TWO MULES, JOHN AND BRITT ... ADVENTURE...

There are still people in this world that dream of an adventure of a life time. Most never carry out their dreams but one man here in Tennessee not only lived his dream he planned a trip of 1,763 miles to visit his sister in Phoenix, Az driving two mules hitched to two wagons. He called his sister Bev. and said I'm coming for a visit. I'll be there around July 4th. His sister laughed and said, " Yeah, I'll see you when you get here???"
John McComsey had just retired and had planned on a long distance trip with his two mules, Mack and Jake. He did some shorter trips to Alabama and all went well with those trips of a 150 miles or so.
His planned trip would take him through Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Plans called to travel 20 miles a day for 5 days and rest his team of mules for 2 days. On March 1, 2009 he sat out from his home in Henry, Tennessee with his team; two wagons and Britt his 4 year old blue healer. None of his friend or family wanted to made the long trip with him when asked. His wagon was well equipped for his adventure. The wagons were equipped with headlights, tail lights, turn signals and strobe lights. The second wagon attached to the main wagon was his living quarters. This wagon featured a radio, water heater, shower, mattress and you guessed it; a port-a-potty and lap top. You can't take a trip without these necessity's. He also carried a cell phone; imagine that?
Off on a journey of a life time, John got to view the country side while traveling at a slower pace than the drivers in their fast moving vehicles. Traffic was the greatest hazards he faced out on the road. Heavy rains and severe thunderstorms slowed his pace across the country. High mountain terrain took it's toll on his team of mules. They were well feed and watered during the trip. Twice they received new shoes along the way when the blacktop wore the old ones out. Many people during his journey helped with food and water for both him and his team and dog. Several problems faced John during his trip. He lost his dog for two days, one of the mules kick John, another one of the mules stepped on his cell phone ruining it.
Finally despite all the problems John made it to the Arizona boarder and faced his greatest problems with high heat and high curvy roads. Temperatures of 110 degrees caused many water breaks for the team and John. The mules would consume 5 gallons of water each at the break. John drank a 12 pack of water during a 20 mile run.
John's sister keep track of his trip via the Internet with his post. Near Phoenix with the curvy roads and steep descent Bev talked John into trailering his team and rig down the grade. All were afraid the John's brakes would not hold up to the demand. Finally down John was back on the road and arrived in Phoenix and his sister's home on July 2, 2009 two days ahead of his plans. During his stay in Phoenix they went sight seeing, Baseball games and just hanging out with family.
John decided to trailer his team and rig back to Henry. A friend drove to Phoenix with trailer to carry them back home. John and others are planning a shorter trip to take together in the future. Well done John, Mack, Jack and Britt.

SMOKING WARS.....................

Come on in sit down at the table and have a cup of coffee. Smoke if you got them?? Two things my Dad loved to start his day off with. He loved his coffee and his Camels. He had smoked from age 9 till age 70. Many times he vowed to quit but never was able to kick the habit until he discovered he had lung cancer. Dad did finally quit the cigarettes but it was way too late in life to do any good. Cancer got the best of him at age 72. Looking back there were some funny stories about his smoking that I will share with you.
Riding with him to work where we were building a house he was coughing and hacking while driving his old Ford. He announced to all of us riding in the car ; that is the last cigarette I will ever smoke and threw the pack out the window into the cemetery as we passed by. Ten o'clock rolled around and Dad announced that he was going to the store to get us all a coke. When he came back to the job site that old Ford looked like it was on FIRE. 
Mother was washing the dishes while Dad was sitting at the kitchen table drinking his coffee. He couldn't get his lighter to work to lit up his camel. He was wearing one of those insulated light jackets made out of a nylon fabric, Not to be out done he turned the kitchen stove on high to lit his cigarette. His jacket sleeve caught on fire and Mom quickly put it out by throwing her rinse water all over him. LOL!!!!!
A big snow was on the ground and the roads were almost impassable and Dad had run out of cigarettes. He searched the house over but couldn't find a one. He founded some old pipe tobacco in a drawer and decided he would made a cigar. On the back porch he found an old brown paper sack like we use to get our groceries in on the floor. He tore off a piece of the sack and placed some of the pipe tobacco into it and rolled it into a nice big cigar. When he lit the end of the cigar it erupted into a giant flame. It burnt his eyebrows and eyelashes. After he threw it down on the floor and stomped it out Mom asked Dad where did you get the brown paper you rolled your cigar in. Dad replied I got it on the floor at the back porch. To which Mom said Hubert that is were I sat the Kerosene can!!!!!
I set here laughing at these memories of Dad. He was a hard working man who loved his family and friends and with each passing day I remember all those great times he gave us.

HIGHEST POINTS IN USA

After seeing Lynn's photo of the highest point in her state of Kansas.....Mt Sunflower I did a search on all the states and found some very interesting facts.
Mt. McKinley in Alaska is the highest  at 20,320 feet above sea level.
Tennessee's Clingman's dome stands 6,643 above sea level.
Florida's Britton Hill is the highest point in that state at 345 feet above sea level. A major tourist attraction in that state I bet???

HALLOWEEN PARTY..........

Went to a halloween party Fri. night one of my nieces had. Plenty of food, kids, grownups in costumes and a lot of fun for everyone. I wanted to go as Colonel Sanders but couldn't find my white pants. I had even went and got a bucket of KFC chicken to take. My wife wasn't going to dress for the occasion but changed her mind and dressed as Dracula. I too decided to go as Mr Dracula. Everyone who attended were dressed in costumes. There were some scary ones and a lot of funny ones. The kids all looked great, the smallest one came as a penguin. Zorro, batman, pirates, ghouls, cowboys, cowgirls, indians, popeye and olivet to name a few. All the small kids would run and scream when someone new came in.  The food was outstanding with chili and hot dogs the main course. I can understand how almost all the food was consumed by the crowd.
My twin nieces came as an old woman, she looked every bit the part. The other twin came as a fortune teller and went around telling everyone fortune with her crystal ball. Mine said I would win the lottery and give her 25 million. Like I would give her 25 million.LOL!!
Good times were had by all. My wife said I missed a great opportunity to go as scrooge?????

OUR FIRST PHONE...................

Great things were happening in our lives back in 1965. Our first child born in 1962 and I was building our first house on 5 acres of land my wife's parents gave us so we could qualify for a home loan. We had lived in a small trailer after our marriage and soon bought our first house a little 2 bedroom with one bath.
Working for my father who was a builder taught me my early trade. Our new house would be my first to build on my own. A great challenge and after 3 months our new brick 3 bedroom 1 bath with garage was ready to move into. Our loan payment was all of $60.00 a month for 30 years at 4 percent interest. We also had bought a new 1965 Mercury car. A neighbor told everyone that we must have hit a gold mine. Fact was we had gone deep into debt. Both of us worked hard to pay for what we had.
We will need a telephone my wife said. We lived in a rural area and all that was available was a phone which shared a party line. Yes we got our first phone but it was an 8 party line. That's 8 different people had the same line. You could go to use the phone and there was always someone using it. Everyone eased dropped on others I guess. Once while I was on the phone a guy on the line asked if he could have the line ,it was an emergency. OK, I hung my phone up to let him have the line. Soon I picked up the phone to see what the emergency was. Man what an emergency he had. He was calling to see if he could have his mare breed. Things got better with our phone, soon we were on a 4 party line later a 2 party line and finally after about 5 years we had a private phone. Man what progress??
Look at all the technology in the world today with phones and computers. Yes we have a computer but this family hasn't seen the need for a cell phone. We are probably the only ones around that don't have a cell phone. Times have changed

SLEEPING......TOO MUCH OR LACK OF????

My, it's amazing how much of our life is spent sleeping. The normal amount of sleep an adult spends is 8 hours per day. That is a sum of 33 % of your life. I fell like Rip Van Winkle when I calculated the years I have slept, 23.1 years!!! The body and brain need sleep in order to function at its capacity.
No one has the same sleep patterns. On one hand I don't have any trouble going to sleep normally. I have trouble when I wake up in the night to go to the bathroom. When I return to bed and can't go back to sleep, I find I might as well go ahead and get up regardless of the time. My wife has always had a very hard time going to sleep. 2:00 a.m might be early some nights for her. I have always called her a night owl. You better not wake her early in the mornings, maybe after 10:00 a.m if you are brave. 
I'm finding that after supper I need a short nap. Not for long just about 30 minutes and I'm good till 10:00. There are many sleep disorders. Some people suffer from insomnia, lack of sleep. Sleep apnea, disturbed sleep like snoring and narcolepsy, excessive sleep.
My wife tells me I snore and she can raise the roof snoring. Years ago when we hadn't been married long she insisted she didn't snore. One morning while she was snoring I crawled under the bed plugged up a tape recorder and recorded 5 minutes of her snoring to prove my point. Guess what??? When I played the recording back to her I didn't have a thing on the recorder, I had pushed the wrong button. LOL!!!! Well, it's raining here this a.m and all this talk about sleep has made me sleepy.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ another hour or two out of life.

FLEA MARKET TRIP

Do you ever like to people watch while you are just out on a routine day? I love to watch people that I don't know from a distance. To see their mannerisms and reactions with other people. No I'm not a peeping tom!!?? Sunday we took a trip to a big flea market in Scottsboro, Ala. The labor day week end is the biggest event of the year. The giant flea market is held around the town square. People from all over the area bring there wares for the event.
My wife loves to go and search for things she is interested. I'm a walker and didn't see anything that appealed to me. It didn't take me long to see all the different sites of wares for sale. The weather was great with a gentle breeze blowing, some places were in the shade but most were in the sun. After two trips around the area I decided to set and rest a while as my wife continued on in her quest for that great find.I found a concrete bench in the middle of the courthouse yard just a short distance from all the action and began to watch the crowd go about viewing the market. Both young and old people were having a good time. An older man was setting on the bench as I sat down and begin a conversation with him. " You will have to talk loud I'm hard of hearing said the elder gentleman." We exchanged some small talk and the subject of where we are from came up. I'm from Brownsville says my bench partner, about 30 miles from here. I'm from Estill Springs, Tn. I reply, 60 miles from here. Yes, I've got kin in Estill ! Whats there name I ask? Low and behold his cousin lives a short distance from me and I know him, indeed a small world. The man even had a car wreck at the red light in our town years ago. Soon his wife comes and says lets go home so we say our goodbyes. I continue my watch, as I can see an old man and his son in front of my viewing point selling their honey products. They are selling quite a few jars of honey. One couple buys 2 gallons of his product at $26.00 a gallon and he is asked if he will take a check, yes he replies. The honey man must be well known as many people greet and shake his hand and the ladies give him some hugs. Just fun watching him and his customer's and friends interact. I laugh to myself as a hefty lady comes up and greets him. You don't know who I am do you? I'm Tracy she tells him as they exchange hugs and small talk about who she is and she worked for his doctor. I have an idea, if I see this lady walking later before I leave I will go up to her and said, Hello Tracy and give her a hug and see her reaction. Soon I get my chance to put my plan into action and boy am I amazed at the results! Hello, Tracy how are you as I give her a big hug! She is hugging me back and says how are you and where is your wife. Now I am surprised at her  reaction. Some more small talk and I walk away and see her standing watching me with a bewildered look on her face trying to figure who that old man was that gave her a hug.
My wife finally meets up with me and hasn't bought many items but wants to go back and see a doll she likes but says I'm not paying $50 for that doll. After a while she returns with our new baby doll and is proud to say I got it for $35. Great I reply are you ready to go home??? Thank goodness she was and we have a good drive back home. An 18 mile stretch of road between Ala. and Tn. through the mountain is so great, not a house or business in sight, you just don't see many places like this any more!!