Again this year I find we spent a lot of time in Shreveport with dad or getting to and from. Early in the year we did explore a new route to Texas dropping south on I-49 and then toward Lake Charles and Beaument but we did not stop to explore. Still more concerned with the destination than the journey.
Since I have been referring to Kentucky and Tennessee as cris cross states for the number of times we passed through, I should probably refer to Louisiana as grand central station. We started and ended the year in Shreveport, had to be back to finish dad's taxes in early April, back again in May for dad's 90th birthday, and then we managed to escape during the heat of the summer. All the pictures for this year are on the Biedenharn Garden or American Rose Center pages if they did not fit under Shreveport where we spent most of our visits.
After finishing up 2008 spending about five weeks with John's dad in Shreveport we were heading south for the winter. You may think Shreveport is south, but it actually snows there. We started with Alexandria, then New Orleans, and on to the Southeast staying really south. Of course we really could not stay away having to return in March to finalize dad's taxes and several quick visits in the spring, again in June for the wedding of John's niece, and then back the end of November for the rest of the year.
Finally in 2008 we started to get some serious time exploring dad's state. Most of the details are in these other pages for Shreveport, the American Rose Center, and Baton Rouge.
While staying in Baton Rouge we did make one whirlwind loop past New Orleans and around Lake Pontchartrain. We were mostly just looking around toward planing a future trip to New Orleans and I did not stop to take a lot of pictures. Along US-61 I just could not resist and had to turn around for a picture of this newly opened restaurant. I really like photographing vintage
buildings, and old or antique equipment so there will be more later.
In 2007 Louisiana was another of the pass through states on the way to someplace else. It was very important to visit John's dad who would really prefer we just stay at the house in Shreveport, but we also wanted to use our retirement to see places we had never been and for the next several years this continued to be a difficult balancing act between dad and us.
On our way into Shreveport where John's dad lived we made a small diversion to Lake Bisteneau SP thinking that some time in the future we might want to camp here and still be close to dad. Unfortunately it is a little remote and we have not camped there yet. The lake is quite nice and the type John is still allowed to Kayak but Lori gets a little creeped out with the Spanish Moss covering all the trees especially this close to spooky Halloween.
There will be a lot more pictures of Louisiana, Shreveport, and dad, but this visit was primarily focused with getting all the legal stuff set up and organized for John to be executor, have power of attorney, and be keeper of the coins. Mom was the financial person and since her death dad was rather lost. Trying to pull all the parts together was a major multi-year effort here at the house on Cross Lake. Most of the day an egret would be fishing the shallows of the little inlet. Periodically a huge flock of white pelicans would fly in, herd the little fish into a school for easy feeding, and then fly off in clumps for greener pastures. We were also headed for greener pastures visiting sisters in Texas and getting someplace where it would stay warm.