Driving the Gulf Coast

     Very heavy rainstorms, with some thunder and lightning during the night. More was promised today by the weather folks, but they were completely wrong--no rain at all! Very heavy winds and rough sea at the Destin beach (note the waves in the photo of the volleyball net) when we awoke, but as the day went on it was in the 70's most of the day and sunny. Excellent driving weather, in fact!

     After decamping, we left at 8am fully loaded and went to a Cracker Barrel for a final breakfast with Bailey and Lois. We enjoyed having them as companions for the past week! We then left at 9am, and eventually drove 422 miles today finally arriving at the KOA campground in Lafayette, LA at 6:15pm. Though it was a long day and a long drive, we really enjoyed the route we took and got to see the aftermath of Katrina, even five years later.

     Becky and Jim had previously driven the Texas to Florida route (Becky twice!), and there are few routes more dull and boring than taking Interstate 10 between the two. We opted instead to turn off I 10 at Mobile, and take the old US 90 route along the coast. As we reached Mobile, we saw the Battleship Alabama and the other ships/planes in the museum park from the road, but didn't go close up. We got onto US 90, and after driving through typical evergreen forrests lining the highway with rain laden drainage ditches on the side, we arrived at Pascagoula. It is clearly a Northrup Grumman town, totally dedicated to shipbuilding and repair, and that industry seems to drive the economy there.

     After leaving Pascagoula, we drove along a stretch of beautiful white sand beaches, literally for about 40 miles through Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach and Pass Christian. What a riveting drive!
       In sharp contrast to the beautiful beaches  across the highway, the devastation on the land was mind numbing. Five years after the hurricane, the empty lots, the concrete foundations with nothing on them, the live oaks with 1/2 their branches torn away, the hundreds of empty buildings--just unbelievable! The photos are merely representative of what we saw mile after mile. Thepicture on the left, as an example, is the current Gulfport fire station. One of the walls is still missing!!

Down the center strip of highway is a divider about eight foot wide, that clearly was once covered with palm trees. Most of them are completely gone, but on several of the stumps some local artist (or artists) have carved birds and other assorted creatures--the slim picture up top is one of those shaped like a pelican. As Becky puts it, perfect example of turning lemons into lemonade!

     After Gulfport we got back on I 10 and took it through downtown New Orleans. The carnage that Katrina reaped is mind boggling. What we presumed was Ward 9 is still almost totally denuded of life. Blocks and blocks of empty, destroyed buildings. Going through the city, and out to the north is more of the same, though not quite as bad. The whole ride through that area gives one a perspective you'll never get from news reports on television. What a nightmare so many people lived through, and probably still are today five years later.

     The other observation we made comes down to, what was the US government thinking when it made the Louisiana purchase? Miles and miles of totally useless swampland! We couldn't believe all the swamps, the bogs, the water and the causeways that we were exposed to. Not a particularly nice place to live!!

     We're glad, however, that we got to see the sights we saw today, and it was clearly worth the extra few hours of driving to do so. Quite the education!