Future TX-LA Road Trip

[US71]

I have to go down to Texas in a couple weeks on business. I'll be in the Lufkin-Woodville area most of that time. Going down, I won't have a lot of time for sightseeing, but may have a couple days coming home.

Heading down, I usually take US 71 to DeQueen, AR 41/TX 8 to US 59, then swing over to US 69 to head into Woodville (or sometimes US 96 to Jasper.

Last year coming home, I drove US 90 from Beaumont to Lake Charles, then north on 171. I found a couple old alignments of 90 and several newly abandoned sections of 171.  This year, I'm looking for something a little different:


My return routing is tentatively: US 190 from Woodville to US 165 at Kinder, LA, then north to Alexandria.

From there, probably US 71 back to Texarkana (checking on I-49 progress north of Shreveport).

Anyone have information on old alignments, old bridges, etc in the area? Any better roads in the area for exploring?