Today is our last Sunday in Mississippi: we leave next Saturday, April 1st - heading east, then north. We estimate being home Thursday, April 20th. We are a little sad to leave; we love our Gulf Coast home!
Our travel is planned, reservations confirmed. We’ve gradually been reorganizing, packing up, discarding - preparing for getting back on the road. We have eleven stops along the way.
We had a wonderful winter! Weather wise, we certainly had a lot of rain, some wild thunderstorms (even today!) and a sprinkling of colder days, but for the most part, we were outside!
There is a lot to do and see on the Gulf Coast. If you have never been, you are missing a beautiful part of our country! We had so much fun visiting the towns dotting the coastline, learning about the area and immersing ourselves in our community. We visited many different venues - from art galleries, model train and plane museums, the space center, lots of casinos and southern historical sites…
Sculpture in BSL
Hancock County Beach
Beauvoir
Ohr-O’Keefe Museum
Antiquing
Beautiful Old Live Oak
We loved having our family visit, even though that particular week Charlie and I were not at our best. I’m hoping they’ll join us in Bandera next winter, too.
We celebrated Mardi Gras! This is serious business in the south! We learned the history, traditions and enjoyed “participating” in the BSL parade - despite the black eye I received after getting hit in the face with a heavy set of beads thrown from one of the floats. I even bought a King Cake to take home!
King Cake
Our friends Ellen and Yori surprised us with their impromptu vacay to Biloxi! We had a blast and celebrated Yori’s special birthday! At 65, he’s the baby in the group. They really enjoyed their visit and were surprised at how pretty and friendly this area of the country is!
We loved our campground- Bay Hideaway! We had a comfortable site, enjoyed the activities and met a lot of really great people. For a smaller campground - it had everything we could want!
We made some really cool crafts - both at the libraries and our campground - tie dyed shirts and flag, Mardi Gras decorations, jewel painting, rock painting and jewelry making.
We celebrated our 25th anniversary on Valentines Day! Our campground hosts made a wonderful Valentines Day dinner for all the campers; we were serenaded by Michael, one of our camping friends ( a former opera singer as well as our yoga instructor!)
We met up with cousins Sally and Jerry again yesterday - also RVing in Gulfport for the winter; they treated us to a wonderful lunch at Island View Casino!
We had our final Bingo, last Mexican Train and Left-Right-Center games. Tomorrow morning- we join another camping couple for breakfast at their favorite spot and hopefully- we can fit in a few more things we enjoy by Friday. Wednesday is the final snowbirds barbecue by our camp hosts which should be amazing, as is every meal they’ve prepared!
Needless to say, we did have our challenging and costly moments. Just after arriving in November, we had a flat tire on the trailer, had to replace our trailer roof, and needed to bring our truck in several times for service. Certain things we do not mess around with; we need to make sure everything is in the best working order as possible to reduce the possibility of problems on the road.
Leaks are no fun!
Last but not least, our camping cat, Minnie, had a great winter! She actually caught a mouse the other day when she was outside in the tent!
Recuperating after the mouse ordeal
We are on the road again in just few more days! When we return home from our winter adventures - our world feels so much larger. Winter in Mississippi is now a part of us, a great memory. We hope to make more for as long as we can! To be continued…
