Biloxi, MS

Today we made the 150 mile, 3 hour trip down I10 across the Big Muddy (Mississippi River) again to Biloxi & Southern Comfort. This is where we were this summer when Jody moved here from Mobile. Not our favorite CG but the best we have found in the area. The weather continues to be in the 70s & 80s but it's windy. All is well!

Angola State Prison Rodeo, Louasiana

We had a great time Sunday at the prison rodeo. Sorry there's no rodeo pictures; cameras, cell phones, food, coolers, etc are not allowed in the prison. The place was a sell out (9400 seats) and there were acres of inmate crafts for sale. The most common were wood (chairs rockers, bird houses/feeders, basic furniture), leather (belts, purses) and jewelry. The rodeo was interesting, there were traditional events such as bareback riding, barrel racing (the ladies were not inmates), bull dogging, & bull riding. Considering that all of the 5200 inmates are there for a minimum of 40 years if not life or execution ....they have nothing to loose and free health care. The fun events were pinball, buddy pickup, convict poker, and guts & glory. I really enjoyed pinball! 8 inmates each stand in 8 hoola hoop and a 1500 pound bull with very big horns is turned loose. The last man inside their hoop wins. The first pass by the bull usually takes out 4 or 5 inmates. It wasn't unusual to see 2 or 3 inmates 10 feet in the air at once. One time there were 2 inmates left, the bull was 20 feet from them, it's head down & kicking dirt with it's front hoofs. It was a stand off for 15 or 20 seconds, can you imagine what those 2 convicts were thinking while they stand there with a 1500 pound bull getting ready to send them flying? They have to be thinking of their buddies that limped or crawled or were carried out of the area. Sometimes the inmates think with their heads and run like mad to get out, sometimes the guys have more guts than I could imagine and stand there staring back at the bull.

Buddy pickup has one inmate standing on a barrel while another rides bareback to have him jump onto the horse and ride out of the arena, most made the jump successfully but ended up falling off the horse as the rode out. Convict poker has 4 inmates sitting on plastic chairs around a table and the bull is again released. The last mad sitting wins. Again tables, chairs and inmates go flying, mostly inmates. The guts & glory event has 25 or 30 inmates in the arena trying to get a chip off a bulls forehead tied to its horns. The fellow who gets the chip gets $500, a lot of $$$ for an inmate.

I haven't mentioned the monkeys riding dogs herding the goats.

Just wish I had some photos, there's a good chance we'll go again.

Port Allen, LA

Today we made another short 3 hour drive to Port Allen, LA. It's just across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, LA. Lots of oil refineries & sugar cane around here. We spent the afternoon doing lots of nothing. Patches is becoming something of a night critter, loves going out after dark and a lazy stroll on her leash.

Gulf shore in LA

We took a ride down to the gulf to see what it looks like, not as nice like the wide white sands of Biloxi or Gulf Shores. Not nuch down here, if you work here it's either in the oil or fishing industry. We did take a nice 5 minute ferry ride for a buck as there was no bridge crossing one river.

Lake Charles , LA

We made the short 3 hour trip to a very nice small (8 sites) parish park called White Oak Park on the Calcasieu River outside lake Charles, LA. We will hole up here a R&R a few days from the HHAI rally we just left, alone time. The two water pictures were taken from the dock at the park. It's a busy boat launch, lots of fishing going on.

Rally's over & time to move on

Here's another picture of happy hour Friday night. We continued Saturday & Sunday nights too. Let me introduce you to Tank, he's a very cute character and he knows it too.

In the morning we are off to Lousiana for thr Angola State Prison Rodeo this Sunday. It's an easy two day trip so we'll be doing some exploring somewhere on the way.

HitchHikers of America International (HHAI) rally pics

Here's some pictures of the rally, one is a seminar on waterless washing & waxing RVs. Water is messy and we have seen the waterless work done & it looked easier....so there went some $$$$. The pic of 10 of us sitting & standing is the founding fathers (& moms) of the Haulin' HitchHikers Club. We are from MI, MO, WA, & VA. We started talking about a non geographically based group of HitchHikers (most clubs are based on where RVers live but most of us are homeless) in 2007 in MO and TX & started the club in 2008. We have 59 couples now and are by far the largest and most active chapter of HHAI. One pic shows us having our annual meeting before a pot luck diner. The formal (as formal as we get) pic shows the 20 couples attending the rally (there were 75 to 80 couples total at the HHAI rally) on the stage. The first pic is Mike Mitchell, CEO & owner of NuWa who makes our RVs, ya see the hat he's wearing, he's a member too! He joined us at this nights Haulin' HitchHiker's happy hour. He's here telling the rally attendees what's happening & had 2 new HitchHikers here for us to check out. We like the one we already own.