Lake Charles Trip, Day 5, June 26, 2026 – Around Lake Charles

 Lake Charles Trip, Day 5, June 26, 2026 – Around Lake Charles

I slept late (for me) and stuffed myself with motel omelets, turkey sausage, and cinnamon roles. That, and some traffic pattern research, gave me a solid base for a day of wandering.

My first stop is the west end of LC’s North Beach – what we called “sand beach” in my time. A large, ocean-going freighter is docked across the lake/river from me, worth a picture. I also take a shot of the high (and old) Calcasieu River bridge; I will cross it tomorrow.

I stop at the local welcome center, also on the beach, for a nice chat with the ladies there. They direct me to a fancy new nature center next door. Children flock to the half set up to educate and amuse them, I try the water & fish side. It’s worth the stop at half the $6 entry fee.

 

My next stop is the historic old city hall building, now an arts center.

An America 250 exhibit on the ground floor invites you to sign the Declaration of Independence with a quill; the quill is now yours. The second floor features permanent and rotating exhibits by local artists. I spent most of my visit at the top floor music/musicians exhibit. I remember many names, including a band that played at some of our high school dances.

The Confederate War memorial, across the street, lost its soldier in a hurricane some years ago.

 I stop at the Lake Charles High School Memorial and look for names of classmates, many of them long gone.

From there, it’s a quick hop to Walmart, where gas is $3.29/gal. En route, I drive past the house where we lived during my 3^rd & 4^th grade years, our first in Lake Charles.

Then it was another stop at the old high school, where this historical marker has been installed since my last visit.

I had a good visit with my Lake Charles BFF and his wife; I’ll visit them again Sunday before I return home.

For the day:; 42.9 miles, for the trip: 879.9

Tomorrow: Visit some of my old haunts in the country an attend the all-school reunion.

Lake Charles Trip, Day 4, June 25, 2026 – Opelousas to Lake Charles

 Lake Charles Trip, Day 4, June 25, 2026 – Opelousas to Lake Charles

I dawdled in the morning and didn’t get started until 0735. Instead of taking I-49 and fighting Lafayette traffic, I decided to explore some back roads and find the Bellevue & Shuteston area that show up in property records.

My first location to check is the homesite of 2G grandparents, the Hadden family, on Union Street. It’s now either a grocery store parking lot or a muffler shop. Time passes. 

 

Now I head south on LA-182. It goes through the Bellevue area, flat and somewhat built up. Live oaks help the scenery. A bit further south, LA-182 & LA-178 meet – this is Shutston. There’s no sign of the 19^th C mercantile or other such edifices.

I turn off of LA-182 at Sunset onto LA-93, aka “Sunset Strip.” More houses, many with what I’d call a French-style peaked roofline; I doubt that an adaptation for thatched roofs has any real practical value using modern materials, but it does add to the ambiance. Cankton, a bit down the road, is home of Enchanted Oak Mobile Home Estates.

LA-93 crosses I-10, then a round-about sends me west on old US-90. I turn south again on LA-724, pick up another road that takes me back to good old US-167 through Maurice to Abbeville, parish seat for Vermilion Parish.

I park on the street and go to the courthouse for some research. I cannot find any record for property owned by W.L. Truman, a distinct surprise. The Abbeville visit wasn’t a complete loss; I enjoyed a delightful conversation about Acadian history & Nova Scotia with the director of the local combined historical/art museum and visitor center.

LA-14 is an easy hop through Kaplan to Gueydan. People are raising cane; they’re also raising rice and crawdads - this is an agricultural area. I arrive early in Gueydan, the Duck Capital of the World and home of the Honey Bears. The old museum building is undergoing significant rehabilitation and redesign, so the museum is temporarily housed on the round floor of a mansion.

The museum won’t open until 1300. I take a 2-mile drive out to the cemetery south of town and find the Truman section easily. G-grandpa W.L.’s stone is nice and shiny, his daughter (my grandmother) has a granite stone; G-grandma Cora Hadden Truman’s stone remains face down from some previous hurricane. I think I’ll see if the local funeral home has resources to fix this.

After a long chat with the museum director and presenting her with a small book written by mu grandmother, Stella Truman Wayne, I leave Gueydan about 1415 and head west on LA-14 which will take me to within a mile of my Holiday Inn Express.

 The old steep bridge across the Mermentau River to Lake Arthur has long been supplanted by a modern bridge – which is down to one lane for construction. The first time we crossed the old bridge, my father stopped at the bottom – he’d misheard ‘tall bridge’ as ‘toll bridge’. Oops!

The road continues through rice fields, crawdad farms, pasture & marsh lands, a dotted with white waterbirds. One section is essentially a causeway, flanked on both sides by mature cypress trees. I see an unusual roadkill; a decent sized gator didn’t make it across. I pass Daughenbaugh road. Yep, they’re relatives.

I arrive at my HIE at 1535, check in, unpack for my 4-night stay, and cool off from 92 degree heat. Then I call my old high school BFF and arrange to meet him tomorrow afternoon. Then it was time for some gumbo and some exploration. I’ll have to repeat that portion when I have my camera along.

For the day: 156.3 miles, for the trip: 837.0

Tomorrow: Local driving and visiting.

Lake Charles Trip, Day 3, June 24, 2026 – Ruston to Opelousas

 Lake Charles Trip, Day 3, June 24, 2026 – Ruston to Opelousas

My alarm went off at 0500, set there so I could get an early start. I looked out the window after morning ablutions and realized that the loud noises I’d heard overnight weren’t traffic. It had rained and it was still raining. The room and shower were very satisfactory, and the waffle iron was hot and ready at breakfast.

I’m loaded up and on the road at 0636, heading south on US-167. It’s a 4-lane hiway, mostly divided. Driving in rain is a both-hands task, so no tidbits until I neared Jonesboro-Hodge. Hodge has a Smurfit-Westlock plant that provides a plume of either smoke or steam. Bayou Butts and Booze is across the street. A bit further down the road, Weyerhauser has a large limber mill at Milam. I cross the Dudgedemona River near Winnfield, home of the Chady Shack (seafood & burgers). A sign reads “Oppose Property Taxes. Vote No.” In Dry Prong (yes, that’s the name of a town) a Dairy Made ice cream place advertises pit BBQ.

A few eroded spots along the right-of-way show an orangish-yellow soil, probably clayish. Choctaw Pines Casino, off a side road to the west, is probably a ral one, as compared to the ubiquitous gas station “casinos.” I merge onto US-71, a limited access hiway heading to Alexandria. The Louisiana chapter of the World Pentecostal Church has a large campground at Tioga.

I cross the Red River, running high and not very red. I merge onto I-49 across a wide flood plain; it eventually reaches higher ground near Woodworth. Traffic is light and moves quickly; most drives seem satisfied with the 75mph speed limit. I see two busses heading north, the fist bearing the logo of the Ragin’ Cajuns, the second that of LSU’s Tigers – could there be some summer event that would draw both schools? The rest of the run to Opelousas is uneventful; the scenery consists of trees, standing water, and egrets.

I reach Opelousas at 0930, park across the street from the courthouse, and go upstairs to research property & marriage records on the Truman, Hadden and Daly families here. I will address this in my own records. The place to research other information is closed – the man in charge is on vacation. After finding all I could, I look for a restaurant featuring gumbo but find the local museum instead. Then I find a local Tourist Info center and get directions to my HIE.

 I check into my hotel early, message my local contact, and head for Myrtle Grove Cemetery.

The cemetery was originally owned by the parish but was later given to the city. The city doesn’t maintain it well; I had to wade through foot-tall grass to navigate between family tombstones. The Daly family is well-represented here, the Haddens less so. The only readable Truman stone is that of 1-day-old David. Another unreadable child’s stone lies half-buried nearby. I believe these are the 2 male children lost in early childhood, as referenced in a letter I scanned last summer. Pictures from the cemetery:

Interestingly, Opelousas has both a Truman and a Daly Street; any classic residences in this area are long gone; it’s now a low income part of town.

 

I became overheated rather quickly out there, so returned to the HIE to cool off at write this.

For the day: 176.5 miles, for the trip 680.7

Tomorrow: Lake Charles via Abbeville and Gueydan.

Lake Charles Trip, Day 2, June 23, 2026 – Harrison to Ruston.

 

Lake Charles Trip, Day 2, June 23, 2026 – Harrison to Ruston.

I pulled out at 0725 after a high-carb breakfast at an up-to-date HIE. The weather is cloudy with fog on the hilltops as I head out on US-65. I pass ‘The Good Stuff Furniture’ on the way out via the 2-lane road. One home-made sign accuses the National Park Service of running an illegal speed trap; a more professional one near Pindall says “Pro America, Anti Trump.” There’s Silly Squirrel Snowballs, definitely not open at 0800.

The road improved as I near the Buffalo River area. It even has a pull-off for a designated scenic overlook; I stop – who knows when/if I’ll have another chance.

A side road leads to the Deplorable Brewing Company. Marshall’s DQ eating spot is the Daisy Queen. The landscape here is hills, mostly trees and rocks; the main products are lumber and slab rock.

Botkinburg – is it the home of computer bots or maybe botflies? It is the place where US-65 adds lanes; I’ll have 4 lanes or more for most of the rest of the day. Clinton AR is home of a Western & furniture store with 3-D animal figures lining its right-of-way. Damascus has the Southern Roots Hair Co.

A white-knuckle high-speed drive on crowded I-40 and I-30 from Conway to Little Rock leaves little time to make observations, but I-530 and US-167 are much less challenging. There’s the road to the Forest Tower Baptist Church. A headless road kill deer occupies the ditch. A billboard advertises the Southern Arkansas U. Mule Riders – whether a team or its mascot, it doesn’t say.

I pass Sheridan, wondering if it’s named for the despoiler of the Shenandoah or the British dramatist. The road is good and traffic is light as I drive past pine plantations and an occasional Flock camera (Grrr!). Farindale consists of a store selling liquor & boots. I make a comfort stop at Fordyce. I’d crossed the Saline River bottoms; now I cross the much-more extensive Ouachita bottoms. The high bridge makes me wonder if the river is navigable. It is, if the presence of a dam with locks is any indication.

I finally stop for lunch at La Villa in El Dorado; it’s now on my ‘nope’ list. What kind of flowers are those in that tree over in the cow pasture? Those aren’t flowers, they’re egrets! Junction City, like K.C., has a State Line Road - one of my LCHS teachers grew up there.

US-167 is a nice divided highway with a wide median. It is also US-63. Dubach is home of the Louisiana Chicken Festival.

I get to Ruston too early to check in, so I decide to explore a bit. The Lincoln Parish Museum is in an old mansion. It’s supposed to be open but a sign on the window bemoans the lack of volunteers. I can commiserate with that! I take a couple of pictures of the museum & grounds.

Ruston is the home of Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs. So guess what painted critters abound:

A local QT has gas for $3.15/gallon so I top off before checking in to my Quality Inn room at 3:00 on the button. My contact in Opelousas has discovered some graves that may belong to my two Truman great uncles who died in infancy; I will check all that out tomorrow.

For the day: 314.4 miles, for the trip 504.1.

Tomorrow: Opelousas via US-167 & I-49.

Lake Charles Trip, June 2026 - Day 1

 Lake Charles Trip, Day 1 – Monday, 22 June 2026, Warrensburg to Harrison

Planning this trip was a tad complex because I’m combining several purposes. One is, of course, regular sight-seeing, another is my 65^th HS reunion on Saturday in Lake Charles, and the third is genealogical research in Opelousas, Abbeville, Gueydan, and (maybe) Jennings.

If I were to leave Tuesday, I could make it to Opelousas in two days, but too late for visiting records offices. My solution? Leave around noon on Monday and spend the night at Harrison. Here’s how the day has gone:

I first had to take care of some bank business for the Johnson County (MO) Historical Society, where I’m Treasurer. That accomplished, it was time for brunch and a caffeine charge at Mary Jane’s. I pulled out of town at 1104 hrs, heading south on MO-13. Henry County welcomed me with the first of series of Flock surveillance cameras. Traffic delays at Clinton’s lights weren’t too bad, only 5 minutes to go the mile or so from north to south.

South of Clinton Truman Lake is high but not flooding. As I cross into St. Clair County I note that Henry County is not part of the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area; St. Clair & Johnson are. I guess the County Commission would rather deny their Historical Society and schools the opportunity to apply for certain grants than to sign off a pledge that has a DEI tinge.

MO-13 is fast, a divided highway with J-turns and Fantastic Caverns billboards. Humansville, home of the Barnwood Inn, has single-laning for bridge work.

I run into some heavy misting around Bolivar; I will be in-and-out of it the rest of the day. I turn off of the raceway onto WW hwy north of Springfield and pass the Roumanian Pentecostal Church. I don’t turn off to go to the gun club as I usually do. Instead I get on H hwy near Crystal Cave and head for the city looking for the cheap gas Gasbuddy.com told me of. Wait a minute! That sign says $3.49, not the $3.15 I expected – ah, there’s a sign at Walmart: $3.05/gal, and that’s where I stop.

Now I’m on US-65, 3 lanes of traffic going ‘hell bent for leather’ to someplace or other. For many, that someplace appears to be Branson. This road has its ups and downs, lots of long, steep ones. Just north of Branson a patrolman runs radar from the top of the hill, possibly to catch drivers who rely overly on gravity-fed momentum from the downhill to make it to the top of the next crest.

I’m ‘Flocked’ yet again as I cross into Arkansas and lighter traffic on worse roads at 1415. The hills are all green; this would be scenic if it weren’t for gray skies and intermittent drizzle. I stop at a Welcome Center staffed by a lady with a delightful Arkansas accent, then head into Harrison to find my HIE. 1^st floor, near side exit – perfect. Supper is a friendly Culver’s next door.

No sight-seeing photos today, but here’s the hotel:

 

Tomorrow: To Ruston, LA, via US-65 and US-167.

For the day and the trip 189.7 miles over 3 hours, 41 minutes.

Peoria Trip, Day 3 - Keokuk to Warrensburg, May 13, 2026

 I usually plan my trips in great detail; this one was no exception. However, I can be flexible; I completely replanned the day early Tuesday night – and redid the second half on the fly. Here’s how things went:

I left Keokuk at 0702, heading to Missouri on US-61/136; and was welcomed to Missouri by a Flock camera at the Welcome sign. Alexandria, MO, serves as an object lesson of how tax policy affects businesses and a community. It once had a thriving business selling gas to drivers from Iowa & Illinois, thanks to Missouri’s lower gas tax. As the 12.5 cents/gal tax increase gradually took effect, prices in Alexandria were forced higher than those in Keokuk. Missouri stations closed or survived without pumps by selling cigarettes, where Missouri taxes are still lower.

En route to Kahoka on US-136 I pass a sign “Trump Trucks. Turn Left.” Draw your own conclusions. I turn off on Route A. It’s twisty and hilly to Wyaconda, a small town that still has both railroad and an elevator. As A emerges onto prairie land, I enter Amish country. There’s a farmer plowing behind a 7- Belgian hitch!

I’m on this road because I wanted a look at Fairmont, where my 2G grandfather lived in 1870. It’s a sad little town. Here’s the sign and a shot of part of the town.

Just a bit south of Fairmont is the Liberty Baptist Church. I do not know if R.D. Truman served this church, but I do now that his name is not listed among the pastors of Providence Baptist Church, located west of Williamstown. It certainly existed during his active years.

Williamstown was only a couple of miles down the road. R.D. Truman lived/owned property here based on the 1880 census. While he died in 1891, his widow still lived here in 1900. I know this is the property he owned, at least from the road to near the large house in the picture. This property is still a single property per the Lewis County Assessor’s office.

 

I hurried down to Canton to meet Duane Harsell at the Lewis County Historical Society, arriving at 0841. He and another member there had done quite a bit of research trying to find specific records of R.D. Truman, without avail. I did look through what applicable records they had and did find his sister listed in a binder of Fretwell genealogies. We talked to some extent comparing how our local historical societies operated.

After a refreshment break, I left at 1041 heading west on MO-16 to Monticello, the county seat. At 102 people, it’s likely the smallest one in the state. The folks at the courthouse were very helpful in my quest for information. I’m really wondering what this local business does: Patriot Potholing.

I headed west on MO-16 to Lewistown. A business at the main corner in town has some whimsical folk art – three miniature horses with riders, all made from barrels or other metal parts – sorry, no pictures. J hwy took me to MO-156. I stop in Newark (pronounced ‘New Ark’), site of the post office frequented by my Trumans as well as a Civil War skirmish; in 2011 I visited a cemetery with a marker in remembrance Confederates killed here).

A saddle club has a nice facility at the junction of Missouri routes 15, 151 & 156. Further on, I pass through Novelty, wondering what might be novel about it. There’s a sign for Sue City – if a Lakota woman lived there, might she be known as Sue City Sioux?

At La Plata, I turn south on US-85, a nice 4-lane divided hiway. After 15 miles, I heard west on road AX west across the red-colored water of Long Branch Lake, then south on O to Bevier past as display that laid out like 3 crosses, except the crosses were green with crooked arms – faux saguaro cacti? I was looking for cheap gas (i.e., under $4/gal) at Bevier. It was there, but inconvenient, so on south on C to College Mound.

From there, it’s west on T across Thomas Hill Reservoir. This lake, created to provide water for a closed coal-fired electricity generation plant, is also discolored and high. South on MO-3, then a cut-off through a flat area past aptly-named Prairie Hill to MO-129 and Salisbury. A short 3-mile backtrack of Day 1 on US-24 takes me to MO-5. An elevated deer stand is permanently placed in the middle of a large plowed field awaiting its soybean seeds. There’s a small marsh; next to it is a “Wetland Restoration” sign. 5 Hwy takes me into & through Glasgow, a historic river town where I’ve done three CW reeenactments. I looked for the drug store where we stopped and shared a 2-straw cherry Coke on a long-past gallivant; I think it’s now a cafe.

MO-87 looks to be a shorter route than MO-5 to Boonville since it avoids towns. It makes up for that by being one of the hilliest & curviest roads I’ve traveled in Missouri. Boonville promised a lower price on gas, but the Pilot stop had lower energy E-15 masquerading as regular. Thanks a lot, DJT!

Since I’m already on MO-5 and don’t want to backtrack to my usual route, I continue south past Ravenswood Plantation and the attractive Hannah Cole Memorial roadside park, head west on C to pick up MO-135, then HH hwy. As I near Sedalia, I pass a much-expanded specialty egg pant and a new industrial facility going up. The new US-65/HH hwy interchange is unusual for the area, but doesn’t eliminate the stop light at the steel mill entrance.

After a quick meal at my Sedalia favorite, El Tapatio, I get home at 1636, unload, take care of cats Cisco & Timmy, and crash early.

For the day: 297.3 miles, for the trip: 809 miles.

Next trip? Louisiana.

Peoria Trip, Day 2, Peoria to Keokuk. 12 May 2026

 Day 2, Tuesday, May 12^th – Peoria to Keokuk

After a good breakfast with waffles at the Best Western Plus, E. Peoria, I headed back to Peoria Skeet & Trap to get ready to shoot. We hit the range on-time at 1100 with temps in the mid 70s with wind and relatively low humidity. My hydration plans were right on – I finished the 100 targets with no ill effects. Score was mediocre, but better than I had been shooting and not-at-all embarrassing. I hung around the club for a while, met another old USAF MO shooter, and pulled out for Keokuk at 1333. That’s when the adventure began.

I planned to take US-150 through town, pick up I-74, switch to I-674, the exit onto IL-116. Would have worked had I written it down to reference. Missed my turn, took the “Cook’s Tour” of the city including downtown Peoria, and finally found IL-116. Which had an extensive detour – my 20-mile estimated jaunt took 36 miles and 48 minutes.

I did pick up a few Sandra-worthy tidbits: Peoria High schools appear to play their football in a bubble-dome facility. Political graffito – a Stop All Ways sign was altered by covering the ‘Y’ with an ‘R.’

After I finally got out of town on a very-straight IL-116, I was hit with a quartering southwesterly headwind associated with an incoming front. I was sure glad I was through shooting for the day. Time for some seen-along-the-road observations.

The Olde Country Lane is near Trivoli, home of Flifinger Farm Supply. Steward’s Family Restaurant (and the associated motel) are long-closed. Farther west, I passed a boarded-up stone schoolhouse. Critter Castle pet boarding is housed in an old Queen Anne that’s seen better days – gone to the dogs, you might say. Farmington, “A Small Town with Big Hearts,” hosts Smithers Furniture in a nice downtown. Near Middle Grove, an old railroad right-of-way parallels the hiway. A number of farms are set up for tourist activities. London Mills is on the Spoon River; Sandra, poet that she was, would have made me stop to take a picture of the river crossing sign. A bit farther west a building has corrals (one occupied) and fence posts wearing saddles. Roseville, where I take leave of IL-116 for US-67, has one of the old Big Boy Hamburger boys welcome one to the town.

South of Rosedale the wind really affects the car – a wind farm nearby appears well-located. Does Curly Creek Construction construct curly creeks? Is Farmers Fork one of them? IL-336 bypasses Macomb – it may eventually become a 4-lane highway.

I’m now on US-136 for the rest of the day. I stop at Colchester, home of Full Scoop ice-cream, for a comfort break at Casey’s. The next town, Tennessee, has a barber shop with pocket billiards. It also has a siding to the active RR lie that passes through, but its elevator is sadly defunct. US-136/IL-110 passes through the nicely-wooded La Moine River bottom land. 

Carthage once hosted Carthage College; the parklike grounds are still well-maintained. A sign tells me Carl Sandburg College is north of the road. Carthage has a Fortress Bank, an historic jail, large saddle club grounds, and a Prairie Winds Motel. Evaston’s large brick schoolhouse is long-abandoned. Hamilton has Wren House Coffee and Inner Peace Massage.

I finally cross the Mississippi into Iowa, right into downtown Keokuk. This is an old river town with lots of frustratingly timed stop lights, and gas prices 60 to 80 cents below Illinois’. I find the Quality Inn, check in and unload, then have supper at the Hawkeye Lounge nearby. Here’s a view of the motel from the restaurant – don’t mind the Wal-Mart traffic

For the day: 147.4 miles, for the trip 512.1

Tomorrow: Researching my 2G grandfather, Richard Doniphan Truman, in Clark & Lewis Counties, MO, then home to the cats.