Saturday, January 5, 2008 - Jena, LA
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I took a quick look around at their museum and grounds, did my laundry, dumped the waste tanks, took on fresh water, and left shortly after noon to continue on down the Natchez Trace Parkway to Natchez, Mississippi where I plan to head west on US 84 to cross the Mississippi River, Louisiana, and half of Texas.
Fuel mileage: 13 miles per gallon
At Jena, Louisiana I gassed up before parking for the night at Wal-Mart. I wanted to see what effect the easy easy driving and the new catalytic converter had on my gas mileage. The effect was dramatic. Gas mileage went from my usual 8.5 to 9 miles per gallon to an amazing 13 miles per gallon on this first tank with the new catalytic converter. An easy 50 mph run with an easy breathing engine makes quite the combination. I never dreamed I'd see a 13 miles per gallon from this old puppy. These were exceptionally easy miles and I don't expect to average any where near 13 mpg but it looks like there's a good possibility of topping 10 mpg as an average. We'll take it.
Night Camp
Wal-Mart Parking Lot in Jena AL
Wal-Mart Supercenter in Jena, LA
Wal-Mart Supercenter Store #498, 3670 West Oak Street, Jena, LA 71342 - (318) 992-1351
That's the Point of Emotions: Survival
That's the point of emotions: survival. Normal emotions are essential to staying alive and well. ... To most people this doesn't make sense. We humans tend to think of emotions as dangerous forces that need to be strictly controlled by reason and logic. But that's not how the brain works. In the brain logic and reason are never separate from emotion. Nothing is neutral. That's what you have to remember. ... A lot of people's emotional life is unconscious a lot of the time, especially when you're calmly thinking something through. You feel like you're just using logic, but you're actually using logic guided by emotion. You just aren't aware of the emotion. ... I recommend Descartes' Error to anyone who's interested in emotions, intuition, and decision making. ... Nature seems to have tried to wire animals and people to have useful emotions, useful meaning emotions that keep us alive long enough to reproduce. Emotions keep us alive by letting us make good predictions about the future, and good predictions let us make good decisions about what comes next.