Rocking on the Red River

I'm trying a new post using the suggestions made by Silver Fox. Thank you Silver Fox!!!!

I took a Riverboat ride on the "Spirit of the Red' ( Spirit of the Red web site) on the Red River today with Capt Sandy Jackson.  It sure was rocky on that boat especially when another boat would pass. It's lots of fun and I did it with a group of my Red Hat friends. I had taken the trip before but its always been on a field trip with a bunch of excited kids - IE lots of noise and being on my toes the whole time making sure no one goes over board. This time was with adults and it sure is different. I could sit back and enjoy it and actually hear the riverboat captain speaking. I actually felt like I had learned something new today.

When I had gotten up today there was a bit of a nip in the air when we first got up and a bit breezy. From owning a small boat I knew it would be no fun if I didn't dress accordingly. I was glad I did because I brought along a windbreaker which I ended up letting someone else use so they could view things outside in the front of the boat. Just about everyone else stayed inside. So at first I was staying inside and trying to take pictures but there was too much glare from the windows and eventually I ended outside too.
Here are some of the interesting things I saw today:
Shreveport is known for its Riverboat Casino's. Here the ElDorado. It started out as Hollywood Casino but through the years its changed its owners and its name. That's been pretty much true for most of the casinos in the town. Just like this casino Sam's town it used to he Harrahs.
With these riverboats they said the one thing you should notice is all the windows are black. They use to be clear but people were spending too much time enjoying the river view and not paying enough attention to the machines so they covered the windows so people wouldn't look out or know what time it was.
We cruised down the Red but then turned onto Twelve Mile Bayou or its sometimes called Cross Bayou. Twelve Mile Bayou would be an oxbow lake if it wasn't connected to the river. But because it is we just call it a Bayou. (The technical definition of a bayou is - 'A lake, or small sluggish secondary stream, often in an abandoned channel or a river delta. Local on the Gulf Coast. One of the half-closed channels of a river delta. Local on Mississippi Delta.' Quoted from Dictionary of Geological Terms 1976.)

The first bridge we encountered was the Spring Street Bridge. If you look under the eves of the bridge you will see lots and lots of circular things. These are sparrow nests. What you couldn't see was all the birds circling overhead. The boat spooked them and they took off in mass. At that point I was inside and just couldn't get a good shot of it (also I apologize for the poor picture you can see how things were reflecting off the window). Around here we love those little birds because they love to eat misquotes and being on the bayou you can just imagine all the little fly blood sucking critters we have.
If you look down the right front pier you can see a Blue Heron (also called Blue Crane) sunbathing. I guess he sees this boat so often it doesn't spook him like it does the sparrows. Also if you look you can see two people fishing on the bank.
Next we got to see this intriguing Bridge.
Its one of the more interesting sights in this town. It is aWaddle 'A' frame Bridge. It is one of only two left standing in the USA. It was built in the 1800's.
Here's another image of this bridge as we approached it on the way back.
Then we came upon a few boats dock close to each other.

What I didn't know it was one of the docks was the back yard of a local fish market. Boy you sure could smell those fish. But it was so neat to see that the guy actually catches them from the river and sells them to people from the river. You just had to pick out which ones you want.
We were leery about eating fish from the bayou but the river boat captain said that the Red River is one of the cleaner rivers in the country because there is no industry built by it that uses its water. (I don't know how accurate that claim can be because there is a lot of agriculture around the Red and I'm sure there's got to be fertilizers running off into it.) It is clean enough for Bossier City to use it as its drinking water source.

Here's some people buying their fish for today.

In the past I've seen these logs in the river and always thought that they were an abandon road or pier. Today I found out that they are intentionally put into the bayou to slow the bayou down during flood stage. The caps on them are to prevent rainwater from soaking into the top. This prolongs the life of the piers.
This isn't the best image, but it is pretty typical of what the banks look like along the bayou. The reason I took it was because there were a lot of turtles sunbathing on that log. If you look closely you can still see a couple still there. They got spooked too and most of them abandoned the log for the safety of the water. You can also see the slight splashing around the one log.
We then saw this next interesting feature. At first you think its just a small creek emptying into the bayou. But then you notice it looks like a little waterfall. (again this isn't the best picture.) In this area you just don't see waterfalls because the ground water table is so high. If you see anything its swamps.
I wasn't surprise to find out it was a man made feature. What did surprise me was to find out it was made during the Civil war. It was water slue for launching their boats that carried the Rebel troops. Water travel was the fastest way to move the troops during that war. Shreveport got its name from because it was one of the main distribution ports during that war. Also it was named after Captain Shreve the man who founded it in 1839.  He's also the same the man who freed up the log jam on the river during the early 1800's and thus making the river navigable again. The Great raft as it was referred to was reported to be 180 miles long. Bossier City started off as a trading post in 1840. 

Next we saw this bridge. And at first you think its you typical bridge. But then when you really look at it you notice its different.
Here's a closer look. You can't read it but on it says '1931' the year it was built.
Then you think its different because it has distinctive bands on it. It isn't surprising to find out that those bands represent different flood levels through the years. Here's another picture of the central pier. That distinct white area was the result of flooding we had on this bayou 4 years ago. (or so the captain said. ) The one thing I thought interesting is the captain uses this bridge to judge if the bayou & the river are up or down. He says normally you don't see that dark lower band so the river is slightly below normal right now. I was surprised by this since we've had so much rain lately, this spring. But then I remembered we've been in drought conditions for the past couple of years and I figure that's probably whats accounting for its level now.
But I still haven't come to whats so unique about this bridge. Look at the central pier. Notice how round and big it is. Here's another image of it.
If you live in a bay area you probably recognize that this is a swing bridge. It was built so that it can open and close. It was designed that way so that larger paddle boats could traverse up and down this bayou. At one time this bayou and its off chutes could take you all the way to Jefferson Texas. What makes this even more interesting was the opening was done all by mechanical means and no electricity was used to do that operation. The bridge has not been opened in a long long time.
I thought it was kind of ironic that no electricity was use since it is right near the local power plant. Here's it next to some abandoned water works equipment. That's an interesting trip also. The city has turned the old water purification plant into a museum and it is very fascinating to learn about. I wasn't expecting to find out that the power plant only uses well water to cool things down and to run its facilities. With it being so close the the bayou you would just naturally assume they would use that. I'm sure that with so much water being nearby that the water wells use never run low and some of bayou water is bound to percolate through to the well reservoir.
A different angle looking at the power plant and the water system.

And here's a better view of the plant.
I just liked this picture of the Pacific Railroad bridge.
And this one too. In the back ground you can see the city of Shreveport.
And here's some better views of downtown Shreveport.
and another one.
Here's were the two bodies of water merge together. And another view of Sam's town looking over it.
We finally joined up with the Red and this time I was able to look at the Bossier City side of the River.
Here you can see another casino is being built next to Bras Pro Shop at the Bossier Boardwalk.
This bridge on the Red is called the Neon bridge because it lights up at night. It is also the old highway 80 bridge and also called the Texas Street bridge because this is the road you would take to get to Texas, which is about 30 miles away.
In the background you can see the Horseshoe casino and their boat. Here's a better view.
This weekend was a special time in this area because we have a festival called the Holiday in Dixie. One of the things that make it so special is that Barksdale Airforce base likes to have an open house complete with an airshow called 'Defenders of Liberty Air Show'. While we were rocking on the Red we could hear and see jet planes and other planes fly overhead and do amazing tricks. I did try to get pictures but the planes just show up as dots on a very blue sky background. Today was a perfect day for having the show since the sky was so clear and blue. If you look closely there is one jet you can barely see.
Since I had so many other pictures of bridges it just wouldn't be complete without a picture of the bridge that gets the most traffic and that's I-20.
And here's one of my favorite pictures that I took today of Diamond Jacks.
Here's a picture of looking up river. To the left is Shreveport and to the right is Bossier.
And finally here's two pictures that I just liked.
And this one I just liked the unusual way the river bank was eroding.

Revised 4-21-12
I opened up the paper today and saw an article about the air show.  I found out it is called Defenders of Liberty Air Show and corrected it in the post.  The planes are flown by the US Air Force Thunderbirds.

Today while walking the Thunderbirds flew over head again and I was able to get a couple of more photos.  I've cropped these so that you can see the planes better in them.

2 US Air Force Thunderbird flying to get in formation for the Defenders of Liberty Air show 4/22/12

US Air Force Thunderbirds flying in formation for the 'Defenders of Liberty Air show' 4-22-12

I was just looking at my prints and realized I had another one of the Thunderbirds flying in formation.  I don't know about you but when I see these planes flying so close like that it just gives me goosebumps to see.  It makes you proud of our airforce if nothing else.

US Air Force Thunderbirds  flying in a line at the Defenders of Freedom air show 4/22/12

Musing: If you are ever crossing the country on I-20 and you are in the Shreveport/Bossier City area you should definitely check out the Riverfront activities. They're usually lots of fun.

Musing: It is different using the old settings. In some ways its easier and in others its more time consuming loading one image at at time. Right now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out normally and I don't have to go in and fix it.