By March 1, 2023, it was finally warm enough to move north of Florida! (If we stay too long in freezing temps, the tanks full of fresh water, along with grey and black waste water, freeze up. Like the birds, we are always south in the winter).
If you drive the coast of Florida’s panhandle from about Panama City, through Destin, and past Pensacola and Mobile, Alabama, you’ll eventually find yourself in Biloxi, Mississippi, having driven along the “Redneck Riviera”. This term was coined by New York Times writer Howell Raines. In 1978, he wrote an article titled “Living it up on the Redneck Riviera” about NFL quarterbacks Richard Todd and Kenny Stabler who had the money to live wherever they wanted, but chose the shores of lower Alabama for their offseason homes.
In Biloxi, massive casinos and large homes overlook the sugary beaches found all along the Redneck Riviera.
As early as the 1850s, Biloxi became a southern resort town. Illegal gambling started in the early 20th century, but it wasn’t until 1992 that dockside gambling became legal. Sadly, Hurricane Katrina hit Biloxi hard in 2005, and while we think of this as being a problem for New Orleans, all of coastal Mississippi was affected. Katrina’s hurricane-force winds reached coastal Mississippi by 2 a.m. and lasted over 17 hours, spawning 11 tornados, a 28-foot storm surge and flooding 6-12 miles inland. In coastal Mississippi, all towns flooded over 90% in hours, and waves destroyed many historic buildings, with others gutted to the 3rd story. Biloxi is rebuilding and I wish we’d had time to stop and spend some money here (just a little something to help out), but we were barreling towards Baton Rouge.
Baton Rouge is the capitol city of Louisiana and it’s “new” capitol building is one, of only a few, that has an open air observation deck for visitors. At 450 feet tall and with 34 stories, it is the tallest skyscraper in Baton Rouge and the tallest capitol in the United States. Built in the 1930s, it is also one of the few capitols without a dome.
The steps leading up to its entrance have each state listed in order of when they joined the union. Upon entering the capitol, we stepped into a 2 story high, 120ft long, and 35ft wide hall. Its floor was covered in Mt. Vesuvius lava from Italy. The walls are Italian red marble and elevator doors are made of bronze. While not as ornate as some state capitols we’ve seen, the design elements brought a sense of grandeur and stateliness.
The capitol sits within a gorgeous park filled with monuments, war memorials, pretty flower beds, nice walking paths, and good views of Capitol Lake. Louisiana Governor Huey Pierce Long’s tomb and statue face the capitol that was built during his time in office.
We’d missed Baton Rouge on our travels through Louisiana from west to east in March of 2022, so it was nice to see it on our way back (east to west) in 2023.
