6 February ‘09 Friday
The first day after arriving in Ocean Springs (Biloxi), we headed out to find the Visitors Center. It turned out to be in the old train station and right at the beginning of town. After getting all the usual maps, magazines, and brochures, we also got a listing of our host’s favorite restaurants. I asked for those that would offer us some of the” local fare”, you know, catfish, shrimp, oysters, and…. Our host also told us about the Farmers Market and the Mardi Gras parade that is set for Saturday. Well it looks like we are going to have some fun here… We left the Visitors Center and walked the sidewalks of town to check things out and look for the best location to setup for tomorrows Mardi Gras parade. Another location that we asked about took us to the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area. We were looking for another place to put our kayak in and we found one. We also found another great campground. The National Park Service has put together a great visitor’s center that manages numerous hiking trails, bayous, a boat ramp, and a 60 site campground that would rate a 9+ in anybody’s book. As we were passing over a small bridge, I just happened to look down into the water. Floating not 10 yards away was an alligator.
The first day after arriving in Ocean Springs (Biloxi), we headed out to find the Visitors Center. It turned out to be in the old train station and right at the beginning of town. After getting all the usual maps, magazines, and brochures, we also got a listing of our host’s favorite restaurants. I asked for those that would offer us some of the” local fare”, you know, catfish, shrimp, oysters, and…. Our host also told us about the Farmers Market and the Mardi Gras parade that is set for Saturday. Well it looks like we are going to have some fun here… We left the Visitors Center and walked the sidewalks of town to check things out and look for the best location to setup for tomorrows Mardi Gras parade. Another location that we asked about took us to the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area. We were looking for another place to put our kayak in and we found one. We also found another great campground. The National Park Service has put together a great visitor’s center that manages numerous hiking trails, bayous, a boat ramp, and a 60 site campground that would rate a 9+ in anybody’s book. As we were passing over a small bridge, I just happened to look down into the water. Floating not 10 yards away was an alligator.
He was just sunning him/herself and not bothering anyone. Fact is, he had company… sitting on a branch coming out of the water were 5 turtles and they also found the sun very warming.
A little further down the road we found the boat ramp. After checking out of the ramp and the waterways around it we decided that this would be a great place to come back too and do a little paddling. We noticed a smaller motor home sitting about 50 yards away and it looked like some of those that we saw around us during our time camping in Europe. Sure enough, upon closer examination, we found that they were from The Netherlands. Well that’s all it took, we had to meet the Dutch couple that found themselves at the waterfront site here in Biloxi. Leen and Hanny Struik have been traveling North America (USA & Canada) for some months now. It is their 2nd time to camp their way through the states in the last few years. The first time they did it in their son’s minivan and this time they wanted to do it with a little more comfort so they shipped their motor home over. Speaking of shipping a motor home.. In May of 2005 Louise and I met Bob and Helen Grimm/Winkler at a campground in Larne, Ireland. We were having a problem with our van and they just happened to be parked at a site 2 over from ours. I remember that just after we had met, Bob asked if we were "Escapees"...well hell yes, we've kind of "escaped"... At that time he jumped forward and gave me a big hug. Catching me completely off guard at the time, I was wondering just what I had gotten myself into... Anyway, we just (not too long ago) received an email from them and Helen was describing their adventures that they have recently been enjoying. One of them was camping South Africa, and another was were they had taken a grandson to Japan
and also Bob and his son had taken another trip back to Africa and camped while visiting the wildebeest migration in Tanzania and seeing the mountain gorillas in Uganda...Now that is camping !!!