Davis Bayou, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Ocean Springs, MS
I caught the ranger making his morning rounds; he said he had one family that might leave early. If so, we could take their spot. He said to check with him in 30 minutes. And, we got in! We are living a charmed life! Now Penny and I can do the ride the rain put off yesterday.
I noticed a school bus had moved in last night. As a veteran of the school bus crowd, I stopped in to say “hi”. Will and Nancy had a 56 passenger International Harvester diesel. They were heading from West Virginia to Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas. They came down to see Penny’s artwork and we shared some stories before they had to move on. He is going to be a river guide for the national park! They said they were going to visit the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi on their way west.
This inspired us to do the same thing; we pushed our bike ride back until late afternoon so that we could be sure to have time to enjoy the museum. We had seen it on our way east and meant to see it during this week. Having this extra day afforded the possibility so we wanted to take advantage of it.
The compound was designed in some crazy architecture by Frank O. Gehry; it was campus style with lots of brick buildings with metal roofing that ached over and became walls. The light was brought in through skylights or the glass entryways.
The featured exhibit was George Ohr, the self proclaimed “Mad Potter of Biloxi”. Some of his pottery was utilitarian, but much of it was individual artistic work. Unrecognized until long after his death, he never enjoyed the fruits of his labor. Now they are shown in this Smithsonian Affiliate.
Another exhibit displayed exquisite lathe turned wood art work by a few very talented turners. It appeared to be magically created, other worldly. We had never seen wood sculptures like these.
Another building exhibited information about Hurricane Katrina. In our two trips to the Gulf Shore, we were amazed by the extend of the damage and the difficulties rebuilding these beach communities. But, the photography in these displays helped us to see the big picture. One hundred miles on either side of New Orleans got flattened, just smashed to pieces. Unbelievable!
Once back to Davis Bayou, we did squeeze in a bike ride along the Beach Rd. We rode until the sun set over Biloxi. Having no lights, we turned back to camp arriving safely in the dusk!