Sunset West

West of Sunset

Then there was the ham. He was in the back of his field when I came by the first time. And, I had to turn around because the road on the gps was interrupted by a hole where there use to be a bridge. I checked him out again and he had moved to the electric fence line and paused. "Take my picture mister. And how bout some sugar." Well no sugar, but he got his pic on the web. Burros are common pets and folks are attracted to these ornery goots, out west of Sunset.

I know, I know, again, but, these gravel and sometimes sparcely paved country lanes are another world. No rocket needed. Redundant in this category is good. I must be attracted to them, I always find one on my wanderings, out west of Sunset.

Spring on the coulee (small stream). No mountain stream, but, no less beautiful. Crossing a wooden bridge on a gravel back road and stopping and lisening to the birds and critters and gurgling water is another attraction found just west of Sunset.

Spring was trying hard, but hadn't quite made her mark of this limestone road. This is the worst stuff on which to ride a bike. I'll do gravel all day to be in the "back country", but if limestone appears, I'm turning around. It is like golf balls. This was not west of Sunset. But on the Sheriff's Training grounds east of Lafayette. Less than a half mile from a city park. I was attracted to it by the "Dead End" sign. Don't put one up in hopes of deterring me.

Sorry, I got away from the theme of this thing. We'll get back west of Sunset on the next page. This time it will not be so much Nature, but some human contributions to the area, commonly know as "the plains" or "rice country". Sunset marks the beginning of change. The sky line becomes more like west Texas. Trees are much less common and only around waterways, lakes and marshes. Further south, on the same longitude, the town of Scott claims to be "Where the West Begins". It took me a few years to figure out that Indians weren't involved.

    Lafayette is a growing octopus. Her tenacles are reaching out further and further all the time. What Was, in many cases is now Gone. Stuff you'd think would be there forever, gone.The rate this is happening is amazing. Lafayette, in an attempt to remake itself into a new Houston is grinding almost everything in her path.
   So, having no other tool to halt this, the camera will have to do in saving the neat stuff I am able to find. The pictures that will accumulate here were taken in a 30 mile radius of present Lafayette. Seems far out? Not at all. I was 20 miles out and "gps'ing" my way home from the west and I found Congress St., a main thoroughfare of Layfayette. It was a small lane that turned into a gravel road and then back into pavement and grew larger as I moved toward town, houses and driveways growing closer and closer together. A sign. The sprawl was coming. Apartments and jammed neighborhoods will replace the quaint Cajun cottages, barns and rice fields.
    So, this is a small savings account of what I see as valuable scenes.
    Hope you enjoy.

    "Open Range", no. Open gate or broken fence, yes. But, to be honest, this was at a point where I had to turn around because I had found "the end". Like in "dead end". Which means I had passed these gugs a few minutes before when I wished I had had the camera out.
      They were like patrolers in a "Neighborhood Watch" program. They knew they were out, they knew they were free. And probably wanted to keep it that way.
      What they didn't know was that they'd have no problem from me.
       I share that concept and philosophy wholeheartedly.