8:30 A.M. update edit. Must have gotten some bad food... I had a terrible nightmare last night. It was horrible, the phone company called and told me to report to a place in Anaheim,CA for orientation because they were putting me to work. I still have a cold sweat going.
Looks like I am the Lazy one today,I didn't even hear the generator start but that breakfast smell brought me right out of the sack.
Today's regular post.
Looks like I am the Lazy one today,I didn't even hear the generator start but that breakfast smell brought me right out of the sack.
That sure was a good night last night Bud. I am not real crazy about the noise from the Infernal state highway but just setting and a looking at the night sites was worth it.
Billy the kid
Remember I told you about Bill the kid a day or two ago... well I got some real mixed emotions about that story. So he killed , what like 20-21 men. How many ya reckon John McCain killed in his high powered Jet before they shot him down? or how many did you kill that was shooting at you in Viet Nam?... now Bud that, "But it was war" stuff wont hold water, that dog just wont hunt with me.Billy was in the middle of the Lincoln county wars. They convicted him of killing the Lincoln County sheriff and sentenced him to hang right over yonder the other side of that field at La Mesilla. By the way this was once Lincoln county right here where we are setting.
This souvenir shop was the old courtroom where where Billy was convicted before he escaped.
Reckon we better get rolling or Ima gonna miss Christmas with Jeanie, I just don't see that happening.
Any way making a long story short..... there you go with that snickering again. There was a war going on, the Lincoln County war and as far as I am concerned Billy was just a solider in the war. Lincoln county sheriffs, and most of NM officials ,for that matter have never been known to be on the up and up. But I recon that's just how politics go.
Well ole Billy Escaped from the jail at La Mesilla and made a lot of folks mad, one of them being Pat Garrett, the then Sheriff of Lincoln County. Ya think Billy might have set on his horse, where we been setting and admired the valley and mountains just like we did? That would have been doggone peaceful without all that vehicle noise and folks around.
Billy rode over past white sands to the Hondo Valley,Lincoln. White Oaks and then over to Ft. Sumner. That's where Pat Garrett caught up with him and shot him in the back. They have a Billy the kid museum and memorial over there at Ft Sumner..
Billy's grave at Ft. Sumner,NM
Old Lincoln County courthouse at Lincoln. There is a bullet hole at the bottom of the inside stairway. where Bill shot and kill a deputy.
Remember that Canyon on the side of the Organs mountains that I showed you? Well that is where that Coward Pat Garrett got his. In the back, just like Billy, when he got down off his buckboard to pee.
Here we are at the home of the world famous Duck Race. Thats about all I can say about Deming, They had to come up with a reason to have a party, so they have a Duck Race.
Bud do you believe history repeats it's self?..... Well I do and you want to know why?..... your right, I am going to tell you anyway:-)) Remember when we were over at the truck stop in El Paso and I told you I was at one time a undercover Narcotics cop?.... Well I was a Lincoln County Deputy on loan because I knew the trucking world. Thats how I came to know "copper Penny". My regular patrol area in Lincoln County included Capitan, Home and burial place of
the original Smokey Bear, Ft. Stanton, Lincoln and the
Hondo valley from the intersection of US 70 and US 385 East to the Chavez County Line. All of that area was Ole Billy's playground. I resigned in '77.In '78. The Deputy that took my Place was shot and killed by an escape prisoner from the Lincoln county Jail, 100 years after Billy shot and killed Sheriff Brady.
Wow we been scooting right along. I guess if you have to be on an infernal-state highway, stepping along at 80 makes it a little better.
We are going to be over the hump at Gila Bend in a bit but I want you to just look at those Saguaro cactus. Those suckers are sure pretty and bloom too.
Gila Bend at last. Ima going to stop here at this truck stop on the right, one of the few that is still around after all these years.
I told you yesterday that I was going to tell you about my Son. Well he is the best truck Driver I have ever known, and as Grandmaw use to say I have know"A plenty".
He was about 9-10 and we were on the way back from LA with a load of who knows what, in July or August. We got off over around Quartsite and the air conditioner Quit on us. That was a cabover International and this thing over the engine has always been called a Dog-house in a cab over.
We put my produce thermometer on the dog house and it pegged out at 120 degrees. It was hotter than hot.We got here to this same truck Stop and stopped to cool off and get some ice and something to drink.
Bud, you just about have to know my Son to really appreciate this. When Neal dies there is a waiting line to get his voice box. Ima telling you it's like brand new.. What do you mean ,you can understand that? To say that Neal talks slow is like saying the Pope is just a little bit Catholic. If he starts to say yesterday it will be tomorrow before he gets it out.
Right over there across the street by that sign is where I parked. I was standing up by the radiator knocking off bugs and he came around the side of the truck with the side of his face all scraped up and his mouth bleeding. He had missed the step getting out and fell about 4 foot hitting that gravel face first.
I took him over to the rest room and got him all cleaned up and the blood stopped. I was just about to go into the truckers store to get something to put on his cuts and scrapes and he said. "Daaaaaddy the whole time I was a falling I was a wishing that was a swimming pool coming up at me" I tried awful hard not to bust out laughing, because it took him about 10 times as long to say that as it took him to fall.
I also remember the last time we drove together too. I had the pleasure of co-driving with him in '86-'87. We left El Paso every Saturday evening and stopped in Dallas,ST. Louis and ended up at Chicago O'Hare airport on Monday morning. We would catch a shower and some sleep and then do it just backwards. We would get to El Paso Wednesday morning ,catch a nap and shower and leave that afternoon for Dallas. we would get to Dallas Thursday morning and shower and sleep and get back to El Paso Friday morning. We spent a part of 7days a week in a truck.
Neal was the smoothest driver I ever Knew, when he stopped for a stop light, you never rolled forward in the bunk and when he took off you didn't roll back. He didn't take chances if he got to tired he woke me up. Best as I remember we drove in 6 hour shift. He took me a through a snow storm that was unreal and we picked up one of our company drivers on the way back that had crashed his rig in the storm. Neal went around this long sweeping curve that had two bus blocking all but about 1/3 of the road he went between them like there was nothing to it.We had ice and snow every inch of the way from D/FW airport to Chicago O'Hare airport.
He didn't get stuck once that trip and I got stuck 3 times. he never let me forget it. :-). we were the only truck that made our delivery out of the whole company. Neal and I got the Drivers of the year award that year.
The last tip I drove with Neal, My foot slipped on ice on the step of the truck at the St. Louis terminal and I fell Flat of my back and neck. He hauled me home in the sleeper and they told me I would never be able to drive again. Reckon they were wrong huh?
A few years later Neal was living in Edgewood NM and I stopped in to see him, about supper time he wanted to go down to this little Restaurant just down the street. We had a mighty good meal and one fine looking waitress. When we got ready to pay out I ask the cashier what the waitress's name was and I wanted to leave her a tip.
I ask if she was married or had a big old boyfriend that had arms that drug the ground the cashier said no she don't have a boyfriend.
Well being my usual mouthy self I said" Ya see this old boy here , well he aint got a girlfriend either and his only problem is he is a little shy" when we walk out the door Neal said "Dad your a little shy too ,maybe a brick or two. I dont know to this day if he already had an eye on her or if that kicked it off. But here is the results either way it was a great deal.
I told you yesterday that I was going to tell you about my Son. Well he is the best truck Driver I have ever known, and as Grandmaw use to say I have know"A plenty".
He was about 9-10 and we were on the way back from LA with a load of who knows what, in July or August. We got off over around Quartsite and the air conditioner Quit on us. That was a cabover International and this thing over the engine has always been called a Dog-house in a cab over.
We put my produce thermometer on the dog house and it pegged out at 120 degrees. It was hotter than hot.We got here to this same truck Stop and stopped to cool off and get some ice and something to drink.
Bud, you just about have to know my Son to really appreciate this. When Neal dies there is a waiting line to get his voice box. Ima telling you it's like brand new.. What do you mean ,you can understand that? To say that Neal talks slow is like saying the Pope is just a little bit Catholic. If he starts to say yesterday it will be tomorrow before he gets it out.
Right over there across the street by that sign is where I parked. I was standing up by the radiator knocking off bugs and he came around the side of the truck with the side of his face all scraped up and his mouth bleeding. He had missed the step getting out and fell about 4 foot hitting that gravel face first.
I took him over to the rest room and got him all cleaned up and the blood stopped. I was just about to go into the truckers store to get something to put on his cuts and scrapes and he said. "Daaaaaddy the whole time I was a falling I was a wishing that was a swimming pool coming up at me" I tried awful hard not to bust out laughing, because it took him about 10 times as long to say that as it took him to fall.
I remember the first time he drove a big rig he was about 12-13, it was a International Emeryville. We were coming back from the feed mill in El paso on US 54 when it was still 2 lane. I pulled over on the shoulder and he got in the drivers seat and drove pretty doggone good. he had the shift patten down good and he knew when to shift. he drove a few miles and pulled over on the solder so we could change drivers before the Border patrol check station.
International Emeryville
I also remember the last time we drove together too. I had the pleasure of co-driving with him in '86-'87. We left El Paso every Saturday evening and stopped in Dallas,ST. Louis and ended up at Chicago O'Hare airport on Monday morning. We would catch a shower and some sleep and then do it just backwards. We would get to El Paso Wednesday morning ,catch a nap and shower and leave that afternoon for Dallas. we would get to Dallas Thursday morning and shower and sleep and get back to El Paso Friday morning. We spent a part of 7days a week in a truck.
Neal was the smoothest driver I ever Knew, when he stopped for a stop light, you never rolled forward in the bunk and when he took off you didn't roll back. He didn't take chances if he got to tired he woke me up. Best as I remember we drove in 6 hour shift. He took me a through a snow storm that was unreal and we picked up one of our company drivers on the way back that had crashed his rig in the storm. Neal went around this long sweeping curve that had two bus blocking all but about 1/3 of the road he went between them like there was nothing to it.We had ice and snow every inch of the way from D/FW airport to Chicago O'Hare airport.
He didn't get stuck once that trip and I got stuck 3 times. he never let me forget it. :-). we were the only truck that made our delivery out of the whole company. Neal and I got the Drivers of the year award that year.
The last tip I drove with Neal, My foot slipped on ice on the step of the truck at the St. Louis terminal and I fell Flat of my back and neck. He hauled me home in the sleeper and they told me I would never be able to drive again. Reckon they were wrong huh?
A few years later Neal was living in Edgewood NM and I stopped in to see him, about supper time he wanted to go down to this little Restaurant just down the street. We had a mighty good meal and one fine looking waitress. When we got ready to pay out I ask the cashier what the waitress's name was and I wanted to leave her a tip.
I ask if she was married or had a big old boyfriend that had arms that drug the ground the cashier said no she don't have a boyfriend.
Well being my usual mouthy self I said" Ya see this old boy here , well he aint got a girlfriend either and his only problem is he is a little shy" when we walk out the door Neal said "Dad your a little shy too ,maybe a brick or two. I dont know to this day if he already had an eye on her or if that kicked it off. But here is the results either way it was a great deal.
Everybody should be so lucky as to have a son like Neal, a Daughter -in-law like Lisa, and grand kids like Colette, Zac, Lizzy,and Jessica
Tomorrow: I got a date....... with a date shake.
Rojo
Posts
nice looking family...and I still havent tried a date shake yet !
ReplyDeleteKelly
They are a great bunch and Date shakes are outta this world.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping buy
Rojo