Biloxi

This was the first place we hit when we rolled in to Biloxi. Steve and I have been to a lot of Waffle Houses, but NEVER one on the beach! And up to that point, never one that was brand spanking new! The original, having been destroyed during hurricane Katrina, left a lot of employees without jobs, and needless to say, these guys and gals were real happy to be back at work. You could see it in their step, in their eyes and in the way they talked. I’d have to say, this may have been the best WH experience I’ve ever had, there on the beach, in Biloxi, Mississippi.

It had been two years since Katrina! WTH! And the more we saw of this area, the more we thought, WTH! The destruction, still, was immeasurable, except to say that the entire coastline was hardly anything more than foundations, entry way steps made from concrete and a few sign posts amazingly still sporting their former business names. It was the most sad and dreary town ever to have a beach grace it’s coast line.

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We were told that some buildings, literally, had been moved right off their foundations, still mostly structurally intact, to as far away as two to three blocks from where they originally stood. Several of the casinos were built off the coast line, out where gambling is legal, in international waters. Stupidity or brilliance? Your call…

One building had trees in the middle of it, and for the life of me I still can’t figure out HOW it happened. I inspected, I took photos, I scratched my head, a lot. If you’d seen me, I imagine I’d have looked like the dog who turns his head cockeyed when someone makes a weird or high pitched noise. Curiosity and bewilderment mixed with a little “I was just petting him, George.”

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BEACH TIME! Well, sorta’. We were told by the gals at the Waffle House not to go in the water, and we didn’t. We weren’t even tempted once we were there, and we saw. You wouldn’t have wanted to either, if you’d seen. Like the weather the two days we were there, dreary, and it was dirty and murky and there were things on the beach and in the shallow water that were unidentifiable. Pieces of, only who knows what – homes, broken bits of the contents of some poor soul’s home, glass from probably anything you could think of… Really I don’t even want to think about what was still washing up on that shore, even after two years.

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Like life though, there is always beauty, even in the most dismal places. You may have to dig it from the cracks, or simply open your eyes. You can have a blast with an old stick just the right size for drawing or playing games in the sand. There’s not much wildlife near toxic waters, but there are always those few that will brave and scavenge the filth.

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There is always FISHING! If nothing else – fishing. It’s one of our favorite things to do, Steve and I. I’d never been fishing before I married Steve, and it was his dad, CJ, I first fished with. It was shortly after we moved to Dahlonega the first time. We went to “The Shoals” – a private little place at the end of our bumpity, dirt road. It’s one of the most beautiful places in this town, and believe me, there are some beautiful sites here in Dahlonega. CJ and I, and HC Wilson, CJ’s brother-in-law, gone fishin’. This is one of my favorite memories of being with my father-in-law. I still find it incredibly sad that I had such a very short time to know him, to fish with him.

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Another thing I’d never seen was a cemetery by the ocean. If I were to want a burial, which I don’t, but if I did, I would want to be a restin’ beside the sea, somewhere warm and beautiful.

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The Docks. I like boats, can’t say I love them though. I’ve had good and bad experiences with boats, the latter being motion sickness, but put me in a speed boat and I can dig it – the wind blowing in my face, with no way to keep your hair from flying and whipping around, like those thin, vinyl, air blown thingies that businesses use for catching your eye, so that you’ll be so drawn and mesmerized, you’ll whip your car into their parking lot just to see what it’s all about, that, or smash into the car in front of you, because you couldn’t take your eyes off the damn thing whipping around like it’s caught in a tornado or wind tunnel or something, but I. di. gress. I like boats. I don’t love boats.

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We missed the grand opening of the Hard Rock Casino by a couple days, so that’s something to look forward to on our return. We weren’t impressed by the casinos that were already open, I think, maybe we were spoiled by Harrahs in New Orleans, that, and maybe the fact that I didn’t win anything! But the money I won in NOLA afforded us the nights we spent in Biloxi, so no biggie. Next time we’ll see how the Hard Rock stacks up against Harrahs!

This was my first trip to Biloxi, and I look forward to going back, one day, hopefully when enough time has passed and it doesn’t feel quite like a ghost town.