Jimbaux's ship isn't coming, and he just can't pretend.
Hey! Today is Wednesday 25 October 2023, and I finally made it to Lake Charles and got my first Port Rail action of this fall season, today! I got a few other shots in the process, too, and I handled some business in the city.
This is my first blog article since my crappy day foaming and walking in downtown Lafayette 10 days ago. I was supposed to go to Lake Charles two days ago, but I didn’t.
I am tired of fasting because I am tired from fasting. I am not getting stuff done, due to being tired and disoriented from fasting. I can’t seem to get far below 180 pounds.
I hate this house because it’s so damn bright.
The house that was here before was a refuge from the light.
I hate not just being stuck here but, moreso, for the reasons that I am stuck here. It’s just not right.
The noise and the light are making me unable to think. I cherish cloudy days like I never have before. I want to go home. I was good there. I’d photograph the Union Pacific Railroad local train every day if I could.
I want to return to walking on the campus twice per day! And foaming the UP local!
My whole life is now defined by what I lost, and I cannot move forward, cannot embrace what I have. For a bunch of reasons, I can’t do it.
I had something so good that was taken from me.
It’s so embarrassing, so wrong; so, I can’t talk to anybody.
I had a mental health appointment scheduled for yesterday that has been rescheduled to January! That’s three months!
The Last Few Days
Three days ago, I did some copying of recently-processed 2014 pictures to external hard drives, preparing for sampler essays here on the website and social-media posts next year.
I recently went inside the local Taco Bell for probably the first time.
Yesterday, I made some progress in organizing my closet. That’s really good!
I have a note to myself to buy large plastic containers the next time that I go to Walmart.
The big news yesterday is that the storage locker is done. DONE.
So, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting. So, all of this land will be under water in a hundred years, perhaps much sooner than that, and pretty much nobody around here cares. That’s what’s so infuriating about these people. That’s part of why I have to be so secretive.
I discovered that Lacar Musgrove was back on Twitter, and I sympathized with some of the things that she said but also thought that she was going overboard. She was getting accused of racism, which I thought was unwarranted.
That Saints player was supposedly driving at 70mph on a 30mph street, which is insanely reckless.
Today – A Late Departure
I left for Lake Charles a little bit later than normal. I was worried that this would mean that I would miss the Port Rail train.
I was thinking about the Melançon people as I drove by their place the reason that I don’t reach out to them.
“They’re making an obligation on the taxpayer of Fargo.” That was the first thing that I heard on an NPR piece about immigration resettlement in North Dakota; that was the only thing that that guy was quoted.
I was so hungry.
I stopped at the usual Spring Market to get gasoline.
I took a leak at the usual Knights of Columbus place.
In Lake Charles, 12th Street was closed between Banks Street and First Street. I don’t know why, but there were dudes in bucket trucks.
I saw cars in two different tracks in Harbor Yard, which made me think that I may have missed the train.
I definitely wished that I lived somewhere higher than 100’ above sea level so that I could more easily start my railroad business.
So, at 08:54 CDT, I am at the Port Of Lake Charles.
Did I miss the train?
No, I did not.
The Train
Here at West Walnut Street at 09:06, the GMTX 2134 moves five hopper cars eastbound out of the Port Of Lake Charles.
This train is relatively boring as Port Rail trains go, except that it has the huge advantage of having no graffiti on any of these sides of the equipment.
Next, we are at Lake Street.
A lumber car in there would have made this cool.
Okay, I think that this is better.
Next, we are on West Sallier Street at Ernest Street.
This is good!
Here is a quick grab shot at Ryan Street, where I was likely stopped by the red light.
Now, here we are at Fifth Avenue for the classic shot here.
It would be neat to live there and photograph this train every day.
The Return Trip
About 48 minutes later, here is the return train crossing Lake Street.
There are 14 cars for this westbound train, one of the longest trains, minus the wind-turbine trains, that I have seen on this line.
I like these two shots here.
This is all for this train today.
There was a truckload of lumber from the Schwaiger lumber company from Germany coming out of the port at 10:15.
Business And Family
Right there at Barbe Street after the photography and train chasing ended, I changed clothes into business clothes to go to the office for my meeting.
Before I went to the meeting, though, I swung by Madelyn’s house; she wasn’t there, but the neighbor gave me her telephone phone number, which I had lost due to my telephone change early last year.
On my way to the meeting, I noticed a sign that indicated that a Whataburger is coming to Lake Charles!
Near the place of my meeting, I learned via e-mail that the person whom I was meeting had to cancel the meeting, due to a sick child.
So, I left and headed back to the port. I was texting with Madelyn.
Here I am at the port again.
I then returned to Madelyn’s house, because she was there now, and I was able to reschedule my meeting for only a little while later.
It was a good visit, except that I was watching my telephone the entire time for the clock time, paranoid about being late to my meeting.
I totally could live in this part of Lake Charles.
I left Madelyn’s house at 11:43 CDT to head south across town to return to office, but I grossly overestimated the amount of time that it would take to get there. It took about a third of the amount of time that I had blocked out to get there to get there.
At least the thing that I did correctly was err on the side of overestimating the amount of time rather than underestimating it.
This may have been the part of the day during which I ate some trail mix that had been in the truck, the first thing that I eat on this day.
I remember eating trail mix in December 2016 while I was losing weight, which reminds me that I need to increase the amount of time I spend walking for exercise, as much as I really don’t want to do that, as much as I am just sick of the neighborhood.
The meeting was okay, and, now, I think that I will have a meeting in Lafayette soon. I’m in business!
Back To Railroad Enthusiasm
My plan was to photograph the westbound Sunset Limited, but I had some time to occupy before it would get here. So, this was a great time to swing by the Farmers Rice Milling Company, and that is what I did.
At least three hopper cars with ECNX reporting marks, at least one Ferrosur boxcar, and one KCS boxcar, among several other cars, were at the Farmers Rice Milling Company.
I then proceeded to the Shattuck Street overpass to shoot the #1.
At about 14:00, as I was sitting in the truck on South Shattuck Street on the ground east of the bridge south of the track, I learned that Mike Johnson had been selected as Speaker Of The House Of Representatives.
I got on the bridge to shoot the #1.
I like the locomotives! UP 1514 and UP 1346 are by the locomotive track.
This is the old Southern Pacific yard.
At one time, a branch that went to DeRidder started at the left frame of the image.
I like this!
Here comes our train.
I guess that I am being repetitive again.
I swap cameras very quickly.
That was great!
Breaking Fast
Now, it was time to eat!
This was my first time patronizing a Waffle House since as far back as the spring (probably March) of 2016 when I worked at that place and Kenner and went eat with Tracy and James.
I have this memory of going to the Waffle House in Morgan City some time, maybe in 2019, but I may be imagining things. If I went there at all, maybe it was back in 2012 or, at least, before that spring-2016 visit to the Waffle House on Airline Drive in Metairie.
I hung on to my New Orleansness for far too long. I moved back there so that I could publicly leave the place, which, actually, in my own defense, really was not irrational.
I think very often about Granny telling me “people need people.”
Here is the vegetation-obstructed view of the former Southern Pacific mainline from the Waffle House parking lot.
This Waffle House experience was good. I would do it again.
Next, while I was here, I went explore this area called North Beach.
This is the big Interstate Highway 10 bridge that needs to be replaced.
I needed to get going, but I did and do want to return and explore the area under the bridge here some time.
That was good. I managed to eat nothing but a little bit of fruity trail mix today before beginning to eat my Waffle House meal at 14:40.
It was time for me to leave Lake Charles, and I thought then that this had been a good day. It would get better!
At 15:30, I was leaving eastbound on US Highway 90 past Louisiana Highway 397.
Kinder
So, at 16:16, here I am in Kinder.
Here at the yard, there was the usual mix of hopper cars and boxcars for the rice mill in Crowley and centerbeam cars for industries north of here, but there also were plenty of LPG tank cars, which suggests that that business east of here is shipping by rail again.
I saw no locomotive here, indicating that the local train based here, Union Pacific Railroad train LLC14, was out on the line somewhere. Does that combined with the fact that there are all kinds of cars that the two trains based here pull suggest that the Lake Charles local train has been here since the Kinder Local train left?
Here is a shot that I got of some old automobiles.
Then, I heard horns!
Here I am at the US Highway 190 crossing.
I wish that I had a radio scanner.
This probably was my first time in Kinder since the Big Boy chase in 2021.
This train that I photographed on the Lake Charles Subdivision in Kinder came westbound off of the Dequincy Subdivision.
These are cool-looking cars.
It’s a damn shame about the graffiti, though.
Here is a fairly clean gondola car.
Hey, check this out!
I like that, even though I’d much prefer what passed for a clean new Canadian National Railway boxcar 40 years ago.
I think that I momentarily pondered chasing this train.
I decided against chasing it, though, because I was not in the mood for chasing it.
I didn’t want to change clothes out of the jeans and into shorts, didn’t want to risk delaying my bedtime, and wanted to eat again in the fairly near future.
However, I really should explore the Lake Charles Subdivision more.
It was a little bit warm out here, even though this is late October.
I guess that that’s global warming!
Basile
So, 23 minutes after the last image, here I am in Basile.
This is interesting.
This is the corner of Lewis Avenue and Stagg Avenue.
There is a community here.
I need community, even if not this one.
Okay, so, finally, I visited this gas place east of town.
This is 11 minutes after the pictures from inside of town.
Union Pacific Railroad train LLJ63 comes here at night to work this facility, probably after it goes to Eunice to conduct interchange with the Acadiana Railway there.
Yes, we need to stop using this stuff, but I wish that we could find – and I think that we can find – other business for such local trains.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
That it is this way is a choice.
Eunice!
So, here I am in Eunice.
I don’t think that I’ve gotten a picture – at least, not a good picture – of the old Santa Fe GP35 with the Acadiana Railway GP9R in the same picture until now.
There is a third locomotive here!
This is my first time seeing the SILX 12, a newly-acquired spare locomotive that the Acadiana Railway has for this job.
I would love to see it run out on the branch.
So, I am taking a new way south to visit a town that I have never visited and ride on roads on which I have never ridden.
Iota
Yes, here I am coming into Iota!
The Southern Pacific railroad ran trains through here on its Midland Branch until the late 1970s. I would love to have seen that.
I couldn’t really photograph much in Iota. It was hot, I was tired, and I didn’t feel like getting out of the truck. This place should have trains. It shouldn’t have Trump supporters, but it almost can’t not have them.
There is a weird connection here that I have that I don’t really want to mention.
It’s really nothing.
There is some beautiful country on that drive, and it’s a damn shame that there is no train there anymore. On this drive, I saw a Trump flag, and I shot it the finger. I think about this all the time. This beautiful country, and it has people how think like this.
Estherwood!
Here I am on the Bayou Plaquemine Pontoon Bridge, a neat bridge.
We are in Gabby Lejeune country!
Crowley
Photographically, we will end the day in Crowley.
Here I am at Western Avenue just north of the Supreme Rice mill.
Here is the old Missouri Pacific Railroad depot.
I love that building.
That’s all for the pictures today. At 18:50, I crossed over I-10 on Louisiana Highway 91.
Despair, Hope, And Driving
So, here are some epiloguous thoughts.
Twenty years ago right now, I was on Rich Mountain! There are five pictures from this trip in the “October 2003 Images” blog article.
The first thing that Mandie Landry said about legalizing marijuana on Roland Martin’s show is that “we need the money.” Yikes.
Five years ago today, I photographed a westbound empty crude-oil train at Schriever.
The Def Leppard song “Hysteria” was playing on 105.1FM. I don’t think that I ever knew the name of this song until now.
Then, “Fly By Night” by Rush was playing on radio. I never really listened to the lyrics, but they seem appropriate for today’s situation.
Then, as I arrive at the house at 19:50, I heard “Little Things” by Bush on 98.1FM, which followed Eye Of the Tiger by survivor. I love it!
This was a great day as the worst-possible news about the world becomes known – and ignored by most people around here.
I hope that you liked the pictures from today. I hope that I get some more soon.
Jbx
