grabbed the screenshot from The Weather Channel website yesterday.

Had there been a birthday cake today with the requisite number of candles on it, I would have had more than enough help blowing out all of them ;-)

We had plenty of warning about the storm that was heading our way, but considering its size, and the fact that it was cutting a wide swath as it moved from west to east, there wasn’t much we could do to get out of its way.  One way or another, we were going to feel its effects.

So we made sure our weather radio was programmed; backed up our computers; verified the contents of our go-bag; brought out the waterproof pants and jackets in case we needed to sprint across the road to the safety of the bathhouse; took down our screen shelter and put away the outside furniture; and hunkered down here in our tiny corner of southern Mississippi to ride out the storm.

We didn’t lose the “half lime” (as christened by our friend, MBZ) to the storm.
I took the photo yesterday after we removed the upright poles.
It was easy enough to deflate and pack after we removed the roof poles.

(Photos in this post are from our beach walks these past days.)

After a 1½-mile (2.4 km) walk on the beach, we returned home mid-morning.  Going about projects around the condo on wheels, we tuned the TV to a local channel and began our storm vigil.  About an hour later, a tornado watch was posted until 3:00p.  Severe thunderstorm warning banners started to run across the screen shortly after noon.  At the same time, the winds picked up, but nothing strong enough to rock us.

The remnants of the casino barge that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina stand in
testament to the strong storms that wreak havoc in this area.  It was in the wake of Katrina
that the gaming laws in the state were changed to allow land-based casinos in Mississippi.

Even though we’re on the coast in Hancock County, when a tornado warning was posted for the northwestern portion of the county, our personal antennae went into high alert.  Luckily the warning was short-lived and nothing came of it.  A knock on the door at 1:30p had our hearts racing, but it was only the campground manager making his rounds to ensure everyone was keeping an eye on the weather … whew!

The Garfield Ladner Memorial Pier (aka the Waveland Pier), damaged during
Hurricane Isaac in 2012, is closed to visitors until repairs can be completed.

The downpour started around 2:00p.  The pitter-patter of raindrops quickly turned into a deluge.  The winds gusted a bit, but still nothing strong enough to rock the coach … certainly nothing like the wake-effect winds that followed last week’s storm and caught everyone unawares.  By 3:30p, the storm was east of us, the only rocking of the coach coming from the spin cycle of the washing machine ;-)  Rumblings of thunder in the distance were a reminder not to let our guard down, but for all intents and purposes, we were out of the woods except for ongoing rains.  From what we’ve seen on news reports, the worst of the storms passed to our far north; and for that we are grateful.  Our thoughts are with those who bore the brunt of them.

West of the Waveland Pier is this Veteran’s Memorial (left) and a stretch of beach,
which is where we’ve been enjoying quiet walks in the mornings.

The storm is today’s news, but what have we been up to in the days leading up to the storm … in the days since I last posted about our battle with the gnats.

First off, we spoke to the people who manage Buccaneer about the gnats.  Apparently these pesky pests live in the sand.  They come out when the temps are between 70-80F (21-25C).  During that time, the only thing that seems to keep them at bay is air movement.

Now you see it … the young gull’s breakfast, that is …

… now you don’t … at least not much more than the tail of the fish!

Well, we refused to be held hostage to the little buggers.  From Walmart, we bought a couple of inexpensive box fans and set them up in the screen shelter to create our own cross-breeze to keep the pesky so-and-so’s at bay.  That has worked out quite well and we’ve managed to spend many hours enjoying our great outdoors living space.

Brown pelicans in breeding plumage on a concrete piling in the water channel
that runs behind the Silver Slipper Casino.

Laughing Gull debating a dip in the Mississippi Sound.

A pair of royal terns, one of which surprised me by flapping its wings as I clicked the shutter.
Hence the clipped wing … sorry!

As luck would have it, our “Battle of the Gnats” also got some help from Mother Nature.  We had beautiful blue-sky days until Wednesday, with a light breeze coming off the ocean … which helped to keep the gnat population down.  Thus, we were able to enjoy morning walks on the area beaches and around the campground loops each and everyday.

This Google Maps satellite image of the area shows the location of our campground
in relation to the beaches along the Mississippi Sound; what tiny bit of beach remains
near Buccaneer SP is circled on the map.   The dotted red line on the bottom left is
the area around the Silver Slipper Casino; the dotted line past the campground icon
is the beach east and west of the Waveland Pier.

Snowy Egret at the small wedge of beach just outside Buccaneer State Park.

We’ve managed to put in about 10,000 steps (approx. 3 miles [4.8 km] with my stride) each day to keep our exercise regimen going.  On the days we went out with the trikes, the step equivalency gave us at least another 7,000 to 14,000 steps (2-4 miles [3-6.5 km]).  Not bad at all!

I’m charmed by this Laughing Gull.  For some reason it reminds me of a young woman,
her lips painted red, a sly smile on her face.  Don’t ask me why!

This shot-into-the sun photograph of gulls perched on the remnants of
a pier just begged for a B&W processing.

Yesterday, we decided to check out the Pirate’s Alley Nature Trail here at Buccaneer.  We didn’t get far — there was too much brush and whatnot blocking the path.  We got the sense that it has been a while since any maintenance was done on the trail.  Meant to ask the campground manager about it, but it’s a moot point now.  After today’s rains, it will be a while before the ground dries out.  We’ll be gone by then.

Willets at breakfast!

We’ve also been enjoying — from a distance — the birds that are flying and chirping all around the campground.  We’ve seen kildeer, mockingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, and red bellied woodpeckers to name a few.  One male cardinal has been doing its best to shoo-away a would-be rival by flying head-first into our bedroom slide.  What he doesn’t seem to comprehend is that the rival is his own reflection!!!  Unfortunately, my best efforts to photograph the birds that are flitting about have been for naught; they are wary of the slightest movement or sound, and fly off to hide in the brush that our site backs onto.

Left: Wisteria on one of the back roads near Buccaneer.

Right: This kildeer makes a daily pilgrimage through our site.
It finally stood still long enough for me to click the shutter.

With today’s storm behind us — really, ahead of us and heading further east — the forecast for the next couple of days looks good.  We plan to make the most of them, although setting up our screen shelter and enjoying our outdoors space is out of the question since the ground is much too wet.  Oh well; we’ll find other things to do.

Kemp's Ridley: Critically Endangered

Sunday, 7 April
Buccaneer State Park — Waveland, Mississippi
Temps: Lo 49F / Hi 75F (9C / 24C)

(This post is about something that we experienced earlier in our stay at Buccaneer. I was
going to include it in the Stormy Day post, but felt that it deserved to be written separately.

We’ve been doing quite a bit of walking on the beach since arriving at Buccaneer State Park.  Both on these beaches, and on other beaches as well, we’ve come across our share of dead critters washed ashore by the surf.  Each has saddened us, of course — especially when the death of the animal was a result of something over which we, as humans, have control.

Our saddest such encounter to date was today when we came across a dead Kemp’s Ridley stranded on the beach.  Also known as the Atlantic Ridley, this critically endangered species of sea turtle is one of the rarest in the world and relies on the Gulf region as its sole breeding ground.

Hopes that the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle stranded on the beach was …

… alive were dashed as soon as I got a close look at it.

Doing some research after our encounter, I found a website that has compiled data about the strandings of sea turtles in the northern Gulf of Mexico.  The statistics are broken out by state (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) and by species of turtle.  By far the largest number of strandings in 2012 were of Kemp’s Ridleys — 352 out of 444.  And by far the largest percentage of the Kemp’s Ridley strandings for that year were in Mississippi — nearly 43%.  These numbers are better than what they were in 2011, but I found them to be alarming nonetheless.

RIP

The website continues on to say that the increase in strandings may be related to:

• fishing activities that may result in turtle bycatch and mortality
• biotoxins, such as harmful algal blooms, which can occur in the Gulf of Mexico
• possible impacts from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Studies are underway to better pinpoint the reason(s) for the strandings, but on the topic of the last bullet point, a sentence in the Wikipedia article on Kemp’s Ridleys states that “… 10 days after the accident on the Deepwater Horizon, 156 sea turtle deaths were recorded; most were Kemp’s ridleys.”  There was no source quoted, so how true this is, I cannot say.  But there is a distinct possibility that the numbers could have indeed been in that range.

No words needed!

Yes, efforts are underway to protect this critically endangered species … we can do our share by reducing — as much as we can — the pollutants going into the environment.  Mui and I were dismayed to learn that there was no recycling program at Buccaneer State Park.  When we queried this at the park office, they told us that there used to be a program before the park was devastated by storms.  They made a note to look into bringing it back.  Will anything come of it?  I can’t say.  But if the program is reinstated, and if we’ve played even a miniscule part in it happening, we will be happy campers!

P.S. Using a link I found on the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center website (which I linked to above), I reported our encounter to the local STSSN (Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network) state coordinator in case no one else had.  Doesn’t do the dead turtle any good; but it makes me feel a bit better to have done something so that it’s death does not go unnoticed.

Battling Gnats at Buccaneer

Saturday, 6 April
Buccaneer State Park — Waveland, Mississippi
Temps: Lo 58F / Hi 73F (14C / 23C)

Can’t believe that New Orleans is almost a week in the past.  Time sure does fly!

We left NOLA Monday morning (April 1) for the short 72.6-mile (116 km) drive to our next campground — Buccaneer State Park in Waveland, Mississippi.  The two-hour drive was uneventful.  Based on reviews we’d read that the GPS would want to route us over a rather high railroad hump, we were prepared with an alternate route that took us all the way down Lakeshore Drive to South Beach Boulevard.  Though our trucker’s GPS sounded alerts along the way, knowing other big rigs had driven the same route gave us the confidence to keep going.  In the end, absolutely nothing along that route was problematic for our size or weight.

A short, easy drive takes us to our next temporary home.
(Inset shows our travels since embarking on this gypsy life style on December 1.)

Arriving at the gatehouse at 11:30a, check-in was a breeze.  This is a rather large park with several camping loops.  After wandering around to see if there was an alternate site we might prefer, we concluded that the site we had pre-booked online was one of the nicest and there was no need to change it.  By 12:30p, we were settled into Site 68.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the area in August 2005, winds clocked at over 140 mph (224 kph) and a storm surge of nearly 30 feet (9 m) pretty much destroyed Buccaneer.

Although the park had to once again close down briefly after Hurricane Isaac in 2012, the post-Katrina comeback is quite remarkable.  All but the beach front campsites have been re-built, and construction on many of the amenities are nearing completion.  In the time we’ve been here, we have not been bothered by any noise from the construction work.

Our site — #68 (FHU for $24/night) — is at the end of the Long John Silver loop.  Contrary to the map to the right, most of the sites here are widely spaced; especially around the outer edges of the loops.  Being at the end of our loop, we have an over-sized living area.  On the hook-up side, there’s quite a bit of space between us and our neighbor.  Unlike the Jean Lafitte, Barataria Bay, and Pirate’s Cove loops, which filled up yesterday with weekenders, most of our loop remains empty, thus adding to the sense of privacy.  I should say that there’s plenty of train noise from the tracks that run right outside the park.  We’re not bothered by trains, so not an issue as far as we’re concerned.

Site 68 is at the end of the Long John Silver Loop.
(You can see how far away Our only neighbor was [left on Thursday].)

Looking from the rear of the site towards the main road and the bathhouse beyond.

Despite the weekenders coming in yesterday, our loop looks no different
than this scene, which I took on Monday when we arrived.

Looks great, right!  Sounds great, too.  Well, it was when we went to put up our screen shelter on Monday that we realized there was, in fact, a problem.

Hah!  Screen shelter my you know what!  All was well while we were putting up the shelter — because we were moving around.  No sooner were we seated, however, that the gnats started eating us alive.  These weren’t the kind of gnats that just hover in a cloud.  No, they were biting gnats!  Nothing was going to keep them at bay, so we went back inside, hoping the situation would improve on Tuesday.  No such luck.  Mui even went to Lowe’s for citronella candles, hoping they would help.  They did — for about two minutes.  Changing into long pants and long sleeves, we toughed it out for a while, but eventually we retired indoors.

By Tuesday night, this is what Mui’s legs looked like; his arms are no different!
If I didn’t know any different, I’d think he had come down with the measles.
We know he’s allergic to mosquito bites, but apparently he doesn’t tolerate gnats either.

We debated moving to the beach-front campground operated by the Silver Slipper Casino.  Even triked over to get information about availability and prices.  But when we spoke to the people staying at the campground, they had plenty of gnat stories of their own to tell.  So we decided to stay put.  (As a side note: Buccaneer has a strict no refunds policy … although at one point we were willing to leave anyway.)

The storm that came through on Wednesday gave us a legitimate reason to stay indoors — and hope the gnats would be drowned out.  The latter didn’t happen, I’m afraid.  The heavy rains started around 1:00a and continued through noon.  All that was fine and dandy … and expected.  What followed — strong winds gusting up to 35-40 mph (55-65 kph) — wasn’t expected.  Even the national weather service was caught by surprise by the winds that came out of nowhere — some kind of a wake effect that no one was expecting.  Nothing to do but hunker down and watch our screen shelter get decimated.

No photo of the decimated shelter, but here’s the new one Mui bought Friday.
We put it up today to run through the instructions, and I even managed a
couple of hours out there before the gnats started to gnaw on me.

We’ve been using our forced-indoors time the past several days to continue planning our self-drive trip around Iceland this fall.  With an itinerary in place, we’re now looking at where we will be staying as we make our way around the island.  All this planning work is part of the reason we wanted a sort-of-out-of-the-way campground following our hectic days in NOLA, so at least that part of our stay has been on track.

devastation wreaked on the piers in the area are in evidence along beach boulevard.

Despite the gnats, we’ve not been totally incarcerated here.  We’ve snuck out for a couple of long walks in the cool morning hours to get some exercise before the gnats come out.  I’ve not been able to check out the “Pirate’s Alley Nature Trail” yet, but that’s because the ground is soft and muddy after Wednesday’s storm.  Perhaps it will dry up before we leave.

More storm devastation.

We’ve also taken our trikes out for 6-10 mile (10-16 km) rides on Beach Boulevard, heading in the direction of the Silver Slipper Casino one day; and the opposite direction on another day.  Much of the ride is on the paved road, but traffic is light, and for a portion of the road, there is a newly-built bike/walk path.  Evidence of the damage done to the beach by storms past is visible everywhere along our route.  Sad, really.

Today, after putting up the new screen shelter, there was a light breeze that kept the gnats away long enough for us to sit outside for a bit and even have lunch.  Our respite was brief, but it was a welcome change of pace.  I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that the light breezes continue.  In the meantime, a breeze-generating trike ride is in order.

… Later

Had to come back and add the beach photos and this shot of a laughing gull before posting to the blog …

the end!