Gulfport & Biloxi

Today we went to see the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. We stopped at a Mississippi Visitor Center near Bay St. Louis where NASA also has a visitor center called the Stennis Space Center. They offer tours but we were unaware of this attraction and will have to wait until next time.

But we did take a look at this Lunar Lander...

and we also took a look at the black cat that just showed up the week before at the Mississippi Visitor Center. It was curled up so still on the hay that it looked like a statue and most of the people who walked by didn't even notice it.

In Bay St. Louis, we began to see houses still showing signs of Katrina.

Here's the bridge connecting Bay St. Louis to Pass Christian. The southern half of the new bridge replacing the span destroyed by Katrina is now open to two-way traffic.

Near Gulfport, we found this swimming pool missing its house. Many of the streets nearest the Gulf were similar.

Here's a video Marlon took of the Gulfport area.

Waffle House (the yellow sign) was one of the first businesses to rebuild on the Gulf Coast. There is probably a new Waffle House every 2 miles for 25 miles...and ALMOST nothing else.

In Gulfport we located the site of Marine Life Oceanarium, one of the many casualties of Hurricane Katrina.

The Oceanarium was the home to dolphins, sea lions and exotic birds. Many of the animals were evacuated before the storm. However 8 dolphins and 19 sea lions were left to ride out the storm in what staff members believed were safe areas.

Unfortunately, Katrina proved more powerful than ever expected as she devastated the park and set the remaining animals free into the Gulf. Most were recovered but several did lose their lives.

These pictures are a far cry from when Marlon visited Marine Life Oceanarium in 1999 below.

Further on in Biloxi, we ran across the Sharkheads Souvenir Store. It appears work is being done on the building, but it is far from completion.

Here is a YouTube video of what Sharkheads used to look like...
The Isle of Debris (I mean Capri) has reopened in Biloxi.

While the smaller Casino Magic next to it probably will never reopen. Harrah's has, however, purchased the land it sits on.

For more pictures of the Marine Life Oceanarium and the Gulfport-Biloxi area, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/gulf-coast-gulfport/ .

To be continued...

Vicksburg-Famous for #2 Coca-Cola, Around Town

Besides being the site of the end of The Civil War, Vicksburg is also famous because Joseph Biedenharn first bottled Coca-Cola here in 1894.

Joseph Biedenharn began bottling Coca-Cola at his Biedenharn Candy Company in Vicksburg eight years after its 1886 invention in Atlanta, Georgia.

So we decided to visit the first Coca-Cola bottling plant located in Downtown Vicksburg on the cobble-stoned Washington Street.

Here is a representation of the town of Vicksburg when Coca-Cola was first bottled.

This was the original set-up required to provide carbonation to the bottled-beverage. It consisted of a carbonator and a gas generator.

The Museum exhibited a vast array of Coca-Cola memorabilia ranging from old bottle designs to advertising posters to bottling equipment.

Tarzan and Jane (Johnny Weismuller & Maureen O'Sullivan) appeared on this 1934 Coca-Cola tray.

The museum even had an old-fashioned toilet with elevated tank and pull chain to flush.

After using the facilities, Marlon attempted to make a phone call the old-fashioned way.

This is an advertisement from the 1940's as a wife anticipated the return of her GI husband from war.

Just a few blocks away, you can find the Vicksburg levee.

This levee wall details the various flood levels of the Mississippi throughout the years.

We walked through a Riverfront Art Park just across the street from the levee.

Here we are standing on the banks of The Mighty Mississippi River.

As we were leaving Vicksburg and the State of Mississippi, we stopped by the Mississippi Visitor's Center (kind of backward, we know).

Here Doug stands viewing the bridge which spans the Mississippi River and connects Mississippi to Louisiana.

For more pictures of the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum and Vicksburg, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/vicksburg-mississip/ .

To be continued...

Vicksburg-Famous for #1 End of the Civil War

We decided to drive 50 miles from our RV Park to see the site of the end of the Civil War in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

So we went to the Vicksburg National Military Park.
The park features a 16-mile driving tour of the Battlefield of the Vicksburg Campaign.

Throughout the park are red and blue signs marking trenches and battle lines of the North and the South.

This is the Illinois State Memorial, the largest monument in the park. It was dedicated in 1906, and built for $194,000. Today it would cost more than $45 million to build a similar structure.

The wall inside is filled with the names of thousands of infantrymen of the Civil War. We were able to locate Palmers, Burtons (Jean's maiden name), Carrolls (Angie's maiden name) but no Fleenors.

The only wartime structure remaining in the Vicksburg National Military Park is The Shirley House below. According to the National Park website, the soldier who was to burn the house was shot before he could apply the torch.

There are currently plans to renovate the interior of the house and open it as a museum.

The park ranks among the most heavily monumented parks in the world with over 1,300 various monuments. Here are but a few, the first one being a monument to Andrew Hickenlooper, great-grandfather of the Denver Mayor, John Hickenlooper.


The park features The U.S.S. Cairo, the first armed vessel in the history of warfare to be sunk by a torpedo. It sunk in 12 minutes in 1862 and was not raised from its watery grave until over 100 years later in 1964. For more info, go to http://www.nps.gov/vick/u-s-s-cairo-gunboat.htm .

Over 13,000 of the 17,000 buried at the Vicksburg National Cemetery are officially listed as unidentified.

For more pictures of the Vicksburg National Military Park, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/exploring-vicksburg-ms-/ .

To be continued...