Jimbaux hears records in his head everywhere that he goes He’s got records in my head spinnin' out of control They go round and round and again Round and round and again.
Old New Places
I had to go to Baton Rouge today. I got some pictures.
My first pictures were in Lafayette, where I stopped to view and photographed cars parked on the Elks siding.
Okay, that, a cell-phone snap, is ever-so-mildly interesting. Here is a DSLR shot of the same cut, seen from the other direction.
I made a very brief stop at Southpark.
LDRR 1703 and 1847 were there at Southpark at 09:45; a Louisiana & Delta Railroad mechanical crew, too, appeared to be there.
I was listening to this talk show with James Carville and Gary Chambers as I drive to Baton Rouge.
The new Weezer song “Records” played on the radio at 10:15 CST as I approached and then passed the Cecilia exit. It makes me feel both old and young that Weezer is putting out new, good music.
I stopped at that rest area just before – just west of – the Atchafalaya Basin, because I had to pee really badly.
And you don’t want to get stuck on the long basin bridge if there is a problem there when you have to do some digestive discharging.
It’s a damn shame that they make us do that.
There is also a note on this map about the Southern Pacific railroad branch that got washed away in the Great Flood Of 1927.
We should have rebuilt it. There should be a railroad there now, with passenger trains – commuter trains – and freight trains.
Anyway, I talked there to a visitor from Grand Junction, Colorado, who informed me that there was a neat four-minute video in the visitor center.
I told her that the fact that I lived nearby is part of why I wasn’t interested enough in it to check it out, but that I might do so some other time, and I thanked her.
We talked for a little while about the area and about her connection to it, that her father was from Macon Mississippi.
Anyway, I caught a traffic jam on I-10 as I approached Louisiana Highway 1, and then I came north on Highway 1 through Port Allen and used the old bridge, then came on I-110 all the way to the Raising Cane’s on Sherwood Forest Boulevard without any stops, because I was too late to do any foaming in town before the study session that is the reason for this trip.
The fact that I had no time to do foaming before this meeting is fine, because I’m probably not meeting anybody after the meeting, and, as such, I can get straight to the track, without any worry that I have to break off to go and do something else; I can hang out here until dark.
There is a Podnuh’s Bar-B-Que catacorner from here. It makes me think about Richard Condon, whom I now understand to be terrible.
I am thinking about how this was the first big urban area, or, at least, the first urban area bigger than Houma that I got to know relatively well, before I got to know New Orleans well, before I moved to New Orleans.
Okay, a while later, and, holy crap, that was a weird experience at the study session. I was there for only about 45 minutes, but I have a much better idea of what I need to do now.
But it was weird.
After getting out of there, I immediately went northward on Sherwood Forrest Boulevard until I got to Choctaw Drive, where the Canadian National Railway Hammond Subdivision is.
There was this old Wisconsin Central car here all by itself on a siding.
I heard “Man On The Silver Mountain” on the radio here, and I proceeded eastward.
At Denham Springs, I saw this.
What in the hell is wrong with people?
I kept going to Walker.
These two images are cell-phone snaps at Corbin siding.
Next, here is the beginning of the Weyerhauser spur at Holden.
Next, I am in Albany.
I ended up spending a decent amount of time here.
I also ended up getting a fair amount of pictures here.
Of particular interest to me were these CN maintenance hopper cars.
However, not being sentient beings, the hopper cars were not interested in me.
Across the road, however, something was interested in me.
Well, this is an interesting surprise!
It was a treat.
Come see, horsey.
Well, the horse wanted to be pet.
I can imagine that it is lacking in attention.
I wonder if the horse will tell its pals about me.
Okay, let me get a few more shots of the hopper cars.
Okay, that’s neat.
Okay, I am done here.
Wait, what’s this?
Well, it’s another horse.
This one didn’t seem to want pets, though.
That’s okay.
Here are some views from Pea Ridge Road.
That’s an eastward view back at the cars that we just saw from the side.
So, this is where I turned around.
I gave up on the Hammond Sub at North Baptist Road at milepost 39.29 at 15:05 CST. The map calls this village “Baptist”.
On my way back west, I saw an old Illinois Central Railroad car at Walker Industrial Park.
Daylight Saving Time starts this weekend.
That’s mildly interesting.
At 13:35, I spotted a headlight to the West.
I ended up getting a lousy broadside shot of just the front locomotive of the train crossing Corbin Avenue in Walker.
What makes it worse is that annoying yellow reflective tape that just totally destroys the CN paint scheme. I wish that CN would use white reflective locomotive tape like a few other Class I railroads do.
I didn’t really feel like going chase the train back eastward. It seemed dangerous. It seemed like the best-possible results from doing it would not be worth the trouble. The shot that I did have in mind due to having scoped out the area earlier in this day was lousy.
The train, too, was lousy, because the lead locomotive is a CN GE, the second locomotive is a BNSF Railway locomotive in the Heritage 3 paint scheme, and right behind the power was a bunch of auto racks. I imagined that I would have been unable to have beat the train to the shot that I had in mind.
I got back to Baton Rouge and checked out a neat place that I had never visited or even known existed before.
Northwest of the Kansas City Southern Railway yard is this set of light-industry tracks that probably were busy before boxcar use declined but seem to be used just for car storage today.
I can imagine plenty of old boxcars serving old industries here decades ago!
I also try to imagine how we could bring back such business.
Yes, there are better uses of my time and talent.
Okay, that was interesting.
It was now time for something completely different.
I had a great walk around the park on the eastern side of the capitol building.
It is a great place, and I would like to visit it again.
What I feel that I should be doing now with my life involves this place.
I am thinking about certain individuals, most of whom I have never met, when I walk around here.
I want to get involved.
I am too autistic and too weird for other people, however.
There is one guy in the whole group whom I find quite annoying.
Okay, I really don’t like what I am seeing here.
A pro fascist is being honored here at the State Capitol grounds.
I had respected those people in my youth, but they support Trumpism, horrifying me.
But I get pathologized.
I did a little bit of climbing here.
I am at the marker for the Battle Of Baton Rouge.
This is Capitol Lake.
It’s iconic.
I really like this place!
Plenty of very atrocious things happen very near here, though.
So, it’s quite a contrast.
I guess that I’ll go and walk by the Governor’s Mansion.
Maybe John Bel Edwards will see me walking out here.
Maybe he will come and talk to me.
Maybe I will be able to tell him about my big ideas.
Maybe I am delusional.
I am walking back west.
I am walking back to my truck, meaning that this nice little experience is about to end.
I am trying to do too many things.
So, I end up accomplishing very little.
Such is the story of my life.
I feel so isolated.
It’s not that I am on a “wrong planet”, because saying that it’s a “wrong planet” implies that there could possibly be a right planet.
Okay, now what?
I leave the Capitol area and head north.
At 17:36, I was in the drive-thru at the Jack in the box on Chippewa Street near the Capitol building.
There are gassy smells coming from the refinery. I guess that that’s normal and accepted.
That’s all for my time in Baton Rouge. I crossed the river to head back west.
I had a strange drive-through some highways through some obscure areas west of Lobdell until I got to the Atchafalaya Basin on I-10. I took Highway 76 until Highway 3000, then a short let on Highway 3000 to get to I-10. It was a very interesting drive, but there were parts of Highway 76 that were dangerously close to large pools of water very much deep enough to cause a person in them to drown.
At 18:58, I arrived at the Whataburger on University Avenue in Lafayette, and I was pleased to see that the Buffalo Ranch chicken strip sandwich is back!
I arrived it back at the house at 19:47, Tired and in need of a shower. This has been a good day, even though, in some ways, it doesn’t feel like it.
That’s all.
Jim
