Florida Day 20

March 18

Hiked and biked 2.2 miles.

Moving down the Gulf Coast today. We crossed the huge bridge over Biloxi Bay and drove by the casinos, beaches, low and highrise hotels (and the detritus of yesterday's St. Paddy's Day parade).

Saw our first cemetery with above-ground crypts. Then some Antebellum homes and some reproductions. You can sense Katrina here as you see many empty lots.

By the way, there are a LOT of Waffle Houses here.

We saw a hearse and limo gassing up. Then, when they passed us later, we saw there WAS a casket in that hearse. Eeks.

In Gulfport, we saw fleets of Seadoos bobbing in the waves, umbrellas and loungers for rent, but little public beach access on our east to west journey and very few people.

We started to see property for sale from one at $180,000 to another at $1 million for an acre. Starting to imagine who might be able to afford to rebuild here.

Driveways to no houses; foundations holding up nothing; stilts (not sure what the real word is) with nothing on top; stairways to nowhere. These things beside homes that have been rebuilt. Very eery.

In the medians, we started to see chainsaw sculptures carved from the stumps of dead trees: dolphins and eagles. How beautiful.

Then we got to Buccaneer State Park. When we registered, the park manager talked about how the park was under 20 FEET of water "after the storm". His own home was under 10 feet, and he and his family lived in the park in a FEMA trailer for five years. The park is on its way back and it's amazing (this pic for Heather's Yamin!):

There are more than 200 sites (we're in 121 in Treasure Cove), and the swimming pool and Water Park are being rebuilt. People still are just finding out they've reopened. It's quiet now which is great for us!

We had lunch and rode to the beach across the rode. The water was so warm and very shallow, so we actually waded in and met Peter and his wonderful Border Collie, Jake, who coerced many of us into playing fetch with his toy. And we met two nice women from Nova Scotia.

Met an Ontario couple from PETERBOROUGH (she once worked in Futures at Fleming)!

It was a day of people and talking and enjoying.

Here's the view from my chair: