Greetings from Biloxi, MS, home of the Sea Wolves and a Hard Rock Casino, which is awesome. The Devils are playing a lot better as of late, and its been a lot of fun getting to know the guys and travel.
Well, maybe not travel to Elmira, Wheeling, WV, Johnstown, PA, or several other hole-in-the-wall "cities," but this trip to Pensacola and Biloxi has more than made up for it!
Chris, Ali, and John, did you guys get a chance to help out outside of New Orleans? I'd love to know your thoughts about the other gulf cities hit, because its been two years now and while the casinos are back here in Biloxi, there's still a lot of devastation. The Sea Wolves just returned to the ECHL after taking two years off to repair the Biloxi Coast Coliseum, which had flooding as high as the top of the rink's glass (yeah, all the way up) for weeks.
The team's staying at the Hard Rock, and its been a lot of fun. I was nearly down 60 bucks at one point but rallied with two corners on 29 twice in a row to put me ahead by $36. I think that's where I'm going to stay; fate has let me get away with dabbling in gambling, but I feel the hammer ready to fall at any time if I continue. Even without the casino, the hotel rooms are gorgeous: flat screen tvs, three shower-head showers (big enough for four people), Bose speakers and the most comfortable beds ever.
I'm going to stop rambling now, but I hope everyone's having a great New Year! If you're traveling through Jersey you should let me know; I can definitely get tickets to a T-Devils game for you and even passes up to the press box with me. I miss you all and while the team's been fun, I definitely missed you during the Game (although I probably would have drank myself into a coma and/or gotten thrown into jail by halftime of that fiasco).
6 hours ago
6 comments:
Oh, and re: the title: when we arrived in Pensacola two days ago the temperature was 35 degrees. I kid you not.
One of the people I work with here went to University of Pittsburgh: Johnstown. If you give her the slightest provocation she'll tell you at length how shitty the "city" is -- I have little personal experience, but it never sounded that bad. I watched local news out of Johnstown for years. (yet I never knew they had a hockey team...)
Hey Chris,
Glad to hear things are going well! It sounds like you're living it up.
Ali and I didn't get a chance to see other parts of the Gulf Coast, and I don't think Barsa's group did, either. I have read a lot about Mississippi, which was hit nearly as hard as Louisiana, but is having a hard time getting the resources it needs. New Orleans has the country's attention, which doesn't solve a lot of problems, but it does attract assistance...
At first when I heard that Harrah's casino in NOLA was reopening before most of the city, I was pretty shocked, and a little suspicious. But as a huge employer and draw for tourism, I can understand why it was important for the city's rebirth. And from what I understand, Biloxi is the next Vegas - all of the casino owners are trying to get a stake there.
Well, hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in the cOld South. If it makes you feel any better, three consecutive storms are hitting California this weekend, knocking over trees and closing bridges. Ah, it feels like New England...
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Hi Chris,
I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying life. During spring break 2007, I traveled to Biloxi with a group from St. Thomas More. It was hard to fairly compare the cities because I visited New Orleans only 6-7 months after Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was a complete mess when I was there. Fewer than 10% of the houses in the neighborhood I stayed in were occupied, and students were taking classes in trailers. One year later, Biloxi looked great. All of the downtown restaurants and stores appeared to be open, and a lot of people moved back in. Workers weren't needed in large numbers to "gut" houses like in New Orleans; Biloxi needed skilled laborers to install plumbing, roofing, etc. for new homes. I was told that despite the great progress that was being made, tens of thousands of people in southern Mississippi were still living in FEMA trailers due to the relative lack of aid being sent there. In the neighborhood I stayed in, two Catholic parishes were consolidated into one because a lot of parishioners hadn't returned. I didn't visit the casinos, but the people who did said that the casinos were very lively.
I miss warm weather.
During one Christmas break, I visited my grandfather in Arkansas and there was a HUUUGE hailstorm. They don't get snow down there, but that doesn't mean it doesn't get cold. And the hailstorm was so bad that we couldn't leave the house for a few days because everything was covered in like, 4 inches of ice. The whole town was glazed over, and when we tried to leave the house after the storm to get groceries at a store a few blocks away, my aunt nearly broke her leg as we descended a hill because there wasn't much friction on the ground or anything to grab on to. it was actually pretty exciting, altogether, except for the whole being-stuck-inside-a-small-house-with-eight-members-of-my-family -for-four-days part.
weather is so strange. here in san francisco, there is often a temperature difference of 15 degrees from the east side of the city to the west side, which are less than ten miles apart. this is partly because the east side faces the bay and the west side faces the cooler pacific waters, but also largely because of all the hills in between which block the pacific winds and generally separate the weather patterns.
i don't really have much to add regarding the gulf coast cities - like chris, i've heard about a lot of places that suffered but are simply not getting help equivalent to what new orleans is getting, as insufficient as that nonetheless is.
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