I reached Gulfport on foot yesterday, amid some serious, sustained, flag-flapping Gulf winds. I’ve had a handful of very windy days while walking: such winds were smacking me at the left side through Cochise, Arizona. They were comfortably at my back en route to Lordsburg, New Mexico. And in one of the most exhausting days of the entire walk, they were strongly in my face almost for almost all of my 22 miles to Big Spring, Texas.
Yesterday was only a ten-mile day, and to count my blessings, the wind was at my side, no rain, no intense temperatures, and Gulfport hosts Bernie & Barbara relieved me of my load through the final 2 miles. That said, as mounds of beach sand piled their way onto the coast-hugging sidewalk, I found the sand more challenging to push wheels through than any and all else: I’ll take mud over sand in a heartbeat! And unlike dirt and most other substances, wet sand is much easier to navigate across than dry sand. (I have no ambition to find dune-buggy tires for my cart.)
Hosts Bernie & Barbara Walker, who’ve hosted 2 other cross-country walkers and who’ve been awaiting me since NOLA, invited me into quite the happening household: their sister, Penny, is currently visiting from Virginia; and a mother-son pair from southern India are currently staying here as well amid their travels together through the States. It’s the son’s first time here, they’re traveling by Harley Davidson, and they also met the Walkers via Couchsurfing. The Walkers took everyone to New Orleans yesterday, before I showed up, and today, they took us all out on their seaboat. We spent all day on the bays and bayous north of the Gulfport-Biloxi peninsula, seeing sides of Mississippi that many who live their lives in the state will never get to see. Quite an amazingly diverse country we live in. The more I learn about it and the more I experience it, the more I love it!
Tomorrow, I’m to walk nearly 19 miles, through Biloxi and to Ocean Springs. Serious winds are to be at my side and in my face again, with 30% chance of thunderstorms. One of my tires is having a tough time staying inflated. That said, as I’m leaning toward turning north at Pensacola, these may be my final Gulf Coast walking miles, and I’m determined to appreciate such miles while they last! Attitude: Optimistic!

Bernie & Barbara Walker, who've also hosted two other people walking across America.