The South III: Water and War

It felt good to settle into our condo at the Royal Holiday Beach Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi, on April 17, 2022.  We had a kitchen and enough space so that Dave could listen to the news in the bedroom while I worked at the table in the living room.  I really like spending weeks at RCI condos.  We can take day trips, yet come back to the same bed every night, and cook our own breakfast every morning.

RCI condos are not Marriotts.  We drove behind the Treasure Bay Casino to reach our condo complex, well hidden from any ocean or poolside view!

We were less than five minutes drive, though, from the main highway through Biloxi, with sights and sites all around.

Biloxi is in the heart of the Gulf Coast, less than two hours from New Orleans, an hour from Mobile, and three or four hours from Pensacola.  Gulf Coast sites feature lots of water, and lots of remnants of war.  Analysts of the Civil War suggest that the South had better soldiers, since it had a heritage of well-trained gentlemen fighters, but the North had more resources.  There are several military bases along the Gulf Coast, old Confederate forts, and monuments to long lost warriors and long lost battles.

On April 17, we drove to Moss Town, near the Alabama border, for an airboat ride at Gulf Coast Gator.  
 

A “good old boy” took us whirling around in circles and careening over dry ground in an air boat, as well as telling us a bit about gator nests and habits.  The stories he told about Hurricane Katrina were memorable.  The owner of the farm had 250 alligators at the time of Katrina, but all but 15 swam away in the high water brought by the hurricane! 

We moseyed through a sleepy river, as well as careening around the small lake into which the river poured.

Gators cruised along with us.

This island was a nesting place for gators, but also an irresistible obstruction for our guide to dash back and forth over.

We saw many large gators asleep in a small, fenced, green algae-coated pond.  They came to life immediately, when we threw them gator treats. 

This clerk told us that she left her trailer to stay with a friend in a "real house" when Katrina arrived.  We bought some plastic gators from her for Jonny's little boys.
 

Next day, April 18, we took another boat ride, this on a shrimp boat.  The Gulf Coast provides much of the U.S. shrimp.

Our guide was a witty, no-nonsense fisherman, who trawled Biloxi bay for a few minutes to scoop up some shrimp and bottom fish.

Seagulls circled the boat as our guide sorted the fish and threw some tidbits to the gulls.

He deposited the shrimp into an aquarium and then took them out, one by one, to show us the different varieties.

A few lucky tourists got to dangle a live shrimp by its whiskers.

On our walk back to our car, we passed Biloxi's war memorial.  We thought of Russia and Central Asia, where even small towns have war memorials.  The South still retains great appreciation and admiration for its soldiers, from all wars.

Our second "war" stop was Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Davis was a plantation owner in northwestern Mississippi before serving for many years as a U.S. Senator and then U.S. Secretary of War.  The more I study the Civil War, the more I realize what a fight between brothers it was.  The Senate, the U.S. Army and Navy, and even pre-war Presidential cabinets were split in two, as each member declared himself for the Union or the Confederacy.  Many generals, from both North and South, had served together in the Mexican War, just 15 years before the Civil War.

Jefferson Davis was imprisoned for two years after the Civil War and then made his way back to his home state.  He rented and then bought Beauvoir, which was very small by antebellum plantation standards.

When David lived at Beauvoir, it fronted a marsh, with the ocean beyond.  It wasn't until many years later that Mississippi trucked tons and tons of sand onto its Gulf Coast beaches.

The rooms of Beauvoir, decorated with period furnishings, were beautiful and evocative.  I could  picture Jefferson Davis moseying from room to room, making himself comfortable in a forlorn type of grandeur.

The museum at Beauvoir preserved momentos of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy, including this medal given to Davis for heroic service to the Confederacy.  The medal was awarded by the Sons of the Confederacy for many years after the Civil War.

There were also many Confederate flags, now so politically incorrect.