Grandpaw's Picture Album

 Grandpaw's been gone for a few years now and we are still cleaning out his junk.

My wife, being the inquisitive one, opened this box of old photos.

Attached to the dry rotted, rubber banned stack of pictures was a yellowed piece

of paper with an explanation.  It was  him

talking to himself, a practice he did verbally most of the time.

It went something like this.

Well it's Saturday night, isn't it. Yipee.

Ain't done nothing all day but look after dogs and do a few domestic trivials. 

If it hadn't been for that radio Mark gave me, the whole day would have gone bust.

But it didn't.

I'd been monitoring the radio from about 2:30 on. I heard about a broke down train

somewhere around Bayou Sale. I had envisioned a smoking engine and possible flames.

I'd considered running down there but my energy level was low and it's a  heck of a ways

in the heat of mid afternoon.

At about 6:30, I heard the dispatcher fusing about how long the Norfolk Southern

train was taking getting off the mainline. It had been 2  hours and he hadn't 

gotten to New Iberia.

I started spinning out of control because I had to check it out.

I planned this part of the search perfectly and found her creeping along at Elks or

"South Lafayette", out by the airport.

 There was no smoke.  A car had some fault and they were being tender with it.

I heard on the scanner that L&D was waiting for the cripple to come into the yard.

I wasn't doing anything so I'd race the slowpoke  over there. At  that point he 

picked up speed and beat me in. You can't beat a train going north through Lafayette.

Going south you might.

 Two orange L&D tugs and Ms Allegheny were going to pull this long train back to Elks or 

New Iberia.  I'd chase them. Traffic was down and it could be done.

They were crawling toward the switch and would leave as soon as  the last car cleared.

 They knew they had competition and pulled the outside wheels off the rails in the 

southbound turn.  Visions of that railroad flick with Denzel in it came to mind.

By the way, my daughter saw him in New Orleans in a restaurant. He was

with some other actor. Yes, she got a picture of  herself with the  other guy.

Denzel saw her coming and had fled.

Those tracks in the foreground are the interchange rails with the historic Alexandria 

Branch of the Southern Pacific. L&D refuels down there on occasion.

 Down the Evangeline Thruway we flew.

 I beat them to Elks where they had business, but not for long. The crew's time was running out.

 They broke the train up and did their thing.

 I ran down to Lady of the Lake and came back toward Broussard  believing that was the

end of this one.

Here they came. I somehow got off a shot while at full speed.

With one hand I got the lens cover off and the camera turned on and blindly aimed.

It was getting toward 7:45.

 I took the Terrace Rd. on  home.

 I stopped on the backside of St. John Sugar Refinery.

 Crossing  Bayou Teche, I stopped on the bridge and took a shot south toward the old

rail bridge that was built in 1895, the year the Cade to Port Barre Branch was opened.

 Zooming on down the bayou, there's the bridge turned with the water.

We crossed it many times. (when it was turned across the water). 

The rails could still be seen in the blacktop.

 Being nostalgic, I stopped in Parks and shot the old drawbridge.

Before the fenced subdivision was put in, you could take a good picture of it from the
south side of this road.

Not any more.

That oak to the left was such a pretty addition to the bridge from that direction.

 I tried to get a shot of the old  house.  It turned out a blur which is how most people  see it.
It is a classic Acadian farmhouse. Falling down is all that is left for it.

 Spirit, the 3 tailed dog, and Penelope, the princess, played in the back yard.

I'm going to bed.

Grandpaw was a weird old fella. 

My wife has just brought me 20 more boxes of what looks like the

the same story over and over with little variation.

Now we know what he was doing on that old motorcycle.
We're still trying to figure out where he went.
He's probably wondering, too.