A few weekends ago, Brittany and I decided to head to Shreveport, LA to attend Stephen & Kristen’s wedding. We planned it out for a long weekend and decided to visit Biloxi and Jackson, MS to break the drive up a little bit. So, let’s begin.

On Thursday, we drove from Opelika to Biloxi / Gulfport, Mississippi. We planned it perfectly to arrive in the area around lunch time so that we could at The Shed. The Shed is a BBQ restaurant that Brittany saw on the Food Channel’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”. The looks of this place from their website are right on. Once inside, we ordered our food and had a seat to wait on it. Brittany ordered the ribs, while I ordered a combo plate of pulled pork and brisket. Man alive, let me tell you how good this BBQ was… it was awesome!!! The only negative I would say about the experience would be the price… it was a little over $30 for lunch for two, but needless to say that since we were a) on vacation, and b) probably not be in Ocean Springs, MS again for a while, we considered it a good investment. Note: there were cheaper items on the menu. After we stuffed ourselves, we drove through / passed Biloxi to Gulfport to do some outlet shopping… Figured we would spend our money on something tangible vs lose it in the casino if we went there early ;-) . These outlets were not busy at all, so we did a quick run through… We both found a couple of items that we ended up purchasing… not too much damage. We left the outlets, went to a couple more shopping type stores, and then headed back the way we came to Biloxi and the Beau Rivage Casino. We pulled into the self parking deck and noticed there were quite a few cars already there… We arrived inside and checked in with out a problem. We then proceeded up to our room. We were on the city side of the casino, which gave us a nice view of … umm … a Waffle House :-) . The rooms were nicely decorated, comfortable bed, very nice bathroom, etc… not bad for $80/night. After a brief rest, we went to check out the Casino floor, including the restaurants. I’ve been to Biloxi once in the past, and we stayed at the Hard Rock. The Casino at the Beau Rivage was quite larger than the Hard Rock. There were lots of slots, table games, etc. Before any money hit the floor, we went over to get our Players Club card (not that it mattered, we weren’t getting a line of credit or anything, and didn’t plan on spending enough for any comps). I left mine at home and Brittany had never gotten one. The good thing about these cards is they can be used at any of MGM Mirage’s 16 resort properties. We both sat down at a money sucker, aka video poker. Brittany won a small amount and decided to quit while she was ahead. I watched her play until she wanted to quit, and then we decided to hit up The Buffet. At $20.99/person, it was also a little pricey but well worth every penny in food :-) After dinner, Brittany went back up to the room and I went back down to the casino for an hour or so … did a little gambling and watched other people lose their money… quite entertaining.

Friday, we left Biloxi, and drove six hours through Baton Rouge and Layfaette, LA to Shreveport / Bossier City. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Bossier City, which wasn’t very far from the church where Stephen and Kristen were getting married. One thing we noticed right when we stepped off the elevator at the hotel was the abundant smell of smoke. Our room didn’t smell as bad, just the hallway. Once we got settled there, we decided we would go and find something to eat for dinner. We had read about the Louisiana Boardwalk and chose to go there. When we got close to the outdoor mall, we realized this might be a happening spot since there was a Bass Pro Shops, movie theater, outlets, and numerous restaurants. We looked around the stores and checked out the restaurants… We decided to go back to where we started and eat at Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro. From the inside, this place reminded us of the Cheesecake Factory in that the way it was designed, decorated, etc. We put our name down on the list since the expected wait was close to an hour and a half. I asked the hostess how far the little pagers would reach and she said from the restaurant all the way down to the movie theater or Bass Pro (can’t remember which one, but it was pretty much the entire complex). After she said that, we thought that maybe we should have stopped here first, gotten a pager, and then walked around… Oh well… We decided to go across the way to O’Brien’s Irish Pub to have a drink before dinner. I ordered a few Irish coffees and Britt ordered a couple of Woodchuck ciders. Of course the pager decided to go off right in the middle of our second round of drinks, so I finished mine and gave Britt some cash (not thinking that it would cost more than $20 for a couple of beers and coffee drinks) while I headed over to the restaurant to grab our table. A few minutes later Britt finds our table laughing saying I didn’t give her enough money to pay the tab so she had to use her debit card. I was kinda surprised at this. She gave me the receipt and my coffee drinks were $7/each and her ciders were $4/each… Oops… Dinner started out with a Spinach and Artichoke Dip, followed by our main dishes consisting of a Blackened Bacon Cheeseburger with fries and a creamy crab cake dish with a cup of tomato basil soup. Both entrées were very good. And for dessert, we couldn’t leave the restaurant without a slice of strawberry cheesecake :-) It rivaled Cheesecake Factory in quality, taste and price. I also topped the meal off with another Irish coffee, but this one was not as good as O’Brien’s. After we left, we crashed back at the hotel. I, as you might assume, had a horrible time going to bed with three cups of coffee in my system… but I was able to get a good nights rest after tossing and turning thanks to Benadryl.

Saturday, we played the lazy card and didn’t checkout until near noon. We grabbed some lunch at a nearby McAlister’s and then headed to downtown Shreveport for the wedding ceremony. The wedding was held at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. This was our first Catholic wedding experience. The inside of the church was beautiful with the stained glass and such. The ceremony started at 1:30pm and ended at 3:00pm… yup, an hour and a half! This was by far the longest wedding ceremony we had ever been to! The reception was held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bossier City. When we walked in, there were two lines of food tables. One had finger foods (fruit, vegetables, etc), the other had buffet style food that was still covered up or hadn’t been brought out from the kitchen yet. We found a table to sit down at where we met some of Kristen’s family and family friends. We also walked around to look at the bride and groom’s cakes. The bride had a tiered cake and the groom had several cheesecakes spread around the table. I then proceeded to the bar to grab a drink while we waited on the Bride and Groom to arrive from the church where they took some additional pictures after the ceremony. Shortly after they arrived, the ‘dinner’ buffet opened up. The food was very good. I cannot remember all of the food that was there, but I know they had some bbq brisket and it was awesome. As I remember (or am reminded) the other food, I’ll update this post :-) After being at the reception for a couple of hours, Britt and I decided it was time to go (since we broke the return trip home up over two segments and had a 3.5 hour drive to Pearl, MS). We were able to spend a few minutes saying hello to the bride and groom, congratulating them, wishing them luck, etc. We wished we were able to stay long enough to try the wedding cakes, but oh well… I’m sure they were superlicius. The drive to Pearl, MS was relatively uneventful, except for the fact it rained a majority of the way. Good thing I like to drive. We arrived around 9:00pm and checked in to what looked to be a brand new Holiday Inn. Our room was very nice and it had a view of the Bass Pro Shops that was located next door to the hotel. Across the street from the hotel was Trustmark Park, home of the Mississippi Braves!

Sunday, we ate a late breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and then drove 4.5 hours back to Opelika. The longest part of this drive was when we got off the Interstate after crossing into Alabama and drove to Montgomery. The speed limit would go from 65 – 55 – 45 – 65 – 35, and throw in a few red lights… We made it home before dark and had the holiday on Monday to relax / recover / enjoy to ourselves.

Overall, this trip was fun! We got to see some of the US that we hadn’t seen before… even if it was from inside a car! During the drive on Sunday, I came up with an idea that will probably never happen, but it would be fun to do… Travel the US by car… The best way to see this great country is to drive it. I would start at home, pick cities, attractions, etc (major or minor) that I would like to visit for a day, and go. I would limit the driving time to a certain amount so that I would get a day and a half or so in each city. It could be tiring… but it could be a heck of a fun time! Or, I could give it a theme, like sports, and visit sports venues across the nation… Who knows, just a thought… Let me know what you think of it, or if I’m way outta line, you can tell me that too!