Crusin' the Coast

Last Thursday I hit the road down to Tallahassee to hop on Interstate 10, head West over to Mississippi and look for exit 50. That's pretty much all I knew so I just headed West. I drove and drove and drove. Through the long Florida panhandle, then across miles and miles of bridges. Across the Pensacola bay into Alabama. Across the Mobile bay. Across marshlands and more bays. Over more bridges and through a tunnel. Finally into Mississippi. A little longer then off 10 at exit 50 and into Ocean Springs Mississippi. What a beautiful little coastal town!

Ocean Springs is on Hwy. 90 which runs right along the beach and connects Biloxi, Gulfport, and Long Beach along that continuous beach. It is a beautiful ride. Everything is very neat and clean and sadly, pretty much all new construction. This is the area destroyed by Katrina. There are so many empty lots with only foundations visible along 90 around Gulfport. But everything that has been rebuilt is beautiful.

Ocean Beach is very walker friendly. Wide sidewalks line the beach and circle through town and over the bridge. The bridge across Biloxi Bay is 1.7 miles and appears to be very high but is actually an easy walk. We tried it one night. We had a nice breeze blowing and the lights from Biloxi were so pretty reflected in the bay. The bridge walk was very busy all weekend with walkers and runners.

Along this portion of Hwy. 90 every October they have "Crusin' the Coast" that takes place from Ocean Springs to Long Beach. The downtown of old Ocean Springs (which survived Katrina) is closed off for the week and the entire town becomes a show place for restored cars with a parade every night and a festival atmosphere all week. Each town has their own car related event and entertainment but the "Crusin'" connects every town.

As I walked along the beach walk Friday the restored cars cruised by in the unofficial parade. By my (also unofficial) count the most popular cars to restore are GTO's, Mustangs, Camaros, Chevy Super Sports and Bel Aires. But I saw many antique cars, muscle cars and hot rods that could have starred in Grease, American Graffiti, and even Bonnie and Clyde. The "cruisers" cruised through Ocean Springs then west over the bridge to Biloxi, Gulfport, and Long Beach for an entire week.

It was neat to see the cars and wonderful to walk off some of the shrimp we ate every night at some great restaurants. The weather was perfect. The shrimp were also. One night we sat on a deck overlooking the beach and watched the sun go down while everyone else sat on the front deck and watched the cars. The water was the most beautiful aqua and turned a light violet as the sun set...... without a tar ball in sight. The other two nights we ate along the bay underneath huge old oak trees that shaded the porches. It is a beautiful area that I had never experienced before. Maybe I'll have another chance to visit.

I almost forgot, if I was Pioneer Women I would show you pictures of our motel room. But if I was PW I would have a camera that worked, but I will say that our room was a suite with a nice sitting area, efficiency kitchen area with table and chairs and the bed was just as nice as all the beds PW has shown. Lush linens and comfy pillows. Nice large bath and the slowest elevator ever placed in a motel. I'm not a professional blogger but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express Suites this weekend!