Wasn’t Shreveport rich with oil and gas dollars? I went back to the rig and googled, “What the fuck happened to Shreveport?” I was quite surprised by what I was seeing. The scent of rot and decay accosted my nostrils as I took the photos. Is directly across the street from this crumbling eyesore. The Strand Theater, a 1920’s Vaudeville theater, renovated and reopened in 1984, host to Shreveport’s live theater and music, Large portions of the storefronts in downtown are closed and boarded. Was awash in a sea of people who were down on their luck, to put it mildly. One of the most famous buildings on Texas Street, the courthouse, Texas Street, arguably the most inhabited and populated street, could use a good power washing. I was more than a little dismayed at what I found in downtown Shreveport. One of the first things I like to do in a new city is to drive its downtown core. The area is now commonly called Shreveport/Bossier City, and the metropolitan area population totals about 500,000 people.

For those of you who may not know this, Bossier, pronounced Bow-sier (the second syllable like the end of Hoosier) City sits directly across the Red River from Shreveport. I rolled into town and set up at Diamond Jack’s Casino RV Park, in Bossier City. Sure, if I had only two weeks of vacation to spare a year, I probably would not spend one week of it in Shreveport.

I reminded them that I am not on vacation I am temporarily living in each place I visit. “Why the hell would anyone want to spend a week in Shreveport?” asked some south Louisiana friends. So, on my trek from Asheville, North Carolina to Austin, Texas (where I am spending the month of November), I thought I’d spend a week in Shreveport to get another perspective on the state. I’ll be spending a week in Lafayette and another in deep Cajun Country in February, for Mardi Gras. In the RV I have visited two cities in Louisiana – New Orleans, and Baton Rouge.

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