Biloxi

Biloxi, Mississippi
We decided to take a walking tour of Biloxi. There were 20 stops on the tour which pointed out the historical sites of the city. The devastation caused by Katrina was obvious as we walked through the city. There were many buildings that were just boarded up with no signs of renovations in place.
There is a Katrina Memorial on the site of the Biloxi Town Green. The memorial is 12 feet high and that was the height of the water wave when it reached this location. We took a boat ride in the Bay and the Captain indicated that the wave height in the Bay was 27 feet high. The City of Biloxi was under water and the damages sustained will never be totally repaired. The crew member on the boat had a home that was destroyed. The home could be rebuilt, but even being built to code, a 1200 sq. ft. house would cost $9,000 to insure.
The people who lost their homes just could not afford to rebuild them to code and pay the insurance costs, etc. It was less expensive for them to just rent elsewhere. The crew member who owned a house had used it as a rental but if he rebuilt it, he could not charge the rent to cover the costs. He is fortunate in one way that the property is desirable for a casino and he is in the process of selling the lot. It will take time before there is enough money in the area to buy building lots along the coast. The only employers, in the area, are the casinos and the fishing industry neither which pay high wages. The fishing industry is still a large industry in the area, the only thing is that they do not process in the area. After hurricane Camille the processing plants were destroyed in the area and they relocated elsewhere and will not return to Biloxi. The local residents say, if it wasn’t for the casinos, the City of Biloxi would not thrive.
We drove West down the coast to Pass Christian and the further you got away from the casinos the more devastation you saw and less rebuilding.

Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi District

Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi District
The barrier islands at this end of the National Seashore are about 10 miles out. The National Park, that you can get to from land, encompasses Davis Bayou Campground and salt marshes. We did not realize that l/5th of the fish caught in the U.S. is along the Gulf Coast. Someday, if time permits, we will camp at the National Seashore both in Florida and Mississippi as these are 2 beautiful areas.

Mardi Gras parade

Mardi Gras became an official holiday to Christians in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII sanctioned it and placed it on the 12 month Gregorian calendar that we use today.
He placed it on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday which begins Lent. Prior to the pope’s making it official, there were celebrations by nobles being held by invitation only. The French brought Mardi Gras to the Americas in 1699.
Mardi Gras parades are held all along the Gulf Coast and not just on Fat Tuesday. We looked at various schedules and the earliest parade that we saw scheduled was on January 29 in Mobile, AL.
We decided to go a small town Mardi Gras parade in Orange Grove, MS on Sat. February 6. This is a town just north of Gulfport, MS. The parade started at 2:00 and we arrived about noon and people were already lined up along the parade route. We did not realize how serious the people are about Mardi. The parades, balls and parties are a happening for all to partake. It is impossible not to catch beads along with various souvenirs. The people on the floats just keep throwing them and if you don’t catch them you can get hit by them. There was plenty of drinking and partying done by all.

Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library

Jefferson Davis was a U.S. Senator, Congressman, Secretary of War and the President of the Confederacy. His home and library are on the Gulf Coast between Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. The ride along Highway 90 on the Gulf Coast made it obvious of the destruction that Katrina caused. They are still rebuilding many of the walls along the beaches and bringing sand in. The debris has been cleaned up but many lots are vacant with only foundations remaining. We had the opportunity to speak to a woman who lost her home along the coast. Her husband and her built a home away from the coast since theirs was totally destroyed and they lost everything. The homes along the coast, prior to Katrina, were mainly on concrete slabs. The codes now would require them to be up on piers and many people could not afford to build to meet the new codes. It still will be years before this area completely recovers. It will people with the financial means to buy the lots along the coast and build to the new codes.
Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederacy, visited Beauvoir twice during the mid 1870’s. Impressed by its natural beauty and serenity the aging leader accepted the current owner’s invitation to write his memoirs at this estate. He eventually purchased the estate for $5,500. After his death his widow, despite many lucrative offers, in 1903, sold it for $10,000 to the Mississippi Division, United Sons of Confederate Veterans. The sale required the property to be used by Confederate veterans along with their wives, widows, servants and orphans. The state ran the home for 54 years, building structures so that there was a capacity of 288 residents. The facility cared for approximately 1800 individuals, almost half of the residents are buried in the Confederate cemetery on the grounds. The Veterans’ home closed in 1956 and is now a museum. The only structure remaining is the original home. As with many structures along the Gulf Coast the museum survived many hurricanes until Katrina. The main house was heavily damaged but was not totally destroyed since it was originally set on piers.

USS Alabama Battleship - Mobile

02/02/10 The tour of the Battle Ship, USS Alabama The ship was commissioned on August 16, 1942 and is l680 feet in length, with a beam of 108 feet, 2 inches. She is registered at 35,000 tons but under battle conditions, she weighed in at well over 45,000 tons. Her assigned crew was 127 officers and 2,205 enlisted but she normally had a crew of 2,500 men aboard. She earned 9 battle stars and shot down 22 military planes during WWII. As with any battleship she was a self-contained city. Bob got to tour with a Navy retired person who served aboard the USS Alabama. The gentleman had thorough knowledge of the battleship, especially the guns. There were 3 turrets with 16 inch guns (45 cal.). These guns fired 24,300 lbs. every 30 seconds up to 21 miles. The gentleman indicated that no matter who you were, this was an impressive sight to witness. Big and tall people would have a hard time living aboard ship. The bunks were small and the individual space on board was very limited. One fact that Bob did not know was that seamen had to wear fresh clean uniforms when they went into battle. The reason for this was to limit infection if someone were to be wounded in combat.
The submarine, USS Drum, was commissioned on November 1, 1941. The ship is 311 feet,, 8 inches long with a beam of 27 feet, 4 inches and displaced l,526 tons. Her crew consisted of 7 officers and 65 enlisted men. She earned 12 battle stars during WWII. Bob definitely would not have fit in the Drum.

Gulf Islands National Seashore

Gulf Islands National Seashore
On a sunny day we decided to go through Pensacola over the 3 mile bridge through Gulf Breeze to the area designated by the National Parks as part of Gulf Islands National Seashore. The National Seashore runs from Florida to AL and then onto MS. The drive along the National Seashore is outstanding since there is water from the Gulf on one side and the water from the Bay on the other side. The white sand definitely stands out. After the 7 mile drive you come to Ft. Pickens where there is a lovely campground and the remains for the Fort.
Only one of the 5 sections of the campground was open due to Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and the other hurricanes in 2005. All 5 areas should be open this year in 2010.
After the War of 1812 it showed how vulnerable the ports were and congress decided to build forts to protect the ports. The fort was begun in 1829, completed in 1834 and was used until 1947. It took over 21.5 million bricks to build this fort. There were a total of 4 forts built in this area to protect Pensacola Harbor. This is a lovely area and we gathered enough information on the campground to possibly come and stay at a future date.

Mobile AL

Mobile, AL is a very protected port due to the bay and the outer islands. In its hey day much of the cotton produced here was exported from the port. When cotton export dropped off the port had to scramble and began importing bananas from South America.
The port is still very active and there is a large cruise terminal here as well.
We started our visit to Mobile at Fort Conde which originally was established as a French fort. The remains of the fort are right in the downtown area. Part of the exhibit was a photo gallery of the people who made up the city of Mobile from the beginning. There definitely was a great slave influence in Mobile. Once the slaves were freed many of poor blacks and whites became sharecroppers. Mobile claims to be site of the first Mardi Gras celebration. It is interesting to note that Mardi Gras parades and celebrations are all along the Gulf Coast. There are weeks of parades, balls and parties in locations such as Pensacola, FL; Mobile, AL; Biloxi, MS and, of course, New Orleans. The Bay and the Gulf of Mexico make this area very attractive for beach goers and hosts a lot of water activities as well.