St Croix River Road Ramblings

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Made it to Louisiana


We drove hard for two days and made it to LA. At Tickfaw state park near Baton Rouge. It was 55 degrees and sunny today--very nice!!!

We drove through Mississippi Monday after a "big" snowstorm on Sunday. They got from an inch to 8 inches of snow. On Monday we drove completely across the state on Hwy 55 and saw a total of one snowblow on the whole trip--and it was stopped along the side of the road appearing to be broken down.

I asked a local guy when we stopped at McDonalds about the lack of snowplowing (and shoveling of any sidewalks, rest stops etc): "Gov'n Baba believes since God sent the snow, it is God's responsibility to get rid of it too." He was speaking about Governor Haley Barbour.

By the time we got to the "bad" places, God had melted two tracks in each lane that were wet but not slippery and had we been in MN or WI, we would have been hard pressed to keep the semi-trucks from running over us anything under 70 miles an hour.

Here the big rigs were crawling along at 40 mph. We saw no one in the ditch (a cop at MickyD's said there were 32 accidents in the area the night before), except for a wrecker truck with two other wreckers on the highway trying to winch him out! Several people told me that they make a big deal out of a few inches of snow so they can shut everything down and take a few days off and wait for warm weather that is sure to come.

By the way, you can tell when you are in the south when McDonalds changes from fast food to slow food. You get used to crisp french fries, hot food, and accurate orders in the north but things are more languid here.