A Trip Down LA-308

There's really nothing like found time. I had my day blocked off to do some volunteer work today, but it wrapped up far more quickly than I expected. I decided to take the rest of the day to take some pictures along LA-308, a road that I've been up and down several times. I've always noticed things I wanted to photograph, but I've never had the time. So I threw on a baseball cap, put some Surfer Blood on the iPod, and hit the road. 

Here is a rough map of the route I took today:

My first stop was Assumption Catholic Church in Plattenville. I had noticed the church before, but never the cemetery. It was absolutely fascinating. Many graves dating to the mid-1800s, and as you'll see below, many written in French.























The next few are from the Napoleonville area.



Madewood Plantation.

















I found myself back in Thibodaux again. This is St. Joseph Cathedral, quite impressive.



I was getting hungry, so I used my phone to Google the best po-boy in Thibodaux. The first thing that came up was this link about Frostop's roast beef po-boy. There is a Frostop in Baton Rouge, too, but I had never eaten there. I set the coordinates on the GPS.



You can tell I'm not from South Louisiana because I thought it would be a good idea to eat a roast beef po-boy in the car. It was delicious. The root beer was quite unique. It was served from an unmarked milk gallon container. It was sickly sweet, and slightly flat, almost like root beer mixed with molasses.



While sitting in traffic in Thibodaux (yes, there was some traffic), I snapped a couple photos of nice Acadian-style homes.





Now on Hwy 90 headed back toward New Orleans, I stopped to snap this picture, a common sight this time of year along Louisiana highways.



$1.08 sounds pretty good.



There are a few extra pictures from today on Flickr. Also, I recently took a hodge-podge of pictures (some I'm fairly proud of) in St. James and Ascension Parishes that can be found on Flickr as well. Just didn't think that set warranted a blog post. Anyhow, on my way home...

Baton Rouge | Government Street

It’s been a bit of a crazy week here as I’ve had work-related after-hours events to attend the last couple nights. Tuesday night I sat in my office and watched Hulu for two hours before my event. Although it was good to catch up on Archer, I realized I could have been out taking some pictures for my faithful readers… so last evening I took the opportunity. In hindsight, being outdoors taking pictures in the late afternoon in South Louisiana, while wearing a suit, was not the best idea before a social event. But these are the sacrifices I make for you.

My subject yesterday was one of my favorite parts of Baton Rouge – Government Street in mid-city. Government Street certainly has it’s highs and lows, but I kind of love the mix of mid-century architecture, nice restaurants and unique boutiques, along with some splashes of urban decay and kitsch. Admittedly, these will focus more on the decay part, because as my wife says, “all [I] like to take pictures of is run-down buildings.”

Hope you enjoy these pictures, I feel like my skills are getting slightly better. The first two are from the western edge of mid-city, nearly downtown. The rest bounce around a bit east-to-west as I saw subjects and darted in and out of parking lots.







I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition.





I had read about Ninja Snowballs, so when I saw the truck I had to stop and take a picture. (It was hard to miss - the truck is a brilliant, shiny red as you can see.)  I’m not sure which Ninja this was, but he graciously posed for the snapshot as he was packing up. He asked if I was from the newspaper. “No, just a little blog,” I replied.











Here are several from the grand old dame of Government Street, Baton Rouge Magnet High School.















This was actually on North Boulevard, but I couldn’t resist.






As always, larger, higher-resolution versions of everything can be found on my Flickr. Just click a photo to be taken there, then click "All Sizes." One last one for the road…