Darth Vader peeking over the roof at a Burger King in Louisiana.
A boat being pulled down Interstate 81.
An autographed Earl Campbell Houston Oiler jersey was for sale in a sports shop in Harrisonburg, Va. I couldn't make out the price and the shop was closed.
A couple of skateboarders on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.
These Harley riders were on the way to the annual Rolling Thunder parade of vets in Washington, D.C., after a refreshing overnight stay at the Motel 6 in Harrisonburg, Va.
Art in the form of newspapers, dianthus, wire and wood on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.
Art in the form of welded steel on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.
A rainy late afternoon in southwestern Virginia.
Roadside wildflowers in Tennessee.
The Atchafalaya River Basin in Louisiana, as seen from Interstate 10.
A leafy residential neighborhood in Harrisonburg, Va., close to the campus of James Madison University.
I caught the Keebler Elf parked behind a nondescript, cheap motel one night. The rascal apparently slips into town late at night, does his business, then dispappears into the predawn darkness, all to bring you the goodness of fine Keebler Elf products.
Headed north on Kirby Drive, holy crap, WHAT'S THAT? Oh, a horned armadillo. OK. Pretty good traffic stopper for Jim Goode's new enterprise, located across the street from his famous Goode Co. Barbecue.
Here we are at the Abner Jackson Plantation, where a fella named Abner Jackson had a sugar plantation back in slave days. It's also the site of Lake Jackson, the oxbow lake for which the City of Lake Jackson is named. Lake Jackson is about an hour's drive south of Houston, and about a 45 minute drive from Galveston to the east.
This is where the side porch of the plantation was located. Slave boys who served the Jackson family their dinner were told to whistle while they worked in order to discourage them from tasting the food, according to the LJ Historical Association.
Photo of the old plantation, along with an explanation of how one of Abner Jackson's sons killed the other, then fathered a son by the family's slave house-maid Rosa, whose descendants now number about 500.
Lake Jackson is believed to have been an oxbow of the Brazos River, back when a portion of the river followed Oyster Creek. It was not dug by slaves, as legend has it, according to local historians.
Except for the Abner Jackson Plantation, Lake Jackson is ringed by private property where some of the higher-dollar homes in the city are located. Actually, those homes are technically outside the city limits. The area is known as Lake Jackson Farms.
"Enchanted Oak" is on the south bank of Lake Jackson. It's older than anybody in town.
Some of the artifacts recovered from archaeological digs at the plantation.