Can’t really call this a bucket list trip as much as a tying-up-loose-ends trip. On all the many trips I’ve taken from BR to the panhandle, from being a kid with the brothers and mom and pop, to the rare spring break excursion, and later, more recently, runs with friends to fish and golf and boat–I’ve always told myself I would stop and check out places like the Stennis Space Center, and the USS Alabama, and the National Naval Aviation Museum. That’s mainly what this trip was about, that and finding good eats along the way, and getting in some fun and sun and fish tacos and bushwackers. The usual checklist of things to do along with this important list (to me) of things to see.
The Infinity Science Center is the museum part of the Stennis Space Center with the requisite cafe and gift shop and theater and models and interactive exhibits, but they have an actual first stage booster from the Apollo Saturn Five rocket, the last one built that never went to space once the program was cancelled. Hard to describe feeling ten years old and ninety years old at the same time, but that’s what was going on as I saw these artifacts of the drive to reach the moon. That generation built so much. Interstate highways, countless bridges and overpasses, but the Saturn Five and the lunar landing vehicle and the Apollo command module still stand out as incredible accomplishments. And maybe I’ve been to too many funerals lately, but it also felt like I was celebrating and mourning a time we will never see again. Stennis itself is where the booster rockets were tested and it is strategically located between Michoud and Huntsville on the Pearl River. The boosters and rocket engines were barged to the facility for full blown testing. The tour was intense, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. Scored a pretty good mushroom swiss burger at the cafe, and some surprisingly good onion rings. Both were right up there with the best ballpark fare. After the meal, I headed on to Biloxi beach just in time to catch the Blue Angels practicing for the air show scheduled for the next day.
The roar of the jets was exhilarating, as always. The tackiness of the beach decor (where did the pink and baby blue color scheme come from I wonder?) was reassuring, as always. And I found something you just don’t ever see in Baton Rouge on the menu at The Reef–a whole fried flounder. Not bad, not bad at all. I stayed at the Star Inn on the beach because it reminded me of the Bal-Moral Motor Court we stayed at when we were kids with the under the front window ac and percale bed covers. I’d give it two stars max. If you’re not being nostalgic or cheap, you can do much better in Biloxi.
All in all a great first day of the walkabout. I got in a nice stroll on the super white sand/brown water beach and could not stop thinking of all those people working together to send men to the moon. There was a show in the theater concentrating on NASA’s mission to Mars, and it was interesting to reflect on the past and harbor some hope for the future, as Pollyanna as that might seem.