It Was A Great Week

Our work in Mississippi is complete. We will be heading home tomorrow via Vicksburg. The neighborhood visitation had ended so Will helped with the mud work today.









We had thunderstorms throughout the day and the temperature was very pleasant. At one point between showers the wind picked up and the beach sand blew across the highway like snow in a blizzard!

Tuesday in Mississippi

Our motel in Biloxi is about sixteen miles from the work site in Pass Christian (Kristy-Ann). The main road is US 90 that follows the beach all the way. There is about 100 yards of white sand between the roadway which is still under repair and the Gulf of Mexico. It must have been a great resort area before all the motels blew away! The beach is being repaired also with the addition of sand from a dredge about a half mile out. Most of the boardwalk has been destroyed.

Two blocks east of our motel is Beauvoir. It was severely damaged also and is still under renovation. The big house survived but the Presidential Library was damaged and many of it's treasures were lost. The gate was open tonight but the guard told me that it was for a private function and I had to turn around.

This parking lot is all that is left of the Wal-mart store. It is difficult to tell by the picture but this is a full size Wal-mart parking lot.


Construction work always makes a big mess. This was Will's tool today. He did a good job.


We ate supper tonight at Backyard Burger which is a lot like In-N-Out only a lot quieter!

Monday

This was the first day of work on our trip to Mississippi. See pictures of the work here.

After work today Will and I stopped by one of the two piers that have been restored since Katrina. All the other piers are still in ruins. There is a dredge working just off shore pumping sand onto the beach to replace the sand that was washed away.



The gulf is muddy and nasty but late in the evening it makes a beautiful picture.



Several high rise condos have been built or restored since the storm.



This is the port at Gulfport, MS. It is a peninsula that has been built out into the gulf so that trains can meet the ships. I guess grain trains unload into these huge bins before the grain is transferred to the ships. Today we saw an empty cargo ship and lots of trucks with the label "Dole Bananas".



We have been told that there are islands offshore where the water is clear and great for swimming. We saw some boats that carry passengers out to the islands but haven't had time to try that.

Old River Road

For a long time I have been wanting to drive the Old River Road and this seemed like our best opportunity. This map indicates the route we followed from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

We left Baton Rouge headed south on LA 1. At a couple of points along the way we took the Old River Road which follows the banks of the Mississippi River. The land is very flat and our handheld GPS indicated that we were only a few feet above sea level.

This area is the location of many old sugar plantations. We saw acres and acres of sugar cane growing in the fields beside the highway and river.



There are still numerous old plantation homes along the River Road and some still have their slave quarters (tiny little cabins) lined up in a row near the end of the fields. We stopped at McDonalds for a break.





I photographed some old building across from McDonalds.




We stopped at an old ferry crossing...

...and watched old man river roll by for a while.

Our destination was to be a plantation that is open to the public. We were not disappointed when we saw the front entrance. It was magnificent.

The big house at Oak Alley was constructed in the 1830's. The picture above was taken from near the river. The shot below is the rear of the house.


The parking area was a good distance from the house so we got a ride with a local driver.




This is the view from the front second floor "veranda". In the early days the residents could sit here and watch the river boats float by but now the levy has been built to a height that blocks the view of the river.







Our guide, in the pink skirt told us the history of the plantation. The big jar on the floor is the type container used to ship perishable items up the river. People kept the containers to use for storage on the plantation.




The kitchen was located beyond the formal garden away from the main house. This kept the heat of cooking away from the living quarters and also the wood fired cookstove was a fire hazard. In fact the kitchen here did burn but the big house was safe.

The family's model A still sits in the garage.

The cat lounges in the shade of a shrub.

These are referred to as the "baby" oak trees planted behind the house. They are 100 years younger than those in the front "alley".