Feom the East Wing, Wondering if Sophia peed on the Obama Lava Lamp, Leaving Home in the Snow, Arriving at Hilton Head Island NC

Greetings to all, and welcome new friends to the Mobile East Wing.

One of the neat things ‘bout going on a trip is the anticipation and excitation which comes along as the time of departure approaches. Your world fills up with questions, so many questions, so little time. When ya leaving? Who’s going? What ya taking? Who’s gonna take care of the 2girldogs? More importantly, what ‘bout that Republican Cat? Who’s gonna tell Sophia I’m going away? Will she kill the 2girldogs while I’m gone? What ‘bout the office cats?

In due time all issues are resolved one way or another. By now ya are starting to feel there’s no place like home, but alas, it’s not Dorothy and the Scare Scow or the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion. It’s John & Jaimie, Regina and BobbyRay and as we step onto the Yellow Brick Road at 800 South, we’re off to see the wizard.

Not even 10 minutes into the trip and we’re south bound and down, loaded up and trucking.

Corn fields as far as ya can see. Empty corn fields from a recently completed harvest. Machines bigger than houses pick over corn fields like chicken bones and when they’re done, only memory of corn remains.

Not too long ago it was not uncommon to see many people in corn fields after the harvest. People with 5 gal. buckets picking up whole ear corn to feed their pigs. There was a family at Toto, when I was a kid, that picked enough ear corn to raise a pig each year. Sometime in the winter they would kill a pig, right there in their yard, kill the pig, cut it up and do all the other stuff ya do with a killed pig. They had a neighbor who would do the same thing with chickens and ducks. Don’t think too many people do that sort of thing in the front yard any more.

Just north Brookston IN we encounter a wind mill farm. Wind turbines producing electricity. Wind mills as far as the eye can see to the west. Hundreds of wind mills, Massive towers atop with sets generators with blades of fiberglass 40ft long, three blades per tower. Electricity from the wind. A site to behold. The man from La Mancha would have met this match in Brookston IN.

Cracker Barrel Restaurant at Lafayette is the place for lunch this day after Christmas. Spent two hours in Lafayette, first having lunch, the looking for a GPS replacement program for my laptop. Lost my GPS uplink device from last year. Don’t know how I lost it, but just did. Course if I did know, it wouldn’t be lost.

Went to three different stores looking for the GPS program. John went into Best Buy, found the program, they had two different ones, $10.00 difference. John got the cheaper of the two. It did not come with the down link device to connect the computer to satellite. But all is not lost, we will swap it out at a Best Buy somewhere down the road.

We leave Lafayette in the snow as the shades of nighttime roll over the day light. The snow’s now completely covering the world as the daytime has gone away. We laugh as we pass a car with all four blinkers going, traveling about 15 mph in the light snow. His licenses identified the car as being from Alabama. We wonder if he may be thinking he is in an Indiana Blizzard.

As we merge into traffic on Interstate 65 it reminds me that this is a part of the Federal Highway System first envisioned by President Eisenhower in his first term in office. His military experiences taught him the importance of being able to move men and material in a most expeditors manner. It was at the insistence of the President that the Federal Highway System came into being. The interstate system was build to move armies and their equipment across this land we call America. One of the little know facts of the Interstate System is in the original laws that created the system was a provision that one mile in every ten be straight. A possible landing strip for military use. Pray to God that need will never arise.

What has occurred with the Interstate System is it allows us to go anywhere at any time in the fastest possible time. It takes us to grandma’s house, on vacation, to town, to visit, to go play, to Wal-Mart.

Every great society has survived a great deal in part due to the fact that they developed a road system within their country. From time to time you’ll see reference to the great engineering feats of the Egyptians, but the one thing ya never see is any reference to Egyptian road building. It seems odd to me that these people could build such complex things as pyramids and not build roads. I’m not sure they built the pyramids it they were too dumb to build roads. How’d all those slaves get to work every morning without roads?

The real road builders were the Romans. A part of Roman Road Technology still exist to this day in our society. The Romans built roads of stone to all ends of their empire. The empire was controlled much in part by the ability of the Roman Army to march unimpeded to wherever they needed to be. Along with the foot solders rolled the chariots on this road of stone.. After hundreds and hundreds of years the chariot rims wore an impression into the stone. This impression measured 4 ft. 6 1/2 inches.

When railroads first came into existence a standard unit of measure was needed to keep the rails the same distance all over the world. The most widely recognized unit of measure of this type distance was the distance between the Roman Chariot wheels, 4 ft 6 ½ inches. Used to this day on every standard size railroad in the world. It’s called the “gauge” the distance from center to center of the rail. There’s a narrow gauge railroad system, but it’s very limited in use and not well known outside railroad circles.

Midway between Indianapolis and Louisville, the snow has ended with no prospect of snow in front of us. Not much fun traveling at night, but out of necessity ya do what ya gotta do. If I wasn’t such a wimp we could fly down to Hilton Head Island in three hours or so, I am, so we drive. I don’t fly well, figured if God wanted me to fly, I’d have feathers, I don’t, so I don’t.

Now I know that some of you will laugh at me for my fear of flying. So don’t quote me statics that it’s is so much safer to fly than drive, that many more people die driving than flying. Ya know, statics can prove or disprove anything. An example being that more people have died on this earth than are now alive. So I want to go with latter more so than the former.

In the East Wing we open presents late on Christmas Eve. For Christmas this year, my son John , got his sister, Angela, an Obama Lava Lamp. Angela loved the Lava Lamp. She turned it on and after a short warm up, the lava rolled. Everyone enjoyed the lamp except, as you may expect, Sophia The Republican Cat. She cussed it out in cat. She brought up her contention that Obama had visited her Cat House in Chicago looking for a good time. Made reference to his friendship with Tiger Woods, and how they used to hang out, Then I suspect, sometime in the night she may have peed on the Lava Lamp. Now I’m not sure ‘bout that but she sure smiled a lot on Christmas Day when anyone said anything ‘bout the Obama Lava Lamp. Sophia has that little smile that seems to say “I got ya, and ya don’t even know it……..yet” I did notice this morning the base of the lava lamp seemed a little different color than last night, but maybe it’s just the different light, yet she sure is smiling a lot today, every time someone says lava lamp. Until today, I didn’t know that cats could chuckle. Damn Republican Cat.

One of the things that always crosses my mind when I travel on the Interstate Highways is where are all these people going. Then I wonder if they think the same thing ‘bout me. It just seems I’ve always had such good justification for my being here on the road, while I wonder ‘bout the justification of those coming toward me, not to mention those I pass going the same way as me.

Louisville at night for a country boy looks like a living Christmas Tree. All big cities are pretty in the dark, with all the lights. Not so much in the daylight. Too much social decay, warts and bumps to be pretty in the daylight.

Darkness tends to make pretty , not only to big cities, little cities as well, darkness works it’s magic in the country side also. Often the most enjoyable time of the day in the East Wing is after the shades of evening are drawn. It’s the time of day that Pup Baby likes me to tell her stories. Her favorite story is the Lady and the Tramp. The Pup Baby likes romantic romance stories.

Sophia’s favorite story is Ole Yellow, she particularly likes that part where the old dog dies. She always ask that I tell that part twice. Cats do smile when they’re happy.

Kentucky is being traversed in the darkness this cloudy night. As we prepare to complete our journey cross the Blue Grass side of Kentucky, Mammoth Cave appears on the information road signs, and just as quickly disappears behind me into the night. Even though we are on the west side of Kentucky, with much less mountains than eastern Kentucky, in the darkness we’re unable to even see the rock on the sides of the road. Ya miss a lot when ya travel at night.

We spent the night along the way in a nice little motel somewhere in southern Tennessee. Upon leaving the motel in the morning I was so surprised to find we were on the top of a mountain. No sooner did we get on the interstate than we see a sign saying 6% grade for the next 5 miles. Now those who may not be familiar with mountains and steep roads. I’m telling ya a 6% down grade is steep. A 6% grade going up is just as steep.

It’s Sunday morning and we’re approaching Chattanooga TN 25 miles in front of us on Interstate 24. Last night we were talking ‘bout the Interstate Highway System, one easy way to tell which general direction you’re going is that all even number interstate roads run east and west, while all odd numbered roads run in the general direction of north and south.

As I went through Atlanta this afternoon, I gawked with the best of ‘em. Pretty big city, Atlanta GA, from the Interstate at 70 mph. Traffic jam north of Atlanta took some of the fun out of the trip, but only as long as we sat in traffic. We are now on our way from Atlanta to Savannah. Interstate 16 closely parallels General Sherman’s march to the sea during the Civil War after he had pretty much destroyed Atlanta.

I have always been interested in General Sherman as a historical figure, and as such have read a great deal of what has been written about General Sherman. Contrary to what happened in the movie Gone With the Wind, General Sherman did not burn Atlanta to the ground. What his army did do was to destroy the rail way system in Atlanta. Not only did they burn the railroad ties, they bent the rails over the fires so they could never be used again. I’m a little disappointed that part of this section of the trip’s in the darkness, ‘cause this is really good country to gawk at.

Got to Hilton Head Island late Sunday night, much too late to do anything except crash, and so I did. I’m excited about the upcoming week. I’ll walk in the ocean tomorrow. I’ll let ya know.

Stay safe in Baghdad and Afghanistan

I wish you well
BobbyRay, Wondering if Sophia peed on the Obama Lava Lamp, Leaving Home in the Snow, Arriving at Hilton Head Island NC