New Pine Tar Rag

[Kevin]

NBB and just barely Astros-related, but this is all I got today. If it actually counts, that makes two in a year!

[JimR]

excellent, Jefe.

[Arky Vaughan]

NBB and just barely Astros-related, but this is all I got today. If it actually counts, that makes two in a year!

Brilliant. Having seen those Stuckey's scores of times, I'll never look at them quite the same way again.

[JackAstro]

This is a beacon in the darkness, thank you. I haven't made that drive in ages, but the insufferable boredom just came flooding back. I've always had a soft spot for the Stuckey's curiosity, though I'd never really considered it in the context of eventual Armageddon. You're probably onto something there.

[mihoba]

I've always wondered about those twin Stuckeys.

An entertaining read. If I may add, the newer Mickey D's at the Anauhac exit is another good 'drop' point.

[pravata]

I have had the gumbo at Landry's coming off the Swamp.  It was black, with a couple shrimps and green onions floating on top, and it was great.  Yeah the gumbo too.  Before I get on the Swamp Freeway, I have to swing around to Henderson and go to T-Sue's, pick up some french bread and pistolets for my mom and them and say hi to the tall Cajun girl with black eyes who works there.  My landmarks are, coming out of Houston, the bridge at the end of the Old and Lost River, Whiskey Bay bridge, Lake Charles bridge where it is perpetually raining, then the monster bridge in Baton Rouge, stay on the inside lane and ignore the 18 wheelers riding my bumper.  Then move over quick and get on 12 to Hammond and no matter how loud I turn up the radio, I can still hear the cicadas and the misty rot coming out ot the pines. 

[Arky Vaughan]

What's the record for being backed up on the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway due to a wreck? I've been stuck numerous times, I think two hours being the longest.

[Bench]

Fantastic, Kev. Always a delightlful surprise to see a new Rag.

Pat's in Hendrson, LA is my must-eat place on that trip.

In other news, when I was driving into Houston from Beaumont a few weeks ago, I saw a solitary flamingo fly over my head just as I hit the Trinity River Bridge. I didn't know we had those around.

[Astros Fan in SoCal]

Stuckey's. Pecan logs. Dinner plate belt buckles. Yes and No Invisible Ink books. Stuckey's.

[strosrays]

Fantastic, Kev. Always a delightlful surprise to see a new Rag.

Pat's in Hendrson, LA is my must-eat place on that trip.

In other news, when I was driving into Houston from Beaumont a few weeks ago, I saw a solitary flamingo fly over my head just as I hit the Trinity River Bridge. I didn't know we had those around.

We don't, as far as I know.  Possibly a rosette spoonbill.  They appear similar to a flamingo from a distance, or at a quick glance.


Thank you, Kevin.  That was great.

[Bench]

We don't, as far as I know.  Possibly a rosette spoonbill.  They appear similar to a flamingo from a distance, or at a quick glance.

That might be it, but I distinctly remember a curved beak. I guess that could have been the spooned bill at an angle, but it totally floored me at the time.

I've been confused ever since.

[Ty in Tampa]

Never been to the restaurant in Lafayette but the first food booth I hit at JazzFest every year is Prejean's pheasant, quail and andouille gumbo and the crawfish enchiladas. Most amazing!

[cougar]

Nicely done.  I never really had much need to go out to such exotic places as Wallisville until my new line of work (please pay your Conn's bill people, I don't want to have to come take your crap away) and I must say, Wallisville is depressing.  Jacinto City isn't much better.  I always feel like I need a shower after running that route.

[Bench]

Nicely done.  I never really had much need to go out to such exotic places as Wallisville until my new line of work (please pay your Conn's bill people, I don't want to have to come take your crap away) and I must say, Wallisville is depressing.  Jacinto City isn't much better.  I always feel like I need a shower after running that route.

Coming back from Houston last Sunday morning, on a whim, I pulled off into the National Wildlife Preserve at Wallisville lake. I was hungover and unshowered, so I threw on a U.S. District Court hat I keep in my car in off the chance that it may get me out of an encounter with police officer some day. I wandered down the trail to a pier running out on the lake and startled an extended mexican family as they were leaning over a "don't feed the alligators" sign, tossing hamburger buns to alligators and trying to hit them on the head with sticks. I nodded hello, but I guess they saw my hat and thought I was some sort of official, despite the shorts, dirty t-shirt and stench of stale beer and cigarettes. They immediately hustled up the trail into their cars and left. I didn't have anything for the alligators. They quickly left, too.

[strosrays]

Coming back from Houston last Sunday morning, on a whim, I pulled off into the National Wildlife Preserve at Wallisville lake. I was hungover and unshowered, so I threw on a U.S. District Court hat I keep in my car in off the chance that it may get me out of an encounter with police officer some day. I wandered down the trail to a pier running out on the lake and startled an extended mexican family as they were leaning over a "don't feed the alligators" sign, tossing hamburger buns to alligators and trying to hit them on the head with sticks. I nodded hello, but I guess they saw my hat and thought I was some sort of official, despite the shorts, dirty t-shirt and stench of stale beer and cigarettes. They immediately hustled up the trail into their cars and left. I didn't have anything for the alligators. They quickly left, too.

. . . as a pink, almost opaque-looking waterfowl with long legs and a longer beak flew by silently overhead, before veering off to the west and finally out of sight range.

[cougar]

. . . as a pink, almost opaque-looking waterfowl with long legs and a longer beak flew by silently overhead, before veering off to the west and finally out of sight range.

How very Hemingway-esque.

[Bench]

. . . as a pink, almost opaque-looking waterfowl with long legs and a longer beak flew by silently overhead, before veering off to the west and finally out of sight range.

It's quite a nice little nook of the world, no matter how misguided overly imaginative the person appreciating it is.

[Limey]

We don't, as far as I know.  Possibly a rosette spoonbill.  They appear similar to a flamingo from a distance, or at a quick glance.


Thank you, Kevin.  That was great.

I was on a business trip to south America with a colleague.  He ordered the chicken, and was presented with a fried leg...about 12" long, thin for the most part but with a thigh muscle like Bo Jackson.  We decided it must've been an egret.