HISTORY HUNTS WAREHOUSE: Long Way Down and Around

I saw that it was the 8th of May. I clicked that the new Amtrak/Sunset Limited schedule would now be in force. I checked it. This would be cool. It would cross the Calcasieu River at Lake Charles, a place I know intimately, at 3:29, Central Daylight Time. I could take the required location shots and race the train east to Lafayette. The mid afternoon timing would be perfect for me to leave at noon.

I assembled the bike. Food, water, enough tools to rebuild anything, camera, phone, scanner radio, and folding chair to enjoy any event at my leisure. At about 12:oo, I roared off toward Lafayette to pick up a train to race west to Lake Charles. Racing trains makes the miles go by quickly and keeps you sharp especially while playing Black Sabbeth and all of Ozzie's hits at high volume. {yes, there is an interrupt if the scanner beeps in}

Before Lafayette the scanner did beep in. Mr. Wilson was talking to the Sunset which was at the station in Lafayette, on time for Tuesday, not for Wednesday. You can guess what day it was better than I did.

Totally deflated, packing enough stuff to cross Siberia, I decided to meet the Amtrak at Cade as it would be a race there, a little excitement to smooth over my depression couldn't hurt.

On the Lake Martin road, I passed these houses and thought about their origin, having been built by USL hippie art students in the late 70's. I kid you not, a young fella was standing by his mailbox on the highway with no shoes and playing an acoustic guitar. I did a double take and sure enough he was there. I still think I time warped. I almost went back to coach him about his future. Was he the center of the Cypress Island Occupy Wall St. Movement? Dude, like the Coasters said, "Get a Job". ... Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip Mum mum mum mum mum mum ..... Get a job!!

Back to the passenger train. A west bound freight would be stopping her until it got out of the way. We might have a rendezvous at Cade.

I, obviously, took the long way to Cade and arrived just in time to see the freight slithering north. No Sunset was in sight. My throttle hand relaxed as I went into Neutral. Horns and jeering echoed behind me, but I didn't care. Noting was at New Iberia. I decided to head on down to Avery Island.

There were strings of grain cars parked on the old Avery Island route. That fueled my resolve to carry onto Abbeville by way of Lee Station. The road between Lee Station and Delcambre is called Railroad Road. Sadly, it has become very littered legitimizing the feelings of some that it takes a hurricane to clean up La.

I didn't go all the way to Avery Island, but the beauty of that stretch has interested me in doing some swamp scenes later.

At Abbeville I went to my favorite cemetery, ate a few granola bars, drank some hot ice tea and talked to few of the residents, Enid and Oscar. He was as grumpy as usual and she wouldn't shut up, possibly the cause of Oscar's mood.

Something was different. The rails to the old hopper filling station were gone, but the filler mechanism had been covered. Were they preparing it for trucks?

I considered going west and made it almost to Kaplan before shooting straight north on La.343, a mind numbing road that brought me to Duson where I'd head to the Lafayette Yard. Ok, maybe the "numbing" occurrence wasn't the road's fault. "Attitude" and "Ozzie" may have contributed and may even be against the law.

A huge assemblage of black clouds to the west was the main factor in not extending the ride toward them. They were moving east, at me, at a clip.

I got to Breaux Bridge and look what was in town. The gathering black clouds would be great for some picture taking.

The engine is sitting on top of the historic SP cross tracks on the Baton Rouge/ Basin route.Across its front is the Cade to Port Barre route. {see the switch and extended gravel to the left}

I remembered this pretty pond back to the west on Brick St. My old software still labels the junction but doesn't show the pond.

The following might be considered over the top, pause, nevertheless, I like the shots so I'm posting them.

The mosquitoes were nipping.

I was playing with the brightness to see if I could get the reflection to stand out better.

The roots were cool, also.

I call them "Elephant Ears", but, I know they are not that plant. These plants line Bayou Lafourche on the other side of the Basin as if planted by some lawn service.