We delivered in Nashville this morning and now we are on the way to Millville, PA

We got to Milton,PA about 6:00 this morning and got unloaded. There was 1 extra case of alcohol on the load but there was also 1 case damaged so they just gave it to us. We have a bunch of rubbing alcohol now so if anybody needs some, just let us know. We were on the way to New Jersey to pick up the next load and John Bell the operations manager at Nationwide Express called just to tell us what a good job we were doing. It's good to get a pat on the back occasionally.

We already got unloaded and reloaded in California. We'll be glad to get back home and see the new guitars we ordered. A sunburst hollowbody, and 5 string bass. The  carrier delivery site says they were delivered today. They will be at Joyce's if anybody wants to see them. We told her if she likes the hollowbody, she can buy it and we will order another one.

We heard a guy on the satallite radio say you could make a good drink by mixing 1/2 orange juice and 1/2 tea. If you like them both by themselves, and you feel brave, you might want to try it.

We dropped our trailer in Memphis this morning and picked up a load in Counce, TN. It is in Mcnairy County, where Buford Pusser was from. We saw the signs for his house and drove by his daughter's restaurant. We will be home tonight and leave out tomorrow around 4:30 for New Jersey. It is also the same county where country singer Daryl Worley is from.

We are being unloaded very close to the Mexican border today at a place called Otay, CA. The road sign we saw said we were at the last intersection before entering Mexico. We turned there.

We are in Texas today. The wind is really blowing hard. It's a good thing we are loaded pretty heavy. Tracy got pulled into the Arizona scales yesterday for an inspection. They wrote us up for 2 tires with bad spots on them. It wasn't a ticket but the company has to fix them and send the paper back in. That makes at least a half dozen times Tracy has been inspected and Eddie hasn't been inspected once. Tracy says that is discrimination. They are just pulling her into the scales because she is a woman. Eddie says they just don't pull him in because he has an honest face.

   We delivered and picked back up in PA yesterday and we will deliver and pick up in Nashville tonight then go back to PA tomorrow. Here is another joke we heard on the radio.

    Two drunks were waiting on a bus. When it stopped, one drunk asked. "Will this bus take me to 55 Elm Street?" The bus driver replied. "Not this bus. This bus won't take you anywhere near 55 Elm Street." As the driver started to pull away, the other drunk started yelling and waiving his arms. The driver stopped the bus and reopened the door. The second drunk asked. "Will it take me to 55 Elm Street?"

We ended up taking a whole week off. We are on the road again now though. Today we delivered in Nashville and tomorrow we are going to New Jersey.

We are on a steady run this week. We are going from Spring Hill, which is south of Nashville, up to West Virginia and back, delivering Saturn car parts. It is a very easy run. We are starting to look forward to vacation at the beach which starts 2 weeks from this Saturday.

Nationwide Express has put us up in a motel in Milwaukee for the weekend. We are on the 4th floor and watched the fireworks from our motel window last night.

We have returned home from vacation. Hope to have more pictures posted on the www.countrydrive.com site soon.

We haven't been keeping our blog up to date very well lately but we have been very busy enjoying our 8 week vacation. We have worked pretty hard during the past year and spent alot of time (including weekends) out here driving this big truck so we thought we deserved a long vacation. We went to Myrtle Beach for 2 weeks and we went camping in Gatlenburg twice. We also went to Pigeon Forge with Eddie's sister, Joyce, and her husband Bobby. We saw a great dinner show there called "Fiddlers Feast". We took a trip with Eddie's sister, Mildred, to a place called "The Lost Sea" which is a huge cave, and deep underground you take a boat ride on a small lake. On that same trip we went to "Lookout Mountain" and "Rock City". We also made a stop at a small store where they showed us how to pan for gold. Eddie thought that was the most interesting part of the trip.

    A wonderful friend of ours (Sandy Ricker) painted a western scene for us on the front of our barn. She painted a saloon, a jail, and a hotel. We made a sign that says "Empty Arms Hotel" and hung it in front of the hotel painting. Sandy did a super good job and we can't thank her enough for doing that for us. We are very fortunate to have such good friends like her.

     We hope to have pictures from all of these things up on the www.countrydrive.com website soon. We are back up north now on the dedicated run and we'll probably be in a motel this weekend with high speed internet, so hopefully we can post the pictures then.

   Well, it has been a fairly uneventfull first week back. That is good. (No inspections, no flat tires, no delays.) We are almost back to Chicago where we are scheduled to switch trailers then go to Milwaukee. We will be spending the weekend there, at the Hampton Inn.

  We were checking our music download site, http://www.mperia.com/artists/country_drive ,and saw that Joyce had logged on to it and had given our songs the highest rating. Thanks sis. We appriciate it.

To be perfectly honest, we haven't been very happy with the way things are going with this country lately. People were really let down by their government after the hurricane hit. We have all been let down when it comes to gas prices. Bill O'Reilly (of the O'Reilly Factor) usually defends big buisness, but even he has been reporting lately on how it costs $4.00 a barrel to get crude oil out of the ground and they sell it for between $60.00 and $70.00 a barrel. If you would like to write to congress about this, here is a link we found to help you find your representatives and write to them.

Looks like the blog went a little crazy after we posted that last entry. Don't know what happened.

We just sent the following email to all of our federally elected officials. Pres. Bush, Sen. Frist, Sen. Alexander, and Rep. Jenkins.

We just heard Sen. Frist, on the Fox channel, talking again about how unfair the estate tax is. We believe it is much more unfair that millions of middle class Americans who work hard their entire lives, are now worrying if their social security is going to be there when they retire. Meanwhile, the people affected by the estate tax are worrying about how many party yachts they can buy this year or which Caribbean island they can retire on. Thank you for your consideration.

Don't forget to check out our website. www.countrydrive.com

Here is a poem we heard this weekend that we thought was interesting and thought provoking.

Every tombstone has two dates

That everyone has seen

But all that really matters

Is the little dash in between

It really doesn't have anything to do with anything else that is going on with us right now but when we heard it, it just gave us something to think about and we thought we would share it.

We are heading home. We thought we wouldn't be leaving Chicago until today but they sent some guys to relieve us yesterday so we didn't argue. We each drove a truck into Shelbyville. (We brought our old and new trucks in.) We should get home tonight and stay until Sunday night or Monday.

      Our good friends Eric Bowman, Kevin Brobeck, and Dave Buckner, stopped by and visited yesterday. Dave is a fellow truck driver, Kevin is a Tennessee State Trooper and Eric one of the best banjo players in East Tennessee. He is also a great guitar, mandolin, and dobro player. We set up the sound system and played music for about 5 hours. We really enjoy pickin with great musicians like Eric.

     Of course we also enjoy playing music with the family and today Joyce (Eddie's sister) came by and we picked for about an hour.

     Tomorrow we are supposed to play at a ball team cookout with Eric and some other musicians. We really need to take some pictures of some of these musicians we pick with, and put them up on our www.countrydrive.com website.

     We left St. Paul early this morning and drove down to Des Moines, then we came east across Iowa. We are in Indiana now and it is raining like crazy, just like it has done all day. I checked www.weather.com and it looks like a high will be passing through and it should be nice weather once it does.

     We found out last night that one of the other drivers who runs up here, plays guitar and keyboard in a rhythm and blues band. Hopefully we will get a chance to jam.

We have changed some things on the website. www.countrydrive.com We switched to a new guestbook. You can view this one without signing it, and if someone would happen to post something nasty (not that anyone who visits our website would do that, would they?) we can easily delete it. We also put up a page with our songlist. If anyone knows a song we do that isn't posted, please let us know and we will put it up. It's hard to keep up with all of them.

    We spent this past weekend at home. We were invited by Eric Bowman to do a show at a campground Friday night. We took several pictures. We'll get some posted soon at the www.countrydrive.com site. Saturday night Eric and Roger Owens came over and we picked for a few hours. Tracy recently ordered a new bass and it had arrived when we got home. When you buy a new electric guitar or bass, you have to make some fine tuning adjustments to it so it will play just right. You want the strings to be as close as possible to the neck of the guitar so they will be easy to push when you note the guitar. If you get them too close, however, they will buzz against the frets, so you have to really know what you are doing. Fortunately for us, Roger knows what he is doing when it comes to working on guitars and he was nice enough to set Tracy's up for her. He did a great job too. It's good to have smart friends.

   Sunday, we had a nice dinner with the family. If we stay on this run, it will probably be Thanksgiving before we get to do that again.

    It looks like we will be staying on this run for awhile longer. The latest we have heard is that the contract is renewed for another month. Then, if it isn't renewed, we will have a month to move all of the trailers back south, so that will be at least the end of the year. We have had really nice weather lately. Today it is sunny and 70 degrees. That is very unusual for November, this far north.

    We just got a new digital multitrack recorder so we spent the weekend at the motel trying it out, by recording some songs. We recorded the drum track, rythum guitar, bass guitar, and vocal tracks to the Kenny Chesney song, Anything But Mine, the Tracy Laurence song, Time Marches On, the R.C. Bannon song Please Come to Boston, and the Sammy Johns song, Chevy Van. The recorder is working well. We hope to start recording some more of our original songs soon.

      It saddens us to see all of the violence in the world today. The government of France must get the riots under control. A lot of innocent people are loosing their cars and homes and are being terrorized when they haven't done anything to deserve it. They just happen to be living in the cities where the violence is taking place. There are much better ways for people who are unhappy, to improve their lives, than by destroying other lives. The best way for a person to help themselves is by education, or learning a valuable skill. Sure, there is prejudice and bigotry everywhere, but if you learn to do something that is valuable to other people, then someone is going to pay you for it. When we first got together, we didn't have much money, or education, but we looked around and found something that somebody was willing to pay us, well, for doing; truck driving. We didn't know much about it, but we went to school, got our license and hit the road. It hasn't been easy. There were many different things that we had to learn, and being from the southern Appalachians we found there was quite a bit of bigotry and prejudice against us because of our "hillbilly" accent, but it sure beat sitting around without any money, expecting the government, or someone else to supply it.

     We now own a home, a new vehicle and an older one, and we are debt free, and very happy with the life we have made ourselves. Maybe we are wrong here, but it just seems like, if we can do it, then most anybody can. One thing we do know, trying to help yourself by destroying others, is the wrong way to go.

      We don't have much to blog about since we are on this dedicated run and are just traveling around in circles, but here is an interesting article that our friend Roger sent us.

This text is from county emergency manager out in the western part of North
Dakota state after the storm.

Amusing...



WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event ---
may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a
historic blizzard of up to 24" inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that
broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks,
closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of
thousands.


George Bush did not come....
FEMA staged nothing....
No one howled for the government...
No one even uttered an expletive on TV...
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.....
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House....
No news anchors moved in.


We just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of
snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or
Aladdin lamps and put on an extra layer of clothes.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this
early...we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

Everybody is fine

Looks like this will be our final week on this dedicated run. The plan is going to be to run tonight and tomorrow night and get home to East Tennesee, Wednesday, in time to cook the turkey for Thanksgiving. The family is coming to our house and we are looking forward to it. We just found out that Eddie's niece, Becky, is having another baby and it is due on his birthday, July 15th. That will be exciting. We will be on pins and needles when the time comes for him or her to arrive. This will be her and Dave's 5th. Wow!

     We are finally back on the road after taking a month off. Tracy's teeth have healed up nicely after the surgery. While we were home we found a good deal on a 14' X 70' trailer home and bought it to set up on a lot that we own. We got about half of the work done on setting it up. Tracy's brother, Bubba,( That's right, we call him Bubba.) and his wife, Barbara, are helping us. We hope to have it ready within a month. If you know anyone who needs a place to rent in the East Tennessee area, let us know. We will rent it for $400 a month. It's a 2 bedroom with central heat and air, a garden tub and shower, and it has a great view of the mountains.

     Also, while we were home,  Fairydustings put us in touch with Tootboy who sent us the words to a song he had written. Eddie wrote the music and recorded the song for him. It turned out pretty good. We hope to get to work on some more songs with him in the future.

    We also took time to make a bunch of Christmas candy. We made fudge, peanut brittle, and some candy called "Dragon's Eggs". Yum, Yum. We have been considering selling candy over the internet. Does anyone have some advice for us about whether that would work or not. We drive all over the country so we could hand out free samples with our website www.countrydrive.com printed on the wrapping and if people liked it they could place an order.

      We were home this past weekend and had dinner with our good friend Sandy Ricker for her birthday. It was a surprise for her. She thought we were out on the road. We went ahead to the restaurant along with her brother, and her daughters brought her. She was really surprised because when she saw us she took 2 extra steps sideways. It's fun to shock sombody like that.

     Sunday, we had a nice dinner at home for Tracy's birthday. It's Jan. 15th. When you are away from home as much as we are, your favorite meals are at home.

    We delivered in northwest PA monday and brought a load back to Mississippi today. Looks like we are getting a load going to Miami for tomorrow. Busy, Busy.

      It's nice to work in a profession with such good people. We realize truck drivers sometimes get a bad rap. Many times with good reason. We see some out here who are rude and ill tempered, but overall, by far, truck drivers are a bunch of good, honest, hard working people who are always ready to help you if you need it.    

      What happened last night is a very good example of that. I (Eddie) stopped to fill up with fuel and when I tried to start the truck back up it wouldn't do anything so I raised the hood and hit the starter a few times with a hammer. This will occasionally work because the starter will stick and the hammer will jar it loose. It didn't work this time though. However, another husband and wife team were fueling at the next pump and the man asked if I was having trouble. I said yes, the starter on my truck has quit. I told him if he would give my truck a pull start I would be happy to pay him 20 bucks. Let me explain this for those who don't know what it is.

   When you have a straight shift transmission (not an automatic unless you get them going very fast) you can have someone tow you and put the vehicle in gear then let out the clutch and it will usually start.

    He said he would do it and pulled his truck in front of ours. I tied a strap that we use to secure cargo onto both trucks. It wasn't big enough and promptly broke. Another truck driver saw this and without being asked, he brought us one of his straps which was about 4 times bigger than the one we had. Now he didn't LOAN it. He GAVE it. He said he was on a tight schedule and would have to get rolling. Now to make a long story a little shorter I'll just say we had a hard time getting it to pull start. The other driver was very patient though and we eventually got it.

    Then, when I tried to pay him he wouldn't take it. I insisted telling him to allow me to give him the money to buy him and his wife dinner. He said no, that he might need some help sometime. I sincerely hope that if they, or the truck driver who gave me the tow strap need some help, there are people around who will give it, and if there are a bunch of truck drivers around, I am almost certain that they will.

We spent a quiet weekend at home. We had hoped to get to do some work outside but it rained most of the weekend. Eddie did get to put some samples of the songs we play in our live shows, on our website. If you like country music you can listen to them here. www.countrydrive.com  Then click on the link that says  "Listen to our Live Music". Thanks for listening.  

     One of the best friends I ever had passed away 1 year ago today. I first met him about 12 years ago when I was playing in a band at the local VFW. Another couple that I knew came to the show and introduced me to him and his wife, Sandy. He was such a likable guy that we immediately became friends. He played guitar and was at my home for many "pickin' parties". That's where a bunch of musicians get together and jam. He was happy to pick with anyone, no matter how good they were, or how bad.

      Then there were several years that I got too busy making a living and almost stopped playing music and we lost touch. However, a few years ago, my old friend began stopping by again and I started playing music again. More than I ever have. We played some shows in local establishments, but mostly it was in my home. Almost every weekend that we were home, off the road, we picked. We had well over a hundred songs memorized and some weekends we would play them all.

      One Christmas (My friend looked just like Santa Clause, by the way.) he taught us how to make his secret recipe peanut brittle. It's delicious. I will enjoy making and eating it for the rest of my life. I have 4 brothers and sisters who visit often and he became just like another brother to all of them. He taught me many things including how to try to be a nicer person every day.

     We meet very few people in life who affect us like this and if you know someone like him you are very fortunate. I miss Ken Ricker, but I know he is playing music with the angels now, and someday, we will play our music together again.  Ed

Heard another good one yesterday.

George Bush saying "we are addicted to oil", is like Joe Camel saying "we are addicted to cigarettes."

That's funny, but sad. They are charging us $2.50 a gallon for something it costs them about 50 cents to produce. They pump it out of the ground, put it in refineries, which are basically huge tanks where the thick tars and oils settle to the bottom and the light gas and fuels go to the top, then each layer is drained into their trucks and delivered to the gas stations. In the mean time, the oil company executives from each company are making billions (That's with a B.) every quarter. (That's 3 months.)

We made that run to Miami, then back to Nashville. Then we went to New Jersey and back to Nashville, and this morning we unloaded and picked up in Ft. Worth, TX. Whew! We are headed back to Nashville now but we'll have to take some time to do laundry today when we stop for a shower. Here's our thought for the day.

It's nice to be important.

It's more important to be nice.

YeeeeeeeeHawww. Thanks to Fairydustings here is our first Mindsay photo. It's a band we saw in Nashville that had a fiddle AND a steel guitar. It just don't get no better. Unless of course you have swing dancers, which is what the couple in front are doing. The guy dancing is also a popular Nashville musician. Thanks again, Fairydustings, for helping us with the photo. You are a great friend.

    We had a nice quiet weekend at home. Saturday, Roger Owens came over and we picked (played music) for a couple of hours, but the snow was getting pretty thick outside so he headed back home before it got late and the roads possibly got bad. Sunday we had a nice dinner at home with the family. We are headed back to Nashville now, then on to Miami again. There is a lot of snow on the ground here in Tennessee. Hard to believe we will be in Miami tomorrow wearing shorts.

We would like to thank our friend Sandy for sending us these pictures. If you think those high prices that you are paying for gas, are needed to invest in new wells or refineries, check out this construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

 Here is the construction in the middle of the desert and here it is, finished.

 Believe it or not, this is an indoor ski slope in the middle of a 120 degree desert.

And here are the oil people, playing inside.

Just thought you would like to know where your money is going each time you pay $40 to $60 to fill up.

I really do hate to gripe, but I also hate to see so many people making billions (that's billions with a B) while so many others have worked hard their entire lives and have to choose between buying gas or groceries.

    We just had our showers and are ready for the run to Miami tonight. People sometimes ask us about where truckers get showers. We wondered about that ourselves before we started driving. We knew that somtimes we would be gone for several weeks at a time and figured we would be pretty stinky after a few days. Someone told us the truckstops had showers and thoughts of high school or military showers, all lined up in a row, came to mind. Fortunately that isn't the way they are.

    Every truckstop has a shower section which consists of a long hallway with doors on each side, much like a motel only the doors are closer together. Inside each door is a room which is pretty much identical to a motel bathroom, complete with commode, shower, sink, towels, washcloths, and soap. When you fuel your truck you get the use of a shower room. After you are finished, you take the key to the front counter and an attendent promptly cleans the shower and replaces the towels with fresh ones for the next driver.

    Now you know how we truck drivers, at least the vast majority of us, stay clean.

   We got to spend the night in Nashville again last night. Here is a picture of the outside of the Ryman Theater where "The Grand Ole Opry" show is performed.

   Here is a picture of our favorite band of the night. "Carl D"

All of the Nashville bands play for tips and they passed the tip bucket several times while we were there. Each time, we threw in a few dollars. After the show, Carl came over and GAVE us a CD and thanked us for the tips. We asked him to autograph it and he did. Here it is.

We finally got a California run. This should be a nice easy run. Here is a picture of a leaning water tower near Amarillo, Texas on I-40 that we passed today.

     We are in a dock in Los Angeles being loaded for our return trip to Blythewood, SC which is near Columbia, SC. Here are some pictures from our trip out.

       A Train in the Desert near Death Valley, Ca.

    Snow Covered Mountains Near Victorville, Ca. ( The town where Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lived for many years, during their retirement.)

    This is a bag of chips at around 6000 ft. near Flagstaff, Az. Sometimes the bags swell up so much they bust in the high elevations.

  This is the same, sealed, bag near sea level, in Los Angeles, where we are now.

   We don't complain much about our job because we really do feel like we have got it pretty good. I mean most of our job is just riding around, listening to the radio, enjoying the scenery. But sometimes things happen that just aren't right. I would like to tell you about one such time.

   We made our delivery in Los Angeles Monday morning, got unloaded, and received our reload message from the company. We have a device in the truck called a Qualcomm which looks a lot like a laptop computer which is linked by satellite to the trucking company. When we make a delivery, we send them a message and they send us the information about our next load, complete with directions and pick up time.

   We had 2 pickups in LA. One at 11am and one at 3pm. We got to the first pickup at 10am and backed into the dock. I went inside and was told we would have to count the freight. As I have said before, this is against our company's policy. When we sign the bills, we always put SLC after our signature which stands for "shipper load and count". That way, once it gets delivered, if there is a discrepancy in the load, the shipper and receiver have to work it out and the trucking company doesn't have to get involved.  I explained this to the guy and could tell he didn't like it, but he said OK.

   Now they could have loaded what they had on the truck in about an hour, but 3 hours later we still weren't loaded. I went inside and told the guy we had another pickup that we needed to get too. Again, he said "OK".  Another hour and a half later he brought our bills out to sign. I signed them and gave him his copy back. Believe it or not, then he said, "Go with God". I told him if he was going to bring up God, maybe he should go study Gods golden rule.

   When we got to the second pickup, guess what? They were gone for the day. So we had to wait til the next morning to be loaded. We were in the middle of the city so our TV picked up all the major channels, so we had a relaxing evening of watching TV and a good nights rest. The next day when we were loaded, our dispatcher sent us a message saying they were paying us "delay pay" for sitting all night, so it worked out pretty good for us. However, I would like to send those guys on the first dock a little message....  

I would like to apologize for yesterdays blog to all the "nice" people who might have been offended. Especially my family, but it really makes me mad when someone does something to try to harm someone else, just because they can. Now, on a better note; here are some pictures from our trip back.

The above picture is of some windmills in Texas. We are seeing more and more of these in many places. We think that is a good thing.

This may come as a surprise to those of you not living in Las Vegas, but


 there are more Catholic churches there than casinos.


 Not surprisingly, some worshippers at Sunday services will give casino


 chips rather than cash when the basket is passed.


 Since they get chips from so many different casinos, the churches have


 devised a method to collect the offerings.


 The churches send all their collected chips to a nearby Franciscan


 Monastery for sorting and then the chips are taken to the casinos of


 origin and cashed in.


 This is done by the chip monks.





 Didn't see it comin' did ya?!!

   A terrible think happened yesterday. We were coming back up I-75 in Florida and a guy was standing on an overpass, over the interstate. He had tied a string to his arm and the other end to a ball bat and was dangling it in front of the cars as they drove underneath. Just as they got to it he would jerk it up.

  Unfortunately, he didn't see us coming and we didn't have time to stop and he didn't get it pulled up in time so it came through our windshield and lodged inside. The squeamish should stop reading now.

   Because the guy had it tied to his arm, it jerked his arm completely off. I got the truck stopped and dialed 911. Then I grabbed the first aid kit and ran up the bank and over to the guy who was in shock. By the time the ambulance arrived I had the blood almost stopped and they quickly loaded him up and headed to the hospital.

   Well, the next thing I knew, I was being cuffed and led to the police car. I couldn't believe it. I told the officer "I probably just saved the guys life. Why was I being arrested?" He said, "you have just committed a serious crime son." "What is it", I asked. I couldn't believe his reply. "Armed robbery".

  Did I get you again?

   We have been tagged by be42677  and by chicademariposa so we are supposed to tell 6 facts about ourselves and nominate 6 other people. Here goes.

1. We met in high school but didn't get together until 15 years later when we saw each other in a bar where I (Eddie) was singing.

2. We once owned a bar.

3. We once owned a restaurant.

4. Due to the unsucsessful ventures above we started driving a truck to pay off our debts.

5. After the debts were paid we decided we liked trucking better than any job we ever had (except playing music) so we stuck with it.

6. We like country music best but we enjoy all genres from classical to rock to rap to whatever.

We now nominate laturvey  dragon28master  sigmondfrog 

 boo04  kevination  sidetrack 

We are back home from the cruise, and what a great cruise it was. The weather was great and the ocean was calm all week. We should have enough stuff to blog about for quite a while. We left the port in Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday and arrived in Freeport, Bahamas on Monday. Our shore excursion was a jeep tour of the island. Driving on the left side of the road took some getting used to.

 We first went to see some dolphins, then some of the local houses, then we went 4 wheeling though the countryside.

We stopped at a place called a "blue hole" which is a huge vertical cave filled with fresh water on top and salt water down deep. It is connected to the sea which is a few miles away and the water level changes with the tides.

 Then we hiked through a mangrove swamp.

There, we saw many fish including Nemo.

We had lunch on a beautiful beach and spent the afternoon there before driving back to the ship that evening.

We'll post more pictures on the www.countrydrive.com website and tell more about our adventures on the next blog.

    I'm not sure how many people will remember these guys but there is a country music band called "The Confederate Railroad" who were about the biggest thing around, back in the late 80's and early 90's. They had songs like "Trashy Women", "Jesus and Momma", "Daddy Never Was The Cadillac Kind", "Queen of Memphis", and many more. They sold about 6 million records. However, once things started getting "politically correct" many of the DJ's stopped playing "Confederate Railroad" records, even though there is not a racist bone in any of these guys bodies. The Confederate Railroad was actually, originally one of the organizations who helped slaves get out of the south before and during the Civil War and these guys named their band after it.

    Anyhow, this was the third time we went on a cruise with them. Here is a picture from one of the shows that they played on the ship. We got almost front row seats.

   The lead singer (Danny Shirley) is always very gracious and he stops and chats with us when he sees us up on the deck or anywhere on the ship. We have enjoyed their music for 20 years, and I have performed many of their songs on stage myself, so it is a special treat to be able to sit at down with each of them and listen to stories about their music and travels.

  More about that later. We enjoyed eating breakfast at this spot on the back of the ship.

Here is the view out the window.

After breakfast, a dip in the jacuzzi was nice.

On the way back from breakfast that morning, we snapped this picture of a guy and his ice sculpture. Unfortunately, it was already partially melted.

Each night, the people who turned down the bed, while we were gone to dinner, would make a "towel animal". Here is the one on Tuesday night. I think it's a rabbit.

We spent all day Tuesday, on the boat, sailing from the Bahamas, around Cuba, and on to the island of Grand Cayman. More pictures at www.countrydrive.com Tomorrow, swimming with stingrays.

I planned to blog about the cruise this evening but as I was sitting here uploading pictures and Tracy was watching TV we got a surprise. Tonight is the second night of "Nashville Star", the country version of "American Idol". The first show of the season aired while we were on the cruise but we are home tonight and wanted to be sure to watch it. (We'll Tivo the rest of them.) Anyway, this guy started singing and Tracy said, "Honey", (That's what she calls me, honey.) where have we seen him before?" I replied, "I believe we saw him in Nashville a few weeks ago." Sure enough, we had. His name is Matt Mason and here's his picture.

He was at Tootsies. We sat right beside where he and the band were playing. At the end of the night I shook his hand and told him he did a great job. He thanked me and was a very nice, and friendly young man. If you get a chance, watch for him, Tuesdays at 10pm on the USA network. Also, watch for Chris Young on the same show. He is one of our friends at www.isound.com

On Wednesday, on the cruise, we visited Grand Cayman Island. On our shore excersion, we took a small boat 5 miles off the coast to a place called "Sting Ray City". Above is a picture from the boat. The water was still only a few feet deep but you could see the continental shelf drop off about 50 yards farther out. We were able to get in the water and wade and swim around with the rays.

I'm the fat guy in the upper right of the picture and thats a ray in the water in front of me. This next picture is of our friend Shyla getting what is called a "sting ray massage".

We also went to a place on the island called "Hell". Here is a picture.

And here is the post office. I am sure Laturvey would tell us the real one is much worse. I agree.

We also visited a turtle farm on Grand Cayman Island.

Don't you think I kinda resemble the Crocidile Hunter?.......Me neither.

THE YEAR 1906

One hundred years ago.

What a difference a century makes!

Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1906:

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education.

Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza

2. Tuberculosis

3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease

5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30.

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores.

Back then, the pharmacist said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

So, to think I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and sent it to you in a matter of seconds?!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years?

It's Staggering....!

HAPPY 2006

   I haven't visited Mindsay any this week because I use my cell phone as a modem when I'm on the road and this week I accidentally left it at home.

   Now, I want to tell everyone about the weirdest thing that ever happened to us. It was about 3am in the morning and we had stopped at a truck stop to fuel up the truck. When I got out of the truck I spotted a cooler sitting on the fuel island. It looked brand new. It takes about 15 minutes to fill the truck with fuel and when we were done the cooler was still sitting there so I told Tracy, "It must be abandoned, and we might as well have it as anybody", so we threw it in the truck and took off down the road.

   We had gone a few miles down the road and I told Tracy, "You should probably look inside, just to make sure there isn't any spoiled food in it." When she opened it up we got the shock of our lives. There were toes inside. That's right, somebody's toes were in the cooler. We didn't know what to do. I mean, what would you do?

   The easy thing would be to just throw it out the window, but what if somebody needed them or what if a murderer had left them there. Should we call a hospital. The police. We thought about it for a while and finally decided there was only one thing to do so we did it.

   We called a Toe Truck.......Get it, Tow, Toe Truck!

    Happy April Fool's Day!

I was searching the web for a country song when I found this list of song titles. I recognized a few of them but I'm pretty sure most are made up, or at least never were hits. Some are pretty funny though.

25. Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye

24. His Teeth Was Stained, But His Heart Was Pure

23. How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?

22. I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling

21. I Just Bought A Car From A Guy That Stole My Girl, But The Car Don't Run so I Figure We Got An Even Deal

20. I Keep Forgettin' I Forgot About You

19. I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well

18. I Still Miss You, Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better

17. I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win

16. I'll Marry You Tomorrow But Let's Honeymoon Tonight

15. I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like Having You Here

14. I've Got Tears In My Ears From Lyin' On My Back and Cryin' Over You

13. If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You

12. If I Had Shot You When I Wanted To, I'd Be Out By Now

11. Mama Get A Hammer (There's A Fly On Papa's Head)

10. My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Don't Love You

9. My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him

8. Please Bypass This Heart

7. She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger

6. You Done Tore Out My Heart And Stomped That Sucker Flat

5. You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly

4. If The Phone Don't Ring, You'll Know It's Me

3. She's Actin' Single and I'm Drinkin' Doubles

2. She's Looking Better After Every Beer

And the number 1 Country and Western song of the time is:

1. I Haven't Gone To Bed With Any Ugly Women But I've Sure Woke Up With A Few

We are back in Miami today. Here is a picture of a huge fire down here that we took last week.

(note) My friend, Roger, sent me this email which was forwarded to him so I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is very accurate.

When we left Miami yesterday, we drove up I-75 which is called Alligator Alley. I'll bet we saw over 100 alligators. Here are  a couple of pics. They are a little blurry cause we were going about 70.

We also stopped in Tampa and had supper with Tracy's mom and stepdad and step-sister Cathlene. We are at the shop in Shelbyville, TN now and are about to head home for the weekend.

Here is my "weekly" blog. We drove through Nashville today and saw the church that the tornado hit last week. Here are a couple of pictures we snapped as we drove by.

Wow, what a coincidence. We are headed east on I-40 and my ole pickin buddy, Roger Owens, just drove past us and waved.

   We finally met one of our idols and heroes this past Friday night. The Possum. George Jones. I haven't been blogging much lately but this one should be long enough to make up for lost time, because I would like to start this story at the beginning.

   A few months ago, while we were on the cruise with the Confederate Railroad Band, I was talking with the lead singer, Danny Shirley, and he mentioned that they were going to be in concert in a few months, in Bristol, TN, with George Jones. I told him "we would be sure to be there". Much to my surprise, he gave me his phone number and said to call him during the week before the concert and he would have tickets waiting for us at the door.

   Is this guy great or what?! As I have said before, some people may be prejudiced against this band because of the "Confederate" name, but I have never met a nicer group of guys, and the name "Confederate Railroad" was actually, originally the name of one of the organizations who helped get slaves out of the south, before and during the Civil War. Of course, the band is also a great group of musicians who, in my opinion, are as good or better, now, than they were when they were selling millions of records. That's right. "Trashy Women" alone sold over 3 million and they had many other hits like "Queen of Memphis", "Jesus and Mama","When You Leave That Way","Cadillac Kind" and many more.

   Anyway, I happily put the phone number in my wallet and began to anxiously await the day of the concert, but this story has another twist. On the day before Easter, I drove a farm tractor all day long doing some work at the rental property we own. When I stepped down off of the tractor at the end of the day, I was sans wallet. (That means my wallet was missing.) So on Easter Sunday we, and most of our family spent the day looking for a wallet rather than Easter eggs. Unfortunately, it wasn't found. It is probably buried under a foot or 4 of dirt. As my niece said, "Maybe a future archaeologist will dig it up." I replaced all of the cards and my license but now I didn't have Danny Shirley's phone number. I thought about digging the whole place back up but decided there must be an easier way. After several emails and phone calls I was able to reach the bands road manager, Tweak, (Yep, that's his nickname.) who assured me that there would be 6 tickets and backstage passes waiting when we arrived at the concert.

   OK, enough of my boring story and on to the pictures. When we arrived we were escorted backstage where we chatted with the band. Here we are talking to Danny and the lead guitar player Jimmy Dormire.

Here is a group picture with the band.

And here are some pictures from their concert.

Now some people who are not huge country music fans might not realize what a big deal this was to us, but if you are a sports fan, think about how great it would be to hang out with your favorite team just before the game and you can realize how we felt. Now imagine how it would feel to meet the greatest player that there ever was and you'll know how we felt about meeting George Jones. As I walked up to him he stuck out his hand. As I shook it, I'll never forget the words we exchanged. I said, "It's an honor to meet you sir" and he said "The pleasure is all mine." I think Tracy had to smack me to bring me out of my daze after that. (Just kidding.) Here is the picture that now hangs on our kitchen wall.

This is his charming wife, Nancy.

And here are some pictures from his show.

  If you get a chance to see a George Jones or Confederate Railroad concert, I would highly recommend it. The "Railroad" of course always puts on a great show but I was a little concerned since George is now over 70 years young that he might not be as good as he once was. My concern was without merit. I have been to several concerts by him and let me just say, for the record, as far as I could tell, his voice is as good as ever, and he still has some pretty good moves. Of course, he didn't swing from any ropes or jump off of the drum riser, but an entertainer as good as him, doesn't have to. He sang many of his classic songs like "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "Rockin' Chair" and a lady who sang like Tammy Wynette sang some of their old duets with him. His show lasted nearly 2 full hours. A screen behind the stage scrolled through some great video and pictures as he sang.

   After the show, we visited some more and by the time we went outside to head home the parking lot was nearly empty, so we didn't even have to fight traffic.

   I took my fiddle with me and George and Danny both autographed it. Buck Owens autographed it a few years ago, but that is another story. Life is good!

I was cruising around Greene County the other day when I went through a stop sign without quite stopping. The next thing I know, this cop is pulling me over. (I think his name was David.) He walked up to my car and said, "Sir, do you realize that you just ran that stop sign?" I replied, "Yeah, but I slowed down didn't I?" The officer asked, "Don't you think there's a difference?" I replied, "Like I said, I slowed down. Wasn't that good enough?" At that time he took out his Billy stick, began beating me profusely, and asked, "Do you think I should stop, or just slow down?"

  OK; That's enough of those "mildly offensive" jokes. We posted those mostly to get a chuckle from our many friends we have met here at Mindsay. We truly enjoy your blogs and appreciate the comments you make to ours. The reason we originally started this blog, however, was so our family and friends at home and abroad could keep up with what we are doing, even when we don't see them very much, so here is an update.

   Tracy has been having trouble with allergies for a couple of years and lately they had been getting worse, so a few weeks ago she had one of those tests where they use a bunch of needles to put allergens under your skin and then observe the reaction. Based on the results, they concoct a specific vaccine that has to be administered twice a week. The company is helping us by giving us loads that will get us home twice a week.

   On Sunday we leave home with a load that delivers in the northeast on Monday  morning. On Monday, we pick up a load that delivers near Nashville on Tuesday. That takes us through East Tennessee on Tuesday morning so she can stop at the Doctors office and get a shot. Once we deliver on Tuesday, we have a run that picks up in Nashville and goes to Miami, then back to Nashville. It's loads of weekly magazines such as National Enquirer, People, Country Weekly, etc. and the sooner they arrive, the sooner people get fresh news (or gossip) so they want a team to deliver it because we aren't required to stop and take a break like single drivers are, so it's a perfect run for us. We arrive back in Nashville on Thursday and pickup our load that delivers in the northeast again on Monday so we are back home Friday morning for Tracy to get her other bi-weekly shot.

   The shots are working very well, by the way. She hasn't had any allergic reactions since she started taking them.

   We are using the extra time at home to do some remodeling and to catch up on some work at the rental property. Our multi-talented musician friend, Eric Bowman, came up last weekend and we played music for about 4 hours. He said the local VFW would like for us to play there on Sunday afternoon, but I told him since we have to leave home on Sunday we probably couldn't fit it in, but if they could use us on Saturday, we would be happy to come play. He is going to talk to them about it.

   Today we went out to lunch with Brittany, and some friends and have now been heading north on I-81, but there is a huge backup in Virginia, so we are taking a detour along the scenic route on a state road. We have a 6am delivery appointment in Somerset, New Jersey. We should arrive around 1am, set the alarm clock, and get some sleep.

We are in the dock in Nashville now waiting to be loaded for our Miami run. We delivered in Nashville early today, then came here, dropped the trailer, and went to Opry Mills. It's a big mall where Opryland once stood. There is a Gibson music store and factory inside. They actually build banjos and mandolins there and you can watch them through glass panes. Here is a guy clamping together the parts of a mandolin.

Here, he is doing some detail work.

This guy is putting the strings on the mandolin.

Here are some parts.

More parts in the workshop.

The sanding room with a row of guitars outside.

And another row of Gibson guitars.

The mall had a seafood restaurant with an aquarium outside and some pretty big fish in it.

There was a music store with some of Alan Jackson's clothes on display.

Here is the note inside the case.

They also had suits from Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, and Ricky Van Sheltons first guitar on display.

Here is the note from inside that display case.

Looks like they got the trailer loaded while I was posting this. We are off to Miami.

Yesterday, was a very nice day at home so we took a drive in the mountains to a place called Weavers Bend. It is a scenic place that is part of the Cherokee National Forest, near where we live. Here are some pictures.

We drove down this road (Highway 107) and made a left at the Greene County, Cocke County line, and drove deep into the mountains.

We drove beside railroad tracks.

The road ended here at the French Broad River

The train tracks continued across the river.

The rivers edge.

Does anyone else think that the clump of trees just to the right of center in the picture below, looks like the profile of a face?

Another railroad bridge.

A bluff over the river.

Blue mountains.

Did you know that this was happening? I have wiped mine!!!
Driver's license and Privacy Act
Check your driver's license information on-line.
Now you can see anyone's driver's license on the internet, including your own!!
It asks for U.S info, but unfortunately it works for Canadian,
English, Australian and New Zealand licenses as well.
I just searched for mine and there it was, picture and all.
This is really scary. I removed mine. I suggest you all do the same.
Go to the website and check it out.
Just enter your name and city, and if you are Canadian, Aussie,
English,  " Select a State" and see if yours is on file.
After your license comes on the screen, click the box marked

"Please Remove" The website is
http://www.license.shorturl.com/

This past weekend we took some friends and did a little gold prospecting. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

In this picture I am using a device that is made mostly from PVC pipe. You stick it into the bed of a stream, pull the plunger, and it sucks up the sand and gravel along with some water.

Here I am dumping the contents into a bucket with a "classifier" on top. A classifier has small holes in it which screens out the rocks. If rocks go through your sluice they can knock out some of the trapped gold particles.

That's the sluice box on the left of the bucket.

When the bucket is full, you dump it into the sluice which traps any gold and heavier sand, and lets the lighter stuff wash back into the stream.

After running a few buckets through the sluice, you clean out the sluice and "pan out" the contents. If there is gold in the dirt that you are collecting, that is when you find it.

Here we are finishing up the panning, and watching for the little pieces of gold that might be in the bottom of the pan.

OK, I'll be honest. We didn't find any gold on this trip. We did find lots of "black sands" and quartz which are good indicators that gold might be in the area. Gold prospecting is a fun hobby, which like fishing, you don't always bring something back, but you can have a good time in the great outdoors, and when you do get something, it's an added bonus.

We took these pictures of a rainbow on I-81 in Virginia yesterday.

Have a nice day.

   I know I put some silly stuff on this blog sometimes, but this is serious. My friend, Roger sent me this email. I can't verify it's accuracy, but better safe than sorry.

Sad News

 With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey" died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in.... And then the trouble started.

Shut up. You know it's funny.

I saw a guitar on ebay a couple of weeks ago that I really liked. I had been looking at double neck guitars for a few years but didn't want to spend the money for one since they are quite expensive. The bidding on this one was very low however, so I put in a bid not really thinking I would get it for that price. To my pleasant surprise, I won the bidding. Guess there wasn't many people on line that day wanting double neck guitars. It arrived this week while we were gone. Fed-Ex tore the box all to H E double hockey sticks.

But the case inside was fine.

And here is my new toy.

I haven't played it yet because most new electric guitars have to be "set up" which means making small adjustments to the neck and bridge which make it much easier to play. I'm not very good at doing that, but fortunately I have a friend who is. So the guitar is now at Roger Owens's. You wont get him to admit it. but I consider him a guitar expert. I sure appreciate him doing that for me and I'm greatly looking forward to playing it after he is finished.

I saw this on Fairydustings and then cllecr's blog so I thought I would try it.

We had another relaxing weekend at home. Here is a picture I took Friday night of the moon coming up over the mountain behind our house.

   Saturday, we had supper with my sister Lois and her husband Bobby. Their daughter, Becky, and her husband, Dave, and their kids, Kyler, Hannna, Ellie, and Simon were visiting from South Carolina. It was great to see them all.

   Sunday, my sisters, Mildred and Joyce had dinner with us. Roger finished the set-up of the double neck guitar and brought it down and we picked for about an hour. I really like the guitar, but there is a small problem. The neck on the 12 string part of it is a little small so the strings are very close together making it hard to note a string without touching and muting the string next to it. Hopefully, I'll get used to it.

   Yesterday we drove through Gallatin, TN where Reba McEntire has a ranch. This is the front gate.

And here is one of the ranch houses.

Today, we are delivering in Miami again.

Please go to this young lady's blog and give her some words of support, or say a prayer for her. boobster 

The snowball bush behind our house was in full bloom this weekend. My mother planted it many years ago. She had a green thumb. I didn't inherit that talent, but fortunately, we now have many flowers and shrubs growing nearby to remind us of the nice things she did.

And here is a poem a good friend sent us today.

 I'm Glad You're In My Dash 

I read of a man who stood to speak

At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone,
From the beginning...to the end. 

He noted that first came her date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years. 
 
         (1924 - 2000)

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth...
And now only those who loved her,
Know what that little line is worth. 

For it matters not, how much we own;
The cars...the house...the cash,
What matters is how we live and love

And how we spend our dash. 

So think about this long and hard...
Are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged. 

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what's true and real,
And always try to understand
The way other people feel 

And be less quick to anger,

And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we've never loved before. 

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile..
Remembering that this special dash

Might only last a little while. 

So, when your eulogy's being read

With your life's actions to rehash...
Would you be proud of the things they say

About how you spent your dash?  

I am glad that you're in my life and part of my dash. 

From My dash to yours.

Laugh long,  live long,
Yesterday is history

Tomorrow is a mystery

Today is a GIFT . . That is why they call it the present.

   It is very unfortunate that the young man at the Bonnaroo Music Festival stepped in front of Ricky Skaggs' tour bus and was killed. Story Here. We drove past the site last week. It is right beside interstate 24 between Nashville and Chattanooga. This is a picture of the camping area, cars waiting to get in, and a guy walking beside them. Although pedestrians are illegal on many interstates, I don't know about this one.

Here is a picture of the traffic line waiting to get in.

   We still live near the church I grew up attending and my family still attends almost every service there. I'll admit I don't go regularly but I still consider it "my church". This past weekend they had an event called "Old Timer's Day" and we decided to go. That's an event where everyone dresses up in clothes worn by people of past generations, and the church ladies bring dishes of food, and everyone enjoys a huge buffet. Here is a picture of my three sisters in their "Old Timers" clothes.... Actually, they always dress this way.... Just kidding.

   That dish on the lower right of the picture is called "Strawberry Yum Yum" and I ate a bunch of it. The sister in the middle made it.

   Here is a picture of my brother in law (the sister on the right's husband) pouring the tea. The man in the mirror is a church elder who was standing beside me when I took the picture.

   I meant to take more pictures (at least one of the preacher) but I got busy visiting and forgot about the camera.

   When we got back home, I took this picture of a Holly Hawk bush beside our garage.

   There are two fuel tanks on our truck. Each tank holds 125 gallons of fuel. For some reason they are designed so that at least 20% of the fuel stays in them at all times, even when you run out of fuel. The truck averages about 6.5 miles per gallon, which means you can expect to drive no more than 1300 miles between fill-ups. Last night I drove 1355.

   The first time we ran out of fuel was about 8 years ago, not long after we started our truck driving careers.  We can't fuel just anywhere we want to. The trucking company gets discounts by fueling at "Pilot" truck stops and they are generally around 200 to 300 miles apart. 8 years ago we were delivering in an area where there were no pilots at the time, although we didn't realise it. We just kept going, hoping to see one, but ran out of fuel first. The company sent out a service truck with some fuel and told us to fuel more often. We did.

   The second time we ran out of fuel was our dispatcher's fault. She gave us a "hot" load which, in order to be there on time, had to be driven straight from the shipper to the consignee. (That's the person receiving the load.) We told the dispatcher that we needed to fuel but she said no; "We should have enough." So we made the delivery and ran out of fuel about the time we took the exit for the truck stop. The company again sent a service truck to give us some fuel and get us going, but this time they didn't say anything to us about it. I wonder what they said to the dispatcher.

   Now the third time. Last night I was headed south, in Georgia, on I-75. Our 2 Pilot fuel stops on I-75 in Georgia are in Dalton, in the northern part of the state, and in Valdosta, in the southern part of the state. I almost stopped in Dalton but I still had a quarter tank of fuel and for some strange reason I thought that would be plenty to get me to Valdosta. By the time I got through Atlanta, however, the fuel hand seemed to be dropping awfully fast. There is a red light on the fuel gauge that comes on when you are low on fuel. 100  miles from Valdosta it came on. The miles kept going by and soon the fuel hand was pegged out on the bottom. Finally, I saw the exit for the truck stop. I took it and made a left to cross back over the interstate to where the pilot was and that's when the truck died. I was again out of fuel. I pushed in the clutch and coasted across the bridge over the interstate. Then the road slanted downhill. I popped the clutch. The fuel lines must be in the front of the tank and the downhill slope put enough fuel in the front of the tanks that they could pump it out. The truck started and with white knuckles I drove into the Pilot and up to the fuel islands. I am, again, going to start fueling more often.

We are proud to announce a new member of the family. He was supposed to arrive on my birthday, July 15th, but a few weeks ago my neice told me she was going to try to have him early. I don't know how you do that, but it must have worked because he arrived yesterday. Here is Isaac.

And here he is with his big brother and big sister, Simon and Ellie.

And his bigger sister Hanna.

And his bigger brother, Kyler.

Here is Papaw.

Grandmom.

And his Uncle David.

We are at the beach for the weekend. Here is the view from my favorite spot. Under the beach umbrella.

This is the view from the balcony.

We are heading back home tomorrow.

We are still on the regular run to Miami and back each week so I haven't had much new stuff to blog about lately. I have gotten some pretty good emails. Here is one from my old buddy Roger.

We spent the morning moving. Not from house to house, but from truck to truck. (It's about the same thing.) Say goodbye to truck 634.

And hello to truck 794.

   Not really a whole lot of difference is there? Except the old truck has over half a million miles on it and the new truck just a few hundred.

   Here is a picture of the inside, back (sleeper) of the new truck.

This is the dashboard.

And here is a view out the front window.

We are on the way to Virginia to deliver tonight, then come back to Knoxville tomorrow.

Here are a couple more pictures from the new truck. It has 1 feature that we haven't had on a truck before but we really like. Here is a picture looking out the drivers window at the rear view mirror. Notice the outside temperature gauge at the top. (Hot outside ain't it?) But this winter we'll be able to tell at a glance if it is cold enough for ice to be forming on the road outside.

And here is a picture from my favorite spot. Lying in the bunk. Ha!

We are on the way back to Shelbyville, TN now to pick up a load that delivers in PA Monday so we'll stop by the house tonight.

rebelmako recently asked about an an older blog about us searching for sharks teeth. I don't think I ever posted the results from that trip. Here are most of the teeth we found.

This is where we found them. It's called Venice Beach on the west coast of Florida.

We are hoping to go back again this fall.

   We have been home since last Friday. Tracy's daughter, Brittany sang in the fair Friday night. It was the first time she sang on a fairly large stage. (Get it? Fairly.) I put a recording of the song she sang (Walking After Midnight) on our Wiki page. She said she loved it and wants to do it again next year.

   Tracy had a root canal Monday so she has been taking it easy for a few days. I have been working on one of our rental trailers. We bought the trailer this past winter and moved it to some land we own. I know quite a bit about carpentry and plumbing and electrical work and enjoy doing that so we have been doing all of the work "setting it up" ourselves. It has proved to be a bigger job than I thought and has taken quite a while since we have been on the road a lot.

   We have the electricity and plumbing finished, the deck built and about half of the underpinning finished.  Underpinning is the metal that goes from the bottom of the trailer to the ground. We need to finish that, run an electrical circuit for the air conditioner, replace a window, (Since no one lived there, some vandals threw some rocks through it.) fix a leak in the plumbing, put up a mailbox, and it should, finally, be ready to rent.

   We are taking a break today. It is our 9th wedding anniversary so we are driving to Gatlinburg, the nearby resort town.

We recently went to Dollywood, which is a nearby amusement park, with my niece from South Carolina, and her family. Here is some of the group on a water ride.

Here are Ellie, Hanna, and Kyler closely watching the pottery guy.

Mildred and Brittany on the Farris Wheel.

Ellie and her Aunt Joyce went for a cruise.

This is Grand Ole Opry member Ray Pillows, who performed while we were there.

Here are some street performers.

This is one of my favorite things at Dollywood. Watching the Glass Blowers. Here the guy is heating the glass blob in a blast furnace.

They put up a sign to tell you what glass is made from.

This is the molten glass being blown up like a balloon.

When he finished the project he quickly put it into an oven so it could "cure" for 24 hours, so I didn't get a picture, but he ended up making one of these.

Yep. It's a glass cowboy hat. It was just slightly too hard for my head. Just for the record; I was the only person out of the entire group brave enough to ride the roller coaster. They tried to get a picture but it was moving way too fast for a camera to even take a picture.  Here are a few more pictures from our fun day.

   We are currently in Dade City, Florida. Tracy's stepdad is in the hospital here so we are staying the weekend with her mom and the rest of the family here.

   Yesterday, we picked up a load of sugar at a sugar factory near Lake Okachobee, Florida. We drove past miles of sugar cane fields.

This is the way they were unloading the sugar cane out of the trucks. By pulling them onto a ramp and tilting them up so the cane slid out of the back.

Luckily, we were being loaded with sugar and they did that the normal way. Here is a picture of the factory.

Next blog: The candy factory where we delivered the sugar.

Friday morning, we delivered our truckload of sugar to this candy factory.

This factory makes candy for Disney World and a few years ago they made the candy for the Super Bowl in Jacksonville. A really nice guy named "Frenchy" gave us a tour. These are the large vats where they cook the mix.

The candy starts cooking in the vat on the left, then it's pumped into the middle vat, then into the one on the right. The next picture is of the smaller vats where they were making a batch.

The mix was poured out on the table to be mixed with more ingredients. It looks like glass. Here is some Hollywood trivia for you. The glass that people crash through on the movies is actually a very thin sheet of candy.

Next, it is rolled up and put on the machine.

It comes out the other end fully wrapped.

These machines are around 100 years old. Here is a video (I hope.) of one in action.

When we left they gave us a big bag of candy. It's delicious.

Click here to visit their website.

   There are terrible creatures that live in the same area as us. They are called "Yellow Jacket Wasps". I had a little run in with some of them a few weeks ago. I was mowing the back yard in a area that I hadn't been mowing, and it was pretty much overgrown when I felt a searing pain just under my left eye. As I smacked myself in the face, I realized it was a Yellow Jacket Wasp viciously stinging away, and several of his buddies were close behind him. I floored the gas feed and shot across the yard with all of the speed that the John Deere mower with a V-Twin motor would give me. I avoided any more stings but my eye sure was smarting. So I put some ice on it and moved to another part of the yard to work.

   We have some young grapevines which we haven't been trimming around, so I started mowing close to them, occasionally stopping to tie the new growth up to a stake. As I started working on the 4th vine I heard buzzing. As I ran backward I saw the little varmints swarming out of the tall grass around the vine. I had to do something this time because kids sometimes play in this area of the yard and some of them could be allergic to stings. I couldn't see the hole in the ground where the nest would be and there were way too many wasps swarming around to try to mow any closer the vine. I didn't want to spray the whole area with poison so I got the shop vac out and put some in the bottom of it then gently eased the hose  over to the area of the swarm.

   Pretty soon, most of the little evil varmints that were flying around had flown over to attack the noisy end of the open hose and were quickly sucked inside. Then I was able to mow closer to the vine and found the hole. Once I found it I just put the hose near it to catch them as they came out.

   Now I am not telling anybody to do this, so if you try it and get stung, don't blame me. I was filming them when one sneaked up behind me and got me in the back. The video below shows how I react when I am filming and get stung in the back.

   I would like to thank the people who voted us into the top blogs yesterday. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.

   Earlier today we drove through the low pressure system formally known as "Hurricane Ernesto". The wind buffeted the truck some and we hit a little rain but it wasn't bad at all. We will be driving back through it this evening as we head back north out of Miami. The plan is for us to go home in East Tennessee to start our vacation. Saturday we leave out for Myrtle Beach for 2 weeks.

   A few months ago, my niece in South Carolina sent us an email invitation to sign up for surveys. A company sends us email surveys, and for each one we take, they pay us $2.00. and my niece gets $1 each and the person who signed her up gets $1. This week I got a survey that came from the oil companies who were wondering what peoples opinions about them were. It felt great giving them an extremely low score. They even asked if I thought they had my best interests in mind. I gave them the lowest score possible on that one.

   Now, here comes the sales pitch. If you want to take some surveys and tell people who really matter what you think, (Anyone who pays out 4 bucks for your opinion is probably going to pay attention to it.) send me an email and I'll happily sign you up. countrydrive@gmail.com You certainly won't get rich doing this, but if you have some extra time in front of your computer (I take the surveys while Tracy is driving.) it's a pretty interesting thing to do and you can make a few spare dollars doing it. Just send me an email that says, "I would like to take the surveys". I'll send them your email address and they'll send you an email to get you started. Even if you decide not to do it you just don't return their email. I promise this doesn't cost you anything. I also promise not to give out your email address to anyone else. Here is my email address again. countrydrive@gmail.com

   By the time I finish this blog we should be pulling into Myrtle Beach, SC to spend 2 weeks here on the ocean front.

    I completed another survey on the ride down between Spartanburg and Columbia and earned 3 whole bucks. I was wrong about some of the info. Some of the surveys pay you more than $2. When someone you refer completes one, you get $2, and when someone they refer completes one, you get $1. I want to say thank you very, very much to the people who allowed me to refer them. I think you'll be glad you did.

   I found a site that showed the tides at the beach. Looks like it will be going out when we arrive. I think I'll try out my metal detector. Maybe Tropical Storm Ernesto washed some good stuff in.

   Well, no luck with the metal detector last night. Several of my nieces and nephews will be here later on this week. I'll bet with their help, we can find some neat stuff.

   Here is a picture of our motel and room.

   We went for a walk down the boardwalk this morning.

   We stopped at the pavilion. This has been the biggest landmark at the beach since I have been coming here. (almost 40 years)

After this season is over they are tearing it down to put up a shopping mall. I guess that's progress, but I hate to see the old building go away. It is filled with games like skeeball, pinball, and many games normally seen at carnivals. It is also filled with the laughter of children. Here is a view from the street side.

A view from the upper deck looking toward the ocean.

And the roller coaster. I'm pretty sure it will be taken down as well.

Here are some pictures we have taken from the balcony. This para-plane was flying behind our motel yesterday.

The Pool.

A view down the beach.

The street side.

The Pier behind the motel.

Here is the ground view, looking through some sea oats.

A storm blew in yesterday morning.

We went for an early morning walk on the beach which was covered with seaweed from the storm.

   My sister Lois, and her entire family arrived over here Thursday night so we have been so busy with them and playing with her 5 grandchildren, we haven't had time to blog, but here is a quick update.

   This is their motel.

They were on the 25th floor. I got a little dizzy when I walked out on their balcony. I took this picture of the pier behind their motel from the balcony of their room.

It doesn't look very long from this height but this is the longest pier on the east coast. Friday night, we walked to the end of it and saw a guy catch a huge shark. I don't know exactly how long it was but it was at least 5 feet; maybe 8 feet. I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture dog-gone it. Last night we took the kids out there to fish and they caught 3 fish called "croakers". They made a noise that sounded like a frog.

   We also found out some very exciting news, but I can't report it yet. Here is a picture of the full moon over the ocean.

   A good friend and fellow musician passed away this week. I met Roger Owens a few years ago when a mutual friend brought him to our home to play music. I admired his musical abilities and he often complimented me on mine. We enjoyed the same genres of music and have gotten together many times to play.

   During his younger years Roger lived, and played music in California, Arizona, and in South Carolina where he played in bands in some of the same clubs as the country group Alabama before they became famous.

   Roger often sent me emails while we were out on the road. Some of them political, some of them religious, and some very funny. I have posted some of them on the blog and I would give "my friend Roger" credit for them when I did, although I didn't mention the fact that he was battling cancer. He wouldn't have wanted me to. Even though I'm sure he often felt bad and was in pain, he didn't complain about it and always seemed to be in a good, friendly mood. I hope when it's my time to go, I will do it with as much dignity as he. Roger Owens will be greatly missed by his family and his many friends, which I'm proud to say, includes me. 

   We left Myrtle Beach yesterday and drove to Dade City, Florida, which is near Tampa, to visit with Tracy's mom and step dad. We are almost back up to Georgia now, heading home.

   We took our bicycles with us to the beach so we could get some exercise and see the sites at the same time. I snapped this picture of Tracy while we were stopped at an intersection.

While we were out that day, we rode past some of the motels we stayed at when I was a kid. I think we stayed at this one the most. I snapped the picture as we peddled by.

When I was in my early 20's I would sit by the pool at this motel and play my guitar and sing.

This is the last motel Tracy and I stayed in before we bought the timeshare.

We will probably get a motel room somewhere in Georgia tonight and should be home early tomorrow afternoon.

I have a program on my computer that lets me enter musical notes and assign them to different instruments. I have been working on composing and programming this one for awhile. It's my first orchestral piece. I hope you enjoy it. Double click on the play button to listen. By the way. I'm just an amateur, so if anybody leaves me any negative comments, I'm gonna delete them.....but it will still hurt my delicate feelings.

   We do something here in East Tennessee we call "loafering". It means getting out driving around with no particular place to go. Maybe visit some friends if you drive past their house and they're home. Possibly finding a nice place to stop and eat. We did just that this past weekend along with some family and friends. We filled the cooler with drinks and food, threw it in the van, and headed out. We first stopped by the home of an old friend named Larry Stills. It had been quite a while since I had seen him so when we drove past his house and saw him in the yard I said, "Hey, let's stop and see Larry". You can do that when you are out "loafering", so we stopped and talked about old times for about an hour. After that we headed for the mountains.

   There is a local swimming hole nearby where I swam quite a bit in my younger years but a few years ago, after a flood, the road had to be closed for repairs. The road was recently reopened, so we decided to drive down it and stop at the old swimming hole.

Here is the rock that I used to climb and jump off of in my younger, dumber years.

We just skipped a few rocks this time, then drove on through the mountains into North Carolina.

The creek emptied into a river and we drove beside it on our way to a place called "Hot Springs".

Most people don't know this but we have hot springs here, near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, like the ones in Yosemite National park. You can even get in these if you want, and have a nice hot mineral bath. We had planned on stopping here for a picnic, but it occurred to me that an old friend of mine was playing in a band at a restaurant nearby, so we decided to go there. Here is the band in action.

We had a great steak dinner, then danced the night away.

The young and the old got in on the dancing.

Finally, the young got too tired to tango.

Here is the "East West Band". They are a great band. The third guy from the the left is my old buddy, Clinton (Red) Norton. Many years ago, we played in bands together, all over East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

I am really glad to see good people like this playing their music and having a great time. I'm not ready to do it yet, but I hope someday,  to give up trucking for awhile and play music full time again myself.

Here is a little Mindsay Jingle I recorded last Friday before we left for Florida. Click twice on the play button to listen.

Response to arts4peace  latest blog entry:

Things you may not have known about me. . . .

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Printing Press Operater
2. Army Scout
3. Musician
4. Truck Driver
 
B) Four movies I would watch over and over:

1. O Brother Where Art Thou
2. Starship Troopers
3. Scary Movie 2
4. 61* (A friend of mine played the umpire in this one.)
 
C) Four places I have lived:

1. Almost completely here in Greeneville, Tn
2. Over the road in the Big Truck.
3. Ft. Knox, KY for basic training.
4. Myrtle Beach, SC for vacations.

D) Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Grand Ole Opry

2. The Simpsons

3. Any of the Star Trek series.  

4. Most shows on the Science and Discovery Channels.
 
E) Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Caymen Islands 
2. Cancun
3. Key West
4. Bahamas
  
F) Web sites I visit daily:

1. Mindsay
2. yahoo
3. gmail
4. hotmail

G) Four of my favorite foods:

1. Tracy's biscuits
2. pizza
3. Chinese
4. Mexican 

H) Four places I would rather be right now:

1. I like it pretty well right here at home.
2. Myrtle Beach, SC
3. On a cruise ship.
4. Visiting family.

I) Four friends I think will respond:

desertmoon 

doot 

hester 

niassa 

Hopefully, you guys haven't already been tagged.
Now copy this and pass it on with your answers.

   I would like to thank everyone who voted for my Mindsay Jingle for Top Blog. If I never win any "big" awards for my music, ( and to be honest, I don't really expect to ) I'll be perfectly happy just getting a little recognition from the great friends like I have here at Mindsay.

   We played a show Saturday night. Didn't get many pictures but here is one that someone took of the band. From left to right is Tracy playing bass, then Kermit Monk playing guitar. That's me in the middle playing guitar with my mouth all contorted. Joe Sajak is playing harmonica and my good bud, Eric Bowman is playing Dobro. That's Mikey Brobeck playing standup bass in the back. He owns the place.

   You can click on the image to make it full size.

   We were driving on interstate 81, near the Tennessee, Virginia line a couple of days ago when this truck drove past us.

We all exclaimed, "It's the Great Pumpkin", and quickly began snapping pictures.

The truck tags were from Greene County which is the county we live in, but I have never seen anything like this around here. Maybe I just didn't drive down the road it was grown on. Happy Early Halloween everybody.

   We left home last Tuesday and took a load from Knoxville to Virginia and back. Then we went from Knoxville to West Virginia and back again. The leaves were very colorful as we drove through the Appalachians. Then we went to Nashville and picked up a load of detergent and brought it all the way out to Salt Lake City, Utah. We hit a pretty bad blizzard last night so we stopped for the night near Cheyenne, Wyoming. We have to wait until tomorrow to get our return load going back to Dyersburg, TN. Here is a slide show of some pictures we have taken since we left home this time.

Here is a new song I wrote and recorded for Halloween. It's called "A Scary Little Tune". Double click on the play button to listen. Happy Halloween.

   We are now well stocked up on candy. In case you don't know, the day after Halloween, Walmart sells their Halloween candy for half price. If you hurry you can probably still get some yourself before it is sold out. It has become a tradition for us to buy enough candy on the day after Halloween to do us til spring. We took a load up to PA today and drove right past a Super Walmart so we stopped, and got half of a buggy full.

   Well I have to sign off now. I need to call the dentist and make an appointment.

   I know it's after Halloween, but here is a scary story that just has to be told. The names have not been changed because nobody is innocent.

   A few weeks ago I reported that My nephew and his wife are expecting a baby. Well, a few days ago they showed us the first ultrasound pictures. I was very excited at first.................until I saw the pictures. I am not joking. This is what the ultrasound looked like.

   I jumped up and began running around the room yelling, "It's an alien. It's an alien." I was told to calm down. It was not an alien, but I persisted. I grabbed my niece, Jennifer, and began questioning her about when she was abducted, did she remember any details, and what did the aliens look like? "Calm down Uncle Eddie", she said. "This is what all babies look like when they are that little." Eventually they got me to calm down but I wasn't convinced.

    They soon said; "Hey, let's discuss some baby names". I think they were trying to humor me because they asked; "What would you suggest for a name Uncle Eddie"? "How about Galaxor"? I replied. I think it was at that point that David pulled out a ray gun and shot me. I woke up here at the computer.

   OK maybe I didn't tell the story exactly the way it happened, or, what with all of the excitement, maybe it was a dream, but this is my story and I'm sticking to it.

   I seem to be having more than my fair share of computer problems lately. As most people know, I like to write and record original songs. When I finish one, I sometimes upload it to a hosting site. Then, if I want, I can copy the link and paste it to the website or blog. Lately though, the site will start to upload the song and then I will get an error message saying "The page can't be found." or "There was a problem with the upload". I downloaded the latest Windows Explorer update before it started doing that, so I may need to change a setting. Of course I guess it could be possible that the site just doesn't like my music.

   I ordered this Gateway laptop, that I use on the road, from the Home Shopping Network less than a year ago. Over a month ago, the DVD drive quit working. I contacted customer service through the chat link on the Gateway website. After being transferred a few times and running a diagnostic program, and finally sending them the right serial number (There are several different ones on the bottom of the laptop.) I was told to delete and reinstall the DVD driver which required a computer restart. By that time it was well past my bedtime, so after I saw that it didn't help, I went to bed, and it was a couple of days later before I got a chance to contact them again.

   To make a long story a little bit shorter, I went through this several more times, trying different things, each requiring a restart, before finally being told (two weeks later) that I would have to send in the computer and that they would send me a mailing label. Two weeks after that I still didn't have a mailing label. After several emails back and forth, I was told that they would send me a box to ship it in, along with the label, and that I was not to send the power cord. I sent an email explaining that the power cord had partly melted at the point where it plugs into the computer and could I get that repaired as well. Believe it or not, I got an email saying to wait til I got the computer back and then send an email about the power cord. AAARRRGGGG Why not do it all at the same time??? A week later, when we left home this time, I still hadn't recieved a shipping box.

   The last laptop I bought was from Sams Club. I bought the extended warrenty and when I had a problem, it was quickly repaired. Tracy's daughter now has that computer and it is still working well after 4 years. I expect my next laptop will be bought at Sams Club as well.

   Yesterday, my entire blog was spent complaining about my computer. Since today's blog is a milestone (my 200th) I promise not to complain. Instead, I'll tell a story about the most interesting funeral I ever attended.

   The guy was well liked but also known to be pretty greedy. Instead of flowers at the funeral, his last request was that people put money in the casket to be buried along with him. As I walked up to the casket to pay my last respects, I noticed there was quite a bit of money already in the casket, put there by his many friends, and I got out my wallet to put some in as well.

   When I got my wallet out I noticed I was getting a little low on cash. I did however have a blank check for emergencies and I decided to be extra generous and write him a check for $100.00 to take with him to his final resting place. Then I thought, well, I could use some extra cash, so I wrote the check for $200.00, put that in the casket, and took out $100.00...........What???

   Haven't done much blogging lately because I mostly do that on the laptop in the truck while Tracy is driving, and my laptop is out of order. The good news is they finally sent me a shipping box and with the help of my nephew, Dave, I got the hard drive backed up (Dave is a computer whiz who works for IBM and he took out the hard drive and put it in another computer and backed it up from there.) and the computer sent in for repairs. Hopefully, it will be here when we get back in off the road.

  We had a great Thanksgiving with the family. I deep fried a 22 pound turkey. It turned out pretty good and I didn't even catch anything on fire. We are leaving today to make a delivery in Levitown, PA which is in between Philidelphia and New Jersey. After that we will probably head to Dallas or Miami.

   They say if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all, so I won't talk about the problems I'm having getting my laptop fixed and returned, or about the 2 blizzards we have already been through this year. I will post a slideshow of the snowy pictures. We stop the truck most of the time when the road gets this bad, and we did stop last week, until the blizzard passed in Illinois, but when we heard that the roads were clear about 50 miles south, we slowly made our way back down the interstate until we got to clear roads.

  The good news is, we are now returning from a nice long trip out to Los Angeles and back and we have had great weather during the entire trip.

Here is an update, finally, on what we have been doing lately. Yesterday we had to stay in Cheyenne, Wyoming because interstate 80 was closed due to high winds. Fortunately, we were parked beside an Outback so we went there for supper.

This truck was parked beside of us. I think it's an oil drilling rig. This thing would drill a big hole wouldn't it?

We were about 6000 feet in elevation and this is what our potato chip bags looked like. After we got back on the road, when we got to about 7000 feet, this one busted,

Last week, we drove through Valley Forge on our way to pick up a load.

Here are some pictures we took as we drove through.

Here are some pics of the full moon over the desert that we recently took.

And here is a nuclear power plant, near I-40, on Lake Dardanelle, in Arkansas, that we often drive past.

We are now in a dock in Salt Lake City, being loaded and will be taking this load to Bowling Green, Ky.

   We got a load out to Los Angeles Monday but couldn't deliver it until Tuesday, so I got online and downloaded us some free Jimmy Kimmel Show tickets. We parked the truck at a truck stop in Ontario, CA, rented a car, and drove to Hollywood. We parked in an underground garage beneath this complex. That's the Hollywood sign in the far background.

We had some extra time before the show so we took a walk on the "Walk of Fame" and saw some of the landmarks. Here are a couple of pictures of  Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Since we share the same last name, I wanted to find Linda Darnell's hand and footprints which I knew were in front of the theater. You probably haven't heard of her but she was a famous actress during the 30's and 40's.

This is the Kodak Theater. They were getting ready for the Oscars which airs this weekend. (Note the huge Oscar statue on the right, still wrapped in cellophane.)

And here is the El Capitan theater where Jimmy Kimmel Live is filmed.

We got in line near the yellow fire hydrant near the bottom center of the picture and while we waited a fire truck pulled up and filled up with water.

When I downloaded the ticket for the show, it said to print out the ticket or write down the important information. We didn't have a printer and we weren't sure which information was "important" so at Tracy's suggestion I downloaded the file to an SD card and we stopped by Walmart and printed it out at the picture kiosk. This is what it looked like.

    Because we printed it out like a picture, our ticket had a glossy finish and everyone else in line had there's on plain paper or just written down. A lady came by making sure everyone had their tickets and when she saw ours, she commented about how "neat" it looked. When she heard us talk she asked where we were from. When we said Greeneville,TN she said she had a friend from Elizabethton. It turned out that she was the "audience coordinator" and when we got into the theater she seated us on the second row from the front, right beside the band. I had the closest seat in the house to "Cleo and the Cletones".

   When I was a kid, my favorite show was "Star Trek" and I still enjoy all of the different Star Trek series. Guess who the guest on the show was.??????? William Shatner!!!! We sat about 10 feet away from him. Very Cooooool!!!!

   We had to check the camera in the lobby and pick it up on the way out. No pictures were allowed inside but it was a great experience to see just how past paced everything was and all of the things that went on behind the scenes, and the band, Cleo and the Cletones, played some great songs during the commercial breaks.

   The next time we have some extra ime in LA, we are hoping to see a Tonight Show taping.

We have found a great place to prospect for gold about 100 miles from where we live. It's called Thermal City, North Carolina. For $50 you can use their machine, called a trommel, for about a half a day. This is what it looks like.

They load a bunch of dirt into the top bin and you slowly wash it through the machine.

Here is a view from the top when we were almost finished.

The dirt goes through a tumbler which separates out the rocks then washes through a chute.

The part near the bottom of this picture is lined with carpet which catches the little pieces of gold along with the heavier dirt and it lets the lighter sands wash on out. Here is Tracy and her mom shoveling the sand into a pile as it comes out.

Once you finish, you take out the carpet and wash it out into a bucket. What comes out is a mixture of heavy sands and fine gold flakes called "paydirt".

We took this dirt back to camp and panned out the gold from the dirt.

Here is the gold that came out of a handful of it.

It really isn't a lot. I had the camera zoomed way in. We still have a bunch of paydirt that we haven't panned out yet. When we get it all done I'll try to remember to post a picture of it.

   Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary. We celebrated by dining out at one of our favorite restaurants, The Olive Garden, where we reminisced about the past 10 years. In some ways, it seems like it has gone by fast, but in other ways, it seems like we have been able to fit in a lot of experiences during that time.

   10 years ago I had only been west of Nashville, Tn. once. That was when the printing company that I worked for flew me to St. Lewis for training on a new press they were buying. Since then we have traveled in almost every state in the country from the upper left in Seattle Washington to the lower right in Key West Florida and from the lower left in San Diego California to the upper right in Boston Mass. We have seen some awesome Mayan ruins in Mexico and visited many of the islands in the Bahamas. We have been to Las Vegas several times and even though we don't care much for gambling, we really enjoy Vegas just for the amazing sights to see there.

   10 years ago Tracy couldn't drive a stick shift and now she easily shifts through the 10 gears of this big truck. She has also become a very good bass player. A couple of years ago we were playing a show and heard a guy in the audience shout "Wow! She is playing the bass and she's a girl". The commotion that ensued after that comment is for another blog.

   10 years ago we didn't know how to turn on a computer and had barely heard about cell phones and now we can't hardly imagine living without either of them.

   During the past 10 years we have sadly lost some beloved family members and we have welcomed several new, wonderful nieces and nephews into the family. We have lost some dear friends whom we couldn't imagine living without at the time, and whose memories remind us to cherish the friends we have even more.

   We have driven around 2 million miles in these big trucks. That may seem hard to believe but we average driving about 800 miles a day, on about 250 days a year. That's 200,000 miles a year. Multiplied by 10 years makes 2,000,000 miles. Fortunately, we haven't had a single accident during that time.

   After thinking about all of the changes during the past 10 years, we can only wonder about the next 10 and hope that the changes that are coming will be mostly good ones. We are now headed up to New Jersey starting out on the first few miles of our next 2 million.

   If you enjoy Christian music, I would like to recommend a podcast. It's called Ikthuscast. Click here for the website.  Then click on "listen" in the box a little left of center. You don't have to sign up or give your email address or anything there. You just click on the shows and listen. I let them play while I surf other sites on the Internet.

   I would especially like to recommend Ikthuscast #8. It is in the June 07 archives. The first song is one of the most beautiful versions of "Amazing Grace" that I have heard. The second song is an equally great version of "I'll Fly Away".

   Now the third song is called Billboard For The Lord and it's how we found out about the podcast because it's one of our songs. That's right. I got an email about it one day and was tickled to death to find out that somebody liked it enough to play it on such a well produced show as this.

   I'll be the first to admit that the quality of our song is not as good as the others. We wrote and recorded it about 12 years ago on a 4 track analog recorder, but I really appreciate "Uncle Warren Bloom" including it in his podcast.

   We just delivered some dirty magazines to Florida. They were dirty because another truck was on their way to deliver them, but wrecked and scattered them all over the place. (Well how did you think we had dirty magazines?) We were told no other vehicle was involved in the crash and it was the middle of the night so we think the driver probably went to sleep and ran off the road. The team in the truck stayed overnight in the hospital for observation but they are alright. The company sent some people down with a different trailer to salvage all they could, then we picked it up and delivered it. They did a pretty good job but this is what the inside looked like when we delivered it.

If you live in Southern Florida and the magazines at your local store look a little rough this week, this is the reason why.

We picked up a load in Florida yesterday at a dock with a pond beside of it that had an alligator in it. Here is some video that I took.

We picked up a load a few days ago that took us through Gettysburg. We were a little nervous because several years ago some people from the South came up here and weren't treated very well.  We are happy to report that everyone was nice to us.  Here are some pictures from the town and battlefield.

   The other day Tracy and I were talking about how we would like to have a ringtone for our phones that played "Dixie" but we couldn't find one that we really liked, plus we are tightwads and didn't want to pay for one. I knew there were some ringtone websites where you could upload your own music and have it sent to your cellphone so I opened up my trusty "Fruity Loops" music production software and recorded the song, then uploaded it to a free site called "Myxer". Now we have "Dixie" ringtones on our phones.

   If you are a proud Southerner, or even a dang Yankee, who would like to have a "Dixie" ringtone for your phone for free, please help yourself to it. Just go to our website www.countrydrive.com and scroll about half way down, and click on the "Free Dixie Ringtone" link.

   As we drove down the Florida Turnpike today, near Hollywood, an unmarked police car came flying past us with his lights flashing. Ahead in the distance we could see helicopters hovering and thought they must be after the fugitive cop killer so we turned on the news and listened as we watched the choppers. Here is some video.

  The guy that they caught had, earlier today, choked and then shot a 76 year old deputy who was transporting him to court. We hope that the Broward County Police Department has to order an entire case of new billy clubs to replace the ones that they wore out today. That's not politically correct but it's our blog and its the way we feel.

We delivered to a residential district of Philadelphia last night and as usual, our directions weren't very good, so at 2am we found ourselves traveling down a narrow street lined with cars on each side wondering if we would come to a low underpass and have to back up down the same 1 way street. Luckily, there were no low underpasses and we eventually made our way to the delivery point. Here is some video.

   We are back in Salt Lake City, Utah today. Yesterday, we had a long drive through Nebraska and Wyoming so while Tracy was driving, I wrote and recorded a bluegrass instrumental on my "Fruity Loops" music program. We also took some video of the drive. I combined the 2 today and this is the result.

   We got stuck in a snowstorm in Wyoming this week. We have been in storms quite a bit worse than this one but it was pretty bad. Of course I had quite a bit of extra time so I recorded some more music, then added it to some of our videos of the storm. This is the result. I call it "Blizzard Blues".

   We recently drove to Salt Lake City. On the drive out, I commented to Tracy that I would like to get a big tumbleweed to put in front of our barn which is painted like this.

That's my oldest sister in front of our barn, sitting on my brother's buggy and mule.

  Be careful what you ask for, because I got what I asked for......Sort of.

On the way back I was driving in the middle of the night when my headlights lit up a huge tumbleweed right in the middle of my lane. I won't tell how big it was because most people probably wouldn't believe me. I didn't realise tumbleweeds got that big til I saw it in my lane. I glanced in my left mirror and saw a car in the left lane so I couldn't swerve. My only choices were to hit the brakes and slide to a stop on the interstate or run over the tumbleweed. So I ran over it.

   My next thought was that some of it probably got stuck in my undercarriage. I stopped at the next truck stop and sure enough there was a big branch of it stuck between the axles.

Here is the pile I had when I got it all dug out. Remember, this is just one of the branches that got stuck.

The rest of it was scattered on the interstate. Be careful when you're driving out West. Trust me. These things get huge.

   I found a great FREE screenshot recorder program at download.com. If you need to record anything on your computer screen and store it in a file, this program will do it. Here is the download site. http://www.download.com/CamStudio/3000-13633_4-10734471.html?tag=lst-0-1

   Below is a FL Studio tutorial that I recorded using the screenshot program.

Last weekend we were invited to a Christmas party at our good friends Rick and Deb Ricker's house. We got to pick and sing with some great bluegrass musicians there. Here is a clip of the song "Man of Constant Sorrow".

Just to prove that I can play a guitar, (and I'm not saying I'm great at it. I'm just saying I can play one.) here is another video from Rick and Debs Christmas Party. My friend Eric is on the left playing dobro. That's me near the door playing guitar and singing, and our new friend, Phil, is on the right playing the stand-up bass guitar. That's my friend Larry, who I have known all my life, that comes up and helps sing, then does the ooo ooo ooo's after the first chorus. I think everybody there was singing along. It was a great party with a great bunch of people.

Here is a video from our trip to Grand Cayman Island where we fed a large group of stingrays. I added my own original music.

If someone tells me ghosts do not exist, I certainly won't argue with them. However, I do try to keep an open mind about things. As the great physicist, Carl Sagan, said, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". And something happened to us lately that might even be evidence.

Tracy's mom was married to a man named Don for many years. Don was a tough old guy who was a paratrooper in the Korean War. Don had very strong opinions on almost any subject you wanted to discuss and he was always ready to share his opinions and speak his mind. I spent many enjoyable evenings talking with Don, having friendly arguments, and listening to his war stories

During the last year of his life, Don and his wife, Sue, (Tracy's mom) moved to Florida to be near his kids. When Don passed in Sept. 06, Tracy's mom wanted to move back to Tennessee. We helped her to move back and set up a manufactured home on the lot we own beside of us.

For Christmas that year we gave most of our family and friends "Atomic Clocks" as gifts. They look like this.

The clocks pick up the signal from the national atomic clock so it always shows the accurate time, day, and date. Note the day of the week displayed in the lower right corner.

Now what I am about to show you might be explained by somebody. If you know why it did this please let me know. It is still very strange that out of the dozen or so clocks that we gave away, this is the only one that ever did this.

A few days ago Sue was sitting in her living room thinking about Don, as she often does, when she looked up at her clock to see this.

I don't think that "Don" is a day of the week. There probably is a perfectly good explanation for this but......Hey Don. If that was you. It was nice hearing from you.

The next day, the clock was back to normal.

  We finally got a load out of New Orleans with extra time to deliver it, so off we went downtown. Here is a video of some of the bands and sights.

   I think I am, finally, going to be alright. I just had an operation that I put off having for many years, but now I'm really glad I did it. I'm also very happy its over. Let me start at the beginning.

   When I was young, I had quite a bit of stomach pain. Then, when I began operating a printing press, about 20 years ago, I started having lots of heartburn. I kept a bottle of Tums on my desk and ate several a day, then after a few years I started taking over the counter acid reducers. After I started driving a truck, our doctor prescribed the new acid reducers. Prilosec first, then Nexium. I still had heartburn and was told I needed an operation to close the flap at the top of my stomach.

   No way I said. Nobody is going to cut holes in me, stick in a bunch of sharp metal objects, and cut, tie, and rearrange my insides. So I started taking 2 of the heavy duty acid reducers a day and ate bunches of Tums. Then somebody reminded how my grandfather died. (Those who are squeamish should look away during the next few sentences.) He constantly had heartburn. In his late 50's it got worse and one day he started throwing up blood, was taken to the hospital, and died a few days later.

   Finally, after a sleepless night of heartburn, late last year, I decided I was going to let them cut holes in me, stick in a bunch of sharp metal objects, and cut, tie, and rearrange my insides. First, I had to take some tests. One of them determined how much acid was in my esophagus. The surgeon said, "if I scored a 14 on their scale, I would be eligible for the surgery". I scored a 67.  The surgery was scheduled for Feb. 5th.

   On the morning of the 5th we drove to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I was taken to a small room and an IV was started. The doctors came in and basically said they would take good care of me then I started feeling sleepy. I heard a nurse say, "give hugs and kisses", and I was out. I barely remember looking around the recovery room, then I was being wheeled into my hospital room with a bunch of holes in my belly.

   I couldn't be happier with how easy it went. They gave me a button that would give me a shot of morphine when I pushed it. The next day, after a scan, they sent me home. They gave me pills that took care of the pain for 4 weeks and then released me to come back to work.

   I have not had one bit of heartburn since the day of the surgery. About my only side effect has been an occasional feeling of butterflies in my stomach. The surgery is called Nissan Fundoplication, it was performed by Dr John D Scott, and it has greatly improved my life.

With all of the rain we have had lately, we have seen quite a few rainbows. Here is a video I made, along with (of course) some of my original music.

We recently picked up a load in Columbia, PA which is where the pen is pointing on the map.

We saw this mural in the middle of the town.

It's a little hard to tell from the picture but the mural is painted on the side of a 2 story building. We took the picture out of the side window of the truck.

We got to jam with some great musicians this past weekend. Here is our version of the Ventures song, "Wipe Out". Yes, I'm the fat guy on the drums.

   We had an unexpected visitor recently. Most Sundays, when we are home, we have dinner with the family. Most of them still attend the same country church that they grew up in, which is very near our house. We like to have dinner ready and they stop by after church. We all have dinner and great Sunday afternoon conversations together. (By the way, here in the South, many of us call the noon meal "dinner" and the evening meal "supper".) Anyway, a couple of Sundays ago, after everyone had eaten and visited for a couple of hours, people began to leave, and soon only Tracy, her daughter Brittany, and myself were left sitting around with nothing to do. I said, "let's go out to the garage and clean and straighten it up". They agreed and I walked outside first. When I turned around to wait for them I saw this.

My first thought was, I wonder who stuck this rubber snake on the light switch as they were leaving. My second thought was, hey, I'll scare Tracy with this. So I yelled, "Honey, are you about ready to come out"? Well, just about the time she walked out of the door I realised, IT'S A REAL SNAKE! I grabbed her and pulled her away from the door. I know it's just a black snake but they can still bite. I took out my cell phone and snapped this picture. Our little visitor then crawled back down the wall using the edges, of the rocks as little ledges, and was soon back in the woods.

   We had another enjoyable weekend at home this past weekend. Saturday, we got together with the family including our Great-Nieces and Nephews from South Carolina. We played with the horses, played chess and basketball, and fixed homemade pizza for dinner. Here is a picture of our future Rock Star, Great-Nephew, Nolan.

Sunday, we went to our friends, Sandy and Shila's house and decorated pumpkins. We had the news turned on and they were reporting on all of the negative campaigning, and our pumpkin got a little sick of it.

Before we left home yesterday, we stopped by the early polls and voted. Here is the new video from Andy, Opie, and Fonzie.

Here is a view from the top deck of the ship, just before we left port.

That night we saw a show in the ships main theater. Here are some pics.

The next day we saw an ice carving show on deck.

Here is the deck.

We went to the Confederate Railroad  Band's acoustic show. The guy on the left is Rusty Hendrix, their new lead guitar player. He toured with Sammy Kershaw for many years.

Here is our group with the leader of the band, Danny Shirley.

Our first stop was in Puerto Rico, near where Christopher Columbus first landed. Here is a statue of him.

This is the old fort.

And here is the ship in the dock in Puerto Rico.