Since last Easter I have been in much of Middle America including Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. Never did I find one place where the price of gasoline was as high as it was in Leesville, Louisiana, at that time. That includes cities like Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis.

I have asked and asked why this is and have not received an informative answer. Thus, since perception is 90 percent of belief, I have no other choice than to think the distributor serving Leesville is the greediest pig in a pig pen of greedy porcine known as the oil industry. I’m not giving a  name but a lot of my Leesville readers know who is the major Leesville distributor.

Oh, in fairness, one friend who had been west told me that gas prices in Rocky Mountain ski resort regions are higher since getting oil trucks up those mountain highways is an expensive endeavor. But there are no mountains around Leesville.

It’s not startling news to report the infrastructure of the U.S. has known better times. We really have had no appreciable new infrastructure developments  since the Interstate Highway system that was spawned by President Eisenhower. To illustrate how far back that was, our current President wasn’t born until eight months after President Eisenhower left office.

Going further on our infrastructure woes, many of those Interstate highways are in terrible shape, and not just in Louisiana. Driving on I-40 between Fort Smith and Oklahoma City is like driving on gravel roads if the individual gravel rocks are the size of baseballs.

Highway safety gets a lot of attention but the truth is that highway hazards are much greater today than they were years ago. The number of vehicles, of course, is one of the reasons but just as important is the type of vehicles on the roadways. I saw my first tandem tractor-trailer combo back in the 1970s. I asked a friend who owned a trucking fleet if he had gone to tandems. He told me that some states prohibited them.

Well, recently in Kansas my eyes popped out when I saw a tractor pulling three full size trailers. In fact I saw several such “triple headers.” The demise of our passengers railroads is a major cause for the increased number of vehicles on the highways, but it now appears that more and more freight shipping is going over our highways instead of over rails.

Added to this is that more and more drivers are not really proficient operating big private vehicles.

There needs to be special driver’s licenses for operating vans, those big recreational camper vehicles and even pickup trucks. After all, motorcyclists have to get special approval on their licenses before getting on the bikes. Licenses should designate the type of vehicles the licensee is authorized to operate.

We LSU fans were happy to accept that “excessive celebration” penalty on Georgia after the Bulldogs had gone ahead in the final minutes Saturday, but in all honesty, it was a chicken crud call. The players were just hugging each other for scoring the big touchdown. On the other hand some “hot dog” who makes a simple tackle or knocks down a pass can strut and act like Genghis Khan after sacking a town and no flags are thrown.

To make it worse, the same official called the Tiger runner for excessive celebration when he raised his hand to heaven after scoring the winning TD. It was an obvious “even-up” call. As one who officiated football for many years, take it from me that you’re going to miss one every so often. But if you try to even it up later, your just stepping off into the deepest of quick sand.

As for excessive celebration fouls in the end zone, Scooter Hobbs had it right. The rule is good but the officiating concerning that rule was not. As far as changing the outcome of the game, the LSU offense looked like it could have easily gone the extra 15 yards to score the winning touchdown.

Trivia Time

In what state was the first contract signed for an Interstate Highway under the 1956 Federal Highway Act? Answer to last question. Belle’s Starr’s daughter (or at least her best known one) was named Pearl. Pearl became a Fort Smith madam and was much wilder than her famous mother.

Contract George Frasher at 337-238-3433 or email him at frasher@cebridge.net.