Day 20: Shreveport, LA to Fort Worth, TX

Woke and checked out of hotel right before 11am.  Was staying on the 11th floor of the 12 story hotel, came down to ground floor to get parking taken care off for checkout, then different elevator up to 4th floor to take pedestrian bridge across the street to parking structure, and once across the street took elevator down from 4th to 2nd floor to get to the Forester.

Had an early lunch at Blind Tiger Cafe.  I first drove around the immediate downtown area before heading to the spot I had seen driving in the night before, and in looking up on Yelp saw it had consistent good reviews.  And that it had crawfish etouffee.

It ended up being crawfish etoufee redemption at the bar as a lunch special.  Flavorful sauce w/ enough cayenne to have me in a bit of a head sweat by the end.  Good amount of well sized crawfish tails too.  For entree plus coffee my total bill was $11 exactly.  It felt like I should have paid more.

Back to Forester that I had parked on the street at a meter -- took much less time than the one hour parking time I had gotten for 2 quarters.  Before leaving town I found a mailbox to mail the Birmingham postcards.  Unfortunately didn't get any Shreveport postcards to mail.  But -- don't feel like I spent enough time there to warrant a postcard anyway.  Also, not sure they have postcards.

It was 3.5 hour drive to Ft. Worth.  Pretty smooth the entire way on the 4 lane highway that was a straight shot west from Shreveport.  About an hour in I had a 20 minute or so stopoff en route to do a phone call to give a reference for a friend.  There also happened to be a Dunkin Donuts, so bought two donuts and coffee before getting back on the highway.

Got into Fort Worth and had my destination set as the AirBnB.  I didn't realize it when booking, but the loft above-garage place I had booked was set in an entire neighborhood of craftsman style bungalow (and larger) homes.  I was officially encantado with the neighborhood upon arrival.

Got to the place and was still feeling tired/sluggish from the drive.  Wasn't as tired driving as day before, but definitely wasn't feeling bright eyed.



Within a few minutes of getting into space I laid down on bed and ended up taking a half hour nap.  Woke feeling so refreshed.  

Decided I wanted to get out and see some more of Fort Worth before it got dark, so drove down and through downtown, out to the Stockyards area, and then mapped myself back to BBQ place I had found on Yelp for dinner.  Which was confirmed in AirBnB place tabletop literature as being excellent.

Turned out Heim Barbecue was back in the Fairmount neighborhood and quite close to where I was staying.  I had a combo plated with two meats and two sides and a beer.  Brisket, pulled pork, mac & cheese, beans.  All delicious.

Then couple blocks down to local coffee place to update blog and look to plan rest of trip.  Ordered a chai latte and spent over an hour and a half in the busy local spot using their free wifi going through work e-mail some, catching up on blog, and looking up stuffs for remainder of trip.

Got back to my AirBnB (only maybe 1/2 mile away) little before 9pm.  Driving through the neighborhood on a few different streets further confirmed that it was a lot like the area in Pasadena called Bungalow Heaven.  My AirBnB has magazines even from the Fairmount neighborhood that highlights it as a preservation district for craftsman style homes.

Lowkey Monday night in the garage loft looking up more for how last leg of trip will be affected by government shutdown (nat'l park visits).  Messaged Friend #5 w/ possibilities for El Paso/Las Cruces digs and for planning out final part of trip.

Loft had a sweet Bose Soundlink with great sound quality that I was able to connect to Spotify streaming on my phone via Bluetooth, so was able to doze off for the night to the sounds of Chilled R&B playlist.