The Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida has been dubbed the Redneck Riviera. It attracts many a spring break student and family folk of the south with it's double wide assortment of roadside distractions coupled with pure white sands. Ground zero is Panama City Beach.


On your approach to "the strip" area, King Neptune points the way. Standing at about three stories, he was once a Viking named "Sir Loin" by the steak house that put him in his place. Neptune is not the only King on this block...

A bit further down the road, Alvin's Big Island store gives shoppers a chance to see live sharks and alligators while the Museum Of Man-In-The-Sea seems to be taking a page from Sponge-O-Rama dive manual. Miracle Strip Amusement park offers one of the oldest "rides in the dark" in the country and sprinkled throughout are water parks, arcades and the ever rampant mini golf course.

Mini golf courses were considerd country clubs for the poor during the depression. At that time there were 40,000.

People have been putting around the original "Goofy Golf" since it first opened 1959. The owner Lee Koplin also once ran the now defunct Tombstone Territory. It was the first of western style amusements in the area and led to high noon competition with a similar park called Petticoat Junction. That too became a ghost town in 1984.

In the middle of all this action packed tack is a gentle reminder of our spiritual side that can sometimes be led astray by the glitz and glam of roadside make believe. Noah's Ark Beach Ministry has rowed their boat ashore and occupy a building shaped like, you guessed it.

"The Strip"
Front Beach Rd.
ALT 98
Panama City Beach, FL