Friday, September 21, 2007
The Gulf Coast
So, down the Gulf Coast we traveled today - me in my Suzuki and Ed in his Saturn. At first I let Ed lead – for about five minutes - and then I passed him on the highway. We traveled down to Gulfport, Mississippi first. It is the home of Seabees Museum and we stopped there. Talk about a hassle. The museum is on the naval base and I’d forgotten what a pain it is to get on base. Made me remember why I gave up military men. Hehe. The Seabees fight and build. They are the ones that go in and build all of the roadways, bridges, and buildings for military commands. The Seabees in Gulfport also did a lot of the Hurricane Katrina clean up. It was an interesting museum because in addition to all the construction they perform they also have to fight the enemy from time to time. I had heard about it and had planned to go when it didn’t look like Ed was going to come with me down the Gulf Coast. But, it turns out both of Ed’s grandfather’s were Seabees, so he was interested to see the museum as well.
After that, I was hungry and grumpy. So, we went in search of food, which we did not find until we reached Biloxi, Mississippi. It was by pure chance that we found the Biloxi Schooner – a seafood restaurant. I asked about the soft shell crab po-boy and how it was cooked. The waitress said it was good but that I should only get it if I was adventuresome because the shell and all are fried. It is all completely edible but some tourists have a hard time eating it once they see it. The picture is of my po-boy. It was a little odd looking but it tasted good. And it doesn’t look like that anymore cause it’s in my belly. Yum! As we were leaving we discovered that both President George W. Bush and Trent Lott had eaten at the Biloxi Schooner. Their pictures were on the wall. They were very smiley in the pictures – maybe they had the soft-shell crab po-boy for lunch too. Or maybe the pictures were taken before Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war, and Trent’s other troubles. :-)
One thing we discussed at lunch was how there are still signs of the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina. After two years one would think the area had been rebuilt completely but it hasn’t been. It made me realize that if this is what the area looks like after all of this time it must have been awful before. There is no way what we saw on television could have possibly done justice to the amount of devastation. On the other hand, I’ve also realized that the Gulf Coast is a beautiful place and the images in television and in the movies do not do justice to its beauty. So, maybe this is just a place that cameras can’t adequately capture.
After lunch we tried to decide where to go next. My original plan was to head to Mobile, AL and then on to Montgomery, AL for the night. However, I found my experience in Birmingham so disappointing that I wasn’t looking forward to going to Montgomery and had been toying with the idea of going to Pensacola, FL. My grandmother had recommended Pensacola and I thought I might make that my stop for tonight instead of Montgomery. Ed was toying with the idea of going to a place called Manatee Springs, FL. It is about 8 hours from New Orleans and you can swim in fresh water with numerous manatees. We both continued on down the coast to Mobile, AL and went over a cool bridge, the Cochrane-Africatown USA Bridge. Then we ended up stopping in Pensacola, FL for the night. Not sure what tomorrow will bring. Definitely swimming in the Gulf of Mexico but beyond that who knows.
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