Tag: Louisiana

Happy 248TH Birthday America

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 4, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about the 17TH day of my April retirement road-trip – returning here to my home state of Florida. And I wrote about the 18TH and final day – westward and southward away from Yulee along Florida State Road 200, and onto U.S. 301, U.S. 441, Florida State Road 33, a series of old narrow backroads in northern Polk County (following Google Maps), and back to U.S. 27 and the Heartland of Florida.

The purpose of this road-trip was to see America, and I saw a good part of her on this 18-day, 7-state, and 2,807-mile excursion across our southern states – northwestward from Florida to Alabama to Mississippi to Louisiana to Texas – and then southeastward from Texas to Arkansas to Mississippi to Alabama to Georgia to Florida.

Out of 2,807 miles – only 186 miles were via the Interstate Highway System. It was the rural portion of I-10 in the Florida Panhandle and into South Alabama – 149½ miles from west of Tallahassee to east of Pensacola, and 36½ miles from west of Pensacola to east of Mobile. Much of my route occurred on U.S. 98, U.S. 84, and U.S. 82 – old U.S. highways – the way we used to see America before the Interstates came into existence.

I drove 1,216 miles during the first 5 days of my road-trip, and that took me to Wylie Texas – where I spent 8 days and nights with my family. I didn’t drive at all for 7 days in a row.

I drove 1,591 miles during the final 6 days of my road-trip from Wichita Falls Texas (the northernmost and westernmost point) back home to Florida.

The most miles driven in a single day occurred on Day 14 when I drove 366 miles from Wichita Falls to El Dorado Arkansas. The next day came in 3RD place – 348 miles from El Dorado to Tuscaloosa Alabama. That’s 714 miles in 2 days. Over the course of 11 actual days of driving – I averaged 255 miles per day.

I filled-up with gas 7 times on this road-trip, and I paid anywhere from $2.899 to $3.499 per gallon at the pump (before credit card discounts). I averaged over 45 MPG.

For many years I imagined (and talked with friends about) a 100-day / 10,000-mile retirement road-trip clockwise around the circumference of the U.S.A. – from Florida to Texas to California to Washington – across the northern tier states – over to Maine – and then down the Eastern Seaboard back to Florida. This wasn’t that trip, but it was at least a quarter of that trip. By keeping mostly to old U.S. highways – and some state, county, and local roads – I saw America, and she is beautiful. Each state that I visited had its own unique charm and identity to it. I obviously love my home state of Florida for everything that she has to offer and for everything that she has done for me over the past 36+ years. I definitely need to spend more time in and see more of Mississippi and Alabama – even if I don’t drive all the way to Texas. And I’ve got Georgia on my mind too. I want to explore your historic seaside towns – especially Savannah.

#ArkLaTex & #ArkLaMiss – I learned of those two terms while in South Arkansas. It was fun to see more of Arkansas than ever before in my life. I liked what I saw from Texarkana to the Mississippi River, and now I want to see more. Maybe even your mountains upstate.

I visited a lot of great historical museums along the way, and I met and talked with a lot of fellow docents serving at these museums – preserving, protecting, and promoting the history around them. I saw a lot of good, and a little not-so-good at these museums. These were all lessons learned as I continue working with some of my local museums.

This is the 13TH and final part of my look-back at my April retirement road-trip. I wrote all of it during the month of April and into the first couple of days of May – while my mind was still fresh from the trip. It was fun planning the trip, and then doing the trip, and then writing about the trip during and after it. But I’m just getting started. Now that I’m in the retirement chapter of my life – I hope to spend more time seeing America – by road – by rail – and perhaps – maybe even by Mississippi River cruise. America – you look great at 248 !

Next #TravelThursday – Let’s join the circus ! Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Alabama, America, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas

Blogging Driving Food Geography History Military Travel

Marshall Texas

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 9, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my morning south of Hattiesburg Mississippi at historic Camp Shelby to visit the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum. After that – I drove to the bluffs overlooking – and the banks of – the Mighty Mississippi River at historic Natchez. I didn’t get to see and do everything that I wanted to in Natchez, so I’ll just have to visit again on a future road-trip.

Natchez and the surrounding area intrigues me with so much history. The U.S. 84 / U.S. 98 drive across the south of Mississippi leading to Natchez is quite scenic and serene.

Day 4 of my recent retirement road-trip began on the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge. It’s actually two bridges side-by-side. Westbound (into Louisiana) is the original bridge that has been there since 1940. Eastbound (into Mississippi) is the newer (and a bit wider) bridge that was built 48 years later.

I continued my westward trek on U.S. 84. It’s definitely one of my favorite highways in the U.S.A. It has a very interesting intersection with U.S. 165 where – in order to continue on U.S. 84 – you have to make a right-hand turn onto U.S. 165, immediately get in the left-hand turning lane, make a U-turn, quickly get in the right-hand turning lane, and then turn right back onto U.S. 84. (There was a high incidence of collisions at this intersection, so it was reconfigured in 2018 to 2019.)

Fun Facts: U.S. 165 is a 412-mile highway in Arkansas and Louisiana. Its northern-end is at U.S. 70, and its southern-end is at U.S. 90. Technically – U.S. 165 forms a concurrency with U.S. 84 at the unusual intersection described above. (I’m such a U.S. route nerd.)

I entered Texas from Louisiana via rural Keatchie-Marshall Road. There was no big “Welcome To Texas” sign at the state line – just an ordinary “Panola County Line” sign with a smaller route sign above it designating it as Texas Farm Road 123. Oh – and the speed limit increased. (Texans love their high speed limits.) That quick moment began a 10-day stay for me in North Texas.

It was on to Marshall Texas from there, and my first stop was the historic Starr Family Home. I introduced myself as a fellow docent of a historic house, and I enjoyed a wonderful conversation with two of the docents on duty at the time before, during, and after my self-guided tour on both floors of the house. They gave me some good ideas to ponder.

After that I ventured over to the Harrison County Historical Museum. I was a little disappointed that there were no docents on duty during my visit to their museum (located in two different buildings across the street from each other). In fact – I was able to enter and tour virtually the entire museum without any human contact whatsoever. That’s not really a good thing. Open museums should always be visibly manned and supervised for information and security purposes. I did finally find someone working in an office near the gift shop, and I briefly talked to her about the other museum location across the street. Their museum (in both buildings) contained great displays, but they lacked guidance, direction, and written material.

Harrison County Historical Museum, Marshall Texas

My final stop in downtown Marshall was the highly-rated (via Google reviews) Pazzeria By Pietro’s. I got myself a 9″ pizza with pepperoni and Canadian bacon. It was very good – truly hot and delicious !

Next #TravelThursday – I’m settled in North Texas with my family for 9 days. I’ll share some fun moments – including the total solar eclipse. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Hattiesburg, History, Louisiana, Marshall, Military, Mississippi, Museum, Natchez, River, Texas

Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

Retirement Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 7, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of weeks ago I revealed the first 2 pitstops / overnight stays of my upcoming retirement road-trip. You can read that original blog post here.

The first 5 days of my road-trip are mostly planned-out intentionally. I’m driving a little over 1,200 miles from my home in the Heartland of Florida to North Texas (Dallas area), so I spaced it out as good as I could in order to accommodate the memorials, monuments, museums, and nouns (persons, places, and things) that I wish to see along the way.

I’m spending Night 3 in Natchez Mississippi – overlooking the mighty Mississippi River. I spent a night there on my last road-trip to North Texas in November of 2021. I was able to take a few photos of the surrounding area around my hotel, and then the sun set right after that. For this upcoming trip I plan to arrive earlier in the afternoon so that I can visit one (or both) of the following historic homes / museums – Historic Auburn, and the Rosalie Mansion. Also – I hear that Magnolia Grill is the place to enjoy delicious food, so I’ll check it out. I was planning to eat dinner there on my last visit, but it got dark fast, and I didn’t want to drive around town at night. Sunset will be at 1927 (7:27 PM) CDT the night I’m there, so I should be good for this visit.

From Natchez I’m headed westward into Louisiana – mostly along U.S. 84 – and then northward – mostly along U.S. 59 – to Marshall Texas. That’s my pitstop for Night 4. I hope to visit the Starr Family Home while I’m there. I need to do more research on Marshall to see what else I may wish to visit, and of course – I need a good restaurant to enjoy dinner at.

On the 5TH day – I arrive at my destination where my family lives. I’ll be in North Texas for 9 days.

Next #TravelThursday – ALL ABOARD on the Sugar Express. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Louisiana, Marshall, Mississippi, Natchez, Texas

Blogging Driving Food Holidays Military Shopping Television Travel Weather

My November Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 30, 2021

#TravelThursday continues now with Part 5 of my 7-part blog series on my recent 18-day road-trip between South Florida and North Texas.

Last week I left-off on Day 9 within the eastern portions of the Dallas Texas Metroplex (Collin County). I visited the Military Heritage Collection Of North Texas military museum, and then from there I visited the “Dallas” TV series museum – the Southfork Ranch. It was an interesting combination of military history and television history, and it was very appropriate in that I discovered the “Dallas” TV series in England in 1986 with my military dormitory buddies. It was “must-see-TV” for us back then.

Here’s what’s even wackier. During our guided tour of the Southfork Ranch, one of our tour guides went around the room and asked where each person or couple was from. I responded “Miami”, and a couple on the other side of the room did the same. We eventually met up outside on the front grounds of the mansion following the conclusion of the guided tour. The couple were actually from Homestead (same as me), and the guy worked at Homestead Air Reserve Base (same as me) for the same Wing. He left / retired a few years ago, and he and his wife moved to the Dallas Texas area. We actually knew some of the same people on base. #SmallWorld

After I returned back to my brother’s and sister-in-law’s house on that Friday afternoon I did not drive my car again until the following Friday morning. I enjoyed the day-to-day routines with my family, and we did the normal things that we always do during the week leading-up to #ThanksChristmasGiving – our traditional combined Thanksgiving and Christmas. One of my favorite things to do is something that goes back some 40 years, and it’s as simple as shopping with my brother. It’s also a good workout keeping-up with my brother in the stores.

On Day 16 of my road-trip – Friday November 26TH 2021 – I departed my family’s house for the start of the long drive home, but first I had to let my defroster melt the coat of frost off my windshield and rear window so that I could see. On that frigid morning I took the backroads of the local area over to U.S. 69, and I took that to I-20. On the south side of Shreveport Louisiana I got in one last meal at Whataburger.

Fun Fact: The nearest Whataburger is about 380 miles from my home.

After my early-lunch at Whataburger I proceeded onto I-49, and I took that to Alexandria Louisiana. From there I took backroads and old U.S highways through the rest of Louisiana, across the mighty Mississippi River, through Natchez, and over to Hattiesburg. I pretty much traced the same route eastward, as I took westward 2 weeks earlier.

I arrived at my hotel destination on the west side of Hattiesburg right around sunset that night. On that day I drove 523 miles, so that’s 1,974 miles on this road-trip so far.

And that’s where I’ll end Part 5 of this 7-part blog series. I’ll continue with my road-trip adventures and experiences next #TravelThursday. I’ll reach Florida next week, but how deep into Florida will I get ?