Day #8 - 3/20/2011 - Gulfport, MS to New Orleans, LA - 81 miles

We covered 81 miles from Gulfport, MS to New Orleans, LA, making another state border crossing.  Cool!

While it would have been a lot smarter to stay at a campground near the coast - which would have saved a 5-mile trip yesterday afternoon from the bike shop and the five miles back to the coastal route this morning - the room at the Residence Inn was tough to beat...it was like an apartment:

One bedroom, kitchen, dining area and living room...the Residence Inn will be tough to beat.  Again, left over pizza and then peanut butter with honey made for a quick morning.

We were on the road at 5:30am, a record and were back along the coastal route in a few minutes.  There was no decent bike lane, but it was a Sunday morning and I figured the local populace was sleeping in until Church-time.  I kept my eye on the slowly setting moon and stopped when it was looming large in the Western sky.  Unfortunately, by the time I had my tripod set, the moon had dipped behind the trees.

The moon is setting in the tree behind us as we make our way out of Gulfport.

It's nice being on the road with no one else around.

The setting full moon as sunrise approaches.  The serenity and low-key beauty makes you just want to linger.     

Bridges were a recurring nemesis...seeing the span in the approaching distance provided plenty of time to generate anxiety.  "The bridge...I don't think I have it in me."  But, then, that's why we have 27 gears, so I'd downshift and remind myself of what our guides on Kilimanjaro would say when we started sucking wind at 17000': pole-pole (slowly, slowly).  At least the crossing of the 2 mile Bay St. Louis span had  nice shoulder courtesy of the 2007 renovation following Hurricane Katina.

Lani approaches the steep part of the span.

Near dawn, Lani prepares to climb the hill of the Bay St. Louis bridge over St. Louis Bay.

The just rising sun created long shadows.

Me, playing with my shadow.

Lani pulled up along side of me.

Lani and I posing with our shadows and getting in touch with our inner children.

We were up each day at 4:45am and on our bikes by 5:30-6:00am, typically biking until 3-5pm.  The days were long and became progressively warmer.  Gas station/mini-marts were a welcome site.  I'll never look at them the same.

Gas station/mini-marts were much appreciated watering holes (in more than one way.)  Diet Coke never tasted quite so good.

There were numerous examples of the local cuisine.

We were hungry, but-for obvious reasons- just kept biking.

Some time later, we're just cruising along US80 in Mississippi then found ourselves surrounded by NASA property.  The Stennis Space Center is NASA's largest rocekt engine test facility.  It was placed here because the area was sparsely populated, had barge access for the massive rocket motors which were too large for road transport and its position between assembly facilities in New Orleans and the Kennedy Space Center.

Before first grade, I knew the order of the planets, which planet had how many moons, distance of the planets to the sun, blah blah blah...this sort of thing excites me (still).

I was so distracted, that I didn't notice that I had missed where US80 suddenly branched to the left...we went right.  7 miles later, ready for lunch, we came to the park and starting location for the NASA tour and pulled in for a break.

We parked ourselves under the gazebo for lunch.

 Just behind us was a Lunar Excursion Module trainer.


The Apollo Lunar Module was the part of the Saturn V that orbited the moon and eventually landed.

Pretty cool stuff.

Originally known as the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM, NASA dropped the word "excursion" for fear that it sounded too frivolous, as in "Hey, look at me!  I'm frivolously landing the LEM on the moon!"

If there's a better meal to carry on this type of trip than PB&J, please tell me.  Lani added raisins for that special je ne sais quoi.

Lunch, in progress.

The area around the visitor center was scenic and became progressively more busy as we sat.  Finally, it was time to return to the road.  It only took a few minutes on the bike to realize we were off route and that, somehow, someone (i.e., Bob) had missed a critical turn about 7 miles back.  We did a 180° and found a detour that would bring us back to our route.  In doing so, we found ourselves on an scenic, isolated and idyllic stretch of road, one that took us through Pearlington, MS.  

Clusters of wisteria covered many of the trees, leaving the air sweetly perfumed.

Much of what we saw looked fresh and new, scrubbed and freshly cleaned in a fashion that made me think of Creation.  It turned out there was a reason every was so pristine.

It was only later, in reading about Pearlington, that we learned that this rural Mississippi town had been nearly expunged from the Earth by Hurricane Katrina, isolated for over a week:

"...all but 2 homes, every building, and every vehicle in the town of 1600 was destroyed, and a storm surge travelled 4.5 miles (7.2 km) inland to drown what little was left under 12–20 feet of toxic stew from the saltwater storm tide off the Gulf of Mexico. "

The eye of Katrina had made contact with Pearlington, destroying it...what we saw was new construction.  

What I'll remember as we biked through this idyllic and heavily wooded area was the smell of wisteria. 

We will not forget Pearlington, or its story.

A little while later, we made another state crossing:

Crossing state borders is cool.  We're on our way to New Orleans.

Inhabited by native Americans for millenia before the Spanish arrived in 1528, it fell into the possession of the young United States in 1083 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.  

Lani rarely poses in a conventional manner.

What do we hate when biking?  Wind, rain, hills and bridges.  Looming large in the distance, they get bigger and bigger during the approach.  This bridge separated Lake Ponchartrain  and  Lake Saint Catherine.



Bridges like this give you the chance to check out some of the rarely used of your 21 gears.



 In spite of the flood risk, there were many elaborate and large homes between the two waterways.

Homes along the lakes and bay were designed to tolerate flooding.

We passed between Lake Ponchartrain and Lake St. Catherine, an area evacuated during Hurricane Katrina.  

Home, on stilts, with a great view.

The last bridge into New Orleans, crossing the Mississippi, there was barely enough room for our bikes to squeeze by.

I actually had to remove one of my panniers in order to squeeze by.

 Finally settled down in New Orleans, we went out for dinner with a friend of Lani's from high school.  We were treated to Southern cooking in a stylish atmosphere.

The gumbo was good, but if I never eat anything fried again, I'll be just fine.

 There was an eclectic gathering of characters outside the restaurant.

A Bohemian assortment of young adults gathered outside the restaurant.

We were to have three nights in New Orleans.  After eight consecutive days of biking, we looked forward to some time off.