Mississippi

What to say about Mississippi?

Our coastline route has been wet, like swampy wet.  There are springs that constantly flow randomly out of the ground, down the streets, along the gutters and ditches, etc.  This means very few dry spots for roadside camping.  Lucky for us, help-the-horse-travelers moral is at an all time high with the locals.  Even McDonalds gave us about a hundred dollars worth of free food via gift cards... Don't worry, foodies, we gave away a lot of it and we shan't eat it all at once, although m&m McFlurry binge did cross our minds.  From the last statement, the reader may infer that its been warm and it has! The weather was downright hot for a few days there.  Hopefully we'll get to see some gators soon; remember they hide til it warms up.

Between Gautier and Ocean Springs, even as far as Mississippi's last hurrah, Pearlington, our most common curbside greeting changed from "I just gotta ask..." to "We saw ya'll on TV!"  Thanks to WLOX for running a great spot, we really appreciate it.

Ocean Springs had an artsy little downtown that suited us well enough to get stuck there for 3 nights.  Haha... if FCF averaged more than a handful of miles/day, the last 5 months just wouldn't have been us.

Ocean Springs was great for busking, we had lovely hosts every night (thanks to H&G, to J and to C&K) we even did a cooking show with a music video.  We'll post that later when we have the link.

The lovely G

Our thoughts at the time... "Stuck in a small, friendly vortex called Ocean Springs.  We had a day filled with songwriting (whoop!) And then our first Mardi Gras parade.  Music played, lights flashed, sirens screamed, while Meadow stood placidly by, voraciously munching clover.  Olive slept amid the crowd though the laser lights weren't welcome.  We ate a salad too, a fantastic one with our first bignettes - apple ones prepared by our friend and first night hostess, G."

"Hannah spotted a bike mounted with what appeared to be a small boat.  Turns out it was a little bed.  On the side was painted wheresbixby.com and inside was Bixby herself, another traveling dog! Olive was mesmerized and the moment Bixby dismounted to chase a tennis ball, she seized the opportunity to take a cat nap in the bike-top-bed.

Bixby's owner, M, is a super cool guy on an amazing trip of his own... we were jealous of each other.  We hope to run into him again.  And thanks to J for taking in all 6 of us and for letting Hannah play in your art supplies box all night."

Across the Biloxi bridge, we skipped the high rise casino/hotels as they were not our style.  That night we met a cool guy named M at a gas station.  We had an awesome talk about faith in God, we gave a dog training lesson, and the next day we had a picnic with him and his wife, A.  Then before we knew it, two cross country bikers rolled up.  J and G, from Quebec way up in Canadia.  All 6 of us hung out for a bit before parting ways.

We camped that night - another cold one - thank goodness a new friend, a kind woman J, showed up and gave Hannah a nice, new red coat.

We put up with a nasty afternoon, 36 degrees and raining, before the Quebecois showed up again and invited us to the house where they were staying.  The house belonged to B&B.  In addition to us and J&G, there was another visiting couple, B&B (chuckle)... Oh and we even invited a friend from earlier that day; named I.  It was a chili/gumbo/cajun/music/québécoise nonet.  Check out J&G's trip at jagbicik.com

That was in Gulfport.  We found Pass Christian pleasant and welcoming as well; free yoga at the library and WiFi (on our new Nexus 7... wooord!).  In Bay St. Louis we found a neat little family band playing the Mockingbird Cafe.  We spent the night in a spooky little empty house, don't ask.

The next day we cruised all the way to Pearlington and stayed the night outside Turtle Landing.  Great food and a beautiful bayou sunrise.

Chainsaw carvings of trees damaged during Hurricane Katrina

From there we logged a 20 mile day into the great state of Louisiana, into the farthest east part of New Orleans (still 30+ miles from the city's center) and stayed with a cool guy, M and his girlfriend, J.  That night we hung out with them at Crazy Al's.

From the top of a tall bridge we spotted the New Orleans skyline and knew we were close to our first major destination!

- FCF

Olive is so friendly, sometimes she volunteers to hop in the cars of people who stop roadside to talk with us.  This could be a problem.
Meadow is finally gaining weight on the excellent Mississippi grass, even mowing the lawn of the late mother of the mayor of Biloxi.