One More Run on the OG Page 1

Noon was upon me and I knew that Friday and the weekend would be rainy. It was the first day of October and our Fall weather pattern was beginning. No matter what kind of weather you want during this period, we have it. If it's nasty, we either deal with it or wait a day for perfection. The only factor the weather would play in Thursday's ride was a fine backdrop for the outing. The recent cool front was being washed out by a light southerly breeze. The sky was blue, the warm Sun allowing for another Walmart t-shirt clad adventure.

Perfection.




I stopped by Al's to see if he wanted to come but he
was in the middle of a home schooling session with his
son Alonzo. It was obviously not going well.

I left knowing Al's pain. When the green rimmed sun
glasses start appearing, it means trouble.

Clearing my head of his problems, I zoomed off to
the land on railroad mysteries, Opelousas.

My wife has recently taken to reading my ride reports.
Why the sudden interest? With my new reader came
her opinion. She does not stab with a powerful thrust
but hesitantly twists the blade with a halting push. She
starts a statement and then backs off and makes me beg
to know her cruel and cutting observation of my offerings.
Then, graveling at her feet, she lets it go, "I lose it trying
to get through all that railroad stuff. That's probably why
no one reads your website anymore. And who can relate
to a thousand pictures of overgrown fields, bumps
in a pasture and shots of rusting rails stuck in cement in
some industrial wasteland or inner city street?
No one relates to that".

As usual, she's probably right. Wanting to keep every
reader, including even her, I'll try to do better and not
share my emotional moments of discovery with you, my
fleeing and fleeting readership.

This is a vacant lot on Convent Street, once Onnibane's
Grocery. Convent Street is without a doubt the route of
the OG through Opelousas.

Is that better dear? I was thinking of you while I took it.
In the foreground is Convent Street. The cracks in the
concrete run laterally with the street. I feel the cement
was laid over the rails as patches. Convent was the OG.



I didn't get a shot down Convent, I know that is troubling.
I rode around to Railroad Ave. and entered Louana's
parking lot and went to the place the GPS pointed to
where Convent would have continued if it had not
stopped. A new link in the mystery chain had been solved,
at least in my mind. From that point to where the OG's
route crossed the Southern Pacific's and the Missouri
Pacific's Rails is still an unknown, but I think I have an idea.
What three great minds have deduced is this, the rails ran
on Convent Street and crossed the small bayou at its dead
end and continued, skirting or running through where LouAna
Foods now sits.

Looking through the trees at the end of Convent Street
from the Railroad St. side.



Here's a map:



You can see W.Convent at the top of the red "Y".
That's the OG. I think it came down and and joined the
loop under Louana Foods which was built by the T&P
as an exchange to its Ville Platte route that went to the
west side of the "Y". My configuration also allows for
a connection between the the Melville Route, Convent
Street, and the Church Point route, the bottom of the
"Y". Looking closely at the Google Earth view, bare
or lighter coloring seems to support that thesis. There
even seems to be a cut in the back of the power station
to facilitate its passage. (that may be imagined)

That's it for the page. My dog's hungry, I'm hungry and
even this page is boring me. We move out into the country
on the next page. There will be country scenes, a great
riding route, old homes, pretty roads and one or two
ditches with rotting railroad ties to enjoy.

Click Here to go to the next page.