Moved to Gulfport, Ms.

We headed toward Gulfport, Ms. yesterday morning.  Crossed a bridge that was over 20 miles long.  I think that that part of La. is all swamp.  We arrived in Gulfport around 2:00.  We are staying at Gulf Haven RV park.  It's on the outskirts of Gulfport.  The beach is just across Hwy 90.  It is a Good Sam park.  It is nothing special but we are close to the beach and the rates are good. $35 night with Good Sam discount.  The beach is not crowded here either.  You can still see the effects of Hurricane Katrina.  There are a lot of lots that no one rebuilt on and are for sale.  The good news is that the city is very clean and the beaches are white as snow.

 The office at the campground.

Our site

Fishing pier

 Can you see the teeth on this flounder? Can you see both eyes? The one on the left is right by the fin.  This are funny looking fish.

top and underside of flounder

These were small, in fact they made the legal 12" limit with little to spare.

We ate here and the food was excellent!

 Red Snapper Cat Island

The Cat Island sauce had sauteed onions, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, shrimp and crabmeat in a lemon butter sauce.

Stuffed Flounder Chandelier!  I gave this 5 stars! (out of 5) The sauce had  lump crabmeat in a cream base.

Shrimp Scampi
Jumbo shrimp sauteed in butter, white wine and lemon juice with garlic, diced tomatotes, and green onions served over a bed of angel hair pasta and topped with parmesan cheese.

Sunset at Long Beach, Ms.

Just a relaxing kind of day!

Today we just chilled around the campground.  It seems that everyone around decided to move in yesterday evening.  The park that was just about 1/3 full when we got here is almost full.  I think everyone wanted to camp out for Fathers Day weekend.  Checkout time here is noon, so the place should thin out considerably.  If it does, Libbie and I are going to head to the pool in the morning to swim and catch some rays.  She says I'm still too white for the beach!
We decided where our next stop was going to be.  We leave Monday and head for Gulfport, Ms.  We are going to Gulf Haven Campground.  Never been there before so I hope it's a good one.  It looks like it's right across the road from the gulf. We made reservations for 3 days.  If it's nice we may stay longer.
Doug and Jim tried fishing again today.  Jim caught one red ear brim.  Since one brim wouldn't feed them much less them and us, back it went to swim another day.
We made our trip into town to go to Target and Sam's so we are good for alittle while longer in the food department.  We don't want to buy too much food, then we would have to cook all the time and that just doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me.
Later

A trip to Houmas House

Today Libbie and I went to see the sugar plantation known as Houmas House.  It was named after the Indians that were settled in that area.

Like most plantation homes, this one too was lined with huge Live Oak trees.  A few were said to be 500 and 600 years old.  The gardens around this home were magnificent.

The home is privately owned and the owner still lives in it.  Nice that he let us into his house to look around.

 This Live Oak is over 500 years old.

 Ceiling and chandelier in the dogtrot of the house.  All rooms opened to this hallway.

This clock was originally owned by Marie Antoinette.  Napoleon gave it to his brother and his brother gave it to Mr. Burnside, owner of Houmas.

This map was found under the floor incased in cypress.  This map is of all the plantations of the area.  It shows owners, number of slaves, and acreage in sugar cane.  It is believed that it was hidden from the yankees during the Civil War.  It would have given the union soldiers information about the wealth and ownership of all the plantations.  There were only 4 of these maps made.  Two are in museums, this one and the 4th has not been found.

Our guide

 This is a beautiful baby cradle covered in mosquito netting, a child's walker made of all wood and a wooden horse covered in deer skin.

This home was used in the filming of Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.  The movie started out with Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.  But they hated each other so much.   During filming there was a fight scene.  The director hollered cut but the two actresses didn't stop fighting.  They had to be separated.  Joan quit the movie that day and Olivia DeHavilland replaced her.  Bette Davis stayed in this room while filming.  She gave the owner of the plantation a candleabra and an autographed picture of herself.  Nice.  LOL

This part of the house was originally a trading post built in 1775.  It is built with cypress timbers.

A view outside of the two blended buildings.  

I know its a lot of pictures but I have many more.  It is hard to show the beauty this place has.  Pictures just don't do it justice.  Cost for the tour is $20 for adult ticket.

 When we got back to the RV's Jim cooked us up a mighty good steak and Libbie made rest. MMmmm

After a good meal, what else should a guy do???? Yep fishing... sorry no fish yet

Livingston, La.

We moved on to Livingston this morning.  It was just a 85 mile trek.  These long driving days are getting tough.

We are staying at the Lakeside RV Park off Hwy 12.  This is east of Baton Rouge.  This park is a Good Sam Park and Passport America.  It is very nice and the sites are all concrete and level.  We are looking around to see what there is to see and do around here.  We have found a couple of plantation homes that Libbie and I might check out.  There is a Bass Pro Shop and a pretty big Camping World.  The guys might hit those while we are checking out some of the plantations.
Tonight we decided to go to Middendorf's Seafood Restaurant.  We mapped it, told the guys we had picked out a spot to eat and off we went.  Well let's just say that not all map programs are equal.  First it sent us to Hammond, La.  down Veterans Ave.  No restaurant.  Then it sent us into downtown Hammond.  No restaurant.  Finally I called the restaurant and got the directions from them.  It was no where near where we were.
Well 45 min. later we were sitting at Middendorf's, which is off Interstate 55 about 22 miles from New Orleans, on the west banks of Lake Pontchartrain.  LOL  The food was very good.

Views from the restaurant of the lake, and Interstate 55.

 Outdoor dining area and place for kids to play in the sand.

 Seafood Platter- thin sliced fried catfish, shrimp, oysters and a huge stuffed crab.

BBQ broiled shrimp

I forgot to take pictures of the RV park.  I will do so tomorrow.  Sorry

Later.

Part II Shadows on the Teche

Since our day was so long I decided to split it into two posts.  After we left the diner we went to Shadows on the Teche.  This was a sugar plantation owned by the Weeks family that is now a National Trust Historic site. This home was built in 1834.

The only staircase in this house is on the outside.  The downstairs rooms are not connected.  There is a food prep room on the facing left, the dining room is in the middle and the bathing room which was just a room with a tub, and a "guest room" on the right side.  It seems that plantation homes had a room that was for strangers to stay in when they arrived in the area.  Since there were no hotels, large plantations had one of the bedrooms available.  They had their own entrance and this room was separate from the home.

The back of the house showing the cistern.

The front showing the staircase to the upstairs living quarters.  Upstairs were the bedrooms and the drawing room.

 Again we got to see beautiful live oaks and gardens. The Teche Bayou is right behind me when I took this picture.  

The Teche Bayou.  

 This was the "side yard".  A bride was having her wedding pictures made while we were here.

 These pictures don't show just how big and beautiful these live oaks really are.

 There were these lovely statues all around the house.

 This building was some of the house keepers quarters.  The Weeks did have over 200 slaves to help with the plantation.  Mary Weeks was a very strong woman.  She raised 8 children mostly by herself.  Her husband died while on a trip up north to buy furniture for the new house and to find a cure for his consumption.  He died up north and never did live in this house.  His consumption was tuberculous.  Mary ran 2 sugar plantations by herself for 7 years and then remarried.  She and her second husband along with some of her children are buried on site next to the house.

This was a very interesting tour.  If you are ever in New Iberia, La.  Stop and take a look see.
Tomorrow we move on for new adventures.  I believe we are heading east of Baton Rouge.