Today I headed southeast from Lafayette. In Morgan City I visited the rig museum. It is an early submersible rig called the Mr. Charlie. It is no longer in service, but it is used as a training venue for offshore oil workers. It was interesting to see how the rig was laid out. By today's standards it is pretty small. There was a tour which I found interesting.

Then I went to Patterson to visit the Louisiana State Museum. It was a two part affair with a cypress lumbering part and an aviation part. Both were small but nice. I had never realized how big the cypress lumbering business was. They went great guns until they ran out of trees. Sounds familiar. The aviation part was about the Wedell-Williams air service. These guys built and raced airplanes in the early 30s. Jimmy Wedell won quite a few races in many different classes at the Cleveland Air Races. There are six of their airplanes on display, all of them reproductions. Several of them were actually flown once or twice. I liked the display. I liked the airplanes, but knowing they were reproductions took some of the fun out of it.

The airplane pictured today was a winner in 1932 and beyond. It was flown by both Jim and Mae Haizlip in the 1932 races. Jim won with it and Mae became the first pilot of an airplane powered by 100 octane gasoline. She set a speed record with it.