How do YOU spell Mississippi?

F-R-I-E-N-D-L-Y!

27 May 2009 Baton Rouge, LA to Ocean Springs, Mississippi 177 miles

We have met some of the nicest people at the campground we were at. People offering us stuff to drink, helping us with electrical issues at the camp site, heating our food in their microwaves, to making coffee in the morning and hunting us down when a sudden downpour came. Truly, nice, nice people! Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the car is an automatic draw--especially when people find out we have traveled from California. I'm getting ahead of myself...

I am amazed how quickly our driving time flies—David says it is because of his outstanding personality and witty conversation. From Baton Rouge we drove east on Hwy 190 through Livingston, Hammond, and Covington, before skirting the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. We landed in Slidell, LA right around lunch time and found a small café in the old historic district called Ali Baba’s—great food! We also took some time to wander through some of the local antique stores. From Slidell, we followed Hwy 90 into Mississippi along the Gulf Coast. Wow! This area has some beautiful, beautiful white beaches. There is still a lot of rebuilding being done since Katrina.

We got some great pictures of the Louisiana countryside, and then our camera started going on the fritz. Most of our pictures from today are on the big SLR, and now we are having trouble getting the pictures transferred. I’m not sure what we are going to do about that.

We are staying in Mississippi tonight at the Gulf Islands National Park just outside of Ocean Springs. Nice campground, and very friendly people. The temp is only about 85; it is a bit muggy though.

28 May 2009 Rain, Rain, go away!

We woke up and as usual, went and showered and then began packing up. We had just finished rolling up the tent and storing it in the car, and were in the process of loading the last 4-5 things when the sky opened up and within seconds, literally, it was pouring rain. The rain only lasted about 15-20 minutes, so we were able to get the car re-arranged since we had just thrown everything in before the rain started again. We waited out the storm in the ranger’s office gathering some great information on roadways and the ferry to Gulf Island and Pensacola. No oatmeal today…we headed out to find a restaurant to sit out the rest of the shower. Unfortunately, this volume of water showed us that our roof does in fact still leak, so today’s agenda includes finding the right type of goo to seal the roof.

On the road again…

Ocean Springs, Mississippi to Mobile, AL 67 miles

From Ocean Springs and the Davis Bayou Campground we headed east toward Mobile, Alabama. We had plans to meet up with Joe and Sandra Green, the brother of fellow Capitol A’er Ken Green, later that evening. It was a short mileage day for us, which was kind of nice.

We took the opportunity to do some sight seeing in the afternoon, a suggestion from Joe Green, and went to visit the Bellingrath Gardens and Home. This is a fabulous botanical garden and home of the Bellingrath family, who started the first and most successful Coca-Cola franchise in Alabama. The gardens are incredible, the home exquisite, and the cruise on the Fowl River refreshing. This was well worth the admission fee.

From there we headed into Mobile to Joe and Sandra’s home. We went to dinner with Joe and Sandra to The Original Oyster House, which had great food, and an even better view of the Mobile Delta and the bay. Sandra and Joe offered us a bed in their home for the night. Thank you Joe and Sandra—it was wonderful to meet you!