Travel day #1. Not great but it beats the FOUR drives to Lubbock over the past year. Long story. Today I drove through East TX and Northern LA (I.e. the Baptist and Pentecostal part of LA and hence the not fun part) to wind up in Monroe, LA. Or Funroe as those in Alexandria call it. Not the greatest drive ever but it beat hours of red dust and wind turbines. I’ll spare everyone the Buccees rant.
It’s easy to forget how beautiful much of East Texas is. Green rolling hills, lakes, gorgeous trees…. too bad the humans fucked it up. Dollar General stores. Junk stores calling themselves “antique” stores with sickeningly cutesy names. Lay down yards. Used tire stores. Abandoned trailers. Houses with burning trash and 17+ old cars in the “yard.” Grain elevators or other farm product processing structures, near collapse. Nursing homes (not “retirement communities,” but nursing homes like from the 60s and 70s). Ugh. Oh and decaying Trump signs and tattered Trump flags. Shouldn’t have made those in China, gang. And vape shops. Vape shops…everywhere. What gives?
North LA is an odd contrast. Shreveport and Bossier City have clearly fallen prey to Atlantic City disease. The casinos are doing great. Everything else is crumbling around it. But the rest of the way is nice. No billboards until you get into the towns (then it’s all lawyer ads), through a thick pine and oak tree lined corridor. The highway is in great shape. Wish I’d been able to stop in Ruston, which looks on the ball. Monroe seems to have picked up since I was here last. Many years ago. I dated a girl from Bastrop, LA, just north of here, and spent the weekend at their place. That was a fail. But I digress.
Tomorrow it’s on to Birmingham. Meanwhile here’s pictures.
Summer In the Mountains 