Bill The Butcher

Well that’s another weeks gone, seems like a long time ago but only got back from Mexico last Sunday. Had to pick up another car at the airport again as I’d had problems locking the other one at the car park, so that’s five different cars I’ve had up to now since being here, a nice new shiny black one, a Chrysler Sebring
Anyway got back into New Orleans about 3pm last Sunday, flight was not direct came through Huston which Is where I had to go through custom and immigration, had my photo and finger prints taken again but it was a lot easier this time not so many questions and did not feel so much like a criminal.
Got to work on Monday as normal, not a lot has happened this week, did nearly get into a bit of a car crash though. Went to the canteen for dinner or lunch as the say here, pulling into the car park and was just about to pull into a space when some guy in a truck decides to back out of one. He didn’t look just backed out, thought he had hit me in fact with hitting the breaks and skidding couldn’t tell with all the noise, was only when I got out that I realised he had just missed me. Haven’t been impressed with the drivers over here since getting here and that was just the icing on the cake, give me the drivers in Mexico any day they seemed a lot more aware of what's going on around them.
The only other thing to happen this week really is that I went to get my hair cut by Bill the Barber here at Stennis, think his nick name is Bill the Butcher, but didn’t know that until after I’d been.
Never been to a barbers before who never uses scissors, he only used the clippers and never had my hair cut so short for a long time, getting closer and closer to shaving it all off.
Bill didn’t do a bad job though even if it only seemed to take him about 30 seconds, wondered why there was no hair going on the floor, he had these sort of funky clipper things which had there own little suction hose on them, everything go sucked up just like a Hoover, guess it beat’s sweeping up all the time, here’s a photo of me with the new hair cut not a pretty site, took it myself as if you couldn’t guess.
Not much else has happened this week did go over to the Outlet Mall in Gulfport this afternoon though, bought some more clothes which I really don’t need but what the heck things were cheap, at least that’s my excuse. Not sure how I’m going to get everything back to the UK though, may cases were jam packed as it was, may have to FedEx some back or throw them away.
It’s Thanksgiving here this week think it’s on Thursday the 22nd a big holiday here Turkey and all the trimmings, almost as big as Christmas from the way everyone’s going on. Listening to the news the roads and all the airlines will be jam packed making it hard to get anywhere, starting to think of “Trains Planes and Automobiles” with Steve Martin and John Candy, one of my favourite comedy’s.
Work wise this week will probably be a bit of a loss as people wind down for the holiday and get ready to travel; in fact a lot of people have the week off.
Having lots of trouble with the computer at the moment so can't publish any photos, will try again to morrow

Mayan Ruins

Saturday, decided to try and go down to the ruins at Tulem again, so off i go in my little Fiat, had to fill up with petrol first though as i had used 3/4 of a tank nearly yesterday.

Every one thinks Mexico is cheap and it probably is when you're not in the Tourist areas, but I've been surprised at the prices since i got here, its more expensive here that it is where I'm staying in Mississippi. Petrol's not so bad but food and drinks are pricey, costing as much here as the states for food and beer is more expensive $4-5 a bottle.

Back on track again, got my petrol and of i go, straight down to Tulem, i know where it is now so i get there straight away just an hour and a half or so later. First thing i notice when i drive in the car park is a guy sitting under a tree who when he see me comes across and wants 40pesos for parking, I'm sure he was probably official but you just get the impression that everyone is on the make and it could be some guy sat under a tree ripping off tourists, there were no signs or nothing to say it was official or that there was a parking fee.

Checked the other cars when i got in the car park and they all had the same type of ticket i got so who knows, but it just seem like this everywhere, some random person wanting money. Finally got to the ruins and first you had to buy a ticket to get in, fair enough but you also have to buy a separate ticket if you wanted to take in a video camera in, copywrite or something like that apparently, just another way to make money more like.

Got in there and was a bit disappointed, not much in the way of telling you about things, a bit of a free for all really. Did see a real live big Lizard eating a plant though.

Think this is a Iguana, lots of them around but this was the biggest one i saw, it even posed on the wall for me.

All in all if you seen one Mayan ruin and you've seen them all, am sure they're not all like this but it was bit disappointing.

The photo on the left is just up the road from the hotel. One thing you notice walking around the streets is that everyone is on the make, it's hard to get away from it, bet i got asked ten times every night if i wanted drugs among other things.

Even parking the car as soon as you got out there was someone there, when you got back in to drive out there was someone there stopping the traffic waving you out just wanted a tip. On the odd occasion if i did take a picture someone was there wanting to know if i wanted them to take one of you, it's all about the tip.

As i said earlier think this is as bad as Thailand, mainly because they're more persistent, you just have to ignore it or you are lost. I'm sure this is not all of Mexico just the tourist areas because it wasn't like this in Saltillo but if you can get over that it's not a bad place to be, the regular people are friendly, even the others are friendly enough it just gets on your nerves.

The Hotel

Friday morning, got up and had a bit of a look round the hotel, pretty nice. I took some photos looking out from my balcony and around the swimming pool and at the beach, just like some of the pictures in the travel books, nice blue waters and golden beaches.
It’s low season here right now, not a real lot of people around, I would guess my hotel is probably only 30% full, am told in a few weeks though that high season will start.
Some one had told me of a place to visit last night called “Tulum”, about 140Kms away, worth a trip or so I thought, apparently there are some Mayan ruins there. Got about half way there and realised that I’d forgot my digital camera, remembered the DVD but not the other one, too late to turn back so I pressed on.
Mexican drivers are a little crazy, so once you learn to expect the unexpected which is the norm here not too bad, think I like them better than American drivers who all think they are good, but just seem to point as the cars are so big and don’t seem to be as aware of people around them as the Mexicans.
Got to Tulum, couldn’t find the ruins just drove around for ages going where I thought the signs said. In the end went in a local Taco bar got something to eat, asked the locals, which I should have done before, any way it turned out the ruins were just down the road but by the time I got there they were closing, so that was that, back to Cancun which was about 1-2 hrs away, dark by the time I got back.
Had said to myself before setting out to Tulum that I would take the car back tonight when I got back and on Saturday just chill out around the swimming pool and in town but now I’m not so sure my venture this way again, seem a shame to be in Mexico and not see anything, more on that later. That pretty much sums Friday up bit of a dead loss really was driving most of the day and did not really see a lot, wish I’d had the camera with me took a bit of video footage but no still shots.
Went out when after I got back, couple of the bars must have been in chains remembered the names from when I had worked in Saltillo in the north of Mexico a few years ago, names were Carlos and Charlie’s http://www.carlosandcharlies.com/ and Senor Frogs
http://www.senorfrogs.com/

Arrived

Got to the airport checked in, all went smoothly much to my surprise; just the security queue went on for ever. Oh one thing did happen, I was picked out for secondary screening, don’t think they picked me specifically just picked people at random, what this meant was that all my carry on bags were swabbed for traces of explosives, they even did my camera, the lady who did it was muttering all the time about the extra work load and not having enough staff, she was not happy with her bosses.
Getting of the plane the other end was totally different, real smooth not a lot of security. Going through customs you just pushed a button sort of a traffic light affair, if the light turned green it was a pass, if it went red it was a fail and you got searched totally random number syndrome, just the luck of the draw, when I pushed it turned green, so off I went into Mexico.
Got out in to the airport arrivals and for anyone who has been to Thailand it was just like that, people touting for taxis, limousines, hotels, rental cars and everything in between.
Had decided to hire a car for a couple of days do went to a rental counter, straight away she pounced, I knew she was ripping me off a bit but it was only for a couple of days and by this time I was past caring and just wanted to get to the hotel.
Got a little Fiat, well got a voucher for a Fiat then had to be taken to the rental place, which was a mile or so away. Hertz this time, got to say everything looked good but it was so badly organised it took about and 11/2hrs to actually get the car and by that time I was really past caring, it could have had three wheels for all I cared.
It was about 7.30 and dark by the time I finally got into the car and drove off into the night, they’d given me a manual car and after three months of driving and automatic I kept forgetting about the clutch and the gear stick was on the wrong side, felt a bit sorry for the gears they really went through a bit of a hammering that first night.
Got to the hotel and checked in about 8.30, room and everything think was pretty good, anyway had a quick shower bit of a rest and went out to look at Cancun and get some Tacos and a couple of bottles of Sol.

Booking To Cancun

It’s been a while since I last posted, not a lot has happened other then working 7 days a week, did have to get another new car though, check out the photos. Car is pretty nice but a bit impractical, sound like a real old man, but it's hard to get four in comfortably and when the roof is down it takes up most of the boot or trunk as they say over here.

I’m writing this in retrospect as got the new car about a week ago, also had to book a trip as I needed to leave the country. You can only stay for ninety days over here on the visa waiver program before you need to leave, and on the 8th Nov I would have been here 89 days.
Had been thinking of coming back to the UK but it would only have been for a couple of days, too much time spent travailing, it’s about 22hrs door to door so decided to go to Mexico instead. I booked a trip to Cancun leaving on the 8th Nov and coming back on the 11th, not long, but long enough. Never been to Cancun before so didn’t know where to go so just looked around on the Internet, ended up deciding on the Hyatt Caribe Resort http://www.cancun.caribe.hyatt,com/ don’t know why, they all sounded pretty good.
It got to Wednesday the 7th and I still hadn’t booked, ended up doing it over the phone with Orbitz.com, cost just over $1000 flight and hotel, bit pricey for 3 nights but it’s was one of the cheaper packages I could find that looked like it had a good hotel. Don’t really know why I bothered as the company was paying and it was cheaper than a ticket to the UK, I say the company’s paying I have to claim it back yet, but that should be no problem.
I’d been thinking that I would just drive to the airport and leave the car in the long stay car park for three days. Anyway the day of leaving came and as usual I packed my bag the morning before I left, always seem to be in a bit of a rush, but it’s my own fault.
Drove to the airport found the car park, got my ticket and went in, found a parking spot and locked the car, normally I just press the button for central locking wait for the beep and walk away. This time I tried the door as I was leaving it for a few days, it opened, went through the process a few times tried using the key, the drivers side door would not lock. Seems like I had been parking the car for the last week pressing lock hearing the beep thinking it was locked, it never was the lock was bust as we say in Yorkshire.
Could not leave the car in the car park when I found this out, if it got nicked with my luck I’d be responsible, had come to realise there’s a clause for everything over here.
Finally made my way out of the car park, had to pay because all this palaver took longer than 15mins. Needless to say I was in a rush, had to fill the tank and then go back to Dollar and I was late anyway. Got back to Dollar Rentals , they screwed up cost me more than it should have and it was there fault for giving me a car the lock was not working on. Had a bit of a row with them totally not like me, but was late and frustrated, anyway they agreed to refund me a few days on a new lease when I got back on Sunday. That been said I was now really in a rush to get on the shuttle bus to the airport and get checked in.
If you can remember had started off on this blog singing the praises of Dollar rent a car, not so sure now as 2 of the cars they have given me have been faulty, had four so that’s a 50% failure rate in anyone’s money.

Getting Board

Another week gone, everything’s blending into one right now especially as I’m working seven days a week. Check out the photo’s below took them about 6 o-clock one night, just looking out my office door, great sunset, just seems a bit surreal with blokes walking around in hard hats and toe-tectors.
Nothing much happened again this week just no time to do anything, had people from Rolls Royce here all week, they’ve gone back to the UK now that’s a relief in it’s self.
It looks like I’ll be staying here a bit longer though, maybe just for a couple of weeks. Have to leave the country though, could fly back to the UK but need to be back here as soon as I can, so may just fly to Mexico for a couple of days, going to see what’s available on the Internet in the way of flight or short breaks, not sure yet but that’s probably what I’ll do.
Only thing that’s happened this week is I’ve had to move out of my apartment, someone else had booked it months ago. Got a new apartment, or condo as they call them here just round the corner from the old one and still on Diamond head, overlooking the 19th hole of the golf course.
Came home from work Saturday and stopped at the local bar for a beer, didn’t get there till about 9pm, as I went over to Wal-Mart in Slidell, really living it up as you can tell.
Anyway got to the bar, Jackie’Os and there was a Halloween party going on, ended up staying there until about 2 the next morning , was going to work the next luckily it was just me so no one to rush in for.
Will try and post in the next couple of days in the mean time here is the new apartment, or Condo as they call it here. The layout inside is just the same as the last one just a different view outside, from the front i can see the car park, at the back there;s a view of the 19th hole on the golf course.

Cheap Or Not

Haven’t posted for a while, not been doing anything, working 7 days a week at the moments so have not been anywhere or done anything and not had much time. Am getting a little frustrated with the way people work over here, the pace is really slow, don’t know if that is because of the hot weather or it’s just a southern thing, but pretty much every foreign national I speak to here says the same, that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.
America has some good things going for it, theres plenty of space so you can either buy or build a house pretty cheaply, relative to UK prices that is you’re not living on top of each other either. The only places I think are expensive to buy house’s are in some of the bigger cities or areas where everyone wants to live, like in LA or Seattle places like that, if you live in middle America or in the county land/houses are cheapish. There’s lot’s of other good things to, prices are cheap generally for pretty much everything, a dollar here pretty much buys you what a pound does over in the UK, roads and cars are good and on the whole everyone is friendly. Every thing is not great though, people always harp on about the service, yes is pretty good, but that’s only because you’re tipping people, stop tipping and see what happens.
Everyone here in any kind of service industry expects a tip, for instance if you go for a beer, just one beer, let’s say a Bud light, around three dollars (£1.50) not bad you might think. It’s less than half a pint for a start they also expect a tip, which is not a problem but it’s every time you go anywhere, so the $3 Bud ends up costing you $4 same price as in the UK so not that cheap really, and if you don’t tip try getting another one. This scenario is pretty much the same for everything and everyone expects it and to be honest it gets a bit frustrating, personally I would rather pay $4 and the staff get a decent wage and not have to worry about tipping. Same thing when you’re eating the staff are really nice, a bit sickly sometimes, you know from the start it is all put on just because they want a good tip, especially as they don’t know you, all in all am not that impressed with the service.
The other thing that frustrates me a bit is that everywhere is so spread out, there is no way you could live in America without a car, possibly in down town Detroit or New York or some of the other city’s but where I am absolutely impossible. There are also no little shop where you can just go and get a pint of milk, a paper or a sandwich, they just don’t exist out around where I am at, maybe in a city. Talking about a pint of milk, about the minimum you can buy is a quart (two pint) and that is hard to find, mostly everything is in bulk, minimum 4 pints lot’s of times 8 pints, same for coke, burgers, almost anything you name it big pack, no small shops you see.
Did have to go to New Orleans again though a couple of weeks ago had to extend my rental, in fact I changed the Jeep, got a Dodge Avenger, it’s pretty nice and does a lot more MPG, it does have a big crack in the windscreen which has been growing ever since I picked the care up, it’s now nearly half way across the screen. Went to the beach earlier today after i got back from work, had a bit of a walk along it and dipped my toes in the sea, leas now i can say been in the gulf of Mexico, even though it's October the water was like luke warm bath water. It's cooling down a bit here though on the way to work this morning 6.30am it was 52F, everybody here is wearing padded shirts. About two hours later though it was in the high 70's and later in the afternoon mid 80's.

Anyway here's the new car, and a picture of the sunset from Shaggy's bar, walked along the beach and stopped for a beer. Must have been something on the lens though, will try and get a

better one later.

Cruisin The Coast

Last Sunday went to Gulfport, had heard about a car meet going on and thought I would go an check it out for a bit.. Gulf port is about 30 mile or so from where I am so not that far to go, weather was really good as well, probably around 90 degrees.
In fact the weather here has been pretty good since I got here about two months ago, which seems to have flown past, not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing as I’ll be a year older before I know it and that’s not good.
As I say weather has been pretty good since I got her, it’s rained but nothing heavier than you would expect in England, we’ve had to baton down for two tropical storms come hurricanes that were supposed to move in but didn’t materialise, so that was a bit of an anti climax.
Would quite like to see a storm and a bit of heavy rain, am told that when it rains heavy here it’s I torrential and you can hardly see in front of your face.
Anyway I digress got to the car meet some time in the afternoon, it turned out to be sort of a hot rod/custom car meeting http://www.cruisinthecoast.com/ The idea I think is to meet up then go cruising along the coast with you mates, a few cars at a time, just as it says. Weather here is great for that and the road runs right along the coast for miles.
It was a big meet with lots of cars and people, tents hot dogs, burgers, beer, live band later things like that. The meet is on for a week they meet at what they call cruise central which is where I went, they cruise a different part of the coast everyday.
There was even a raffle for a car, a 1932 Ford which they called a Rat Rod worth about 20 grand I think.

Check this one out the last thing i expected to see was a Morris 1000, when i first saw it thought it was a VW Beatle then i realised it was painted with a Union Jack. Thought process went something like this, why has a VW Beatle got a British flag on it, then the light came on.

Below is the 1932 Rat Rod that was up for raffle, did not take this photo myself but this is the car.





Overall impression is that everyone is really into cars and spends a lot of time working on them, and a proud of the results. I asked one guy how long it took to restore his car, it was a Caddy, he said two years, think about that.

Shaggy's Bar

Well, that’s another week over, am late posting as this is for last weekend and the next weekend is almost here, it’s getting so everything blends into one. It’s getting pretty hard to keep up with this blog as well, don’t have Email access at work so the only chance I get is either at the weekend or at night when I get back from, don’t really feel like it then
Didn’t do much last weekend, thought I would just to take it easy and stay relatively local to where I’m living, decided to go down to the beach and top up my tan, not really just though I would have a look down and around the beach front and see what turned up.
Saturday had a bit of a walk along the beach near the sea, the sand is nice and white but the water seems pretty dirty and there is quite a bit of oil knocking around, guess from all the wells out in the gulf.. I’d been told before I got down here that the beaches were nicer further down the cost towards the Florida panhandle, am planning on checking this out one weekend.
It’s a few hours drive so will probably barmean an overnight stay, just need to find the time to do it.

Did find a nice little beach front or marina front bar though, the only one around that i could see, Shaggy's Harbour Bar and Grill Shack, stopped to have a couple of beers, got talking to a couple of the locals who were pretty friendly, there was a live band on at the bar later on as well.
Few photos below of the bar, and the view from it.

Sunday tomorrow, have heard about a car meeting in Gulfport which i went to check out.

The Alligator That Liked Chicken

Nearly forgot to post this one, about a week and a half ago me Mike and Keith went to see the alligator up the road,
Keith was going home and Mike wanted to see the alligator do a death roll, as if.
Anyway the day before they had been to Wal-Mart to buy a chicken, a whole one that is, am just surprised they did not get a frozen one, could have knocked it out with that.
The idea was throw it in and see Al do a death roll, not sure if alligators do death rolls or is it only crocodiles, will have to Google that.
So there we were with a chicken about to throw it to an alligator, there’s Keith unwrapping it, me and Mike taking photos, to any one watching must have looked funny.
Al came straight out of the water when he saw us, he’s used to people feeding him. Anyway in went the chicken, Al grabbed it, problem is it was nearly as big as him and he didn’t seem to know what to do with it.
No death roll he just got it and went back in the water and lay there with it in his mouth, we got fed up after a bit and went for lunch. We were sort of thinking that we may come back and find him belly up in the pond with a chicken stuck in his throat.

Guess we should have tied a rope round the chicken’s leg before throwing it in and had a tug of war with an alligator, maybe next time, our luck and he would have pulled one of us in, try explaining that to NASA.

Probably he prefers KFC or Poppies chicken anyway and not raw meat, don't think we thought this one through properly

In The Night

These are just a few photos from down in New Orleans on Saturday night, first bar we went in to was a cowboy bar "Bourbon Cowboy". That's Chris sat by himself, everything was a bit gay in one part of the bar, bright red. They did have a Bull though, looks like i could ride it in this one but if you check out the other one the Bull won

It was good fun though, think i must have have the oldest one in the bar let alone the oldest one to go on the Bull, wasn't the first on to fall off though. Mike had been on before but Chris and Jay both cried off. Had to sign a indemnity before going on though, just in case i hurt myself, not just me everyone.

Chris Jay and mike below just went into the Utopia where there had been the stabbings the week before but it was real quite and not very busy

The one below is the Utopia as well, out back on the dance floor, just liked the name on the other.

Harley's were all over the place as well.

These girls were everywhere selling drinks and trying to get you to go into their bars, asked this on and she posed for the photo. the one below only moved if you put money into a had, well she danced actually

The guys around the octopus looking thing were just having a drinking competition, you put beer into the tubed from the top then open a valve and drink as fast as you can. Bit like a yard of ale but you have no control and either spill a lot on the floor or on yourself

Some more Harley's, just like the look of them

Down Bourbon Street

This one is mainly photos as we were getting onto Bourbon Street, like i say not real busy right now. A lot of the shops, houses and bars had wrought iron balcony's though which reminded me a bit of Paris or areas of Barcelona, maybe not as fancy but quite nice.

It seem people just come and park there cars for other people to look at, don't know how the donkey got in there though. Big TV in the back of this one (no not the donkey and cart) must have been on Pimp My Ride

Forgot to take a photo of it but where we parked saw a real another really done out care and that one actually had chromed wheels on it with Player engraved on them.

The bar above is the first one we went into on the street more about that in the next blog, and the one on the right the Utopia only took the photo because i remembered it from the news last week, apparently there were five people stabbed in a fight there last Saturday night. Went in there later aswell, tell you aobut it later.