DAY #23
The weather had cleared and gone was the rain & humidity. In its place though came plummeting temperatures (high in the low 50s) and a brisk wind out of the north (Brrr…). I had turned on the furnace the night before to take the chill out of the trailer. When I fell asleep everything was cool, waking up a few hours later and man, why is it so hot in here? I get up and looked at the thermostat and it’s reading 88 degrees and then I notice, the furnace is still on, it’s been on all night. My first thought was (you guessed it), doom and gloom followed by whoa is me. This is just great, where am I going to get this fixed and how long will it take, yada, yada, yada. I checked the batteries and they seemed to have died, at least that’s what I was hoping for. I changed the batteries, pushed the unit back onto the wall and took the furnace for a test drive. Sweet Jesus, it’s now working as it’s supposed to and I am happy. I am a little curious that the batteries died after only a couple of months. Checked my LP level on my app and wow, the furnace running through the night consumed about 40% of the tank.
After that rocky start, my plan for the day was to drive to Gulfport and go on a dolphin watching cruise, but first I wanted to see if I could do anything about my lousy “Hot Spot” connection.
I was bummed because the campsite has no WiFi (geez, not spoiled am I), and my cell service is bad, really bad, dial-up speed bad. I do get TV but none of the channels offer much to watch, and forget about watching Netflix or Prime through my phone/tablets “Hot Spot”. I decided to see if I could do something about it. I went online and found a Verizon store near by. In checking, I found the plan I had does allow my phone and/or tablet to be used as a “Hot Spot” but its output is capped at 600kps (.06 mps) which is like nothing. I found a Verizon store in the area and went to see them. I was able to modify my plan to one that has no restrictions on Hot Spot speed up to 15GB per month, then it drops down to 600kps (ouch). It’s going to cost $7.00 more per month but after the experience here, might just be worth it. Of course you still need decent mps and that’s not going to happen here, I’ll check on it next stop?
After getting that taken care it was off to Gulfport. You can take the freeway but I think the best way is to take U.S. 90 (Beach Blvd). You drive with the Gulf right out your window.
Despite the stop at lights (and there’s a lot of them), traffic moves well and you get to your destination without delays (or so I thought). I had left early so that my drive could be a leisurely one and it’s a good thing I did. A couple of blocks from the harbor in Gulfport, traffic came to a stop. Up ahead I could see fire trucks and police, and on my way there a paramedic unit had passed so I thought they must be there too. I was curious about what was going on (accident, fuel spill in the bay, fire,etc) and getting anxious about getting to my destination, and on time. Cars were turning off and so I followed, I thought maybe I could get to the harbor another way. After driving around and around, I found myself back where I started. Great, I thought, now I’m going to miss the boat. That was quickly followed by a moment of; poor-poor me, it’s not fair, blah-blah-blah.
Then I began to notice a lot of people, mainly young walking in the area wearing military uniforms. seeing this, I remembered a story that had been on one of the local TV channels about a ceremony in Gulfport on Saturday. I didn’t remember where it was going to be, and I guess I didn’t need to, I found it! About this time the ceremony began breaking up (thank you, thank you, thank you) and when I asked a police officer when the road was going to reopen he responded by saying, I’ll move my car and you can turn. Sweet…life was good again I thought.
I made it to the harbor and still had twenty-five minutes before the tour began. While waiting I checked my e-mail and lo and behold, there was an email from the excursion operator. It read; due to high winds, today’s excursion has been cancelled. After all the anxiety of getting here and now this, I could only shrug my shoulders and laugh. In all fairness to the tour operator, the email had been sent early enough, I just didn’t check my email. I was able to talk to one of the employees who told me they were going to do the trip tomorrow and I could get on the list for that, I said OK and resolved to do it again the next day. I left thinking that it wasn’t high winds that caused the cancellation, it wasn’t that bad out, I think it was a lack of people, given this is the tail end of the season. 
Overall, I’ve not been that wowed by my photos. They need to be crisper and cleaner. I’m always impressed by my cousin Barb’s photos. They’re always so clear. Thinking about her photos is inspiring me to do better.
Finished the day by checking out WHATABURGER.
You can’t find these in Minnesota so, yea, kind of cool.
I had been to one last year in Florida and at the time…meh. I decided to try it again and this time I liked it much better. The burgers and buns are bigger in size than the competition, and the fries were pretty good as while. I don’t go gaga over the place but yea, I’ll stop again.
The Journey. 