Louisiana and east Texas: mostly flat

Sleep on Sunday night was blissfully NOT interrupted by the presence of police at the place I was staying. Several rooms were taken by pipeline workers, and one of them had been, well, drinking. No damage, but the night clerk was none too happy about it, since a number of clients had complained.

Louisiana's high point, Driskill Mountain is about 15 miles from I-20, roughly midway between Vicksburg and Shreveport. It made a lovely mid-morning break during yesterday's mileage marathon. It was a beautiful day, in the low 60s. The linked description is somewhat out of date -- the trail has received some signage and maintenance from a local scout troop, that make it pretty much impossible to miss. Strangely, almost none of the web resources I found on this place gave a good indication of how long the trail was -- it's roughly 3/4 mile, so it made a diverting walk through the woods. Near the parking area I saw a cardinal (either singing for a date or saying "this is my territory"), and (not photographed) a large raptor, probably an eagle, which was in motion, so I only saw his backside and a fairly impressive wingspan.



Blog entries from now on will be somewhat sporadic -- many of the areas I'm going through are somewhat sparsely populated. Stay tuned for tales and pictures from Big Bend!

Tennessee and Alabama

Driving 650 miles a day is work, which is why no updates. Today was a mere 550 or so (landing me in Austin, TX), so I actually have some time to work with the pictures and what-not.

I left my parents' place outside Philly on Saturday, and drove until I dropped, which turned out to be Dandridge, TN. I didn't see much of it, since it was dark when I arrived, and was nearly dark when I left. The first two pictures were taken not long before my departure.

To take some of the sting out of the long driving spells, I decided to stand atop Alabama.
This led me on a modest 2.5-hour detour to Cheaha State Park, home of Mount Cheaha, at 2407 feet the highest point in Alabama. The observation tower (and some other structures in the park) were CCC works projects. As you can see, the view was pretty nice.

The road leading up to the park winds along a ridge in the Talladega National Forest. There were a few scenic views along the way...


The day ended (again after dark), in Vicksburg, MS. I carefully avoided all of the casinos there.

A musical excursion into the Alps

My first stop on the road trip was to visit my parents outside Philadelphia. While there, we went to a concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The major work was Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony.

Since I expect mountains to figure in this trip, this seemed particularly apposite.

This work is a monster -- it requires an orchestra of about 130 players, including players for organ, heckelphone, and two oddities seem almost nowhere else:


I apologize for the picture quality -- it is from a cellphone. I highlighted the wind machine off to the right of the bass drum.



The "thunder machine" is the metal sheet hanging center-left in this picture. The percussionist who operated it struck it with a large wooden hammer and then rattled it about, to create a thunder-like effect.


Before the concert, we were treated to a performance by these, the second time I've heard actual alphorns. The first time was in Switzerland, in the mountains, an almost surreal experience, since the players were almost never visible (you hear the echos off the mountain walls).

Road Trip!

Coming soon to a blog near you:

• Big Bend
  
• Guadalupe
  
• Carlsbad Caverns
  
• White Sands
  
• Gila Wilderness
  

... and a whole bunch more stuff in the American Southwest. Stay tuned for photos of Bear, and tales of the road and trail!