MISSISSIPPI, IPPISSISSIM. Friday 3/6- Saturday 3/7

Biloxi, Gulfport and Ocean Springs were so so so good to us. 2 hours from New Orleans to Biloxi! Our stay at Gulf Beach RV Resort was simply too short. Turns out the location used to be a motel, but now it’s a pretty high-class RV park. We met a ton of WWII and Vietnam vets; 18 couples with coaches meet up every 3 or so months to spend time together. You should have seen the food at their pre-dinner potluck! They loved watching Ben and Izzy in the pool. We are definitely representing Oregon heartiness with Ben and Izzy’s 60 degree water swims. Blue lips? Nah, we’re just getting started. Show us some snow to swim in! (Just kidding. No more snow please. Let’s leave that in Terlingua, every 7 years).

We were so surprised by the empty beaches! The beaches were amazing and while the media hyped up (what, they do that?!!) the ‘flesh-eating bacteria in the water’ we didn’t buy it. When you break it down, the message here is don’t go in the water if you have a cut b/c you will be more likely to get an infection. Duh. The media really messed things up for the economy of this small town during that media blitz. Didn’t matter to us- we were happy to hang like Elvis did on those beautiful (man-made) white sand beaches! However, because of our lengthy stay in Texas, we needed to make up a little time. Knowing that we’d have plenty of beach time ahead of us in the Sunshine State, we decided to push through both Mississippi and Alabama, spending just the part of the day and night Friday and Saturday with a promise to return to spend more quality time there soon. (I snuck Riggs on the beach early Saturday morning. Even though no dogs allowed was posted, I could hardly think anyone would mind if there was no one there to see me!)

A little side story: For Clark and my 10th anniversary (back in 2017), we decided to head off to Belize to celebrate. There we met two amazing couples; Dale and Daralyn Boudreaux from Ocean Springs, MS (about 9 minutes East of Biloxi) and Brent and Kelly Sabo from Zanesville, OH. Despite their airline losing their luggage for a few days of their trip, Daralyn and Dale didn’t let that get their spirits down at all. Dale lived it up in his neon garb- Jaguar Reef Resort gift shop shorts, shirts and hat.

Anywhoo, knowing that we’d be passing through, I reached out to Daralyn to see if she might have time to meet up for dinner Friday evening. Turns out they did! We had a really fun dinner together at Woody’s in Ocean City. Dale and Daralyn were just as we remembered them; full of laughter, love and funny stories. Can’t wait to whoop it up with them on another vacation!

Next stop, Shady Acres Campground and the USS Alabama in Mobile, Alabama! But first, Krispy Kreme! LOL. We didn’t think there were any left!