Day-14 Biloxi, Pascagoula, Mobile

Tallahassee  -or-  bust!  today ..
After last night's torrential rainstorms in New Orleans, I thought, as Mr. Cronn suggested, I'd have to
install pontoons on the Rav4 to get out of town.    I thought I was re-living Katrina!
My adventures in driving through the aftermath of Hurricane Michael was coming up in the pm.
On I-10 and headed East, through 60-miles of thick fog ..

Here's what it looked like through the windshield :   camera's optics show it better than what I saw ..

Here's 1st rest stop, see standing water in background :

historical sign, of course :

I saw a sign at the Gulfport exit that said  .. Navy Seabee Museum.   Oh boy!   Went to the main gate
and was told it didn't open until 10 (it was 8:30!).    dogGONE it !   timing has been 'off' this trip

On to Biloxi.   You could tell they're still rebuilding, after all of these years after Katrina,

Biloxi, Mississippi is the home of Keesler Air Force Base (AFB).   Jim received his technical training here before his assignment to Elmendorf AFB in Alaska.    Another family friend and my mentor at work was Dave Nelson, who also trained here before being assigned to the Korean War effort.   After the war he used the GI Bill to graduate as an EE from Oregon State.   Nathan helped him and some his buddies, who were attending the OSU vs LSU football game in Baton Rouge, to get passes to tour the base.

Next up, were a few explorative forays following signs and perfecting my u-turns ..  BIRDS!

First up, 

these cranes are not migratory, they're re-building the endangered no's, currently at  ~ 150 ..

I was the only visitor at the refuge center, first of the day   (hard to believe, right?)   She gave me a

personalized tour.    I asked her about the rivers that bordered the refuge.   She told me an interesting 

story.   The native peoples in the area were in two tribes that didn't get along.   When a man in one

tribe asked a woman in the other to come live with him, the woman's tribe threatened to wage war 

and come get her.   The other tribe, a more peaceful tribe, decided to walk into the river and drown

rather than fight.   The river was known as the 'Singing River' .. legend says mysterious humming

sounds come out of the river when conditions are right ... the river is now known as the Pascagoula-

Legend of the Singing River  by  Lorin Thompson

next stop .. Moss Point and Pascagoula ..

and I'm on the 'blues trail' 

Pasagoula is also home to .. INGALLS Shipbuilding, employing 11,500 .. has built nearly 70 per cent
of the Navy's surface warships  :

On to Mobile  (mo'beal).    I again start exploring by taking Hwy.90, Old Spanish Trail,  off of I-10,
discovering .. BATTLESHIP PARK !!   Oh my!!   Must be a bird and Navy day.    The USS Alabama
is there .. a HUGE battleship :

 I stopped on the bridge heading south to get a better view, where families were there fishing,

All day it's hovered around ... 90-deg., 'feels like' 96 ....   uggghhhh ..     bugs love it!
I better get going towards Tallahassee.
I see a sign, ... Eastern time ... oh heck, I lost ANOTHER hour, the third this trip!
No wonder I'm getting tired.   Or is it all the miles?   Or side excursions?    Or blogging every night?

The devastation from Hurricane Michael creeps up on me.   A few scattered trees down, then more,
then large swaths of trees sheared off at about the 12-foot level, they were normally 40-60 feet high.
This goes on for about ... 90-miles!    State Highway Patrol cars are everywhere.  I tried to take a few
pictures from the side window while going 70 mph ...

It doesn't show too well, but the tops are sheared off .. way deep into the forest.  I found out first hand
how things were.   It was during this stretch that I was a little under a 1/4 of a tank and I decided to try
and find some gas stations.   Next exit looked promising.  4 gas stations.   I try the first three and all of
them were out of gas.   I see a tanker pulling up to the 4th and I scurry over to get in line.   Whew!
May not have made it to Tallahassee without this fill up.   I saw pick-ups with generators and pallets
of water bottles.   I listened to radio stations directing people to Red Cross stations for food & water.

AND, listening to the news the last couple of days .. my trip through central Texas and many passages
over the Llano River was just in time several days ago before all of the current flooding!   Yikes!

I count my blessings!   Been extremely lucky with weather so far.    Good thing I made reservations
in Tallahassee weeks ago, since every hotel room for miles around is taken by crews rebuilding
electric lines, repairing roads, clearing debris, chopping up downed trees, etc.

I talked with several groups at dinner.   I had alligator, a local brew "Swamphead-Midnight Oil",
and a treat for dessert, key lime pie.

today's mileage :  411
accumulated trip mileage :  3436