Author: Ethan Caldwell

Holiday gift lists grow fast, but family budgets usually do not. Mississippi has a surprising number of bin stores, overstock warehouses, and clearance outlets where…

Grocery store beef comes wrapped in plastic with almost no story attached. Across Mississippi, family farms are selling steaks, roasts, and ground beef straight from…

Stocking stuffers have a sneaky way of adding up, one tiny toy at a time. Mississippi families can stretch that holiday budget much further by…

Fifty dollars goes a surprisingly long way when you know where to shop in Mississippi. Across the state, giant antique malls hide hundreds of booths…

Beach traffic on the Mississippi coast can turn a simple lunch into a long wait in a hot parking lot. The good news is that…

Fall in Mississippi sneaks up on you, and then one cool morning the oaks and maples start glowing. Families do not need tickets, passes, or…

Hunger hit hard on a long Mississippi drive, and the plain building by the highway did not look like much. Inside, though, the smell of…

Thirty-five dollars does not sound like much, but in Mississippi it can stretch further than you think. Salvage stores across the state are packed with…

Ducks have a funny way of turning a quick stop into the best part of a family road trip in Mississippi. Pull over at the…

Down a quiet country road in Mississippi, we found rows of blueberry bushes, a windmill turning in the breeze, and a dog trotting over to…

Hunger hit hard on a long drive through Mississippi, and the plain building beside the interstate did not look like much at first. Inside, though,…

My kids thought the dented can of cheese puffs was the best find of the whole road trip. That tiny moment in Mississippi taught me…

Two-lane highways in north Mississippi have a way of hiding the best snack stops. We pulled off near a quiet farm expecting maybe a jug…

Kids outgrow sneakers faster than parents can save for the next pair. Back-to-school lists, summer road trips, and growth spurts all mean new shoes, and…

A significant amount of the best surprises in Mississippi sit at the end of quiet country roads where you least expect anything at all. Picture…

Some of the best afternoons in Mississippi start with a quick stop that was supposed to last ten minutes. You park on a quiet main…

Some of the best surprises in Mississippi hide behind plain doors on quiet streets. You walk past brick and trim, expecting nothing much, and then…

The building looked like any big metal arena from the parking lot, nothing fancy, nothing flashy. Then the lights dropped, the crowd roared, and a…

Some of the best lunches start with a plain storefront and a growling stomach. In Mississippi, there is a small cafe where the hummus is…

A gravel road, a few rows of trees, and suddenly bright orange fruit glowing against a blue autumn sky. That was the surprise waiting on…

I only meant to grab a quick bite on a cold December night in Mississippi, but a glowing glow on the horizon pulled me off…

I only stopped because my stomach was growling and an old two-story house had a parking spot out front. Inside, the smell of fried chicken…

I only pulled over to stretch my legs, expecting a quick look and nothing more. Instead, a wooden walkway carried me straight out over dark,…

A plain brick storefront in Mississippi does not look like much from the curb, and that is exactly how it fools you. Step inside, though,…

I once pulled off a Mississippi back road for gas and came back to the car holding a warm loaf I had not planned to…

Some of the best afternoons start with a quick stop you almost skipped. A plain storefront along a busy Mississippi highway can hold racks of…

Flat cotton fields, a quiet two-lane highway, and then a little downtown with brick buildings and colorful murals painted on the walls. Nothing about it…

The door looked like any other storefront in a quiet Mississippi shopping strip, and I almost kept walking. Then the smell of garlic, butter, and…

We only meant to grab a quick snack by the water, but a small boat tied up near the beach kept pulling our eyes back….

Some of the best meals in Mississippi come from places you might drive past without a second look. A plain sign, a small parking lot,…

From the parking lot, it looked like just another spot along a busy suburban road in Mississippi. I almost kept driving, but my stomach had…

Grassy hills kept popping up beside the road, and at first they looked like nothing special. Then a small brown sign said otherwise, and suddenly…

Some of the best afternoons start with a quick stop that was never supposed to last long. Along a busy road on the Mississippi Gulf…

The plan was a quick bite on a long drive, nothing more. Then a plate of golden fried catfish showed up on a two-lane highway…

I went looking for a quiet weekend in the south Mississippi woods and expected little more than a tent and some trees. What I found…

I only meant to duck out of the Gulf Coast heat for a few quiet minutes. Instead, I found myself standing under tall arches while…

Somewhere between a long drive and a growling stomach, we pulled off the highway in Mississippi with no real plan. What we found was a…

Somewhere between one small town and the next, a plain little building with a full parking lot can change your whole afternoon in Mississippi. You…

I only meant to pop in for five minutes. Somewhere between a rack of leather jackets and a shelf of old glassware, five minutes turned…

Cooler air has a funny way of making people crave a big plate of pasta. Across Mississippi, some of the best Italian cooking hides inside…

Kibbeh in the Delta sounds like a surprise until you learn the story behind it. Lebanese families started arriving in Mississippi in the late 1800s,…

Nobody plans to lose an entire afternoon inside an old storefront, but in Mississippi it happens all the time. You walk in for a quick…

Some of the best holiday memories start with a quick turn down a quiet country road in Mississippi. You expect a few strings of lights…

Some of the best Saturday mornings start with a half tank of gas and no real plan. In Mississippi, that kind of drive can end…

Somewhere between a long drive and an empty stomach, I learned that Mississippi still bakes pie the old way. The places doing it best are…

Most of us never stop to wonder how a soda ended up in a bottle. Then you walk into an old brick candy store in…

Last October, I walked into a plain thrift store in Mississippi looking for a cheap belt and walked out with a full pirate outfit instead….

Follow the smell of hot biscuits and fried dough long enough and you may end up somewhere you did not plan to stay all afternoon….

Our plan was simple: grab lunch near the beach, cool off somewhere indoors, and keep the kids from melting in the Mississippi heat. Nobody expected…

We only pulled over because the sign promised antiques and we had an hour to kill. What we found was a cool, bright building stuffed…

We only pulled off the interstate because the kids needed to stretch their legs, and nobody expected much from a low building tucked into the…

Pocket change used to buy a whole afternoon of fun, and I figured those days were long gone in Mississippi. Then I pulled into a…

A handwritten menu board, a steam table full of greens, and a line of folks in work boots told me I had found the right…

A plain building on a Mississippi highway does not usually promise much, so I almost drove right past. Hunger won, and I pulled in expecting…

A freight horn rolled across the tracks right as we pulled into a quiet spot beside a brick building we almost drove past. We only…

Rain was hammering the windshield the first time we ducked into a plain brick building off a Mississippi side street, mostly hoping for a dry…

Driving a two-lane stretch of Mississippi highway with a rumbling stomach can lead you to some unexpected places. One of them looks like a weathered…

Smoke drifting across a parking lot is how most good barbecue stories in Mississippi begin, and mine usually start with a hungry car full of…

I only pulled over because I needed a snack and a stretch, and then I looked up. A giant golden hand was pointing at the…

A paper sack of okra, two tomatoes still warm from the sun, and a jar of honey, all for less than a drive-thru combo meal….