The Long, Long Day - Thursday, November 4, 2021

Thursday seemed like it would work out well when we planned it. However, we lost an hour in the Time Zone change. Even though we decided to do a 5k walk in Biloxi instead of a 10k (which saved us an hour), we didn't arrive in Daytona Beach until after dark.

This is where we parked and
started our walk.

It was a great 5k walk, even though it was chilly. We loved walking along Beach Blvd. for the first few blocks and seeing the Gulf of Mexico. The homes were glorious as was the White House Hotel.

This site is in the parking lot at
the Biloxi Visitor Center.

The lighthouse is across Beach
Blvd. from the Visitor Center.

A historic home overlooking the Gulf.

The Gulf of Mexico view.

First Presbyterian Church on Beach
Blvd. in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Another beautiful home with a view.

The photo below is of Beachwalk of Biloxi. These look like apartments or rentals. If I lived in Biloxi, I would enjoy living here. These are really cute!

Beachwalk of Biloxi rentals.

Beach Blvd. home.

A grand home with a circular drive
and showy entry staircase.

The White House Hotel incorporates
seven buildings.

History of a ca. 1840 house destroyed by
Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

There was a stiff breeze
along the shore making it 
feel colder.

Another home along Beach Blvd.

After turning off Beach Blvd. we passed the Harrison County Law Enforcement Training Academy and the natatorium. 

Law Enforcement Training Academy.

City of Biloxi Natatorium.

Biloxi Water Department.

From here we went through cute neighborhoods and part of the "Old French" or "Biloxi City Cemetery." 

A crypt in the cemetery.

These are substantial headstones, 
probably granite.

This is a unique crypt. It could be
marble or a patterned granite.

The sign caught my eye.

Such a cute house. I love butter
yellow houses!

This is the point where we decided to make our 10k walk a 5k. Across the street from the above house was a park with a boardwalk. It looked like an interesting place to explore. We were at 4k and knew we could find 1k more. 

Biloxi Lighthouse Park boardwalk.

Another house across from the park.

A very nice view of the 
lighthouse from the entrance
to the park.

Information about bayhead forests. 
We hadn't heard of these before.

Biloxi Lighthouse Park info.

There were a number of homeless people sleeping in the park. That may be why our walk did not take us through it. We added this place on our own.

To finish up a 5k walk, we walked across Beach Blvd. to the beach, Lighthouse Pier, and stopped in the median of Beach Blvd. to view the lighthouse up close. Our walk instructions gave this history of the lighthouse:

"The Biloxi Lighthouse was built in 1848 and has been kept by female keepers for more years than any other lighthouse in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and declared a Mississippi Landmark in 1987."

The Biloxi Lighthouse historical marker on Beach Blvd. by the Lighthouse Pier states:

"Since its construction in 1848, this cast iron lighthouse has been the landmark for which Biloxi-bound vessels sail. Tended by the Younghans family: father, mother, and daughter, from late 1866 until 1929."

The beach at Lighthouse Pier. 
(Photo by Susan Medlin.)

Look at how many hurricanes this
lighthouse has survived!

Biloxi Landmark #1061.

Biloxi Lighthouse is very
photogenic.

Do not attempt to walk on this pier.
It's for the birds!

Looking across to another lighthouse.

Biloxi Lighthouse.

The beach at Lighthouse Pier.

The beach at Lighthouse Pier.

The above encompasses the first hour of our day. It was time to hit the road. 

We drove and drove and drove. I took a three-hour shift, then Susan M. did a three-hour shift. We had lunch at What-a-Burger. Then we split up the rest of the drive. I-95 south of Jacksonville had a wreck so we took I-75 south to FL 40 east.

We had Blizzards at DQ for a break from the car. FL 40 east is called the Florida Black Bear Scenic Highway. By now it was pitch black...no lights on most of this highway. Every couple of miles there were warning signs with a black bear on them. We never saw any bears, but we did see about six deer along the way, all next to the road. 

It took us forever to get to Daytona Beach! We were happy to finally pull into the hotel! Yay. Check-in was quick and bellboys took our luggage to our rooms.

Susan Medlin brought a cooler with us so we could keep our milk, cheese, and fruit cold as we traveled. We added ice as we went, but hadn't drained it. She took the cooler to her room to unload her stuff, then I went to her room to bring the cooler up to my room. I grabbed the handle of her cooler (which has wheels under it) so I could roll it out. The cooler up-ended, came open, and all the cold water spilled out on her tile and surrounding carpet. It made a little flood. She grabbed her bathroom towels to soak it up. Sigh. What else could go wrong?

I was hungry, so I ordered room service. The Classic Turkey Club arrived with three pieces of soggy bread (they looked toasted or grilled, but it must have toasted hours ago), completely wilted lettuce, and the turkey in rolls on the sandwich instead of laying flat. It was weird. The bacon was cold and didn't seem cooked. I took off all the bacon and the middle piece of bread. The "small" Hearts of Romaine Caesar Salad was huge. It tasted okay, but was incredibly salty. It also came with French fries which were cold. I threw most of them away. The menu said a $4 service charge would be added along with a gratuity of 21.5%. When the bill was presented, it showed a $4 service charge and a 21.5% service charge. There was also a separate line for a tip. Really?

Anyway, I don't think I'll be using room service again.

The room is huge and comfortable, but I had no heat last night. I turned the wall unit up to 80 and the appliance kept spewing cold air. I called the front desk and asked them to send someone to fix it today (Friday). They said someone would be here by 10 am.

The pedestal sink in the bathroom comes to my mid-thigh! It is so low! There is no counter to put all my stuff on. I stuck my hair dryer in the closet and put other stuff around the room.

That's all I can think of for today. Time to get sleep. G'night.

Prelude to Carnival Dream Five-Day Cruise to Mexico - Monday, February 17, 2020

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go. We're leaving on a cruise ship and it's time to update you on our journey. Twelve ladies from Traveler's World RV Resort are heading out and we'd like to thank Pam Emberton for organizing this getaway. Our group was divided into three vehicles.

Barb, Me, Peri, and Jyl at the Escape pod.

Saturday, our travel day to the Port of Galveston, was a disaster. We braved heavy fog the morning of our journey from San Antonio to Galveston. Breakfast at Schobel's Restaurant in Columbus, Texas, was the best part of our drive. All 12 of us met for breakfast. Next, we stopped at Buc'Ees in Katy and filled my gas tank for $1.75 per gallon!! 

As we approached Houston, we had an update from the cruise line. Due to fog, our ship was delayed coming into port. They asked everyone to arrive at the cruise terminal two hours later than their originally scheduled embarkation time. 

Our car full of ladies decided we had plenty of time to stop and shop at Walmart in Galveston before making our way to the terminal. We had until 3:30 p.m. to get there and board. All of our group of 12 made it to the terminal on time (apparently at the same time as 2,400 other cruisers). 

Let me paint a verbal picture as to what happened next. Picture two big cruise ships waiting to dock, both having been delayed for hours by the fog. Both ships docked about the same time and disgorged their passengers. Anyone who drove had to get to the parking lots and retrieve their cars. Meanwhile, two cruise ships worth of people were arriving to embark at approximately the same time, even though we had been told to wait an extra two hours.

Chaos ensued. It took us a while to get to the terminal due to the long line-up of cars. Peri and I dropped Jyl and Barb off at the terminal and we went to park. They took care of our large suitcases which we left with them, along with tips for the porters. We kept our overnight bags with us. Jyl and Barb got in line and we would call to let them know when we were on our way back to the terminal.

Peri and I were gridlocked in front of the terminal. There were parking lot attendants (?) directing traffic and allowing people to cross the road from the shuttles to the terminal. The wait to get out of the terminal drop-off area seemed interminable. 

When we got to a point past the people streaming across the street, we were directed into a very small line of cars in the middle of the closest parking lot/ terminal drop off. To our left was a full line of cars, to our right was all the traffic streaming out of the terminal. We were at the front of our line so we thought we'd get to go soon. Boy, were we wrong. 

The parking attendant out in the main thoroughfare from the terminal kept that traffic moving, but he wasn't allowing any of us from our line to merge, not even one car. The line of cars to our left was merging regularly. People in our line were getting testy. Someone tried to go around us and cut in front. I didn't let them, nor did the shuttle for one of the hotels, who also wasn't being let out into the main flow of traffic. It was about 15-20 minutes before we were allowed to move.

At that point, I asked one of the traffic directors how to get to Parking Lot A. He told me we needed to go onto Harborside Drive and turn right. But, when he finally directed us to move, he forcefully told us not to go on Harborside Drive and directed us on a side road away from Harborside Drive. Now what?? Signage for Lot A was non-existent on that back road. We saw the backside of the lot he had told us to go to, but no entrance was there except for shuttles to the parking lot. 

We drove through what looked like a train yard and finally found a way to get back to Harborside Drive. We turned left and found Lot A; however, they had the left-hand-turn lane blocked into Lot A and security wouldn't let us turn there. I rolled down my window and asked how we were supposed to get in and she told us to go to the END of the line. No way, Jose! We would have already been in that line if the parking attendant in the cruise ship lot had sent us the way he told us we needed to go in the first place.

I was very frustrated by this point. Lot A was only about 1/2 mile from the cruise terminal. There was a break in traffic going the other direction to Lot A, so I made a quick three-point turn and inserted myself in the line. It still took us forever to get to the lot. Once there, a parking lot attendant scanned our ticket and told us to drive forward and check in at the blue canopy. I tried to do that but another person directing traffic told us to turn through the middle of the lot and go back to park farther away from the terminal. Arrgh! 

From there, Peri and I decided to walk to the cruise terminal. It's a good thing we didn't just take the shuttle (which had a line that looked like we would have to wait for four more shuttles to come before we could even board one). As we were walking through the parking lot, I stopped at the blue canopy, like the lady at the entrance gate told me. Apparently, I needed to put a hangtag on my mirror to show I had paid for parking. If we had boarded a shuttle, I wouldn't have known that. I walked all the way back to the car and put in the hangtag.

All that being said, it took 1-1/2 hours from the time we dropped off our passengers until we made it back to the terminal to join them in line and it was only about 1-1/2 miles roundtrip to Lot A. We made it just before our friends entered the terminal building. 

Once in line, we filled out a health survey to let the cruise line know we didn't have a fever, sneezing, or coughing. Then we slowly made our way through the maze of people (moo) to the embarkation station where we showed our tickets and were given our stateroom keys. 

Oh, the lines! Wow.

From there, we were sent to have our belongings scanned and, finally, allowed on the ship. Whew. That took forever. I needed a glass of wine! And lunch. The wine had to wait because I couldn't get the top off the bottle.

Because of fog in the Port of Galveston, we could not leave at our scheduled time of 5:30 p.m. We finally moved out at 11:15 p.m. This, of course, put us behind our originally scheduled arrival time in Cozumel. Luckily, we had a day at sea to make up time. 

Next up: A day at sea.