Author: alliumstozinnias

A gardener (along with the Brit) who has discovered there is more than hybrid tomatoes. And a cyclist.

Let’s talk Hurricane Katrina

You hear plenty of Katrina stories when you venture to Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. Will the new construction withstand the next big one?

restaurant on stilts.jpgIt’s impossible to be on the Mississippi Gulf Coast without talking about Katrina. Locals talk about before “the storm” and after. They all have stories — about a teacher who sought refuge in a school and the water line reached 5 1/2 feet and fish were swimming in the classroom, about the military memorabilia that ended up in another person’s yard and the owner couldn’t be tracked down, about homes needing to be gutted. The immediate impact of the widespread evacuations and decisions to start over elsewhere meant that in one school of 620 students, only 120 were back when it re-opened.

Today, nearly 12 years later, the number of households and jobs along the Mississippi Gulf Coast exceed those of before Katrina.

They’re still rebuilding in some spots. You see the occasional empty lot where a home once stood, and most buildings on the beach are no longer allowed. But while I saw plenty of homes and other buildings close to the water on stilts, I was surprised by how many are not.

house not on stilts
This cute cottage is a few blocks from the beach and isn’t elevated.

I heard that it was to do with where FEMA sets the flood zone, that if you don’t need mortgage insurance you can do as you please, even that insurance rates are coming down because new homes are being built better — hurricane-proof windows, reinforced frames and such. That may keep the wind from blowing off the roof or picking up the home and throwing it down somewhere else, but let me know how works out when the next big one comes and there’s widespread flooding.

friendship oak.jpgOn the other hand, this 500-year-old oak, the “Friendship Oak”  at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast campus with its 155-foot canopy, survived Katrina but lost a piece in a more recent storm.

Gorgeous white sand beaches and killer wind on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Loved the sand. I persisted in fighting the headwind.

wide beach shotThursday was spent along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The beaches were gorgeous — and empty. Maybe when there’s this much sun and sand, it’s just no big deal. And it was a workday. Still, wherever rowdy spring breakers go, it wasn’t here.

But the wind! We were biking west to east. That would have been great on Wednesday, when we would have flown along thanks to a tailwind. But we got a headwind. The locals say there is always wind (and that it can change direction during the day). Now maybe they were trying to make us feel good, but even they said it was stronger than normal. Fortunately we rode a few blocks inland for much of the morning, from Waveland to Long Beach. I think the wind picked up after lunch, when we took the beach path from Long Beach to the Biloxi lighthouse. I persisted. But it was slow going! And it killed my legs.

Arlen died too. Shark got him:

arlen and shark

So what’s the beach path like? Think concrete sidewalk, not planks like parts of the Jersey Shore. Sometimes the path is wide, but other times it’s no wider than a sidewalk. A recipe for constant conflict with people coming on and off the beach (or even the benches on the far side of the wide version), I thought. But a local claimed no, that it’s pretty empty.

Why the wildly inconsistent widths, even in the same town? It seems to be tied to how they chose to spend post-Katrina money.

Take the road instead? There was a section with what’s essentially an access road, and that was fine. But otherwise you’re talking two lanes in each direction and 50 mph. No thanks.

So the beach path might work when you have a tailwind, assuming it’s not so crowded that you can’t bike. Better would be to complement it with a signposted on-road option using quiet, family-friendly roads a bit inland (and maybe past some other businesses?) for when you’re going in the “wrong” direction.

The economic impact of Mississippi’s Longleaf Trace

longleaf traceI love hearing about the economic impact of rail-trails because to me, that’s the most convincing argument for a trail. Usually the numbers come from some big study that makes some pretty broad-brush claims.

But here’s information from one bike shop in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, one end of the 43-mile Longleaf Trace.

Before the Longleaf Trace opened in 2000, Moore’s Bicycle Shop was one full-time person (the owner) and a part-timer. Sales in 2000 were $225,000 in a 1,400-square-foot store. A decade later, he had 6,500 square feet of retail space, five full-timers and one part-timer and average annual sales of $565,000.

Here are some money numbers from opening to 2014: more than $900,000 in additional payroll, more than $265,000 in additional sales-tax revenue (including $47,000 to the city) and an additional $96,000 in additional property taxes.

Plus he’s gotten more competition.

And yes, James Moore is a big proponent of the trail and hosted the first meetings to create it. He tells a story of the second meeting, when opponents got wind of it and came out in large numbers. One older man finally stood up and said he buys his car, his clothes and more in Hattiesburg and was happy that the Trace would give him a chance to spend more of his money in his community.

Now having ridden the length of the Trace, I didn’t see many places to spend money in the tiny towns along much of it. The businesses that are there may be doing a bit better (I did see one general store that sells bike lights) and could benefit from some signage telling out-of-towners about food and other services, but the bigger businesses are in Hattiesburg and in Prentiss, at the other end of the trail.

The Trace extended to downtown a few months ago, which should help businesses there. A Civil Rights museum is opening later this year to help tell the story of the Freedom Summer of 1964, when out-of-staters came down to register African-Americans to vote after the Civil Rights Act passed. Hattiesburg was the epicenter for southern Mississippi. The town is also working at connecting schools and the zoo to the Trace. Several miles out of town, there are big plans to develop an area around a pond into a fun place to while away the day,

More could be done: I hope they find a back-roads route so out-of-towners can get from hotels by the interstate to the Trace without having to drive. The Trace’s own website could come into the 21st century, and it would be wonderful to see more about the history of the area, from Indians to longleaf pine to cotton to whatever has come next, along the Trace.

Finally, a random fun fact about Hattiesburg: The zoo is home to two sloths and there’s a four-month wait to get 30 minutes of cuddle time with one. Cost is $40.

Best way to see Vicksburg battlefield is by bike

If you are biking the Natchez Trace and can add some time for a visit to Vicksburg, do it.

vicksburg1This morning was just a fabulous ride — all through Vicksburg National Military Park, led by a cyclist with great stories about the park and some of the soldiers. I am now convinced that the best way to experience a national park is by bike. And if you’re biking the Natchez Trace and have the opportunity to tack on some time for Vicksburg, do it.

Let me start by saying I didn’t realize the Vicksburg campaign was so complex. Yes I knew that it was the last piece in giving Union forces control of the Mississippi River. But I thought General Grant had just laid siege and waited out the Confederates. I had no idea that he tried several assaults that all failed as had an attempt to divert the Mississippi with a canal, that his military career was in danger and that he had tried a daring strategy that included running his supply-laden gunboats down the river in the middle of the night and close to the shore where that the Confederate cannon couldn’t point down enough to hit them.

And no one believed Grant could do it. Even William Tecumseh Sherman didn’t. He called Vicksburg “as strong as Gibralter.”

Vicksburg is on a bluff and the river used to run right below it (the Mississippi moved itself in 1876 and no longer does). So there were hills — great descents with curves, only to have to go right back up. But once again, they weren’t anything like the hills back home.

This is the most monumented park in the country (and probably the world) — there’s an estimated 1,500-1,600 monuments, from simple granite markers to elaborate monuments. There are even some in town, in parking lots and such.

vicksburg2a.jpgThis one from Illinois has 47 steps to mark the 47 days of the siege, has an open cupola and cost $109,000 back in 1906, or what would be $4.6 million today, and represented 25% of the state’s budget.

vicksburg3The Wisconsin one is simpler, but note the bald eagle at the top. This was the mascot of some of the troops and “Old Abe,” as he was called, was a live bird carried in a box and that the Confederates wanted captured. It survived the war.

vicksburg4Here’s another great monument — to African-American soldiers. The one on the right is looking back fearfully at the past. The one in the middle represents the present and the suffering of war. And the one on the left is looking hopefully into the future.

vicksburg5And there are the trenches and tunnels the Union soldiers dug as they moved closer and closer to Confederate lines and needed to stay hidden from Confederate marksmen. There’s also an ironclad that sunk in the river and has been brought up. Much of the iron is gone and the wood is rotting (where it hasn’t been replaced).

Our time in the park was short because we had to head for the Longleaf Trace trail some 90 minutes away by car. (I’ll report on that soon.) But thank you Michelle from Crooked Letter Cycling for a great tour!

 

At Windsor Ruins, I’m seeing a grander version of Tara

This magnificent antebellum mansion survived the Civil War — and burned because of a stray cigarette.

windsor ruinsOur afternoon ride was shortened at the last minute — just 10 hilly miles from Port Gibson (no longer a port city because the river shifted) to Windsor Ruins, once a grand antebellum mansion with 23 rooms in rural western Mississippi and about 40 miles south of Vicksburg.

It survived the Civil War (occupied by Union troops instead) only to be burned down by a stray cigarette (either during a party or by a workman, depending on what story you believe. Or a mix? Wikipedia says a guest dropped a cigarette onto construction materials.) Now it’s one of the most photographed spots in Mississippi.

To help give the photo some scale, the base of the columns are taller than me. They were for the above-ground basement. Imagine such a thing! Not surprisingly, this was on a huge plantation, so just guess at the number of slaves. I’m thinking it easily outdid Tara.

A Yankee soldier was shot in the front doorway? Now that sounds like something Scarlett did.

Fun fact: We biked on Rodney Road (also where the house is) — going in the opposite direction of General Grant on his way to Vicksburg.

The other way to spell Mississippi

Silly me, I thought it was just M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i.

crooked letterIt’s not just M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i.

Try M-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-humpback-humpback-i.

And if you want to take it to another level, the letter i becomes “straight letter”.

Honestly, I’ll stick to the regular alphabet.

But did you ever hear the joke “what has four eyes and goes south”? (If I wrote it as four i’s, it would give it away). It’s the Mississippi (and don’t get all smart on me and say it’s five i’s with River).

A Mississippi bike ride on the Natchez Trace and round the rez — but no alligators in sight

I got a taste of the Natchez Trace Parkway on this route that’s a favorite with the locals.

natchez traceWe started the day with a beautiful 35-mile ride around the Ross Bartnett Reservoir in Ridgeland, a suburb of Jackson (the state capital). Blue skies, lots of sun and water on one side all the time means it’s a ride that’s pretty hard to mess up.

We began on a bike trail along the Natchez Trace, a route I’ve always wanted to ride. The whole thing is 444 miles from Natchez to Nashville, so this ride was just a tiny bit of it. (Add the full route to the bucket list — starting from Natchez since you’re more likely to have a tail wind.. and you build up to the foothills of the Appalachians.) Continue reading “A Mississippi bike ride on the Natchez Trace and round the rez — but no alligators in sight”

43 miles on Mississippi’s Tanglefoot Trail

The Tanglefoot Trail runs from New Albany to Houston.

bikes and butterfliesThis is a rail-trail that stands out for doing the most basic of amenities incredibly well — shelters with running water and real toilets (and even outlets to recharge your phone).

Continue reading “43 miles on Mississippi’s Tanglefoot Trail”

Hopscotching across the state of Mississippi

breakfast concord inn(It’s always about the food isn’t it? Much nicer than my usual style!)

I’m getting away from a northern winter to join a small group exploring Mississippi on a bike. And no, this is not part of the East Coast Greenway.

Now Mississippi is a long state (more than five hours to drive from the state line with Memphis down to the Gulf of Mexico) and we only have four days, so I admit there’s some assists coming via a car. We’re going to skip some of the more obvious tourists sites (sorry Tupelo, Oxford and Natchez) and instead spend a good chunk of time on rail-trails you may not have heard of. And yes, the Natchez Trace.

As a Northener who has spent less than 24 hours in Mississippi until now (and that was only in October), I was shocked to learn this deep-red state has a pretty new 43-mile rail-trail that opened all at once. Quite a feat! Then we hear that the time between the railroad abandoning the line to Tanglefoot Trail opening was just 10 years (eight years if you start counting from the first meeting), and we’re all stunned by the speed. Oh, and it’s asphalt, so a lot more expensive than crushed stone.My town struggles to just put in sidewalks along a road to the train station (we’re starting year 5 – it could happen this year for the first five or six homes.)  And before you ask, 80% of the money came from the federal government (grant). Someone knew how to push the right buttons.

I intend to find out the full story — but I’m already hearing about the trail’s economic impact.

So here’s the basic itinerary:

Day 0: I’m on a rental bike because I couldn’t deal with shipping my bike and then needing to ship it back. But the others have brought their various fold-ups and spend time after dinner reassembling their bikes at a beautiful B&B while I … chat (what a surprise!).

Day 1: 43 miles on the Tanglefoot Trail (New Albany to Houston).

Day 2: 35-mile loop involving the Natchez Trace Parkway from Ridgeland, a bike-friendly suburb of Jackson, the state capital. Then another 27-mile section of the Natchez Trace from Rocky Springs to Windsor Ruins (what a name for a town!). The Natchez Trace is run by the National Park Service and runs from Nashville to Natchez. Until now, it’s the only place I knew about biking in Mississippi, and it’s a 50-mph road.

Day 3: 16 miles around Vicksburg National Military Park (can I just say I love the National Park Service?) and then 41 miles on the Longleaf Trail from Prentiss to Hattiesburg

Day 4: 28 miles along the Gulf coast.

Total is 200 miles, and no coincidence that this is Mississippi’s bicentennial year.

Rhode Island’s beautiful East Bay Trail!

Ride your bike by the water from Providence toward Bristol on this Rhode Island multi-use trail.

This trail runs 15 miles starting in Providence, Rhode Island, along the Narragansett Bay south to Bristol. The East Bay Trail connects to the main East Coast Greenway route, and we rode 10 miles of it while in Providence in mid-November. It’s an old railway line, so it’s flat. Yes, there’s wind to offset that. You’re always near the water, but it also runs past a supermarket. How cool is that — being able to get groceries via the trail? Continue reading “Rhode Island’s beautiful East Bay Trail!”