The LV of LA

We are in Bossier City (rhymes with "closure"), LA, at the Horseshoe Casino on the Red River (map), directly across from Shreveport.

We spent last night at the Wal-Mart a few blocks from the vet's office (map), the very same one where we stayed when we we waiting on United Engine. While we did have a 15-amp outlet at the office, and the doctor did invite us to spend another night, we really needed some supplies, and we had tapped out our dinner options (there were no restaurants we could walk to from there). We did stock up at the Wal-Mart (and I also ran into Home Depot), but we ate dinner at the nearby Applebee's anyway since it was an easy walk.

This morning we dropped back by the office and the tech removed Opal's catheter. They had left it in just in case she needed additional IV hydration, since she was slow to start drinking. I even had them give us a bag of normal saline and a drip kit in case she needed it overnight (she didn't, and I returned it unopened). She's drinking fine now, and is also starting to eat, but only if we tempt her with some leftover steak or cottage cheese. Since all seemed to be progressing this morning, they cleared us to head out of town.

We left Little Rock due south on US167, picking up US79 in Fordyce, US82 north of Magnolia, and finally Louisiana 29 in Lewisville, which brought us all the way to Bossier City. There are five casinos in the Shreveport area, three on the Bossier City side of the river and the other two in Shreveport proper, making this the "Vegas" of Louisiana. Our guides said this one had plenty of free RV parking, which proved correct, and that the others were either limited, prohibited, or fee-for-use. The Horseshoe, part of the gargantuan Harrah's empire, turns out to be pretty nice, with several restaurants. We ate in the Asian-themed Four Winds, which was quite good if a bit overpriced. Thankfully, there was no smoking anywhere inside, except for the casino itself, which is a good ways away, as law dictates it must be floating on the river. (It's actually in a working riverboat, a holdover from previous incarnations of the law, but you wouldn't know it from the inside, and you're not permitted on the weather deck.)

It turns out that there were quite a number of dining choices just a short walk away, at the spectacular Louisiana Boardwalk open-air shopping mall just north of here. It must be fairly new, as the Google satellite imagery shows it only as a series of empty lots. (BTW, you can zoom most of the map links I post down to their tightest setting and see virtually the exact spot in which we've parked, down to a couple of meters. It's quite eerie, actually.) In addition to plenty of just-like-everywhere stores (e.g. KB Toys, Bass Pro Shops), outlets (Guess?, Nike), and mega-chain restaurants (Joe's Crab Shack, Saltgrass Steak House), the mall sports a trolley car running down its main pavilion, a 14-plex cinema, and, of course, a walkway along the river, which is quite lovely and has sweeping views of Shreveport (well, dominated by the Eldorado and Sam's Town casinos). The place was really hopping on a Saturday night.

Tomorrow we will cross the river on the I-20 bridge (our truck atlas says the US79 bridge has a low clearance, although the signs I saw on the bridge while I was below it at the Boardwalk read 14'8") and head towards Carthage, Texas.