11-19-07
Arizona to Louisiana

It has been a great trip so far and I took a few photos that I thought I had better download and write a little about what I have seen so far.

This little enclosure is on the road from mammoth, AZ to Benson, AZ on a little dirt road that I went on years ago and liked so much I did it again. This is done with glass bottles and I thought of Scott and Tucker that want to build earth ships and I think this is something that they would like to do maybe in their construction.

I think this was in New Mexico. A nice field of peppers.

I took highway number nine that goes along the border. Lots of border control guys.

Home land security in all its glory. Lots of national guard guys posted along the road. This little lookout goes up hydraulically.

I stayed in Poncho Villa state park and this was one of the things in the campground.

It was a nice ride over toward El Paso until I got close and then it was foggy as hell. Whoa, it was really terrible riding. Fog on the helmet visor, both sides and on my glasses too. I was almost blind but finally a car passed me and I got right on its butt and made some time finally. It finally burned off. I talked with some dirt biker guys that gave me directions on how to get around el paso and they said it was this way only once or twice in a decade. My luck eh? It is burning off in this photo. I didn’t have to go through town which was wonderful.

Texas oil patch is on the skids as far as I could tell. Sure there are still a few pumps going but most are not pumping.

lots of rusty stuff all around.

Made it into Pecos and thought it was interesting that it claims the first rodeo…..

They had a repo judge Roy Bean building too. I went to the original Jersey Lilly years ago but forget where it was.

I went through a huge wind generation area. I wonder what the oil guys think of this?

A Texas ‘bump gate’. You hit it and it bumps open and you drive through before it slams into the side of your truck. They also make one that turns around 180 degrees, but I couldn’t find one of those to take a photo of it. Oh, you might notice that there is a Texas flag as well as an American flag here. lots of folks fly flags and mostly Texas flags but some do fly an American flag. There are big stars all over which is the Texas symbol as the lone star state. This is really a country all to its self here. it is Texas first and maybe a state too……

Damn Texans grow some funny birds.

They are still doing a little drilling. They haven’t completely drained the state, but they are working on it.

Yeah, Dogs………. BMW Dogs go and go and go and go and go……

After Ozona Texas it gets more and more trees. The further east you go the worse it gets.

see what I mean by the Texas spirit. Check out the windmill tail.

How about that little 40 Ford?

Bunches of Turnips for $1.50 a bunch. I saw lots of patches of these at the houses along the road.

Sort of a typical southern house built up off the ground so the air circulates. Great place for the dogs to hang out.

A huge swath though the forest for the power lines. They really have to trim back the trees for all power lines here.

A big ass rat or is it an O possum.

I stopped along the road to take a piss and this is what you have to face IF you want to go in the bush to take a pee. I just stood along the edge as I didn’t want to get in there with the alligators, fleas, ticks, poison oak, copper heads, cotton mouths, chiggers……………. Yeah, it is just humming with things that I don’t like.

Just coming into Louisiana and this will give you an idea of the huge lawns these folks down here have. They keep it like a golf course. A lot of these lawns are more than five acres.

How about this road?

I stopped and talked with the flag man about the wood timber road and he said they had to do that too keep the trucks from sinking in. I wonder what a road like that cost to build. That is a pretty handy little truck to move and lay the timbers eh?

Easy livin’ on the bayou.

I am coming into the area that was devastated but Katrina. Typical trailer up on a stack of blocks.

This guy really doest want to get wet the next time. The little trailer next to it is like one the government gave them to live in. they are all over the place. There are a lot of them parked next to a little slab that used to be a house. 

Some are a little more fancy that others.

The gulf of Mexico with its 10” waves. They get a lot bigger.

There are lots of oil and chemical plants around here. I think these are the boats that go out and try to contain the spills.

I had to take a ferry across one of the channels. There are lift bridges most places.

I think that is a off shore platform with its legs ‘up’.

A whole herd of those FEMA trailers. I hear that they are unsafe to live in, or at least that is what they said on the radio one day.

What I tell you about Gators? Yeah, don’t go off the road and watch the road too……

some damage from the storm.

here is something you don’t see every day in Montana. Actually I have never seen anything like it before. Is it a Bobcat that floats?

I didn’t eat here but would if I had the chance. Sit, Stay, Eat.

I am in New Iberia, LA and will head for Mississippi tomorrow. WOW, what a Ride!!!