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!