Thunderstorms this morning but we were lucky and missed out on the few tornadoes that were about.  Once things calmed down we started driving west.

Near where we were, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, is the NASA John C. Stennis Space Center, America’s largest rocket engine test complex.  We stopped in for the tour.  There was another couple there, so the four of us climbed in the tour van and were given a narrated tour of the grounds.  It was raining so the pics are no good, but the tour was interesting.  The engines for all NASA’s space vehicles are tested and approved here.

Rocket Engine Testing Rig

There are several other companies here too, including a NOAA facility that builds buoys for monitoring tsunami’s and La Nina and El Nino as well as measuring currents, wave heights, temps, etc.

NOAA Buoys

Bernie Inside a Space Station Module

By the time we finished with all that the rain had stopped completely so we continued west on I-12.  We went only as far as Hammond, Louisiana, which is north of New Orleans.