ANOTHER DAY AT THE BEACH

Wednesday, May 19 – Computer internet is working pretty slow here at the beach. Last night it became almost impossible to get anything to load. Might have been an issue with the stormy weather in the area????? In the morning it usually works great....evenings not so good. Must have something to do with the high speed EVDO and the number of people using it.

Awoke to a beautiful day, after last evenings thunder storms, 71 degrees but 83% humidity.....skicky! We are spending the day at the beach......maybe?? I'm a little burned and might come back and do some jobs around the MH. Boy, the Gulf water is sure warm. The shores are very gradual when walking into the water. You can be out several hundred yards and the water is only waist deep. We came back to the MH for a little break and some lunch. 87 degrees outside and beautiful. I better wear a shirt the rest on the day.....burny, burny! We returned to the beach and took a long walk then read and enjoyed the HOT SUN for an hour or so. That's enough, I'm medium rare with a charred crust.....LOL Time for a shower and a field trip to town.

Darn Bella almost got away from us today! She did a really weird thing. Marsha unhooked her from her leash to untangle her. As soon as she was unhooked she bolted. She ran up the beach toward the MH. She darted across the street toward the alligator infested grassy area. We both yelled for her...in a panic! Marsha bribed her with the offer of a treat and she stopped in front of the MH. Did she just want to go in the MH or was she going crazy???????? Scary!

We took a drive to Bay St. Louis “downtown” area. It is a very small area and still in a BIG renovation stage. We did see some very nice buildings.

The Courthouse. For some reason, the U’s look like Vs…very strange.

Our Lady of the Gulf. It is the 5th oldest Catholic Church in Mississippi. It was built in 1847.

We drove along the beach highway in Waveland, MS. WOW! Kind of sad and depressing. Most of this area is still barren from Katrina. Even the street is gone....now sand!

Many properties are for sale. I had just said to Marsha...”I wonder what these properties sell for” when we saw THIS SIGN..

For this…

It seems most of the rebuilding is through government grants, so the towns getting the most grant money are rebuilding and those not receiving much are struggling.

The houses that have be rebuilt are on HIGH pylons.

We saw miles of containment buoys and crews of HAZMET personnel checking for oil. The same crews that were “pre-cleaning” the beaches in anticipation of oil coming ashore, were working on the beaches up near Gulfport. They are holding community meetings this Saturday at two area casinos concerning the possibility of oil coming ashore. Hope that doesn't mean this area is in for trouble.

We also saw more frequent fly-overs by helicopters and airplanes. They fly right along the coast...pretty low too! Two swamp style boats have been running up and down the shoreline too. Something is definitely happening!

“DRILL BABY DRILL”...........yeah right!

Going to visit the other casino in town......Hollywood (Hurray for....). Not much cheering at this casino. We are not big/experienced gamblers, but could easily see the payouts here were not near as frequent or as big as at the Silver Slipper Casino where we are staying. So we said “Goodbye to Hollywood” and headed home early to watch American Idol.

Thursday, May 20 – Marsha is so excited to see “Cowboy” get kicked off Idol last night. She has nicknames for all the contestant on Idol and Dancing With The Stars. She wants “Pussycat” to win on Dancing.

At the beach all morning. A tractor groomed the beach this morning. The sand is like fluffy flour.....looks really nice. Guess they are getting it ready for the weekend crowd. It certainly isn't crowded now. We are almost the only people on the beach!

This panorama shot is taken with our new camera.

While we were walking, we came across this little critter. Don’t worry…it was dead.

Checked the batteries in the MH for water. Needed to add about a half gallon. Could be a lot of evaporation going on in this heat!

Thanks for stopping by. Y’all come back again.

LIFE’S A BEACH

Monday, May 17 – Spent the day at the beach!



I have to get rid of my “farmer's tan.”



It's fantastic to have the beach right across the street. We headed over about 8:30 a.m. We took Bella (our cat) for her first experience with the beach and the ocean. She loved the sand and hiding in the sea grass but wanted nothing to do with the water.





We had a new friend that stay by us most of the day.



We noticed a group way down the beach, all dressed alike, picking up litter.  They were stretched out in a line across the entire beach. They picked up EVERYTHING. Every stick and twig. They even scrapped the line of dirt formed by the waves and picked it up. We expected they were some type of chain gang doing community service. Eventually, they reached us about noon. One of the supervisors explained the Bay St. Louis Action Group is organizing a preventive beach cleanup before any oil gets here. There has not been a pre-oil arrival cleanup in Bay St Louis as there has been in other areas. He expects that to happen, and they will then return to clean-up the oil mess. BP is is must pay for this cleanup. They spent the entire day here. We asked about wearing life vests. We were told it is a law that if a worker is within 10 ft. of water, they are required to wear one…interesting.

 





A photographer from the World Magazine was here taking pictures. He asked if it would be okay to include us in his photographs. Two stupid full-timers enjoying the beach as crews prepare for the eventual mess......LOL. We will let you know if we make the magazine cover.

We called it a day at 2:30 and headed home to shower.

We took a ride down the Gulf Coast highway through Waveland, Pass Christian, Long Beach, and Gulfport. WOW! It was a beautiful drive.






They are spending money rebuilding these towns after Katrina completely destroyed them. And the houses along the beach road are humongous.

This is an historical house called Dixie “White House”. It was built by John Backe of New Orleans in 1851. Here in 1913 President Woodrow Wilson and family spent winter vacation as guests of the owner, Miss Alice Herndon.

 







There are still hundreds and hundreds of empty lots and buildings partially destroyed. Don't know if they'll ever get back to where they were before the hurricane. Has to be a great opportunity for anyone looking for work in the construction industry.



We stopped by to see why these boats were all at their docks.





We met a man who explained that the boats were not docked due to the oil scare. He said oyster seasoned had just ended, and everyone was waiting for shrimp season to begin. This should happen in about three weeks.

We were hungry so we asked this same guy where he would suggest we eat. He said he always eats at a place called Cajun Crawfish Hut. So we stopped.



We were a bit skeptical when we arrived, and then when we went in…still not sure.





But, we went ahead and ordered. Paul got the spicy, fried alligator po’ boy, and Marsha got the fried crawfish po’ boy. A po’ boy is a traditional submarine sandwich from Louisiana. It almost always consists of meat or seafood, usually fried, served on baguette-like Louisiana French bread. They both were pretty good, but now that we have tasted a po’ boy, we think we probably won’t order one again. We will try just about anything once.

We stopped at a brand new Super WalMart in Long Beach. This is the nicest WalMart we've ever visited. It was like a Sam's Club and Super WalMart combined. We've been looking for a new Sony camera and they had one similar to what we wanted. So Marsha got to help pick out her birthday gift.

We went to the casino again tonight. I actually won a little last night, which is unusual for me. Well, it was Marsha's night to win. She got back on the plus side by winning $25.00

This casino was totaled by Katrina.



This is what it looks like today.



What a great day! The beach, a nice ride, sightseeing, the casino, and awesome weather.

Tuesday, May 18 – We decided to drive to New Orleans today to checkout a campground for our next stop. It was a cloudy day and I got a little burned yesterday so I made good since to go for the drive. It's the Bayou Segnette State Park. We drove through and picked out a half dozen nice sites. Then we planned a route in and around the city. We may need to check the maps again, but I believe we have a route figured out.

We returned the camera we purchased yesterday and upgraded to a better one at Best Buy. We have 14 days to try it out and return it if we decide it isn't right. It's the Sony DSC-TX7. The newest Sony Cyber-shot model.


It felt like we road in the car a couple hundred miles. We were gone all day....jeesh! Relaxation Time!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again.

WE BEAT THE OIL

Saturday, May 15 – It rained off and on during our drive to Meridian, MS.  We arrived at the Benchmark Coach and RV Park about 2:00 p.m. We need a ton of stuff, so we took the RV Park’s community map and set out of Walmart. There are SUPPOSE to be two Walmarts within minutes of the Park. We put the address in the GPS for the first one, drove for over 15 min. and ended up in an empty field.  OKaaaaaaay, lets try the other one. Again, we put the address in the GPS, drove about 20 min. back the way we just came and found that this Walmart was CLOSED. OH BROTHER. We said forget it, ran into a Winn Dixie, bought a few overpriced items, and went back to the MH. It had started to pour while we were in the store. It rained hard for the rest of the day. Poor Bella..as you will see in the pictures below, Bella would have loved to be outside. Lots of grass for her to run around on.

When we woke Sunday morning, it was beautiful.

Our campsite….1A

 

Paul checking the MH for travel.

Street view

Great place to walk animals.

Sunday, May 16- We left around 9:00 a.m. Our destination, Bay St. Louis, MS. The drive was uneventful other than it rained 85% of the drive.

When it wasn’t raining, the ride was pretty.

We arrived around 1:00, got a great spot in the Silver Slipper Casino RV Park.

This is looking out our window…no zoom here. We are this close!!

 

We took a drive around the area and saw that there is still damage from Katrina. Visited the Walmart, took a nap and put our toes in the Gulf of Mexico. With all the rain, the beach was empty. We can’t wait to see what it looks like tomorrow.

We have the beach to ourselves.  We haven’t seen any signs of the Gulf Oil Spill so “we beat the oil to the beach.”

 

We hit the Casino, got our Player’s Card, and to our surprise got one night free at the RV Park…WOW. It is a nice Casino. Paul was the BIG winner. An investment of $20, won him $41. Marsha didn’t do so well….she lost ALL of her $20. That is OK…she usually wins.

Thanks for visiting. Y’all come back.