It’s Friday, not a cloud in the sky, mid 70’s, and I get off work at 12:30. The chores are gonna have to wait. I’m hitting the road. No plans this time, just bring the camera and go. 15 minutes from the house and I’m out in the sticks. Traffic is non-existent.
Here is a crawfish pond. Rice is planted in these every other year, alternating with crawfish. The leftover rice stalks are used to feed the crawfish.
These are the crawfish traps. They are cone shaped and made of a coated wire. Each can typically hold up to 1 pound of the little critters.
In season, crawfish are harvested once per day. The product must be at the wholesaler no later than 1:00 pm. Here is a picture of the boat. The drive paddle is a hydraulic motor with foot controls. The metal wheel in the front helps keep the boat straight. The rubber tires are used to run the boat over the levees between ponds. It’s designed to be a one-man operation.
Note to self. Before you go exploring, try leaving with a full tank of gas. Not a station in site. I’m on reserve and getting nervous. Found this hole in the road – $2.80 per gallon!! I’ll take it.
Stopped in the town of Mermentau – apparently they have a lot of truckers, but I didn’t see any.
The lazy Mermentau River.
Back on the twisty road and having a ball. Next stop is Lake Arthur, Louisiana. The poop sheet on the other side says top speed 82 mph, asking price $50,000.00. I’ll pass
Lake Arthur has a real nice park on the shore so I stopped and walked around.
Surface roots on our Live Oak trees kind of look like claw feet on furniture
Not much happening on Main Street. I did talk a while to this biker. He was riding a Kawi of some kind. Pretty nice looking bike.
I hit the twisty back roads now heading in the direction of home, but really just enjoying the bike and the weather. I stopped at a road side oil rig – thought some of ya’ll might like to see it. The rig is also called a derrick – this one is what we call a work over. The well has previously been dug, but for some reason, they are chasing the hole with some fresh pipe.
These workers are commonly called “roughnecks”. Considering their education and experience, they make good money, but they work hard for it, and the work is dangerous. The exotic valve contraption under the workers is called the Christmas Tree.
This stack of pipe will be pushed down the hole one joint at a time. This particular pipe is called drill stem, and it measures about 4” OD.
The roughnecks walked over to see if I was having bike trouble. I told them I was just wasting the day, and we shot the bull a little until the Tool Pusher (boss man) hollered at ‘em to get back to work.
My girl is looking good.
I stopped at my neighbor’s bike dealership, Cruzzers, in Abbeville, LA to look around. I ordered a new front tire and two sets of brake pads for my bike. The CR-Moto line is made in China – he sells a few of these.
He just picked up the Royal Enfield line and is selling them very well.
He’s going to paint the sidecar to match the military theme.
This is a pretty good looking bike.
This line of scooters is also Chinese, and according to my neighbor, shares about 90% of the same parts as a similar Honda. He sells it for about 40% less, with twice the warranty. This one has decals for our local University
He took this Shadow Bobber on trade for a new 4-wheeler. Asking $4,000.
Finally, he sells these chopper looking clones for $2,999.00 and can hardly keep them in the showroom. IMO, these look cheap, but the price is low too.
Made it home before dark, wiped down the old girl, and put her away. What a great day. Tomorrow the chores won’t be so hard.
