Do you know those people that find positivity in all aspects of life? No matter what happens to them they actively chose to take a positive perspective on events. The world could literally be following them around with a rain cloud and they’re like “well at least I am getting a shoulder workout from holding up this umbrella.”

(I mean really just LOOK at this person. WHO IS THIS HAPPY IN THE RAIN?!?! DON’T SMILE – THERE IS A RAIN CLOUD FOLLOWING YOU!!! WHY CAN’T YOU JUST BE MISERABLE LIKE THE REST OF US??!?!)

Needless to say, I have always known that I’m not the over-the-top “cup half full” person. However, I’ve always thought that I’m a relatively positive person – I may not be jumping up and down in the rain, but I’m not going to let it ruin my day.

The thing is that for the most part Andy and I have an overall #winning lifestyle. We don’t really have much to complain about – life is usually pretty great.

And then came Biloxi.

And then I realized that I’m really good at being a complaining, pessimistic, Debbie downer. Who would have thunk? (Mom, don’t answer that…I swore I really was over my teenager angst days.)

Due to the unforeseeable events that occurred during our trip to Biloxi this trip will be split into two sections.

I. Our time in Biloxi, MS

II. The time traveling to and from Biloxi, MS*

(*Full Disclosure: Part II is full of lots of whining, complaining, tears and injuries. Read at your own risk)

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Part I: Biloxi, MS

We crossed the state line in Mississippi around 3 PM on Saturday, December 9th. We stopped at the first rest stop (aka the welcome center) and my first impressions left me a bit worried.

First, it was COLD. It wasn’t just “not warm,” it was legitimately cold. Like pants, long-sleeves and winter jacket kind of weather. Andy and I were not prepared. Mississippi in December is normally mid to high 60s. The weekend that we arrived was the tail end of freak winter storm. It snowed in Biloxi for the first time in 8 years. EIGHT YEARS!!! Seriously, what are the chances??

Second, and a bit more randomly, is anyone else concerned with the color of the toilet water at the Mississippi rest stop?

I actually went to three different stalls before I realized that the color of the water is just pee-tinted. I will also have you know that I wasn’t the only person who had this issue – two ladies came in after me and tried to flush the toilet only to also realize that the color of the water wasn’t going to change. #toiletstruggles

Regardless we carried on with our car drive through Mississippi and arrived in Biloxi not much later. With not much daylight left, we decided to head to the convention center to pick up our race packets. The packet pick-up was pretty normal – it was easy to grab our race bags and everyone was nice. They did have a HUGE inflatable coffee cup which was…different?

After grabbing our items for the race, we went to the Biloxi Visitor Center. The Biloxi Visitor Center was part museum/part Visitor Center. I would say that their museum part was better than their visitor center part. The people working the visitor’s center would answer questions, but were not overly friendly or helpful. However, I would still recommend going to the visitor center because they have a great museum that provides a ton of information on the history of Biloxi.

The colonization of Biloxi first began in 1699 after Canadian Pierre LeMoyne landed on the coast. (Real life impersonation provided by Andy.)

The museum also detailed the industrial/economic history of Biloxi. The two main industries in Biloxi during the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s were lumber and seafood. Fun Fact: At the turn of the 20th Century Biloxi was known as the Seafood Capital of the world (yes, the world…just think of all the fish!).

Although the lumber industry died out in the mid 1900’s, the seafood industry continues to play a role, albeit smaller, in the Biloxi economy. Currently, a large part of Biloxi’s economy stems from gambling (gambling became legal in Mississippi in the 1980’s), the related tourism and the funds related to the Kessler Air Force Base.

One of the unique parts about the museum is that it highlighted all the immigrants that have come to Biloxi and make up a large part of the community. Check out dem Italian Americans!!!

However, I have to be honest here that while the visitor center makes it seems like Biloxi is a very diverse area, we really only saw white people on our trip. Of course, we weren’t in Biloxi for that long so maybe we just weren’t looking in the right place? TBD.

We also learned that the Mississippi Gulf is home to some famous people. Did you know John Grisham grew up in Mississippi, was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and wrote one of his bestselling novels based on local residents in Southern Mississippi (The Runaway Jury)? Did you know Jimmy Buffet was born in southern Mississippi and had a song on his first album called “Biloxi”? I feel like I shouldn’t be surprised that Mississippi has famous people, but seriously how many famous people do you know from Mississippi? It’s just not common.

It’s impossible to visit the Mississippi Gulf and not become entrenched in how they have been impacted by hurricanes, particularly Hurricane Katrina. Obviously, I know what happened during Hurricane Katrina on a factual level, but being from Northern Virginia where we saw no damage, it is hard to grasp the true impact for some of these coastal towns.

To put it simply, the Mississippi Gulf was destroyed. Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf on August 29, 2005. The storm surge level was 22 feet above sea levels and waves were reported to reach 34 feet. Can you just pause for a second and really think how tall that is?!? Struggling to envision? Don’t worry…I got your back. The red marker in the pole below shows how high the water flooded during Hurricane Katrina (22 feet).

Hurricane Katrina caused approximately 125 billion dollars damage and took the life of 236 people.

I can’t even imagine what this was like. On my plane ride home I sat next to a local man who works for a power company. He told me that after Katrina he didn’t have a day off for six months and it took another three months after that before they even got their weekends back. I know that it’s been 12 years, but the rebuilding of the coast is just amazing. It is a true testament to the strength and resilience of the Mississippi residents.

Every where you go in Biloxi there are monuments, memorials and symbols to remember the devastation from Katrina and celebrate the city’s strength.
One resident uses lumber damaged by Katrina to create statues.

Another source of pride in Biloxi is their lighthouse.

The Biloxi lighthouse has been in service since the mid 1800’s and has withstood more than twenty hurricanes. Although the lighthouse was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, it was one of the few structures that remained standing after the hurricane hit the city. Within hours of the storm end, city workers hung an American flag from the railing which remained throughout the repair and restoration from the hurricane. (Don’t worry, I’m not casually crying over here on my couch as I write this.)

Now that you’re all into the local Biloxi scene and really want to go visit, I have another local secret: GO TO “THE SICILIAN II.” Holy moly. Amazing food (and I’ve been to Italy in case you didn’t know haha). But really, I was so impressed with this hole in the wall restaurant. The food was so delicious, incredibly cheap AND you could bring your own wine. What could possibly be better?

After eating our carb-filled dinner, Andy and I headed to our AirBnb to try and get a good night sleep before our half marathon.

The next morning at 4:45 AM our alarm goes off. The struggle begins.

Flashback: Remember how I said it was really really cold in Biloxi? Well, it was still cold on the Sunday morning of our race. 33 degrees cold to be exact.

Although the race started at 7AM, we had to drive to the finish line by 5:50 AM to park our car and take a school bus to the start line, 13.1 miles away. The bus dropped us off at 6:30 AM and we had to wait outside until the race started at 7 AM.

To put it mildly, Andy was not happy. No no, let’s not be mile about this: Andy was downright miserable.

Andy hates the cold and he couldn’t seem to warm up the entire race. On top of that, he was incredibly sore from a workout we had done on Thursday and his breakfast wasn’t agreeing with him. Basically, Andy was having the absolute worst race of his life.

The weird part is that I was having the best race of my life. I warmed up after a mile or two and was just enjoying the flat, coastal scenery.

While I hadn’t trained exactly for this race, over the past several months Andy and I were running 2-3 times a week with our neighbors. We usually ran between 3-4 miles, but there were a couple weekends that we ran farther and one weekend we even ran 9 miles. I guess that all the running, even if it was for shorter distances, paid off because Andy and I were running a 9:30 mile pace and even after 10 miles I wasn’t tired. (To put this in perspective, I usually run a 10:30 mile pace during races). Basically, it was a once in a lifetime miracle!

Unfortunately, Andy was not feeling that same enthusiasm. Around mile 10 he told me I could go ahead and he would meet me at the finish line. I was REAL close to taking him up on his offer because I knew I would PR if I kept running at my pace. Then reality hit me and I realized that would be a super selfish thing to do. Remember all those half marathons that Andy pushed you along, dragged you along, yelled at you to continue, etc.? Yeahhhh. Once a team, always a team. We start together and we finish together. #marriage

So Andy and I kept at it and we finished with a 9:58 mile pace! (You can’t tell but Andy is not so secretly cursing me for making him take this picture and signing him up for the race.)

Overall, I thought this race was one of the better races I have done. The logistics were incredibly well organized and well communicated. It was super easy to park our car, take the bus and get back to our car. The race was beautiful and flat.

The after party was held on the MGM baseball stadium. They had TONS of delicious southern food and it was FREE. FREE FOOD!!!!! FREE YUMMY FOOD!!! Andy and I ate BBQ sandwiches, seafood Alfredo pasto and jumbo soup.

The shirts they gave all participants are so cute and comfy! It is one of the few half marathon shirts that I will actually wear. Overall, I give the half marathon an A+ and would definitely recommend to anyone looking to cross Mississippi off their list.

After the race Andy and I headed back to the Airbnb for a serious nap and shower. We then went to the Waffle House, which was a weird experience because I have never actually been to a Waffle House. No really, Waffle Houses in Virginia are sketchy…questionable characters usually visit these Waffle Houses. Growing up, we were told by our parents to go to IHOP and avoid the Waffle House. Also, I had no idea Waffle Houses were so popular in Biloxi. There were actually six Waffle Houses within a two mile radius. This seems excessive. I mean how can you tell which Waffle House is better than the other? And why would you build so many Waffle Houses so close together. The whole thing boggles my mind. Just saying, from an outsider perspective and all.

When we finished eating, we went to Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis. For those of you who have forgotten your history lesson, Jefferson Davis is most famous for being the first (and only) President of the Confederacy.

Okay, true confession time: Before coming to Biloxi I literally knew nothing about Jefferson Davis except that he was the President of the Confederacy. The only other thing I knew about Jefferson Davis is that the City of Alexandria, Virginia is currently renaming Jefferson Davis Highway – also known as Route 1 – due to complaints by local residents that the highway name honors slavery and supports racism. Before our trip, I was on the “I-don’t-really-care-what-the-highway-is-called-because-I-call-it-Route-1-but-sure-go-ahead-and-change-it” and after the trip, while I still don’t really care what the highway is called, I have definitely developed a little sweet spot for our man J.D.

While at Beauvoir, we took a tour of his house, the grounds and the Presidential Library.

Some things you never knew but secretly always wanted to know about J.D. and his house, Beauvoir.

1. Jefferson Davis was more than just the President of the Confederacy. Prior to leading the Confederacy, he was a U.S. Senator and Secretary of War (under President Pierce). While Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis was responsible for overseeing the construction of the Washington aqueduct and the expansion of the Capitol Building.

2. Jefferson was the youngest of ten children. He was named after Thomas Jefferson. Also, his middle name was Fine. No seriously, I’m not making that up…it is actually Fine. Apparently, he hated it which is really not surprising because that’s a horrible name.

3. Beauvoir had some very interesting “design” features. First, the crown molding in the rooms isn’t actually crown molding…it’s paint that looks like three dimensional crown molding.

Second, the doors were fake oak. When I say fake oak, I mean the doors were legitimately painted to look like oak…it took seven layers of paint to create this effect. Apparently, oak was the bomb back in the day, but bugs would eat it.

4. Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina, had six children – two daughters and four sons. His daughter, Winnie, was the coolest person ever. She wrote four novels and three books of poetry, all before she died at the age of 34. She was voted Queen of Mardi Gras when she was younger. She spoke several languages and was incredibly smart. Unfortunately, she fell in love with a Yankee that was a Southern sympathizer, but her father wouldn’t give her permission to marry. Winnie never ended up marrying. It’s like the Romeo and Juliet of the 1900’s.

5. Jefferson Davis was 6’1” which was very tall for the time as the average male was 5’7”.

6. When Jefferson Davis died, his wife only wore black for the rest of her life because she said she had lost the love of her life and would forever be in mourning. I think this is supposed to be cute, but it’s kind of just depressing. Also, they married when she was 18 and he was 38. There are so many questions with this, but I will just let it go.

After we toured the house and the Presidential Library, Andy and I toured the grounds…did I mention that there are 52 acres and we had just run a half marathon? So we did what every normal person in our shoes would do…RENT A GOLF CART.

The grounds really were super beautiful.

They had reconstructed Varina’s rose garden.

There was also a Confederate cemetery on the grounds.

To Andy’s delight they even had a tower! (See…an activity for all people!)

Finally, and most interestingly, they had a TON of animals at Beauvoir. Apparently, a man that owns a traveling petting zoo leaves his animals at Beauvoir during the winter months of the years. He pays to house them and have them fed. Each year there are different animals that are brought.

There was a camel and a cute miniature horse!

I think this is an emu, but honestly I don’t really know animals so I could def be wrong.

Then the horsie! And this weird ox-looking thing?

Anddddd then Andy had to help the goat who got his head stuck through the fence try and escape.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to President of the Confederacy’s house without some racism intermixed.

Example #1: The keys to our golf cart.

(I will admit that this may not be considered racist in Mississippi, but in Northern Virginia you don’t walk around with anything confederate related.)

Example #2: The plaque in the Confederate cemetery. For those who can’t read the picture…

“No Nation Rose So White And Fair. None Fell So Pure of Crime.”

I am not even sure what to say about this, except this plaque definitely needs to go. There’s history and then there’s just being wrong.

In general, our trip to Biloxi really helped me see the other side of a story. While the Confederacy is not my history, it is the history of many of my fellow citizens in this country, just like slavery is the history of many of my fellow citizens. It’s hard to know where to draw the line, where to erase, and where to keep. I certainly don’t have the answers, but I do know that it is a lot more complex than I may have originally thought.

We left Beauvoir right at closing time and we went to catch the sunset.

HOLY MOLY THE SUNSET WAS SO GORGEOUS!!!!

On our way back to the Airbnb, Andy and I ran into our one friend at Biloxi: THE BLACK KITTY.

Alright story time: On our first night in Biloxi, Andy and I found a baby black kitten hiding in the bushes on the side of the street. Obviously we had to stop and make sure the cat was okay. We were expecting the cat to run away from us (because duh, it’s a cat haha), but weirdly the cat came right up to us. It didn’t look injured, but it looked very skinny and hungry. We picked up the cat and took it into the car with us (remember it was actually freezing that night) while we tried to call shelters so we could take the cat somewhere.

The cat was ALL over the place. It was so precious – friendly, energetic, a bit awkward – clearly it would have fit in perfectly with our family.

Unfortunately, there was not a single shelter that was open in Biloxi that late at night. We even called the non-emergency police line, the emergency animal vet hospital and Petsmart. No luck.

We ended up driving to the grocery store, buying kitten food and leaving the cat with food.

It was heartbreaking leaving the cat (and I still secretly wonder about the kitty even today). Every time that we passed the bushes we would stop and look for the kitty.

Well, after our sunset viewing, the kitty was back! Although it was sad to still see the kitty outside, it did make me feel better knowing that it survived the night.

After finally forcing myself to leave the kitty again, Andy and I headed to downtown Biloxi for dinner, drinks and the CASINO! As mentioned before, Biloxi is really well known for their gambling and there is literally a casino on every corner. We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe Casino. Andy really wanted to put $20 on black.

Unfortunately for Andy, the bad luck that had been casually following us for a lot of the trip continued. Four times in a row, Andy put $10 on black and he lost every single time. Do you know what the chances are off losing four times in a row?!?! Andy did the math and there is a 5.3% chance. I think we need to name the entire weekend 5.3, because there are so many things that just shouldn’t have happened, but just did.

After our casino experience, we went home and packed up so we could catch our early morning flight the next day.

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PART II: Our Travels to Biloxi 

Warning: The fun part of Biloxi is over. Please do not continue if you don’t want to read about our terrible struggles. Tears and personal break-downs are included. 

Our trip to Mississippi was supposed to be relatively straight forward. We were flying from Reagan, transferring in Charlotte and then continuing on to Gulfport (the closest airport to Biloxi). On our flight to Charlotte, our flight was delayed 5-10 minutes due to a missing flight attendant (I assume the flight attendant was just running late…not like an actual missing person). No big deal right? Well this brief delay put our plane in an unfortunate position trying to leave the gate. We got stuck behind another plane in which the airplane tug was broken.

(Okay brief pause to discuss my ignorance…how many people knew that planes couldn’t actually reverse?!? This is a serious flaw in my opinion – like how hard could it be to make a plane reverse? We can send people to outer space, but planes can’t back up?!? Something is just wrong with this picture.)

As you are probably picking up, this broken tug issue was not resolved quickly. We spent 50 minutes sitting on the plane before we actually took off. This meant that we arrived in Charlotte over an hour late, leaving us 10 minutes to get to our gate for our connecting flight…which was conveniently on the complete opposite side of the airport.

Well, Andy and I RAN. I mean full out sprint with our backpacks, carry-on luggage and me in my cowboy boots.

Have you ever truly sprint through an airport? It’s not fun. I’m like trying to shout at people to say “excuse me, coming through,” but honestly I was so out of breathe that I think people realized I was about to barrel through them because they could hear my heavy gasping sound 20 feet away.

We arrived to our gate and the door had already closed (EVEN THOUGH THE PLANE HAD NOT TAKEN OFF YET). I start crying. Just like full-on sobbing. Which is really unhelpful as Andy is trying to talk to the gate attendant to figure out the next steps. Sorry bout it.

Of course, the only other flight to Mississippi was at 8 PM tonight (8 hours later) and it was already full. We got on a flight to New Orleans leaving in 4 hours and we would just drive the 1.5 hours to Biloxi.

Now this is the point in the story where I must (re)bring up weather: There was a full-on winter storm crossing through the southeast. Like sleet, ice, snow…you name it. On the one day we are trying to fly south and there is a winter storm which hasn’t happened in eight years. All you can do is sigh.

So of course our flight to New Orleans was cancelled. We then got on a flight to Mobile, Alabama leaving at 8 PM. You guessed it, this was also cancelled. At this point, there was nothing leaving Charlotte for the rest of the night so Andy and I paid for a hotel.

I am telling you this story calmly, but I must disclose that I was anti-calm. I was so upset and so stressed and really just not a fun person to be around. I had taken the day off of work to travel to this half-marathon and I was freaking out that we were going to make it (which of course makes you think about how much money you’re wasting). On top of all of this, I had two HUGE final papers due for grad school on the upcoming Wednesday and Thursday that I had not started (dumb, yes I know). So there was a lot of pressure and I just cracked.

I must give Andy props because he really dealt with me and tried to be as stable as possible. I do not think I would have made it without him to keep me in check.

The next morning we flew to Pensacola, Florida, rented a car and then drove over two hours to Mississippi. Naturally, our flight to Pensacola was delayed over an hour as well. But in the end we did eventually make it (woo-hoo!).

With all these traveling issues, you would think that just from a probability standpoint that our trip home would be smooth sailing.

I am sorry to say that no, no it was not. It was actually worse if that is possible.

On our way home, we arrived at the Gulfport airport at 4:50 AM for a 6 AM flight. Due to all the ticket changes we had made on the way down, someone along the way had incorrectly re-issued our tickets and we were unable to check in on-line. So we had to stand in line to check-in to talk with a human.

Well for an unknown crazy reason, the line for American was about 60 people deep and there were three employees helping. WHY AMERICAN WHY!??! After about 20 minutes, I completely cut the line (sorry not sorry) and was able to talk with a human. This human had to get a supervisor to help us re-issue our tickets. By the time we were able to get our tickets 40 minutes had passed.

We then hurried to the security line….which was also out the door.

Cue my panic attacks.

So Andy is trying to calm me down and I’m panicking and just watching the time get closer and closer to when our gate will shut.

When we get to the front of the security line, I made it through, but Andy was stopped because of my backpack (he had been carrying it). So I run to our gate and tell them my husband is coming and to just wait a few minutes. They told me they couldn’t wait and they were shutting the gate in one minute.

I sprint back to security and plead with the TSA woman to check the backpack because our gate is shutting. It might be appropriate to say that when I write “pleading” I really mean begging in a hysterical this-woman-is-crazy sort of way.

I then run back to the gate, only to watch them legitimately shut the gate in my face. Sixty seconds later, Andy runs up (with the backpack which by the way was not stopped for any particular reason). Within five minutes, six other passengers on the flight show up.

THE PLANE HAS NOT EVEN LEFT AT THIS POINT, THERE ARE EIGHT OF US AT THE GATE AND THE RUDE, HORRIBLE AMERICAN PEOPLE WOULD NOT LET US ON THE PLANE.

No, I’m not still bitter about it at all (I hate you American).

I also want to state that there were no more than 48 seats on this plane. That means about 15% of the plane was left at the gate. Like really, how hard could it have been to delay the plane five minutes?

At this point, I have American’s number on speed dial and I have our confirmation number memorized. So I call American and get us rebooked on the next flight leaving out of Gulfport (which by the way we were charged a $150 booking fee). Of course, since we were in the middle of nowhere, the next flight leaving isn’t until 1:00 PM….seven hours laters.

Seven hours in an airport where the only food option is Arby’s. ARBYS!!! THEY USE LIQUID CHEESE AT ARBYS!!!!!

Okay, okay, I’m getting heating just writing this. Cooling down now.

Anyways, in the midst of all of this, I sprained my ankle while trying to run to security to get Andy before the gate shut. I’m legit walking around the airport with this make-shift bandage holding some ice we had to beg Arby’s to give us. Super classy.

The rest of the story is pretty typical. Flight out of Mississippi gets delayed (because of course we can’t have a flight leave on time).

We then miss our connecting flight in Charlotte.

We get on another flight to DC and finally get home around 9 PM at night.

In the end, I left with a sprained ankle that took 6 weeks to heal, a severe fear of connecting flights and a desire to drive everywhere. #Roadtrip

We did end up complaining to American who refunded our $150 rebooking fee and gave Andy and I both $200 travel credits. Of course, to use the travel credits we have to fly American again which just thinking about gives me the chills.

The moral of the story? Avoid American at all costs and pay the extra money to fly non-stop. Oh, and also, Biloxi is a pretty cool place if you ever happen to be in Mississippi.