BONUS: Biloxi Mississippi Chapter

Ann Dacey on her Victorian porch on a sub-freezing morning in West Virginia

The new house being built in Biloxi for a Vietnamese-American couple.

Heidi spent a day with this crew in the soup kitchen in Biloxi, serving breakfast and lunch.

Watching the Superbowl with our new friends from Duxbury and Battle Creek.

After two weeks in Florida in winter 2010 we drove to Biloxi Mississippi to join up with a group of adults from Duxbury and Battle Creek, Michigan in a home-building project. This was a great experience, as the Duxbury contingent were new and interesting to us, and the Battle Creek people were lively, organized and fun. We were working under the auspices of the Back Bay Mission of Biloxi. We slept in bunk beds and cooked group meals in a commercial kitchen at the site. Biloxi is still rebuilding after a hurricane 4 1/2 years ago wiped out many homes and businesses.

Ken made trim for windows on a two-bedroom, two-bath stilt house, and Heidi laid down a subflooring and then tiles, with about 8 other workers. The owners of the house, a Vietnamese-American couple, came by after hours to check out the progress.

We had time to explore Biloxi and take in a wharf-restaurant in Pass Christianne, Mississippi. One of our companions was a minister from Kennebunkport, Maine, who was also at the Back Bay Mission during our week. There are miles of beaches in this area of Mississippi but the rebuilding is going slowly so only a few docks, water-front homes and businesses have been brought back, so far.

If you've never been to Biloxi, check it out for a future trip. It's a laid back area, has some casinos that the state feels are helping in the revival, and some older traditional buildings, restaurants and museums. And the waterfront is beautiful!

After bonding with our new Duxbury, Kennebunkport, and Battle Creek friends, we parted ways at the end of the week and headed back to Massachusetts. Our last stop on our winter non-boating trip was in Morgantown WV to visit an old friend (but she's not old!), Ann Dacey. We had a marvelous Valentine's Day dinner with "Dacey" and left with snacks of the evening's chocolate cake to enjoy the next day while traveling home.