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Friday, July 14, 2023

Louisiana Through My Lens - A Morning Drive Down Highway 71

I travel down Highway 71 from Alexandria to Baton Rouge several times a week and I always take note of all the interesting locations that I pass through. Today I decided to pull off the road and capture a few images of things I pass by day after day. Instead of focusing my lens of any of the numerous abandoned buildings I instead wanted to capture some images that tell a story about the rural areas that are often times ignored.

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When people outside the state think about Louisiana they often conjure up images of New Orleans during Mardi Gras, vast swamps and wetlands and crawfish cookouts. Those things a certainly part of the Louisiana experience, but there is way more to it than just that. There are backroads that wind through vast farmland and rugged forested areas that cover the majority of the state's territory. These areas are known to locals but travelers from out of state generally race through them without taking the time to get in touch with the natural beauty and serenity that Louisiana has to offer.

I have to admit that I have also been guilty of not taking the time to enjoy the beautiful simplicity of God's amazing creation. Today, however, I decided to dig deep and take a hard look at just what kind of scenes truly capture the essence of just what the real Louisiana experience is at its core. What I have discovered is that it is more about sugar cane fields than Bourbon Street. Life in the middle part of the state is all about hard work growing that cane, corn, and other crops from sun up to sun down seven days a week only taking a break on Sundays to worship Jesus and enjoy a meal out with the family. It's a hard life being lived out by hardy people who have lived like this for generations. Sadly they are a dying breed in an ever changing modern world. Though the world outside is indeed changing, things here in central Louisiana are going on as they have for decades.

I did take a few pictures of an abandoned gas station along the old highway in Lecompte that I have actually photographed before. I couldn't resist stopping there again to take some pictures because of the story behind it and how it perfectly illustrates how once prosperous towns like Lecompte are now becoming ghost towns. This was once a thriving ma and pa gas station, not a chain like Texaco or Shell, where locals could actually purchase their gas with an IOU. Sadly those days are gone forever and the evidence that it ever existed is being consumed by the power of Mother Nature.

Likewise, and old house in the middle of a sugar cane field sits abandoned. One can only wonder what stories its collapsing walls could tell?

I urge anyone who is traveling through the central part of Louisiana to take the time to enjoy its natural beauty.