ROADSIDE

Over nighting at a Wal-Mart can mean a restless night if you are there on a Friday night.

 

As local teens “drag main”, a great mid western tradition, they are almost obligated to show their independence by “ turning them over”, or squalling their tires as they make a turn in front of peers, who are sittin’ on tailgates in the parking lot, hiding a beer as the popo drive slowly by. After we picked up a few “ for the road” essentials at the Wal-Mart in Marshal Texas, we headed on North up Hwy. 59, towards Jefferson. After all, it was Friday evening and dusk was already setting in. We found a picnic tabled rest stop just off of hwy 59. Far enough away that a 18 wheeler’s late night Jake Brake wouldn’t cause an old Nam Vet to sit straight up in bed, wondering why he hadn’t left his flak jacket on the floor of the hooch by his cot. A sign on 59 pointed to a side road picnic area and we took a quick look in the fading light. We liked what we saw. The heavily timbered picnic area sat off of the paved side road about a quarter of a mile from US Hwy 59. The road into the picnic area was a paved loop. Man, it just got better and better. There were no signs prohibiting over nighting and better yet, no signs that this was a Friday nite party spot for country kids needing to blow off steam. We had found our overnight spot right at dark. In the morning, right as the sun was coming up, I took a few photos.

The last two photos show the coordinates and the location on the microsoft streets and trips on screen map, should folks want to file it away for future reference.

Here is a short video clip that gives a quick look at the picnic area: