Mississippi

We only stopped for a bag of boiled peanuts and a place to stretch our legs, and somehow left with a wagon full of pumpkins…

You know a buffet is good when you sit down with a full plate and immediately start thinking about what you missed. That is the…

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

Pulling off the interstate for a quick leg stretch rarely leads to a lesson in survival, but one pine-scattered stretch of coastal Mississippi manages it….

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,…

A dirt road in south Mississippi is the last place I expected to meet a spider monkey with opinions about grapes. Yet past the tall…

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

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…

Our first plan was a quick bite, but a plain strip-mall sign with a red lantern in the window changed the whole afternoon. Inside sat…

We only stopped because a hand-lettered adoption sign caught my eye on a slow afternoon drive through south Mississippi. Twenty minutes later, a scruffy brown…

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…

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…

A single brass doorknob started it all for me, sitting in a coffee can with a dozen cousins, each one older than my grandmother. I…

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…

A bag of tomatoes was all I planned to buy on a quiet Saturday drive through central Mississippi. By the time I left, the car…

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…

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

A plain little storefront on a busy Mississippi road does not look like much when you first pull in. Then you step inside and see…

Sometimes the things that stay hidden the longest become even more valuable once they’re finally discovered. This Mississippi lagoon fits that description perfectly, known by…

You would never guess that a plain little building on a quiet Mississippi street could be worth a long drive. The front door opens right…

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…

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…

I pulled off a busy road in northeast Mississippi expecting a quick stop and a plain building. Instead, I found rows of wagging tails, curious…

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 quick coffee stop turned into a two-hour breakfast, and that is how this list got started. Small towns across Mississippi hide cafes with creaky…

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…

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…

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…

We only pulled over because the kids were asking about the shrimp boats bobbing in the harbor, and we figured a quick look would buy…

I pulled off a quiet two-lane road in Mississippi expecting a quick stretch break and ended up nose to nose with a camel. That surprise…

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….

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…

Picture sitting down to lunch in Mississippi at a table the size of a small trampoline, with ten people you have never met and a…

We only pulled off the interstate for a quick stretch and a snack, and we ended up staying until the sun dipped low. What looked…

A strip mall parking lot is not where anyone expects to find a family recipe that started in Kentucky coal country. Yet one quick lunch…

Coffee was the plan, and a quick one at that. Then a little storefront in north Mississippi promised cats along with my latte, and the…

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….

A quick pit stop for a cold drink was the whole plan, until a plain-looking building off a Mississippi highway swallowed three hours of my…

The first clue was the smell: warm butter drifting out of a plain little storefront, the kind of place you could drive past a hundred…

I only meant to kill a spare hour on a college campus in Mississippi, and I ended up nose to nose with a Triceratops skull….

I pulled off a quiet two-lane road in north Mississippi looking for a restroom and a paper map. An hour later, I walked out knowing…

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…

Nobody warned me that a quiet old house under the oaks would serve one of the most memorable catfish suppers in Mississippi. I pulled in…

Hunger got me off the highway, but curiosity kept me there. A plain metal building with a hand-lettered sign promised antiques, and an hour later…

A soggy Saturday in Mississippi once sent me hunting for anything indoors that would not empty my wallet, and I ended up at a plain…

A bag of apples, a sleeve of crackers, and a wrong turn once led me to a creek so quiet I forgot about lunch for…

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…

Pancakes rarely arrive with fanfare in Mississippi. They show up on thick white plates at chrome counters and small cafes, often inside buildings that look…

A plain little building on a quiet side road did not look like much from the parking lot. Then the smell of hot fryer oil…

Pocket change goes a long way when the shelves are stacked with old action figures and comic books nobody has touched in years. I learned…

We only stopped because the kids heard hooves on the pavement. A few minutes later, all of us were packed onto a carriage bench behind…

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….

It started with a wrong turn, a growling stomach, and a gravel lot I almost drove right past. An hour later, I was standing somewhere…

A faded sign promising down home cooking was the only reason we slowed down on a flat Delta highway in Mississippi. Inside, the smell of…

Hearing a hammer strike metal was the last thing I expected along a quiet highway in Mississippi. A short turn off the road led to…

A bison nose the size of a dinner plate pressing against a car window is not what most folks picture when they plan a cheap…

Our cooler was half-empty and the car thermometer read triple digits when a gravel pullout off a Mississippi back road led us to cold, clear…