Sweet Home Alabama--Day 2

Got underway around 9:45 Sunday morning (20 September) headed for the Monaco America Fall Rally in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We made a stop for lunch at one of our favorites, The Hungry Traveler in Henryetta, Oklahoma. We pulled into the parking lot of the Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Bossier City, Louisiana and parked next to my brother and sister-in-laws coach around 6:00pm. We are not due in gulf Shores until Wednesday, 23 September. This gives us some flexibility on where and how long we’ll stop along the way.

Bill and Nancy had left from their home in Purcell around 6:00 am so had arrived in Bossier City well ahead of us. After Jo fixed some sandwiches for dinner we sat around outside the coaches and visited until bedtime.

We have never been ones to head out before dawn. We like to get around after the local rush hour traffic has diminished and we usually stop for the day before the evening rush hour develops. This was the case on leaving Bossier City. Monday morning Bill cranked up his diesel, which was parked just outside our coach’s bedroom, around 6:00 am and they were on the road by 6:30. On the other hand, we slept in and did not get on the road until about 8:30. We headed east and crossed the mighty Mississippi River at Vicksburg, Mississippi. We had talked about stopping there but after looking at the information we had on the area decided that it would really take more than one day to do justice to sightseeing. With that we decided to push on east and then south to Biloxi. We arrived here around 4:00 pm.

We were in the Biloxi/Gulfport vicinity in March of 2007 and had been surprised how little reconstruction had been done in the two years since Hurricane Katrina had hit the area. At that time most of the area from the beach inland for three to four city blocks was pretty much gone. Today most of the residential property is still vacant with “for sale” signs on most of those lots. Some of the property has been bought up for commercial use with hotels, casinos and condos being built where large, expensive houses had once stood. Most of the hotel/casinos that were damaged or destroyed by Katrina have either been rebuilt or restored. Prior to Katrina all the casinos had to be located on water (riverboat gambling). Even though the hotel portion may have been on dry ground the casino itself had to be a boat. After Katrina the state changed the laws and almost all the new casinos are now on land. There are a couple being built out over the water but on large concrete pilings to protect them from future storms.

We’ll be here in Biloxi for two nights before heading east to Gulf Shores. We’ll see some of the sights around here and do a little relaxing. Although it is very hot and humid here today they are predicting rain for the next couple of days.