Saturday, June 04, 2005
Bogalusa and Covington
I drove to Bogalusa, LA, from Clinton. I drove around Bogalusa looking for the library and actually the drive to Bogalusa was eventful. I was pleased as punch to be driving through the pretty countryside, so much so that I neglected to look at the gas gauge. The low-gas indicator icon came up, as a rain storm moved in, so I pulled into a grocery store/gas station in Easleyville and got out. I got drenched and went in and gave the attendant $20 in cash for gas and saw what the people also in line were buying. One man had white bread, ground beef, and beer. Another yummy lunch in Louisiana. I went back out to the car and pulled the handle on the pump and went about my business, got out a Luna bar, checked my MP3 player, fiddled around, stared into the rain, figured the gas would be a-going along, but then I looked at the old-style pump, where the numbers spin around and click-click, and there they were, still at 00.00. I pulled the handle again, and then they started turning. When it got to 20.00, I went on my way to try to meet Eric at an intersection, to no avail (he called to say he was riding faster than expected, so I missed him). Then I drove off to Bogalusa.
Once in Bogalusa, I drove around, as I said, looking for the library. I was unimpressed by the town, and, I learned later, so were some of the residents. I drove around looking for the city center, where the public libraries usually are in towns, and what I found was the high school football stadium (for the Bogalusa Lumberjacks), the Wal-Mart, and the Temple-Inland environmental contamination factory (ooops, it just looked that way--it was a big, spewing, mammoth, well-lit, Metropolis-looking site). I should correct that though, based on research. According to Bogalusa.org, Temple-Indland "ranks as one of the outstanding manufacturers of pulp, paper, boxes, bags and other paper products," and I am also sure that they provide lots of employment for the residents of Bogalusa. But the factory was shockingly large and would be right at home on Zug Island in Detroit. And right on the corner where the factory sits is a sign that says "Welcome to Bogalusa."
The Bogalusa Public Library
I did find the library after asking a guy in a Rite-Aid. You'd be surprised how few people know where the public library is in the town where they live. The Rite-Aid guy did though, after looking skyward for a minute. The library was very nice and so were the library employees, two old ladies and two young ladies. I asked one of the young ladies where she recommended that we stay in Bogalusa, and she made a face and said "there is nowhere nice to stay in Bogalusa." So when Eric cycled up, I told him that, and we did manage to find a listing for one B&B, which he called, and they had no vacancies. In fact, the B&B man said, they have no vacancies "for two months." Nice rooms MUST be hard to come by. So we drove off to Covington, LA, for the night. Covington is north of Lake Pontchartrain. We worked ourselves into relatively good sprits by the time we got to Covington and we looked for our hotel, which we'd booked on the phone using Choice Hotels points as we drove there, and looked and looked and it was not where we thought it would be and neither were the roads we were looking for. This went on for a while, for such a while that we busted out the GPS. Turns out we were exactly as turned around as one can get. We were going south when we thought we were going north. So I called the hotel and asked them where they were. We got there soonafter. We were very tired and hungry. And I was very much in need of getting some work done and some applications out for academic jobs. So we ate, and then I worked. And that was that for Covington.
Once in Bogalusa, I drove around, as I said, looking for the library. I was unimpressed by the town, and, I learned later, so were some of the residents. I drove around looking for the city center, where the public libraries usually are in towns, and what I found was the high school football stadium (for the Bogalusa Lumberjacks), the Wal-Mart, and the Temple-Inland environmental contamination factory (ooops, it just looked that way--it was a big, spewing, mammoth, well-lit, Metropolis-looking site). I should correct that though, based on research. According to Bogalusa.org, Temple-Indland "ranks as one of the outstanding manufacturers of pulp, paper, boxes, bags and other paper products," and I am also sure that they provide lots of employment for the residents of Bogalusa. But the factory was shockingly large and would be right at home on Zug Island in Detroit. And right on the corner where the factory sits is a sign that says "Welcome to Bogalusa."
The Bogalusa Public Library
I did find the library after asking a guy in a Rite-Aid. You'd be surprised how few people know where the public library is in the town where they live. The Rite-Aid guy did though, after looking skyward for a minute. The library was very nice and so were the library employees, two old ladies and two young ladies. I asked one of the young ladies where she recommended that we stay in Bogalusa, and she made a face and said "there is nowhere nice to stay in Bogalusa." So when Eric cycled up, I told him that, and we did manage to find a listing for one B&B, which he called, and they had no vacancies. In fact, the B&B man said, they have no vacancies "for two months." Nice rooms MUST be hard to come by. So we drove off to Covington, LA, for the night. Covington is north of Lake Pontchartrain. We worked ourselves into relatively good sprits by the time we got to Covington and we looked for our hotel, which we'd booked on the phone using Choice Hotels points as we drove there, and looked and looked and it was not where we thought it would be and neither were the roads we were looking for. This went on for a while, for such a while that we busted out the GPS. Turns out we were exactly as turned around as one can get. We were going south when we thought we were going north. So I called the hotel and asked them where they were. We got there soonafter. We were very tired and hungry. And I was very much in need of getting some work done and some applications out for academic jobs. So we ate, and then I worked. And that was that for Covington.
# posted by jnewwave @ 8:53 AM 
