The Final Leg

August 4, 2021

 The Final Leg

The last portion of our drive back to Key West featured a few notable stops beginning in Louisiana, Shreveport to be exact. I had never previously been to that area and we wanted to explore it a little before heading on through Louisiana and into Florida, where we would drive along the west coast of the state so we could stop and visit our friend Charles in Tarpon Springs. 

Shreveport had a few nice things to see and do, but I must admit it was the first stop on our drive home that I could have skipped altogether and not been much worse off. At least in the downtown area where we limited our exploration. One thing that I am certainly glad we did not miss and that is the Cajun style dinner we had at the historic Orlandeaux’s Café.

It was an old school Cajon/Creole meal that more than lived up to our expectations. This timeless treasure has been in operation since 1921, making it the oldest continuously operated African American family-owned restaurant in the country. With every generation that takes over, a new name comes into play. In previous incarnations the restaurant was called Freeman & Harris Cafe, Pete Harris Cafe, or Brother’s Seafood but it has remained pretty much the same high quality and operated continuously no matter what the name.

The following morning, we took a driving tour around downtown, checking out the murals, statues and other points of interest before heading to the Shreveport Aquarium for a visit. The aquarium was really nice, it was small but had a great collection of animals and fishes, focusing naturally on the wildlife of the area, which is always cool for someone not from the vicinity.

After a nice morning at the aquarium, we were on the road again, next stopping in the small Louisiana backwater town of Gibsland, which is famous as the location where legendary outlaws, Bonnie and Clyde met their doom in an ambush about 10 minutes outside of town. I have always wanted to visit the site and passing by so closely, I made sure that we stopped.

Gibsland is still a tiny town, with not much going for it other than the infamous ambush. We stopped first at the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum, which is located in the very café where the outlaw duo purchased their last meal. The museum was really, really interesting. There are all sorts of memorabilia from the lives and certainly from the deaths of the pair, who still capture the imagination so many years after their sudden deaths in May of 1934.

After spending some time visiting the museum, we followed the exact path that they had taken so many years ago to the isolated road where they met their fate. Not a lot has changed as the road is still very isolated and low traffic, still lined with the trees where the posse hid. The only real difference is that the road is now a paved highway and that the actual site of the ambush is marked with a couple of historic markers, one old and littered with bullet holes and chips removed by people and a newer version that focuses on the men involved in the ambush who killed the outlaws.

For the final portion of our drive, we pretty much pushed on into Florida without stopping much for anything other than food or fuel. Our destination was the Gulf side community of Tarpon Springs, which is just north of Tampa. While we had often been nearby, neither of us had ever previously been to Tarpon Springs and in our short time there, we were both very intrigued and vowed to make a return visit.

We were there to meet our friend Charles for lunch as he lives there and he took us to a wonderful Greek restaurant for a feast of Greek food. The small town has a massive Greek influence and many of Greek descent living there and fishing is of course a big part of the economy, along with tourism as it looks like a pretty cool place to spend some time. Hopefully we will get a chance to return at some point soon.

https://orlandeauxs.com/

https://www.shreveportaquarium.com/

https://www.bonnieandclydeambushmuseum.com/