Jim had to get re-qualified with Landstar. Physical and Drug Test, get the truck and trailer inspected and attend one day of orientation. We cancel the contract each year because it costs over $500 a month for insurances, registration, permits, transponders and Jim has to be available for random drug tests if under contract.
On Friday, 4 March Jim and I headed to Plant City, Florida for the Strawberry Festival. On the way we stopped at Camp Carlo where moto guzzi friends camp during Bike Week. We shook Wisconsin friend, Chris Collins out of his tent and went for breakfast with him. Jim and I continued to Plant City (about a 3 hour ride west from Daytona Beach) and got there at 1pm.
The Plant City Strawberry Festival is on each year in March and we have not attended before because it is usually the same time as Bike Week, this year Bike Week was later and we had no visitors at our house.
Florida ranks second in the U.S. in the production of strawberries (California is first). Florida produces 15 percent of the total U.S. crop, and 100 percent of the domestically produced winter crop.
Website: More than 8,000 acres of strawberries are planted annually in the Plant City area. This county is now one of the largest agricultural counties in the nation. The diverse farm production includes strawberries, citrus, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, okra, peppers, beans, dairy products, eggs, ornamental horticulture, tropical fish, beef cattle, swine and other related products.
The Festival slogan is “Taste The Flavor of Fun”.
Apart from the fact that we both like strawberries, I wanted to compare it to the Chinchilla Watermelon Festival. Firstly it was held at the fairgrounds / showgrounds and cost $10 per adult admission and $5 to park the motorcycle. To me it was more like a District Show with agriculture, horticultural and livestock competitions, swine and rabbit show and a large sideshow alley. Some people wore strawberry patterned clothes and t-shirts. Souvenir t-shirts, hats, etc were available. Many strawberry items and food for sale.
You simply must try one of their famous strawberry shortcakes. Most locations serve it pre-made with your choice of biscuit (scone) or cake. But the most popular spot is usually the create-your-own strawberry shortcake. There is fair food throughout the place, including deep-fried everything and various foods on a stick. There's also strawberry cookies, strawberry sweet tea, strawberry syrup, strawberry funnel cake, chocolate covered strawberries, strawberries on a stick and fresh strawberries sold by the bushel.
We both lined up twice for strawberry shortcake!
Some strawberry fun competitions were advertised, but we didn’t see any of them. ‘Strawberry stemming’ sounded like fun…??
The festival is on for 10 days to include two weekends.
Several live bands played in arenas and John Conley was playing in the main arena when we left just after 3pm.
Several showers of rain and a cool ride back, we met friends at Peanuts in New Smyrna Beach for dinner and drinks.
Jim stayed busy during the week getting the truck and trailer ready for the work year. We went to the moto guzzi club pizza night and Jim went to the AMA Flat Track races.
We spent a day during Bike Week with Dave and Debbie from Tampa. Jim met Dave in Tara in 2008 and they have stayed in contact. Dave has a Harley Davidson and Debbie has a Can-Am Spyder. This is the first time we've had a Spyder in front of our house.
We loaded at Ritchie Bros Auction on Monday, 14 March - a truck cab and chassis and a small roller. Delivered on Wednesday to Caledonia, New York and over to Buffalo so Jim could see his mother. Also saw Joe, Michele, Tyler and Baillie. A quick visit then back in the truck and over to Mississauga, Ontario to load crates the next morning.
To Houston, Texas and delivered the crates on Monday at the Port of Houston for export to Argentina. Up to Lufkin, Texas in the afternoon and loaded one turbine. It was a ‘hot’ load, one skid at 6,000 pounds. We couldn’t even see it on the trailer when looking in the mirrors! That is all we had on.
A quick trip to San Diego, California and delivered Wednesday afternoon to Solar Turbines.
We waited 48 hours in Los Angeles for a reload. As of this year, California Ports will only allow 2004 model trucks and newer that have a ‘clean air’ sticker. Ours is a 1999, so we can’t go into the California Ports. Two container ships were unloaded on Friday - Cal Cartage pick up shipping containers from the Port and empty them at their cross docks and load trucks from there. Worked out good for us. We loaded and tarped 12 crates of converters for GE Wind Energy in Olive Branch, Mississippi (30 km south of Memphis).
Was cool temperatures going across country on Interstate 40. Fresh snowfalls in the mountains around Los Angeles and through Arizona. Raining, windy and cold in north Texas.
We arrived in Olive Branch mid morning on Monday, 28 March and started taking the tarps off. Three quarters into doing that, we were asked to leave them tarped because the crates were not for the Olive Branch facility. We sat for a couple of hours, while the correct destination was figured out - Sweetwater, Texas. 1100 kms back west, and definitely NOT a place to be looking for a load out of! After negotiations, we were paid per mile from Olive Branch to Sweetwater and 300kms back to Dallas where there were loads.
I have read about the Sweetwater Texas Rattlesnake Round-Up and we missed it by two weeks!!
Internet: Since 1985, the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Round-Up has been held in Sweetwater, Texas.
Sweetwater is the centre of the Western Hemisphere’s leading wind power generation region. It is sometimes called the “Wind Turbine Capital of Texas”.
Trivia: Movie “Red Headed Stranger” starring Willie Nelson was filmed in Sweetwater, Texas.
We delivered Tuesday afternoon at GE Wind Energy in Sweetwater. It was raining, windy and cold! We headed back towards Dallas/Fort Worth after delivering.
Wednesday morning we loaded two generators at the Naval Air Station in Fort Worth. Only took up half a trailer and was light. Jim didn’t have enough hours left on his log book to deliver in New Jersey by Friday, so we scheduled delivery for Monday, 4 April. Had five days to go 2400 kms.
We got to Nashville, Tennessee Thursday mid-morning. Left the truck at the truckstop and walked across the bridge to Lower Broadway, the entertainment area of Nashville.
We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame - it had been 20 years since we had been there in the old building, first time visiting the new building - very spectacular resembling a piano keyboard.
Internet: The original Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opened on Music Row on 1 April, 1967 and was closed 31 December, 2000. The grand opening of this new $37,000,000 facility was in May, 2001.
Website: The new building’s exterior is laced with symbolic images of music. The most obvious are the windows that mirror the configuration of piano keys. More conspicuous images include the diamond shaped radio mast, which is a miniaturized replica of the WSM tower. The round discs surrounding the tower symbolize the different size of records and CDs used to record country music. When viewed from the air, the building is in the shape of a bass clef. The northwest corner of the building juts out like the tail fin of a 1950’s Cadillac.
Website: The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s core, permanent exhibit tells the story of country music from its pre-commercial roots in the nineteenth century through its vibrant life today. This exciting multi-layered experience includes artifacts, photographs, original recordings, archival video, newly produced films, touch screen interactive media and beautifully rendered text panels. The exhibit immerses the visitor in the history and sounds of country music, its meanings, and the lives and voices of its honoured personalities.
The Museum had three featured exhibits: “Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy“ Examines the personal lives of Hank Williams, and Hank Williams Jr, and explores the dynamics that inspired the most influential country music ever recorded.
“Tammy Wynette: First Lady of Country Music” The exhibit tells the powerful story of the ladylike but tough woman whose talent and determination took her from the cotton fields of Mississippi to the heights of stardom.
“American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print” celebrates the grand tradition of letterpress printing. (All those show posters!)
The usual museum artifacts - lots to read, look at, and watch: over 800 stage costumes, over 600 instruments, and hundreds of other objects from microphones to automobiles - documenting the history of country music.
Webb Pierce’s car has silver horses on both sides of the rear bumper, a chrome rifle on the boot, huge set of longhorns in front of the grill and a rearing horse and a six-shooter as the hood ornaments. The interior has a horse saddle as the centre consol, six-shooter door handles and decorated with silver dollars.
Elvis’s gold Cadillac: 24 karat gold plated headlights, forty painted coats of a translucent mixture of crushed diamonds and fish scales called “diamond dust pearl”. The interior included such touches as gold plated television and a record player with automatic changer.
Also, on display is Elvis's gold plated piano.
One film clip I watched over and over was Wanda Jackson singing “Hard Headed Woman” in 1958. She toured with Elvis in 1955 and covered several of his hits. She was called “The Queen of Rockabilly“, and “The Queen of Rock”.
In January 2011 Wanda Jackson released a new album “The Party Ain’t Over” at age 73 and is touring this year. Awesome lady. This is the film clip fascinated me, Wanda Jackson singing “Hard Headed Woman“:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzJ3hiqsi0U
She also performs: “Riot In Cell Block No 9”, “Long Tall Sally“, “There’s A Party Going On”, “Let’s Have A Party”, “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Right Or Wrong”.
We stopped at a few honky tonks on Broadway, but knew we would settle into Robert’s Western World - we always do.
Yep - at 3pm they were hopping to the very talented band, “The Sliver Threads”. They did some traditional music and some of their own songs. The female singer Eileen, performed “Hard Headed Woman” like Wanda Jackson. The band finished their set at 6pm, so Jim and I left soon afterwards and stopped at a couple more bars on the way back to the truck.
Photo shows Tootsie's Orchid Lounge the purple building. Robert's Western World is the third building to the right with the red cowboy boot above the sign.
