Author: Mason Whitaker

Down a quiet country road in Mississippi, past rows of evergreen trees and a pen of curious goats, sits a workshop that glows like a…

Plain buildings can fool you, and that is exactly what happened on a quick stop along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. From the parking lot, it…

Nobody in our car expected a buffalo to poke its huge head through the window on a quiet afternoon in Mississippi. The plan was a…

Cool air, kettle corn, and a band tuning up on a courthouse lawn make autumn in Mississippi feel special. Better yet, plenty of small-town celebrations…

Steam rising from a big silver pot was the only sign that the little stand on the side of the highway was worth a stop….

Following the smell of warm butter down a hallway in Mississippi is not how most family breakfasts begin. Yet that buttery trail leads straight past…

Cool mornings in Mississippi have a way of pulling families out the door and onto back roads. Fall here brings crisp air, changing leaves, and…

Hunger hit hard on a long Mississippi drive, and the plain little building with a glowing sign did not look like much. Then the garlic…

Picture a picnic table, a breeze off the water, and not one other family in sight. That scene is real, and it waits along the…

Fall in Mississippi has a way of making you want to load up the car and just go. No booking screens, no confirmation numbers, only…

Hunger has a funny way of steering a road trip, and on a stretch of highway along the Mississippi coast it steered us toward a…

Tucked into an ordinary shopping strip in Mississippi, there is a little bookshop that looks like nothing special from the parking lot. Step inside, though,…

Our plan was simple: find lunch, stretch our legs, and keep the kids from melting down in the car. Then a church with a long…

Sold-out shelves by early afternoon tell you plenty about a bakery before you even taste anything. That was the first clue at a tiny storefront…

Driving through the quiet back roads of Mississippi, you probably expect sweet tea and fried pies, not German chocolate cake made fully from scratch. Then…

A strip mall parking lot is not where most people expect a food adventure to begin. Yet one plain storefront in Mississippi holds shelves of…

Some buildings look ordinary from the sidewalk until you step through the doors and the whole room seems to glow. That is exactly what happens…

A plain storefront in a busy Mississippi shopping strip is not where most people expect to find a taste of Havana. Yet one hungry stop,…

A low roadside building with a walk-up window does not look like much from the highway in Mississippi. Then you notice the parked cars, the…

You can walk and walk into the water here, and it still barely reaches your knees. That surprise is what makes this stretch of sand…

I only meant to grab one pair of sneakers on a quick stop in central Mississippi. Four hours later, my bags were heavy, my stomach…

You pull off an old two-lane road in Mississippi just to stretch your legs, and suddenly you are standing in front of a brick storefront…

A gravel lot, a small sign, and a trail fading into the pines rarely look like much from the road. Yet some of the best…

The best lunch I ever had in Mississippi came on a plastic tray, with a square of cornbread balanced on top of the greens. Nobody…

A goat’s lips feel a little like velvet and a little like a vacuum cleaner, and you only learn that by holding out a handful…

The best road trip stops in Mississippi are often the ones you almost drive right past. A plain storefront, a hand-painted sign, and suddenly you…

A dented can of green beans tastes exactly the same as a perfect one, and that simple truth has saved Mississippi families a lot of…

Some of the best meals start with a wrong turn and an empty stomach. Picture a small blue and white building on a quiet street…

Some of the best treats in Mississippi hide behind plain storefronts you would drive right past. I almost did, until the idea of a single…

I went looking for a quick roadside stop in Mississippi and somehow ended up spending a whole afternoon watching a tiger nap in the shade….

I only meant to stretch my legs and find a snack along the Mississippi coast, but a tall stone church across from the water made…

The first time you hear a bull hit the chute gate, you feel it in your chest before your ears catch up. Mississippi has a…

Some of the best places to stay in Mississippi are tucked down quiet roads under tall pines, where old cabins once sat waiting for someone…

I only meant to grab a corn dog and look around, but a glass-sided arena and a row of busy animal barns kept pulling me…

Picture pulling off a coastal road in Mississippi on a chilly December night, expecting nothing more than a quick look at some holiday bulbs. Then…

We only meant to stop for a quick stretch and maybe a pair of sneakers somewhere along the Mississippi coast. Hours later, we were still…

Some of the best Saturdays in Mississippi start with a wagging tail you have never met before. Families across the state are swapping cartoons and…

Some Saturdays start with a plain errand and end with a car so full you can barely see out the back window. That is exactly…

Some shopping trips start with a quick stop and end with the sun going down. Mississippi has a handful of thrift stores and flea markets…

Cold wind has a way of ending playground plans before anyone even finds their shoes. Kids still need to climb, build, splash, and wonder, even…

Some trips start with one plan and end somewhere better. I went hunting for rumored elephants and big cats on the Mississippi coast and found…

Nobody plans a snack adventure around a quick errand in northeast Mississippi, but sometimes that is exactly how the best ones start. One plain storefront,…

Some of the best food stops in Mississippi do not look like much from the road. You pull into a gravel lot, half expecting a…

Some of my best meals in Mississippi started with a plain storefront and a growling stomach. I kept pulling into strip centers and grocery lots,…

Picture a small courthouse square in Mississippi that you might drive past any other month of the year. Then late November arrives, and hundreds of…

Some of the biggest stories in music start in the smallest rooms. In northeast Mississippi, there is a tiny wooden house where a baby boy…

Some of the best meals start with a shrug and a parking lot you almost drive past. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a plain little…

Some of the best afternoons start with a quiet gravel road and a barn you almost drive past. Mississippi hides plenty of those spots, where…

I only pulled off the highway in east Mississippi because I needed to stretch my legs and find a quiet spot for a sandwich. Two…

I almost walked right past the small storefront, figuring it was just another lunch counter on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Then I caught the smell…

A plain metal building with a hand-lettered sign was the last place I expected to find the cheapest cart of groceries I had filled all…

My plan was to grab a quick sandwich, but a small sign pointing toward kids’ clothes pulled me off the road instead. Twenty minutes later,…

My plan was a quick bite, but the plate that landed in front of me could have fed my whole family. That happens a lot…

A quick detour off the highway was only supposed to take ten minutes. Instead, a plain building in north Mississippi turned into an hour of…

A quiet country road off the interstate in north-central Mississippi does not look like it leads anywhere special, until the orange starts showing up. Pumpkins,…

We only pulled off the highway because a hand-painted sign promised ice cream, and the back seat was getting restless. Twenty minutes later, a goat…

Dust, bright lights, and the smell of horses were not on my plan for a quiet drive through east Mississippi. A plain arena off a…

We only pulled off the beach highway because the parking lot was packed and the tables inside looked endless. An hour later, we were holding…

A quick stop for a cold drink on a hot Mississippi afternoon turned into something I did not expect: a spinning stool, a chrome counter,…

A skipped exit and a growling stomach once led me to a plain little counter in Mississippi, and the biscuit that came out of that…