We were beeped late Saturday night with our new destination... Shreveport, LA.... to be delivered on Monday morning at 9:00 am. Not a bad drive, only 565 miles. The trailer was at the terminal yard in Laredo, so we pulled around and hooked to it and decided not to leave until Sunday morning.
Sunday we drove all day and arrived in Shreveport, LA around 6:00 pm. It didn't take either of us long to do the dinner thing and settle in with the movie "The Contract".
Monday morning Trapper was up and about early while I was enjoying my much needed slumber... which was rudely interrupted by some strange crisp female voice inquiring if Trapper needed any "interior detailing" done! I laughed (silently) and turned over.... way too early for all that biz-ness....
We delivered our load of 4-wheelers... bright shiny red ones.... to the Honda place in Shreveport. Our directions indicated that the building would be on our right, a big white building with no name on it... as fate would have it... it was on the right side of the road... a big tan building with a brown overhang and the bright red letters of HONDA on it. I love directions!
Trying to second guess our next dispatch was interesting... I said we'd pick up in Louisiana and go to Florida. I'm getting spoiled with the warm weather. But, within an hour of delivering, we were being deadheaded to New Orleans, LA to pick up a load of sugar. We deadheaded 350 miles to the load and we will deliver it 400 miles away in Memphis, TN on Tuesday night.
If you've never been lucky enough to visit the state of Louisiana... you should, especially if you have a fascination with bridges. I haven't researched it, but Louisiana must have the most miles of bridges in the country. There are at least two serious of bridges that span 22-25 miles in length and one extremely long bridge that spans across 3 rivers. This picture is going around/through/over Lake Ponchatrain, on the west side.
Louisiana also has the most interesting town names and they are the only state that refers to their counties as parishes. City/town names such as... Maringouin, Plaquemine, and my favorite Atchafalaya.
As we arrived in New Orleans we started through the parishes that Hurricane Katrina effected three years ago. We all know it wasn't so much the hurricane, but the levees that didn't hold, which resulted in massive flooding. I was in amazement when I looked around and there is still, to this day, so much evidence of the disaster. This ongoing evidence would either make you very humble or be a constant reminder of such a horrible event...
This is an entire apartment complex that is now sitting, in ruins, completely deserted. Parts of this city look like a war zone.
Another completely empty, deserted apartment complex.
And yet more ever evident destruction from 3 1/2 years ago... 3 1/2 years! I remember seeing this on television, reading the reports, but it sticks with you when you see it in person.
We arrived in St. Bernard's Parish, the parish that was effected the most, and there are half sunken boats sticking out of the water, mounds of lumber, and bits and pieces of buildings still in a trash pile in various places around town.
We are picking up sugar at Domino's Refinery aka Fort Knox? I couldn't believe the security measures they have in place. The guard asked for Trapper's ID and then made me produce mine. One guard actually got in the cab to make sure no one else was on board. If there had been a pet in the truck... we would have had to check the pet in also!
Once we cleared security... we wiggled and waggled our way to the very back of the plant where we met 8 other trucks waiting in line and 6 trucks backed into the docks. I decided it was time to finish and serve dinner.... we were going to be here awhile....
During our 4 1/2 hour wait and loading time... I did some research on the Domino Sugar company. The company was started in New York in the late 1800's... this particular building looks like it was built in the late 1800's but I couldn't find any history of the building. The company has survived many trials and buy-outs and this refinery employs 320 people... 286 of which lost everything in Katrina.
It is the largest employer in the area and in the aftermath of Katrina... the company moved 200 families into FEMA trailers that were parked on the property of the refinery. There were a total of 722 people living and working in the very same location.
We were loaded and leaving the bayou country... headed to Memphis, TN...
Posts
0 comments
Post a Comment