Vol 14 No 6 August 31, 2010

We delivered in Laredo, Texas on Monday 2 August. The warehouses and trade facilities are all on the north side of Laredo and even though we have delivered there several times, we have never gone ‘into’ Laredo city. Laredo has always been a high crime city - drug cartel wars mostly. Listening to the local news is unsettling!

Wikipedia: Laredo, Texas: located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Laraedo’s economy is based on international trade with Mexico. Most major transportation companies have a facility in Laredo.

Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a villa to the capital of the brief Republic of the Rio Grande to the largest inland port on the United States - Mexican border. Today, it has four international bridges and one railway bridge. Laredo's weather is semi-arid during the summer and mild during the winter.

Monday afternoon we loaded at Johnson Controls in San Antonio - a huge refrigeration unit and delivered it to a rigging company in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday morning we loaded at the Caterpillar factory in Lafayette, Indiana - a 3516 CAT generator and a radiator destined for St Augustine, Florida (photo).

Just a little out of route, we spent the weekend in Florence, South Carolina with the ‘new’ Casey’s.

Uncle Pat and Aunt Belinda hosted a party for Casey cousins. Jim was the only one there from the New York Casey’s, but he got to meet three more first cousins (and their families) from his grandfather’s second family. Pat picked Jim and I up at the truckstop and we spent all day partying with them, eating, drinking and floating in their pool and on the water slide.

It was hot and humid!

We met Pat and Belinda’s children, Corinna and Brian last year. Andy and Carmyn are Uncle Jerry’s children; and Todd is Aunt Cathy’s son.

Todd’s brother and sister, Robin and Casey were busy with children’s activities and didn’t attend. All live in South Carolina. It was quite an event! It was huge fun!

Jim helped Pat with the ‘southern’ boiled green peanuts - that was fun!

In photo: Jim, Andy, Brian and Pat.

We stayed the night and the next morning with Pat and Belinda. Left at 1pm and headed to Florida. Delivered to a Cat dealer and rental in St Augustine early Monday morning and were at the house in Daytona Beach by noon.

Jim did some maintenance around the house - a water leak in the kitchen sink, and reseal the garage roof. We took the motorbike off the truck and Jim replaced a gasket seal and oil.

Jim had been running around town on Wednesday afternoon and came back and asked me if I had heard of “Brad Paisley”. “Yes, he is a country music singer“. He was in concert at the Ocean Centre on Thursday evening, Jim had seen a poster. I went online and got two tickets! I would not have considered myself a ‘fan’ (don't have any CD's), but I liked his music, he has many hits, and fun songs, and the concert was only one block away!!!

Website: Grammy award-winning country music artist Brad Paisley is bringing his “H2O World Tour” to the Volusia County Ocean Center at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12. Special guests will be Darius Rucker and Justin Moore. “H2O World Tour” will hit more than 75 cities in the United States, Canada and Europe over the next 12 months.

Country music superstar Brad Paisley is a consummate singer, songwriter, guitarist and entertainer, who has earned three Grammys, 12 Academy of Country Music Awards and 13 Country Music Association Awards. Paisley has released eight critically acclaimed studio albums and has accumulated sales of over 10 million units. His most recent album, “American Saturday Night”, was ranked as TIME magazine’s 2009 No. 1 album of the year in any genre of music. Paisley’s most recent No.1 single, “American Saturday Night,” was his 16th No.1 - the last 12 consecutive. Paisley’s innovative and entertaining tours have consistently placed in the Top 5 in Pollstar for attendance. His 2009 “American Saturday Night” tour played to nearly 1.2 million fans in 8 months.

Turned out to be an awesome concert, maybe the best I have ever been to!

“H2O World Tour” will include a “Water World Plaza,” and will turn every city into a water festival. Focal point in the Plaza area will be the “Water World Plaza Stage” featuring emerging new stars Easton Corbin, Steel Magnolia and Josh Thompson. The tour extravaganza will open each day at 4 p.m. with music starting at 5 p.m. In addition to the music stage, there will be multiple water-themed activities including a Chevy H2O FLW fishing simulator, dunking booth, Hope Through Healing Hands’ campaign booth, and more.

The parking lot concerts and activities were all free. At 5pm, we watched the first performer, Josh Thompson on the Water World Plaza Stage - fun and lively. But, it was about 1000 degrees in that parking lot, so we went back to the house to cool off - we could still hear the music from the house!!

Columbia Nashville recording artist Josh Thompson burst into the country music scene this

year with his debut hit, “Beer On The Table,” a down-to-earth anthem about working hard to party hard.

Newcomer Easton Corbin holds the title for the highest-charting male debut single for 2009 and 2010. Recognized for the current number one hit “A Little More Country Than That”.

Steel Magnolia’s Meghan and Joshua’s debut single, “Keep On Lovin’ You,” skyrocketed into the top 15 on the Billboard Country Songs Chart and landed on the “Valentine’s Day Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.”

The inside show started at 7.30pm with Justin Moore:

Lauded as Billboard’s “New Country Artist of 2009,” Moore was the only new country artist last year to earn number one single status (for his hometown anthem “Small Town USA”).

Then - Darius Rucker: signed with Capitol Records Nashville in 2007 and since has been embraced by the country music community with his chart-topping 2008 debut, “Learn to Live”, an album that has produced three consecutive number one singles and latest top five

smash, “History In The Making.”

I was impressed by the “value” of the concert ticket. Three free acts featuring upcoming stars, and the outside activities were a bonus.

Our seats were down the back, but we had a great view of the stage and the video screens, and other than the 15 minutes between acts, it was continuous music and entertainment from 7.30pm to 11pm.

"Brad has always considered the fans first and foremost when planning a tour, and the H2O Tour is no exception," said Brian O'Connell, President, Nashville Touring, for Live Nation. "Brad's vision was to have a full day of activity at each of the shows, and also provide a great value for the fan's dollar. Brad's commitment to bring the hottest acts in Country Music to enhance his spectacular show, and deliver value to the fans each and every night.

Awesome laser light show - video background and crowd interaction were phenomenal! Twice Brad walked around the perimeter of the ground floor seating, shaking hands and signing autographs while singing! Later he made his way to a 3 metre round ’stage’ towards the back wall, he sat on a ‘diving board’ with his acoustic guitar and a microphone and sang two songs while his band took a break. He said that when he attended concerts, he always ended up down the back in the “cheap seats”, so he played directly to the people at the back!! He was about 30 metres from us! A really, really cool thing to do!

Brad did not take a break in the two hours of his performance! He really impressed me over and above his talent!

We had planned to load and run over the weekend - we had one load assigned, but it would not fit on our trailer, and the next one cancelled at the last minute. We were about to start looking for a Monday load when at 3pm one listed to load in Orlando that afternoon. Jim left the house right away and with the half hour drive to the truck and the traffic congestion, he didn’t get to the company until 5.15pm. Luckily the shipment was urgent, so he got loaded.

On Saturday, there was a ’beach bash’ lunch with the Florida Chapter of the Moto Guzzi National Owners Group. We met with the Hewitt’s in New Smyrna Beach on Saturday and seven bikes ran together for the two hour ride south.

Destination was Sebastian Beach Inn restaurant at Melbourne Beach - it was a really hot day! About 30 moto guzzies were there, all wandering around checking out bikes and swapping stories. Many bought swimsuits and walked down the steps off the restaurant deck onto the beach and into the Atlantic Ocean! Something special was when the half dozen swimmers were joined by a manatee! It swam and played with them, many people touched it (even though that is ‘illegal’!), it appeared that he liked it! Swimsuits were allowed in the bar/restaurant as well. A very casual place, great food, and live bands most weekends.

Had a nice time with Florida guzzi friends, and it was a good attendance for a hot summer day!

We took a more leisurely ride back, with several stops for re-hydration! Experienced a couple of heavy downpours, which was refreshing. It was an enjoyable day.

Jim and I left Daytona Beach Sunday afternoon, it was a 375 mile (600 km) run to Eufaula, Alabama.

Delivered the ‘moisture control’ machine to a turkey processing plant Monday morning. (There had been record heat and humidity and the turkey’s were ‘cooking’ ahead of schedule.) Then down to Mobile Ports and loaded aluminum ‘logs’. Delivered them in Mississauga, Ontario on Wednesday afternoon. Stayed overnight and loaded in Oakville, Ontario the next morning. We had loaded there in June - CANFAS, part of a shooting range. Delivery of this one was not required until Tuesday, 24 August which gave us two extra days to get there, so we parked the rig near Buffalo and got the bike off, loaded as much gear as we could on the le mans (not much) and headed to the Roadrunners Rally near Watkins Glen, NY. On Wednesday we had met Joe for coffee at the truckstop in Buffalo and gave him our tent and two sleeping bags as he was taking his motorbike trailer to the rally and had space. We hadn’t been to a Roadrunners Rally since 2006!

Jim and I headed east on Friday morning to the Finger Lakes Region of New York. Approx 100 miles (160 kms) all two lane roads and small towns. We caught up with Joe and Michele, Frank and Penny, Tim and Helena (Florida) and a bunch of others in Hammondsport at the southern point of Keuka Lake.

Internet: The Finger Lakes are a chain of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York and are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are linear in shape, each lake oriented on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake are close to 40 miles (64 km) from end to end, and never more than 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide. Cayuga is the longest (38.1 miles, 61 km) and Seneca the largest in total area. Seneca is the deepest (618 feet, 188 m), followed by Cayuga (435 feet, 133 m), with their bottoms well below sea level. These largest lakes resemble the others in shape, which collectively reminded early map-makers of the fingers of a hand.

The Finger Lakes area is New York's largest wine producing region. Over 100 wineries and vineyards are centered around Seneca, Cayuga, Canandaigua, Keuka, Conesus and Hemlock lakes. Retaining residual summer warmth in the winter, and winter's cold in the spring, the grapes are protected from disastrous spring frost during shoot growth, and early frost before the harvest. With the passage of the Farm Winery Act in 1976, numerous wineries have opened their doors to visitors from all over the world. Wineries are a major growth industry of the region, not merely contributing to the economy through production, but increasingly because they attract large numbers of visitors who support other components of tourism.

A group of us went to Dr Konstantin Frank’s Winery, and did wine tasting, which was nice.

Website: Dr. Konstantin Frank ignited the “Vinifera Revolution” a movement that forever changed the course of wine growing in the Finger Lakes and the United States. Dr. Frank’s vision, knowledge and determination are credited with elevating the New York wine industry from a state of happy mediocrity to a level that today commands world attention.

Then on to Bully Hill Vineyards - our first time there and we loved it!

Bully Hill Vineyards was the first small estate winery on Keuka Lake region area since Prohibition.

Growing from a small winery with a limited number of employees, Bully Hill Vineyards now produces over 200,000 cases of wine each year. Bully Hill features an on-site restaurant, wine shop, two gift shops and a museum. Bully Hill wine is distributed in some 30 states. The most fun wine tasting experience in the Finger Lakes.

Photo: Roadrunners: L to R rear - Frank, Penny, Bill, Lesley, Jim, Joe, Michele, and Tim.

Crouched in front - L to R Jo, Galen and Ralph. (Ralph's camera, taken by Linda! Thank you.)

After stopping in Watkins Glen for dinner, it was almost dark when we started setting up our tent at Paradise Park Campgrounds.

Roadrunners is an all-brands motorcycle rally, but many moto guzzi friends are members. Tim and Helena Hewitt from New Smyrna Beach, Florida were there. We spent the previous Saturday with them in Florida! Many people we had seen already at Bike Week or the Western NY rally, but a few people we had not seen for a few years were there as well.

Saturday morning, after breakfast in Watkins Glen, we stopped at Pompous Ass Winery. It opened in 2008 just north of the campgrounds on the west side of Seneca Lake, and we had to check it out. Lots of fun, and we had to buy t-shirts, stickers, etc.!

Roadrunners had a tasting appointment at 12.15pm at Hazlitt 1852 Winery. 2010 is their silver anniversary - 25 years of wine making in the Finger Lakes Region. Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards has evolved into one of the most popular destinations in the region. Hazlitt Winery is rated one of America’s Top 25 Tasting Rooms by Wine Enthusiast magazine and is home to the ever-popular “Red Cat“.

46 Roadrunners were there and that is a focal point of the rally! There is a Tiki Bar tent outside for relaxing and socializing. Something new for me were Red Cat Slushies (frozen “Red Cat” wine), and really good! We spent some time in the Tiki Bar, had fun with grape necklaces that Penny made for all the ladies, and some have started a ‘novelty glasses’ group.

Photo of Helena and Michele with their Red Cat Slushies!!

Also, another photo of a dunny (I hope this isn’t going to be a trend for Casey Capers…!!) The 'Red Cat' inspired outhouse!

Then on to Rasta Ranch Winery, which is ‘alternative’, and lots of fun. Alot of the wine names were songs “Piece of My Heart’, Purple Haze”, “Whiter Shade Of Pale”,

Rasta Ranch: Decor is reminiscent of Woodstock. Posters of Janis, Jimi, and Bob, to name a few adorn the walls. With tie dye accents abound. The atmosphere at Rasta Ranch is lay back, friendly and very social.

Then on to Wagner Valley Brewing Company & Winery.

Wagner Valley Brewing Company opened in 1997 and produces several brews and has won numerous top awards including G.A.B.F., World Beer Cup and Tap New York medals.

Photo of Wagners Brewery and Winery and Seneca Lake in background, Frank & Penny's Ambassador in foreground! (Penny's photo! Thanks)

88 people attended the Rally and lots of new members! The rain started about 1am Sunday morning - a down pour combined with winds. We were nervous about our tent because it is old and rarely used and had not been in rain for 20 years… Surprisingly we fared quite well! Jim and I packed up and left early as we had to be in the truck and rolling that afternoon. We left most of our gear for Joe to take back to his place and we will pick up next time there.

Delivered at Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama on Tuesday morning. Constructing an indoor shooting range. Then up to Tuscaloosa Nucor Steel and loaded and tarped flat steel.

Delivered that to a steel company near Minneapolis on Thursday morning.

Notice at truckstop fuel pumps this week - diesel now contains 11% biodiesel. Wondering if that will affect our twelve year old truck engine. (It clocked over 800,000 miles / 1,287,200 kms the last week of August.)

Wikepedia: Biodiesel has different solvent properties than petrodiesel, and will degrade natural rubber gaskets and hoses in vehicles. Biodiesel has been known to break down deposits of residue in the fuel lines where petrodiesel has been used. As a result, fuel filters may become clogged with particulates if a quick transition to pure biodiesel is made. 11% should not create problems for us.

The pluses: Biodiesel (mono alkyl esters) is a cleaner-burning diesel fuel made from natural, renewable sources such as vegetable oils. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. Biodiesel is biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Biodiesel has better lubricating properties and much higher cetane ratings than lower sulfur diesel fuels. Biodiesel addition reduces fuel system wear, and in low levels in high pressure systems increases the life of the fuel injection equipment that relies on the fuel for its lubrication. It is immiscible with water, has a high boiling point and low vapour pressure.

Thursday afternoon, 26 August we loaded in Manchester, Iowa. 250 miles/400 kms was more deadhead than we like to do, but the load went to Watertown, New York and it meant we could spend a day in Buffalo and pick up the gear that was left at Joe and Michele’s last weekend.

Henderson Manufacturing - products include a wide range of dump bodies, snow plows, sand & salt spreaders, anti-icing systems, & special purpose truck bodies for both heavy & medium duty trucks.

We loaded three dump truck bodies for snow/ice control. A bin with a conveyor belt underneath going to a spreader out the back and two large tanks on each side for anti-icing solution.

We got to Joe and Michele’s Friday evening. We had not scheduled visits or events, just stuff to do around the truck, RV and motorbikes there.

Breakfast Sunday morning at August 25 Restaurant with Joe, Michele and Baillie, then a short motorcycle ride before loading up the motorbike and we left at 2pm for Watertown. Weather was excellent.

30 August - Monday morning we delivered at Henderson Manufacturing in Watertown. This facility puts the dump truck bodies onto the truck chassis used by the New York Department of Transport.

The exciting part of the morning - they are located across the street from Little Trees!!! How cool is that??

Little Trees (US) are disposable air fresheners in the shape of an abstract evergreen tree, marketed for use in cars. They are made of a material very similar to beer coasters and are produced in a variety of colours and scents. These air fresheners were invented in 1952 in Watertown, New York. They are manufactured in the USA by the Car-Freshener corporation, still headquartered in Watertown. Again - how cool is THAT???

Got unloaded early, then headed south to Rome, NY and loaded at the former Griffiss Air Force Base.

Wikipedia: Griffiss AFB was realigned for civilian and non-combat purposes in the early 1990s. The facility is now home to the Griffiss Business and Technology Park, and it is still home to the Rome Research Site of the Air Force Research Lab.

Trivia: Griffiss was the site of the Woodstock 1999 concert festival. The base was chosen for its defensibility. (The Woodstock of 1969 was held around 200 (300km) miles from Rome.)

We loaded and tarped two large crates and a fiberglass dome - some sort of electronics equipment. We delivered that the next morning to Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. Then to Cincinnati, Ohio and loaded an ‘oversize’ building going to Florida.

Vol 14 No 5 July 31, 2010

We had 24 hours off in Los Angeles, got a motel and relaxed.

Stopped at a convenience store and I discovered ‘savoury beer’.

Clelada - Budweiser beer mixed with Clamato (which is clam and tomato juice), spices and a hint of lime. Tastes like beer flavoured Bloody Mary - just needed Tabasco sauce and a celery stalk! Though the 24 ounce can was a struggle on my own!

Also found at the same store were ‘three packs’ - 3 x 24 ounce cans of beer, which is the equivalent to a six pack of 12 ounce cans... Odd??

On Thursday afternoon, 1 July we loaded in Mira Loma, California - a load of pump stands used for fueling propane/LP gas vehicles. It was a full load and very light, about 5,000 lb (2300kg), so got great fuel economy going across country!

It was the 4th July weekend, so we couldn’t deliver until Tuesday - had a no pressure trip across country.

We spent three hours in Tucson, Arizona with Jim’s ‘new’ Uncle Joe (we found last year). We met his wife, Rosalie (Ro), daughter Phillis and her son, Drew; daughter Ann Marie and her partner Kelly and their adopted children: Hailey, Abbey, Joey and Christian. Phew!! Quite the houseful!! Much fun and lovely to meet that ‘branch’ of the new Casey family.

Saw fireworks Friday evening in El Paso, Texas,

The rest of the trip went smoothly, but heat wave! Stopped at Rudy’s Bar-b-q Restaurant west of San Antonio, Texas.

Website: Just north of San Antonio, at the edge of the Texas Hill Country, sits the small

community of Leon Springs. Founded in the 1800s by Max Aue, Leon Spring´s cityscape changed when Max´s son, Rudolph, opened a one-stop gas station, garage, and grocery store.

Bar-B-Q was added to the operation in 1989, and Rudy´s "Country Store" and Bar-B-Q has

been serving up tasty food ever since. The same original recipes that built Rudy´s Leon Springs´ reputation are now available throughout the Southwest.

Our pits are 100% wood fired with oak, a slower burning wood than the mesquite used by others. Along with time and oak, we cook with a dry spice that ensures each plate of Rudy´s Bar-B-Q is perfectly ready for you. Apply some of our famous "Sause" and dinner is served.

We had purposely gone hungry until 4pm so we could fill up at Rudy’s!! Baby back ribs, spicy sausage, beef brisket, creamed corn and pinto beans! We were stuffed and took the leftover meat with us!

We delivered on Tuesday, 6 July at a Waste Company in Lakeland, Florida, and arrived at the house in Daytona Beach about noon.

I bought a new laptop computer. The old one was four years and starting to have charging issues. I spent a lot of the time at the house transferring information, software and drivers to the new computer. A bit of troubleshooting, but had all set up except the music before we left the house. (I didn’t want two computers on the truck.)

On Friday, 9 July Jim and I went to Safety Harbor, on Florida’s west coast (west of Tampa) and loaded at Firmenich - a used homogenizing system.

Had to tarp it, but it only took up 10 ft (approx 3m) of the trailer and another light load 5,000 lb (2300kg).

Website: Firmenich specializes in flavours and fragrances and is a major worldwide chemical manufacturer. Their fragrances and flavors are generally used in perfumes, cosmetics, beverages, food, and other household products. Worldwide, Firmenich currently employs approximately 4,500 people at 46 locations.

Originally a fragrance company, Firmenich first branched into the flavour business by creating a raspberry substitute in 1938, followed by creations of citrus and strawberry flavours. Multiple other flavours followed in the booming field of flavour synthesis, spurred by the developing trend of companies worldwide selling processed and preserved foods. Since then, Firmenich has become a world leader in the creation and sales of natural and artificial food flavours.

We went back to Daytona for that night and saw Jimmy briefly that evening. It looks like he has got a job!!! Once he gets his HAZMAT endorsement, he can start driving for a trucking/warehousing company near Orlando, Florida - AAA Cooper. Working five days a week and home every night - no over the road, which is what he wanted.

The rental house in Deltona required some expenditure this month. Total re-plumbing of the whole house. When we bought the house six years ago, the inspection report mentioned the plumbing was ‘polybutelene’. During the early 1980’s polybutelene was a ‘new’ synthetic pipe. Twenty years later it was discovered the pipe deteriorated and leaked. We had no idea that there was a class action lawsuit regarding it. The lawsuit provided for buildings to be re-plumbed. When the first leak at the Deltona house was discovered, the plumber told us about polybutelene, as we had no clue! The lawsuit was finalized six months prior, therefore it was our problem.

Also, the double garage roller door broke, so we replaced the door and installed a remote control opener. The tenant is into this third year there, and looks after the place, so the remote opener was a token of gratitude and we hope he stays there until the Florida real estate market improves. In today’s market, the house is worth half what we paid for it, and if we had to or wanted to sell it, we would have to drop it further because of the thousands of homes in the area in foreclosure (and cheap!)

We will keep it until the economy/market improves and hope it stays rented.

The above work has been done - still have to find a contractor to fix the four holes in the walls - the only way the plumbing could be accessed.

We left Daytona Beach early Saturday morning, 10 July and drove to Toronto, Ontario.

Delivered early Monday morning and reloaded at Great Lakes Copper in London, Ontario. 10,000 lbs of copper tubing - it was a “high-risk” shipment, we had to cover it with a tarp. Recycle/scrap copper is US$3 a pound and many trucks/trailers/loads have been stolen. We had to be diligent when leaving the facility - checking that we had not been followed. The first four hours are the most likely time frame to be hijacked (we were told…?). We decided we would be OK once we crossed the border, but had to check in with Landstar HQ every four hours while in transit and again at delivery to make sure we had not been hijacked en route.

Delivered the copper tubing in Greenfield, Tennessee on Wednesday morning, then deadheaded 300km (200 miles) to Owensboro, Kentucky and loaded two steel plates that were oversize, only 15 cms over each side of the trailer and 3 cms high and light. Paid good to Two Harbors, Minnesota.

Delivered to Louisiana-Pacific on Friday morning, 19 July. Louisiana-Pacific make siding and we had steel molds in a ‘timber grain’ pattern. (Not sure if the molds were for vinyl or aluminum siding.)

Two Harbors is pretty town on Lake Superior. It’s establishment came after the discovery of nearby iron ore. The shipping port and railroad terminus was chosen because of it’s proximity and the bay provided a clay bottom.

Trivia: 3M Company, originally known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company was started by five men from the small town of Two Harbors, Minnesota. When the founders of the company thought they had found mineral called corundum, which would be used for making sandpaper, they began the process of setting up a mining company. They erected a large dock, crushing mill and bunk and storage houses. After selling the corundum it was discovered that it wasn’t really corundum and they moved onto other ventures.

3M moved to Duluth, then to St Paul, Minnesota in 1907 for 15 years until it outgrew it’s campus there. The new campus was built in Maplewood (a St Paul suburb), is 475 acres (1.92 square km) and has over 50 buildings - 3M headquarters today.

Over 76,000 employees - they produce over 55,000 products, and has operatives in more than 60 countries.

After delivering in Two Harbors we headed to Stratford, Wisconsin and loaded a new stainless steel food processor plant. Big tarp job! Another light load though!

Delivery was set up for Monday afternoon, so it allowed us a day off in Wisconsin. We spent the time with Chris and Judi Collins in Hubertus, Wisconsin (north-west of Milwaukee) - they are the Moto Guzzi Club representatives for Wisconsin. We saw them both at Bike Week this year in Daytona Beach and Chris at the National rally last month in John Day, Oregon. For the John Day rally, Chris had flown to Seattle, Washington and purchased a new Moto Guzzi 1200 Sport and rode to the rally, then to Alaska, then to the Washington State Rally, then back to Wisconsin, He put 7,000 miles (11,200 kms) on it in under three weeks and arrived back home in Wisconsin 24 hours before we got there! After going to Alaska, Chris has now ridden a motorcycle in all 50 USA States!

We left the rig at a truckstop and Chris picked us up from there. Chris and Judi have a home near Friess Lake - a small community.

Friday evening we all went to Bilda’s Friess Lake Pub for a Traditional Wisconsin Friday Night Fish Fry. We had to sample their specialty ‘Cheesy Crabby Mushroom Soup’ - very delicious and interesting!

Bilda’s has a large selection of craft and local beers - there was a lot of sampling!

Then we went to at local bar called Wally & Bee’s on Freiss Lake shore, and met some locals. That was a fun time!

Saturday morning Jim and Chris unloaded our bike and we all went for a ride on part of Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive.

Wikepedia: the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive links the two units of the Kettle Maine State Forest. The route traverses through scenic and historic areas including landscape shaped by glaciers from the latest ice age, known as the Wisconsin glaciation. It follows county and local roads.

Judi’s first time on the new Moto Guzzi 1200 Sport. After lunch in a small pub, in a small town, we headed to Port Washington on Lake Michigan to have a look at Fish Day! I got a kick out of all the yards and houses decorated with inflated fish, fish wind socks and fish flags! We came into town along the route of the parade, people had tents and chairs and were cooking in the front yards. It was hot and sunny and thousands of people - once we realized we could not park anywhere near the lake front we decided to move along. (The main stage music feature was the Spin Doctors.) Chris and Judi’s son and his family live in Port Washington, so we stopped for a quick visit as Jason had not seen Chris’s new guzzi.

We got back to Friess Lake and left the bikes at the house, packed a cooler with cheese, crackers and drinks and walked a 100 metres to the lake and into their boat for a sunset lap around the lake. Chris and Jim went for a swim, but a tad cool for Judi and I. It was very peaceful and relaxing, a colourful hot air balloon floated past. Back to the house for a cook out and more drinks.

Chris and Judi took us to the truck early the next morning, we loaded the motorbike, had breakfast together at the truckstop and we were rolling about 9am. We had a lovely time with them! Needed a nap in the afternoon though!

Headed to New York and caught up with Joe outside Buffalo on Monday morning and ran with him to Syracuse, New York. We headed north to Lowville, New York and delivered after lunch to the Kraft Plant.

Internet: This facility ranks as Kraft's leading cream cheese manufacturing operation - Philadelphia Cheese. Supplied by a cooperative of more than 200 local dairy farms, it processes more than 300 million pounds of cream cheese per year.

The town of Lowville holds a Cream Cheese Festival mid September. They make the world’s largest Cheesecake!

Put this festival on the calendar!!!! I want to be a part of that!

Also Cream Cheese Toss, Cream Cheese Bingo and ‘paint a Cream Cheese Mural’ sound like fun! Not sure about Fill Your Friend’s Face…?????

Celebrate Lowville’s distinction as being the home of the world’s largest cream cheese manufacturing plant at Kraft Foods.

So “Philadelphia” Cream Cheese is made in Lowville, New York!!!!???

I did some research!

Wikipedia: According to Kraft Foods, the first American cream cheese was made in Chester,

NY in 1872 as the result of an unsuccessful attempt to create a batch of Neufchatel cheese. In 1880, “Philadelphia” was adopted as the brand name, after the city was considered at the time to be the home of top quality food.

Philadelphia is used by some as a generic term for cream cheese, and in Spanish it is translated as queso Filadelfia or "queso crema”.

That afternoon we met up with Joe again at a truckstop in Watertown. Joe was loading near

Watertown and Jim and I had to load over the Canadian border in Kingston, Ontario the next morning. We had dinner and hung out.

In Kingston, we loaded a frame for an air handling unit, another very light load. The light loads help the fuel economy and profit!

Delivered that to a crane and rigging company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, then reloaded not far away at US Steel.

One steel coil which one took us to maximum gross weight, so that is all we can put on!

Delivered the coil the next morning in Stoney Creek, Ontario. Then to Joe and Michele’s place.

Friday evening Joe, Michele, Baillie, Jim and I went to North Java Inn for a fish fry. Michele’s parents own this bar and we had a fabulous meal (Michele’s mum, Paula is the cook!) and socialized with Michele’s dad, Kenny and other friends there.

Saturday, 24 July was Jim’s 45th High School reunion (Maryvale). It was an ‘all class’ reunion which is all classes, all years. It has been held yearly for the past several years, but we only found out about it after the one last year. Started at noon in the Cheektowaga Town Park, about 150 people there. We knew Barb and Bob Hildebrand and Dave and Sandy Stroud would be there. Sandy and I were spectators as we knew no one there. Jim had a great time and caught up with people he had not seen for 40+ years. I spoke to an interesting lady who graduated in 1960, and she has lived in Adelaide, South Australia for the past 20 years. She is a playwright and owns a Theatre Company in Adelaide.

Sunday was the 7th Annual Marilla Car Show, Bob Walters entered his 1958 Ford, and Joe, Michele, Jim and I spent all afternoon with him there. Bob drew a crowd when he turned the Ford from a hard top to a convertible. The roof raises and folds into the boot (trunk).

There were a lot of awesome cars/machines entered and it was a hot, sunny day.

We ate there, wandered around and checked out the cars. I got a kick out of the Smokey & The Bandit Trans Am! And, new to me ’Rat Rods’…

Streetrods-Online.com: A Rat Rod is a newly developed name for the original hot rod style of

the early 1950's. A Rat Rod is usually a vehicle that has had many of it's non-critical parts removed. They are usually finished in primer or paints that are often period correct. They are very often a conglomeration of parts and pieces of different makes, models and after market parts. The term "rat rod" was first used by the high dollar, show cars guys to describe the

low-buck, home built drivers. Don't forget the roots of the hobby (streetrods), it was the little guy in a garage on a budget (with help from his friends) that started it all. If you call them hot rods, traditional rods, streetrods, or rat rods they are here to stay and are making a showing at auto related events across the country. These cars are a form of art and expression of their owners and builders.

Jim and I loaded in Lancaster, NY (outside Buffalo) on Tuesday morning - a new machine bound for Mexico. It was a full trailer tarp and took a long time because of the odd shapes and sharp edges that had to be padded to protect our tarps.

We planned to deliver in Laredo, Texas on Friday morning, 30 July but found out on Thursday that they could not take delivery until Monday… What could we do for three days in central Texas?

We stopped by Willie’s Place at Carl’s Corners - it has been renovated since we were there last.

This is Willie Nelson’s truck stop - so it’s a little different. Bio Willie diesel fuel is available at 13 diesel islands for trucks.

Willie’s Place is actually several “places” in one building: a General Store packed with tons of Willie gear, the Night Life Theater for live music, the Willie Nelson Walk of Fame (a mini museum) with many of his famous and not-so-famous albums, gold records, guitars and sheet music, Whiskey River Saloon, Willie’s radio station broadcasts live from there on Satellite radio, a restaurant with menu options named after Willie's songs. Nothing happening there over the weekend, so we continued south.

Thursday afternoon we parked at the truckstop in New Braunfels, Texas just north of San Antonio and unloaded the motorbike, we had two full days to fill in. Weather forecast was for hot and sunny - 100 F / 38 C.

Friday morning we headed south through Seguin, home of “the World’s Largest Pecan”. Our destination was the 11am tour of the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas.

Website: Shiner is the home of the Spoetzl Brewery, the oldest independent brewery in Texas (since 1909). The brewery is most well known for producing Shiner Bock, a dark German/Czech-style beer that is now distributed in 41 states.

A small brewery but well worth a visit! Most impressive (to me) is that it has only 66

employees!! There is no age for retirement, employees work for as long as they want to. It produces a large quantity of beer for the size of the place. There were four free tastes included in the free tour, and the hospitality room was filled with Shiner and beer items. Shiner is an interesting town as well! Spoetzl brews a seasonal ‘smokehouse’ beer, both Jim and I liked it because it has a smokey, barbeque aftertaste!

Yoakum was a little further south of Shiner and Jim took a load there in 1982 and often mentioned “Yoakum” for the bar he visited where there was a horse hitching post out the front, spitoons, and beer was “ 2 for 55” (two glasses of beer for 55 cents - it was almost 30 years ago…) He could not buy one beer at a time, it had to be “2 for 55”.

We rode all around Yoakum, but he could not find the bar - the area had been rejuvenated with spruced up frontage, pavers, etc.

The areas we travelled through have various crops and each town names itself the “Capital” of whatever they grow and there is often a festival to celebrate that crop/vegetable/fruit…

Seguin, the pecan, Yoakum celebrates the local leather industry and tomato industry and is called the “Leather Tom-Tom Festival”, AND we missed the “Watermelon Thump” in Luling by four weeks!!!!

Internet: Luling was founded in 1874 as a railroad town and became a rowdy center for the cattle drivers on the Chisholm Trail. Contempt of the law by the cowboys helped Luling become known as the "toughest town in Texas." After the great cattle drives ended in the late 1880s, Luling quieted down to a town of about 500, where cotton ruled the local economy.

The single most important event in Luling's history was the discovery of oil. Discovery opened up an oilfield 12 miles (19 km) long and two miles (3 km) wide. The economy moved quickly from the railroad to agriculture and oil.

In 1954, the principal of the elementary school dreamt up an annual festival to celebrate and promote the local watermelon industry. For over half a century, the town has held the “Watermelon Thump“.

Held the last full weekend of June. A “thump” is how you tell if a watermelon is ripe!

There are still oil pump jacks all around Luling, some still working.

We ate at City Market Barbeque - very popular, there was not less than 30 people in line during the time we were there!

Ribs, brisket and sausage served on pink butchers paper and their mustard based barbeque sauce was interesting and very tasty. With pinto beans and Shiner Bock!

The Watermelon Shop in the main street was awesome!! We spent a while in there talking to the owner - definitely a watermelon enthusiast! She has a watermelon tattoo!! Both Jim and I have new watermelon shirts to wear for Chinchilla’s Melon Festival in February! Got a few small things to add to my collection.

Luling’s water tower is painted to resemble a watermelon! Luling is a fun town!

Back to the truck before dark. Saturday we headed north to Texas Hill Country.

Internet: Texas Hill Country is a scenic area tucked north of San Antonio. Created by an earthquake more than 30 million years ago, the region spans 23 counties and is chock-full of small towns, picturesque lakes, dramatic caves, and historic attractions

Willkommen to a little bit of old Germany smack dab in the middle of the Texas Hill Country. The area was first settled by German immigrants and German is still spoken. Most of the stores and towns exhibit German influenced buildings, food, drink, etc.

We headed west of Austin from Dripping Spring to Fredericksburg, a very German town and Fredericksburg Peaches! We followed the Hill Country Scenic Trail for most of the day. Lakes, rivers, produce and markets, coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants, wineries, art galleries - a high tourist area, lots of motorcycles, too.

Had to stop at Knot In The Loop Saloon, totally decorated with fun stuff inside and outside. I took lots of photos of the items on the walls. The doors to the restrooms was old time underwear. The ladies was a bustier and fishnet stockings and the men’s was red long johns.

I took a photo of the door and the bar attendant said “Have a look inside”, I said, “Take my camera?” She said, “Yes!!”

Stopped at the Wimberley Brewing Company and the brews were very nice and a little different, and cold! I had a Ziegenbach - delicious! Apparently a special beer and available mostly in Texas.

We went past Riley’s Tavern early in the day and we stopped there on our way back to the truck. It looked interesting!

The sign on the stage read “Riley’s Tavern - since 1933 Oldest Bar in Texas”. Jim and I decided it could not be the “oldest bar in Texas”, we know of others older, and it was definitely “1933” not 1833.

Riley’s Website: In September of 1933 J. C. (James Curtis) Riley, at the age of 17, drove to Austin, Texas from his home in Hunter, Texas, some 45 miles. He was in a Model "T" car with

his uncle. The purpose of this trip was to obtain a beer license for his soon - to - be beer joint. It was now at the end of prohibition. He camped out on the steps of the Capital building and waited for it to open. He was the first person in line in Texas and got the first beer license!

So, it is the “oldest bar in Texas” since (prohibition ended in) 1933.

The restrooms were outside and after I had visited, I came back to the bar with a huge grin and to get my camera! The closest I have experienced to an ‘outback’ Aussie pub!! The ‘ladies’ was a shed and the ‘mens’ was built under a tank stand!

I have two photos of restrooms for this newsletter!!! (Yipes??)

For dinner we found Adobe Verde in nearby historical Gruene (pronounced “green“). We both had very good Mexican meals.

Both Jim and I want to return to this area as there was a lot we missed because we couldn’t fit in any more food!