OldTroubador's Blog - page 16

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“And they will march straight through St. Peter’s gate, for they’ve served their time in Hell.”
Well, by the time you read this, it will be the month of May. This means many things to many people. To me, it means that at the end of the month, here in the United States, we celebrate Memorial Day. Memorial Day is set aside as a day to remember our armed forces personnel who fell during the course of battle. I can remember, as a child, being at my grandmother’s house in Pennsylvania over this weekend. We would spend Saturday and Sunday working at our cottage, getting it ready for summer – turning on the water, uncovering the furniture, things like that. But Monday, Memorial Day, was set aside for the parade to the local cemetery and the service to be held there. During the parade, all the children were allowed to march at the end of the procession as it wound up the hill to the cemetery. Once there, everyone gathered as invocations were given and a memorial wreath placed on one of the veterans’ graves. A squad from the local National Guard armory was on hand to render honors and ‘Taps’ was then played. Everyone stood silently, hats off and hands over hearts, until the last notes echoing down the valley faded into memory. At that point, the squad marched off to a drum tattoo and the children all raced to collect the brass from the honors given. The adults went to the family plots to make sure that flags and flowers were placed on the gravesites of their fallen family members. Then it was time for family and friends to gather for picnics and cookouts – the first official ones of the summer.
I mention this because it seems like many people have forgotten the true meaning of Memorial Day. It is unofficially, the first official weekend of the summer, this much is true. But it seems to me that most people are more interested in heading off to the lakes, mountains, or beaches than they are in remembering the reason for the weekend. Stores run week long sales on either end, trying to make as much money as possible from people with an extra day to shop. But they remember not why they have this extra day.
But during this time of honoring the fallen, let us not forget the living. Many on this site are veterans and many of these have lost close friends during times of conflict. Many others are now on active duty. Some have family members overseas and others will watch as their loved ones leave for training camps. It is important to remember that these men and women have bought and will continue to buy our freedom with their sacrifice of time away from loved ones. Our freedoms are underwritten with the blood spilled by those who have answered the call. Our rights are buttressed by the rows of white crosses at cemeteries around the world.
I would like to send a personal Thank You to all the servicemen and women, past and present, who read this. Thank you for your service, for your sacrifice, for the hardships you endured. And if I may, without offending too many people, I would like to offer a small prayer to all of you who have served:
May the Good Lord bless you and keep you. May He be gracious and smile upon you. May He lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

We always remember our soldiers/veterans on Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, and national holidays like Independence Day. But their sacrifice of time, effort, and possibly their lives knows no calendar. We need to keep the men and women of the armed forces in our thoughts at all times. For my friends from around the world, please substitute the name of your country for "American". Their sacrifices are what keep us free and allow us the privilege to use sites like this.

Okay, okay, so I'm a professional at the travelling game. Thought I would share a couple of photos depicting life on the road.



This is my office, breakroom, den, and dining room. I love the view from here. To the left of the CB is Grumpy the Dwarf with my riding bell hanging from his feet.



This is the accommodations. A little small, but the mattress is good, blankets are warm. And I have lived in worse places. Besides, I have my computer and DVD player, what more do I need?



This is where I am going.



This is where I've been.

Be sure to visit all the other travelers here in blogland:
MissOwl, guitartxn, Tardis, needsithard, Whispermyname, fluffydawg, amancalledpony, dziga, arabella_topaz, angelindisguise, JediMasterBater, OldTroubador, Dreamingof_U, VTCali, sidders73, bighoss2, celticone, rockhard6isback, redvs4u and tight_wet_lips

Thanks for visiting. This is the concrete cowboy, the Old Troubador, going 10-10 on the side. See you out there where the highway meets the sky. We're gone, bye-bye.

BestinDK posted an RIP blog for George Jones. Thank you Best I'm glad she did, all us rednecks missed it. With George gone, you have to wonder who is next? And as I listen to the radio these days, I wonder.....

Well, I know I have been missing for a few days and it will probably be a few more before I am back. I acquired a sinus infection or something over the weekend and have been feeling rather puny. Antibiotics? Not a chance - for me, the cure is worse than the disease. They will ruin my digestive system and put me down for about four days. So I am treating the symptoms, getting plenty of rest, doing what I can. I have to save my strength for my job. But I will be back before too long, trust me.
I've been through Columbus, OH, up to Chicago, then down to Kansas City. Now I am headed to Mesquite, TX then who knows from there.
PS - I posted an old blog just below - it was the first blog I ever posted on NN. I hope you enjoy it.
PPS - I hope you folks in the KC area are enjoying the 80 degree weather - I heard on the radio that by Friday, the high will be 39 and a wintry mix will be in the air. May? Really???? WTF!!!
PPPS - It's a good thing BoxSeat has all those tattoos. Otherwise, the ladies would not be able to tell his gallery from mine
Y'all take care, keep them between the lines, see you where the highway meets the sky.

It has been said that the joy is in the journey, not the destination. I have come to appreciate that sentiment more each day.
The trucking business is based on origins and destinations. That is the nature of the xxxxx. But as a driver, the journey is as important, if not more so. Each day reveals new wonders to me as I travel the highways and byways of this great land of ours.
So far, in the three years I have spent behind the wheel, I have traveled through 43 of the 48 continental United States. I have not yet had the pleasure of driving through Rhode Island, North and South Dakota, Montana, nor Washington. There are a couple of states I have been through only once or twice. Most of my work has been done east of the Great Plains.
Of those states I have been through, I can honestly say that every one of them has something to recommend. Some may only have a few miles, say along the coastline. Others, the whole state is a cause of wonder. I have crawled up and over mountain passes in the Rockies, barreled through the deserts of the southwest, fought traffic in the great cities of our country and been nearly everywhere in between. Although the images are burned forever in the recesses of my mind, there are far too many to commit to this short treatise. Let it be said, though, that I have seen the purple mountains majesty, the amber waves of grain, the spacious skies and the fruited plains that we all sang about in grade school.
Many states were a revelation. Take Oklahoma for instance. I always thought that Oklahoma was nothing more than oil fields and burnt over cattle pastures. In my mind, it was a state that was flat and featureless. Such is not the case. Although its mountains will never match the grandeur of the Rockies or the Smokies, its hills are breathtaking in their own right. Long and fairly steep, they rise from the plains with no preamble. Some are bald, some are tree covered, but all are bold in their defiance of conventional wisdom.
What brought forth this outpouring was my most recent trip along I-40 from Amarillo, TX to the Los Angeles basin in California. I have always enjoyed this trip. Every turn, every hill reveals new sights to behold. The panorama is ever-changing. Along this route, I travel from the cap rock country of Texas with its endless cattle lands through New Mexico and Arizona. New Mexico is another startling state. It truly is a land of enchantment. The terrain is like nowhere else. The red rock cliffs, the malpais region covered in lava domes, the arroyos coursing across the land like rough scars in the skin. At times, all this and more is visible in one long sweeping glance. And on the horizon lie the Rockies, teasing and taunting in their greatness for hours before I finally reach them.
How small is man when compared to the immensity that is this land. Every time I travel through here, I marvel at the pioneers in their covered wagons pulled by plodding oxen and mules. What I can traverse in ten or fifteen minutes was a full day of travel for those intrepid souls. My biggest worry is running out of coffee. They had to contend with hostile natives and an even more hostile environment; everything they needed they brought with them or did without. Or they died. Every terrain feature was an obstacle that had to be conquered. There were no bridges across the arroyos; there were no gently graded highways over the mountain passes. No Motel 6, no truck stops, there were none of the modern conveniences to ease their way. All they had was determination, sweat, and the distant mountains that hung on the horizon, mocking their efforts. (As a brief aside, to get a great idea of the trials of the pioneers, check out the movie The Big Trail, an early John Wayne western. Although the story line leaves something to be desired at times, the depiction of what the early wagon trains had to go through is superb.)
Not all the states elicit this kind of introspection. Mostly, there are the treasures that I find as I travel along. The states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois are studded with these gems. As I leave the interstate and take to the state highways, they are revealed. Small farming communities anchored by a whitewashed or brick church, small towns with an honest town square and local stores where service is a way of life, not a buzzword.
The state of Tennessee is another jewel, one of my favorites. The highway snakes up and down heavily forested hills, the valleys home to some of the most beautiful rivers one can imagine. Some of these rivers pass under the highway five or six times before taking their leave, each time possessing a new look; sandy flat shores, steep cuts through the rocks – the river has the same name each time, but a new face. Anchoring the state of Tennessee is the Gorge - a canyon that the force of the Pigeon River has carved through the Smoky Mountains. Even though the drive through there is demanding, the sheer overpowering beauty of running along the river bottom surrounded by cliffs towering hundreds of feet overhead fills me with wonder.
Then there is West Virginia, a state so mountainous that if one could grab it by the edges and stretch it out flat, it would be bigger than even Texas. A state that, although small, takes the best part of a day to cross (and the driver better be well rested before tackling it too). Yet a state that is a flawless emerald, richly green and sparkling.
Along the east coast, there is more to life than the I-95 corridor. Taking to the back roads opens whole new worlds to enjoy. Dodge moose and bear in New Hampshire and Vermont, cruise through the forests and cold mountain lakes of New York, all these and more are there to experience. Travel through the old towns of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York and discover buildings erected in the 1670’s. Tour Virginia and the Carolinas and witness battlefields from three wars - the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War of colonial America to the killing grounds of the Civil War, often in the same place.
The United States is there for all the senses. Unplug your earphones, turn off your computer, disable the GPS and look around next time you are traveling. Run along the Gulf Coast and taste the salt on your lips and smell the shrimp boiling from Key West, Florida to Corpus Christi, Texas. Go to New York City and smell the chestnuts roasting on every street corner, watch an osprey dive into the Missouri River, listen to a string of locomotives labor up Cajon Pass, feel the cool breeze coming off the Adirondack Mountains. Marvel in the journey and the destination will be upon you too soon.

I have found as I get older that I get a little more emotional over things - videos of people overcoming tremendous hardships and "handicaps", videos of people that exceed expectations, movies that I have seen a dozen times that still touch my heart. But what gets me deepest is the love of my friends and their tokens of affection to me.
Y'all know how I feel about Sugar and Howlin. I had the opportunity to break bread with them again tonight. Their company, as usual, is wonderful and we laughed and joked and talked for hours. But during supper, they gave me a gift, a riding bell. It is used to keep the 'road gremlins' away and to keep a person safe on the roads. I cannot tell you how much this gesture, this gift has touched me my friends. I am truly, deeply honored and touched, and humbled by the both of you.
I am going to sign off now - I want to get up early in the morning and, I am having a little trouble seeing the screen right now.
Thank you never seems to be enough, but it is all I have. That and my love and friendship to you both.
Bill

Truckergirl today !!!!!! Happy birthday TG, and may you wiggle on for many years to come!!!!!

I have to drive the night shift, but will check this tomorrow and pass the greetings on to her.