Monday February 4

Sitting on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi outside the Beau Rivage (translation: beautiful loser) Casino.  The whole downtown of Biloxi is casinos and the eight story parking garages for the players.  I'm set up in a municipal parking lot with about 20 other RVers waiting for the Fat Tuesday carnival parade tomorrow afternoon which goes along the highway right in front of us.  The gulf beach is right behind the parking lot.  I watched folk all afternoon climb out of their cars carrying loaves of bread to feed to the seagulls.

Left St. George Island early this morning.  Great weather again.  In Apalachicola I saw a sign pointing out the direction to the Ice Macine Museum.  I couldn't resist, so: TRUE FACT ALERT!  In teh 1830's a Dr. Gorrie tried to find a way to cool down the sick rooms of people afflicted with various ot weather diseases.  He developed a refrigeration machine that made ice and it was quite the hit.  But when he tried to market it, the northern ice lobby (the companies that made money by cutting ice out of New England ponds and transporting it south) was able to keep him from finding a manufacturer.  He apparently died an unhappy man.

The drive from Apalachicola to Biloxi:  Imagine Myrtle Beach.  Now imagine Myrtle Beach stretching for 200 miles.  It was so bad on Rt 98 that ran along the water that Interstate 10, with all it's monstrous billboards, was a relief.

When I got to the Mississippi visitors center I asked about a state park I was thinking about staying at.  The info person said that the park was closed because there were still Hurricane Katrina victims living there in FEMA housing.