Monday 21st November – Into Louisiana and ANOTHER AFB!!

Our next chosen location was Shreveport, Louisiana home of yet another AFB – Barksdale.

Having perused the local map Simon identified a park next to the AFB and this worked out perfectly for both of us.  I must admit that, although I don’t get the same buzz out of plane-spotting that Simon does, the AFB locations also seem to be prime bird-watching spots, so I don’t suffer too much!  I took my bike out and did a circuit of the park… in about 10 minutes, finding this sign from the Park’s ’Fun Police’.  Turns out we were in ‘Bossier City’ – Bossier by name, bossier by nature....

Simon had been able to see some B52 bombers on the tarmac through the fence of the AFB but none were flying.  I suggested having a game of tennis whilst we were there and within the first game or two deep rumbling noises became apparent and the enormous, dark bombers started taking off right over us.  This somewhat halted the flow of the game as play was suspended each time for photo or video opportunities:












Thankfully it was to my advantage and I managed to win this set by a slim margin.  We had been really lucky again in managing to see these amazing aeroplanes in action right above our heads, just by turning up on a random weekday.

We went for a Thanksgiving top-up shop at a Walmart.  We didn’t know what facilities there would be around us on Thursday so we decided to self-cater our Thanksgiving dinner, buying a small turkey joint and vegetables for a roast followed by a traditional pecan pie with cream for dessert.

To see out the rest of the financial week to Thursday we selected another cheap PA option for $11 per night called ‘Kels Kove’ by Lake Claiborne.  This was just short of the State line into Arkansas.  We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived as we managed to bag a site only meters from the lake with a lovely view for the next two days.