Saturday, December 20, 2008 - Eunice LA

Breakfast Camp on the Levee, Black Hawk LA, December 20, 2008

I've been debating what route to take across Texas to reach southern New Mexico. I could take the pretty boring route I took last year or I could try something different. Different won so after crossing the river on US84 I turned left at Ferriday LA and took LA15 south along the river and then LA105 south to catch US190 west at Krotz. I wanted to see what the country is like along the river.

Riding the levee

Life along the river is dominated by the levee and living here must have been very different before it was built. There's a band of farmed bottom land outside the levee, the levee itself which looks like a long, mowed grass, park, and then inside the levee is the looping, meandering river bordered by low, wet woodlands. The levee is the highest point for miles and dominates the viewshed.

Breakfast Camp on the levee

Louisiana Route 15 is built atop or just outside the Mississippi River levee for miles and miles. Just south of Black Hawk I found a nice spot to pull off atop the levee to make a breakfast camp and have a look around right... about... {here} with {here} being at that dirt pullout you see on the outside of the curve on LA Route 15 - try zooming out to put {here} in a bigger context.

Lunch Camp at Wal-Mart, Eunice LA

Later I stopped for lunch at the Wal-Mart in Eunice LA and that's as far as I got. While lunching I searched for potential night camps along my westward trajectory. Hmmm...... there are no Corp of Engineers or State Park campgrounds this far south in Louisiana and the next Wal-Mart ahead of my westward bound trajectory is in Woodville Texas and that's 170 miles from here - farther than I'm willing to drive this afternoon.

I'm in no hurry, I'll make camp here at Wal-Mart until tomorrow morning. That's fine, I'll use the afternoon to catch up on stuff here at the site and to tidy up around the rig a bit.

Travel route for the day

From Natchez MS

West on US84 across the Mississippi River about 10 miles to Ferriday then
South on LA15 about 40 miles to Lettsworth then
West on LA1 about 5 miles to Simmesport then
South on LA105 about 25 miles to Krotz then
West on US190 about 35 miles

To Eunice LA

Night camp

Wal-Mart Parking Lot in Eunice LA

Wal-Mart Supercenter in Eunice LA

Wal-Mart Supercenter, 1538 Us Highway 190, Eunice, LA 70535 - (337) 457-7392

Good level parking lot
Verizon cell phone service is ok
Verizon EVDO Broadband not available - reasonable service is provided over their Extended Network
Find other Wal-Marts in the area
Check the weather here

Give it, Give it All, Give it Now

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.

more...