SHREVEPORT, LA 9-11-2017

Swamp, swamp and more swamp.  Oh excuse me, I mean, bayou.  Yesterday, we drove through miles of it, for hours.  I just can’t imagine how the engineers lay roads like this, it seems impossible.  I saw two (live) alligators,

Swamp... I mean, bayou....miles of it

two (dead) snakes and a (dead) wild pig.  If I have a chance to ask God a few questions, I’m going to ask Him why He invented reptiles.  I am sure Adam and Eve wondered the same thing although they would probably ask the same thing about apples.  (Speaking of them, Mark Twain observed that Adam and Eve were lucky, they didn’t have to go through teething.)

It is a short distance, 220 miles, to Alexandria and we have finally met up with the mosquitoes.  We knew our days were numbered.  This was a strange little rv park, nobody works there.  You get a gate code and a site number sent to your email.  Upon arrival, you use the code to enter and park in your site.  There are no trees, just grass, concrete pads and gravel driveways.  I’m sure a human must mow the grass once in awhile.  Anyway, this was a first for us:  a do-it-yourself rv park.

We found Alexandria to be a sleepy, pretty little town with parks and huge live oak trees.  We spent some of our day restocking the pantry and frig and then, with little else to do, decided to decompress and have a bite to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings and watch the Packers-Seahawks game.  (Major rivalry in the DLM family.)  We know who won, now don’t we?  On to Shreveport we go.

These are my Cheesehead people!

You know those things called “love bugs?”  Not the Volkswagen Beetle.  These are black bugs.  Two of them fly around attached at the butt.  If they get separated they die.  (Jeez, who thought up that?!)  They also die if they hit your windshield, which several thousand did, today.  The front of Bee is so covered with the damned things that she actually looks fuzzy.  Before we leave this park, we will also have to brush off the radiator, which is bug-clogged.  Gross and disgusting.

Rob washing down a catfish
 po'boy with a "rougarou"

I don’t know the difference between Cajun and Creole.  Much as I have tried to read up, it’s confusing and then the explanation takes a turn to the differences in the cuisine instead of the people.  You’ll have to Google this on your own, if you care.  All the food is delicious and spicy, bottom line.  For lunch today, I had oysters and blackened alligator and Rob had a catfish po’ boy (submarine sandwich) and a side order of crawfish ooo-two-fay. 

Oysters, blackened alligator and a
"rougarou (pineapple rum drink)"

Barksdale AFB is not far from our park and they have a static display and museum.  It is an active base and they aren’t kidding around.  We had to show ID, turn over our driver’s licenses and open the Jeep doors, the gate, hood and glove compartments.  

W's dais

On display at the museum is the dais at which W addressed the nation from Barksdale on 9-11, a lot of art and WWII memorabilia, many uniforms and flight suits and an extensive history of Eugene Hoy Barksdale.  He was born in 1896 in rather impoverished circumstances and was home schooled by his Mom.  He made it to college and was studying Mechanical and Agricultural Science but dropped out in his senior year to enlist in the Air Force when the war broke out.  He became a respected test pilot but was killed at the age of 29 when the Douglas O-2 observation plane he was testing went into a flat spin.  He ejected but his parachute got tangled in the wing’s brace wires.  He was an accomplished hero and had a remarkable, if short, career.

Wall art from WWII

Warthog oil painting

Nose art

Nose art

Nose art

KC-97 Stratofreighter

On display are airplanes familiar to many of us but one that Rob hadn’t seen with jet engines added to it was a KC-97.  I wouldn’t know one from a bucket of paint.  The SR-71 was fresh, clean and looked sinister and delicious. 

The sexiest of all planes:  Blackbird (SR-71)

B24

B52 that survived a SAM attack in VietNam
in Operation Linebacker II and
made it home.  In all, 400 missions!

Is this a great picture or what?  B52 and behind it, 5 C-17s

Just keeping an eye on things... 

As we strolled about, B-52s were cruising and banking overhead and fighter jets were taking off.  Really cool!  A B-52D could carry 108 500 lb. bombs or 64 500 lb. bombs in the bays and 24 750 lb. bombs on the underwing pylons.  American muscle.  The length of an SR-71 from nose to tail is the same as Orville and Wilbur’s first flight sixty years earlier.  Don’t mess with us!