11-24-07

LA to FL

This was interesting way that they harvest sugar cane, or at lest I think that is what they are doing. They use something like a corn chopper and load it into these big field carts or into trucks. It looks something like the corn silage other than it is cut in longer pieces. I did see some trucks that had long pieces in the boxes but most was chopped in short chunks. It was all over the road blowing off the truck boxes just like the corn silage.

Every time I crossed a water way there was a lot of business going on along the water way.

This was an interesting section of elevated roadway. When I looked over the side I saw why they had it elevated. It was a huge swamp down below. It smelled odd too, maybe alligator breath?

This road way climbed up to the rail road grade to cross the Mississippi River. It is a huge steel crossing bridge that starts a mile or more away for the train to make a gentle climb.

Here is one of the FEMA trailer housing units. This is now in New Orleans. It seemed like most of the nice neighborhoods were fixed up nice but the poorer ones were still pretty thrashed. I didn’t ride around the city but just came through on one of the major roads but not the freeway. I wanted to ‘see’ the city.

This is a little section that I had to go back and look over as it wasn’t the same as the rest. Lots of small yellow people here that didn’t seem to want me there, so I got along the road.

I had to stop for lunch and found a sort of black bar and grill. I was the only white guy in there and when the guy brought this house special out I had to grab a camera and take a picture of it. I told them that we don’t get things like this in Montana. The cook came out and talked with me and said that we probably have things up in Montana that they don’t have down here. That could be but a 6” tall burger, onion rings, drink and piece of carrot cake is still pretty amazing sight.

Here is an example of a house that didn’t get rebuilt next to one that is either new or totally rebuilt. I didn’t stop in the city and take photos of the damaged and abandoned houses as I think that is their business and I am sure I wouldn’t want folks driving by and taking pictures of my misfortune. I guess I did in this case, sorry folks…..

Some new construction

It seemed weird to have a new double wide up on stilts. I wonder how they will stand up to another ass kicking storm.

Just coming into Mississippi and the oaks with moss are hanging over the road.

This was taken at a rest stop that had a NASA teaching center attached to it. It would have been interesting to go on the tour as they had busses but I was on the road and needed to get going.

This is big fishing country. Lots of shrimp boats.

This is logging country and there were lots of loads of little pecker poles like this on the road.

I finally made it to Rocky’s place just outside of Philadelphia, MS. It was late at night and I had called for directions. Rocky and his son John came down to the intersection to meet me. I saw him right away because he was wearing the hat that I gave him. This hat was one of the first I made with some old hundred year old hat blocks. I made these hats out of Icelandic sheep wool and they were a lot of fun to make and a lot of fun for the guys that wear them. Rocky is an old hot rodder from way back when they were just starting to make hot rods down in southern California. He was right in the thick of it and when he moved out of Southern California he moved to Goldfield, Nevada where we became really good friends. We have stayed that way too even though we are separated now by a few thousand miles. 

This is Rocky’s new Mobil gas station that he and John built. He has done a lot of restoration work on these pumps and accories. He is a detail man.

He has done a lot of restoration work on these pumps and accessories. He is a detail man.

He goes to the local flea market and has picked up a nice little collection of planters and cultivators.

This is Johns little pride and joy. John is a builder and dropped out of the big contractor scene in California and loves just doing small jobs around here. in the back you can see the last of eight little Indian motorcycles that Rocky picked up when he first got here. It was the best one and runs still.

A 1940 Mercury flat head. 

John and Rocky are going to build a little VW slingshot type car out of this old Cessna plane that got destroyed in Katrina storm. I think it will be pretty cool looking rig.

Rocky has always had a Cushman scooter and here is his ‘new’ one.

This is a friend that stopped by and is the guy that owns the 40 Merc that he is building into a hot rod. His son does tattoo work and he let me take a few photos of his sons work.

Rocky said that he is an incredible craftsman and builds champion type work.

Another friend showed up in his buggy. This guy travels all over in this and gives rides to kids at the farmers market and any event that happens.

The hose is 16 years old and I guess can really cover the country. No hills to speak of around here so it is mostly flat ground. Traffic and commotion doesn’t bother.

Finally a few larger logs on this truck.

This was  a nice color display for fall.

A B B Q special here was quite a meal. I like these little joints and haven’t gotten sick ‘yet’.

some really long pecker poles.

I think these are hard wood logs.

This was a nice looking little row of abandoned brick buildings in what was a small town.

I have never seen this type of stand for a truck trailer before.

Didn’t make it. I neve have had a chance to see one live yet other than the one (?) I was chasing down in South America.

They had these round bales protected from rain with solid covers. I am not sure what they had rolled up here but could have been peanut vines???

I really liked this old ‘cracker’ house. It had hand split lap siding.

This is cotton country. Most of the cotton fields I saw were already harvested but a few were still green yet.

When I left Rocky’s in Mississippi and headed for Tova’s place in Florida I had to ride through several thunder storms with some pretty good rain. I made it into Panama City, FL and found a place to get my lap top out and hook up to the internet with my cell phone. I looked up Tova’s address using the whitepages.com website. I wasn’t that far away so after a little time searching around I finally found the street and when I got to that address it wasn’t her place…… WTH? I tried several places on that road that might have been the place but it sure wasn’t her house. I was at her place when I came back from South America and ‘know’ her house. I finally stopped at some peoples house and asked them for help and they got out maps and gave me directions and off I went again looking. NO luck…. Finally I stopped at a fire station and asked them for help. By that time I was so confused I couldn’t follow directions anymore and they guys were just going to get a fire truck and take a ride in it and show me where I needed to go. Then I had a brilliant idea. I told them that I had a photo of her mail box on my lap top and maybe that would be of some help. It sure was, as it had her address, on a different street way across town. They gave me simple directions and I finally made it……… Tova and Anna are gone down to their ‘real’ dads place and wont be back for a couple of days so I have the house to myself. It is nice to have a day or so to relax and rest up from the ride.

Tova has a really cute little house and has it decorated with some of the tools she picked up when she was in the Peace Corps after she got out of college. This is a little hand hoe that she used out in the rice fields. She worked with the native people on a rice project. All the women worked in the fields and she worked side by side with them.

One of her drums.

This is a plow. I think she said that the men used the plows as it was just too hard work for the women to do. It is all wood other than a small piece of steel/iron tip. These tools are so beautiful and lovingly hand made.

I took a little ride and had to stop and take this photo of one of her neighbors’ houses. It sure is a classic design and had the moss hanging from the trees.

I headed east toward Apalachicola which is a fishing village along the coast. There is a military base that I went through and this keeps people from snooping around I would imagine.

The roads are pretty much plain old straight and flat with trees both sides. ditto the rest of the south....

How about a little beach front property? Got cash? Oh, it is a bare lot, no house.

White sands.

I was getting hungry and stopped at a little joint along the highway. There was quite a crowd standing outside and I figured if there were that many people it must be a good place to eat. It turned out their main specialty was oysters. These two guys pried open the little slimy bastards and piled them on a tray. The serving gal would then pop a wedge of lemon on it and take it to the customer. It seemed like most folks were eating them alive and raw but the menu said you could get them steamed and baked. These guys never slowed down and shucked them non stop all the time I was there.

This is the really nice couple I sat next to at the restaurant. They are folks from Atlanta, GA and are down ‘escaping’ for the holiday. They work for the government in health and I couldn’t hear very well what was said but I do remember she said she keeps track of hepatitis all across the country, that might have been all around the world. They are camping out in one of the little parks in a tent. They spoke regular English so accent wasn’t a problem. Sometimes it sure can be hard for me to understand what some of these folks are saying.

I stopped in at a little museum which wasn’t much but this is the place where they made the very first ‘ice’ machine.

This is a 3/4 scale model of that first ice machine.

Almost a hundred years of steamboats!!!

This is how they harvested the pitch from the pine trees to make turpentine.