Trip Report Day 3: MS-LA
- From: H.B. Elkins <hbelkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 Aug 2008 20:27:16 -0700
Coming to you tonight from Motel Hell, I mean Motel 6 in Vicksburg, Miss., after
our "meet, great, eat & beat it before the evacuation traffic REALLY gets heavy"
SE Louisiana gathering today.
Route: I-59 south, I-12 west, US 11 south, US 90 west, LA 433 west, I-10 east,
I-12 west, US 11 north, I-59 south (again) US 190 west to the meet. After the
meet, US 190 west, US 11 north, I-12 west, I-10 west to cross the Mississippi
River and turn around, I-110 north, US 61 north (with a slight detour to cross
the river again at Natchez).
Accomplishments: Clinched I-59 in Mississippi, Louisiana and nationally;
clinched US 11 in Louisiana, clinched I-12 in Louisiana and nationally; clinched
I-110 in Louisiana and nationally; clinched US 425 in Mississippi (like that was
really hard to do). Also visited one new state for the first time (Louisiana)
and gained 10 parishes in my first visit to "America's Wetland," and added six
Mississippi counties to my growing total.
When I got on I-59 south this morning around 8 a.m. local time, traffic was
already heavy in the opposite direction. I tried to look at the vehicles I was
passing to see if they were loaded down with possessions, but most appeared to
only have people in them, so I wasn't sure if those were hurricane evacuees or
not.
A wreck near Picayune in the northbound lanes had the heavy traffic backed up
nearly all the way to the state line. I'm sure that was frustrating to the
rivers caught up in it. Meanwhile I could have laid down in the southbound lanes
for long stretches of time without fear of being run over.
The meet itself was fun. I'm sure the approaching weather (and possibly the time
change of the LSU football game) kept some away, but it was good to hang out
with Froggie, Jason and Steph, and to meet Justin Priola and Taralyn a/k/a
"Darkangel" for the first time. We crossed the westbound I-10 bridge over Lake
Pontchartrain and had vantage points of the new bridge construction on either
end, then took US 11 to its southern terminus and doubled back on US 90 to see
the new bridge there. We finally checked out what will be an interchange of I-10
and Business US 190 before all heading our separate ways.
I-12 traffic was heavy in both directions, but I'd been told that was normal.
Quite a bit was getting off on I-55 north and when I crossed I-55, the
northbound lanes were bumper to bumper and moving slowly (much more slowly than
I-59).
I-12 should be I-10. I-10 between Slidell and Baton Rouge should either be I-2
or I-6, or an x10.
Traffic on I-10 in Baton Rouge was tied up and moving slowly on the westbound
side, because of a disabled vehicle and a lane drop. It picked back up again,
only to slow for no discernable reason crossing the river. Eastbound traffic was
functioning just fine.
Not a lot of traffic on US 61 northbound. I expected more evacuation traffic.
The two-lane section wasn't too difficult to negotiate nor was it a major
slowdown, and in fact much of it is under construction to be four lanes.
There's some work taking place at the intersection of US 61, US 84 and US 425 in
Natchez. US 425 is signed there now in place of US 65, but there is no end
signage. There is, however, some old 70's vintage signage for US 61/84/98 in the
Natchez area.
I lost daylight somewhere not too far north of Natchez, due in large part to an
increasingly overcast sky in the west.
When I got to the motel I'd reserved, it was filling up rapidly with evacuees.
Motel 6 was not prepared for the influx. I have no remote in my room, and the
TVs don't pick up all the channels carried by the cable company (the clerk said
they had new TVs and they were not programmed properly). A noticeable absence is
The Weather Channel, which the evacuees were wanting to see for obvious reasons.
A note left over from yesterday. Alabama has installed signs on all the bridges
that cross the interstates, giving the route name or number, a blank interstate
shield, and the milepoint down to a tenth of a mile. Those signs are in
Clearview.
I spotted gas as low as $3.59 and as high as $3.89, with $3.65 to $3.69 being
about average.
As I type this at 11:30 p.m EDT on Saturday night, weather radar shows some of
the outer bands of clouds reaching the NOLA area.
Tomorrow: Highway 61 revisited, blues and Blue Suede Shoes, wooo pig sooey, Show
Me, and rocky top a/k/a Nothing Sucks Like the Big Orange (except maybe a
Louisville Cardinal).
If all goes well I'll be reporting tomorrow night from Murfreesboro, Tenn.
--
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