Funny how a new day can change the whole way I view our adventure. Last night I was all down in the dumps and this morning it all seems brighter. We hop into the van and head to the McDonald’s by our hotel. Rudy and I grab a coffee each, Rudy’s hot and black and mine iced with a shot of milk. It jump starts the both of us and we head south having a great conversation about everything from soup to nuts. The landscape is changing. Gone are the mountains and beautiful fall colours of Virginia, Carolina, and Tennessee. The trees no longer crowd the roadways and everything becomes flatter and greener, and the sky bigger. It almost feels like I can smell the salty ocean air.
One thing that remains the same throughout this country is the frequency of Dollar General stores along the road. But here, it seems, the baptist churches begin to outnumber the Dollar General stores. We make a game of pointing out both the churches and the dollar stores. What is the ratio between the two, we wonder. The plethora of Dollar Generals seems to indicate the economic decay of America and the large expensive churches indicates otherwise.
One thing that is different here in the south and that is the temperature. The high in Tupelo today is 30 degrees celsius and it is going to be 26 in Biloxi. We’ve packed away our down vest, jeans, and sweaters and dressed in shorts and summer shirts. As we drive into town we see mansions with pillars and large curving stairs up to second floor verandahs. The houses are various shades of pink, peach, minty green, and light turquoise. Our highway takes us straight to the ocean and we turn right along the coast until we hit the Star Inn. It is perfect. The perfect 50s motor motel. Love it. It is right across the road from miles and miles of white sand beach.
I throw my stuff in the hotel room and immediately head to the beach. The beach is mostly empty except for random families, kids catching crabs and digging in the sand and occasional couple. The water is incredibly shallow. I can walk way out on sand bars and only are ankle deep at most. The sand is the colour of maple fudge and it is so soft. There is no variation in the size of the grains of sand. It is so fine. I have never seen anything like it. There is also a board walk that seems to run for a mile or more. I pass beach bars where people are having beers and snacks while their children dig in the sand at their feet. After some time I head back to the hotel to get Rudy and we head out for happy hour. It is after 5 and according to our phones the sun will set at 6:18. We find a beach bar and get a table on the balcony right beside the railing looking out to the gulf. It is glorious. We sit and visit and wait for sunset. Then we walk along the boardwalk in the dark under the street lamps. What a magical surprise this visit to Biloxi and the beach is…no casinos, no busy interstate highways and truck stops, no McDonalds….just the water and the sand and the sky.