The Wilson House Inn Ocean Springs

... four o’clock but the cars were already filing the dirt lot, I’m sure if I stuck around I could have witnessed a healing or better yet a baptism. Worked my way into Mobile and wanted to stop in Bayou Labattre to pay my respects to Bubbba’s mother (Forest Gump) but it was getting late.

I finally stopped for the night in Pascagoula, Miss. at Shepard State Park. After the orientation from the ranger ...

Jordan left us this morning to head back to Phoenix. His mom is very nervous about him flying by himself for the first time, but I am sure he will do fine. He's already taller than his dad, so I don't think anyone is going to mess with him.

Our next stop is Biloxi, MS…another rest stop before joining up with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dennis in Prattville, AL ...

... Biloxi, Mississippi - Las Vegas of the Deep South - where we park at the Hard Rock Casino. Gamble all night at the Hard Rock and the Beaux something or other which have been rebuilt since Katrina (I believe the Beaux may have survived the storm having been built specifically to survive such calamity). The rest of the area still shows the affects/devastation from the hurricane - many casinos no longer exist - lots of bare foundations.

Again we got up in time to walk the dogs then hit the road. We had a long drive ahead of us today. The original plan was to stop in Memphis for BBQ for lunch, but after looking at the map and determining how long it would take us to get to Lloyd's house from there w/ the Memphis stop, we decided to do that on our drive home next week. Stacy's navigational skills are not the best, so while Dan was in the back working on his laptop, I took us ...

A nice and early departure from Mississippi, heading towards the wide open spaces of Texas. passed the "Cross" along the way- what a sight. Tonight's stay in a small town just outside of Dallas. Long day, lot's of traffic towards the end. and 10 hours of travelling.

... We are excited about our new venue and although we had thought about Vegas 2 years ago when we sold the Beal House Inn, we were swayed to move to St. Petersburg instead, and although we made many friends (You all know who you are and we miss you) and Elements Global Cuisine became a success, we are pleased to be on our way to Nevada. We will keep you updated

... number of miles that we need to cover we keep having to drive slowly as there is endless miles of "roadwork". It seems a common element in US roads to have 10 miles of roads reduced to one lane only to find to works picking their noses and a small hole at the last 10 metres...totally unnecessary. Along the way we saw a lot of the damage caused by the hurricane to these areas a few months ago, especially "dramatic' is ...

Since the toad in the shower incident a few days ago, we've been joking that "the boys" would like one for a pet (our weird sense of humour!). And so we found it highly amusing this morning when we awoke to find a tree frog sat on the side louvre window of the bus! And he didn't want to leave. It took us ages to get him to jump off, he just kept trying to get in. Those boys!

We spent the morning just taking it easy, waiting for our parts to arrive. At 1pm we had to check out and ...

... But it was a good experience. We formed a tight group and around 20 of us headed into the French Quarter to watch the Parades. The parade we watched had 40 floats, in the theme of 'Endangered and Extinct Animals' The floats were spectacular. All had blinking lights and were covered in glitter and bright colours. The masked people onboard were wearing animal masks. (its a law that if your on the float, you cannot show your face) The floats came past and the crowd was jumping and ...

... amber. I've been on a copper jewelry hunt and was hoping to find a copper ring with an amber stone, but no such luck. All of the jewelry was set in silver, so off we went. Back outside, the rain had slacked off, but we had to wait for a train to pass before we could cross the road. Then back to the camper to walk Bandit around in the rain and mud. The next day was rainy and cold yet again, so we mainly just lolled around in the camper and cleaned some. Ed caught a nap ...