Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

We finally discovered a place that does NOT make our short list of places to return to! Bay St. Louis did not make the cut.

First, let me explain how we usually pick where we're going to stay and then you'll understand how we ended up there.

Before we hit the road, we have a general idea of the next state we are going to and, of course, we know where we are so we look at the map and see what route makes the most sense to take. Then we look at the Internet and see what campgrounds are close to the area we think might look interesting to stop at.

And then...this is where the magic happens...wait for it....we just pick a place to stay.

Yep, it's that simple.

In case you haven't noticed, we're kind of the "fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants" type of people. We don't usually spend much time investigating or researching where we are going. It's more like, "I've always wanted to go to X." or "I heard Y is a nice place to visit." So we that's where we go.

And there's the general rule that if it's on the beach, it's got to be a good place to visit.

Bay St. Louis broke the rules.

I looked at the map, it was on the coast of Mississippi (usually a plus) and the advertisement in the Good Sam Campground directory looked good (hasn't failed us before). So we programmed Betty with the address and we were off.

I wish I would have had my wits about me when we pulled up to the place we thought we were going to stay because I would love to show you a picture of that RV park. I think I was so shocked and disturbed that it didn't occur to me that it was a blog-worthy event.

Imagine a place just off the main drag, with bumpy, lumpy roads, weeds, a broken down back hoe sitting in the road, a few stray cats wandering around and a whole bunch of old campers scattered everywhere. It reminded me of a place where old campers go to die.

We sat there for a few minutes just taking it all in until Kaitlyn said, "Mommy, this place is creepy." I agreed and Tom found a way out of that place.

We ended up staying at an RV park at the local casino. No frills and mostly deserted but it felt safe and clean so we figured we could stay there for the night.

I took a few pictures when we drove down to the beach. It looks like they are still rebuilding after Katrina. They are completely replacing the sea wall and most of the roads at the shore are closed and need replace too.

This used to be a house.

Everything was washed away but the pylons.
There was a spiral staircase still attached going nowhere.

Maybe Bay St. Louis is just in a rebuilding phase but we probably won't be back to check it out again.