A Week At Biloxi Beach

Biloxi is a quiet and charming beach town – perfect for a winter escape.

In previous years we’ve explored all of Florida’s Panhandle and Alabama’s Gulf Shore. I thought Biloxi would be a good change of venue. Drove the motorhome down for a week’s stay and found an RV resort right across from the beach.

Biloxi has 26 miles of man-made beach. Soft, fluffy sand is hauled in from Florida, and all of it is public access. I was there off-season, mid-week, and had the beach to myself.  You could walk a whole day and not see another soul on the sand.

The old lighthouse is a trademark of the city. It’s managed to survive hurricanes and floods for almost two centuries.

My father was stationed at Biloxi’s Keesler Air Force Base during the Korean War – a whopping 75 years ago. He asked if they remembered him – haha! I tried to get on base, but name dropping my dad’s rank and serial number got me shown to the exit.

Biloxi is a different kind of beach town. It’s primarily quiet residential streets set back from an open shoreline that stretches for miles. There’s no giant hotels on the beach or tourist junk to stink up the view.

Biloxi has a handful of casinos. Most are a block or two off the beach. One good thing about the casinos is they all offer a seafood buffet.

Jefferson Davis’ house, Beauvoir, is a stately mansion along the coast. He was President of the Confederate States of America, and his presidential library is here. You can rent a golf cart and tour the expansive grounds for an afternoon. My dog loves a good golf cart ride.

Also here is a large CSA cemetery. That’s where we got judged harshly by a confederate cat, dressed in rebel gray. He was not amused by our presence.

Nearby is the Ohr-O’Keefe museum, designed by Frank Gehry. George Ohr (1857-1918) is famously called the Mad Potter of Biloxi. His folksy ceramics are quite sought after. I thought I’d see some Georgia O’Keefe paintings here, but it turns out the O’Keefe name on the museum refers to a local family of funeral directors (13 kids!) who sponsored the construction. Hurricane Katrina dumped 14 feet of water in the lobby as the museum was being built, and they had to start all over.

In fact, about 50% of Biloxi’s land is still vacant from the scrubbing it endured during Katrina. It’s been 20 years since that hurricane, and the empty lots have filled in with grass around majestic live oaks that managed to survive the storm surge. New building codes and prohibitive insurance rates have stalled many attempts to rebuild on these beach front lots. Remnants of piers up and down the shore are also a testament to the slow recovery process.

Along with fantastic shrimp right from the fishing fleet, Biloxi has a love affair with Waffle House. There’s a Waffle House restaurant about every mile. One was next door to the campground, and by the end of the week my resistance wore down and I had to indulge.

A heavy fog rolled in every afternoon, and by nighttime all of Biloxi was blanketed in a soft mist. Good time to tuck in and reflect on the day’s adventures.

I really enjoyed Biloxi Beach. It was a laid back and easy-going vacation, and I intend to return.

There’s a lot more to the Mississippi Coast which I’ll show you in the next post…