January 18th, 2008 | categorizilation: all categories,USA (LOUISIANA),USA (Mississippi)
Today’s distance / ???????: 58.6 miles / 94.2km
Average speed / ????: 9.6mph / 15.5km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 6h 05m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 1814mi (plus 266mi) / 2919km (plus 430km)
Ascent / ??: n/a
Descent / ??: n/a
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N30.15.42.1, W089.43.18.4
I had to have my smooth roads radar set on high today, weaving in and out of neighbourhoods in Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, and Pass Christian along the Gulf of Mexico coast of Mississippi.
Traffic was not much of an issue – their were no houses in the vicinity. Just slabs of concrete where houses used to be.
This whole area was once packed with luxury beach-front mansions. Not any longer.
The wind was behinf be however, and the road surfaces were smooth on the whole, with US Highway 90 from Bay St. Louis with wide smooth shoulders all the way to and past the Louisiana border.
In Bay St. Louis I chanced upon the local Rotary Club’s annual Chilli Cookoff. I went in to see what all the fuss was about.
I asked each competetor to describe to me their chilli. The Bay Carpet’s entry was green based chilli with duck and pork. Peneguy CPA’s was ‘football chilli’. Hancock Medical Center was “out to win!” with their green curry. Pest Control Specialists Bugman’s Special Chilli was suspect, but was a “home brewed Mom and Pop recipe”. Coast Choarale’s effort was made with love, the chilli sung to while it was cooking, aparently. Dr Charlie West’s entry was spicy, for a party, and will “keep you coming back for more, just like this part of Mississippi”. Silver Slipper Casino’s chilli, served by a chef (who just grunted when I asked him whether he was here because he wanted to be or whether he was just there coz he was paid to be there), said he didn’t make the chilli. “How’s you chilli?” I asked. “Good” he replied.
From Bay St. Louis, I continued on west into Louisiana, past swamps on either side of the road.
I asked for directions at around 5:30pm and was promptly invited to stay at Renee and Jamie’s place for the night at their horse stables. With the weather forecast for rain tonight, it was a welcome invitation!
Rob,
hopefully you got to enjoy some of that Chili, you never mentioned your favorite 
Maybe you could consider a "press" tab so readers can have access to all your newspaper & tv/radio interviews in one place, especially now that you are getting all this world wide publicity.
Quick question, when you have the distance traveled, in paranthesis you have +XXXmiles or km, what does the plus X represent?
Best of luck with your journey through the gulf coast.
In our thoughts and prayers,
Nick, Hannah, Connor, Colleen and Patrick
Hey Rob!
Glad to see you made it into our great state of Louisiana! Hope you stayed out the rain all day today! Wish you could have came through New Orleans and rode the levees some like you wanted to; it would have been nice. It was great eating Louisiana shrimp and catfish with ya too! I'll upload those pics I took with you and the boys for you to post up here and you can ass how you ate with us in Biloxi too!! hahaha
Good Luck in your journey!!
God Bless!
Sara from New Orleans
HI ROB!!!
So great to get the chance to read about you. I so enjoyed the day you came in to
Welcome Center. Also knowing of your home
town and sharing some of New Zealond (my very favorite country that I have visited.
Best of luck on your journey. Prayers and
blessings. Dibby Jefford
Is that your felt red hat? That will look good in New Orleans. Mardi Gras is right around the corner.
Rob,
Glad you enjoyed our chili cookoff, our annual fundraiser. Stop by anytime. Good luck on your trip.
A Bay St Louis Rotarian.
