starting to heat up a little

We have a had quite the week here in sunny Florida! Larry and Sue Hatton worked with us at Amazon and live right up the road in Invernes. They really liked some of our remodeling we did on our rig and a few weeks ago I offered to help them with theirs if they wanted to make some changes. Several days ago we made plans to meet them for dinner and make a stop at Lowes for new blinds. After meeting up with them at their rig we measured the existing blinds and went shopping. Lowes had the exact replacements we were looking for and they cut them to our measurements while we waited. A quick stop for some dinner and we were back at the rig with tools in hand. :-)
Larry worked at removing the old blinds while Rudee and I mounted the new ones. Sue was bouncing back and forth helping both the demolition crew and the install crew! The change out took us a little over an hour and they are happy with the results. They were also interested in removing the old living room TV and replacing it with a new flat screen. I took a look at the cabinet and "piece of cake"! Frankly it looked easier to do than the one in our coach. They liked hearing that and Larry got busy and ordered a mounting bracket from Amazon. He had already scoped out the TV's at Best Buy and as soon as the bracket arrives he will pick one up.
Last Monday the bracket arrived and the new TV was in the back of their SUV so we made plans to do the install Tuesday afternoon. Removing the old TV was the first chore and it came out pretty easy but those old TV's sure are heavy! I got the new bracket and TV unpacked and started doing some measuring so I got everything at the correct height. The brackets are fairly universal and come with a ton of screws and spacers to fit about every TV out there. The hardest part is figuring out just which screws works for your TV and whether or not you need the spacers. With all that figured out I got to drilling and screwing. Not a real comfortable thing to be doing on someone else motor home! :-o
I got the bracket mounted, found the correct screws for their TV and mounted the TV onto the bracket. All done and looks great! Well, I thought we were done until Rudee said "what about this thing?" and held up the wooden fascia that fills the gap in the TV cabinet. Crap! I took the TV back off the bracket, re-installed the fascia and then put the TV back in place. Oh well, even the professionals have an "oops" every once in awhile. :-)
That brings me to our plans for the rest of the week. Larry and Sue invited us on a small trip with them to the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  We left Thursday morning shortly after they picked up their new car. Wow, these guys know how to make you feel like your traveling in style! The area we were traveling to had a lot of ice and even some snow the day before but the temps had risen and the sun was shining so we figured we would have smooth sailing ....... wrong! Seems like they had closed I-10 from Tallahassee, Florida to the Alabama line and were not in any big hurry to open it up. They were diverting traffic onto US 90 but it was a standstill. Luckily there was an exit off the interstate right where the back up started to get onto US 90 (still 7 miles up the road!) and we headed off into the Florida countryside to find a way West. We made our way south and then headed west on SR 20 which took us parallel to US 90. The road was only two lanes and did a little twisting and turning but at least we were moving. We also got to see a little more of the Florida panhandle then you can see by staying on the "super slab". We finally started hearing reports that the roads were being opened around Pensacola and we were able to hop back on the "big road" there. Our little detour of around 180 miles cost us a bunch of time and we didn't arrive at the resort until after 8 pm. We were all tired and hungry but happy to finally be there.
Our room was on the 23rd floor and was fantastic!

We are up there somewhere!
The casino sits right on the beach and has been totally rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina. This area took a direct hit and was virtually wiped out. There are miles of empty lots, all facing the beach, that once held beautiful homes, restaurants and other business'. The casinos have all rebuilt and the area is revitalizing but after so much destruction it will take a long time. Driving around town you can't help but feel a little sad for what once was and is now gone, not to mention the lives lost. Prior to Katrina Biloxi was the third largest city in Mississippi and immediately dropped to fifth largest due the casualties caused by the storm.
The main attraction right now in Biloxi are the casinos. We spent time in several of them and really enjoyed ourselves. We didn't win any big jackpots but had a great time nonetheless. Thanks, Sue and Larry for inviting us!

The weather the last couple of days has started to feel more like Florida with temps in the upper 70's and lows in the low 60's. Perfect! I am even planning on wearing my shorts to the golf course tomorrow. Now that's something I have been looking forward too! I'll keep you posted.