Florida to Mississippi

We arrived at our campground in DeFuniak Springs, FL and got set up in the rain about 3 on Wednesday.  We unhooked the Jeep and then drove about an hour to have dinner with Jeff and Julie and kids in Destin.  (their friends are also in the picture).  The main street of Destin was VERY busy with spring breakers who couldn’t go to the beach because of the rain.  On Thursday morning we drove about 180 miles to our first real stop – Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi.  We drove through Mobile, AL and stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center and guess who greeted me?  He even said, “Thank you. . . Thank you very much” when I walked away!  The welcome center was a replica of an antebellum mansion – beautiful.  (and you know you are not in Michigan anymore when you cross a river named Tchoutacabouffa.  How do you even pronounce that?)  Bay Saint Louis is about 45 minutes outside of New Orleans and we will be here for 3 nights.  To get to BSL, we got off of I-10 and went south to Gulfport, MS.  Then we headed west on US 90, right along the coast through Long Beach and Pass Christian to BSL.  It only confirmed for us that we are going to have to get off the interstate freeways at times to REALLY see the sights.  The drive was interesting, with the Gulf waters and beach on our left and empty vacant land on our right across the road.  This area had 40 mile an hour winds on Wednesday and the sand was piled on the road like our snow drifts are back in Michigan.  When we asked about the vacant land, we were told that a 40 foot wall of water hit this area when Katrina came on shore and wiped out just about all the homes.  We could see lots of foundations.  There were a few that have rebuilt, but not many.  After getting set up at our campground, we went back into Pass Christian and had an appetizer at a bar/restaurant right on the water called Shaggy’s.  We asked how they survived the hurricane.  Shaggy’s was built after Katrina.  You could see pilings out in the water from docks that had been destroyed.  The shrimp boats reminded me of “The Jenny” in Forest Gump!  This isn’t even what I though would be the scenic part of our trip and I’ve already taken a lot of pictures so I know I will have a hard time choosing a few to post here.  And being a free blog site, I don’t know how many they will let me post!  It is not my intent to post everyday as I know I will just be too tired after long days of sight seeing.  We plan to spend all day Friday and Saturday in New Orleans.