Bye Bye, Biloxi

Today is our last day in Biloxi, Mississippi, and we checked a few things off our list that we didn't want to miss before leaving.

Not wanting to do things in the logical way, we deferred getting to the Biloxi Visitor Center until now. Seriously, it was about a 4 mile bike ride each way, which helped stretch our legs, and the weather was nice today, so it fit perfectly.

The Visitor Center sits inland across the street, behind the Biloxi Lighthouse, and you can see both of them from the Lighthouse Pier in this photo:

The Visitor Center is only two years old, having been reconstructed to resemble a large antebellum mansion that had occupied the site and was destroyed in Katrina.  The lobby is stately and welcoming:

You get a sense of the pride Biloxi residents have in their town when you see the attention to design throughout the interior, even to murals on the walls and decoration of the ceilings:

The Visitor Center has a very detailed and well designed exhibit on the history of the city and the surrounding area.   It also shows a video, "Katrina & Biloxi," that records the utter devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought on the community.  Some videos and photos of the destruction can be accessed on a page of Biloxi's website devoted to the impact of Katrina.

While New Orleans and other communities on the Gulf Coast were also devastated, Biloxi was even more vulnerable to the storm and the surge of waters.  For example, New Orleans, was protected from the storm itself by the salt marshes and estuaries stretching between the city and the Gulf; Biloxi is right on the Gulf beaches.  Whole sections of the city disappeared, and there are many large areas of ground that are still empty of structures.

Many trees were snapped in the storm.  Biloxi's mayor engaged Mississippi “chainsaw artist” Dayton Scoggins to sculpt marine-related figures from the dozens of standing dead trees in the median of Beach Boulevard in Biloxi.  A page on Biloxi's website explains the sculptures and shows pictures of them, but here was one we found most striking:

Back from our bicycle ride into the center of town, we poked around the neighborhood near our RV park.  Next door is a family play center that is just setting up for Spring Break.  Today they were blowing up some of their attractions and we were surprised to see a huge alligator bounce slide spring up from the ground beside us:

Another colorful place nearby is "Hog Heaven," a down-home Southern BBQ joint that served up some of the yummiest baby back ribs and pulled pork we've tasted.  Here's Kathy drinking a Barq's root beer while bearing witness to the quality of the food!

Tired, but with our tummies filled, we decided to follow dinner with a walk along the beach back to our RV.  We were treated to a pretty sunset.  We'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Bye bye, Biloxi.  We enjoyed our visit, and we hope to see you again soon.  For our readers, here are two versions of the song, "Biloxi," one by Rosanne Cash, and one by Tom Rush.