Jimmy Buffett made a surprise visit to his Margaritaville Biloxi Casino on Friday:

Buffett made a quick walk through the property with Margaritaville managers and Mayor AJ Holloway to share his ideas for the hotel that’s in the works. Architects are working on those plans right now. And while there’s no timetable for construction, leaders hope to be breaking ground by the end of the year.

Buffett also stopped to visit with employees and say thanks for all the hard work they do to keep the 24/7 operation running smoothly.

“I had to do a double-take to believe it, but sure enough I was standing in front of Jimmy Buffett,” said employee Emma Roberts. “He was so nice and appreciative of what we do.”

Roberts, a native of Puerto Rico, said she was also pleasantly surprised to learn the songwriter “speaks perfect Spanish.”

Buffett also surprised a few customers before leaving on his seaplane.

Jimmy Buffett’s latest album Songs From St. Somewhere debuts at #4 in its opening week on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 55,000 copies.

The new album is his 11th top 10 set, stretching back to 1978’s “Son of a Son of a Sailor” (which peaked at No. 10). The former Billboard writer (he wrote for this publication in 1969 and 1970) didn’t return to the top 10 until 1994’s “Fruitcakes” (No. 5).

See Buffett’s chart history here.

Here’s the top 5 this week:

1. Luke Bryan – 159,000 (second week)
2. John Mayer – 144,000
3. TGT – 76,000
4. Jimmy Buffett – 55,000
5. Earl Sweatshirt – 49,000

Check out this official music video for “I Want to Go Back to Cartagena”, the bonus track version with Fanny Lu.

Haven’t picked up Songs From St. Somewhere yet? Get it now at iTunes.

As you probably know, Jimmy Buffett has long had an affinity with flying and space. On his new album Songs From St. Somewhere is the song The Rocket That Grandpa Rode, written about an encounter with Neil Armstrong’s family on the day of the final space shuttle launch.

Neil’s son relayed the following about the meeting:

As recalled by Rick Armstrong, one of the moonwalker’s two sons, he and his children were seated in the very last row of the bus. As they were driven past the voluminous Vehicle Assembly Building, he remarked something along the lines of “that’s where the rocket that grandpa rode was put together.”

Hearing this, the man seated in front of Armstrong and his family turned around and replied, “That sounds like a good idea for a song,” Rick Armstrong recounted in an e-mail to collectSPACE.

The exchange led to introductions, and Jimmy Buffett met the Armstrongs.

Buffett remembers it similarly, as told during the Radio Margaritaville album preview special for Songs From St. Somewhere:

Behind us there was this quiet couple and a couple of kids sitting there with their iPads like kids on a bus ride with a bunch of boring adults saying “when we gonna get there dad?” Then the dad says when we get there we’re going to go to the museum, we’re gonna go look at the shuttle, then we’re going to go see the rocket that grandpa rode. And I went “that is some kind of statement. The rocket that grandpa rode.” I was thinking “who could this be?” I snuck a look back and on the nametag was ‘Armstrong.’ It wasn’t Neil. It was his son and grandson.

We went through the tour and saw the Atlas rocket on display and the Apollo rockets, and when we got off the bus I introduced myself and said “you know there aren’t many people who could say that line you said to your son. You may see that line again. Is that ok?” And he said “sure.” So I can’t wait for the Armstrong family to hear that song.

In the album special, Jimmy added “I’m going into space, by the way. Before I’m done here.”

Read the full lyrics to “The Rocket That Grandpa Rode” and what Jimmy had to say about the song during the album special here.

The summer tour just ended and Buffett’s got a few weeks off, so it’s a great time for another Buffett Caption Contest.

Take a look at the photo below:

Post your creative, funny caption in the comments section of this post.

After a few days we’ll take some of the best captions and put them in a poll for everyone to vote on their favorite.

Have fun!