New Orleans to Bay St Louis, Mississippi – 1 March 2023
Mississippi, the Magnolia State, was quite different to New Orleans. It is the birthplace of American blues music, home to many musicians and nicknamed the Dixie region. It is known for its southern charm, southern cooking and long stretch of gulf coast. It is the world’s leading producer of farmed catfish and a leading producer of cotton. Bay St Louis is a small, quaint, tourist town with beautiful white beaches, restaurants, beach bars and galleries. There is a large, active municipal marina where there were lots of fishing boats. As you drive along the coast you pass through several towns next to each other along the coast – Pass Christian, Gulfport, Biloxi and Ocean Springs. Many of the houses along the coast are on stilts because of the risk of flooding. There are also some spectacular Antebellum mansions. These date back to before the Civil war. We drove along the coast and went over the Biloxi bridge. There was a 120ft mosaic erected in four panels just below the bridge, depicting the natural beauty of the coast. Coming back we saw many casinos in the area as well as souvenir shops. Mississippi have hundreds of Terns which look like Seagulls that run and fly along the beach in flocks. This whole area was almost completely wiped out from Hurricane Katrina. Interestingly, the Mississippi River flows through 32 States and 2 Canadian provinces but NOT the Mississippi State where it can be found on the Western border. Every January, Bay St. Louis hold the “Dolly Should” festival which is a big-hair birthday tribute to Dolly Parton.
The beaches in this area were spectacular with the whitest sand you have ever seen – and litter FREE!! We stopped in Pass Christian, grabbed a coffee and went for a walk around the marina. Also we stopped at the visitors centre in Bay St Louis and walked around their small town which was very quaint with lots of gift stores and restaurants.
During our stay in Mississippi we stayed at the Bay Street Louis RV Park. This was an old park with mostly permanent residents staying in rather rundown RVs. There was a very brown, murky swamp “pond” that had a few ducks in it. There was also a covered pool. On the pro side, we saw a number of restaurants in walking distance and at least the site was level and we could get to the towns without having to travel too far. It seems the owner has had the RV resort for the past 39 years.
