True enough I woke up at 12.30am and decided to look at my emails and update the journal. Then I remembered that as today was a Saturday the hotel rates in New Orleans would still be the high weekend rates. I did a search for the best rates I could get and found the Maisons St Charles with the parking fee of USD17 per day thrown in. It also had a good location only about a mile from the French Quarter, which we intended to visit.

It wasn't until 4.30am before I went back to sleep on the sofa having to raise my right leg up as it was swelling a little. Adrian woke me up at 8am for breakfast, the kid was under the instruction of his mother I thought. During the night I had read the brochures on the effect of Hurricane Katrina that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 and thought it a good idea to visit Biloxi before proceeding to New Orleans.

We were not in a hurry as the check in time at the hotel was after 3pm. So we left at Diamondhead at 1100 am and took the inner roads towards Biloxi. One could see the efforts made to reconstruct and replace the damage done in 2005 and considering only 4 years had passed a lot had been achieved. Work was still going on and sites allocated for visitors centre and a museum were still vacant although there were 11 large hotel casinos attracting tourism back to Biloxi. See the Katrina aftermath photos here.

I guess I was a little taken aback when I turned off the highway thinking that I would give Alison a surprise by stopping at the Prime outlet, only to be told by her that there was no Crock shop there. Apparently she had checked the website out during the night in anticipation! That was to be the highlight of the day and she went and spoilt it!!

We didn't bother stopping anywhere else except for a rest area to let Adrian run around and do is prancing bit while I check the toilet facilities out. We had spotted the van selling boiled peanut on the way in and bought a bag of cajun boiled peanuts and some peaches. But the peanuts never tasted the same as the first time we bought them, spicy with chilli still stuck on the shell.

We got to the hotel at about 4 pm and to my surprise they couldn't find the booking. Fortunately, I could use the computer in the lobby and got the booking printed out. It took the receptionist some time to check us in and for a moment I thought they were going to be difficult with the cheap rate given to me. But all went well and we were allocated a ground floor room, thank God!

As usual, Alison went on the laptop straight away while I rested my weary legs. Dinner was a simple affair of Popeye chicken and I got to share a corn on the cob with Adrian, me making sure that I had my share before he got to it! Tonight I needn't have worried as he was full after eating his nuggets.