Roadtrip complete! 500 miles in a day, covering Louisiana, Arkansas and
Texas. I wanted to do Oklahama as well, but time didn’t allow – maybe
next week. Some pictures are attached – I’ll explain what they are as we
go. The first is the Dallas landscape that inspired me to get the hell
out of the “Metroplex”, at least for a short time. I got onto Interstate
20, put Jimmy Buffet in the CD player, switched to cruise control, and
settled back. 200 miles later I was in Louisiana, as you can see from
the second picture.
Of course, while there, I had to do two things – pick up a fridge magnet to prove I’d been there, and get some fried catfish for lunch (I have to go back for jambalaya). The third picture is a view of “Crescents Landing”, where I had fried catfish with field peas (black-eyed beans, they looked like to me), pickled green tomatoes (delicious), and mashed potatoes with gravy. The fridge magnet I got from Walmart.
On the advice of the restaurant owner, I headed north on Rte 71 towards Texarkana, which straddles the Texas-Arkansas boder (hence the name – I didn’t know!). Along the way I stopped to take a picture (the fourth attached) of a Louisiana cotton field – having led such a sheltered life, I’ve never seen cotton growing before!
I picked up a guy thumbing a ride (I know, I know, not a good idea …). Anyway, Carl (the fifth picture) had been trying to get work in Dallas, but couldn’t – he had to walk 25 miles to the city limits to get a ride to Shreveport, and had spent the night sleeping under a bridge, which is where I picked him up. That took him four days – took me 3 hours of driving! I didn’t pick him up until around 2pm, and the guy had no money, so I stopped at a gas station to fill up, gave him a twenty, and told him to go buy a drink and keep the change – he was planning to try to get a job in Texarkana for a couple of days to make the bus fare to Tulsa, where he has family. He was a nice guy – 2 kids and some family dotted around, no discernible drink or drugs, and nothing but what he carried on his back and the change from a twenty. I don’t know how he got into that state, but there but for the grace of God … I hope he finds a job and makes it to Tulsa, but my guess is he’s sleeping under another bridge tonight.
Texarkana sucks. Arkansas is the poorest state in the union, and it shows. A lot of American cities look the same these days, thanks to McDonalds, Wendy’s, IHOP, Home Depot, CVS etc. The major difference is in their prosperity – some are thriving, some are not. Texarkana is not. I’m sure there are prosperous areas, and of course I was just passing through. But what I saw was the archetypal trailer home with a couple of hounds sleeping on the porch and the rusted hulks of dead cars scattered around. Some hopefuls had transformed their front yard into mini flea markets. I suppose they were hoping to make some money from a few extraneous possessions, but I wonder if anyone ever stops by.
Once again Walmart provided the necessary fridge magnet. If I’d had decent maps, and if the area had decent road signs (which they uniformly don’t), I’d have made the run up through Arkansas to get back to Dallas. But it was getting late, so I chickened out and hit Interstate 30 all the way back to Dallas.
I started out at 10am, and got back at 7:30pm. Tiring, but fun.
Of course, while there, I had to do two things – pick up a fridge magnet to prove I’d been there, and get some fried catfish for lunch (I have to go back for jambalaya). The third picture is a view of “Crescents Landing”, where I had fried catfish with field peas (black-eyed beans, they looked like to me), pickled green tomatoes (delicious), and mashed potatoes with gravy. The fridge magnet I got from Walmart.
On the advice of the restaurant owner, I headed north on Rte 71 towards Texarkana, which straddles the Texas-Arkansas boder (hence the name – I didn’t know!). Along the way I stopped to take a picture (the fourth attached) of a Louisiana cotton field – having led such a sheltered life, I’ve never seen cotton growing before!
I picked up a guy thumbing a ride (I know, I know, not a good idea …). Anyway, Carl (the fifth picture) had been trying to get work in Dallas, but couldn’t – he had to walk 25 miles to the city limits to get a ride to Shreveport, and had spent the night sleeping under a bridge, which is where I picked him up. That took him four days – took me 3 hours of driving! I didn’t pick him up until around 2pm, and the guy had no money, so I stopped at a gas station to fill up, gave him a twenty, and told him to go buy a drink and keep the change – he was planning to try to get a job in Texarkana for a couple of days to make the bus fare to Tulsa, where he has family. He was a nice guy – 2 kids and some family dotted around, no discernible drink or drugs, and nothing but what he carried on his back and the change from a twenty. I don’t know how he got into that state, but there but for the grace of God … I hope he finds a job and makes it to Tulsa, but my guess is he’s sleeping under another bridge tonight.
Texarkana sucks. Arkansas is the poorest state in the union, and it shows. A lot of American cities look the same these days, thanks to McDonalds, Wendy’s, IHOP, Home Depot, CVS etc. The major difference is in their prosperity – some are thriving, some are not. Texarkana is not. I’m sure there are prosperous areas, and of course I was just passing through. But what I saw was the archetypal trailer home with a couple of hounds sleeping on the porch and the rusted hulks of dead cars scattered around. Some hopefuls had transformed their front yard into mini flea markets. I suppose they were hoping to make some money from a few extraneous possessions, but I wonder if anyone ever stops by.
Once again Walmart provided the necessary fridge magnet. If I’d had decent maps, and if the area had decent road signs (which they uniformly don’t), I’d have made the run up through Arkansas to get back to Dallas. But it was getting late, so I chickened out and hit Interstate 30 all the way back to Dallas.
I started out at 10am, and got back at 7:30pm. Tiring, but fun.
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| Carl |
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| Dallas |
 | |
| Me in Louisiana |
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| Catfish Restuarant in Shreveport |
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| Cotton |
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