How Old is the "New Bridge"?

My wife and I were watching the LSU baseball game vs. Mississippi State last night when the camera panned out to get a shot of out Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge. It was of course the bigger, nicer, and newer bridge of the two that we have in Baton Rouge.
Local Denham Springs and LSU baseball legend, Ben McDonald, was the color commentator for the game as he works for ESPN now as a baseball analyst. Ben told his fellow announcer that that was the new bridge of the two and that it wasn't that new anymore as it was about 25 years old. My wife and I both instantly said to each other that the new bridge was very much older than 25 years old as Ben McDonald had stated on the telecast.

I agreed and stated that we used to drive over the bridge when I was a kid all the time to get to out camp that we owned on False River. Of course, my wife grew up in the False River area and she too was certain that the bridge was a lot older than 25 years old. She quickly got on her phone and Googled to find out the the new bridge will actually be 50 years old next year.

She asked did I know the name of the new bridge and I surprised her by stating the it is the Horace Wilkinson Bridge. Not many people know that or call it that. Most everyone just calls it the "New Bridge". If you are not familiar with the bridge it is the one in the header for this website. Anyway, I quickly got on Twitter and send Ben a message about the actual age of the new bridge and to both my wife and I's amusement, Ben came back on the air after a commercial break shortly after that and told everyone that the bridge was actually 50 years old and that everyone was sure to let him know about his mistake.

We go a great laugh out of the whole thing. Thanks Ben for taking the time to read my Tweet. The home team Tigers did pull off a thrilling come from behind victory as well.

Pressure Washer Purchase and Use

We hadn't done any pressure washing outside in about two years. I usually borrow a friend's pressure washer and finally got a hold of it this past weekend. I was making some progress when the machine ran out of gas. I filled it up and then could not get it started again.

The machine had been used quite a bit since I last had possession of it. We pulled on it and it got to where it was hurting my hand to try to start it. We brought it back around the corner to my friend and went straight over to Home Depot. Owning my own pressure washer is something I had always thought about doing but had been able to borrow one for so long. Well, my friend suggested that if I was going to but one that I might try an electric one so I didn't have to mess with the motor.

That sounded like a good idea so we ended up getting a Ryobi 2000 PSI Electric Pressure Washer for about $179. It worked well for us to get a good day of work in. Dealing with the power cord in the way along with the high pressure hose and water hose was an added challenge to deal with but I sure didn't have to put gasoline or oil in my new machine. Here is the YouTube Video we made about the new machine and shows us putting it to good use.

Thanks!

Spring Means Getting the Yard in Shape

As spring is here and we are getting ready for the summer and no school, that means getting the back yard in shape. We spent a big amount of effort on swapping out pools recently. The next big thing that I needed to do was to get our big oak tree trimmed. It constantly has low hanging branches that make it difficult to cut the grass underneath or to even walk underneath it.

We trimmed a good bit on it last year but this year I decided to take it to another level. I purchased a Remington Ranger Electric Pole Saw from Amazon and we got after some big limbs on Mother's Day. It made a huge difference for the yard and I wanted to share out video on this project for you. If you need to do some serious tree pruning then this pole saw is a good buy and I recommend it. For only about $80 it was well worth the cost. Thanks!

Area 51 is Popular and Fun for Kids

One of the newest things that kids love to do is go to these indoor trampoline parks. There are a least two of these in the Baton Rouge area. The one that my kids like to go to is behind the Mall of Louisiana called Area 51. It has been an instant hit with young people in the area. If you've never been to the place, it is basically a large indoor space with various forms of trampolines and trampoline type games such as a dodge ball area, a foam pit for flipping into, another foam pit for swinging down into, a few basketball goals to dunk on, a climbing wall and things like that.

Customers must log into their website and have their parents sign a waiver if under 18. Obviously, there is a potential for someone to get hurt at these places so jump at your own risk I guess. It is set up safely and there are young people that work the floor areas to monitor and make sure people are playing in a safe manner. I will post a couple of videos I have from the place below for you to get an idea if this is somewhere you would like to take your kids.

Summer Upon Us for 2017

It's been a good while since I last posted on this site. It is one that means a lot to me. The photos here of me spending time with my kids bring back great memories. It is amazing how time has flown by. My son will be a senior next school year and it will be my daughter's 8th grade year. This school year has been just crazy for all of us as our little town of Denham Springs just outside of Baton Rouge was hit with some terrible flooding only a few days into the school year in August of 2016. It was truly a devastating event for Denham Springs and many, many people across the Baton Rouge area. The flood waters devastated many people's homes and both my son's high school ( DSHS ) and my and my daughter's school, Southside Junior High.

We have been relocated to a temporary campus behind Juban Parc Junior High School in the south part of Denham Springs. We are all hopeful to one day be able to go back to our old location to maybe a brand new school if the FEMA authorities agree to their 90% cost of the anticipated multi-million dollar project. Again, this is all just speculation at this point but the hope is a shiny new junior high school for our community one day soon.

This blog continues to get plenty of traffic on a regular basis. I am going to do my best to work on it in the next several weeks as I will have extra time on my hands for the summer time. Thank you for your support of this effort and I wish all of God's blessings on you and your family.