Well, I'm home.

Got back very early Saturday mornin', around 5:15AM. Spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday detoxin', and now I'm back in San Saba.

I taught a class at noon and then went to the Dairy Mart for my usual Monday ritual... the jalapeno sourdough bacon cheeseburger, fries and a diet Dr. Pepper. Now I'm back at the local library, killin' time before my 5:30 class starts. I've got three classes up here startin' this week, with about 70 "students" (jailbirds). In a few weeks I'll have two more evening classes startin' on Ft. Hood, and then I'll have about three more morning classes startin' the week after that in Florence. So, I get to ease back into my old busy schedule, and the fat paychecks that come with it. believe me, I'll be glad when those bastards start rollin' in again.

I must have taken about 600 pictures over the two week road trip, so it's gonna take me a while before I can start showin' them to you. There's shots from the concert, then more from the Air Force Museum, and then all the shots form the week hangin' out with Mushy and his gang and visitin' Bruno. I started culling them the first week, in Kentucky, but the fixing only started Sunday. I got the merges done this morning, so progress is being made. Maybe I'll have something to post by about this time Wednesday.

Anyway, the trip was great. If you want to read a great run down of the second half of it, check out Mushy's two posts. We spent the first week in Kentucky with Denise's kids and grand kids. During that stay we took a trip up to Dayton to visit the Air Force Museum and see Pat and his lovely wife. Then, a week ago, I drove Denise down to the airport in Nashville and she flew home. Then I drove on East to Harriman and spent a few days with Mushy and Judy and their bunch. We had a blast, as always, and then the three of us drove West to Memphis to spend a few nights on Beale Street.

By the way, Mushy's made mention of a certain event that took place along the road to Memphis, when a local cop decided to check out what kind of smoke that really was driftin' up out of my sunroof as we sped West down I-40.

I looked up at one point and saw the SUV in my rear view, about one car length behind me, and assumed he wanted by. I was in the left hand lane behind Mushy and Judy as we passed a slow moving truck that had blocked the right hand lane (Ok, that's how I remember it, but it all happened very fast). It had been raining, so the road conditions weren't prime, but nether of us were speeding, having passed unscathed by several police SUVs that were parked along the highway. So when I saw this dude on my ass, I wasn't really concerned.

Mushy moved over into the right hand lane when he passed the truck, and then I gassed it to get over ahead of Mushy and let this dude by me. Then I was amazed to see him slip in behind me flashing his purdy blue lights. I was like "What the fuck? Shit!" I brought the Silver Bullet to a stop, tossed my nub into the ash tray, got out the appropriate paperwork and rolled down the passenger window.

He walked up and rested his arms on the door, wanting to know if those folks were with me (Mushy and Judy had stopped about 30 yards up the road to wait for me), and how did I meet them. I told him "Blogging," and he was amused, saying "Well, I know that's very popular." It was all very cordial, with my attitude calmed by the knowledge that there was an assault rifle in the trunk and a loaded revolver in the back pocket of the passenger seat. Who was I, who were they (Mushy and Judy), how did I know them, where had I been and where were we going.

In the end he asked me what kind of cigar I was smokin' and told me not to pass people so closely in this kind of wet weather. I wanted to say something like "Well shit, you dumb bastard, I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't been right on my fuckin' ass with that police truck. Shit!" By my AR-15 was whispering sweet nothings in my ear, saying stuff like "Shut your fuckin' cake hole you dumbass!" I get no respect from the AR. Too many AKs in the closet. You know... penis envy.

So, we parted ways and I lit up another stogie. I called Mushy and we all had a big laugh over it. Within and hour we were all slapped up in the lap of luxury at the Westin Hotel off Beale Street and life was GOOD. But, that's another story.

Stay tuned. More fun and pictures to accompany the words will appear here in future.
And guess what. That wasn't the only sweaty, funny drama related to a gun on the trip. I'll tell you about it in the next post. See ya Wednesday. Cheers.