Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Anybody miss me the past couple of days??!  I was ironing.

Just kidding.

I've been on an impromptu fun road trip with Tom.  And when I say impromptu, I mean impromptu.  On an hour's notice Wednesday I got invited to go with him to Biloxi on business for an overnight complimentary stay at the biggest, fanciest, most outstanding hotel and casino in Mississippi, the Beau Rivage. 

Here's how it came about - and why I couldn't blog about it yesterday from on the road.   And, of course, I'll give you my most insightful thoughts on the whole experience.

Wednesday was a really busy day to begin with and sort of fun.  I got up really early so I could post my last one about ironing, which surprisingly seemed to strike a chord with a lot of you in a myriad of ways.  I found that really interesting and was amazed at some of your stories when I got home yesterday evening and had the chance to read all of the comments.  Thanks!  Very thoughtful comments with tons of good memories. 

I particularly liked the reminder about the aluminum sprinkler top that you popped on a glass Coke bottle to sprinkle water on the heavily starched clothes that had been hanging on the clothes line drying in preparation for ironing.  That brought back lots of great memories.

Anyway - I got up early Wednesday morning, got dressed up and put make up on to go out, which is unusual for me to do on a week day.   But Tom had a doctor's appointment at 10 a.m. with a hand surgeon over in Covington, Louisiana, about 45 miles southwest of here, and I wanted to go with him.  He has a ganglion cyst on his left hand that bothers him a lot sometimes and could be surgically removed, but he's thinking about that since it's not dangerous or anything.  Just hurts and is annoying sometimes.

We didn't get out of there until about 11:30 so went to eat lunch at a neat place over there that is a "satellite" restaurant/diner from one that is a years old neighborhood place in New Orleans - Mandina's - where I used to eat all of the time when I was practicing law over there in Midtown.  I had a delightful grilled shrimp salad, while Tom had a fried shrimp Po' Boy with salad.

When we got back to Picayune, we went by the house to see what was going on there.  A worker was putting temporary locks on our outside doors because our lighting fixtures had just been delivered.  Yea!

Then Tom had to drop me off here at the apartment and go into work for an hour or so before he left to go to Biloxi overnight to get together with a couple of other Miss. Press Assoc. Board members to review the facilities for the upcoming MPA summer convention, which is going to be held there.  Tom is in charge of the convention, since he is the incoming MPA President.

I had asked him last week if I could go with him and he said no, it was going to be the three guys only.  But on the way back from Covington, he'd gotten a call from one of the other guys and found out one was bringing his wife.  Tom still didn't say anything to me about it, but waited while he mulled it all over about whether it would work out.

Finally, as he dropped me off at the apartment he said, would you still like to go with me to Biloxi?  Marcus's wife is going and I guess you can go, but I've got to leave in an hour.  I was really surprised and taken back.  I rummaged through my social calendar in my head (which took about 1 1/2 seconds, of course) to think what I had going on the rest of the afternoon and Thursday and still was a bit hesitant.

I asked him if he wanted me to go.  Typical Tom, he answered, "well, if you want to."  He always leaves my decisions about things up to me.  I kept thinking about leaving the house building "oversight" and how I needed to meet with the electrician to talk about all of the light fixtures, and he said, well, Dee - I imagine he'll still be around Friday, you know.

I finally said - sure - why not.  Beats sitting here alone looking at boxes and the drab browns all over this apartment.  

He said, well, get inside and get all of your stuff together.  First - before you sit down at the computer!  (Does he know me well, or what?)

I did it.  I got everything together and was happy I was already all dressed up and fixed up and ready for anything.

We left about 3:15 p.m. and drove over and had a great time the whole time.  You know my feelings about casinos, but the Beau Rivage Hotel is outstandingly impressive - to say the least.  It is gorgeous and the service when we arrived was impeccable.  

They gave us a wonderful room on the 23rd floor overlooking the gulf and the huge pool/hot tub/dining area below on the second floor.  The room was spacious and beautiful - and free, which of course was the best part.

One of our friends came to the room to visit and chat for a while and the hotel brought us a complimentary fruit tray that was really good.  Then we went downstairs to meet Marcus and his wife and all had dinner in the steak house there at the hotel.  It was quite expensive, but excellent.  Not where we would normally eat, but we enjoyed the evening.

Yesterday morning we got up and met with the director of marketing and sales and took a tour of the convention facilities.  This will be the first MPA convention to be held at the Beau Rivage and it is going to be a wonderful place to hold it.  All of the accomodations are going to work out very well for what we need for the convention and the setting is beautiful.

So, we'll see . . ..

The MPA usually holds its meetings on the Mississippi Gulf Coast because many members bring their kids and there is a lot more to do there.  Last year, there was only one hotel/casino open on the coast and we had the MPA meeting there as a show of support for the coast in the aftermath of Katrina.  The convention was actually supposed to have been held at the Beau Rivage last year, but it got 20' of water in it in Katrina and didn't open back up for a year, after being totally re-done.

We left there about noon yesterday and drove back along the coast to see what all was going on.  I have to say once again, as I have several times before here, still nothing much has changed all along the Mississippi gulf coast since Katrina, more than 1 1/2 years ago except for what big corporations have done.

The only new building you see going on has been of hotel/casino complexes and high rise condominiums, which weren't in existence before.  Hardly anyone is re-building their homes because they didn't get enough insurance money to pay for their losses, they still don't know what the final FEMA flood elevations are going to be for building higher and they can't get insurance to insure them.  

The same is true of businesses.  Hardly any have returned at all along the beach for miles and miles and miles, except Waffle House.  No gas stations, no restaurants, no nothing.  Nor does it look like there will be anything going on any time soon, either.

Some businesses and most of the people who lived along the coast have re-located.  There is a huge housing shortage and a shortage of places to work, as well.  People by the thousands and thousands have left and most won't be back.

So, right outside the beautiful Beau Rivage, you still see total devastation all around.  What was once a picturesque historic drive all along the gulf coast of Mississippi will never be there again.  It is gone.  Permanently.

Somehow, it makes the brightness of the Beau Rivage seem just a bit dimmer to me.

Dee

P. S.  Oh yeah - the reason I didn't blog yesterday morning from our room while Tom went on the facilities tour was because they didn't have Wi Fi and Tom didn't bring his cable to hook up his computer to the internet connection in the room!  I was dismayed, of course, being the big blogger that I am, but decided to make the best of it and went on the facilities tour and meeting instead.  That was fun, so all was not lost. 

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