Shreveport, Louisiana, Here We Come!

   The alarm rang at 6:20! (I've gotten to dislike alarms a lot!)  I didn't sleep very well last night because the very tall tree next to the back of Harvey kept dripping from the all the moisture created by the fog.  It's pretty loud when it hit on Harvey's roof.  AND there's a train that runs all night and repeatedly blows its horn for 5-10 seconds at a time.  We had cereal for breakfast, did final preps and pulled out of our site at 7:45.  It was real foggy again, but warm.  We crossed into Lousiana (our ninth state since we left) at about 9:00.  We stopped at a Pilot at exit 10 off rte 12 at 10:00 to gas up Harvey.  Gas was $2.15. 
However, it was not RV friendly.  We drove right out.  About a half hour later we were crossing over the Mississippi River.  That was pretty special!!!

There's the bridge just ahead.

Just wanted to make sure you believed us :)

A steamboat on the river.  Might be one of those casino boats?

It wasn't as big as I thought it would be.

These were on the other side.  Don't know what they are, but they
remind me of something from a Madonna video!

 

At exit 151 off rte 10 we stopped at a Love's gas station.  It wasn't a whole lot better than the Pilot, but we made it work.  I was standing at the pump while John went in to get coffee and a guy came up to me and asked if I could spare a few dollars for gas.  He had a dollar in his hand and said , "he was on fumes."  So, being the kind person I am, I gave him a 10 dollar bill.  Shortly after that he went inside and then pulled out pretty hurriedly.  I looked at his pump and he had gotten $40 worth of gas.  I just might have gotten scammed, don't know.  But I guess my heart was in the right place.  He probably went to the casino across the street and hit a jackpot.  It is interesting that just about every truck stop in Louisiana has a casino on the grounds!!  And then you pass a billboard with a number to call if you have a gambling problem.  Hmmmm!!  I made some sandwiches before we pulled out of the gas station at about 11:00.  Shortly after we were back on the road it started to rain.  We felt fortunate to have the good weather we had so far because we expected to drive thru rain the whole trip.  I called Mom to get a report on Dad and the doctors are going to make arrangements to have him transported by ambulance to Dr. Rommel's office so he can examine him while laying down.  Don't know when that will be.  We got to Shreveport at about 2:30 and entered the CG on Barksdale AF Base at 3:00.  We were lucky enough to get a pull thru spot, especially because they don't take reservations here.  We had to pull ahead of the spot in order to unhook the Jeep.  It was raining pretty hard by now and even though John had his trusty rainsuit on, he was all wet, so guess who backed up Harvey onto the slab...ME!! (John gave me good instruction).  

Our pull thru is parallel to the road again.

That's us in the middle.  The CG is very spread out.

This is the clubhouse/office

The temp had also dropped to 55 degrees (it was 72 when we left Mississippi).  We were all done setting up by 4:00 and then drove to the commissary on base to get some groceries.  We went to the Airman's Club for a light supper and then back to Harvey for the night.  By the warmth of the fireplace John watched TV while I worked on the blog.

The fireplace makes Harvey so toasty warm.  And to
think I didn't even want it when we first started looking!

It finally stopped raining...at least for now.  It was a long day made a bit stressful because of the rain.  John did a great job, as usual.  Praise God that we arrived safely!  We went to bed fairly early.

   Thursday morning was overcast and chilly.  It rained off and on all day but the temp got into the mid 60's.  We went to check out the BX and then went just off base to Camping World.  It was very small, but we found the items we were looking for.  Just as we were leaving, a huge B-52 bomber flew right overhead.  It was almost deafening!  Of course we didn't have the camera.  We went back to Harvey for lunch and decided to go to one of the nearby casinos to try our luck again.  But first, I suggested we play a game of 5 Crowns to see who would be the lucky one.  I beat John pretty bad, but on the 2nd spin of his slot machine he hit a jackpot for $210!!  Luckily, he cashed out and held on to that ticket, because he didn't have any luck after that.  I did ok coming home with $42 more than I took!!  The casino was really rundown, almost gross, so I think we got that out of our system now.  We came back to Harvey and John grilled Bubba Burgers.  They were soooo good.  Then Alexandra called and we chatted for about 30 minutes.  Her new job is going great and so is Todd's.  He just passed a test that allows him to drive the fire truck on the airstrip.  And his supervisor is recommending him for an award because of how hard he has been working.  Way to go, Todd!!  Oh, and their English Bulldog puppy is doing well also, except for wanting to playfully nip at them, especially their feet.  So they are most likely going to put Gunnar in a 6 wk puppy behavior course at Pet Smart.  Best of luck!!  Bonnie left a message that Dr Rommel really doesn't think bringing Dad to the office will do any good, so he ordered the nurses to use hot compresses 3x/day on Dad's abdomen to speed up a fistula formation if that is the problem.  Otherwise the Dr feels there is nothing more he can do unless Dad starts to run a fever or the pain gets worse.  At that point he would have to be hospitalized for further evaluation.  John and I played another game of 5 Crowns and I creamed him again.  If you're keeping track I'm up 4 to 2.  We went to bed and started to watch a John Wayne movie, but we both fell asleep. 

Guess what we saw when we woke up on Friday morning...THE SUN!!!  It's supposed to get up to 75 today...YEA!!  John had breakfast and took a walk while I stayed in bed and watched some of the Inaugural event.  I rolled out of bed about 9:30, had breakfast and then watched the swearing in ceremony.  John monkeyed around outside because he had no interest.  We put our Louisiana sticker on our map and then left the CG about 1:00 to visit the Air Force museum on base. 

We're almost 1/3 of the way.  There sure is
a lot of the USA to see, isn't there?!?

 The museum was very small and a bit disappointing, but there was a nice display of aircraft outside.

It's actually called the Barksdale Global Power Museum.

Kind of looks like "Snuffles" the dog or a panda bear, doesn't it?

This is a Lockheed "Blackbird".  It was built in 1964 and cost
$34 million!  It goes 2000+MPH!!  It was
permanently retired in 2000.

Love the names they give to their planes.  It's interesting
how often the "nose art" involves a skimpily clad shapely girl.



This propeller belonged to the B-17G "Flying Fortress"  In 1944 it crashed
shortly after lift-off in Suffolk, England.  All 9 crewmen except the pilot were killed.
  The propeller was recovered 32 yrs later.  It had buried itself in a pond at the crash site.  A
drought in 1972 lowered the pond level and exposed the propeller.  It was
discovered by a group of 4 men who traced it to the 486th Bomb Group that were killed.
The pilot died in 1976 from complications as a result of his injuries.

More "nose art".

Aircraft is lined up all along the road.

These turtles were basking in the sun along a stream
behind the exhibits.

  Then we went to the commissary to pick up just a few items.  We drove around the base a short time and then got lost trying to find our way back.  We finally gave in and turned on the GPS

We spotted these local watering holes on the way back
to the CG.  Makes you want to jump right in, huh?!?

.  We sat outside and did some reading and planes kept flying overhead.

These B-52 Bombers are a lot bigger than they look here!

 

They are really loud!  The sun started going down, so I came in to work on the blog.  I made leftover chicken flat bread pizzas for supper.  Mom called to let me know that there has been no change with Dad except he is having a bit more frequent pain.  She is very frustrated not really knowing what his problem is and not being able to help.  I get that.  Plus Bonnie and I are not there to give her hands on support.  We are trying to do that by phone.  I think tomorrow I'm going to try to talk with Dad and a nurse on Dad's floor to see if I can get more information.  We played a game of 5 Crowns.  John was the winner by a 3 pts!!  Do you think we should really count that?  Ok...it's now 4-3, me.    We probably won't be up too late tonight because we want to get a fairly early start tomorrow morning for Waco, Texas.