Since our night was so quiet and peaceful, it was a bit of a surprise opening the RV door in the morning and realizing that the rest stop was filled with people! We soon headed to Gulfport, a city that sits on the Gulf of Mexico. We were there on the Monday of a long weekend (Labor Day) and the city was eerily quiet. We walked through the short Fishbone Alley, which has artwork along the walls and has entrances to restaurants and bars, but there wasn't much going on during this sleepy holiday morning.
Not far from Fishbone Alley, however, is Jones Park, a pretty park with paved trails to go for a stroll, a fountain splash area for kids (who were having a blast), and a bit of beach nearby. We stayed here for a while, opening the windows of our RV to allow whatever gulf breeze to waft through. By the beach the wind was gusting quite pleasantly, which was nice to feel and relax to on this hot day, with additional sounds interspersing of a man playing his guitar (great sound), and an ice cream truck playing music on loop, with a "Hello?" thrown into the song every few seconds (not so great sound).
After chilling in Gulfport for a while and catching up on some errands, we headed to Biloxi, a city that's also on the Gulf of Mexico, that's apparently also known for its casinos. We did see a few casinos as we drove through, but to us, what's way more prevalent is the number of "Waffle House" restaurant chains within such a short distance--we must have counted at least 8 of them within a 15 minute drive from one end to the other of each other! It's like when we were in Corpus Christi, and Whataburger was all over the place--Waffle House is the equivalent in this part of the country, and we could spot them from a mile away, with their black block letters on a bright yellow background. Apparently, it's not even the state that's in the top 5 of the most Waffle House restaurants (the top state is Georgia, which has almost 450)! We haven't eaten at this chain as it's mostly in the southern region, but despite the incessant advertising, we weren't compelled to try it.
We enjoyed simply driving along the Gulf of Mexico, seeing numerous hotels, casinos, restaurants, and beach homes along the coast. In Biloxi the beaches were more packed with people, but away from the tourist areas, there's plenty of places to stop and have more sand to enjoy without the crowds.
Shrimp Boats in Alabama
...And that's a wrap for Mississippi! Based on our current itinerary, we'll be continuing on to other states, and now crossed back into Alabama (we'd visited cities including Huntsville, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa recently). This time, however, we seemed to be in prime Forrest Gump territory, driving through a very, very rural part of Alabama that seemed to look like "Bayou La Batre", the fictional town where Bubba Gump and his family lived, known for its shrimping industry.
While the Bubba's town may be fictional (actually, most of the movie is filmed in South Carolina), the shrimping industry is very real in Alabama, as we saw many bayous and shrimp boats! We had found a place to stop for the night on iOverlander but it turned out that the turn was way too narrow for us to park at along the coast, so we continued on, and it was so rural with swamp and forests that we couldn't help being amazed in the massive change in landscape, and how we were far away from any city or major town!
Our plan was to visit the city of Mobile, Alabama, tomorrow, so we figured we'd keep driving up north. Eventually, we found a road big enough for us to turn, arriving at a pier for shrimping boats! There was a patch of grass big enough to park and not be in anyone's way (and Michael spoke to someone working the dock who said we'd be fine). It was a quiet and tranquil evening, although we're expecting that we could have some noise in the early morning the next day, with shrimpers arriving to head out for their catch of the day. How cool to have such a unique place to stay for the night!
Route Map
