Some things…

Posted on by July 19, 2014

Never change…

Others… Well…

And you ‘can’ go home again, you just may not want to.  One of the bright spots of the trip this far is four lane roads in Louisiana and East Texas… Woo hoo!!! 🙂

Having grown up driving those narrow 2 lane roads in central and northern Louisiana, dodging s**t falling off pulpwood trucks, and praying they didn’t run over me, it was really nice, especially in the rain! 🙂

Bonus points if you recognize this bridge…IMG_1748

I will tell you this IS the scariest bridge I ever went across…

Why you ask???  Well, it’s a steel suspension bridge.  It ‘also’ has a railroad track on it, in addition to two VERY narrow lanes (e.g. 18 wheelers routinely used to smash each other’s mirrors).

And it frikkin BOUNCED when a train went across it.  I got caught meeting a train on that bridge, and I swore it was going to collapse!!!

And that was in the early 70’s…  And now the hair on the back of my neck is standing up…

And you can go home and get totally @#$%#@ lost… sigh…

I really didn’t remember (or even know) they’d re-routed the roads so I took what ‘was’ the right streets (40 years ago), only to end up at a dead end… I could see where I wanted to go, I just had NO idea how to get there… dammit…

And it’s truly sad when ‘iconic’ restaurants close.  For probably 60+ years, Sproul’s Fish Camp was one of those, just north of the Louisiana line in Arkansas. You had to drive down a dirt road then across a field to get there; it sat on the banks of the Sulfur River and served melt in your mouth good Catfish, hush puppies and they did a helluva good job with pickled green tomatoes.  And the pies… sigh…

And then there’s this one…

This 57 Chevy has sat in the same spot since 1973…

IMG_1757Many years ago this was a little country store, and from what I understand, that four door Belair was the wife of the owner’s car. She had a problem with the clutch going out, and the car sat in front of the store.  The husband was supposedly going to get it fixed, but he never did. I ‘think’ the store got closed when he died some time in the late 80’s, but the car never got fixed…

I tried to buy the car in the late 70s and again in the early 80s… Back then it was a complete car, a pretty blue color, with a white top and the one little dent in the left rear fender.

IMG_1755In the intervening years, parts have been stolen including the wheels (they were the nice painted ones with the Chevy baby moon hubcaps), the front bumper, the Chevy V off the hood, some trim pieces and the headlights.

IMG_1756I stopped again on this trip when I saw an old man out there mowing, but he said he will never sell the car.  He did let me take pictures, and it’s truly sad… The interior is really not bad for 41 years sitting out in the sun…

Comments

Some things… — 15 Comments

  2. Ed- I’ve been to the Pelican too, liked Sproul’s better… 🙂 I too am amazed that whole car hasn’t been stolen.

  3. Of course you noticed on that nice new bridge that only one lane was open in each direct, right? 😉 BTW, the bridge that scared me the most was US 301 over the Potomac in Washington, D.C.

  5. Bill’s Boatel on the Tennessee River just downstream from Pickwick Dam was like that. “Farm raised” catfish instead of locally caught was the downfall of the dope that bought the old barge turned motel/restaurant in later years. It’s still a couple of miles down a dirt road – 1st left aftrr crossing the dam going north – but not worth the dust kicked up.

  7. Looks much like southern MO where I grew up: good country, poor dirt in places, and mostly good people.

    That old Chevy would have been a real bargain before it rusted away. 🙂

  8. In re: scariest bridge. EVERY bridge in these United States scares the Hell outta me these days, especially after the Minneapolis collapse. It’s just a matter of time for most of our bridges, given the lack of attention to infrastructure.

    And that Chevy? How sad.

  10. Ed- The family in Shreveport liked the Pelican… They didn’t want to drive the extra half hour. LOL

    Robert- Yeah, they’re already having to ‘fix’ it…

    Mrs.C- Yep, and you could RECOGNIZE them… sigh

    Ed- Agreed, there IS a different taste to farm raised (I like river caught)

    WSF- 🙂

    Rev- Vicksburg, MS… And that car is STILL worth a bunch!

    Buck- You DO have a point… dammit…

    Robert- Vicksburg, Mississippi bridge. I don’t think I’d have the balls to try that one in an 18 wheeler… shudder…

    • Mike- That it is… I hate to think how many times I drove across that thing over the years… sigh