Hurricane Leftovers

A good portion of Joe's and my initial arrival to the gulf coast was finding some authentic seafood restaurant to eat at, because it simply comes with the territory, versus being frozen and carted 14 hours north to Wisconsin. :)

To help us find restaurants, Joe and I turned to our Garmin (it's a navigation device). She's affectionately called Bitchin' Betty in our family, because the female voice that goes with the Garmin HONESTLY sounds edgy the more you disobey her mapped route, causing her to declare that she's "recalculating" or that you're not prepared to "turn in 0.1 miles."

Well, Betty failed us big time with trying to find this seafood place. Either that, or she completely forgot this thing called Hurricane Katrina came through three years ago and obliterated the city of Biloxi. We looked up the restaurant, plugged the Garmin to take us to its location....and drove EXACTLY to her end point. It ended up being a sand-blown ravaged parking lot where a restaurant once stood but was whoosed away with hurricane winds. The only thing left were tree logs laying on the ground around the frames of a building.

We pressed on, instead trying to find the next best thing: a Red Lobster that hopefully obtained its food stock from its location right on the waters.

Again, we plugged the Garmin and followed it right to its destination, and AGAIN found ourselves driving the Beetle through an empty parking lot right along Beach Boulevard, with weeds growing up through the cracks and piles of siding slumped in the corners. Seems like Hurricane Katrina ate the whole restaurant for supper when she visited.

I was so frustrated by this point (as we were running late for the concert), that I actually took a picture of the idiotic results of our non-updated Garmin, which is only 4 months old.

"Welcome to Red Lobster! Our specials tonight are lemon-brushed salmon with a side of crab GRASS and crumbled concrete! Or, try our rotted vinyl siding special...picked right off our property!"

Geez. It was through THIS rendezvous that Joe and I ended up eating at Hard Rock cafe....burgers instead of shrimp.

At any rate, traffic was moving too fast and Joe and I were too scatterbrained to capture more pictures, but the damage from the hurricane is still everywhere you look. Houses gashed open, roofing reconstruction still underway, roads that disappear off the beaten path into sand drifts. Yet adjacent to any of this you could find a new, colorful, million-dollar condominium or restaurant beckoning you to stop by and put up your feet. The city is still on the rebuild, but business is booming since Americans will always be attracted to the rah-rah ritz and glam of brand spanking new products or establishments.

I leave you with a few photos of driving along Beach Blvd.

Rebuilding the road - Beach Blvd.

Mississippi coast!! JUST off of Beach Blvd.

If you look closely, this car has Michigan plates. Proof that I'm not the only crazy one to drive from the north end of the country all the way down to the southern end. :)