Picking up the pace as we head north

When we left the little town of Marksville, Louisiana, we decided to alter our wandering just a little. We have been moving northward very slowly, staying in tiny towns along tiny roads. But in Louisiana, we are finding that these tiny roads are some of the worst in the whole country. We're sharing these tiny roads with some big loads. We are obviously in logging country now, where long loads of timber are common.

We're ready for some bigger roads when moving the motor home further north. So instead of our next planned rural campground, we're going to make a couple stops in more sizable towns that are hopefully connected by better roads. Our first stop is in Monroe, Louisiana, where we found the best free camping spot! Using his all-stays camping app, Mark found that a local museum allows RVers to overnight in their parking lot. We headed to the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum at the edge of town.

Once we got inside the museum, we certainly wished that we had arrived earlier in the day. It was filled with one interesting display after another. We could have spent several hours here, but we didn't arrive until thirty minutes before they were closing. So we had to take a quick spin through the museum, guided by a very friendly docent. Here an animatron of General Chennault was introducing himself, and talking about his military career in the United States and China.

Another section of the museum gave a timeline of how a crop-dusting company in Monroe, Louisiana, would become Delta Airlines. Who knew that this huge airline started here and got its name from the Louisiana deltas in this area? We also learned from one museum display that the requirements for the first Delta Airline flight attendants were that they were unmarried women, ages 21-26, that could weigh no more than 120 pounds, and must be a registered nurse.

The people that work at the museum were very welcoming to RVers, and even showed us where to hook up to the 30-amp power, and how to get fresh water. We assumed that we would have no power or water tonight, so we felt very welcomed.

It was raining most of the day, but it quit long enough to get a little exercise in the evening. We drove to the University of Louisiana-Monroe campus, and took a campus hike. This is another college that has closed down classes because of the COVID-19 outbreak, so it was like walking in a ghost town. Desiard Bayou flows through campus, so we crossed the bridge and got a good look at yet another Louisiana waterway.

Things must be going well for this campus, as we saw a couple new buildings. They are just finishing the landscaping around the new classroom building for osteopathic medicine. Too bad there are no students to move into it!

In older sections of the campus, the mature trees are lovely. We found evidence that this part of Louisiana gets plenty of moisture, as the ferns growing on the horizontal branches are very healthy.

We love living in our 35-foot rolling home, but ever once in a great while we see a house that makes us consider turning in our wheels. We found this mansion on the corner of the university, and we were impressed enough to take a picture through the bars of the iron fence that surrounded the four-square-block property. You can't see the in-ground pool and the solarium, but this must be Monroe's most impressive residence.

The picture below shows just a fraction of the manicured lawn with acres of new bushes and flowers in pots ready to be planted. As much as Denisa enjoys looking at pretty flowers, she recognizes how much work this is. After we think about all the time it would take to clean that huge house, and do all that yard work, we are once again very happy with our little rolling home with its yard that never has to be mowed.

When we left our free camping spot at the museum the next morning, Denisa had to take a picture of the red, white, and blue flower beds out front. It's a tribute to Rosie the Riveter, and a reminder of all the men and women that have worked and fought to make this country great.

So even though our travels have changed in crazy ways this spring, we are blessed to still be able to wander many wonders in this country made safe by the soldiers memorialized in this museum.