Biloxi, Mississippi

We left south Louisiana this morning and headed east toward Mississippi. The plan was to have dinner with some of Mike’s family tonight. They were on the road as well and were planning on spending the night in Biloxi at the Beau Rivage Casino. We were hoping to meet up with them at the casino even though we were planning on camping tonight in the De Soto National Forest at the Big Biloxi camp site.

The day was cool, windy and overcast. We arrived in Biloxi early and wanted to do some sight seeing but to our surprise, most of the beach front was still in ruins from when Hurricane Katrina had hit in 2005. The only places that seemed to be busy near the water front, were the casinos.



The water front in Biloxi is still littered with destroyed and abandoned buildings





Boats at a marina in Biloxi

With the cold temps and wind blowing and not much else to see, we decided to head to the local Wal-Mart. Since we were camping for the next few days, we needed to get some supplies and food. We also needed to buy a small motorcycle ramp. In Louisiana we were borrowing Mike’s friend’s ramp. We left the ATV ramp at home, we didn’t have enough space for it on this trips since we brought so much stuff.

We didn’t find a ramp at Wal-mart, but we did pick up more beer from Mississippi and Louisiana and a king cake.



Our shopping cart: Sun chips, eggs, Red Bull, water, orange juice, beer, paper towels and a king cake

A tradition of southern US which originated from France, the traditional King Cake is a ring of twisted bread with or without a filling. We picked a king cake with cream cheese filling. On top of the cake there is sugar icing and carnival colors of purple, green and gold. The cakes come with a small plastic baby to represent baby Jesus, which is supposed to be inserted in to the cake. The person who gets the piece of cake with the baby gets certain privileges. The King cake, named after the biblical three kings, is available after Christmas until Mardi Gras day.

By the time we got our stuff unloaded in to the truck, it was time to head to Beau Rivage Casino. It was sprinkling now, but by the time we arrived at the casino there was a torrential downpour. Because of the motorcycle trailer we had to park in the lot across the street from the casino. Even with an umbrella, we arrived for dinner drenched. Out of the few restaurants at the casino we settled on the Terrace Café. Mike and I split a seafood platter. It was so much food that we still had some left over to take with us. Don’t know how I forgot to take a picture of our fine meal. It was good, but nothing amazing. The crab cakes were the best part, hush puppies were pretty tasty, the fish and shrimp were OK. Everything was friend of course.



Festive decorations at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi

After dinner we all went to the casino to play some slots. We lost, we won, we ended up even and it was time to leave. It was raining the whole time we were at the casino. By the time we arrived at the Big Biloxi campground the rain had passed.

The ranger greeted us as we pulled in to the park. We paid our $13 for a water and electric site, because all the sites had water and electricity. There were decent bathrooms here and one shower stall per building. This camp site looked like it catered to the RV crowd.

After setting up the camp we went to bed. It might have rained some more during the night, it was very humid and warm. The low temps over night were in the mid 50’s. It was definitely too warm to be zipped up in a zero degree sleeping bag.