Louisiana State Museum

 
  Free ebook from Amazon - Strange True Stories of Louisiana

 A wonderful museum covering all aspects of Louisiana’s history and it’s unique blending of different cultures. We spent over three hours at the museum and didn’t see it all.

  The entire museum is handicapped accessible.

  We visited on a Saturday and parked a few blocks south in a lot on the corner of North 4th Street and Laurel Street. The lot is large enough for RVs. If your RV is big you may have to pay for two spaces – $5.00 a day for each space. There are many spaces on the street but parking is limited to 2 hours – $.50 an hour. The sidewalks and curb cuts are good.The museum doesn’t have a sign that is visible from the street but look for the state library. The museum is directly across the street from the library.
Museum
30.45388, -91.18672

Island View Casino

  Update - this lot is no longer available for RV parking. RV parking in other lots only if you have a room.

 This is a great casino lot for overnight RV parking. It’s big, level,fairly quiet, and you have a choice of waterfront or grassy median spots. There are even some trees!

  The casino is located across the street so getting there is a bit of a journey. Take the elevator at the parking garage up to the skyway and then on the other side of the street, take another elevator back down to the casino. The skyway has a ADA compliant slope in the middle.  The casino itself is very accessible. The aisles are wide, the money and ticket slots in the machines are low, the chairs are light enough to push or pull out of the way and the carpeting is low pile so pushing around is easy.  Island View
30.36304, -89.09919

Davis Bayou Campground-Gulf Islands National Seashore

  There are two accessible camping sites in this campground, one next to the bathroom and the one that we stayed at,pictured above. Both have extra wide paved parking pads, pavement extending to the hookups, long overhangs on the tables, and campfire rings with high sides.

The one pictured above has a graveled slope from the pavement down to the table which would be very hard to navigate. The park officials have promised to fix this. They're also planning to make some changes to the hookups to make them more wheelchair friendly.

This is a really nice campground, on the small side but with roomy sites and many large live oaks for shade. 
Seashore  30.39133, -88.79094

Ohr-O'Keefe Museum Of Arts

  George Ohr was known as the Mad Potter of Biloxi. The pottery that he made had very thin walls, unusual glazes, and twisted and pinched designs. He also made fun pieces like puzzle mugs and clay coins.

  The museum buildings were designed by Frank O. Gehry but just as construction was beginning , Hurricane Katrina came through and destroyed most of it. Several buildings are opened now with a small collection of Ohr’s work plus temporary exhibits of other artists.

   The art museum buildings are accessible but the doors are very heavy making it almost impossible to open them from a wheelchair. Most people will need help. The labels, numbers that correspond to a printed brochure, are not visible on the pottery that has been placed on the higher shelves. An outside observation deck, accessed by an elevator, has brick walls which are too high to see over.

  Admission to the art museum includes admission to the Pleasant Reed House. Pleasant Reed was an born a slave in Mississippi. Shortly after the Civil War ended he moved to Biloxi where he built his house and raised his family. The house was donated to the museum but it was also a casualty of Katrina. The current house, a reproduction, is an interpretive center with a short movie and exhibits about the family and early Biloxi. The house is completely accessible.

  The parking lot for the museum is very small but RVs can park on the adjacent streets or in the parking area for the museum offices. Ohr Museum
30.39279, -88.86991

Mardi Gras Biloxi

   We thought that Mobile would be crowded on Fat Tuesday so we went to the celebrations in Biloxi, Mississippi. It has a similar atmosphere to Mobile but the floats aren’t as elaborate. Still lots of beads!

  Biloxi’s main street, which is US 90, has not recovered from Hurricane Katrina. Before the hurricane the street was lined with beautiful homes, dating from the early 1800s. They were all washed away or damaged beyond repair by the tidal surge. Now the empty lots provide plenty of parking. We arrived a couple of hours early and had no trouble finding a parking spot. The sidewalks are in good condition and half of US 90 is closed for the parade so wheeling along is easy. On the road( US 90 )is a great to watch the parade. Mardi Gras
30.39373, -88.89145

Mardi Gras Mobile

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 We’ve never gone to Mardi Gras in New Orleans but this is our third time for Mobile, Alabama. The atmosphere is laid backed, family oriented with little rowdiness. The floats are fantastic and we get more beads and moon pies than we could possibly want.

   We go the weekend before Fat Tuesday and park in the center of the parade route. The streets are closed about 1/2 hour before a parade starts and they open back up about 1/2 after the parade ends so we’re barricaded in for a short time. Since we stay all day and go to both the early afternoon and evening parades, being locked in isn’t a problem and we have the motorhome to hang out in and eat lunch and dinner. The sidewalks are in very bad condition but since the streets are closed it’s possible to just wheel down the streets. We have a choice of viewing spots because we’re in the middle of  a parade loop.

  We park in a grass and gravel lot by the Church Street Cemetery. We’re not sure who owns the lot - the cemetery, the city, or Big Zion Church but it’s never crowded and usually quiet.

   Map of the parade route. Arrow pointing to the lot. We usually watch the parades on Washington Street. Mardi Gras
30.68572, -88.05135
 
 

Mobile Museum of Art

   This is a medium sized museum with galleries of permanent collections and temporary exhibits. All are very good but the standouts for us were the glass and wood pieces. The design and detail of some of them is simply amazing.

  The museum is handicapped accessible. Some of the signs in the Material Imaginings exhibit are too high and hard to read. All three floors are carpeted. Pushing is not hard but there’s a lot of area to cover so it can be tiring.  The parking lot has a uphill slope to the front entrance.  There’s room for RVs parked sideways across the spaces.  Art Museum
30.70446, -88.15472

National Naval Aviation Museum

    This is one of the best military aircraft museums that we’ve visited and also one of the largest. We spent three hours and didn’t see everything.The exhibit starts with small bi-planes and traces the history of aviation to the moon landings. A large potion is dedicated to WW II with very detailed, full scale recreations of the home front, the living and working quarters of an aircraft carrier and a jungle air field.

   Most of the museum is accessible.The signs are easy to view except for the ones in the aircraft carrier exhibit which are too high.There are a couple of exhibits with staircases and no other access. None of the aircraft where visitors are permitted to climb into the pilot seats have ramps.

The museum is located on the grounds of the Naval Air Station Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels. There’s an area for RV parking at the far end of the lot. Air Museum
30.34769, -87.30161
 

Fort Pickens - Gulf Islands National Seashore

   Fort Pickens was built with slave labor as a defense against foreign invasion. It was used from 1834 until 1947 but saw little action except for a brief period during the Civil War.

  The fort is semi-accessible. A concrete sidewalk runs from the parking lot through the fort. There’s ongoing  construction which might account for a few missing ramps. Some of the pavement inside the fort casements, either concrete or bric , is very uneven. Most of the interpretive signs are along the sidewalk and are easily viewed. A few areas have steps and aren’t accessible.

  WW II batteries, located along the main park road, have sand paths and aren’t accessible. Most of the signs can be read without exiting your vehicle.

  The campground does not have accessible sites.The sites close to the bathroom are saved for handicapped campers but the parking pads are narrow, some have high drop offs down to the grass and the tables do not have a long overhang. All in all the campground is poorly designed – narrow roads, short parking pads, sites close together and odd angles that make backing in difficult. Fort Pickens
30.32243, -87.27612

Pine Log State Forest Campground

   Half of the sites in this campground have a beautiful lake front view, the other half are nicely wooded. Both the lake and the campground are very small but the sites are large, level and far apart. The camp sites are various sizes with some large enough for any  RV.

   None of the sites are specifically handicapped accessible. The lake front ones have a couple of steps to get down to the table. The wooded ones are all on one level. The ground is hard packed sand and fairly easy to roll around on. Campground
30.42979, -85.88081