A week in Biloxi
03 April 2012 | Biloxi, Mississippi
Lester
Well, we have been in Biloxi for about a week now. I read somewhere that some people come for a week and stay for three, and some people come for three weeks and never leave. We certainly understand that! Biloxi has been a wonderful place for us. Once again, we are experiencing what is for us, the best part of cruising. The local people are just amazing. One guy in McDonalds asked us what we thought of Biloxi, and with our reply, he just said,"southern people".
The folks here have been so nice and helpful. We will never forget Al, the harbor Master, or Willie, the guy that took us and our crippled dinghy back to Seanna in the middle of the night. And that was after he had already loaded his boat on his trailer! Then there is Jerome. Jerome helped us make a Walmart stop in record time, and with his cousin being the bus driver, we never missed our ride.
We have had our ups and downs here though. I didn't have the dinghy tied to Seanna very well so it drifted away. I tied the dinghy in a bad spot and it got a hole rubbed in her, and we have had a few storms come through. One of the storms produced waterspouts at an alarming rate. I counted six or seven. One of them hit Seanna, but the winds weren't too bad. I was down below still in bed when I heard Robyn say,"oh no, oh no". I got up on deck in time to see the waterspout continue across the water to the beach and churn up sand, much like an Oklahoma dust devil. I spent the next hour or so taking pictures.
Our friend Steve Switzer from Edmond just happened to call that morning and when I told him about the waterspouts, he had to have verification from Robyn. The next thing we know, Steve calls back, and he and his wife, Phyllis, are on their way to Biloxi! They got here the next day, and we spent the next several days having a wonderful visit. For me, the highlight of the visit was going to the beach on Dauphin Island. I have never had that much fun on a beach before. I body surfed so fast that I could feel my face being distorted like in a wind tunnel! Every time that happened, I would start laughing underwater. I may be addicted to body surfing now.
We have become reliant on public transportation. It isn't real convenient, but it works. You just have to plan your day around the routes and schedules. We have gotten to see a lot of Biloxi on the busses and trolleys, though.
We will continue to enjoy Biloxi until Saturday morning, and then we plan to head on to Pascagoula, Mississippi. We are both missing family and friends, but we are also having the time of our lives. As Grandma Branch would say, "oodles of love" to our family.