Thursday, March 10, 2011

Pensacola to Shreveport



I had not originally planned to drive this far in one day (474 miles) but that's the beauty of not having too tight of a plan!

The day started like this:

In no time at all, though, I passed the "Welcome to Mississippi" sign, but it was not in a place where I could get a picture.

Two lessons learned today: Mississippi is not Lawrence's (*) strong suit; he misdirected me twice and tried for a third time but I wouldn't listen. Then he said "drive 200 miles" and proceeded to shut up for awhile. That was probably a good thing. The other thing about Mississippi .... when they cut their budget, they won't be taking any money away from roads. I know this because there's definitely not been any put into the road budget in, apparently, a very long long time!

I only spent about half the trip on Interstates; the rest was on US highways. Lawrence took us up Mississippi on US98 (I think I remember that right), and I must say it was beautiful! I definitely left "flat" behind! Very hilly (practice for the Rockies - kinda like bunny slopes for cars), and just gorgeous. Before getting to that section, though, I passed some of the most interesting places! Like something from American Pickers. I so wanted to stop and explore - and take pictures. But Shreveport was the target and I knew I was already in for a long day.

Crossing the Big Muddy is for some reason always meaningful to me. It's such a defining river, defining east from mid-west, and so full of history. I crossed on I20; the river is quite wide there and you can certainly see where it gets the Big Muddy name. The sign welcoming you to Louisiana - in both English and French - is placed in such a location that there was no way for me to stop to get a picture. Too bad - I would have liked to have had that one. Maybe on the way home .....

There are lots of casinos here in Shreveport. That caught me by surprise. I'm kind of near them, but way too tired after driving all day (literally) to go give them some of my money. I also saw a sign for Ralph and Kacoo's (a great Cajun restaurant). I ate at the one in New Orleans a number of years ago and they served the best hush puppies EVER... ANYWHERE.... period. In fact you could order boxes of 100 for take out, and there were plenty of people in that line! I wonder if they're still that good?

The weather today was sheer perfection. Beautiful blue skies with only the occasional puffy cloud, and cool. And in spite of Lawrence's attempts to misdirect me, TS (Trusty Steed) managed to get us all here to Shreveport safely, without TOO much time lost.

* Lawrence the Navi system
FTC - faithful traveling companion is now known as Leroy the Decoy


Just for fun: You don't see this every day!

(Truck carting a helicopter. Couldn't they just have flown it?)

Quilters: These are the pics that were in my Pensacola hotel room. Don't they look like lots of applique patterns we see?
Tomorrow will be a surprise!!!!!

3 comments:

  1. So fun travelling with you! Have fun tomorrow and buy Leroy some honey for the trip!

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  2. Glad you are having a great trip! I hope Lawrence behaves today. You might need to poke him with your seam ripper!

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  3. you are creating a great travel journal. Can't wait to read again tomorrow!

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