3180 miles covered so far!  Hopefully, we will be in Jacksonville by tomorrow night at which point we will head north for a little while...a long while!  Oh, by the way we got into Biloxi, Miss. last night.

I couldn't resist this picture of Ruby this morning.  I had just gotten out of the shower and Ruby had taken my spot in bed.  The look she gave me was like "Clay lets just stay here today....please!".  She has been such a great dog.  She jumps in and out of the car when she is supposed to, she sleeps while we are trying to cover long distances and most importantly approaches each day as a new and fresh start, filled with fun, adventure and new sights to see and new smells to smell!
I try to follow her example by waking up happy, energized and excited to begin a new day....Ruby doesn't dwell on what happened yesterday or before that.  What happened in the past is in the past, today and the future are what is most importantant to her and to me..should it be for you?

We couldn't be this close to the world famous "Tabasco" factory and not stop!  Needless to say I spent too much money buying t-shirts and Tabasco sauce that I could just as easily bought at home...I kept telling myself that it was better here, maybe fresher, better tasting, spicier?  Who am I kidding?  Now I've got one more bag to haul the next 5,000 miles...I'll keep trying to justify it in my mind!
Oh, apparently the Tabasco factory is a big attraction for young school children in this area and right before this picture was taken Ruby was mobbed by about 50 little kids saying "what a pretty dog".  Anyone that knows Ruby knows how much she thrives on adoration!
Who doesn't?

We drove a long, long way to get to Grand Isle.  It's at the very southern tip of the Mississippi River Delta.  I wanted to see this area because as you'll recall, Grand Isle was the nations maybe the world's focal point twice in recent memory...Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.  I was hoping to talk with some of the locals to get their take on how life has changed since those two monumental occurences.  Unfortunatly I either caught them on a bad day or they just didn't want to talk about it.  In retrospect, it might have been the new Jeep with California plates or maybe the SC t-shirt I was wearing

Ruby doing what Ruby does best...having fun and enjoying the moment!
This is a beach is at the southern tip of Grand Isle..the water the Gulf of Mexico.
Looked for but didn't see any remanents of the 2 disasters, no oil on the beach, no dead vegetation, no nothing (including tourists).
Just Ruby living in the momement!

Couldn't resist this picture...this entire economy does revolve around fishing (and oil), but mostly fishing.  This really explained to me why I heard so many of the locals venting about BP's lack of help on all national news services.

Our 1st sunset in Mississippi..Biloxi to be exact...probably and surprisingly the prettiest we have seen since leaving!
I'm sure glad that I was paying attention in school when we learned how to spell..M I SS I SS I PP I!

Meet Ami (with an "i").  She is the night manager at the Ramada Inn in Biloxi.  She wins the Rube award for being the nicest person that we met yesterday...she kept telling Ruby that she was the prettiest dog she had ever seen.  Ami wanted to take Ruby home for her kids...now you know why Ruby voted for her!