Traveling to New Orleans

As you saw on the three previous posts we were traveling from Destin Florida to New Orleans Louisiana. Had we taken the direct route it's a 5 hour drive with out stops. We did not take the direct route. It was a 10 hour adventure.

As we had never been on the Gulf Coast before we decided to take the scenic route the whole way. This meant from Destin to Gulf Shores Alabama we were on the coast on US98 or a state highway, not up on I-10. Along this route we drove over some amazing bridges with great views of the bays aling the way. We stopped at Perdido Key to check out the beach and it was a beautiful stretch of beach that wasn't too crowded. Next up was a stop at Bahama Bob's for lunch in Gulf Shores Alabama. We had a great lunch along the beach where we could see the Gulf over the dunes. After lunch we walked that section of beach and it too was just as beautiful as Perdido and less crowded. After that we headed towards Mobile, where in a small town just north of Gulf Shores we saw Lambert's Café , 'home of the throwed roll'.

Once through Mobile we hit US90 and headed for New Orleans. First stop along this route was Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi. It's a cute little stop near Ocean Springs to see a different type of coastline. Next up was Biloxi, Gulf Port and Bay Saint Louis, MS. It was quite sobering to see how much damage that Katrina did to this area that remains un repaired. Many, many empty lots along the shore remain where they did not rebuild. In some cases you can see where small subdivisions vanished because houses are gone but the streetlights marking where streets should be remain. Our next 'stop' was in Louisiana where we had to wait for the authorities to capture a rather large looking snake on the road. After that it was smooth traveling to New Ofleans.

Some interesting sights along the route: At Bahama Bobs we saw bags of water hung above each table that are used to keep the fly's away, The Spear Hunting Museum, the Flora Bama signs at the state line, Silver King Corn, lot's of BBQ and fried chicken along the route.