2/7/13
     Rained like crazy last night!  Wind really blew our tiny home but we did sleep well.  Were afraid to look out but the only difference was big mud puddles and soggy grass.  Checked out of the Parc and headed back to New Orleans to leave through the ninth ward.

 

     Did see lots of empty lots and some dilapidated buildings but also see new businesses and housing.  Stopped at the Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery. 

 

Walked the battlefield and learned so much about the was of 1812.  Did we both miss that day of education at school?  So inspiring to have these men of all races and backgrounds fight so valiantly for their 35 year old country!  Had lunch in the cemetery.  It was beautiful.  Long and narrow.

 The cemetery was begun after the Civil War as a place to bury soldiers who had died in the prisons or hospitals and then buried in local cemeteries. They were exhumed and reburied here.  Many were never identified and just have a small marker. When we were ready to leave the road to the main road was blocked  by a train!!

 We waited a few minutes and it moved.
     We then took hwy 47 up to hwy 90 which was the road Parc D'Orleans was on!  We made a big circle.  We then continued on hwy 90 across lots of bridges and water.  All kinds of new looking houses on stilts.

 

 Nothing old.  Not much vegetation.  We then crossed the border into Mississippi and on into Bay St Louis.

 

  As we crossed the bridge into Pass Christian there before us was the Gulf of Mexico and the whitest beach we had ever seen.  We stopped at the first pullout and took our shoes off and walked in the sand!  Soooo soft.  Like sugar (as they say around these parts).  We even put out a towel and laid down to soak up some rays.  The water was very muddy.  We are assuming it was from the recent rain but it could just be the way it is.

     Hwy 90 continued right along the Gulf for miles, through Biloxi and Gulfport.  We were so enamored with the beach we didn't even go into the towns.  It was a beautiful area, clean and new.  Later we heard from a waitress that it is a completely different place than it used to be before Katrina in 05.

 Many of the big homes are gone and all the palm trees that used to be along the beach.  We could see they are planting more.

 

 

   

      Had dinner in Pascagoula (my best yet!).  stuffed crabs, hushpuppies, cole slaw and a sweet potato oh and never to miss sweet tea.  We then headed north to I 10 and Alabama!!!   Maggie guided us to our RV park just southwest of Mobile.
     We once again used our Passport America discount that wonderful Aunt Jerry gave us!  She's saving us some $$$.  This is a nice place with cleaner bathrooms than old Curtis had in New Orleans.  The train is a distance away this time!