On Sunday morning, we hooked up Saunter, waved goodbye to our neighbors, and headed out of Suwannee River S.P. to I-10 and Mississippi. The interstate is a fairly easy ride but LONG and monotonous. I thought with the time change, we should pull into our site around three o'clock. NOT!! We put 412 miles under the wheel all along the Florida panhandle, through Alabama and at long last, the Mississippi coast. We followed the Google Map directions through all kinds of twists and narrow turns to get to Buccaneer S.P. At one point, we came to a railroad crossing with a very large incline that quickly went down to form a towing nightmare. There was not a place to turn around so we, being the crazy fools that we are and extremely tired from the 8 hour drive, decided to go for it..... Probably because of prayer and the fact God does watch over fools and little children, we cleared the tracks. I would NOT recommend anyone go onto Ioon Street should you be camping at Buccaneer State Park. We should have followed MS-90 to Beach Rd. Live and Learn!! When we pulled into the campground, we noticed the big draw to this one in particular, a large water-park with a wave pool. We are not really into those features these days, but it was nice. At the ranger's station, we were waved in to get our sticker for the truck. I told the young woman my name and a strange look came across her face! "Oh my, she said, "you are not supposed to be here until tomorrow!"....... Early in our planning, we decided to leave on the 1st instead of the 2nd of June.
I had already booked two nights at Suwannee River, so when I added the other night, it did not register in my brain! So here we were in Mississippi and no reservation. The site that I had picked, sat under trees and had a creek behind it. That site was being used until the original reservation. Ray asked what we could do and the other employee said that the "Long John Silver" camping area had availability. It was closer to the water-park and had lots of families so it was mostly used for campers using the wave pool. There was still limited vegetation due to Katrina so the sites were not shaded. Katrina actually came ashore here in 2005 and totally devastated the entire area. There are still concrete pads along the beach road, where grand homes used to stand. The State Park is still recovering also, but the beach is across the street and the town is quaint with really good seafood! We took a site for two nights, drove in, unhooked and got our little home set up.
Ray and I decided to chill due to the long ride. We are still getting used to pulling the TT and with all the traffic around the beach towns, it was exhausting. We made kielbasa with peppers and onions on the stove inside, whipped up some yellow rice and ate like ship wrecked survivors! Evidently, long rides make us famished! We decided to visit the town on Monday, and call it an early night. Stop two on our trip, gave us another sticker for our map, and more memories for years to come.
The next morning, we had coffee and cleaned up, Saunter, then headed into town for the day. About four miles down Beach Rd is the little town of Bay St. Louis. We looked at Yelp for the best choices for lunch and the Blind Tiger came up with 5 stars. It sits right on the water with a marina off to the side and a train track on the other side. We climbed the stairs to the upper level and sat down with an amazing view of the water. The Blind Tiger gets its name as an old Speakeasy from back during the Prohibition era. The town was a hang out for pirates for years because of the bay with many hiding places including Cat Island, which is visible off in the distance. Nowadays, the town is a nice seaside tourist attraction with shops, bookstores, ice cream parlors and people always ready with a wave or a smile. The restaurant is AMAZING! I believe I ate the best mahi tacos ever! The fish is so fresh and the presentation was well thought out also. Ray had a Cajun boil that included Big Reds, which are enormous shrimp.
There was also corn on the cob, sausage and potatoes. We were supposed to share a large basket of fries, but we could not finish them! So much food.... and I had a coconut mojito... YUM!!! Ray had their famous margarita, which he said was quite refreshing!! We decided to take a walk through the town, after we finished eating and chatting with the bartender, who was a sweet young girl, named Camry, like the car; I did not ask why her mom named her after a car, however, the little twinkle in her eye when she told us her name, kind of answered the question.
Ray pointed out a small bookstore, which makes me love him so much more, and we ducked inside out of the afternoon heat. There was a section on the history of the town as well as many books on Katrina. I had noticed some trees carved with angels into their branches and wondered the story behind them. The one by the beach was actually moved to it's new resting place after being carved. A family had decided to ride out the storm in their family home. Seven people huddled together to overcome yet another hurricane that threatened their town. This storm was not going to be like any other, and out of the seven people, four survived. They were found clinging to a large tree when the eye passed over the town of Bay St. Louis. The tree was carved with an angel to forever commemorate the resilience of the people of the area, and remember those who did not make it through. We
browsed the bookstore and I chose a book for myself. We walked back out and down the sidewalk, checking out the boutiques, the artwork and a really old cemetery. I may be on the morbid side, but I really enjoy looking at headstones and thinking about the people who's memories twirl around the memorials. I try to listen quietly for the stories that lay somewhere between the year of birth and the year of death. That dash in between holds all of our secrets and holds my fascination. So odd that our lives come down to birth and death, when who we are is truly in the space between.
After walking around the town for awhile, we came upon an ice cream shop and to our amazement, we had room for just a little more food.... lol The sign instructed us to fill the bowl with frozen yogurt and all the toppings before bringing it to be weighed. The woman behind the counter said that if we could guess the weight, our order was free. I am horrible at this game which is why I still try to buy size 6 clothes.... anyway, I lost because surprisingly, it weighed more than I guessed..... go figure!! We finished our treat and I thought we would head back to the camper via the beach, however, Ray wanted to visit the local Wal-Mart........ ughhh! I did need a couple of things so we punched in the directions and made a detour in our vacation. I think Walmart needs to make travel stickers... we go to one every time we travel!
Back to our TT, Saunter, we stored our purchases and skipped dinner from all of the food we piled in earlier. The campground was okay, but I would probably look for a different place next time. The views of the ocean were very nice though and the staff seemed friendly, it just wasnt what we normally look for in a campground. Then again, I may have felt differently had we got our original site. We went ahead and stored our chairs and outdoor rug so we could get up and go in the morning. We were looking at a 360 mile drive and now that we know how long that takes, wanted to get an early start. All in all, stop number two on the trip has been wonderful. We enjoyed the town, the ocean and all the food. Ray found a t-shirt and I got a travel sticker from the town, not the Walmart. Time to go make more memories and saunter on.........
I would NOT recommend anyone go onto Ioon Street should you be camping at Buccaneer State Park. We should have followed MS-90 to Beach Rd. Live and Learn!! When we pulled into the campground, we noticed the big draw to this one in particular, a large water-park with a wave pool. We are not really into those features these days, but it was nice. At the ranger's station, we were waved in to get our sticker for the truck. I told the young woman my name and a strange look came across her face! "Oh my, she said, "you are not supposed to be here until tomorrow!"....... Early in our planning, we decided to leave on the 1st instead of the 2nd of June. 
The next morning, we had coffee and cleaned up, Saunter, then headed into town for the day. About four miles down Beach Rd is the little town of Bay St. Louis. We looked at Yelp for the best choices for lunch and the Blind Tiger came up with 5 stars. It sits right on the water with a marina off to the side and a train track on the other side. We climbed the stairs to the upper level and sat down with an amazing view of the water. The Blind Tiger gets its name as an old Speakeasy from back during the Prohibition era. The town was a hang out for pirates for years because of the bay with many hiding places including Cat Island, which is visible off in the distance. Nowadays, the town is a nice seaside tourist attraction with shops, bookstores, ice cream parlors and people always ready with a wave or a smile. The restaurant is AMAZING! I believe I ate the best mahi tacos ever! The fish is so fresh and the presentation was well thought out also. Ray had a Cajun boil that included Big Reds, which are enormous shrimp.
We walked back out and down the sidewalk, checking out the boutiques, the artwork and a really old cemetery. I may be on the morbid side, but I really enjoy looking at headstones and thinking about the people who's memories twirl around the memorials. I try to listen quietly for the stories that lay somewhere between the year of birth and the year of death. That dash in between holds all of our secrets and holds my fascination. So odd that our lives come down to birth and death, when who we are is truly in the space between. 
No comments:
Post a Comment