March 5-8, 2019 - Buccaneer State Park, Waveland, MS

March 5-8, 2019 - Buccaneer State Park, Waveland, MS

Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - Traveling to Mississippi; Visiting Around the Fire
The five rigs in our group left Vidalia, LA this morning making our way to Mississippi.  Dean and I left at 9:30 and arrived at our new site, Buccanner State Park in Waveland, MS just before 2:00pm.  

The water came up quite a bit last night - before we left this morning - but it was still quite aways from our sites.

The drive was easy.  We left Louisiana, drove into Mississippi, traveled into Louisiana, and then back into Missisippi - quite a drive huh?

Just before we reached the Mississippi Welcome Center for a bathroom break, we saw this building.

Infinity Science Center - Notice the rocket on the right?
Want to know more?  -  Check it out

We stopped to visit the Mississippi Visitor Center to get information on things to see and do while we are here.  We didn't stop at the Louisiana Welcome Center and it was a mistake.  I assumed Mississippi would also have information on New Orleans (since we are less than an hour away), and I was disappointed to find they did not. I did pick up a travel magazine for Mississippi and a few brochures.

Beautiful azaleas at the Mississippi Visitor Center

The Gulf near Buccaneer State Park.

It wasn't long before we turned on the road to Buccaneer State Park.  The office was busy when we arrived with both receptionists on the phone, with customers and people waiting inside.  As soon as they had a chance, they quickly gave us information and sent us on our way to set up.  Our campsite is located right across the road from the office, so we didn't have to go far before we were backing in to our site.  They have had a lot of rain and if you get off the roadway ---- well, let's just say there are a lot of tire ruts near some of the sites.  Keith and Drena were setting up, Alvin and Linda were next to them, then Mel and Rhonda, and Cindy is parked behind us.

We walked over to Linda and Alvin's later to watch the Mardi Gras parades that were going on in New Orleans this last night on Fat Tuesday.  It would have been wonderful to see it in person, but there was no way we would have wanted to fight the crowds that came out.  It was fun to watch on TV, seeing the floats and costumes.  

Buccaneer State Park is right on the Gulf of Mexico.  It's a nice walk from our site to the gulf, where there is a nice raised sidewalk right along the water.  They also have a water park and a nice sized swimming pool.  There are many camping sites in the park.  Keith did most of the leg work on this trip and I'd say he has done a very good job!





Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - Visiting "The Big Easy - New Orleans"

Everyone was up and around this morning for a trip to New Orleans to visit the World War II Museum.  We left around 8:30, taking two trucks.  

One thing we noticed today - lots of beads in the trees from all of the Mardi Gras festivities over the last several days.  City crews were busy cleaning up streets this morning.  We heard the crews begin at midnight to start clearing the streets of all of the debris that is left behind after this big event. 

Random pictures I took on our way to, or after we parked at the World War II National Museum.

Another building - across the street from the museum.

Dean and I rode with Mel and Rhonda.  We paid for our parking -- it started at 9:56am.  We have four hours to tour the facility.  We've seen several museums about various wars, including World War II, but this was by far the most detailed account.  It gave such a hands on picture of what this war meant and how it changed our country in many ways.  As usual, I tried to read as much as I could about everything.  There were movies of actual events, discussions with retired military about what occurred, and it gave a good overview of what happened and when. It was really amazing.

I was really shocked to see the number of Japanese and Russian troop numbers versus the United States troops.

This was another surprise - how many companies took on making new products, entirely different from their normal tasks to meet the need for our troops.

Changes were needed to provide resources for the troops and our country; and food changes to feed the troops.  Amazing how quickly things were changed to meet the need for our country.

Letter to the troops from General Dwight D. Eisenhower

As we visited the last gift shop I found this sweatshirt of Rosie the Riveter - they wanted way too much for it, but I took a picture and sent it to my granddaughter Haleigh.  She dressed up as her one day for school last year.

Our Haleigh Kay!

We spent almost the full four hours we had paid for our parking spot in the museum and by the time all 9 of us gathered together outside, we managed to drive out a minute after our time expired. 

We all left tired and weary, and were glad to return to our sites at Buccaneer State Park in Waveland.


March 7, 2019 - Touring New Orleans via Hop On/Hop Off Bus, Stop at Jackson Square, Cafe du Monde, Lunch & Jackson Square


We headed back to New Orleans this morning to the Basin Street Station (where the New Orleans Visitor Information Center is located).  We had about a thirty minute wait for the next tour bus.  While waiting, we looked through the visitor center and gift shop.  

Map of New Orleans in the Visitor Information Center

Soon we were all boarding, and off we went.

Basin Street Station
Notice the "coffin" in colors here 

The first item we saw was the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 - very near the station.  If we get back in time we can do a self guided tour here.

St Louis #1 Cemetery

At Canal Street, the tour guide pointed out a short walk away we could find Bourbon Street, but we continued on.

After passing Harah's Casino, Lafayette Square and Gallier Hall, we were able to view the Superdome, 

The National World War II Museum (that we visited yesterday), Magazine Street with many shops and restaurants, The Garden District at Magazine St. & Washington Ave.  Again if we have time, we can join a free walking tour of the Garden District.

We stopped at the New Orleans CVB and Visitor Center to allow more folks to board, before moving on to the Erator Street Cruise Ship Terminal where Mardi Gras World is located.

You can see a couple of the floats inside Mardi Gras World.  This is a huge facility with all kinds of memorabilia from past Mardi Gras.   Tickets are available to tour the facility.

The Arts District provided lots of shops, galleries, Louisiana Children's Museum and the Julia Street Cruise Ship Terminal.  

Finally, our first hop off was at Jackson Square where we ended up doing the bulk of our touring.  Our first stop was at Cafe du Monde for Beignets and Cafe Au Lait. Beignets are a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar.   This is something I've wanted to experience for quite some time.  The cafe was packed (as you can see from these pictures).  We followed the line outside to wait our turn to order.  

Our beignets and cafe au lait.

Our group:  Rhonda & Mel, Alvin & linda, Dean, Drena, Cindy, Keith.

Fortunately, Drena went to ask someone about getting a table.  Come to find out, the line was for take out orders, not eating at the cafe.  So we headed back inside to grab a table.  Dean and Keith held down the table while us ladies (Drena, Cindy and I) headed to the bathroom wait line.  We were able to see first hand what all was involved.  The cooks were frying the beignets, ladies were putting them in paper boats and sprinkling about 2 inches of powdered sugar all over them, along with coffee cups and glasses.  They next proceeded to a line where they filled the coffee cups with the appropriate drink and filled water glasses, before stopping to have the order rang up.  I have no idea how many people were working here but it was alot - 25, maybe more.  Cafe du Monde is open 24 hours a day.  Doing that everyday I'm not sure I would never want to see powdered sugar again!

Once we had all returned to our table, it wasn't long until they took our order and surprisingly as busy as it was we were served within a very reasonable time.  

We texted Alvin and Linda to see where they had gone to eat.  They were just a short distance down the road from us so we headed to New Orleans Seafood & Hamburgers.  The food was pretty good.

New Orleans Seafood & Hamburgers

While we were there we heard this loud, almost obnoxious music coming from outside, and it sounded nearby.  It was coming from the Steamship Natchez, which was in the harbor just a few blocks away.  We could see the lady playing the calliope and the paddlewheel on the backside.  While it's neat, it was just too close and loud to be fun for very long.  Fortunately, it wasn't long until the music stopped.  A short while later we watched as it pulled out heading for it's next port.

After having our dinner, we walked the few blocks to Jackson Square where I took a few more pictures.  

St. Louis Cathedral - 1794

Fountain

Statue of Andrew Jackson

Beautiful Oak Tree - they are so beautiful!

Just across the road as we were leaving, we saw the New Orleans School of Cooking.  It was a very small shop and there was a small area to cook, but I'm not sure if it was big enough to have many onlookers, or anyone helping with the cooking, so maybe they had a larger place behind the store shop.  Either way, the lady in the store was making pralines (we were told on the tour bus that if he we have been saying pralines as "pray-leans" that it is incorrect - it is pronounced "praw-leans".  Who knew?

We headed back to Stop #1 where we waited for our bus to return and pick us up.  We didn't have to wait too long and in no time we breezed by the last few stops (French Quarter, Esplanade, Treme') and we were pulling into the Basin Street Station where we began several hours ago.  Shortly afterwards we headed back to Buccaneer State Park.

It was a great day!



March 8, 2019 - Shopping Trip to Slidell, LA - New Sheets & Batteries for the TireMinder; Silver Slipper Casino Buffet - Sadly we passed on their buffet, and on to Mexican food.

I told Dean I really wanted to find somewhere to buy a set of sheets (after one of our fitted sheets bit the dust with a big hole in it).  He wanted to find some batteries for our Tire Minder (Tire pressure monitor system for the RV).  We decided to drive to nearby Slidell where we first stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond.  I decided the sheets were too expensive. We headed to the car when I remembered I saw a Marshall's as we pulled into the parking lot.  We walked a short distance, and sure enough there it was, and lo and behold we found a set of sheets with four pillowcases....and they just happen to go well with the quilt we use on our bed.  Since we do not have pillow shams, having the pillowcases go well with the quilt was a big bonus to me!

There was a Home Depot further down in the same shopping area, so we stopped there next.  We were fortunate to find the batteries we needed for the TireMinder as well.  After that, we headed back to the campsite.  

Keith and Drena had mentioned the Silver Slipper buffet and Dean and I joined them to give it a try.  Once we arrived and walked in, we were surprised to find a line that circled around about half of the casino waiting to have dinner at the buffet.  It was half-price night, so we moved on.  We finally decided on Mexican at El Maguey.  We thought it was pretty good - and by then we were hungry enough we just wanted to eat!  Ha!

Tonight is our last night here and we all set out at Linda and Alvin's again with the Flame Genie fire pit.  The sandflies or no see ums were after us.  The wind did help keep them away but the fire didn't seem to help much.  We finally called it a night.  Tomorrow we will pull out and head further east.


We moved from Buccaneer State Park to Meaher State Park in Spanish Fort, AL on March 9 and today (March 14) we moved to Eastbank Campground (COE) near Chattahoochee, FL.  Tomorrow we will move on to Spring Hill, FL to spend a couple of day with my step-brother.  We've been so busy it's been hard to keep up.  But I will get caught up!