Holiday Inn Gulfport-I-10 & Us 49-Arpt, Ms

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 ...

... we got to the office our parcel was there. Sadly we didn't see Melvin this morning to say goodbye.

We took a different road out to the Interstate, passing even more devastation. It really is incredible that 3 years on, there are still derelict buildings and abandoned homes and businesses. And every few miles there was a trailer community, where the people that had lost their homes were now forced to live, in a lot of cases packed in like sardines. A really, really sad thing we ...

... handle it. Tara said she was on a really tight schedule and had to put out a fire before their Board meeting, scheduled to begin in an hour. I said, no problem and Tara went on to her office. Pamela and I wrapped up our conversation, and I turned to leave when Tara came back into the room. "Um, I think the reason you're here is the fire I was going to put out... are you Adrienne?" [laughter] "Yep, that's me," I replied. "I only had time to deal with one thing before ...

... help, and I am really sorry that he's not getting any. In the meantime, I just hope I can help get the cats out of the situation they're potentially in, if he loses control again... This whole situation has been an epiphany for me in many ways. For those of you who know me, you might remember I was the one who would leave the room when someone was retelling a story about accidentally hitting an animal while driving. I'm amazed at how I can now stomach stories about intentional ...

... Orleans area since the huge storm hit the gulf coast in the United States. We had been told at our induction that the work we would be doing in the New Orleans community would give hope to communities by working with them, providing for their immediate needs by empowering the local residents to rebuild their lives in sustainable ways. We had to make the owners feel empowered and not just be seen to be doing some sort of charity work. Stepping into the house I ...