Author: Olivia Mercer

Picture a cold December drive through northern Mississippi, with the kids asking how much longer and a small town appearing just in time for a…

Hunger has a funny way of leading you somewhere better than your plan. Across Mississippi, from the breezy Gulf Coast to quiet small towns up…

Hunger has a way of making a plain building on a quiet Mississippi highway look like the best idea of the day. From the road,…

Two-lane highways in rural Mississippi rarely promise much beyond fields, farm trucks, and the next gas station. Then a small bakery appears, the parking lot…

Pulling off a quiet country road in Mississippi to buy a box of pork chops does not sound like much of an adventure, but it…

Mississippi winters rarely bring snow, so finding real ice under your feet feels like a small holiday miracle. Every year, though, rinks pop up across…

Pack the empty totes first, because Mississippi flea markets have a sneaky way of filling every last one. Folding tables stretch down long aisles, booths…

Pack the sandwiches, fill the cooler with ice, and point the car toward water. Mississippi has lakes where you can park, grab a shady table,…

Pull off a quiet road in Mississippi after sunset, cut the headlights, and the sky starts filling up with more stars than most kids have…

Rain was pounding the windshield the day we ducked into a quiet museum just to stay dry, and the kids ended up begging to stay…

Nothing about the plain office building off the interstate hinted at what waited on the second floor. We climbed the stairs in Mississippi expecting a…

Highway signs in Mississippi rarely promise much, so we pulled off mostly for a bathroom and a snack. What we found was a brick general…

A wagging tail at a chain-link gate can change your whole weekend. All across Mississippi, shelters and rescues count on regular people to walk dogs,…

Some road trip stops look like nothing from the highway, just a gravel turn and a small sign in the woods. In Mississippi, one of…

A quiet country road in north Mississippi does not look like it leads anywhere special. Then the trees open up, a barn comes into view,…

October in Mississippi has a way of slipping past while you are still hunting for jackets and costume ideas. Some of the best fall memories…

Some towns hang a wreath on the courthouse and call it Christmas. Then there is a little river city in Mississippi where old mansions fill…

The road kept getting quieter, the trees kept getting taller, and the phone signal faded to nothing somewhere in rural Mississippi. Just when it felt…

The plan was simple: duck inside for ten minutes, look at a few old things, then go find something to eat. Three hours later, my…

Some of the best nights outdoors start with no plan at all, just a full tank of gas and a tent rolled up in the…

I pulled off a quiet road in south Mississippi expecting a short stretch of the legs and not much more. Instead, I found tall pines…

I only meant to grab a quick bite along the Mississippi coast, but a white tower by the highway kept pulling my eyes away from…

Some of the best surprises in Mississippi hide behind plain roadside signs and quiet parking lots. You pull in expecting nothing special, and then you…

Most people think of the Natchez Trace as a slow, pretty drive with no billboards and lots of trees. Then you pull off at a…

The first time I walked out of a small meat counter in Mississippi with a full cooler and change still in my pocket, I felt…

I only planned to stretch my legs and maybe find a snack before getting back on the road through Mississippi. Then a handsome old building…

Some of the best coffee stops look like nothing special from the road, just a small building and a drive-thru lane. In south Mississippi, one…

I pulled off a quiet Mississippi back road one Sunday just to stretch my legs, and a little brick church stopped me cold. The afternoon…

Some of the best afternoons start with a plain storefront and a few spare dollars. Mississippi is packed with secondhand shops where old furniture, cozy…

A sleepy cat stretched out in a patch of sun can make any afternoon feel slower and sweeter. Across Mississippi, a handful of animal shelters…

Some of the best meals start with a plain storefront you almost drive right past. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, one small strip-center cafe turns…

Some of the best shopping trips start with a quick stop you almost skipped. Tucked along a highway in Mississippi sits a small thrift shop…

I pulled off the highway in Mississippi looking for a quick errand stop and found a place full of stories instead. From the parking lot,…

Flat cotton fields stretched in every direction, and then a green hill rose out of nowhere like a sleeping giant. We had pulled off a…

Nobody plans a family outing around a college campus, and that is exactly why these trips sneak up on you. In Mississippi, some of the…

Some of the best stops happen when you only meant to grab a quick snack on a long drive through Mississippi. You pull off the…

Some of the best afternoons in Mississippi start with a wrong turn and a creaky screen door. You pull off a quiet two-lane road, hungry…

Some of the best family plans start with a wrong turn down a quiet country road. In Mississippi, that kind of road can lead you…

Some of the best days start with no big plan, just a free morning and a hunch that something fun is close by. That is…

Some of the best places in Mississippi do not have billboards, ticket booths, or long lines. You turn onto a quiet street, park near a…

Some of the best meals in Mississippi show up in places you would drive right past. You pull into a strip center parking lot, hungry…

Some of the best afternoons in Mississippi start with a quick stop that was never meant to last long. You pull over to stretch your…

Five dollars does not stretch very far these days, unless you happen to be pushing a cart through a thrift store in Mississippi. We went…

Grocery store meat had started to taste like nothing much, so a friend suggested a drive into the Mississippi countryside to buy it straight from…

Hunger led me through a downtown door in Mississippi, and I expected nothing more than a quick lunch. Instead, I found an old neon sign,…

We only pulled off the road to escape the Mississippi heat for an hour. Inside a low, cheerful building, a grandmother was stacking giant letter…

Nobody warned me that a quiet, curvy back road in Mississippi would end at a row of stone giants. One minute we were eyeing the…

I only pulled off the coast highway looking for a quiet place to eat a packed lunch, and I found turtles, herons, and a boardwalk…

A wrong turn on a cool October evening once led me past a glowing screen in a field, and I pulled over just to see…

A crooked sign and a gravel lot were all it took to make me pull over on a quiet Mississippi highway one Saturday morning. Inside,…

Rain was coming down sideways on the Mississippi coast, and the plan for the day fell apart before lunch. What saved it was a wide,…

Hunger hit hard after a long stretch of Gulf Coast highway, and the plain little seafood house across from the water did not look like…

I only stopped because I needed a bathroom and a cold drink, and I walked out with a mixing bowl my grandmother used to own…

We only pulled off the highway to stretch our legs and find a quick lunch. What we found instead was a small Mississippi kitchen handing…

We pulled over for gas and a snack in northeast Mississippi, and a giant white screen rising over the trees stopped us cold. A hand-lettered…

We only pulled over because the sign looked older than our grandparents and our stomachs were growling. What we found in northeast Mississippi was a…

Forty dollars does not sound like much until you watch it turn into a trunk full of treasures before the lunch crowd even shows up….

Nobody plans a Saturday around a shelter parking lot, but that is exactly where our morning in Mississippi took an unexpected turn. We had stopped…

The building looked like it might sell bread and bait, not one of the best burgers in north Mississippi. We pulled in hungry and a…

My plan was to grab a quick coffee and keep driving through Mississippi, but a flash of pink paint on a busy street changed everything….