Gautier, Mississippi-Sheppard State Park, Jan. 1st-2nd 2013

We’ve arrived at Sheppard State Park after just a short 50 mile trip from Alabama. It’s nice, but definitely the most rural park we’ve been to thus far. Just staying for one night, then moving on the Louisiana.

Camp is now set up and we are heading out to explore. Many things may be closed since its New Year’s Day, but should still be fun.

Downtown Ocean Springs, right around the corner from the park, is so cute but everything was closed…darn. Took some photos of cute shops and restaurants.

This is the lovely park and beach area:

We are only about 5 miles from Biloxi so we are going to head over and drive the coast from Biloxi to Gulfport to Pass Christian and on to Bay St. Louis. I’ve never been through here before. It is a beautiful drive although you can certainly tell it’s suffered a lot of damage. It is so sad to see empty lots or just the foundation of a home left. Still, we were amazed at some of the beautiful homes and lovely shoreline. At dusk we made it to Buccaneer State Park very near the Louisiana border and we checked it out in case we want to stay in the future. It was really nice, but we’ve heard a train goes through like 3 times a night and the tracks are practically running through the park. They had a whole section of waterfront sites, but it was completely closed because of damage from Hurricane Isaac.

Bay St. Louis was very cute. From appearances anyway, they seem to have not been hit as badly as other parts because most of their charming homes and buildings seemed older as opposed to being recently rebuilt.

After it became too dark to explore anymore, we headed back and stopped in Pass Christian to grab a bite to eat. We had a fantastic meal at Shaggy’s, a seafood restaurant at a big marina on the gulf. The fish was so fresh and the wood-burning fireplace was comforting on a drizzly, chilly night.

Ok, so we had to stop in at least one casino as I have never been to one before. We played two slot machines and lost two dollars, and then Dave played Black Jack and nearly tripled our money…put up $40 and walked out with $115!! We stopped while ahead and now I can say I’ve been to a casino….with no real desire to go back. ;o)

It’s late….heading to bed…nite, nite.

Until next time….

Blessings~

Misi and Dave

Southern AL - Dec 30th 2012 – Jan 1st 2013

It’s Dec 30^th and we’ve stopped for the night about 30 miles east of Fairhope, AL. We are staying at the Jellystone Campground in Elberta, AL. It’s a cute campground with nice ‘treed’ sites. We have site 14.

We just got tucked in back at home….we didn’t have much daylight left, but after setting up our site we headed out in the car to explore the beaches a bit (Orange Beach and Gulf Shores). We stopped at LuLu's —a restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet’s sister—and grabbed some dessert before heading home.

 Dave and I both worked until noon on the 31^st then packed up the RV and headed into the historic AL towns of Point Clear and Fairhope. They are so cute and charming and I am in love with the southern coastal cottage architecture!! We set up camp at Meaher State Park (on Mobile Bay), what a lovely little RV Park! We had site 4.

(Our new bear who greets you at our camp site)

We milled around downtown Fairhope and heard that they were having live music and a ball drop for New Years so decided to come back around 10:30.

Bridge Over Mobile Bay

Tunnel under Mobile Bay

Around 5:30 we headed over to Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, AL. It’s an amazing 65 acre garden estate with a 15 room 10,500 SF historic home on site. The original owners made their fortune with a Coca-Cola Franchise they started in 1903. The home and gardens are open year round and during the Christmas season the gardens are decorated with 3 million lights and 950 displays! It was amazing! Below are some photos:

As planned, we arrived back in Fairhope around 10:30 and walked around enjoying the lights and the music. We were fortunate to get an outdoor seat at a café right where the big ball was being dropped! The lighted ball was being suspended by a huge crane!

We chatted with a lovely local couple while we rang in the New Year. It felt a little weird counting down for the ‘New Year’ when, back home in Florida, it had already been 2013 for an hour, lol! It was a great evening!

Considering we didn’t go to bed until 2:00 AL time, we got up pretty early New Year’s Day at 8:00. The weather was beautiful…much warmer than it has been on our trip thus far. I got up and out and took some photos and washed some clothes while Dave had an adventure…not a good one! The indestructible sewer hose we bought, turns out, is NOT indestructible! It busted apart (thankfully it was mostly gray water, lol) and we had to go get a new one at Wal-Mart. I’m not a huge Wal-Mart fan but it sure was nice that they were open on New Year’s Day and had what we needed!!

We are leaving Alabama now and heading only about 50 miles to our next RV Park in Gautier, Mississippi just east of Biloxi.

Until later this evening…..

Blessings~

Misi and Dave