IT AIN'T JUST LOUISIANA...

Greetings, Blogging Pals!! My apology for such a delay in posting. It has been a bit busy.

So... let's cover the title stories here first.

We had reason to make a trip to Newton, Texas (in the County of Newton) recently. Now, Newton is about a 40 minute drive from our little burg in Louisiana which places it approximately the same distance from the state line (the Sabine River) into Texas as we are into Louisiana. Differences? A few. The 2000 population of Newton appears to have been about 2,000! That makes us about five times larger... but the Newton web sites (there are a couple of ways to check out Newton, Texas) were FAR superior to anything we had over here... until now. Check out the brand new web site for DeRidder! HUGE improvement here, folks. HUGE improvement.

So... let me refocus on Newton. While driving around the town, we encountered some signage that begs many questions. Unfortunately, there was no one around to answer any of them so we just have to speculate on exactly what is meant: The white sign on the left is the typical "NO TRESPASSING" signage. It's common around here. It's the yellow sign on the right that really piqued my interest. It reads "Keep Gate Closed. Wild Animals Inside." Now, that's some mighty fierce fencing going on there... and there is a swampy area you can't see in the photo but it's back and to the right and has a feeder positioned above it. Typically you see that for fish feeding... but I'm wondering if there are gators here? It is an appropriate environment for them! If further information becomes available, I will enlighten all of you.

Okay. That's Newton information for today. Another little town that is in Texas between DeRidder and Newton is Bon Wier. I tried to find a Bon Wier web presence... but such does not exist. At any rate, someone had apparently recently pulled the vegetation off of a fence along Hwy 190 as the signage below caught my eye:

This hand-painted sign reads "Bon Wier Helicopter Landing Pad." This is almost as mysterious as the Wild Animals in the Newton signage!! Bon Wier has no traffic controls with the exception of a piece of highway with a lowered speed limit. The highway shows us a truck stop, a post office, an abandoned gas station, and about five homes that appeared to be occupied. Is there a NEED for a helicopter landing pad?!? There is no apparent reason for one. If any of you can enlighten me, I would be ever-so-grateful.

Okay. That's it for our little foray into Texas. Changing subjects here.

So... one day the spousal-unit and I are rolling down toward Lake Charles, La. We have an appointment then plan to enjoy the rest of the day with a Sam's Club run and maybe a couple of other "large" store runs (think Target, Home Depot, Academy, etc.) that are not available to us in DeRidder. A variety of vehicles are passing us and I noted something that had struck me before. The pickup trucks have license plates that are AMAZINGLY long!!! They seem to begin with a Letter which is then followed by about 8 or 9 Numbers!!! Seriously! Since we were not having any great, mind-boggling discussion at the time, I pondered aloud to the spousal-unit, "I wonder why they have so many numbers on those license plates?" There was a pause and I figured he was just going to let my question go as a rhetorical one when suddenly I hear, "Numerals are cheap." WHAT?!?!? I started laughing aloud and we both had moments of speculation on why the prisoners would make numbers for less than letters. It was silliness abounding. Now... this happened a little while back so it had left my brain. You can imagine that it took me a few moments before I recognized exactly what was meant by the writing on the cake the spousal-unit brought to me on the anniversary of my 29th birthday. (Those are what I celebrate now.) Take a look:
I really wonder if he had to write this out for the cake lady to put it on the cake. I also wonder if she thought he was completely out of his mind! LOL!!! At any rate, we had another really good laugh at this and went on to libations at Faux Auntie Jo's with Miz Marty in attendance. The cake was cut with the "L" numeral reserved... since the spousal-unit has THAT birthday looming near and large!! We will savor it then.

That's pretty much it for today. This has gotten long (as usual) and I need to save something for a future post. Perhaps I will regale you with the tale of my interview at the Newton County Correctional Facility. Oh yes. That was a good one.

Until the next time...