We woke up this morning to overcast skies and a forecast for Houston of possible thunder showers; great weather to be leaving in! As it turned out the weather became very severe this afternoon with tornado warnings, heavy rain, hail and winds gusting up to 60 miles an hour; and so our timing was perfect! We had hoped to get the Moho wheels aligned at a truck service centre on our way out of town but they couldn’t fit us in their schedule. We were annoyed because they wouldn’t let us make an appointment and we had to take our chances anyway but now knowing how the weather changed, we are glad they had no room for us.

Being the gypsies that we are, we made no definite plans as to where we would end up just how we would get there. We took the I-10 east through Beaumont, Texas and kept on going until we picked up Highway 12 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana so we could bypass New Orleans. We were making such good time we kept going, thinking we would make Biloxi, Mississippi today’s destination. The last time we had been there was in the spring of 2004, pre-Hurricane Katrina and we wanted to see how much it had changed.

What we saw today was such a contrast to the way things were three years ago and we both felt a sense of sadness for the folks who call the area home. At one devastated homestead after another we saw trailers which folks have set up as homes until they can rebuild. We saw gnarled steel, twisted signs, broken concrete, shattered walls, missing roofs, uprooted trees and a damaged boardwalk. Some places we’d been to in 2004 were reduced to rubble with crumbling foundations; some had completely disappeared and some at first glance appeared untouched. We saw makeshift crosses at some locations indicating that some people had lost their lives in those locations. However amidst the devastation there were several restored buildings and lots of new construction; indications of people pulling their lives together again and a testament to their resilience.

We chose to continue driving and tonight we are half way between Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida staying in a truck stop for the night. There are actually two RPI Parks nearby, one of which we are hoping to check into tomorrow for a few days, as we arrived too late to settle in tonight. We had a great drive; the cloudy conditions had dissipated by the time we reached Baton Rouge and we had blue skies and sunshine all the way here. Lets hope that it lasts until Thursday!