Day 12: Full Day in Mississippi

Sunday the Sabbath on the Gulf Coast was a lazy day at Friends' house.  I woke up feeling like I was getting sick so took it slow getting going for the day.  Had originally planned to get a run in around their neighborhood, but decided to conserve energy given all the continued travel I have coming up.

It ended up being a day of NFL wild card football.  With grub midday homemade breakfast of biscuits & gravy and bacon.

I was productive in the afternoon for updating this blog for past 3 days.  As well as for booking my 2 nights in Tampa, FL.  Went with a "big" tiny house on AirBnB within walking distance of eats and a brewery.  May my tiny house interests for minimalist living be manifested.

We ended up heading out for pizza for dinner in nearby Biloxi.  Friends had mentioned pizza the day before and the mention stuck.  At 39 I still prefer to have pizza at least once every 48 hours or so, ha.

Had looked at the menu beforehand w/ friends having noted the place we were going had a lot of specialty pizzas, and I had already decided what I wanted:  Chicken parmesan pizza.  I had had it once many years ago at a place in NYC and it was the best of both worlds -- all the flavor of chicken parm w all the cheese of a pizza.  Was hoping for the same tonight.  And was also a nice follow-up to the Eggplant parm pizza I had in Austin.

Chicken parm pizza was everything I had hoped it would be.  The place was called Sal & Moogie's, right across from Biloxi Beach in a building that was on stilts (like many buildings down there, given chance of flooding).  It was experienced with an enjoyable taster flight of local beers.

We then headed to the IP Casino or some gambling time.  This would be the IP that stands for Imperial Palace...

It was almost 3 years ago that I had went to a work conference in New Orleans and tacked on a few days of personal travel in order to run a half marathon in the city of Bay St. Louis, MS.  In that trip I had made it over to Biloxi and checked out the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino there, and had noted that there was an Imperial Palace Casino tucked back against the back bay part of town.  Hadn't made it there, but made mental note that was interested since my first Vegas trip memories of my 20s included said Imperial Palace casino (which is now long closed down and remodeled into something shiny and new).

The IP was not what I was expecting -- much more a hotel than a casino, seemed like in terms of scale.  Smokey interior, but I am sensitive to that being an ex-smoker.  Have to say it felt overall almost -- classy?  Not the IP of the Vegas strip for sure.  We spent maybe 45 minutes in there total.  I lost a total of $10 or so, after some losses, some gainz, then something slightly less than break even.  Stuck to slot machines, seeking out ones w/ bonus spins and such.  Was an exciting 5-10 minutes or so when all 3 of us were at machines getting successive bonus spins and wins of like $5-6 after full minutes of extra spinning excitement.

We then headed back home but with late evening stop at a Walmart for cough medicine, cough drops, pepto bismol, and Emergen-C.  Intend to fight this oncoming illness as much as I can -- don't want a cold/flu interfering with all the life-ing gainz :)