The Gulf Coast - Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle - April 2007

We’re in Panama City Beach now and, as you can see, it’s just about perfect! The beaches here are some of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen. Miles and miles of white sand, and the shallow water close to the shore is a brilliant emerald green. Of course, we’re not the first to figure this out, so the coast has a real Miami Beach quality with lots of high rise condos, restaurants ranging from plain to fancy, and the requisite tee shirt shops, goofy golf courses and bicycle rentals. Our second day here we gathered up chairs, towels, ice, beer and snacks and carted it all down onto the sand to spend the day. The breezes were balmy, the view was stunning, we checked out all the boats going by with our binoculars – and I got the worst sunburn I’d had in years. (Yes, I used the sunscreen, but I missed a few spots that don’t usually see the light of day!)

Our RV park is nestled away from all the hustle and bustle – a great little hideaway with lots of grass and palm trees. The folks here are a lot of fun – the day we arrived they made us feel welcome by inviting us to dinner with lots of tasty food and an assortment of adult beverages. We’re so crazy about this place, we even picked up some info about their winter rates in case we decide to come back for an extended visit!

Another day we drove back west toward Destin, Florida on the coast road through tiny towns like Rosemary Beach, Grayton Beach, and Seagrove. With their pastel colors, white trim and neat, flower-lined streets, they look like Disney towns or Stepford-on-the Beach – very cute but almost too perfect. (Wish I’d stopped to take some pictures!) Of course, many of them are the typical slightly run-down, need-a-little-work beach rentals – but they’re still just steps from that fabulous beach! I guess that’s why even the seedy ones cost over a million bucks..

Panama City Beach is a real contrast to our previous stop on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. We had planned to drive along the coast road from Louisiana to our next stop in Gautier, Mississippi. Unfortunately, we had to change our plans because two major bridges along this road were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and were still being rebuilt. This was our first clue to the extent of the damage along this part of the gulf.

We’d heard stories about how hard Mississippi was hit by the storm, but we weren’t prepared for what we saw over 18 months later. I knew that many of the historic homes on the beach in Biloxi, Gulfport and Pass Christian had been destroyed, but we were shocked to see whole neighborhoods that stretched blocks and blocks away from the beach that were now only foundations. It reminded me of the photos of the tsunami damage in Indonesia. You could see from the narrow streets, huge oaks, and ruins of tennis courts and swimming pools that these had been lovely areas. Today you see dozens of for sale signs and only a few new homes under construction. (Again, I forgot my camera so no pictures - drat!) We talked to people who told of us homes half a mile from the beach that had suffered storm surge damage up to 14 feet. The storm surge on the coast was as much as 28 feet!

In the business districts, many of the big Biloxi casinos are rebuilt, but most of the other businesses are still boarded up or even just piles of rubble. The story was the same when we drove along some of the smaller roads along the beach. Here’s a picture of some homes along the golf course near the beach in Gautier. Their beautiful flowers are still there, but all that’s left of the homes are the foundations. Many people we talked to said it would be 10-12 years before the area is fully recovered. I guess we’ll have to come back then.