Sunset King Lake Resort, DeFuniak Springs, Florida

Today we left Jellystone Park in Robert, Louisiana and headed for Sunset King Lake Resort in DeFuniak Springs, Florida.

We REALLY liked our site at this park. One thing that would have made it better would have been a concrete pad for the RV. Other than that it was great.

Nice, clean swimming pool.

Brand new fishing dock on King Lake.

This is where the resort shows movies on Friday Night. We saw Wild Hogs with Tim Allen and John Travolta.

After viewing the resort, we decided to lengthen our originally planned stay of 5 nights to 8 nights.

To see more pictures of Sunset King Lake Resort, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/sunset-king-lake-re/ .

To be continued...

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...

French Quarter & Super City Tour

Following the Hurricane Katrina Tour we had a couple of hours before we took our Super City Tour, so we walked around the French Quarter and down Bourbon Street.

New Orleans wants you to know that the French Quarter, and most everything tourists come to New Orleans for, is open for business.

Whoever owns this door wants you to know its lack of importance.

The Super City Tour was another bus tour which gave brief overviews of the City and its history...which included a brief view of another FEMA trailer park.

We also viewed several homes in The Garden District.

Marlon caught a little bit of footage as we drove through The Garden District.

Right outside one of the older St. Louis Cemeteries (there are 3), we viewed this school parade.

This is one of the St. Louis Cemeteries where whole families are encased in a monument. A detailed description of these "Cities of the Dead" can be found at http://www.experienceneworleans.com/deadcity.html .

We also viewed both the Loyola and Tulane University campuses on this tour.

Here's the bus we rode in. It was about twice the size of the Hurricane Katrina bus but had only half the passengers.

Back in The French Quarter, we waited for someone to toss us down some beads.

We found this guy, Hand Grenade, at one of the Tropical Isle bars on Bourbon Street. We decided we needed to try a couple of Hand Grenade drinks...not bad at all. When you're on Bourbon Street, try one or two.

Here, Hand Grenade shows us a trick.

It was now about 6:00 pm and Bourbon Street was still very subdued. That would change in a few hours.

The Cajun Country Store on Bourbon Street had this recommendation for future hurricanes.

Bourbon Street is populated by street performers such as these cowboy statues much the same way we have seen in both Key West and Honolulu.

A tall New Orleans building...

For more pictures of The French Quarter and our Super City Tour, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/french-quarter--sup/ .

To be continued...