I always hesitate to publish my travel plans – not becuase I think they should remain private, but because in my job, they are always subject to change.

For example: at the beginning of this week, my travel schedule was as follows:

This week in Mobile, all week.
Next week near Lafayette, LA, for 2 days (with 1 travel day on each side of that)
Labor Day week in Austin, TX for 2 days (with 1 travel day on each side).
Week of 9/11 in Clifton, NJ, all week.

Since I used to live in San Antonio (one of the best places I’ve ever lived), and since I still have good friends there (as well as blog compatriots), I decided to drive from Atlanta to Mobile (5 hours), Mobile to Lafayette (5 hours), and then Lafayette to San Antonio (5-6 hours), spend Labor Day weekend visiting my friends, and head up to Austin Monday night so I could be at the client site Tues a.m.

So Monday in Mobile, when I check my email at lunchtime, I find that the Lafayette trip has been postponed, for now, and they’re not sure they have anywhere for me to go next week.

I thought about that, in light of my desire to be with my friends Labor Day weekend, and how I was trying to figure out how to grab more time with them, and how I had been looking forward to driving across MS and seeing how Biloxi has changed in the last year. I know they were hit hard by Katrina, and are rebuilding, and it’s the first chance I ‘ve had to go that way in a while. The last time I remember being in Biloxi was 1998, on a business trip.

So I’ve put in a vacation request for next week, and I’m going to head west from Mobile this weekend, going where my fancy takes me, stopping when I take the notion, and eventually winding up in San Antonio. I’ll either use hilton points to stay free at hotels, or I’ll buy a blanket and towel somewhere, and camp in the car. Had I thought about camping, I’d have brought my tent, but I wasn’t expecting to have that much time for my travel.

I”ve not thought much about my route yet, other than being determined to avoid one particular bridge on IH-10 that passes from LA into TX. My heights phobia doesn’t mix well with that bridge. I’ve got an internet friend in Beaumont I want to meet, so I’m hoping that will work out, and another in Gulfport. Other than that, my itinerary is open.

So… who wants to come along? Or to put it a different way, those of you scattered around the world, is there some part of the Gulf Coast that you’re wondering about, since Katrina? I can meander with the best of them, taking back roads to get from one place to another, and will be happy to go off the beaten track and take pics for you. My only caveat is don’t ask me to go into New Orleans. Cities don’t usually interest me, and I’m more interested in seeing the small towns and the invisible survivors – the ones who didn’t make the headlines, or quickly faded from them. Pascagoula, Pass Christian, other towns farther inland that still got hit by the surge – that’s where my personal interest lies. I’ll drive into Biloxi and see how Beauvoir looks – it’s not reopened yet, and I’m not sure when it will, but I need to see it. It’s one of my favorite memories of Biloxi. That and their beach.

I’m also planning to be a typical tourist, stopping at attractions when they pique my interest. So does anyone have any suggestions for must-see things? Swamp tours in LA, Cajun history, etc?