Jimbaux sees that now there’s a look in your eyes
Like black holes in the sky.
More Trying To Be Reborn
Hi, there. Two days ago, I got my first pictures with my telephoto-zoom lens since getting it back from repair, and, today, Friday 11 October 2024, I returned to the homeland for a weekend visit.
As usual, I will lead in with some background from the last few days.
On Wednesday, I finally listened to that Bayou Politique show when it came on or when it was about to come on when I was out foaming; so, I made a note to listen to it, and the guest was a professor at UL, I forget his name, a political-science professor talking about voting trends. It was after the Out To Lunch program was on. It was hard to tell what the subject of the interview was, because it was a guy with a foreign accent talking about flipping houses, but it wasn’t a Hispanic or Iberian accent.
I will just share a few notes from yesterday.
Thursday, October 10th
I started my morning walk at about 06:18. The temperature was in the 50s. I was kind of cold.
It was five years ago today that I lost my radio scanner while out foaming. I need to make a decision about the next one, which maybe I can do today.
I have to sign up for volunteer shifts for Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, whatever it is, at Girard Park. I don’t really want to go and do that, but I will.
Yeah, I really need new cargo shorts, because the ones that I have are falling off of me.
I keep thinking about the SP Lake Charles to DeRidder branch, the SP branch, and like, if it still existed. If my fantasy Texas & Mississippi Valley Railway owned it, it could help like reach the port of Lake Charles, and we could run passenger trains on it. It would be very cool, extremely cool. It could help with interchange between CPKC and the port of Lake Charles, maybe even an occasional unit grain train.
Yes, that DeRidder Branch should still exist. It should have passenger trains serving North Lake Charles and Moss Bluff and a couple of little towns on the way. Maybe one of those Shreveport-to-Lake-Charles trains that I imagine can pass there. Maybe not. Maybe a Lake Charles to Alexandria train could pass there, and, if you wanted to travel from Lake Charles to Alexandria or vice versa, you’d use the train on the Lake Charles Subdivision.
I still want to see plate steel coming out of the Perry Street Wharf on the New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway.
Oh, one thing that disturbed me about walking in that part of Lafayette north of UL yesterday was <pththheheh> strong bass sounds; I wouldn’t even call them sounds.
Friday, October 11th – Today
I rolled out of the driveway at 06:46, realizing that I should have that water sprayer to clean my windshield, because it kind of did need to be cleaned, and I didn’t have it.
I figured that I’d stop in Baldwin to see what is happening there, and I planned to stop in Morgan City to look at that fence.
I really started preparing, packing everything, at 05:00 today. I was just too tired last night. I gained three pounds in the last two days. I hadn’t yet eaten anything today, but I planned on getting some grub at the Taco Bell in Morgan City. I figured that I might stop at the Bayou Vista Walmart if for no reason other than to get gasoline and clean off these windows, but the problem eventually abated.
Look at those rails right there, man; there could be trains there.
I think the fact that there were trains there for a while softened the humiliation of what was done to me, but those trains are long-gone now.
It was at 07:10 this morning that I saw the sun itself for the first time today on Highway 90 just east of the Highway 14 interchange south of New Iberia.
There is an NPR story about TikTok being addictive and that TikTok’s own lawsuit reveals this.
At Baldwin, the eastbound US Highway 90 traffic had to use the westbound lane, because there is a new eastbound lane being built. So, I couldn’t exit at Baldwin, but I could see that there was nothing to see there. There were the two locomotives there as usual, and there was nothing else but carbon black hopper cars. There was nothing in the siding at Bayou Sale, no sign of any railroad activity. Of course, if I had a scanner, which I almost certainly will the next time as I travel this way, I might hear of things happening.
It ain’t the same as the good old days when the Union Pacific Railroad regularly ran through trains here, though, and back when there were BNSF Railway intermodal trains and other kinds of unit trains and such. It’s kind of unfortunate.
At 07:49, I turned off of Highway 90 into the Walmart at Bayou Vista so that I could urinate and buy a little bit of coffee and thinking that I would wait until I get to Schriever to get gasoline and until I get to Thibodaux to get Taco Bell food. I left Walmart at 08:02.
Morgan City
I checked out the Port Of Morgan City and photographed a few cars there.
There were just hopper cars and some MofW equipment.
That is the port itself.
The MofW equipment is parked on what is left of the loop track.
Then, I checked out the fence. Then, I realized that I didn’t need to return to the port, because anything moving not coming out of the light would be coming from the west, but there was no train out there. I would have seen one if there was, probably, but, of course, I have no scanner. I guessed that I should have gone there just to see if the Schriever Job was there, but I would have had a difficult time photographing it, and I also just would not have enjoyed it that much.
So, off to Schriever I went, not expecting to see or photograph any trains this morning or, possibly, even the rest of the day. We’ll see. I might be able to get a westbound train at Melodia this afternoon.
Porkchop has been telling me about all that he has been hearing on his new scanner, and it looks like that kit from Scanner Master is ready. So, I am going to get that.
Porkchop is telling me about an eastbound train that he chased basically from Lafayette at least as far as Berwick Bay yesterday, one locomotive pulling 20 cars, which was odd.
I heard a story on NPR about Walgreen’s and CVS and about their business practices and the infinite-growth mentality. I really need to get a link to that, but it’s also like the article in Trains magazine the other day about what is happening to the railroad companies. You cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet. This makes me wonder, does a solution to that problem involve infinitely growing government debt? and there has got to be a better way to phrase that question, a better way to frame what it is that I am thinking there.
There is a clearing on the northern side of the track on what looks like the eastern end of Siracusaville, what looks like an athletic field, and that looks like a good place for a drone picture. As I crossed Bayou Ramos on US Highway 90, I saw a loaded sugarcane truck crossing Bayou Ramos on Highway 182. That’s interesting.
The Bayou Boeuf Bridge is lined for railroad movement. That boxcar is still at Tuboscope; it’s been sitting there for a decade.
I imagine the DeRidder Branch being rebuilt and connecting with my line from DeRidder to Alexandria and, then, that line connecting with a new line across the river in Natchez and connecting with the rebuilt Valley Line, and, hey, look, I can connect Port Rail with eastern connections at Memphis. How about that?
I could not see anything at Ursa, but Ursa is not as visible as it used to be.
Sacred Schriever
A little bit after 09:00, I arrived at the sacred spot at Schriever.
The eastern part of the yard was full of cars, mostly tank cars. That might have been a hopper car or centerbeam car way down the East Storage Track, and, then, there were tank cars on the Napoleonville Branch track.
There also appeared to be tank cars on the Houma Branch track.
There was a MofW truck there. So, I didn’t want to be too aggressive.
I will come here on Sunday morning. As I was driving over here, I was thinking, gosh, if I could find my journal, I would bring it, and I would make a Sunday-morning journal entry from Schriever. This would be great.
I need to find my journal. I really do. The plan now was to go and get gasoline and then scope out that shot at Horseshoe Road. I was thinking that, after that, I might hang out here for a little while afterward, like, you know, if an eastbound train comes, then go to Taco Bell before it stops serving breakfast.
So, I went to GoBears and got gasoline.
When You Are Deaf To Radio Traffic
So, back by the depot after I got gasoline, I saw that there are weeds growing in the concrete and asphalt right here. It disappoints me. It’s good for the weeds, but I wish that it would clean up. Oh, I just noticed the absence of the Louisiana & Delta Railroad locomotive. The crew’s personal automobiles were there, and the locomotive were gone. Of course it would be, but I just didn’t think of it earlier. They probably were working at around Raceland somewhere.
Oh, I see a headlight! a headlight, a headlight, a headlight, yay!
Well, that was a fortuitous decision to stick around here; so, I relocated to Old Schriever Highway, but, yes, here it is, my pensive morning in Schriever, redoing an old tradition from back in the day, and it’s been interrupted by a train, dammit.
I took out some tea to thaw.
I am just realizing that, just like Campus, this place qualifies as a third space for me, and it’s like I really don’t have any kind of space like that now except for church, barely. I can’t be who I am there, but it’s like I like hanging out there, like Church is a place where I would love to hang out alone. Even the radio station qualifies for that.
Here I am going over to the pilings, I guess, and I’ll put the telephoto lens on. Funny thing is that I was thinking just before I saw a headlight is that, okay, I guess that there will be a blog post today even if there are no trains, because it meets the criteria, because I did take some SLR-camera shots in Morgan City, but, now, I will have an action shot and may even have to post on the blog tonight.
Well, the train really snuck up on me.
Damn, that one caught me off guard. It had 35 cars and one locomotive.
It’s another run of what Porkchop was describing. I was able to swap out the lens in time, but I should have kept the short lens on.
Damn. I don’t think that I got a good shot. Let me see.
Yeah, that’s kind of a stupid-looking shot. It’s got the pole right there. Yeah, that doesn’t work too well.
Let me check how this would have looked on the short lens.
Yeah, that’s what I should have done. Yeah, or that right there.
Yeah, it would have been much better had I not swapped lenses.
I need a radio scanner. I was thinking how, Sunday, I could wait here for one of those eastbound trains before I depart west, but maybe it would be best to scoop him. That’s why I need a scanner, but it is kind of weird, because, it’s like, I just had this eastbound train, and I should have been able to photograph it somewhere else, like maybe the Greenwood Bridge, maybe Myrtle Street. Actually, something in Berwick would have worked.
This is the thing. With a scanner, at least back in the day, there is almost no way that I would not have known about that train. Porkchop says that he hears 85% of what he used to hear on the scanner.
Speaking of Porkchop, I should text him to say that I just saw a 35-car BNSF train eastbound and then just stay here and pace around for a while, because I didn’t do my walk this morning, and, actually, Morgan City would have been a good place to do it. I need to pace around here in front of the depot and get my steps in before I go to Taco Bell and meet Rich and all of that.
Anyway, these weeds really bother me.
This place is sacred.
So, I left, and, on my way out, I checked out the shot at Horseshoe Road.
Yeah, it’s bad.
Thib
So, I left Schriever and entered Thibodaux.
I wanted to check out if there was a Presbyterian Church in Thibodaux.
That old hotel by the track on Canal Boulevard has been demolished. It would had to have been to make that traffic circle.
There should be a railroad going through that traffic circle! There should be!
There is new blue paint on the flashing at the post office.
There was Saint Joseph Co-Cathedral. There must be a funeral here; yep, there is a hearse. It looks like it could be people I know. That looks like Archie Chiasson or somebody.
Yeah, that’s kind of the one big knock of being here, although if I lived here without them, I might feel free, which is a tragic thing to say, but there is no erasing what happened to me in the last 10-12 years, and you have to go back before the move itself, because there was the announcement of the move.
There are some neat old houses on Canal Boulevard.
The thought occurs to me that Paul could just meet me at PJ’s, but then I thought that he could meet me at the civic center.
All right; here I am at the Taco Bell, pulling up here at Taco Bell at 10:20.
I went to Taco Bell to eat breakfast, and the workers there told me that they stopped serving breakfast like a month ago. Dammit, that’s not good, and I haven’t tried Taco Bell breakfast anywhere in a while!
However, I now know that, despite all of that pondering of going to Taco Bell to get breakfast that I did on September 30th in Lake Charles, there probably wouldn’t have been Taco Bell breakfast available anyway. So, maybe other locations like the ones that I am accustomed to patronizing also stopped serving breakfast. Maybe the one in Morgan City that I considered patronizing this morning would not have served breakfast today, which is important to know if I am going to be going there soon to work on a fence.
So, I ended up getting two of those chicken cantina burritos and then went to the bank. I ate the burritos in the shade at the Jean Lafitte culture center.
I went into Big Mike’s and took a peek around. It looked okay. It was not too bright. There was no TV sound on. The guy working there talked to me and said that there will be no more TV and music later on than what there is right now, that there would just be more noise due to more people. Okay.
I arrived at the house right at 10:56, and I took a needed break from both the heat and the light.
I had a great meeting, a wonderful meeting, with Rich. It went great. I am so glad that it finally happened. It was at Big Mike’s Barbecue place.
I had a bunch of Guinness. It was great, it was wonderful, and it was relatively cheap beer, because it was happy hour.
Back To The SRV
Then, I went ride by the track, and, with no scanner, I couldn’t hear if anything was going on. I didn’t see a train, but I did notice that the L&D job had returned.
I think that those tank cars were removed from the Houma Branch track, but, I don’t know, but the interesting thing was that the L&D job has two locomotives. Why? I don’t know. Well, I don’t know if the L&D job has two locomotives, but there were two L&D locomotives there. I think that it’s the 1847 and the 1712. Maybe they are doing the thing that the Lafayette Job does with a locomotive on each end. I don’t know, and I would wonder why they would need to do that now. I could see how it would be good for Monsanto, to avoid that shove, but, other than that, I don’t really know. It doesn’t really help all that much.
So, the events of today have been a compelling argument for a radio scanner, not just the morning eastbound train that snuck up on me but also the possibility of westbound trains at this point in the afternoon, as I didn’t want to just sit by the track and wait for a possible train.
So, that’s it.
Genesis
I returned to the genesis.
It stopped being the center of the universe, but it once was the center of the universe.
The center of the universe moved about three miles to the east when I was a child, and it has remained there since then.
It looks like very recently part of the old fence around the southeastern corner of the lot is gone, and there is like a new fence halfway back. It’s like they changed what part of the yard was fenced, and, so, and it must be recently, because there are pieces of the old fence right there on the side of the road to be picked up as trash.
I gave the host a hint that I wanted to talk about a difficult topic that is related to a difficult topic that we discussed almost 18 months ago when I came here.
The poboy was good!
We discussed the difficult topic but with mixed results. I didn’t feel good about it. I’ll talk about that later.
Jim
