travelled through the state in five minutes or so, so why stop them?
The 90 took us right beside the Gulf coast at this point and the views
were spectacular. None more so than the town of Pass Christian where huge
houses with pools in their front gardens lined the road on our left and on the
right was a wide, white beach, and the sparkling sea. This was definitely a
place to return, and perhaps retire, to. Sadly, we had no time to linger and
pushed on to Biloxi - the only stop we made in Mississippi.
Biloxi feels a bit like Southend or Blackpool, with gaudy restaurants
and souvenir shops lining the seafront. It also contains several casinos,
including one shaped like a fort complete with docked boat - shades of Vegas.
In spite of the tacky feel we spent an hour or so in Biloxi, primarily to refuel
both Harvey and ourselves. We also took the chance to stretch our legs,
walking three miles along the beach, enjoying the first bit of really hot sun of
our travels. The beach was practically deserted, just some worryingly large
bird footprints, and us. Bliss.
We left Biloxi and soon passed into Alabama, with nothing more than a sign to
alert us to the fact that we were crossing into our ninth and penultimate state.
As with Mississippi we were passing through rather than visiting the state -
Alabama is about 50 miles wide where we crossed (again as the crow flies).
We did stop in Mobile (pronounced moebeel, not like the portable
telephone) but by the time we did it was early evening and the visitor centre
we headed straight to was closing. We drove around the town for a short
while, looking for sights mentioned in Lonely Planet, but we were too
preoccupied to properly appreciate our surroundings.