Trip to New Orleans

Trip to New Orleans

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On January 12, 2002 I mostly packed my car. It is odd, but it was so nice to be able to spread my stuff out at Mike's and then it was nice to be able to get all my stuff back together again. Of course there is slightly less of it (one of my goals) and it is better organized this time around (looks about the same). I left 9:15AM on January 13 headed on US 80 East. It was mostly cattle then pine (scrub, not planted) until Longview, TX where there were several oil wells. Also, downtown Longiview looked like a standard rural Texas town to me. Here is their library.
There were still a lot of oil wells around Shreveport, Louisiana, but the farms had more cattle (and hay prepared as winter feed). There I switched to Louisiana Rt 1 South.
As I went further South, it got wetter. Here is marsh next to a pasture and then a rice field. It may look like like a lake, but the water is only a few inches deep (as I could tell by the stalks sticking up). It got dark when I was passing through Morganza, LA. So, I pulled into the parking lot of the Porte Coupers Communications Center. They had a big lot and only one end was lit. However, even so I was noticed and a police officer knocked on my window at 2:20AM.
He didn't even check my idea (I offered it immediately, but he had already checked my registration from my tags before he woke me) and was quite friendly. He said he just wanted to make sure I was OK. As I was taking this picture of the center, the security officer came out and I found out this was a 911 kind of communications center (which explained a lot). Further South I passed the Kaiser Gramercy Works (aluminum processing I presume) with lots of electric power and refineries.
As I went further South, there were more regular swamps/canals even as the highways and interchanges got bigger.