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April 18-24, 2009 -
Gulf Coast
Kathy and I decided to take a driving trip from Knoxville to New Orleans and
to the Gold Coast area in April. On this trip we obtained a special
"Assistance-Dog" tag for Kenai, so she could stay with us on the whole trip. She
was a little anxious for the first 3 days, but finally settled down for the last
half of the trip.
Saturday 4-18 we left around 9am for our week long trip to the Gulf of Mexico.
We drove to Nashville on I-40, and then took exit 192 (McCrory Lane) south to
the start of the Natchez Trace Parkway. I believe this is one of the most
beautiful drives in the USA. It is 444 miles of 2 lane road without no stop
signs, stop lights or cities. The road winds along a 200 year old trail used by
settlers for many years. Along the way, there are beautiful mountain vistas,
streams, rivers, lakes, wooded areas and pasture land. With no private roads
intersecting the parkway and little access from County Roads, there was very
little traffic. For the first 40 miles we pasted around a 100 or bicyclists. But
for the remainder of the 400 miles, we probably passed only 300 cars (no
commercial trucks allowed). Along the edge of the road on both sides was a
beautiful green plant about 6 inches high with pretty white flowers. This strip
of flowers went on for 200 miles. Once into Alabama and Mississippi the flowers
changed to white and yellow. Then when the landscape changed to nearly flat and
straight, we started seeing Red Clovers. From the start of Natchez Trace Parkway
near I-40 until around the south Tennessee border, there were many Red Bud and
White & Pink Dogwoods in bloom. The Red Buds faded out around Alabama, but the
Dogwoods lasted all the way to Jackson MS. We stopped for dinner in Tupelo, MS
around 6pm and then drove until around 9pm and stopped in Jackson, MS. We stayed
at the south Jackson Hampton Inn (great place with really good bed).
Sunday morning we got up and drove to New Orleans and arrived around 2pm. We
drove around the French Quarter checking for hotels, but with a huge festival
going on, we decided to stay in the quieter Garden District at the Hampton Inn
on St. Charles Avenue. We stayed Sunday thru Tuesday morning. Sunday evening we
took a walk south to Magazine Street then east (to where most of the Antique
stores are). We had a beer at "The Bulldog" 3236 Magazine Street
(www.draftfreak.com) a dog friendly bar with hundreds of beers on tap and a
beautiful water fountain with Beer Spouts. For dinner we walked back toward the
hotel and ate at "Superior Grill" a Mexican food restaurant (with great
margaritas). Kenai was a little anxious so we ended up getting the food to-go
and eating back at the hotel. We watched a few shows, and then Kathy nodded off
quickly.
Monday morning I woke up around 3am and went down to the lobby to work on my
laptop on Knoxville Zoo Volunteer Community projects (including Website). Around
5am I went back to the room to get Kenai for morning walk. The weather was great
(around 65 degrees). We walked up and down the Trolley Car rails for 6-8 blocks.
Kenai and I then sat around in the hotel lobby, watching the news, grazing on
continental breakfast, and just watching the tourists go by. Around 8am Kathy
woke up and we got ready to play tourists for the day. We started on with a trip
to Destrehan Plantation, in Destrehan LA (about 25 miles west of New Orleans).
It was a beautiful old Southern house (with great antiques) and beautiful
grounds. For lunch we had seafood at "Harbor Seafood & Oyster Bar", 3203
Williams Blvd, Kenner LA. It was a local little dive, but the seafood was fresh
and really Great!. Afterwards we drove back to New Orleans French Quarter and
toured the "St. Louis Cemetery No. 1" (420 Basin Street). These are the
cemeteries with mostly private mausoleums above ground. Some of them were from
the late 1700's. Then we walked around the French Quarter going in and out of
antique stores and having a beer. Kenai didn't have much fun, because there was
no grass to pee on. Afterwards we went to the "Riverwalk Marketplace". I had
received an email years ago from a man wanting me to display some of my
"pocked/liquor flasks" in his mini-museum. The mini-museum is located in the
"South Food and Beverage Museum" on the west end of the 3rd floor of the
Marketplace. Inside the museum is the "Museum of the American Cocktail". Ted
Haight and I have corresponded several times about the display of a portion of
the 1000 pocket flasks at the museum. I spent a few minutes looking over the
displays. I called Ted, but didn't get a response. I'll try to email him again
when I get back to Knoxville. I don't remember what we did for dinner.
Tuesday morning we got up and headed out of New Orleans. We made a stop on the
way out of town to check the lower 9th ward (where a lot of the major Katrina
devastation happened). There were maybe 1 out of 2 hours rebuild, but many old
homes still had the large marks on the sides of the building showing chemicals,
pets inside, etc. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. We left out of town east
on I-10 towards Gulfport and Biloxi, MS. We took a long-cut along State 90 to N.
Beach Road to see the devastation. There were only 1 in 10 houses standing (with
the majority of those houses brand new). We stopped for a while to play in the
ocean. Kenai surprised us by going up to her belly in the ocean. She also played
with the ocean by trying to bite the little waves. We continued on to West Beach
Road thru Gulfport to Biloxi. We stopped at a few Casino-Resorts and ended up at
the Beau Rivage (875 Beach Road, Biloxi, MS). This seemed to be the nicest
Resort (other than the Hard Rock). The rooms were very large (beds not too bad).
We drove around a little to check out the town (lots of devastation). We ended
up eating at the "Terrace Cafe" (food okay). Kenai was finally wearing down and
so she lay peacefully under the table.
Wednesday morning I woke up around 3am and was bored, so I went down to the
casino to win some money. I started on the Roulette with my norm - $100 down for
(20) $5 chips. I played my standard 1-3-13-24-36 and busted 3 times, then hit
the 1 on the 4 play to walk away with $175. Then I went to one of the $1 "777"
slots and drop $42. I wandered around a little and finally found our favorite
machine "Double Triple Diamond Deluxe with Cheese" $1 slot. I put in $20 and
started losing, so I put in another $100. After getting down to $54 and almost
ready to cash out, I hit the Bonus Feature (you have to understand the game). I
hit the 3 milkshakes and moved up to the next line, where I hit the 3 french
fries, and moved up to the next line and hit 2 of the 3 hamburgers and ended up
winning $275. I cashed out at $321. I was up $342, but decided to hit the
Roulette table again and ended up losing $100. So, all in all, I was up $134.
Yeah! I felt that was enough, so around 4:30am I went to get Kenai to take her
for a walk. We headed out the front door and west alongside the Beau Rivage,
past the parking garage to a boardwalk that looped out over the ocean. As I just
got started on the boardwalk I noticed what looked like a body under towels
lying on the beach. I continued on the boardwalk for another 1/4 mile and then
walked a few miles down the quiet, disserted beach. On the way back, along the
boardwalk, I noticed that the body under the towels had not moved at all. I had
seen a sign on the beach "No Dogs allowed" (oops!) that had the phone number for
the local sheriff's office. I decided to call to be a good citizen. I told the
dispatch lady that there seemed to be a body covered in beach towels on the
beach, but it might be a dead body or maybe just a practical joke. The
dispatcher asked me if I needed the police and I said "yes". I told the lady
where I was located so the police could find me. 3 police cars showed up in less
than 10 minutes. The 1st cop asked me if I was the person laying on the beach,
so I told him "no, I was the person who called about the body". All two
policemen got out flashlights and one got out a gun and headed towards the body.
It was somewhat hidden behind a sand dune. After about 30 minutes of discussions
and searches, the policemen hand-cuffed the man and walked him up the beach and
put him into a squad car. Then a policeman came over and got my name, address,
phone number and social security number. He was greatly appreciative, since the
subject had marijuana on his person and he also had multiple arrest warrants.
The police thanked me, because they had probable cause (due to me) to check out
a possible "dead body" and the man would not be able to plead harassment. I
ended up feeling sorry for the man, having his sleep interrupted. I then went
back to the room to wait for Kathy to wake up. When she did I told her about the
gambling and taking Kenai for a walk and said "oh yes, I also found a dead body
on the beach". She almost fell out of the bed, until I told her the real story.
We had breakfast at IHOP (good for me, Kathy hates it). We then drove down to a
deserted stretch of beach, so Kenai could play in the ocean. She started out the
same, wading in up to her belly, but then a little bigger wave (6") broke and
she tried to bite it and got a mouth full of salt water. That was it for the
water play. We then went to the B.R. pool around 1pm and laid in the shade until
around 6pm. It was hardly crowded and mostly quiet. Kathy had a drink she loved
called "Citrus Bliss" -1oz Grey Goose L'Orange Vodka, 1oz Cointreau (Orange
Liquor), Orange & Pineapple Juice & Splash of Champagne. Later Wednesday evening
on the way to pick up food to go, Kathy stopped in the casino and dropped $40 in
the slots, so we still ended up $94 ahead. Yeah!
Thursday morning I slept in late (8am) and didn't get up and going until around
9am. We had specialty pastries from a Hawaiian family, they were great. We then
drove to "Bellingrath Gardens", 12401 Bellingrath Gardens Road, Theodore,
Alabama (around 60 miles east on I-40 and south on Bellingraft Road). This was a
very old house and landscape gardens. There was a 2 mile walking trail around
the grounds. All the azaleas had all ready bloomed, but there were still all the
Roses and other beautiful flowers. See www.bellingrath.org for more information.
We walked quickly out after around half way thru due to all the middle school
kids on a field trip. On the way back to Biloxi, we decided to eat a late lunch
at "Mary Mahoney’s" at great old building built circa 1737 and turned into a
restaurant in 1964. The building was remodeled again after Hurricane Katrina.
The food was pricy (for dinner), but for lunch was very reasonable and the food
was one of the best we ate at while on vacation.
Friday morning we got up around 9am and headed out the door. Originally we were
only going to drive half way home (Birmingham or Atlanta), but since Kathy's
mother was at our house watching 'Boo' the cat, I decided to be the "good
husband" and drive straight home. Yeah for the Bed!
Saturday and Sunday I had to recover from the constant driving (and catch up on
all the DVR recordings).
Just a note - Kenai finally totally relaxed on Tuesday through the rest of the
trip. I guess she was just excited to be going so many places and she wasn't
given the opportunities to get in her normal 2-3 hour naps (2-3 times a day).
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