I'm going to dedicate this page to catching us all up. I could have gone back and inserted the awesome pictures I have into their appropriate pages, but the thought of that drudgery is indeed troubling. The only way to get started is to get started. You can only sweep the garage floor so many times. You can only check your email so many times, but this time was worth it. An old friend just quoted the Kinks in an off the wall (y) comment which was pretty awesome and troubling. All right, no more A&T, back to work.
I need to get the forgotten maps posted. I'm a mappy and I know that there are a few others out there. These are old. They go well with the motif here.
Green line is the railroad, orange line is US 90.
Somethings drive me crazy. I do all the leg work finding stuff
and then don't write down an itinerary or even enter way-
points into the GPS. I go back to the maps and realize I forgot
to check out my all imported points of interest, like the
location of the old train ferry. That's a 300 mile mistake.
I was there and blew it. The river bent to meet the road and me.
How easy would that have been? I will rationalize that the
spot was probably deep behind some high fence, accessible
only at night with the right Mission Impossible gear, which
I have used and am not afraid to use again.
Despite my short falls, fate has not given up on me and she does
supply. I found a road to the beginning of the rail ramp to the
Huey P.Long dual purpose bridge over the Mississippi River.
There was no NO TRESPASSING sign and I was completely
unmolested. That would have been enough. The kicker is that
there was a train in perfect position for a shot, stopped on the bridge.
I was shaking knowing something would foul up, the camera would
die, the train would move before I could set up, like at Schriever, something.
But, no. It stayed right in that place and posed.
What purpose this little building serves I can only guess.
Actually, I may have figured it out as a control for a yard which
is or was past the entrance to the bridge.
Or, possibly it serves no purpose now. No one came out
and yelled at me which is almost an expected occurrence.
I think I felt a void at its absence?
You can see the "keep out" sign's edge. At this point I
realized I was OK and not in jeopardy not having
passed some objectionable point. If it was the bridge keeper's
house, he surely must stand in high regard amongst fellow
bridge keepers.
The long gone ferry was at Avondale, the location of this.
I know you are all rushing to your dictionaries. Stop.
The core word is mode. All it means is that different ways
of transportation are used in the same journey, ie, trucks
and rails in this instance, possibly even water with the
river so close by, wouldn't you think.
OK, Premium Members, here come some repeats, but you
know that eventually I hand over the goodies to the general
public though they have done, and likely will not do anything
to deserve it.
Since Paradis is on this map I'll show you a little of what the
PMs got to see. Paradis is much more than it's US 90 face.
That face still has a few classic buildings which have served this
important highway for a long time so I'm not diminishing that
area. But, back streets and back roads are my gig.
I haven't an idea of what this building was. I do have an idea
of what the bike "was".
This is an old Episcopalian. My bet is it is very old, possibly
pre-Civil War. The lines are right. You must remember, this
is the Old Spanish Trail, or close to it. In Des Allemands the
actual location is noted. I can only say that there is so little
dry land at that point, the exact position of the old road can't
be far off.
Moving west along the railroad road, you come to this
gorgeous spot.
Across the rails was this one.
I'll have to close now as I am getting a bit sleepy. At
this point my writing and organization becomes a little
disjointed. And you say, "You must be sleepy all the time".
Point taken.
Whoa hoss. I forgot to download my GPS tracks, you'll
find them awesome, if not troubling. Here's a look.
You can click it and it does get bigger.
"Yard 1" refers to the west entrance to the Intermodal Facility.
"HPL" is the Huey P. Long Bridge.
"Train on HPL" is where I shot the train on the HPL.
Notice, it's a long way from the water. The rail bridge is
4.5 miles long with a 1.5% grade. The top is flat unlike
most bridges that arc. Now you know and most don't.
Below: Heading west. I had taken the river road back as
US 90 was making me crazy. Finally I figured I had escaped
the worst of it and rejoined the 4 lane. My ride in would
be next to the rails. The ride back would be on the big
road, down and dirty and not near as fun.
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