Heck yeah! Been there more than a few times.
Greetings from Biloxi!
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Heck yeah! Been there more than a few times.
We did end up at Slap Ya Momma.
We did a casino buffet for lunch because I was in need of vegetation and they had a magnificent salad and veggie bar (along with everything else you can think of). For dinner we weren't highly motivated, but I had an eye toward breakfast in the morning so we went to SYM next door instead of The Shed.Food was good. Ribs, brisket, corn on the cob, I had a salad and Monello had mac & cheese. They have THE BEST smoked wings I've ever eaten. We over-ordered and have a #### ton of food leftover.
So to recap Biloxi. We did side trips to Ocean Springs, Gulfport, Pass Christian & Bay St. Louis. Ocean Springs is 1 of those places that insightful people with vision set out to create an inviting atmosphere for visitors and locals alike. Walking areas with locally owned businesses. No chains at all in the entertainment district. Eating and drinking establishments with lots of outdoor seating. And they take traffic enforcement serious. The place that we stopped in for a quick drink announced that a truck needed to be moved or it was going to be towed. The infraction? It was parked facing the incorrect direction. A few moments later a tow truck appeared. This is a great location for a pub crawl.
Bay St. Louis is this pretty, picturesque burg on the edge of the bay. Not a lot of commercial but enough to make it interesting. They have a decent sized marina that is the waterfront focal point. The town, in fact all the towns we visited, are well kept in appearance. They show a lot of pride of ownership.
The local casinos aren't the megavenues similar to what you find in Atlantic City. We stopped in at the buffet for lunch. They had several stations that were Southern, Italian, Backyard BBQ, Asian, Mexican along with a carvery. I noticed that the entire serving staff and many of the visible food service workers were foreigners. The wait staff was heavily Asian. Not an Ashley or Brittany is sight. The buffet desserts looked a lot better than they tasted. They did have some awesome mini eclairs that were nice and light. In the parking garage at least 10% (Vrai claims the percentage is higher) of the cars were jacked up parkers. Many on the line and several straddling the line. It was a read head scratcher as to how so many ####ty parkers ended up in the same lot.
Beauvoir. Jefferson Davis' home. It got pretty tore up from hurricane Katrina. The docent was spectacularly informative. She was in a period hoop dress. We got a lot of background information on the home and the surrounding area. I enjoy learning about our country's history on our jaunt across the US.
There is quite a military presence here but it's not in your face obvious. Keesler AFB and Gulfport SeaBee base are here along with a working port. The main drag goes right along the beach. The sand from the beach gets blown onto the street and surrounding sidewalks. While we were here the traffic is manageable.
While this isn't a must see area, anyone coming here for a few days won't be disappointed. It's very picturesque with a laid back feeling. We may be back or maybe not. We never made it over the The Shed for BBQ or Murky Water, both that were recommended to us.
Bay St. Louis is this pretty, picturesque burg on the edge of the bay. Not a lot of commercial but enough to make it interesting. They have a decent sized marina that is the waterfront focal point. The town, in fact all the towns we visited, are well kept in appearance. They show a lot of pride of ownership.
The local casinos aren't the megavenues similar to what you find in Atlantic City. We stopped in at the buffet for lunch. They had several stations that were Southern, Italian, Backyard BBQ, Asian, Mexican along with a carvery. I noticed that the entire serving staff and many of the visible food service workers were foreigners. The wait staff was heavily Asian. Not an Ashley or Brittany is sight. The buffet desserts looked a lot better than they tasted. They did have some awesome mini eclairs that were nice and light. In the parking garage at least 10% (Vrai claims the percentage is higher) of the cars were jacked up parkers. Many on the line and several straddling the line. It was a read head scratcher as to how so many ####ty parkers ended up in the same lot.
Beauvoir. Jefferson Davis' home. It got pretty tore up from hurricane Katrina. The docent was spectacularly informative. She was in a period hoop dress. We got a lot of background information on the home and the surrounding area. I enjoy learning about our country's history on our jaunt across the US.
There is quite a military presence here but it's not in your face obvious. Keesler AFB and Gulfport SeaBee base are here along with a working port. The main drag goes right along the beach. The sand from the beach gets blown onto the street and surrounding sidewalks. While we were here the traffic is manageable.
While this isn't a must see area, anyone coming here for a few days won't be disappointed. It's very picturesque with a laid back feeling. We may be back or maybe not. We never made it over the The Shed for BBQ or Murky Water, both that were recommended to us.
The pink cakepop was yummy.
We were pleasantly surprised by Biloxi. I thought we'd spend our time at the pool (which we didn't use one time) or the beach (which we walked on once?), but there was plenty to keep us occupied. We're at the Edgewater Inn, which I highly recommend if your travels find you in Biloxi. It's quite charming, not an impersonal chain (nor a #### hole Motel 6), with spacious rooms and good prices, right across from the Gulf, pet friendly.
It's casino heaven around here, as is much of Mississippi.
Beauvoir had the best docent I've ever seen - Donna Magnolia Mouth, with personality to spare. She was so entertaining she made even Jefferson Davis sound interesting.
The Gulf isn't blue and glorious here like it is in Panama City Beach, nor is the beach as white. But it's still beautiful and they have a ton of watersports activities and rentals. There's a tricycle looking thing with big wheels that you ride on the water like a pedalboat.
Tomorrow we're off to Galveston!
I've noticed a lot of beach towns do this, San Diego imports Philipinos, Rehoboth uses Eastern Europeans, Miami uses Jamaicans...
It reminds me of a cruise ship. All the other places we are at were filled with local employees. We met the chef at The Blind Tiger who proudly proclaimed he was a Boudreaux from Louisiana. I guess we were supposed to be impresed. Boudreaux must be the Cajun equivalent of being a Kennedy. But he served up some mighty tasty chow.
His exact quote was, "I'm a Boudreaux, we don't know how to cook without alcohol."
This was in reference to his Fireball BBQ sauce, that he liberally slathered all over the ribs that day. And yes, as in Fireball whiskey. It was pretty good.
And here we are, back in Biloxi!
Our stupid ass levelers wouldn't come down, so Monello chased down the guy, who sent the other guy, and we jury rigged it so we could get level enough to slide out. The guys are running down a part and hopefully the news tomorrow will be that it can be acquired and installed before we leave in a week.
So while the guys were here I had to ask them the most important question: where should we have dinner tonight?
They gave a bunch of suggestions - hello fried chicken and catfish buffet in Ocean Springs! - but the one we wanted tonight wasn't open so we ended up at Felix's. Monello had the Bayou Platter, which was efoufee, jambalaya, and red beans/rice; and I had the fried shrimp and catfish platter. We started with what they call fried crab fingers, which are really claws that have been breaded and fried. And a BUNCH of beers! (And because I'm old, what I mean by a "bunch" is three.)
A word about catfish:
You either like it or you don't, because it's bottom feeder and has a flavor. I love catfish, and Monello had never eaten it before we stopped for lunch in Meridian a few years ago and then he was underwhelmed. But I felt like that place didn't really have proper catfish, so I insisted he try mine tonight - and he liked it.
He's eaten all over the world so when I can introduce him to something new I'm always excited.
I initially hated our RV park, and may still hate it, but when we came back from dinner we hung out at the community fireplace - not a firepit, now, but a big ass stone fireplace in the middle of the park - and met a couple of people. Plus the beers mellowed me out, so I'm sure this place will be fine. The pool is unheated, which is just WRONG but we'll live. It's only a week and if people can be POWs for years we can suffer through a substandard RV park for a week. I'm not exactly crazy about the prison style bath houses, either.
Last time we were here we did a lot of stuff in our few days, so I'm not sure what we'll do this time besides...you know...eat stuff.
Something interesting - to me, not you - is that when I went across the street to get cigarettes they had flavored e-cigs. I'm sucking on a strawberry one the gal recommended to me right now. I thought Trump banned those? I also got pineapple and a banana one.
Something else: the gal who recommended the strawberry e-cig was a black gal, and she was normal and not some crazy person like you see on the prog news and Twitter. So things are normal in most of this country and what you see on TV is bullshit. Remember that when you start to get sucked in.
I'm sad because our journey is almost at an end, but excited because it's a new chapter. One skill that I've honed in these last 5 years is to roll with what life throws at me and make it work.
Our stupid ass levelers wouldn't come down, so Monello chased down the guy, who sent the other guy, and we jury rigged it so we could get level enough to slide out. The guys are running down a part and hopefully the news tomorrow will be that it can be acquired and installed before we leave in a week.
So while the guys were here I had to ask them the most important question: where should we have dinner tonight?
They gave a bunch of suggestions - hello fried chicken and catfish buffet in Ocean Springs! - but the one we wanted tonight wasn't open so we ended up at Felix's. Monello had the Bayou Platter, which was efoufee, jambalaya, and red beans/rice; and I had the fried shrimp and catfish platter. We started with what they call fried crab fingers, which are really claws that have been breaded and fried. And a BUNCH of beers! (And because I'm old, what I mean by a "bunch" is three.)
A word about catfish:
You either like it or you don't, because it's bottom feeder and has a flavor. I love catfish, and Monello had never eaten it before we stopped for lunch in Meridian a few years ago and then he was underwhelmed. But I felt like that place didn't really have proper catfish, so I insisted he try mine tonight - and he liked it.
He's eaten all over the world so when I can introduce him to something new I'm always excited.
I initially hated our RV park, and may still hate it, but when we came back from dinner we hung out at the community fireplace - not a firepit, now, but a big ass stone fireplace in the middle of the park - and met a couple of people. Plus the beers mellowed me out, so I'm sure this place will be fine. The pool is unheated, which is just WRONG but we'll live. It's only a week and if people can be POWs for years we can suffer through a substandard RV park for a week. I'm not exactly crazy about the prison style bath houses, either.
Last time we were here we did a lot of stuff in our few days, so I'm not sure what we'll do this time besides...you know...eat stuff.
Something interesting - to me, not you - is that when I went across the street to get cigarettes they had flavored e-cigs. I'm sucking on a strawberry one the gal recommended to me right now. I thought Trump banned those? I also got pineapple and a banana one.
Something else: the gal who recommended the strawberry e-cig was a black gal, and she was normal and not some crazy person like you see on the prog news and Twitter. So things are normal in most of this country and what you see on TV is bullshit. Remember that when you start to get sucked in.
I'm sad because our journey is almost at an end, but excited because it's a new chapter. One skill that I've honed in these last 5 years is to roll with what life throws at me and make it work.
My grandparents lived in Ocean Springs so I spent a couple of summers down there in the mid-70's. I remember seeing burnt crosses on the beach in Biloxi and grandma having to explain it to sistard and I.
I also remember she took us to see Smokey and the Bandit. Top songs were Please Mister, Please and Delta Dawn.
I also remember she took us to see Smokey and the Bandit. Top songs were Please Mister, Please and Delta Dawn.
Did you eat here yet? https://www.marymahoneys.com/
No, and probably won't. We don't like fine dining, we like a roadhouse with beer on tap and a BBQ shack where you get your food at a window and eat at a picnic table outside.
It looks very nice and I'm sure the food is wonderful, it's just not our jam.
It's actually fairly "rustic" inside the old house. I didn't eat there very often when I worked there for extended periods....too expensive for that . But definitely a real treat once in a while. My most regular "go to" place to eat was Bozos, in Pascagoula.. https://www.bozosseafoodmarket.com/
I've heard The Shed in Ocean Springs is pretty nice.
Anyone who tried that now would get their ass kicked but good - it would probably be some activist rabble rousing hoaxer and not a local.
The deep south gets a bad rap because media elites ensconced in their Manhattan brownstones who've never ventured further south than TriBeCa make up crazy stories because they read "The Color Purple" in college. It's not really like that in places like Biloxi and Lafayette. Black people and white people socialize along class lines, not racial ones.
When I first went to live in Augusta GA in the early 80s I was apprehensive because I thought there'd be this big racial thing going on. I wasn't used to anything like that and had never experienced segregation, but I was assured by the news people that the deep south was highly segregated and alarmingly racial.
Imagine my surprise when we walked into the Waffle House and saw black men and white men sitting and joking with each other at the counter. We lived in an overwhelmingly black apartment village and not a single person made us feel unwelcome.
Most of what the media durhards spew is bullshit, which is why I'm so grateful to be able to actually go to these places and see for myself and not just take their fake news word for it.
I agree.
Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was around all sorts of different races. We never looked at it that way and we were all friends. Sistard commented the other day about how the media is stirring the pot so much, that is crazy and infuriating. And it is. She said that she has run into black people in parking lot stores and they are nothing but friendly and we don't seem to have that problem down here. Neither have I. We will exchange a friendly hello with anyone. Unless they are a total creeper. I think that most of us, black or white, in our area don't play or fall into that game. But there are exceptions to that.
I ate at one of their other locations a couple times....the one they used to have west of Mobile.
Tonight we had dinner at Hartz - AYCE fried chicken and catfish, and down home by gawd sides with bread pudding for dessert.
* urp * We even went and walked around the arcade/go-cart/bowling place and I'm still full.
www.bigplaybiloxi.com
This place was pretty cool, but crowded. We'll go ride go-carts tomorrow afternoon before everyone gets there.
* urp * We even went and walked around the arcade/go-cart/bowling place and I'm still full.
Big Play Entertainment Center Biloxi – Big Play Entertainment Center Biloxi
www.bigplaybiloxi.com
This place was pretty cool, but crowded. We'll go ride go-carts tomorrow afternoon before everyone gets there.
It's been raining pretty hard here the last 3 days. It's a good thing we went out exploring when we first got here while the weather was still cooperating.
The levelers are still jacked up. Really, our jacks are up. And they ain't going down. Not until I can find someone capable of fixing them. 16 years after being built, the rig is starting to show it's age. So far we have swapped out the toilet bowl, bathroom spray hose, mattress, both sink fixtures, the dining table light fixture. I upgraded the overhead lights. 4 years ago I got 6 new tires. And replaced half of the windshield that had a crack in it. Right now a tiny house is looking better and better.
And last night we had another first. This morning we discovered that my bicycle is no longer parked where I last left it. Vrai's bike is still here. And her bike is much more attractive when compared to my ride. Mine is probably out cruising around the beach today. A few places we've locked them up overnight. In hindsight this place should have been added to the list. Vrai's been after me to get a new bike. I actually like(d) the 1 I had. So when it dawned on us my bike was gone, she said to me "I had nothing to do with this". See the way I figure it, after I went to bed last night, she got up, went out in the pouring rain, then deposited by bike in the dumpster. Then came back, dried off and acted like nothing happened. Actually I thought it was pretty funny that she would say that.
Just 1 more adventure to go with the myriad of other adventures and misadventures we've experienced on this journey.
The levelers are still jacked up. Really, our jacks are up. And they ain't going down. Not until I can find someone capable of fixing them. 16 years after being built, the rig is starting to show it's age. So far we have swapped out the toilet bowl, bathroom spray hose, mattress, both sink fixtures, the dining table light fixture. I upgraded the overhead lights. 4 years ago I got 6 new tires. And replaced half of the windshield that had a crack in it. Right now a tiny house is looking better and better.
And last night we had another first. This morning we discovered that my bicycle is no longer parked where I last left it. Vrai's bike is still here. And her bike is much more attractive when compared to my ride. Mine is probably out cruising around the beach today. A few places we've locked them up overnight. In hindsight this place should have been added to the list. Vrai's been after me to get a new bike. I actually like(d) the 1 I had. So when it dawned on us my bike was gone, she said to me "I had nothing to do with this". See the way I figure it, after I went to bed last night, she got up, went out in the pouring rain, then deposited by bike in the dumpster. Then came back, dried off and acted like nothing happened. Actually I thought it was pretty funny that she would say that.
Just 1 more adventure to go with the myriad of other adventures and misadventures we've experienced on this journey.