An Indoor Day

Currently in Biloxi, MS
Leaving for NOLA and then on to Texas


Because the weather was cold, we decided some museums were in order.  The drive to downtown Biloxi along Hwy 90 along the coast is beautiful.
From the highway you can see the Katrina Catastrophe Tree Sculptures.  When Hurricane Katrina came through Biloxi, it took down a lot of trees leaving only the trunks. The trunks were carved into various sculptures, mostly animals. This is just an example of one.

A little further down the road we saw the Biloxi Lighthouse.  It was one of the first cast iron lighthouses in the south.  Civilians, including several women, operated it from 1848 until it was turned over to the US Coastguard in 1939.  It was finally turned over to the city of Biloxi in 1968.

Eventually we reached the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art.  Neither Johnny nor I know a lot about art, but we wanted to give it a try.  The first thing we saw was a special exhibit on vintage motorcycles.  The red one in the foreground was built in Aurora, IL .

The rest of the museum is dedicated to the ceramics of the "Mad Potter of Biloxi"  - George Ohr.  Naturally, his art did not become famous until he died.  In the meantime, he made a lot of practical pottery in order to support his family.  Annette O'Keefe was instrumental in raising funds to get the museum built.
I loved the color in this piece.

I think the spout and the top of this pitcher is interesting.

We drove down Highway 90 to get to Beauvoir, the retirement home of Jefferson Davis who was the only confederate president.  He wrote his memoirs here. We toured the home which originally was on a large piece of property until the highway was built.  Eventually, Beauvoir became a retirement home for Confederate Veterans.

This guest house on the property sleeps 4 and can be currently rented for $250/night.

There is a presidential library just behind the house.  Johnny and I spent quite some time here learning about the man who tried to avoid succession, but was unsuccessful.  The library and museum are very well done, with videos and plaques that describe much of Davis' life and the Civil War.
Both the home and the library sustained significant damage from Katrina, but much of it has been restored and rebuilt.  There is a small room with pictures of the damage and the piano below, which was found in a tree in from of the home.

Davis died in 1889 and 200,000 people attended his funeral procession in New Orleans.  The beautiful carriage that carried his coffin is on display at the museum.

Highway 90 is also dotted with casinos.  Johnny and I went to one to watch the football game and have dinner.  At the bar, we met Chip (who was in his late 30s?) who told us he was an efficiency expert.  He gave us tips on some of the future cities we will visit.  We started talking about other travels we had taken.  Wow! This guy is well traveled.  It finally comes out that he has been in the Air Force for several years.  It was fun talking-to him.