Nawlins Bound

We continued west toward New Orleans.  At Pass Christian we detoured off I-10 and drove through the city.  We came across the Dixie White House.  Built in 1854 by John Bache of New Orleans, he sold it prior to the Civil War to George Jonas, president of the Canal Bank of New Orleans.

The house was described as a roomy home that was a fine example of Colonial architecture, modified by the old French and Spanish tiles which prevailed in Pass Christian in earlier years. The structure was set on massive arch columns of old Spanish architectural beauty. There was a fireplace in each of the six bedrooms with high ceilings and wide windows. The dining room table was habitually set for 25 persons. One of the bathtubs was imported Italian marble weighing several tons.

In the winter of 1912-13, President Woodrow Wilson celebrated his 56th birthday at the house. The Dixie White House served as a nursing home in its last years – before being razed following heavy damages due to Hurricane Camille in 1969.

We drove past the docks and fishing boats and across the Bay St. Louis.

After crossing over the bay we traveled along the beach road on our journey westward. 

After a quick stop for lunch at a rest area we continued on to New Orleans and paid a visit to the Metairie Cemetery. 

Marathon Out Of Florida

We left Jay B. Starkey bound for Tallahassee.  Jut east of Tallahassee George spotted a 300TD in the same color as mine!  It looked very well kept with no obvious rust or damage although, the wheels were wrong and it had euro lights instead of the US spec headlights, otherwise it looked just like mine. Hopefully, I will have one again one day; this was by far my favorite car I have driven.    

We arrived in the Tallahassee area around 3:30pm and decided to continue west since it was so early in the day.  We made a plan to make it to Dead River Landing where we had camped previously back in February. Contrary to it's name, the Dead River was very much alive, and flooded all over the road leading to the camping area.  We had no choice but to turn around and keep going west.

On the way back to the main road from the flooded Dead River we saw a rattlesnake that had been run over.  The vultures squawking around it are what drew our attention to it.  

We made a plan to get to  the Moss Point Rest Area in Mississippi since we had already seen all we cared to in the panhandle of Florida.  Two fuel stops and 520 miles later we pulled into Moss Point.

The last time we covered that much ground in one day was on our Maiden Voyage... and we all know what happened the morning after that!  Luckily, George was feeling good the next day and all was well.

Leaving Louisiana

We left Crawford Landing and took the coastal highway east on US 90.

We drove past many swamps and bayous.

We crossed into Mississippi and drove across the Bay St. Louis.

Mississippi has beautiful beaches!  Who knew?

We even saw an old Airstream B-190 Campervan!

We drove along the gulf coast of Mississippi through Gulfport, Biloxi, and Ocean Springs then stopped at the Mississippi rest are for lunch and free coffee.

We realized that we might have just enough time to make it to Dauphin Island for the Mobile Bay Ferry to Fort Morgan, Alabama.  So we booked it to Dauphin Island and just made the last ferry of the day.  We passed through Bayou La Batre, the home of Bubba from Forrest Gump.

When we reached land again we checked our maps and realized that the closest free camping was in Robertsdale, AL at the Camping World.  We had stayed here previously and were familiar with the location.  We picked up a pizza from Dominos on the way (we had a gift card) and pulled into Camping World for the night.