Day 5

I am now convinced that we are bringing Michigan weather to each spot we visit! We heard thunderstorms roll through twice during the night and awoke to 37°, light rain and a prediction of light snow coming in. We left the camper at the motel and headed out to see a bit of Shreveport. There seems to be a nice historic/interpretive park but it was listed as “By appointment only” (we assume this is because it is winter time). Other than that, if you aren’t interested in Riverboat Casino gambling, the only thing to do was to visit the air museum at Barksdale Air Force base. After giving our licenses to the gate guard and being warned not to go any further than the parking lot of the museum we looked through their modest exhibits of the 2^nd Wing Battalion’s history in military aviation, which started just before World War I. I was surprised to learn that Barksdale was where George Bush was taken for safe keeping immediately after the 9/11 attacks and that from there he did his national address. It was still raining as we walked along the long row of vintage air craft including, bombers ranging from a WWII B24 to a 1955 B52. (The B17, which the sign said was on loan, had apparently been returned.) Then we returned to hitch-up the camper and work our way towards Dallas. We had the time to meander so we took US-80, a divided highway, rather than the freeway and saw a bit of the countryside in this, our 7^th state. Because it is virtually due west of Shreveport the temps stayed nearly even most of the way and then dipped close to freezing as evening approached. We got to Rick and Lynette’s about 6:00 and spent a nice evening catching up on each other’s lives over pizza. When Marv went back out to get some things at bedtime he noted that there was a little bit of snow on the truck. Although we could do okay staying warm at sub-freezing temperatures, water in the camper would be a problem, so we were grateful that we were staying in a snug house for the weekend.