Destination Destin Part 6: Little Rock to Laurel, Mississippi (5/7/26)

A pretty sunset over downtown Little Rock last night

Bob and I left Little Rock, Arkansas, this morning to drive about 6 hours to Laurel, Mississippi. We have wanted to come to Laurel for a few years, as we are fans of the home renovation show “Home Town” and the hosts, Ben and Erin Napier, who do the home renovations.

We had a much flatter drive today than we had yesterday. This made Bob happy. We were also both happy that the rain and storms we thought we might be driving through did not pan out.

The bridge crossing the Mississippi River
from Arkansas into the state of Mississippi

A smaller bridge over a river in Mississippi

Many of the rivers that we crossed in Mississippi
were high and brown

Our first stop in Laurel was the Visitor Center where we learned about other famous people from Laurel, MS.

Some painted containers across the street from the Visitor Center

Lance Bass, a member of the group NSYNC is from Laurel

The reason we are here — Erin and Ben Napier.
Erin is from Laurel. They both live here now with their children, and they renovate homes and other buildings in the local area.

We are staying at an Airbnb in Laurel as there weren’t any good hotel/motel options downtown. We were not able to check in until 4:00 pm, so we had a look around the downtown area while waiting, and had an unexpected find.

A public art sculpture in a downtown roundabout next to the store over which our Airbnb room is situated

From the center of the downtown district,
we walked across the street to The Scotsman,
the Napier’s gift shop as well as the wood shop
where Ben makes custom wood pieces
for the homes that they renovate.

The truck advertising The Scotsman store

Another view of the mural by the store and the lawn

The best part of this part of our day is we got to see both Ben and Erin in his shop while they were shooting a tv episode! We were not allowed to take photos, but the staff member by the window where we looked in said that they renovate about 4 homes in the Laurel area every 8 weeks.