King George

February 25, 2010

Last Thursday was the George Strait concert in St. Louis - much anticipated since Christmas by our Marion Antique Mall manager, Sandie Newbolds - a huge King George fan. Accompanying her were: Ursula Haug, Tom & Teresa Terri and us – Ken & Peggy. The four of them arrived Wed, Febr. 17 about 9:00 p.m. at Timber Creek Resort, south of St. Louis. They are all part of our core crew at the antique mall. There are several vendors who work over and above the call of duty to keep the mall running smoothly, of whom these are four major helpers. Peggy and I arrived about 4:00 a.m. on our truck. We had been routed from Columbus, OH to Romeoville, IL (west of Chicago) and then drove bobtail (no trailer) to the resort. Due to a couple delays, as must always be expected in trucking, we got in much later than expected. However, the girls and Tom had everything organized when we arrived – food mostly. We walked in and heated up our breakfast and went to bed for a couple hours. It was a leisurely morning – the day of the concert. We all had more breakfast – sausage, eggs, hash browns, biscuits & gravy. Everything was geared towards the concert. I looked up George Strait’s bio on the internet and turned what I was reading into a quiz. As much as Sandie knows about her hero, she didn’t know his birthday (May 18, 1952,) though she had his age right. We left about 1:00, took the dogs to Ron & Debbie Box’s house in Fenton and went to ‘Blueberry Hill Restaurant,’ a landmark place on Delmar in University City. Chuck Berry had just played there the night before as he does once a month. The place is large with many rooms, and the walls are lined with memorabilia. We sat in front of windows facing onto Delmar for great people watching, and near a free, modern jukebox full of CD’s rather than 45’s. I selected many oldies and quizzed the others about who the artist was. We left there about 4:30 and headed downtown to the Scottrade Center. We were very early, but we had planned to go up to the very high priced ‘Bud Light Zone’ restaurant as an excuse to get in before the crowds. More than 2 hours before the show, the parking garage was filling up fast. At the bar we each ordered something small just for the right to sit there. Ursula grabbed the tab, so I don’t know how high it actually was… The concert started at 7:00, so about 6:30 we headed for our seats. The arena is huge, used for ice hockey, stock shows and huge concerts. As high up as we were, it was perfect for seeing the show projected on 4 huge screens facing out above the stage. One could look back & forth from the ant-like figures to the huge amplification of them on screen. First was Leanne Womack. She was okay, dressed a little strangely, not as big a star as George or Reba, but she did good – climaxing her set with a duet with Willy Nelson, who wasn’t really there, but one would think he actually was there by the way he appeared on screen alternating with Leanne, singing in perfect harmony with him -don’t remember what song it was. After Leanne Womack, there was a break to redo the stage, and then came Reba McEntire. Wow! I’m no country fan, but maybe I could be a Reba fan. She takes charge immediately and has a mesmerizing stage presence. She makes a production of her singing. The stage had microphones at each of the four corners, so each artist would move from one corner to the next to play to the audience on the floor. Reba danced and strutted around the stage. She knows how to work the crowd. A comic guest, apparently from Reba’s TV show, was there. Stephanie Robertson was the name I think I heard. She was hilarious, playing off of Reba, the straight woman, the serious one. And there was a music video showing Reba in a taxi visiting her old home place after she had become a refined, wealthy show girl. Then an actual big plastic taxi pulled up the aisle to the stage, and Reba got out in a fancy red dress, pranced up onto the stage and sang “Fancy.” Then came another break to set up for ‘King George.’ (And Reba is the Queen of Country.) I was satisfied after Reba was done. George Strait has many awards for best songs. He’s been around 40 years and has stayed at the top through generational changes. He is great, and he is the main attraction on this tour. But he doesn’t put on the show that Reba does. He is down to business, singing one great song after another. His style is generally pretty mellow, so Peggy and I both dozed off during his set. I caught most of it, but it felt so good to sleep a little. Ursula, Peggy and I sat together; Tom, Teresa and Sandie sat in another section ¼ of the way around the arena. I bought all the tickets, but at two different times. Sandie was in hog heaven. She knows all the words to all of George’s songs and has all of his CD’s. Sandie doesn’t care at all about Reba or Leanne. The whole show was about 4 hours. We were all glad we went. We stopped at Walmart for supplies en route back to the resort. Peggy built a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting for the next morning. On Friday, Feb 19 we celebrated Ursula’s 68th birthday, which is actually on February 23. The cake was a monster. Too tall (7 layers) and not enough frosting to cover, it was frosted across the top and down opposite sides, but the other two sides were exposed so one could see the layers. It wasn’t pretty, and it was a challenge to cut it, but it was delicious. We spent a few hours Friday at two antique malls on Big Bend in St. Louis. Ursula found some good buys. Her buy of the day was an earring rack and about 50 sets of earrings – all for $25. No-one else was in buying mode, but Ursula got lots of stuff. We stopped to pick up the dogs from Ron & Debbie about 5:00 and headed back to the resort for a big roast beef dinner, and to sing Happy Birthday to Ursula and eat that cake. Then our very successful outing was over. The four of them packed up and drove back on Friday night. Peggy and I had the condo to ourselves for the last night and watched most of a Jackie Chan movie. We had our next load assignment to pick up in Paragould, AR – 164 miles south of the resort, and deliver in Oklahoma City on Monday morning. We left the resort at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, rested and ready to roll. We had a total of about 620 miles to drive to Oklahoma City. We took our time and got there just in time for church on Sunday morning at Cousin Trudi’s church, where we had just visited with her the previous Sunday – Valentine’s Day. She didn’t expect us on the 21st, but we showed up just as the service was starting, saw where she was sitting and sat right behind her in the dark. She was very surprised when we made our presence known. We spent the day and night with her. We watched “Crash” and “Fireproof” videos. She took us to our truck next morning en route to her work. A friend of ours from Goreville, Brian Schuetz, had just pulled in to deliver as Trudi was dropping us off. Our truck had sat there for a day, so it wouldn’t start. Thankfully, Brian was right there to give us a jump, and it started very easily with just a little help. Both of our trucks started heading towards Springfield, MO, but we lost track of Brian almost immediately and later heard he wasn’t feeling well so stopped to rest. We picked up in Springfield, MO, delivered in Kansas City, headed up to David City, NE to pick up first thing Tues morning, delivered in Princeton, IL, picked up just 60 miles away in Bettendorf, IA, delivered Wed morning in Minneapolis, picked up in Humboldt, IA, stopped for supper with Mom in Omaha, delivered in Keyes, OK, and that brings us to present - Thursday. We are heading for Oklahoma City to pick up a trailer bound for Little Rock. My nephew Jason Wollberg is at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City. We are hoping to visit him for supper this evening. God is good! The weather is getting better and better. We are seeing less and less snow. Our truck is running well, even after our off-road experience of February 13. I’ll tell you more about that – next time…

Extremes

February 10, 2010

Greetings,

Extremes is the theme of the past 10 days since we left home. It has been a comedy of errors. First, we had trouble getting out of Marion because of the end of month work to be done at Marion Antique Mall. We had to organize all the data for paying vendors and then write the checks. So we left around midnight on Sunday, Jan. 31. We picked up in Brazil, IN & dropped in Cedar Rapids, IA on Mon; picked up in David City, NE & dropped in Effingham, IL on Tues; picked up in Gary, IN & dropped in Richmond, IL on Wed; picked up in Bettendorf, IA on Thu and delivered in Houston on Fri. The problem is that after every drop we had to wait overnight for the next pickup. As a team, we want to keep rolling, but our timing was off from the beginning to be able to make the pickups before closing. Then, in Bettendorf we picked up 3 old, very heavy low-boys, stacked. Just before Lincoln, IL one of our drive tires blew out (a retread,) so we stopped in Lincoln, IL for 3 hours at a small tire shop to replace that tire, slowing us down. Later that night we stopped in Matthews, MO on I-55 to fuel and switch drivers. Peggy’s turn to drive; I slept. I was rudely awaken about midnight. Peggy had pulled through a rest area in Arkansas because she wanted to stop and let me take over, but there was no space to pull in. On the exit ramp, which has a sharp curve and rather steep shoulders, she didn’t pull out quite enough and dragged the back of the trailers into the cab of a truck parked just at the curve. The Peterbilt’s mirror was broken, and the fender and bumper were damaged - very upsetting especially to Peggy. In a moment like this, we are thinking of the possibility that our career as a driving team could be cut short. But there was no ticket issued. The other driver and the policeman were nice about it. It was a low-level accident, but now it is on Peggy’s driving record, and someone has to pay for the damage, which our company won’t be happy about. RexDon has been wonderful to us, so they most likely won’t penalize or fire Peggy for that. We made it to Houston on Fri afternoon. Here’s where an extremely lousy week turned into lemonade from lemons.

Our next load was 700 miles away to pick up in Elba, AL, and could not be picked up till Mon. So we decided to call friends in Houston. We haven’t seen them for about 3 years. We first met Doug maybe 5 years ago when we had our truck in for repairs over a weekend. I fiddle when the truck is idle. That Sat afternoon I was playing on a bench outside the big bay doors, and I saw a guy walk out with a violin case over his shoulder. I ramped up my playing to attract his attention. He turned and came back to me. It was Doug, computer whiz, workaholic and very good violinist. He has a masters degree in violin as do I. At that first meeting we ended up staying the night at his house, and I played with him in the church orchestra on Sunday. Back to present, we called Doug and Martha and were invited to the house last Friday. He was teaching violin students till about 10:00, which I enjoyed immensely, and I had a little interaction with a couple of the students. Peggy had a bath and was out like a light. I rode with Doug to his office to fix something. We got back to the house at midnight, watched a couple old cartoons, and I went to bed. Doug left at 6 a.m. because his students were in a contest. Peggy & I slept in a little late, came downstairs, packed up and left about 8:00. We had a couple errands to do, then headed east. We stopped in Beaumont for a movie – Avatar, then resumed eastward. We decided to call friends in Mobile to see if we could visit them. Wayne & Elaine Wood were with Peggy in YWAM 25 years ago. They are retired and have a remarkably lovely home near Mobile. We arrived at midnight and parked the tractor in front of their house. They are wonderful folks. Peggy and they talked non-stop about YWAM. I was mostly an observer, but it was fascinating. Sunday I showered and dressed for church, but then learned we weren’t going to their Anglican church but would have church at home. That was pretty cool because just as we were about to start, Carl George called from Ft. Worth, TX. He’s one of their group from YWAM. He was calling after he and his wife had gotten home from church. He stayed on the phone for about a couple hours and joined into church with us. I was the outsider, but it wasn’t so bad. I just excused myself once in awhile to walk our dogs or play my violin. At the end of the day we all watched the Super Bowl, then Peggy and I packed up and left for Elba. So it was a serendipitous weekend, but then back to the other extreme.

We drove from Elba to Ft. Wayne, IN. We had been having a light problem for a couple weeks which was getting worse. We had to get it fixed. We had no trailer taillights and were running on flashers after dark, as we had done all the way to Houston. We stopped at a Petro in Glendale, KY. They found the problem but didn’t have the part (pigtail harness.) Someone knew though that the place across the street had it. Also the weather was getting very bad and the roads were terrible, so we had to stay put anyway. Next morning we drove across the street and had Quality Diesel do the repair. This delay put us into Ft. Wayne near closing time, but we got dropped and made it to our pickup – 30 miles away in Monroe, IN in time to hook up to the next load, a set of doubles – 2 trailers joined together by a dolly in between. That’s what we now have. It has been an awful trip from Monroe, IN. We arrived to pick up at closing, so no one was around when we left. We could not get out of the yard because of the snow pack. I kept throwing load chains under the tires for traction, which helped us inch toward the gate, but 1-1/2 hour later, we were almost out on the road when a handsome young man in a nice heavy duty pickup truck with a blade on the front, stopped to ask if we wanted some help. This is what he does! He pulled us out in no time and wouldn’t accept money but asked if we were married and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Praise the Lord! Peggy wanted to pull the doubles because I had never pulled them before, and the weather was bad. Fine! We got to a Petro right at the Indiana/Ohio border where she pulled in to sleep. About 3:30 a.m. she got up to continue on the road. She got stuck on the Petro exit lane which slopes upward. We spent 4 hours throwing load chains under the tires and made little progress. Finally a policeman came to put some pressure on us to get out of the road before it got busy. Then we resorted to tire chains, which I didn’t remember we had, but Peggy knows about them very well (and hates them.) We chained up, and that’s what got us off Petro property. We resumed on across I-70 past Pittsburg, but when we got to the turnpike, we were turned away because of weather – no doubles allowed temporarily. Peggy turned around and took the first exit, took a right (mistake) and we got stuck going up a long hill. So we chained up again, and a young man offered to pull with his ToyotaTitan, of which he was obviously proud and wanted to see how it would do pulling a semi. And another guy stopped with a heavy duty Chevy pickup and hooked onto the front of the Titan, and both helped us to the crest of the hill. Praise the Lord! On the down side, we turned north on route 66 from New Stanton, PA. mistake. We got off 3 miles later to turn around. We were still chained up, so going up the entrance ramp was going well until we were near the top; then we bogged down and came to a stop. We had lost one chain; I think that’s what stopped us. Right behind us was a fleet of state plows clearing the ramp. If we’d been a few minutes later, the ramp would’ve been cleared – poor timing. But we got going to the top of the slope and removed our chains. We were heading down to I-70 and back west to Flying J – no need for chains. We fueled at the ‘J,’ were in search of a parking place and…guess what – we got stuck again and had to chain at Flying J. Then we moved across the street to a bigger truck stop and found a place to park, which is harder with doubles – no backing up. That’s where we are now. Tomorrow hopefully the tollway will be open, so we can deliver these pups – 160 miles to go to Hagerstown, MD. Then our next load is from Pennsylvania to Grand Prairie, TX. YEAH!