On the road again, we just can’t wait to get on the road again  –  Willie Nelson
Yep, ol’ Willie had it right, it’s good to finally quit talking about it and get in the truck!

We started out a little later than planned (we kinda followed Edge’s schedule) from the house.  We ate brunch (that’s a lazy man’s word for breakfast) with the kids and grandkids and turned the truck to the northwest around noon.  A stop or two for ice cream and other necessities and before long we were staring at the Big Tex Steakhouse sign in Amarillo. This is where I had some unfinished business from about fifty years ago (reference my book Making the Right Call for Life’s Fourth Quarter).

The parking lot has expanded about ten times and the inside of the place is so big and strung out I needed one of the 200 staffers to guide me back to my table from the restroom.  I left the 72 oz. steak to the young bloods in the 28″ waist Levi’s and drinking the big scooner drafts of Lone Star.  Heck,who am I kidding?  I don’t eat 72 ounces of steak in a month!

As we were leaving, we walked through the parking lot and I gave a look around for the corvette I parked there about 50 years ago.  Sure enough, there it sat, just waiting for the trip back to Odessa.  But it was as Edge says only a sweet dream!

This morning we are eating breakfast.  Yeah, that means we were up at 5:30 and had our first cup of Joe by six, pulled up to the breakfast table by seven and ready to head to Gallup, NM to see native Indian dances on the square.

Once you get to New Mexico, the only question on the food menu is red or green.  That is the type of chili sauce you want on whatever it is you ordered.  It all pretty much tastes the same once you choose the sauce!  Gallup here we come!

O K, I’m feeling like a space shuttle astronaut.  I’m going through my never-ending checkoff list.

Let’s see, let me start with what I’m loading into my truck.  First we start off with the “must have” items: 9 mm Ruger pistol with extra clips under driver seat, 12 gauge riot shot gun with 8 shot magazine loaded with 00 buckshot and a couple extra boxes of ammo laying on back seat for easy access, fireman axe in driver side door mount, stun gun in console, tazer under driver seat, US SEAL Ultimate Killing Knife strapped to steering column, machete behind passenger seat, poison darts  secured to driver’s visor, crossbow in the back.  Yep, that looks like about it.  We are off to travel the friendly highways of the U S A!  Man, I almost broke out singing the old Woody Guthrie “this land is your land, this land is my land”!

Next to be loaded in is all the high tech gadgetry.  We will be taking 2 iPads, 2iPhones, a Nextel phone, 2 laptop computers, a printer, 2 walkie talkies, and two Star Trek “beam me up, Scottie” transporter phones.

Well of course I need to take some fishing equipment for Montana, hiking clothes to walk to the bottom of Grand Canyon and back out (yeah right!), some slicked-up western wear for Buck Owens’ place in Bakersfield, my lucky hat in case we do a little gambling in Elko,NV, my spray on tan cans for when we hit southern California beaches, my tux for the big bash in San Francisco, my “Bear-Be Gone” spray for Yellowstone.  Let’s see, what else?  If anyone has some must items you think I need to take feel free to blog in and let me know before I zip up the trunk.

Oky Doky,

Things are rolling right along with the trip preparation.  I am down to one the critical strategy on how to pack for this trip.  We are torn between the “pack it” or the “pitch it” strategy.  Now the pack it strategy is pretty straight forward.  You just pack all your new good stuff and as it gets worn or dirty, you put it in the plastic trash bags in the back of the truck until we stop long enough to throw it in the laundry or cleaners.  Then you pack it all back in the suitcase and start all over again.

The “pitch it” strategy, on the other hand, requires that you pack only your worst, wornout underwear and socks with the elastic broken and full of holes.  As you use them along the way, you just pitch them in the trash!  When you run out, you just stop at Target and buy yourself some new ones!  This not only lightens your suitcase everyday but it also helps clean out your underwear and sock drawers at home.  Pretty neat, huh?  The one flaw with this strategy is the way I was raised.  Everytime my mother couldn’t get me to change my clothes as a kid, she would always say, “What if you got in a wreck and they took you to the hospital and you had on those old dirty underwear with holes in them!  That would be awful!  So I guess if we decide to go with the “Pitch It!” strategy, I will have to drive extra careful so as not to end up in a wreck!

If you can help by giving me some idea which strategy is best, please post in and say so.  I got to go and start getting my suitcases out of the attic.

Well, we survived the Celebration of Life Party but not by much. I think I kinda wore myself down in the preparation mode to the point that when the guests finally arrived, I was too tired to join the party! We had a great turn out and as usual the pizza stole the show. We had mariachis playing on one end of the yard and the Screaming Eagles on the other end. It was a battle of the back yard bands! I believe it was a draw. They were both great. We can’t wait to get on the road so we can get some rest! Let us hear from you.

I ended up too tired to take very many shots of the party but here are a few.

Man I’m looking forward to just sitting in my truck for a few days!  Getting ready for this Celebration Of Life Party is taking years off of mine!  Things are getting a little freaky.  We have 120 rsvps and there are still some who haven’t responded!  I guess the word of our wood-fired backyard pizza has gotten out.  Well, you gotta admit, the pizza is a good thing!  I will be uploading some fotos of tomorrow’s get totether on Sunday so be ready to see some serious pizza eating!

Another to-do item I checked off of my list today was we confirmed with our house-sitter that he is ready to move in next week and watch over everything for the next 25 – 30 days. He is a good choice.  He is a coach at one of our campuses who has a mania for hunting dogs so he will be bringing his with him.  That’s a good thing because we have a huge back yard he can have fun in.  So the coach keeps his dog off the leash and his powder dry.  I don’t think anyone would want to try him.  We have ADT security equipment, cameras, booby traps, neighborhood watch, and a local “bear who usually swings by on his way to the donut shop.  While all those things are good, I just don’t think you can beat the Smith & Wesson security system.  And that’s what our coach brings to the table.  The man is a crack shot with a 12 gauge and it would be interesting to know if his dog would go into “point” on an intruder.  That would be sweet!

I got to get off of here and go make pizzas!

We haven’t even got in the truck and we have already got emails that may alter our route home to go through Aspen, CO for a couple of days!

Yep, I stand corrected and we haven’t even started the trip.  Somehow or another I was thinking there were still 11 days in the countdown to go.   I was informed this morning by my Chief Navigator (a.k.a. Charlotte) that my calendar was off and we have in fact only 9 days before take off.  That means I have lost two days of procrastination without even getting to enjoy them!  But here is the up side to this story.  There is a positive spin I have discovered about taking chemotherapy.  I have been able to blame any screwup or mistakes I make, even bad behavior (up to a point) on “side effects” from the chemo.  Man, I have been milking that BIG TIME!  I sorta hated to finish the treatment but I soon got on the radiation “side effects”  which bought me another month of acting up with little or no repercussions.  That is why I have a bitter-sweet report to give today, I have finished all treatment!  Hurraay for the good doctors and and a gigantic Thank You Jesus for mercy and healing!  And another gigantic “THANK YOU!” to all of you around the world for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf.  I am forever in your debt.  So, now it’s back to being held accountable for my messups, bad behavior, etc. without the “side effects” crutch.

Now we have to concentrate all of our efforts on the big party here at our place this Saturday.  It is being billed as the Celebration of Life pizza fling with the debut of our own personal live band, The Screaming Eagles!  You won’t want to miss that!  If you’re in the area, just look for the traffic jam and park as close to our place as you can.  Come on in and eat homemade wood-fired pizza at it’s best, brought out of the oven by the one and only King of the Oven, Javier!

With over 100 guests already rsvped, it looks like a real hoe down!  Stay tuned for the photos to follow!

Let us hear from you all.  I want to give a shout out to my highschool classmates and welcome them to my new website.  Monahans High School Class of 1965 WELCOME!

Yep, everything is proceeding as normal.  Every time I try to get ready to leave town, everything imagineable that can happen to slow me down or stop me from leaving shows up.  Well, it’s too little, too late!  This road trip is a go!  We have already lit this candle!

Tomorrow, I get up and if all goes well, I will be taking my LAST RADIATION  TREATMENT somewhere around three in the afternoon!  I would normally say, “Stick a fork in me, I’m done!”  But with all the radiation spinning around in me, that’s probably a truer statement than I care to think about!  So I,m just going to put on my little pointed party hat and lay down for the last time on the alter of unbalanced urainium and let science run it’s course!

I thought about asking all my friends to go with me and do a wave as I came jogging out from behind the lead door.  But a two-man wave isn’t that impressive.  Besides, I ‘m not sure one of them can get off to come.

Let’s see, things left to do.  I have to get my camera working well for posting pictures on this blog to keep you (pick one) (   ) updated   (   ) amused  (   ) puzzled   (   ) grateful you’re not sitting in the back seat.

OK, I have nailed down a couple of MUST STOPS.  One is Winslow, AZ for a couple of reasons.  One, it is on Route 66 and, it is also in one of my favorite songs of all times by the Eagles.  I’m just warning you ahead of time.  There is going to be some cheesy photos from that one!  Man, I can’t wait!

The other is in Bakersfield, CA, the home of Buck Owens and another of my favorite duets of country – Dwight Yokum and Buck Owens doing “Streets of Bakersfield”.  Buck’s Crystal Palace is a must stop!  They have a gift shop and with any luck, I can get every episode of HeeHaw on a DVD!  “I’m a pickin, who’s a grinnin?

Well, time is beginning to take wings on me!  We started talking about this trip back in March after we had to cancel our trip to Europe for the time being.  Now the time is flying by and as usual I have procrastinated on trip preparations.

Let’s see, what all have I got done and what is left to do before takeoff?  First I’ll list what all I’ve got done.  I have determined we will make the trip in my trusty old Ford truck.  I think I can fit a rocking chair in the back if Charlotte wants to sit back there and enjoy the ride Beverly Hillbillies style when she grows tired of my spellbinding conversation.  I looked at the trip computer and it said the total windshield time behind the wheel will be over 80 hours.  That’s TWO WEEKS at 5 days a week, 8 hours a day!  I don’t think we have spent that much time together in that close of a proximity in our past 47 years of marriage!

I think this may bring up my first call out for help from my blog friends.  Here is the question:  How do we manage to spend that much time together in that restricted environment and arrive back in Waxahachie still married?  Have we bitten off more than we can chew?  Please feel free to offer suggestions on how to combat the Endless Highway Blues.

Another thing I have taken care of is our itinerary.  Am I spelling that right?  Anyway, we are open to changing some parts of it or extending it if necessary if someone comes up with a place, event, or whatever you don’t think we should pass up on our way.  So my next call out for advice is for exotic, once-in-a-lifetime, experiences that you, my virtual road dogs, have enjoyed in the part of the country we are headed.  Let us hear from you!

On a brighter note, my niece, Rikki Easler, and her family are going to be dropping in from New Hampshire this coming weekend.  They are arriving just in time for our Celebration of Life home made pizza party.  Her husband, Chris, called and said they would be bringing a few members of his family who live here in the Dallas area.  He said only 22 of them could make it.  Man, it is amazing what our home made pizza on the menu will do!  We can’t wait to meet them all.