JUNE 12, 2016 LA,AR,IL,KY, OH TO PA AND BEYOND

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Well, we are back on the road again.  This time we will meander our way up to Pennsylvania, spend some time with family and then perhaps head to Canada and west before arriving back in Texas in August.

It is about 8:30 as we head out this morning and already 81 degrees.

We have decided to head north and take a different route than our usual “over I-10 and up through Virginia”.  We wind our way north on smaller roads in lush, green East Texas.  With all the rain we have had, the water in ponds, lakes and streams is high.

We cross Sam Rayburn Reservoir fed by the Angelina River, and later Toledo Bend, a huge lake on the border with Louisiana.  Lots of horses grazing the lush grasses.  This colt was sticking close to it’s mom and when I got out to take a photo, the three females were quick to move to stand behind the stallion which is giving me the stink-eye here.

Temperature is in the 90’s and humidity high,  so we pass on stopping for a walk in the woods and head for Shreveport instead.  Passing through some rural Louisiana on the way...town of Keachi.

 We decide to try Strawn’s Eat Shop,  a Shreveport institution since the 1940’s, where we try their blue plate lunch specials and a slice of their famous ice box pie.   I have roasted chicken while Greg goes with chicken-fried steak.  We choose the peach pie on recommendation of our server and it is delish.

Getting ready to close as we left, hence chairs on tables

Peach icebox pie

 Two of the places we’d hoped to visit are closed today, so we head to #3 , the Shreveport Water Works Museum.  We are met by Kevin who proves to be a great tour guide and gives us a private tour!

The Water Works were built in 1887 and ran until 1993.  They are the oldest steam-powered water works in the US.  To fuel

the boilers which provided the steam, they first used coal, then switched to natural gas in the 1920’s.  Kevin went through the whole process of taking raw water, removing sediment, filtering, adding chemicals and then pushing it through the pipes that fed Shreveport.  One of the high pressure pumps is still operational and he ran it for a while so we could see the huge pistons, etc. moving. 

Beth got to blow the whistle that sounded in Shreveport for bad weather or other emergencies.

The huge banks of windows for ventilation were operated by a wheel.

These are the sediment tanks where the "raw" water sat before being treated and distributed.

 This was one of the first plants to use chlorinated water, but originally just used sand and gravel.

Very interesting tour!

From here we headed to the Horseshoe Casino where we thought we could cool off and were told we could park overnight.  It is actually in Bossier City, which is adjacent to Shreveport.  It is an area of growth, mainly due to huge Barksdale Air Force Base.

Million dollars on display at Casino

We spent an hour or so there then sat outside for a bit as a nice breeze picked up.  Still it was a noisy spot near a highway, so we opted to go check out the local Walmart which turned out to be more isolated and quieter.  Did some reading and chilling, shared a sandwich and called it a night.   Clouds began rolling in with the breeze and with  the back windows open and overhead fan on, it was pleasant.