This year my family decided to try the Gulf Coast of Mexico instead of the usual Myrtle Beach. My husband Bennie and I left Hazard on Sunday and connected with our daughter Sherri Fisher and our two granddaughters, Candace and Madison in Knoxville, Tennessee. We left Knoxville on Monday, hitting the road South around 7 a.m. About two hours later we stopped in Fort Payne, Ala. for breakfast, which was the home of Hank Williams, Sr. There is a highway named for him, called the Lost Highway. After several more stops we arrived after 11 hours of driving at our destination, Biloxi, Miss.

Biloxi is known for it's casinos. Each casino has 2,100 slot machines or more and more than 71 table games They even have penny slot machines. The casinos also have an activity center for the children. The sand on the beach was really different from Myrtle Beach. This sand was more powdery, not coarse. The water is not rough. Biloxi is home to a most beautiful tree called the Live Oak, which has branches that droop to touch the ground.

On our third day we traveled to New Orleans, La., which is about two hours from Biloxi. We toured Bourbon Street and walked to Jackson Square which is where the vendors set up. Jackson Square is home to the St. Louis Cathedral, one of New Orleans' most notable landmarks. It is one of the oldest and most photographed churches in the country. This venerable building with its triple steeples towers above the green of the Square, General Andrew Jackson his bronze horse and on the block-long Pontalba Buildings with their lacy ironworks galleries. It was the third house of worship on this site and was completed in 1794 as part of the beneficence of Don Andres Almonester de Roxas. This is also where you see all the mimes and people playing music on the street. New Orleans is known for its Beignets (pronounced ben-yas) which is similar to the doughnut and its candy Pralines.

We traveled over the longest bridge over water in the world on our way to New Orleans. The bridge is 23.84 miles long and approximately eight miles is out of sight of land. On Canal Street on our way out of town, we spotted two of the old cemeteries. All graves are above ground, because New Orleans is below sea level. We had to walk up to see the Mississippi River. We traveled back to Biloxi and spent two more nights before heading back to Knoxville and on into Hazard. We traveled a total 1,921 miles.

By the way, I won $15 playing the slots.