Bill and Cathy McArthur on the Road 2004: 5

      Tuesday, January 27 was our last full day in Florida and our last full day to stay at Bob and Marianne's marvelous home on the water. Bob was off to work early. Marianne, Cathy, and Bill had a leisurely breakfast and then went for a walk over the causeway to Belleair Beach. We three went out to lunch at Frenchie's Rockaway Café in Clearwater Beach. There was a strong, chilly wind coming off of the Gulf so we ate inside. After lunch we walked on the beach at Sand Key for a while. We saw Black Skimmers and Royal Terns on the beach. We had pasta fazoul for dinner. After dinner we played a very close game of hearts, won by Marianne. 

    We were on the road on Wednesday at 8:00 AM. We left late to avoid the worst of the traffic in Tampa. It was a sunny day without a lot of traffic, so the 600 mile trip to Ocean Springs, Mississippi (near Biloxi) was accomplished in 10.5 hours. We did the whole trip in daylight, which really helped. Cathy read aloud from the book, "Deception Point", to help pass the time. We ate lunch in Tallahassee and dinner in a Pizza Hut in Ocean Springs. We were surprised to find ourselves in a different time zone when we arrived at the Hampton Inn. We unhitched the camper since we intended on spending two nights in this area. We had an Internet connection in the room, which is very convenient.

    We arose early on Thursday morning because of the time zone change which we hadn't gotten used to. The temperature was 31 degrees; we hope there is not damage to the camper. We booked motels in Galveston and Corpus Christi for the next two days via Expedia.com. After a continental breakfast where they had two day old newspapers available (Bill thought that the time zone change might have involved some kind of date change, too), we drove into Biloxi. We stopped at the Visitors Center and obtained some maps and other information. We decided to walk to the Biloxi Lighthouse, one mile west of the center, and then to the Marine Education Center, two miles east of the center. On the way back from the lighthouse, we stopped in at the Beau Rivage, one of several casinos in Biloxi. We quickly lost $1 in a slot machine and then explored the marina. We ate lunch at an upscale coffee shop in the casino and then continued our walk along the Biloxi beachfront. We visited the marine museum and aquarium and then the Seafood Museum, which also contained a museum devoted to Hurricane Camille of 1969. This category 5 storm devastated Biloxi and the town is still recovering, even after all of the intervening years. There are still many beachfront homes and properties that show the damage. In spite of the glitzy casinos, Biloxi seems to be a depressed town. The beach is beautiful, but there is a lot of work to be done. Bill asked in the Visitors Center for a restaurant that serves shrimp and grits and was greeted with blank looks. A woman worker said that they have grits for breakfast and they have shrimp au gratin, but they don't mix them. Could this be an opportunity for a niche market? We went to a theater complex and viewed "Mystic River" during the late afternoon. It was a good movie with good acting, but "Lord of the Rings" is better, in our opinions. We ate dinner at McElroy's on the waterfront and had shrimp and oysters and a whole Gulf Flounder, which was excellent. 

    Friday began with rain. Bill was up at a bit after 5:00 AM to do some computer stuff and noticed a hole in the rain on the accu-weather radar. Bill went outside and prepared the camper and the XTerra for hitch-up. Then Cathy came outside as the rain began again and we hitched up without a hitch (so to say). We went back into the motel and enjoyed breakfast before heading out for a rainy day driving to Galveston, Texas. As we drove, we received some sad news about Bill's brother Jack's medical condition. We made several phone calls to get information. We stopped for lunch in a small town just inside Texas off of I10. We went into a local coffee shop, but the locals were not very friendly looking so we left and ate at the Dairy Queen. The roadbed of I10 was old and bumpy, so it was a rough and wet day of driving. When we arrived in Galveston at around 4:00 PM, it was chilly and dreary with some rain falling and a lot of wind. We walked to a Starbucks and then continued to walk around and browse in a CD and DVD store. We did a bit of shopping and then walked to Landry's Seafood Restaurant on the beachfront for a great meal. We had Louisiana Purchase (crawfish, stuffed shrimp, blackened fish, and crabmeat) and Redfish. We were etouffè and had no room for dessert. Bill broke a bottle of wine on the floor on the way out of the restaurant in a freak accident due to our purchases being in two nested bags and the knot on the outside bag untying. We will probably not be invited back. 

   On Saturday, we drove to a Hampton Inn in Corpus Christi. Except for the last few miles of urban driving, it was an easy drive on remote roads. We had breakfast at our Best Western Motel and then took a 4 mile walk along the water. We ate lunch at a McDonalds in Refugio. When we arrived at the Hampton Inn, we paid our credit card and Conectiv bills. We found that our hotel was located in a vast area of shopping centers and malls. We walked around the area and managed to get haircuts and coffee at Starbucks en route. We ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack where we had good Gulf Coast food at a very reasonable cost. We will be returning to camping on Sunday.

        Bill and Cathy