567. St. Francisville, West Feliciana Parish (LA46)

So, say what you like about Louisiana (and I most certainly do), their courthouses rarely disappoint. This old lady is lovely in brick with it’s Palladian façade. Of course, there was a Confederate monument out front, but we knew where we were, no? The courthouse also deserves kudos for its extension, which not only copies the building style of the main building to the point of almost blending in, but is built to mirror it, especially with the aforementioned Palladian facing.

Damaged by Federal gunboats? Alright, that’s kind of an awesome piece of history! But I’ll also take a moment to mention something that, while not an issue here, would be a bit of a thing later down the line in other parishes. You’ll notice how the name of the town would be pronounced “Saint Francisville,” but is written “St. Francisville”? Well, that distinction between “Saint” and “St.” matters in a legal naming sense. Here, it doesn’t really matter (though I might as well use their legal name, I guess…), but several parishes have that distinction in their names. A small thing, sure, but a thing to pay attention to nonetheless.

As you can imagine, when I pulled up to this rail car, I was not enthused. If there’s anything I dislike almost as much as a micro in a tree, it’s a cache on a railroad car. It could be anywhere. It could be magnetic on the undercarriage or the tracks. It could be on one of the under supports. It could be inside somewhere. There’s almost no limit to this search, even for something that should be pretty easy. Luckily for me, though…

…it was none of the above, which was nice. It turned out to be a relatively quick find and all it really cost me was a bit of perspiration in the humid and warming Louisiana morning. Remember the word “humid” because it will recur. But once I was back in air conditioned comfort, I went back to driving. I arched an eyebrow while passing the truck with the giant water tank and the lady sitting on it. It turned out to be crawling up the side of the road, watering the plants hanging from the town lightpoles. An odd little bit of the town to see, but early mornings sometimes have odd things. But that was quickly behind me as I sailed down the highway to…