George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

    This museum is really big so it takes a couple of hours to see it all. The museum follows the lives of George and Barbara Bush from childhood to the present. Don’t miss the walk around the little lake and through the flower gardens on the grounds behind the library

    Almost everything is accessible. A few of the exhibits were a little too high for easy viewing. A button that has to be pushed to activate a video in the Gulf War exhibit is at the end of a narrow space between the seating  where most wheelchairs will not fit.

  The parking lot is huge with marked spaces for RVs and buses.  Museum
30.59654, -96.35417
      
      

Caddo Mounds State Historic Site

   The Caddo Native American tribe inhabited this site from 800 AD to about 1300 AD. It’s believed that the Caddos, part of the mound building culture of the Mississippi River valley, moved into the region from the northeast. The site has a short trail with interpretive signs explaining village life and the purpose of the burial mound, temple mound, and ceremonial mound.There’s also a small museum with artifacts that were excavated from the mounds plus a short film.

  The museum is accessible. The trail is level and composed of finely crushed gravel so it’s very easy to roll along.

  The lot isn’t very big but large RVs may be able to fit parked along the edge. The lot makes a loop so you can pull through and get back onto the main road if there’s no suitable parking.  Caddo Mounds
31.59641, -95.15001
    
   

Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center

  With its many hands-on exhibits, this museum was a hit with all the kids that were visiting the day that we stopped in. Most of the exhibits are aimed at grade school and middle school children with a special section for very young children.

  Many of the exhibits, because of the physical nature of them, can not be used by someone in a wheelchair. The museum building itself is all accessible.

  Parking is available next door in the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway Regional Visitor Center  lot. The parking lot is large enough for all RVs but there are many one way streets so map your route carefully.  Museum
32.51393, -93.7421
 

Shreveport Riverfront

    The riverfront is a nice place to spend and hour or so. This little area has a grassy park, splash fountains for kids, an outdoor garden, a small conservatory, a gallery displaying the work of local artists (all for sale) and a jogging/biking trail. The trail is close to the road and not very scenic.

    Everything is accessible. Park in the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway Regional Visitor Center lot. Go to the right on the sidewalk at Clyde Fant Pkwy. and cross at the pedestrian crosswalk. This route has the best curb cuts.

  The parking lot is large enough for all RVs but there are many one way streets so map your route carefully.  Garden and Art Center     Trail
32.51571, -93.74352

Harrah's Louisiana Downs Casino & Racetrack

  This casino has a huge lot for RVs and trucks. It’s right of off I –20 which makes it a very convenient overnight spot but along with that comes noise from the interstate traffic. Add in the noise from the trucks sharing the lot and occasional air traffic from the nearby  military base and you might need ear plugs to sleep. Most casinos where we stay are much quieter.

  The casino is kind of accessible. The chairs are easy to move but rolling on the carpeting is tiring. Most of the machines have ticket and card slots that are a little too high.  Casino
32.54632, -93.62817
 

Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge

 Wildlife refuges serve a variety of purposes-conservation, restoration, and resource management which can include hunting, fishing, education, and recreation. Black Bayou has a visitor center, a learning center, a fishing pier, and several trails.

 The Prairie Trail across from the visitor center, and the Arboretum Trail at the learning center are both short, concrete trails, fully accessible. The nature trail which links to the pier is a little over a mile long, part boardwalk, part gravel. The nature trail is accessible but the gravel sections require some effort to push along. There’s a little step up where it joins the boardwalk. We had to backtrack at a couple of places because heavy rains had raised the water level and flooded the trail. Use caution on the boardwalk. It doesn’t have a railing or any type of guard along the edges.

 The nature center has a few displays about the bayou and is accessible. The learning center has exhibits with live fish and other animals in tanks and is accessible too. The fishing pier has sections with lowered railings so that it’s possible to fish from a wheelchair.
 

Vans and small RVs can fit in the visitor center parking lot. Large RVs can be parked along the loop road at the learning center or in the larger lot at the pier.  Refuge
32.60458, -92.05158
     
     

Biedenharn Museum and Gardens

          
   Joe Biedenharn, the man who bottled the first Coca Cola, built this house in Monroe, Louisiana. His daughter, Emy-Lou Biedenharn, who lived in the house for most of her life, remodeled it, decorated it and also designed the garden.  Admission to the site includes a short film, an entertaining talk with a “soda jerk”, a tour of the house, a walk through the garden, admission to the Bible Museum, and a five cent bottle of Coke dispensed from an antique machine.

  Everything is accessible except for the second floor of the house.

  There isn’t any nearby parking for large RVs. Vans and smaller RVs will fit in the museum lot on Speed Street.  Museum
32.51933, -92.13051
       
       

Poverty Point State Historic Site

 This is the site of the earliest organized community in North America, dating back to  1650 BC.  A lot of it is a mystery because erosion and extensive farming has destroyed much of evidence but large earthen mounds and semi-circular raised earthworks surrounding a large flat courtyard can still be seen.  Many arrowheads, tools, stone beads and figurines have been unearthed and are on display in the visitor center. This was the beginning of the mound building culture that spread along the Mississippi valley and continued until the arrival of the first Europeans.
 

The visitor center is accessible. A tram tour is given five times a day. It does not have wheelchair access but the one way road may be driven by private car. The road is also fine for walking or rolling. It’s about two miles long and goes past all of the major sites.
 

The parking area is large enough for RVs parked lengthwise across the spaces.  Poverty Point
32.63549, -91.40357
       
      

Margaret's Grocery – Crumbling Folk Art

     In 1979 Margaret Rodgers, widow and store owner, married H.D. Dennis, a 63 year old preacher , who got to work transforming the store with bible verses, pink and red paint, artificial flowers, and Christmas lights. Margaret died a few years ago and H.D. is living in a nursing home so his work is slowly crumbling and will soon be just be a pile of colorful rubble.

   The property is closed to visitors but there’s a large pull off so that you can stop and check it out.  Grocery
32.41059, -90.84202

Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum

   Joseph Biedenharn  was the first person to bottle Coca-Cola. He installed the equipment in the rear of his soda fountain candy store and sold the filled bottles in the countryside to farmers and lumber camps. The museum has examples of the type of equipment that was used plus old advertisements and promotional merchandise.

  The museum has a step at the entrance, steps in and out of the main room, and steps into a reproduction of a 1890 soda fountain so it’s not wheelchair accessible.

  There’s parking along S. Washington Street, a block north of the museum. Washington Street, driving south, gets congested and a little tight so if you’re driving a RV you might want to avoid that route through town.  Museum
32.35168, -90.88197