Louisiana - Day 21 - to Natchitoches & Colfax

Colfax RV Park, Colfax
Friday, 21 February 2020

There was a stunning sunrise this morning and I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of it.  When I was walking the dogs I saw the sun just coming up over the cypress-filled lake and it was really nice.  Peaceful.

today's route

Driving through rural northcentral Louisiana
My drive today took me from near Shreveport in LA's northwest corner southeast to Colfax, which is a half hour out of Alexandria, the geographic center of LA.  I passed through Koran and Haughton on the way to Taylortown on US Route 71.

Still driving in Bossier Parish, I passed by the turns to several plantations: Waterloo, Ash Point, Magenta and Elm Grove.

Rural Louisiana looks like houses, trailers, industrial plants, a gunsmith.  Big wide open fields of crops, cows, sheep, horses.  Tree farms in various stages of growth.

I saw a calf nursery (I guess - there were quite a few out in a field with their moms).  Cows and horses lying down in the warm sun - a change after the clouds and rain, and the wind was cold but the sun was warm.

In Red River Parish, I came to the town of Coushatta, expecting to see gambling.  I've seen lots of ads in Texas for the Coushatta casino, and I guess I expected it to be here.  It's not.  No sign of any gambling at all.  The well-advertised casino is almost due south more than half the state away from this town.  The casino is near the town of Kinder and I think run by the Coushatta Tribe, the reservation for which is nearby.

Coushatta (town) calls itself the Heart of the Red River Valley.  Wikipedia had no explanation at all for where the name of this town came from.  Before the Civil War, it was plantation country with the majority of the population being enslaved Africans and African-Americans.  The town's population is still about 2/3 black and 1/3 white.  And about all I can tell you besides that is that the level of fire danger today is extreme, though I have no idea why with all the rain we've been having throughout the state this month.

And then I moved into Natchitoches Parish.  I came to the town of Campti (such an odd name), where I saw a bright yellow metal building with the label THE CHURCH painted across the front of it.  Campti claims to be the oldest town on the Red River.

At Clarence I turned right on a road called El Camino - East West Highway.  I don't know why.  I passed another church with a sign out front that read: "Tomorrow's forecast - God reigns, the Son shines."

Natchitoches
Coming into Natchitoches I passed a road labeled Natchitoches Port and saw on the riverbank an enormous pile of logs.  I noticed a Weyerhauser facility between the port and the town.  I crossed the (unlabeled) Red River on a very high bridge (for which I was completely unprepared, but I'm getting a bit better at bridges with all this practice).

Here's the thing with the word Natchitoches.  Forget what it looks like, it's pronounced NACK-eh-tish.  I learned that on my first day in Louisiana, when I stopped at that Welcome Center and the nice ladies there told me to go visit.  We were looking at the map and they were saying NACK-eh-tish, and I finally asked just to be sure.  And pointed out that Texas has a town named Nacogdoches which, yeah, is spelled differently, but that town's pronounced nearly the way Natchitoches looks.  (Even Wikipedia notes the 2 names shouldn't be confused.)  But the ladies assured me they were telling me the truth, and they were right.  But that made me distrust the pronunciation of every other place name in the state.

The reason they thought I'd want to visit is that Natchitoches is the oldest permanent settlement in the state - actually, the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase.  It was established in 1714 (the LA Purchase was in 1803) as a French trading post, but French traders had already begun to settle there in 1699.  And the reason some folks come visit here is that Steel Magnolias was filmed here, and apparently some of the buildings in the movie are still here.

fleur-de-lis

I just wanted to see the old town.  I saw very narrow streets (clearly built when people were riding horses or walking); very old houses that have mostly been turned into inns and B&Bs; brick streets; iron lace balconies like in New Orleans; the fleur-de-lis is on the street name signs; the Cane River runs right through town and there's a nice park and walk along the river in town.

Most streets seem to be one way, and I found out why the hard way.  I was trying to find a short cut out of town and turned on Rue Trudeau, discovering almost instantly that yes, I was going the right way on this one-way street, but so were all the cars parked on either side of the road, leaving only a tiny corridor between them.  I'm a big fan of the folks who pulled their side mirrors in, because I'm not sure I'd have made it through unscathed if they hadn't.  I had to move inch by inch in a few places, watching not only the road ahead and the cars on either side of the cab, but also the cars along the rear of the RV's sides.  Without my own side mirrors, it would have been impossible, though at one point I had to pull them in because someone parked hadn't done his.  Then I was really flying blind.  It was such a relief to get through all 2 blocks of that.

I'm including this link to the Wikipedia page because it had a few nice photos of the town.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Natchitoches  That page says the Natchitoches Meat Pie is one of the official state foods of Louisiana, and I'm really sorry I didn't know that when I was there.  Here's a link about how they're made.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Natchitoches-meat-pie

I passed the Cane River Queen, that looked like a tour boat on the Cane River, docked at the riverside park.  I saw what was likely a tour group that I guessed was with Road Scholar/Elderhostel, though I couldn't easily find a tour of theirs that came through Natchitoches when I looked online.  But they were probably who was using the small Shreveport tour buses I saw parked nearby; it looked like they were having a great time.  Elderhostel does really good programs - Momma and I went on 3 of them.

Back on the road
Heading back toward the Natchitoches Port, I noticed that the logging trucks turning into the port were carrying long skinny logs.  Logging trucks heading away from there toward Weyerhauser were carrying much shorter, peeled, thicker, more finished-looking logs.  I used to know about this stuff back in one of my former lives, but I've forgotten it now.

I saw, almost on top of each other, a sign saying I was entering Winn Parish and another sign saying I was about to cross Saline Bayou.  When I looked up the bayou to see if it were really saline (it's not), I learned that it marks the boundary between Winn and Natchitoches Parishes.  Saline Bayou is a tributary of the Red River and has been designated a Wild and Scenic River.  It's black because it's full of tannic acid.

In Grant Parish I came to the town of Montgomery, which bills itself Home of Bon Dieu Falls.  I don't know why I had so much trouble finding out anything about Bon Dieu Falls, but the most I came up with was that there was an old French fort with that name near where the town is now, so I guess there are falls there.  What I do know is that for a tiny town - population 730 - it's got a real sense of community.  The town hosts the Bon Dieu Falls Festival every fall, and it's got a surprisingly lengthy Wikipedia page that absolutely has to have been written by a local.  It includes the lack of funding for the police and a local shooting spree from the 1990s.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Montgomery

The stretch of Route 71 between Montgomery and Colfax is one of the best roads in the state, and I was really sorry to have to turn off it.

I called yesterday about this campground that I'd found online somewhere and got good directions, that the guy told me were much better than GPS, which consistently sent people down the wrong roads.

This campground has only 25 spaces but is on flat land right on the Red River, where there's a dam within sight.  It's an incredible pleasure to be sitting on flat land for a change: doors stay where you put them instead of swinging wide open or slamming shut, nothing rolls around or tilts - it's a relief.  And they charged me only $16 with the half-price senior discount.  Such a deal.

Of course, it may be only 25 spaces, and there are only 10 of us camped here, but at least 50% have dogs so I have to be careful when I walk mine.  But that's doable. 

Louisiana - Day 20 - Shreveport, Barksdale AFB, Red River Valley

Lake Bistineau State Park, Doyline
Thursday, 20 February 2020

Today's 2-20-2020.  Some date.

I wasn't intending to go far today.  There's a state park a little ways south of Bossier City that charges much less than this KOA, so I figured I'd head for that.

When I was packing up the cabin so nothing would move around while we were driving, I discovered that YET AGAIN that same drawer latch had broken.  So I had to stop everything and locate an RV supply store in the area, which was fortunately just a few miles down the street from the KOA.

today's route

The drive to RV supplies
The store was actually farther away than I thought, and I was headed west away from town and out into the country by the time I found it.  I passed a large GE Transformer plant (and wondered if they'd had any movie-like trouble).

The RV supplier said they had a different brand of the same thing I'd been using and hoped this brand would work better for me.  I hope so too, but I also think the contents of that drawer've been just too heavy for the catch to hold, especially since it was put on crooked in the first place.

Next, to the Barnes & Noble
The B&N is on the east side of town, but it was straight down 70th Street, which is the road the KOA and RV supply store are on (in the west), making navigating easy.

Back past the GE plant, around the south end of the airport runway - 70th St. has been designated State Route 511 and runs for miles and miles, acting like a business route by servicing many companies.  Also shopping centers, which is where the B&N is.

I was there looking for 2 authors: Deborah Lipstadt, who writes about the Holocaust, and Cheryl Strayed, who wrote the book Wild.

The B&N said they found lots of Lipstadt's books in their catalog but had none of them in stock.  I pointed out that the Holocaust is an important subject and she's an important writer on the subject and they really should have a few of them available.  But I was disappointed.  I own and often watch the movie Denial, about her having been sued for libel based on the book she wrote of the same name, and I was hoping to read the book she wrote about the trial.  Guess I'll have to try somewhere else.

But I did find and buy Wild.  I'd seen the movie with Reese Witherspoon and wanted to read the book that inspired it.  I read a bit in the store and found it hard to stop reading.

On to the AFB
I was getting a little desperate (again) to get rid of my recyclable glass and thought I should at least give the air force base a try.  I stopped at their Visitor Control Center (spooky name) near the west gate and found the soldiers at the counter didn't know they even had recycling on the base.  But another soldier on my side of the counter told them exactly where to find it (across from the commissary) and said it accepted glass - and that's as close as I got to it.  Of course they wouldn't let me go on the base, and I couldn't find anyone at the Visitor Center who was willing to go to the recycling place for me, so that was that.  Not unexpected but disappointing anyway.

On the road to the campground
My road directions said the campground was only about 25 miles further along the road but it would take nearly an hour to get there.  Which it did, which should give you an idea of the road conditions.

I crossed a very large unlabled river, that I found out later was the Red River.  I'm so used to it doing something functional - like form the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma - that it seems odd to have it meander through the state of Louisiana like any old river.

I guess the ground must have already been saturated by previous rains, because it rained a fair amount yesterday but not enough to account for the flooding I saw all day.  Gutters in town, drainage ditches out in the country, crop fields, front yards, bayou and river banks, all flooded way above the level that's obviously usual for them.

I drove through the community of Koran, which seems an odd name, but I can't find any information online about it except that it's a "populated place" in Bossier Parish with an elevation of 190'.  And I can tell you that it's got a church named Koran Baptist Church, which just sounds odd.

Then I was in Webster Parish.

I saw blooming daffodils and a large flock of sheep, with one young one running to keep up with mom.  Very cute.

The road seemed like one long series of s-curves - which accounts for the longer-than-usual driving time, I suppose.

Lake Bistineau State Park
The first thing I saw inside the park was a sign saying: "All Horses Must Have Current Coggins."  Yet another odd thing, since I've never heard of coggins, with or without horses.  But I looked it up and found it's the name of a test for Equine Infectious Anemia, which is a viral disease transmitted by biting insects for which there is currently no treatment and no cure.  Sounds terrifying and I can't imagine why I haven't heard of it before.  Although the symptoms sound like the Potomac Horse Fever I heard about some years ago, and that one of my favorite authors, Dick Francis, wrote about in his mystery Driving Force.

On the way to the campground, I found the lake was so flooded they'd even closed the boat ramp - which seems to me an indication of real flooding.  And in fact, a number of the campsites had flooding problems to one degree or another.  Add to that the fact the campground was built on a slope and had a winding road to allow more sites to be near the (flooded) lake, and I had trouble finding a spot to stay in.  In another life, I'd have liked to stay near the lake, which had a lot of cypress in it and was very picturesque, but I was quite worried there might be alligators, which were a problem I didn't think the dogs needed.

And the campground's wifi signal was down, had been down for a while, and this fact had been ignored on their website that claimed they had a functioning wifi signal (the staff told me all this without even bothering to apologize when I pointed out I'd come here because they claimed to have the connection).  Turned out my hotspot didn't work there either, so I spent a quieter time there than usual and decided not to stay more than the one night.

But I saw a large flock of Cardinals, which was nice.  I don't remember ever seeing more than 3 Cardinals together before (dad, mom, fledgling) and thought they just kept to themselves.  Not today, though.  Very pretty.

And I saw a Red-headed Woodpecker and a Kingfisher.  All very nice.

I replaced the broken drawer latch, and this time tried to empty it a bit.  The only problem with that is that every place already had stuff stored in it, so I had to do some shuffling.  Now the drawer is lighter and there's a different brand of fastener on it, so if it breaks again I'll have to try the only other thing I know to do, which is to drill new screw holes to put the latch on straight, instead of slightly crooked as it is now.  But maybe I'll be lucky this time.

When I took the dogs out for their last walk before bed, we started walking toward a parking area away from the campground, to skirt a large field with scattered brown scrubby leafless bushes.  Dexter, and then Gracie, seemed to perk up and started to stare at the field - not really alerting as if they'd seen deer, but definitely showing a generic interest in the field.  So I stopped and looked more closely and suddenly realized some of those scrubby bushes were actually deer.  Quite a few of them.  And quickly wheeled the dogs around to walk in the other direction before they realized that there really were deer there.  Close call. 

Louisiana - Day 19 - to Shreveport

Shreveport/Bossier City KOA
Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Today is the birthday of both my sister Louise and my puppy dog Gracie.  Today is the day I adopted Gracie, so I celebrate it as her birthday, and today she turns 10 years old.  Thanks to Dexter, she's much younger than she was a few years ago.

Louise would have turned 68 today, which is a sobering thought and makes me feel older than my own age of 70 does.

today's route

On the road north
As we were leaving the park this morning, we surprised 4 deer along the road.  They stopped and stared at us, Dexter got real interested, and I finally got tired of just sitting there waiting for them to move.  So I started inching forward, which caused them to move along themselves.  I guess I was lucky we never saw them when we were walking around the park yesterday.

I discovered I'd taken a wrong turn when I saw a sign saying Texas State Line.  I knew I didn't remember crossing the dam at the Sabine River, which I'd just crossed, but wasn't sure enough for that to be a clue.  The sign was a pretty strong hint, though.

I turned around and went back to Anacoco and turned north.  It was a chilly rainy morning so not really great for sightseeing.

We went through the town of Hornbeck, the Village of Florien (Boise Cascade has a strong presence there), Fisher, and then on into Sabine Parish.

I never actually saw a highway sign announcing the parish but I did see it written on a water storage tank and at the landfill, and decided those were good enough.

State-owned cars often have a bumper sticker with the slogan "Love the Boot, Don't Pollute" superimposed on an outline of the state.

I came to the town of Many - "The Heart of Toledo Bend."  Wikipedia says the town was named for a Colonel Many who was stationed at nearby Fort Jesup.  And that's all it says.  That sure doesn't seem like enough of a basis for the name of a town.  They don't even say when the town was established.  Someone in Many should figure out how to add information to that page.

The land is no longer flat up here.  Route 171 has become rolling hills - and very bumpy again.

I passed a sign saying to turn right for the Rebel SCA Country Music Museum.  Well, that didn't mean anything to me, but I'm guessing (from a search) it's referring to the Louisiana Country Music Museum at the Rebel State Historic Site near Natchitoches (a town I'll visit in a day or two).  But that's not exactly what that sign said.

I passed by the towns of Noble and Converse, entered DeSoto Parish, and passed the town of Benson.

I heard on the radio that the Pearl River is flooding near Jackson, MS, where I was last month.  The town was already saturated then and honestly couldn't afford to take on any more water.  I hope everyone's okay.

The road went through what seemed like a forest of telephone poles - tree farms in various stages of growth, all the way down to young trees.

It was still raining, with strong cross winds, neither of which were much help navigating this bumpy road.

I saw a sign that said WPA Road and assume it was a Works Progress Administration project in the '30s.  I didn't find that specifically on this website, but I did find an interesting article about how the power struggle between FDR and Huey Long played out during the Depression, resulting in what was called the second Louisiana purchase.   https://64parishes.org/new-deal-in-louisiana

At Mansfield I saw a sign saying the city is the site of Mansfield Female College, established in the 1850s and the first women's college west of the Mississippi River.  Mansfield State Historic Site, a Civil War battlefield, is also here.  I'm attaching this link because I thought the explanation of the fight and its historical significance is interesting.   https://www.crt.state.la.us/mansfield-state-historic-site

The DeSoto Parish Coroner's Office sits in a prominent position on Route 171, something I've never seen before.  Aren't coroner's offices usually hidden?

I passed the Historic Village of Grand Cane.  Welcome to Yesteryear they say.  Established in 1899, current population 242.

I saw a large herd of cows, most of which were moving - some actually running - toward the side of the field.  I can't imagine why they were running.

I saw a highway sign that said, "Keep Right Except to Pass or Turn."  I never saw that "or turn" part before.

In Stonewall, we stopped at the North DeSoto Schools - they were all together.  The signs said the high school was for grades 9-12, middle school was 6-8, upper elementary was 3-5, and lower elementary was PK-2, the PK presumably meaning pre-kindergarten.  I guess this upper and lower elementary bit is a Louisiana thing, and it makes sense, but I've never seen it before.

It was winter break, according to a sign at the school, so we stayed and ate lunch and walked around the parking lot.

At the Stonewall Baptist Church I saw a sign that said, "God Bless and Protect Pres. Donald Trump."

I came into Caddo Parish, the towns of Keithville, Southern Hills, and then into Shreveport. 

Shreveport

This church is the First Methodist Church in Shreveport.  I saw it easily a long way away because it sits at the head of one of the main streets of town - the road stops at the church.  It was founded in 1845 and moved to this site in 1883, which explains how the town was basically built around it.  That steeple fell, by the way, in a thunderstorm about 20 years ago and bashed a passing car.  That's a replacement steeple, which I hope they've anchored well.

From the sublime ...  I saw a billboard with a photo of an attractive young woman and the message: "Justice Jacque, Cajun Court TV - Have Your Case Heard."

Throughout Shreveport I saw old neon signs for businesses that no longer exist, but the signs are still up on the original buildings.  It'd be nice if there were enough money in town to renovate them, but at least they haven't torn them down.

Some of Shreveport's brick streets are still there, too.  Nice to look at but tricky to drive on.

Shreveport didn't exist until Capt. Henry Shreve unclogged that logjam in the Red River back in the 1830s.  Then its proximity to the trail to the newly independent country of Texas and the newly navigable Red River made Shreveport an instant hub.  It now has about 190,000 residents.

I passed something they call Asian Garden in the middle of downtown - nice feature.  In fact, it seemed a cozy, slightly old fashioned downtown.

The State Fairgrounds are in town, as they are in Indianapolis.  I know because I passed them.

There was and continued to be intermittently heavy rain, leaving a lot of standing water in the streets, adding to the trickiness of the driving conditions.

I saw a billboard saying: "Report Corruption to the FBI."

I passed into Bossier City headed to a recycle drop-off place - Shreveport didn't seem to have one, oddly enough.  It took some work but I did find it and got rid of everything but the glass.  A nice worker there told me the only place he knew of in the area that took glass was at the nearby military base.

I stopped at a liquor store and then went back to Shreveport.  I faithfully stayed on State Route 79 all the way, paralleling I-20 most of the way.  Much more scenic as the route took me through town.  I saw that Libbey Glass has a plant here - they say it's one of only 2 in the US.  And I passed by the north end of the runway at the city airport.

Shreveport KOA
I'd decided to stay here so I'd have an address for David to send me my mail - and especially my ballot.  But he called yesterday to let me know that the ballot hadn't come so he'd hold off on sending the other mail as well.  Thanks, Collin County.

Still, I was hoping for a decent place to stay, considering the high price this place was charging.  It wasn't their fault it was still raining and everything was waterlogged.  But the campground's layout wasn't at all sensible and the campsites were right on the edge of actually uncomfortable.  Yes, they'd given me a concrete slab and yes, there was a reasonable distance between the sites, but each slab was barely as wide as my RV (which isn't a wide one), so the dogs and I had to step out into mud and puddles, and the slab wasn't even level.  They had room to make them wider so why didn't they?  I had a wider concrete slab at my last campground for a fifth the price.

But I wanted to celebrate my sister's birthday with what was her favorite meal (the 21-year-old self she was when she died - I'm sure her tastes would have changed over the years).  So I had pork chops and mashed potatoes in mushroom gravy and peas and drank champagne to toast the life she'd had and the one I wished she'd had the chance to live. 

And I watched The Post, a movie I think she'd have liked.  She was very interested in women's studies when she died in 1973, and I seriously doubt she'd have lost interest in that subject over the years.  And this movie chronicles the moment when Katharine Graham first exercised her strength as an individual, rather than as the wife, mother, and daughter she'd been all her life.  Louise would have liked that.

Louisiana - Day 18

South Toledo Bend State Park
Tuesday, 18 February 2020

I understand Bald Eagles nest in this area though wasn't lucky enough to see one while I was here.

I know there was at least one Pileated Woodpecker and a bunch of dee-dees (abbreviated calls from the local chickadees).

The campground was cheap, giving me the site for $10 at the senior half-price rate.  And the showers were good and the laundry was cheap: $1/machine.  The machines worked well and I'm really glad I didn't find that laundromat in Leesville.  And even with all those chores I still managed to finish one more blog entry, though I'm still nearly a week behind.

My only problem was not being able to find a level campsite, but with the other advantages I was willing to tough it out.

It's not the state park's fault that it rained a lot while we were there, but it made walking the dogs a lot less pleasant.

I'd have been happy to stay longer but the month was almost 2/3 gone and I still had a lot of state left to see.

Louisiana - Day 17 - north to Toledo Bend Reservoir

South Toledo Bend State Park, Anacoco
Monday, 17 February 2020

Before I left the park, I drove around a little looking for someplace dogless where I could walk mine.  Surprisingly difficult, other people having apparently had the same idea.  I found one spot but was intimidated by the sign that said "Alligators In Area - Use Caution."  Either I got lucky or it wasn't warm enough for them to be around right now, but we managed to make it out without any alligator sightings.

We were on one side of what looked like a dried-up lake or marsh, that I'd seen the other side of at the campground.  The bowl was full of cypress.

You can just make out a few of the campers across the way through the mist.

I'm starting to recognize cypress even without seeing their knees.  They always have that graceful division toward the ground that looks to me like a woman wearing a ballgown that flows around her ankles.  And though this photo doesn't show it, their branches don't start until about 4' or 5' high, and they always branch upward into a pretty upturned bell shape.

Sam Houston Jones State Park has 70 acres of longleaf pine, the oldest living southern pine species.  There were once 90 million acres of them stretching from Virginia to Texas.  Sadly, no longer.

pine is on the left

I can recognize pine bark now (though not which species) without having to look at anything but the bark: it reminds me of alligator skin.

a pine - maybe longleaf?

That photo of the pine shows a walkway that's usually in water, I'm guessing, based on its elevation.  Don't know what on earth happened to all that water when it's been so wet this year.

today's route

On the road again
I didn't go far on the road at first because I wanted to stop at a Rouses Market I'd seen yesterday afternoon.  I needed kitty litter, an absolutely necessary household item.  The cashier said she liked living in Moss Bluff but thought it was getting too big as Lake Charles got closer.

I passed the Heaven on Earth Garden Center, though I don't know what connection the garden center would have with a moving company.  And I passed the Brown Bag Cafe, with a sign saying American Owned.  Why does that matter?  Is there some reason I should care whether the person who's making my food is or isn't a US citizen?  Maybe the Brown Bag owner needs to travel in a foreign country for a while.

There was heavy fog on the road an hour past the time it was forecast to lift.  Hope it lightens up before I go much further down the road.

I passed the town of Gillis and the town of Topsy (isn't that a character in Uncle Tom's Cabin?)  And I entered Beauregard Parish, which is the most Southern name I know.

The fields I was passing today were full of some plant - scrub brush? yellow grass? - that was so tall I could only see the top parts of the cows grazing there.

More scattered houses, but US Route 171 is 4 lanes with a wide grassy median - not conducive to a sense of community, I'd think.

I passed the towns of Ragley, DeQuincy, Longville, and miles of pine tree farms on both sides.

DeRidder
The town of DeRidder is clearly indebted to a family named Shirley because several of the streets are named after them.  I later learned the town was originally homesteaded by Calvin Shirley, which explains a lot.

There are an estimated 14,000 folks in this town, and many of them must be Baptists because the First Baptist Church is enormous.

We stopped for a walk and some lunch at the Veterans Park/Pernici Park (it looked like 1 park but had contradictory signs at either end).  Nice park with a walking trail and 9-hole disc golf.  There was the usual monument to war veterans and an additional monument to the dozens (listed) from the parish that had been killed in Desert Storm.  The park was maintained by the DeRidder Gardenettes, according to a sign, though that name makes me feel like gagging.  I assume it's the local garden club (though why couldn't they just say "garden club") but couldn't find anything online for them.

Gothic jail

The main reason I was in town was the mention I'd seen of their Gothic "Hanging" Jail.  It's pretty amazing in person, and this website will show photos and tell where the name came from.  It's considered haunted now (of course).   https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/gothic-jail

parish courthouse

The Beauregard Parish Courthouse sits right next door to that jail and it's hard to imagine a greater architectural contrast, but there they sit.

Unsurprisingly, I'm now on the Myths & Legends Byway.


Back on the road
I watched an SUV having some trouble negotiating one of those elevated lips the Louisiana driveways so often have and was thankful to see it wasn't just me and my RV having trouble with them.

I'm now in Vernon Parish, "Home of Fort Polk," according to their sign.

I passed a Tabernacle of David, which I think I've seen before but can't remember so looked it up.  Their website says it's a "family-based Messianic community centered around Yesuah the Messiah."  The word "messianic" often seems attached to a cult of some kind, so it makes me nervous.  These folks seem to be fundamentalist Jews in a way, though they aren't calling themselves that at all.  They say they support the unity of Jews and Gentiles, although I'm guessing they mean "unity" along their ideas rather than finding a common ground.  Anyway, if you're interested, here's the link to their website.   https://tabernacleofdavidministries.com

I went through "historic Rosepine," though since they weren't established until 1902, it's hard to see just how historic they are.  They've got their own historical marker, though.   https://www.hmdb.org

In town I saw a large handmade sign that said "Beware of Speed Trap - sign paid for by Robert Kiel" or maybe the name was Peal.  Anyway, I'm guessing Robert ran into a bunch of trouble and this is his way of spiking their guns.

I passed Pickering and then one of the gates for Fort Polk.  Their sign said it's a US Army Joint Readiness Training Center.

I passed by New Llano and the Museum of the New Llano Colony.  The colony lasted more than 20 years and is considered the most successful socialist Utopia in the US, which still doesn't bode well for socialism in this country.

I went through Leesville, looking unsuccessfully for a laundromat I'd seen online.

I only slept about an hour last night, so by now I was getting pretty tired.

Across Anacoco Creek, a modest little body of water to suit its modest little creek status.

At Anancoco I turned left (missed the turn, actually, the first time past) onto State Route 111, which is apparently a logging road, though paved, based on the logging trucks I saw and the tree farms I passed.  That road became State Route 392, which was a washboard road and an absolutely miserable drive.  Despite the 55 mph speed limit, I couldn't go over 30 mph.

I crossed the Sabine River, which flows south from Toledo Bend Reservoir to make 2/3 of the Texas/Louisiana border.

Toledo Bend is supposed to be one of the best bass lakes in North America.  It sits on the border of Texas and Louisiana and was built in the '60s as a joint project between the two states for hydroelectric generation.  It's now the largest man-made lake not only in Louisiana but also in the South, and is the 5th largest in the US.  It's the only such project in the US that doesn't have federal help in its permanent funding.

Once I found I could get a wifi signal here, and that the campground wasn't overpopulated, I decided to stay here 2 nights.

I stopped at the Visitor Center to walk the dogs and instantly ran into a problem - they both alerted almost before they were out of the RV.  So I hustled them back in and went to find somewhere else to walk them.  But this told me to watch out for wildlilfe in the campground, which was good to know.

Louisiana - Day 16 - Acadia and Prairie Coast to Lake Charles

Sam Houston Jones State Park, Moss Bluff
Sunday, 16 February 2020

today's route

Driving south
As I was driving through the park away from the campground, I saw a sign that said, "Drive Carefully - Substandard Roadway."  Truer words were never spoken, as my Momma used to say.  The road was actually 1 wide lane with a stripe down the middle suggesting it was intended for 2 lanes.  I was lucky it was a Sunday, and early enough that I didn't meet anyone towing a boat to the boat launch I was leaving behind.

Along the road I saw campaign posters for various positions in various towns that said "Please Elect ___" - I can't remember anyone ever asking for my vote saying "please."  Kind of nice.

I passed the plant that produces Slap Ya Mama Cajun Products.  Terrible name but I understand they're good products - spices and such.

I passed a sign near the town of Vidrine that offered "Hay Round & Square Baling Service."

I passed lots of empty fields and assume some of them will be planted with hay come spring.

I passed lots of small communities of houses - didn't find names, just houses - and these houses were all strung along State Route 10.  None of them seemed to have more than just a narrow driveway up to the house - no large parking area, and certainly no place to park along this narrow no-shoulder roadway.  So how do these folks visit each other?  Maybe in the daytime they feel safe trundling along this highway on golf carts but surely not at night, and I didn't anyway see any golf carts or 4-wheelers.

I saw a huge flock of Red-winged Blackbirds in a plowed field.

As I drove south I started seeing a lot of very large square ponds and thought maybe they were farming fish?  But I didn't see any signs, which I usually do at fish farms.  Then I started to see lots of what looked like odd buoys dotted in these ponds.  Buoys with red round tops above some kind of mesh.  I finally found a wide spot to pull off and take some photos.

like I said - big fields

closer view of the little "buoys"

Farther down the road I saw whole flocks of egrets fishing in these ponds.  It finally dawned on me that a fish farm wouldn't be so shallow that an egret could stand in it, and anyway no fish farmer would allow birds to eat up all their product.  And then I started to see more and more flooded fields that had buoys and lots of those little sticks in them you can see a few of in this photo above.  That's when I realized these were rice fields.  Duh.  In my defense, I don't remember ever seeing a rice field before - or, at least, nobody ever told me that's what I was seeing.  But I finally remembered this part of the state is famous for its rice.

I passed what looked like company housing, though not the sort of housing I'd have expected for company houses and I don't know what company would be owning them.  But what I saw were 10 narrow white houses - almost like shotgun houses or wooden versions of mobile homes - lengthwise to the highway, a space, then 10 small brown square houses, a space, then 10 more long narrow white wooden houses.  I saw newish pickups beside 2 of the square houses so assume they're occupied.  Very odd.

I saw a billboard that said, "Cancer Is A Bitch Car Crushing LLC."  It turns out to be a real company, registered as a limited liability corporation for the last 5 years, and that's all I can find out about it.

More huge rice fields, some fully covered with water, some with just lots of water between the rows, though those had stalks in them that looked just like the rice stalks, so I guess they were also rice fields that had been irrigated but not flooded.

Lots of Trump supporters in this part of the state.

Eunice

Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum

I came to Eunice mainly because of the Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  I was pretty sure it was going to be closed (on a Sunday) and it was, but I didn't want to come all the way down yesterday or wait until tomorrow, so this is one place I'll have to come back to.

Eunice Duson

While I was here, I walked the dogs around a bit - very pleasant old town.  Named for the founder's wife, and there's a statue of her downtown.  The statue photo (right) is from the internet, though it's across the street from the theater, which is mine; she certainly looks elegant.  The town was incorporated in 1895, so I guess that's the era her clothes are from.

I think the '20s-era women in the theater photo are etched on those glass doors.

I saw a sign directing me to the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center but I didn't bother to go, figuring it too would be closed on Sunday (it was).  But I later learned it's part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and sounds like it's worth visiting.  Next time.

I saw another sign letting me know the Annual World Championship Crawfish Etouffee Cookoff is coming up on March 29th.  I'm sorry to miss it because I'm sure a good time - and good food - will be had by all.

While I was here, I accidentally discovered recycling bins and dropped off everything except glass.  Lucky.

Back on the road
I passed the town of Iota, which is apparently a lot bigger than its name.  It has a population of 1,500 and calls itself the Little Town with a Big ♥.

I saw several signs advertising the "StL Proud Coalition" which they say is "One Parish Pulling Together to Stop Underage Drinking."  The StL stands for St. Landry Parish, which I was still driving in.  This is apparently a big effort by quite a number of parish organizations and individuals which has specific goals to help reduce or stop kids not only from drinking but also from abusing prescription drugs.  Their effort sounds pretty impressive and is at this link, if you're interested.   http://stlproudcoalition.com/about-us

I entered Acadia Parish.  I'm starting to see some spring green on a few of the trees.

I passed a small family chicken farm, with hundreds of chickens pecking around in a fenced yard.

More rice fields.  Plenty of flat land.  This area is called prairie.

I passed a sign directing me to the Gravesite of Charlene Richard.  Having never heard of her, I wanted to know why there was an actual highway sign about her grave.  She was a local girl who died at age 12 in 1959 amid claims she can work miracles.  There's been a slow push to get her canonized both by local folks but also, surprisingly, by several members of the clergy.  There's some information at this Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Charlene-Richard

Lots of horses today.  And several colts - one of them started bouncing toward another like my dogs do when they want to play.  Very cute.

I've been seeing lots of thistles in Louisiana - big ones, some of them.

I'm including this online photo of a thistle just to show that's what I'm talking about, but some of those I've been seeing are much much larger than this.  Bigger, heavier looking plants with bigger flowers looking like they're weighing down the plants.  I sure wouldn't want to have to get one of those out of my garden.

Crowley
This seems to be a decent-sized old town that was founded on rice.  As I was coming into town I passed the Crowley Grain Dryer.  I don't think of rice as a grain, which is stupid of me because that's what this grain dryer dries.  It's apparently still a going concern, owned by Riceland, which says it's a member-owned company.

The town has its own historical marker.   https://www.hmdb.org  Speaking of historic signs, Crowley's street signs are bilingual.  Probably a nice place, though a little sleepy on a Sunday morning.

Back on the road
I passed a front yard with 3 black & white puppies, maybe 10 weeks old, wrestling with each other around the yard.  Very cute.  That's what my dogs still do.

A sign told me "Bienvenue Vermilion Parish," which claims to be "the most Cajun place on Earth!"  Not knowing any different, I'll let them have their exclamation mark.

State Route 13, that I was on, is in such bad shape along here I had to slow from 55 mph to below 35, just to keep from rattling to pieces.  Even the dogs were looking at me reproachfully.  Really.  I kept telling them it wasn't my fault.

Several times I saw a Belted Kingfisher sitting on a utility line overlooking a rice pond, and I don't think they eat rice.

Along here I started seeing big yellow flags waving in various places throughout the rice fields.  Couldn't tell what they meant but was sure they weren't there just to be festive.

I saw a boat plowing up a rice field, but not in the normal sense.  The field had been flooded, which is why a boat was needed, and the "plow" part was on the rear of the boat and seemed to act like a water wheel, though what was coming up was at least partly dirt.  Very odd-looking.

I drove through the small town of Gueydan and saw a sign: L'Église Méthodiste.  Well, I know that means Methodist church, and I was curious, but I can't seem to find anything online that looks like it's what I saw.  I saw a website for l'Église Méthodiste d' Haiti, but that turns out to be a church in the Caribbean.  Gueydan has a First United Methodist Church, but that's not what this sign seemed to be aiming at. 

I thought maybe the town was founded by, or heavily settled by, Haitians but that doesn't seem to be the case.  The founders were two brothers with the very French names of Jean-Pierre and Françoise Guédon, though they may have been 2nd generation because I can't tell where they lived before nearby Abbeville.  So the Methodist church is still a mystery.

I came into Cameron Parish.  Saw several young calves among the cows.

I passed the town of Klondike (seems out of place in southern Louisiana).

Then back into Vermillion Parish.  And on to Jeff Davis Parish.  I'm telling you, the state must spend a fortune signing these parish boundaries.

I entered the Lake Arthur corporation limits (there had been a Mardi Gras parade yesterday - I could tell by all the beads lying around) and found myself on a very high bridge.  No road signs, but the AAA map says it was the Bayou Queue de Tortue, which seems to translate to Turtle-tail Bayou, and which must be navigable to account for that very high bridge.

A sign said I'm now on the Flyway Byway, a name I'm guessing comes from this area being a birdwatcher's hotspot.

I passed the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge.  I crossed another big waterway, and this time I had to work to find out what its name is: Lacassine Bayou, of course.  Then I saw the turnoff for Lacassine Pool, which seemed a little weird to me - a swimming pool with its own highway sign?  But instead it's a popular fishing spot and a wintering spot for waterfowl; the Fish & Wildlife Service maintains a steady level of water in the pool to accommodate the birds.

Now I was in Calcasieu Parish, driving through a cypress swamp, then fields - some with cows, then rice fields.  Then I came to a very large green field with a large herd of cows, at least a few of which were longhorns.  I didn't expect to see longhorns here.

And on into Lake Charles.  I had to work to get Google to allow me to wander around a little in town, but I've only ever been on I-10 before and wanted to get an idea of what the town itself looked like.

I learned that Calcasieu Parish was originally created from part of St. Landry Parish (back over at Opelousas) and instantly became the largest parish in the state.  It was larger than Delaware or Rhode Island.  It was eventually divided into 5 parishes, but in its original form it was known as Imperial Calcasieu.  Which explains why the local museum I passed is called Imperial Calcasieu Museum.

Downtown Lake Charles, which faces (surprise!) Lake Charles, is old-fashioned and has a nice feeling to it.  Beautiful old houses along Broad Street.  Sometimes I really miss my Momma.

Heading north
I crossed the Calcasieu River on a combined bridge and elevated roadway, like for the Atchafalaya, which I take to mean there's an awful lot of wetlands along there.

I entered the small town of Moss Bluff, which looks like it's becoming a suburb of Lake Charles.  I saw the Moss Bluff Middle School, but then there was the Sam Houston High School just down the street.

I passed a van labeled Heaven On Earth Moving Services and thought that was quite a claim to make about the near-purgatory that constitutes moving one's residence.

I passed the Grab N Geaux Country Store and Smokehouse and should have stopped to see what they were smoking, but by then I was too tired.

Sam Houston Jones State Park
It was named both for Sam Houston - the Sam Houston, who they say traveled extensively in western LA - and Mr. Jones, who was governor at the time the state park was created.

I'd expected the campground to be at least half empty or more because of it being a Sunday evening, but instead found most spots taken.  And dogs.  Lots and lots of dogs.  I had trouble taking mine out for a walk because there were so many dogs.

I'd been intending to stay for two or more nights to work on my blog, but there was no way I'd find any peace with so many people and dogs in this small campground.  I'll have to be on my way in the morning.

Louisiana - Day 15

Chicot State Park
Saturday, 15 February 2020

Today, as my brother has reminded me, is my 2nd anniversary of being homeless.  Two years ago today I moved out of my mom's house and into the RV with 2 dogs and 2 cats and way too much stuff, and set about the very odd business of learning how to do with less.  Less space and so less stuff, because there's no room for more.  How to live in a place where things fall apart that I don't know how to fix, and no help just a phone call away. 

But I still don't regret it.  I've learned what I can do without and still feel comfortable.  I've seen things I've only read about and met some great people and learned a little about myself.  I wish I had a li-i-tle more room but otherwise am happy in my new home.

I spent the day in the campground, trying to find places for the dogs and me to walk where there weren't other dogs, figuring out where we might go next, and writing a few blog posts.  The one on the Whitney Plantation took a while to organize and clarify the photos and figure out what to bother posting about.  In fact, though I sometimes wonder where the day went, it all just takes time.

There's a Pileated Woodpecker somewhere in this park - in fact, at least 2.  I hear them hammering away at trees early in the morning.

I'm also starting to see lots of Blue Jays here, which I haven't seen very often before.  I know they can be a nuisance, but they're really pretty birds.

I saw that 5th wheel with the screened rear porch again.  This time I looked at it long enough to be able to look it up.  It's called a Titanium, a series now made by an Oregon company called Outdoors RV Manufacturing.  But those with the rear porch were available only about 10 or 15 years ago when Titanium was made by a company called Glendale, no longer in business.  I found this model described by someone as having a fiberglass rear cap, hinged at the top, that provided a roof over the deck, which had canvas/net side walls.  Glendale called it a Bug Room - not nearly as glamorous as it looked.  Because this room is attached at the rear, it's more likely to fit in a typical campground site - even with trees around - which can be a problem for slides and awnings on the side of an RV. 

In the other life I sometimes want where I don't have a dog that would ram himself through any barrier to get at a passing dog or deer or other critter, I'd love to have something like this.  In the life I actually have, I can enjoy seeing other people have that option.

These folks, by the way, were from Nova Scotia - Canada's Ocean Playground, according to their license plates.

It was very cold during the 2 nights we stayed at this campground and I was so very thankful I bothered to stop at Opelousas for propane.  I almost didn't because I thought the forecast was for warm nights and I still had a quarter tank left - but we'd have been awfully chilly if I'd done that.  Lucky.