I just had a text encounter with my friend Skoge in California, after she viewed my backyard walk-around video:
• Who mows all that lawn?
• The landlord.
• And my rent is $425 a month. Welcome to small town Tennessee!
• The lower area was wiped out in a flood back in the nineties, homes destroyed, now maintained by the county, all mine to walk around.
• Isn't it interesting where we land, my friend...
Life is good on Lee Street. Pipers plant is blooming, and my baby's love is resurrecting!
A new flower has appeared on big mama.
The bird feeder is up with it's new base that has been super-glued to the bottom.
And the squirrels are eating the crumbs down below.
The thing about road trips is, you got a lot of time to think. Piper is in my thoughts, a lot.
I remember one winter back in Idaho, four foot of snow on the ground, Steph was back in Seattle for a few months, and I was out driving the fucking bus through the slush.
Piper saved my sanity. We had this morning routine where she would ask for her gravy with a little meow. We spent our evenings hunkered down in my office staying warm. God I loved that cat.
In Biloxi at the moment. It's right next to Gulfport and I like this place also, even if the traffic lights are stupid. What I have discovered is that this is a gambling town, with lots of big name casinos. I passed a Harrah's Casino, hell, I thought they were just in Nevada. I was a bellboy at the Harrah's up in South Lake Tahoe when I was a kid.
Enough talk, it's time to go sit in the sand...
Alright, technically, my ass is not in the sand, but on a bench in the sand, at the beach in Gulfport, MS. My toes have found the water, the suns coming up, I just had a video chat with Daniel, showing off my spot, and I feel better than I have in a long while.
I like Gulfport, my kind of town. They even have a WhataBurger, the last one of those I saw was down in Laughlin Nevada, years ago. And beach access is terrific, lots of parking spots, at least early in the morning here.
Today I'm going to just mosey up the coast, find a place to eat later on, and check out Biloxi.
Spent the morning doing laundry at the Wishy Washy, and trying to rescue a bird that had flown in an was trapped behind a cabinet and a big picture window. Poor baby couldn't understand why she couldn't fly through it, and her partner was frantically skwaking at her, fluttering around on the outside. Couldn't make it happen, but I'm sure my friend the laundry lady would solve it when she came in.
Packed up and was out of the house by 0930. Down to Birmingham, over to Tuscaloosa, on to Meridian, MS and I've landed at a rest area south of Hattiesburg. Both New Orleans, and Gulfport Mississippi are 96 miles away. Been to New Orleans a few times in my life, so tomorrow I hit Gulfport, put my toes in the ocean, ass in the sand, with a cold drink in my hand!
I've got a road trip planned. It's a variation on my failed trip down south a few weeks ago. First stop, a rest area off I-59 in Mississippi. It's 400 miles, six hours away.
The next morning I'll bop down into Gulfport and get me some beach time. I may even hit Ship Island, one of the top rated islands in the U.S.
Later Biloxi, then sleep somewhere. After that, mosey back home at my leisure.
Think I'll leave tomorrow morning. Get up early and do a laundry at the Wishy Washy, put some clean clothes in the back of my truck, grab my electronics, and cameras, and get the hell out of town.
I checked the weather for the next few days, it looks great. And yes, I know Shelby, I'm there, you're gone.
Smoke is smoked, finished it last night. Time to clean up, start again.
Just bought a little bird feeder kit that I have setup where I view the yard from my chair.
Mid-mornings around here, the sun is fighting to get thru the blossoming trees, to reach it's hungry children on the ground.
Pipers corner gets the early sun, as the canopy on my porch blocks the rest.
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