Do not adjust your set, this is Alabama – and they are very good at it

Sometimes you come across a road that just seems to go exactly where you want to go.  You’re interested in exploring a town up ahead, that road goes there.  You want to camp in a state park over there, that road goes there.  You want to hug the coastline, that road does the job.  We religiously avoid the huge Interstate freeways whenever possible and that allows us to explore places at a slower pace in more detail.  But sometimes all we need to do is follow one road for day after day, even state after state.  And that’s what we’ve found recently – when in doubt, follow Highway 90.

A young alligator and turtle share the sunshine on a log in a state park in Mississippi

We first joined up with Highway 90 in Louisiana and followed it when it hugged parts of their amazing bayou coast.  We caught it again as we left the state and it took us across a few more long bridges into Mississippi. Our plan was to pass fairly quickly through Mississippi because, as one of our family travel sayings go, ‘nothing to see here’.  How wrong we were!

Our first swing bridge – basically it opens sideways so boats can go through while the vehicles wait

Highway 90 dropped us down onto the gulf coast and we soon found a string of small towns lining a long crystal white sandy beach, blinding on the eye and almost totally abandoned.  And not just one or two beaches, this was an endless beach stretching on and on from town to town.  The towns didn’t feature many beach-side shops, restaurants, motels or businesses of any kind.  What we found as we slowly followed the road was a series of vacant blocks, most with For Sale signs on them, sometimes with foundation slabs still visible in the grass, the only remains from previous buildings.

He doesn’t look like me but he’s got a parrot and a business in a beautiful coastline area of Mississippi

And as we approached the larger beach-side town of Biloxi we figured out why.  This area was hit very hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and most homes and businesses along the coast here were damaged or destroyed.  Communities don’t simply spring back after a disaster like that and you can see why million dollar blocks of land were left completely empty.

Our lunch spot in Mississippi – we thought this was okay but the beaches got much better

But Biloxi and its neighbouring communities are clearly fighting back with a few casinos, beachside businesses and other commercial projects emerging.  We lingered here and there, visited shops, walked on the beautiful beaches, finally camping at nearby Gulf Shores National Seashore Preserve.

There were also some lively communities with colourful fishing marinas

Highway 90 had been good to us for a couple of days so we followed it out of Mississippi and into Alabama, another state that on the surface might not seem to warrant much of a gander.  Again, wrong!  We guiltily left our Highway 90 and travelled south across some bridges to Dauphin Island and found more beautiful long beaches, new brightly painted homes on stilts and an up-market holiday feel to the place.  We then caught a ferry off the island and travelled east on a long spit of sand that helped protect the huge Mobile Bay.

The homes on Dauphin Island were all built on stilts and brightly coloured, as we have seen all along the gulf coast

More nice holiday homes along the beaches – plenty of money in these parts

Another day and another ferry, this one connecting Dauphin Island with the mainland

Gulf Shores is the unchallenged capital of the beach holiday scene in Alabama.  Licence plates from all over southern US fill the streets and high rise apartment buildings line the deep sparkling beach.  For the first time on the gulf we found a small surf here and the water was enticingly blue-green on the fine white sand.  Tourists were everywhere, and rightly so as the temperature hovered around 82F (28C) and the cool gulf breezes were all that saved people from frying.  Gulf Shores had made the absolute most out of a great beach and good weather.  And of course we had lingered too long and ended up camping in a nearby state park.

The Alabama beach scene around Gulf Shores was truly first class

So to Mississippi and Alabama, a tip of the hat, your gulf coastal areas are much better than expected, you’ve got some great beaches and we really enjoyed our brief visit.  And to Highway 90, thanks for all your help and advice, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Proof yet again that the pelicans in Alabama can’t read

Fishing at the end of Gulf Shores pier was serious business with everyone having elaborate carts to carry all their fishing gear – and promote their favourite President