Jimbaux wishes that he could fly
Into the sky
So very high
Just like a dragonfly.
Death And New Adventures
Today, I visited places that I have never before visited, took pictures in some of those places, and broke a bad streak. I’m in Texas!
I want to talk about the last few days, though, since several weeks have passed since my last posts here.
Recently . . .
Three days ago, on the 11th, I did my first day of 10-hour fasting.
The next day, I stretched my legs in the morning, motivated by difficulty in hurdling, something that I can’t do well anymore but also something that I had not tried in years. I only recently resumed doing running spurts, and, because I am running, I am inclined to hurdle over a pile of tree branches, but I find myself very trepidatious about it. I guess that I am too old for that.
I learned some lessons from the complaints from immunocompromised people and people with dietary restrictions, people with other disabilities, and it has helped me to understand my own struggles in society – and why it’s not at all my fault.
The Reason For This Outing
So, yesterday, while I was at the oil-change place getting the oil and filters in the truck changed and the tires rotated, I learned that Uncle Harold died. I had known that he was ill and possibly near death. I learned of the death because someone physically near him texted me a link to the death notice. Ue Ue had been trying to reach both the ‘rents and me, and the ‘rents weren’t answering their telephones.
This was both a problem and an opportunity, and it was much more the latter. Yes, it was a sad occasion, but it was also a great opportunity to address the terrible cabin fever that I have been having.
The Preparations, Including The Coincidences, Prior To Day
As it eventuated, this was a well-timed oil-and-filter change and tire rotation, because this death in the family meant a trip to Texas.
Truckwise, the only problem is that there is a nail or screw in one of the tires that has been causing leaks lately, and those tires are expensive; the tires on there have been there for only four years.
Prices at the tire place have gone up, but prices in general have gone up. It’s been a year-and-a-half since I got the oil change and tire rotation. There were two filters that were bad. The guys there were really nice and gave me good service, but I miss the location in Metairie. I miss the guys there, I miss going there, and I miss going to the CC’s and the Applebee’s restaurant next door.
After the oil-filter change, I went to Kohl’s. I didn’t realize how extensive the place is. I went there to get shoes, specifically, dress shoes, but that took on new urgency with the fact that I am going to a funeral tomorrow. So, I got a new pair of shoes. Otherwise, I may have shopped but waited to purchase.
I bought the second of three pairs that I tried on. I almost bought a pair of “high top” dress shoes, but it was too uncomfortable, because it wasn’t cushioned like a high-top athletic shoe is.
There was nobody there to help you try on shoes. This became weird when I had made my purchase choice and was leaving the area to go to the register and didn’t know what to do with the shoes that I had tried on and wasn’t purchasing. I think that I put them back on the shelf where I thought that they belonged, but without stuffing them right.
When I was about to leave that area, there were two people who appeared to be managers who walked on by me but never asked if I needed help. There was then a cleaning person pass by, and this person appeared to work for a contracting cleaning service. Such is the way that contemporary business works, I guess.
Then, I went to DeanO’s to meet Jenny. I had a good meeting with her. I left at around 16:00 from, stuffed with pizza, and I ate only one or two bananas, some almonds, and some blueberries before going to bed. So, I figured that I might be giving myself permission to break fast today a little earlier than 10 hours after I wake up, and I woke up at 04:00.
Preparations Today
So, today, I delayed the start of my morning walk due to the need to pack and problems due to discovering that my desktop computer is not working; maybe I knocked something loose when I knocked it on its side when I was cleaning a few days before.
As a precaution, I downloaded to my laptop computer or external drives via laptop computer my most recent cell-phone pictures, cell-phone screenshots, tablet-computer pictures, tablet-computer screenshots.
I was invited to stay the night at the home of a relative in Texas.
Despite the sadness of the occasion, I was very happy about this opportunity to drive to Texas and spend the night there, because it has been more than two years now, since May of 2021, that I have spent a night somewhere other than the homestead or the nearby temporary place, and that was also the last time that I left Louisiana.
Probably more relevantly, this is the first time in more than a decade that I spend a night outside of Louisiana. Yes, someone like me who used to travel outside of Louisiana quite frequently, several times per – and, often, spread throughout – a year has not, until tonight, spent a night outside of Louisiana.
You can see how much I needed this.
I have terrible cabin fever, and the plan was to take a long way to the metro Houston area via places that I’ve never been.
I realized during my walk that I hadn’t packed regular athletic shorts. It’s been so long since I had to pack for overnight trips.
The Trip
After packing the shorts, I finally left the house at 10:06.
The plan was to cross the Louisiana-Texas border on US Highway 190, which is the southernmost crossing of the border – the Sabine River – north of the State Highway 12 Deweyville-Starks crossing. This would be the first time that I cross the Louisiana-Texas border anywhere between Highway 12 and Interstate Highway 20, a stretch that comprises most of the Texas-Louisiana border.
I thought about going into Crowley, but I nixed the idea because it would have been very unlikely for me to get a good shot in a short amount of time and illogical to try to do that when I’m going on such a long trip.
North of Jennings, I pulled over and got out of the truck to take a leak after passing place with Confederate Battle flags. I guess that that is where we are now.
The Duke and I took this highway, the part of it south of Elton, on 5 August 2019, but, prior to today, the only time that I would have been on Highway 26 north of Elton was nearly 20 years ago when I went to Leesville in the darkness and returned in darkness a few days later.
I saw two “F*ck Biden” signs before I got out of Jennings.
I was trying to arrange to meet with TS in greater Houston, but he told me that he could not meet. With such a short notice, that is no surprise.
There is a certain clan of people who could be at tomorrow’s services whom I do not want to see. The only one of them that I’d somewhat like to see is the one who is least likely to be there.
My concentration was starting to get iffy on that ride to Oberlin, which is ironic, because this is my first time driving this highway in daylight.
I was really enjoying this drive, and this is why I came.
Oberlin
I forgot all about Oberlin and the Lake Charles Subdivision until I arrived there! I looked down the track, hoping that that local train with the centerbeam cars happened to be passing through at this time. Of course, it was not.
So, in Oberlin, a place where I had never before been in daylight, I got out to take my first pictures – either SLR-camera or cell-phone – of the trip, and they were SLR-camera pictures.
It has this slightly-neat and quaint single-strip downtown.
It’s typical of towns this small.
The above two images are looking west, while the next image looks back east toward the railroad line.
It’s still rather neat.
Some public spending could revitalize this.
Here is a westward view of the Allen Parish courthouse.
I left town, and, not long thereafter, at 11:51, I crossed the Calcasieu River, which I knew only because of a sign in the other direction.
With that, it became clear that I definitely was out of agriculture country and into forest country, and I had already begun to see log trucks.
I wondered if I would see damage from recent fires.
I wonder if humanity has already ended, if it is too late to safe humanity
Lauren Steiner posted an article on Facebook the other night and said “don’t read this if you’re depressed.”
I had a good meeting with Jenny yesterday. I love talking to her. I love hearing what she has to say.
I noticed on this highway the old corrugated guardrails that, when I was a kid, I thought looked so cool, including the part where it stretches from three arches to two, and I just realized two things about them: 1.) that I haven’t seen them much in years and 2.) that they look like the ends of old boxcars and gondola cars! I only now see the connection between the two!
The fact that I haven’t see these things in so long makes me think that these things have been phased out.
I was thinking that, for the sake of safety, I should eat in DeRidder, as it would be about 12:30 by the time that I get my food, and I had not eaten much since 16:00 the previous day.
Seeing a Jeff Landry sign out here in WASP country makes me think again about that whole recent alliance between conservative Catholics and conservative Protestants and Evangelicals, and, like, yep, somebody like Jeff Landry would not have been able to get as much support out here 20 and, especially, 30 years ago as he is now. They are united in their opposition to certain things.
I read yesterday on the “io” groups about some new CPKC locomotives being ordered or arriving and that it would be CPKC’s first as-delivered locomotives.
I was thinking of how relevant those groups once were. It’s sad in many ways.
It’s a sign of the times that my old WASP friend has gotten a Facebook account.
DeRidder
Anyway, I arrived in DeRidder, and it was time to eat.
Yes, it’s a little bit after 12:30 CDT, and I am eating at the same place where I ate the last time that I came here, in March, my first time in this area during daylight.
That was good, but I would have preferred my omelet for breakfast – since this was breakfast.
Next, I went explore in town briefly, and I found the WATCo job working by the Ingevity plant.
Okay, that was not particularly neat.
So, I left town and began my westward journey to Texas, planning to inspect the Timber Rock Railroad line that crosses US Highway 190 west of town, and I did just that. I turned southward on the western side of the track and, almost immediately, I found a movement!
This was a light-power movement headed north toward the PCA mill.
I scurried around and doubled back to get set up at the US Highway 190 crossing, on the eastern side of it.
Here it comes.
That’s not all that inspiring, but, maybe, these next two shots are better.
Yes, I like that, and that looks like Mark at the controls!
So, a mile and a half to the north, here comes the power set approaching the mill and . . . me.
That’s WAMX 3941, WAMX 5002, and WAMX 3938.
Here is the westward view along Keel Road from where we are.
Hey, they are getting out! What is happening?
This is funny!
Here is a eastward view toward the plant along Keel Road from where we are.
What is happening here?
Friends
They got out to shoot the breeze with me.
Apparently, the security guard became freaked out by my presence, perhaps, especially, the standing atop my truck, and Mark and Delta had to vouch for me.
This was a fun visit!
After my March visit here, I can say that I know these guys, but Mark and I have known of each other on the internet for two decades now.
Here I am taking the long way to the metropolitan Houston area, and I run into people I know workin’ on the railroad and have a nice conversation with them.
I need to remember to have some social interaction of this kind when I make trips to explore different areas.
I was about to travel to some interesting places that I had never before visited.
Mark told Delta all about this website and the Facebook page of it.
So, now, what do I do?
They said that they had only about a half-hour of work to do at the plant and would be emerging with some boxcars, but I decided that I didn’t have time to stick around, because I didn’t want to get to my hosts’ house too late.
So, I proceeded westward, and, now, every place that I would travel until I got to Interstate Highway 610, the loop around Houston, would be new territory for me.
I made my last stop in Louisiana, to get gasoline.
A little bit more than four miles later, at 14:21, I crossed Sabine River into Texas, my first time crossing the Louisiana-Texas border anywhere between the Dequincy-Deweyville highway and Interstate Highway 20.
Texas!
This was a very interesting drive, and I had to deal with rain, which made it interesting and challenging but also precluded some perception of it that I could have gotten had it not been raining.
So many people were driving on this highway with no headlights on, and was cloudy and rainy!
“Send The Pain Below” by Chevelle played on 106.1 FM as I was leaving downtown Newton.
At 15:03, I crossed the Neches River on a neat old bridge that was concerningly narrow. There were more people driving in this rain-under-clouds with no headlights on, what jerks. “Alive” by Pearl Jam was playing on the radio.
I stopped in downtown Woodville for about 15 minutes.
This is just west of North Village Street.
I needed to find my automobile charger.
I found it buried under some stuff in the back seat.
I also needed to post something on Facebook.
Here is a view southward, across the highway and street.
I noticed these neat flowers growing through the concrete here on the sidewalk.
I decided that I needed some photographs of them.
This got the attention of the dude who lived in this structure, which didn’t look like a residence.
He came out and talked to me, inquired about what I was doing.
He said that these plants originally were in a pot at the theater just to the west of here.
I forgot his name, it may have been Delany, or something like that, but he could tell that I was from the bayou.
So, I left Woodville and continued westward.
There still were people driving without headlights on! What in the hell is wrong with people?
As a practical matter, the way to get people to have their headlights on in the rain is to enforce headlights all the time, because police don’t want to get out on the rain to give someone a ticket. So, the law should require headlights to be on at all times when driving on a public road. It seems like the only time that people get ticketed for not having headlights on is after the fact in a wreck or a DUI.
At around 16:15ish, I arrive in Livingston.
I needed caffeine. At first, I was going to go to McDonald’s, but then I realized that there was Starbucks nearby.
I got a “Grande”, but it’s not that big. I guess that that’s inflation. What the hell?
At 16:41, I left Livingston and got onto US Highway 59, and a truck then sent a rock to my windshield.
Just north of the San Jacinto County line, there is a neat railroad bridge crossing the Trinity River; I wonder whose bridge it is.
Anyway, at some point, I don’t know when, I got onto I-610, and, within about 10 minutes, I was stuck in very-slowly-moving traffic.
This is not pleasant. This place is notorious for this.
That’s all for the pictures for today.
Checking Mike’s group on Facebook, I learned that Tom Davidson died, such a shame.
At 18:32, I arrived at my host’s house while Lenny Kravitz’s “Fly Away” song was playing on the radio, which I think quite appropriate given that this was a big way to address my cabin fever, and after Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror” played.
Gruff
I talked on the telephone to a cousin who hadn’t seen me since I was a child, and it was a strange experience and, also, not entirely pleasant.
I really don’t like how I look in the mirror at this house. Yikes!
I played some table tennis for what may be the first time since childhood, about as long as I last talked to that cousin.
The last time that I came to this area, I was in much better physical shape and had yet to learn that I am autistic. My life since then has drastically changed, and, beyond the newfound education, insights, and understanding brought by that change (or that precipitated that change), that change is almost entirely for the worse.
That’s all. We’ll see some of what I see on the return trip tomorrow.
Peace.
Jbx
