HISTORY HUNTS WAREHOUSE: Lost in the False River Triangle

I'd felt myself slipping into a coma.

Though I had thrown up and was feeling very weak, I had to take a ride and not to New Iberia.

I needed to do a loop because I knew once I got tired I should be getting near home.

So, a loop it was. I'd take in several favorite stretches of track and what I knew was pretty country.

When you get into Pointe Coupee it's like being in a rural New Orleans.

Missed chances. I could have been a great gravesite painter.

It was cold. The remainders of last night's snow lingered on the fields.

My wife just left to see the cherry blossoms in Washington DC.

It's now and will be snowing there.

She could have seen snow here.

Al wasn't home.

His horses were.

Other houses in the neighborhood were vacant.

Nearing Palmetto, I had to stop. Spring is just springing here.

To stay with the horse theme, a big one showed up.

Mark, I found the combo with the camera for fast shots.

Remind me to tell you.

This is a pretty good shot.

I nailed this one too. The train has just exited the unprotected Basin.

Bayou Rouge, an early fascination.

Steamboats traveled from the Atchafalaya to Cottonport to pick up what commodity?

Did you said "pineapple"?.

There are places I've monitored for 14 years. This is one of them on the Bayou Current Rd. which is brand new blacktop and over too fast. Notice that only the front is painted.
"Put your best face forward"?

This is a first for the house's shed. I'm glad I caught it in time.

La.105 is a trip, one I've taken over and over.

I got down off the bike and walked around. I was stiffening up and needed to shake it loose a little.

This park is one of Louisiana's hidden treasures. It isn't used except as a boat launch.

Edenborne's rail bridge is in perfect view. Picnic, watch trains, picnic, watch trains. Bring the lawn chairs kick back, barbeque, drink beer and watch trains.

Maybe take some pictures.

Some people say it's spring when the pecan trees blossom.

I say it's spring when the crawfish bag trees flower.

We once had a boudin tree. If you didn't pick it every day it stunk so bad you had to hold your nose.

Anyone for a dip? Back in 1971 a bunch of young people went skinny dipping in this river. Some died.

That is the old Simmesport Landing. I'm not kidding. That is the way the town's fishermen launched.
The packing house is just up the road from there. Fishing was this town's life blood.

Fish on ice left by train.

This is the new barely used landing. Chi Ching. You just bought a landing.

The very dirty filthy grimy misused piece of loving machinery. I need to be ..... .......

I rode over to the all too familiar rail bridge and went east under the rail overpass.

I shot back south at the bridge.

Heading south or east I took a picture of this trestle I'd never seen before.

The land has been cleared making that possible.

You always see something new in the next picture.

This is the exception.

I love the new Easter Purple railroad No Trespassing signs. {Ennis, La.}

I shot the box to get the mile post number off of it.

Someone had painted it out.

Where is "Keller, La"?

Oh, I was in Keller, not Innis.

The Keller Trestle needed shooting.

The close up, for a change, was better.

South

Zooming south.

North

Zooming north. You see the passing track that is on the Keller map?

You rolled the page up, didn't you. Ha. I know people.

Now can you see it?

"I got that green light babe, I got to keep movin' on",

from JJ Cale's "The Breeze".

For some reason that song appeals to me.

At Lettsworth I spied a little shotgun I'd never seen. It is right next to the old store where Buddy Guy strummed his guitar until a man in a long black Cadillac pulled up and told him to hop on in and that he was going make him a star.

Or was that Bo Diddly?

Oooooooh oh oh Bo Diddly.

I felt like if I stopped taking its picture it would fall down and be no more.

I keep saying it won't be long.

I'll soon be right.

Looking south.

Zooming into the electric mist.

Zooming north toward Dead Man's Curve where the troop train collided with a freight and it was awful.

That is the original La.1 crossing down there. It now goes to a barn.

OK OK

Did you see the side door? There was a spur there, wasn't there!!

And that is where the depot was.

Those are discarded cement ties that didn't work.

I was told that the old Lettsworth Depot had been moved down this road. There were some nice places but I did not see the depot which I'm still steamed about.

A little more Spring and these places will disappear.

This church sits on the original La.1 through Lettsworth.

Across the field.

Down the tracks.

This may have been Innis.

Yep

This is where La.418 ends. 418 is a wonderful road that follows the Mississippi levee back to Simmesport.

An old Sinclair Station?

Old.

Bachelor, La.

The Morganza Spillway

Dropping into Morganza.La.

I'm going to say this is where a work car was kept. That is a wild guess.

If so it is a railroading relic of the past.

This was a farmer's market north of New Roads.

I do believe that is a industrial size pecan cracking machine.

This is the feed store north of New Roads. It's fixed up and looking newish but it isn't. Feed stores were often serviced by the railroads. Not only feed was delivered. Salt was a necessity and much more. My Oklahoma uncle owned a feed store and he was given a free week's stay at Jefferson Island ( near New Iberia) (big house and salt mine) as a prize for selling the most salt.
I visited his family there. I should have taken some pictures.

Pecan trees are across the highway and rails.

Now the pecan cracker guess probably works.

Looking for stuff in New Roads is getting to be wasted time.

It's all going away. This is where the depot was.

There was also, not long ago, a freight platform.

Gone.

What I think was a warehouse sat across the street.

Another Railroad Ave. historic building is being torn down.

Someone had tried to insulate it but couldn't from destruction.

"You can't insulate against a cold heart". I just copyrighted that so don't try stealing it.

I'm going to Nashville and pen some songs.

Oh well. Maybe not.

The warehouse doesn't have long.

This is the enhanced writing. Looks like "YORBER'S BAR" and some gang crap.

Jeopardy? I'll take an "A".

An old store sat nearby.

I say it was a cleaners but I didn't see any fans.

The store's shed.

The other depot.

You can't imagine the number of blues songs mixing death and depots.

Some trains take you "up", some don't.

Then I got lost south of New Roads in the False River Triangle where you go round and round and can't get out even with "navigation tools". Still it was interesting.
Lost is always "interesting".