We didn’t get far after leaving Mobile. In fact, we made it just over the Mississippi border to the visitors center where we collected information and got suggestions for points of interest, especially birding sites. Turns out the two things we wanted to visit weren’t open on Mondays so we checked into the Davis Bayou campground, part of the Gulf National Seashore (last site again – they got a cancellation just minutes before we got there) and did some camper upkeep. We defrosted the refrigerator, organized the pantry and sewed rings on a new privacy curtain before defrosting and eating the ziti dinner we had brought from home.
Tuesday was cloudy and windy but still pretty warm. We headed to the Audubon center and walked the boardwalks there. Nothing much except a great horned owl who had taken over an osprey nest and hatched a single owlet and a bald eagle that continually soared overhead. Leaving there we drove north to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. This crane is a non migratory subspecies unique to the gulf coast and on the endangered species list. The last 134 existing individuals that live here are dependent on the savannah environment maintained at the refuge for food and breeding habitat. A film we saw at the visitors center described the efforts being made to support and grow this population, including incubating, fostering and reintroducing crane “colts” to the flock. We put our names on a wait-list for a bus tour to see cranes on Wednesday morning but most of the registrees showed up, leaving only one space. We decided to stick together and returned to the campgrounds to pack up and check out.
Remembering that wifi is available in most libraries, we headed to downtown Ocean Springs and the public library to add to the blog, check email and have a nice lunch. They couldn’t have been nicer and the library was spacious and comfortable so two hours passed before we knew it. After some research we found that a casino hotel would be even cheaper than a chain motel and we really wanted showers and wifi, so we booked a room at Harrahs in Biloxi which turned out to be only 2.5 miles from where we ate. No problem. We’ve been doing so much driving that a 10 mile day was truly welcome.
Got to Harrahs, checked in, showered and hit the buffet and casino. Played a little while on the poker machines and pretty much broke even. Tired and happy, we returned to the room for some Olympic watching and planning the next leg of the journey.
The Ultimate Road Trip 