Mississippi - Day 4 - western Gulf coast

Buccaneer State Park
Saturday, 4 January 2020

My original plan for today was to move down the coast to another campground near Pascagoula, where my doctor appointment is on Tuesday.  But after studying the map, I realized my choices were to go back down I-10 (been there, done that) or to cross the numerous long bridges between this end of the coast and the other.  I just wasn't ready for a thrill like that so opted for driving down part of the coast, then doubling back to the western Welcome Center to get whatever handouts I'd missed on New Year's Day at the eastern one.

today's route

I spent the first half of my drive today on US Hwy. 90, which is called Beach Blvd. along much of MS's exposure to the Gulf of Mexico.  It's called Beach Blvd. because it's got the beach on one side and the regular land on the other, and it runs through any number of towns of various sizes.  Very attractive drive, too, with all the Great Egrets and Pelicans and various shorebirds on one side and a variety of beach houses on the other.

Mississippi: oaks and palmettos and Spanish moss

Hwy. 90 is immediately to the right

It's been almost 15 years since Hurricane Katrina wiped out most of what was along the coast, and most owners have had a chance to rebuild - or sell to someone who rebuilt.  Actually, I saw one house in the process of being rebuilt and another that looked like whatever had been there had been razed and a new one was being built.  The others looked like they were trying to say Hurricane?  What hurricane? and doing it fairly successfully.

see how high the front steps go?

house completely covered by roll-down shutters

very grand for a "beach house"

Some of the houses I saw were fairly normal beach houses, but most were pretty fancy.  These houses all would have been sitting on the beach except for that pesky 4-lane Hwy. 90/Beach Blvd running in between.  So, many of them had piers from the beach out over the water, though most of those had been wrecked and not rebuilt - the wreckage is still there.

the gate with locked door keeps this pier private

I saw a family standing on the beach, messing around with each other - and I know they were a family because quite a few of them wore the same kind of pajamas and carried coffee cups (the kind from your kitchen, not from a coffee shop) so it looked like they'd all walked across the street from their house.  Nice way to live if you can afford it.

All the beach houses were elevated to one degree or another - most elevated at least one story up.  I passed a house called The Bee Hive, and the unusual thing about it was that it was made of glass.  There was a Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves movie once that I think was called The Lake House, about a glass house, and these folks may have gotten their inspiration from that movie.

I passed 2 elevated houses that were round.  And I passed a very large church that was elevated at least one story up - maybe more.  Odd sight to see such a big building on stilts.

Although there are still a few places where there was clearly once a building there, most of Katrina's damage seems to be mended.  Momma and I drove along here about 5 years after the hurricane, and the devastation was obvious.  Now it seems more of a memory.  And here's one way they've made that change:

We drove around Galveston a couple of years after Hurricane Rita and saw many of the wrecked trees down there being turned into lovely sculptures like this one.

I remember that when Momma and I came along this beach road that time, we stopped for lunch at a very small sandwich shop attached to a gas station, and we had shrimp po-boys that were the best I've ever had.  And today I found it! except that's not what it is any more.  Now it's a doughnut shop attached to a Chevron.  Very sad for me because I'd have bought another po-boy, but it was just a hole-in-the-wall back then so understandable it wouldn't still be in business.

I went through Pass Christian - which is pronounced christy-ANN - and through Bay St. Louis - A Place Apart, they say.  I passed through Long Beach, which claims to have a long history   https://www.hmdb.org/Early-Long-Beach and turned north at Gulfport, where their shiploading equipment makes it clear they're engaged in sea-going commerce.  A sign says that's the Mississippi State Port.

I passed a sign advertising Ship Island Excursions, and I now know (from studying tourist info) that Ship Island is one of the islands that's part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  Nobody lives there and the only way out is by boat.

I saw a sign advertising the Seabee Museum, which I'm sure is interesting, and I'll go when I'm here with more time.   https://seabeehf.org/museums-heritage-center  The Seabees were on the spot almost immediately after both Camille and Katrina, helping rebuild infrastructure in this area.

There's a Coke Bottling Plant in Gulfport.

I drove back down I-10 almost to Louisiana for the Visitor Center.  Speaking of which, when I asked at the campground office where I could recycle stuff, the young woman said, "Slidell."  I said, isn't that in Louisiana?  And she acknowledged she didn't know of any recycling facilities in the state of Mississippi, other than those for residential service.  Somebody please explain to me why Yankees are so much more interested in recycling than Southerners.  Surely this isn't one of those liberal pink-o commie hippie ideas that good old-fashioned Southerners don't agree with.

On the way back to the campground, I passed a sign saying litter pickup (apparently that's not too liberal) duty in that area is being done by the Citizens Militia of Hancock County, MS.  I had to look it up and now find myself very disturbed.   https://www.citizensmilitiaofmississippi.com  Check the copyright date on this page and you'll see why.

Back in the campground for another night, I asked 2 different park staffers if there'd ever been any pirates in this area, since it's called Buccaneer Park, and since my particular section of the campground is named Jean Lafitte (actually, the sign says "Jeanne Lafitte," but I'm guessing the sign maker didn't know better and just tried to make the spelling look very French, rather than that it's named after Jean's twin sister).  Both staffers said nope, no pirates, just names like for a theme park.

On the other hand, the park literature says yes, Lafitte and his merry men did indeed hang out around here at one time.  Also that Andrew Jackson (different kind of buccaneer) used a nearby ridge as his base of operations during the Battle of New Orleans.  In fact, Jackson came back here later and built a house on land that's now part of this park.  I guess the staff should read their own literature.