Birmingham, AL

If I put a picture of the statue of liberty on here, you would think we had been to New York, but you would be wrong. Acutally, an insurance company in Birmingham, AL, had a 36 foot replica built and it stands on I-459 near the boy scout headquarters. But the really interesting statue in Birmingham is the one of Vulcan. He was the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Apparently, Birmingham started as a city of iron ore mines and steel mills. In order to advertise the city's products, Vulcan was cast as an exhibit for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. He was (and still is) the world's largest cast metal statue and the largest statue ever made in the U.S. He is 56 ft. tall. After the World's Fair, he stood at the Birmingham fair grounds until 1937, when he was placed on his new base on Red Mountain -- the very mountain from which his iron body had been mined. Isn't that special?

Here We Go Again

I'm typing this on my way out the door. We are on our way to Texas with a load that delivers on Friday. We will probably be gone two weeks this time because we plan to go to Myrtle Beach for bike week when we get back. Our reservation starts on the 12th of May so we will try to say out until the 10th. I am so ready for this vacation. We live in a small town and there aren't many places to shop here. Myrtle Beach is one of my favorite places to go because I can check out two or three stores everyday for a week and never go to the same one twice (unless I want to). Then in the evening there are lots of restaurants and shows to go to. We actually stay in the city of North Myrtle Beach because it's a little less crowded than down town, but only about 20 minutes away from everything. I just hate that my grandson Bailey won't be there this year. He's been coming to bike week twice a year since he was born, all of two years ago. And his brother Maverick has never been. We'll have to plan to get them both there next year. I have some great pictures of Bailey on the beach. I'm sure gonna miss him this year.

Steven Singer

This guy has one of the greatest ad campaigns I've ever seen. As we drove through the city of brotherly love (Philadelphia, if you didn't know) I noticed these huge billboards that said "I Hate Steven Singer" That was all it said. No pictures, no description, no reason, just that and a web address, www.ihatestevensinger.com at the bottom. I was so intrigued that I looked it up when I got home. This is a legitimate jewelry store in Philly, but the web site caters to men who are trying to put off marriage for a few more months and women who are trying to get them to make a commitment. It's so funny. Be sure to wait for the intro to finish. It looks very normal at first, but then it takes you to the funny stuff.

Writing this reminded me of another great ad we saw in Phoenix some time ago. I'm pretty sure it was a plumber or roto-rooter type guy because the sign said:
"Scotty's Pottys - We're No. 1 in the No. 2 Business"

garage doors

Here is how we spent our Saturday. These are the new doors on Kirby's motorcycle garage. The cinder block building is more than 50 years old, but still in pretty good shape. We had to take out the old 30 inch door, knock out some blocks, and build these doors to make a 6 foot opening. We started about 10 am and worked until about 5 pm, then we came inside and complained about our aches and pains for the rest of the evening. I feel better today, but I have a blister on my hand from using the hammer and the electric drill. You haven't lived until you've tried to drill a hole in 50 year old cinder block. I doubt if our doors will be standing 50 years from now, but I bet the block is still there and still solid. I guess it's true, they just don't build them like they used to.

Louisville Slugger

I have had a very frustrating 10 days because I was not able to get on the internet the whole time. I tried at a couple of different truck stops, but both were having difficulty with their wireless service. And besides that, we were very rushed on some loads and didn't really get to stay long in any one place. So, it was great to get home and check my mail and read everyone's blogs.

We drove through Louisville, KY a couple of times this week and I thought if you haven't ever seen it, the big baseball bat is pretty neat. It's six stories tall and weighs 68,000 pounds. It's called the biggest baseball bat in the world, but it's actually made of steel painted to look like wood. Still pretty impressive.

We did get to pass through Austin, TX this week so we were able to stop and visit with Kirby's brother and with my son Todd and his family. Wish we could have stayed longer, but a few hours is better than nothing.

I don't know who is reading this stuff, but you might have noticed that I'm trying to add some interesting sights from our travels. Hope you enjoy them. You may even learn something you didn't know.

Hasta La (Windows) Vista, Baby

I gave up today and switched back to XP. My scanner would not work on Vista, and my printer was acting strange, too. All my programs and hardware are old, so I guess when I'm ready to buy all new stuff, I can switch to Vista. Getting XP back was a real job. I had to go through the restore process three times (twice trying to keep data and the third time wiping out everything) before I got it to work. The process takes 45 minutes or longer, so doing it three times pretty much blows the whole day. After I finally got the third time to work, then I started putting my software back on. Good thing I had nothing else to do today. Right now, everything is working, but now I have thousands of pictures to put back in the Kodak folders. I keep them backed up on CD's, but I like them on the computer, too, so they are easy to find when I want them.

Tomorrow we're going to Odessa, TX with a load that delivers Friday morning. Hope we get to stop in Austin to visit on our way back. We usually go to Houston after we deliver there, so Austin is sort of on the way and it gives us a chance to see my son and Kirby's brother. Wish it wasn't so far from there to El Paso. Guess we will have to see the grand-babies another trip.

Windows Vista

Last night I switched from XP to Vista. I can't really tell much difference, except that some programs don't work (like my favorite photo editing software - PhotoDeluxe) and I can't seem to get a Quick Time movie to play. I'm not giving up yet, but so far I haven't found a fix for these two. I did get my Kodak software to work after downloading a new driver from Kodak. Adobe stopped making PhotoDeluxe several years ago, but I love this program. I almost bought a new version of it on EBay but I'm afraid it will not work either and I would have wasted $40. I should buy PhotoShop, but I'm afraid it won't have the same features I love on PhotoDeluxe. For now, I think I will just use PhotoDeluxe on my laptop when I want to edit photos. Maybe eventually there will be a fix to make it work on Vista. It didn't work on XP either until I found a web page that explained how to change the paging file and make it work. I tried that last night, but the paging file stuff is different on Vista and I was not able to fix it. I made backup disks so I can go back to XP if I decide to. For now, I'm just trying to decide what features of Vista I like enough to stay with it (so far nothing).

Spring sprung a leak

I left last Saturday for the trip to El Paso and my peach tree was covered with beautiful pink blooms. Now look at it!!! I came home to 4 inches of snow. I had to drive home last night from Charlotte and the last couple of hours were pretty nasty. The snow is beautiful in its own way, but I preferred the blooms and green trees we had last week.

Here's a picture from the El Paso airport. This is the main lobby when you first walk in. I thought it was pretty neat. I wish the Houston airport was as user friendly. I had an hour to make it from Continental to US Airways in Houston yesterday and I needed every minute of it. My ticket said "gate not yet assigned" so I had to ask at least 5 people before anyone gave me helpful information about where to find US Airways. As it turned out, I had to actually leave the security area, go to another part of the airport (on a bus) and re-enter security to get to them. They were boarding when I finally arrived. Charlotte was a breeze. I got off the plane, walked to baggage claim just as my suitcase came down the chute, walked out the door and saw a bus marked "long term parking 2" (exactly where I needed to go) and was in my car and gone within about 15 minutes of landing. Too bad I ran into all that snow on my way home.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow I have to fly home and leave these grand-babies in El Paso. I have both of them in my motel room tonight so I am spoiling them as much as I can. Maverick had his bottle and I rocked him to sleep while Bailey watched a Blue's Clues video. Then I got to tell Bailey the story of the three pigs (with lots of sound effects and silliness for his enjoyment). He loves snuggling on my lap and being rocked to sleep. They are both such sweet babies. I know I will miss them the minute I get out of the car at the airport, but it's time for Grammy to go home. I have lots of sore muscles from chasing Bailey and changing diapers on the floor. Today Jen bought two plastic lawn chairs and it was so nice to be able to sit down. We've been sitting on the floor or just standing for two days at the house because the furniture movers don't arrive until Monday. I'm going to try to take some pictures tomorrow before I leave of some interesting things on Fort Bliss. Got to get some sleep. Long day tomorrow will start with Maverick waking up about 5 am to be fed, followed by Bailey at 7 am wanting cartoons and cereal.

State of Bliss

We arrived at Fort Bliss about 10 pm tonight and the army motel is pretty nice. The drive wasn't too bad today. My daughter drove the first five hours and I went from front to back to play with the baby, then I drove the last five hours and she went from front to back (mostly back) to play with the baby. He just can't sleep in the car seat. He likes being on his belly. Anyway, the most interesting thing so far is the ice trays in the motel refrigerator. They are like some kind of toy ice trays for a little play kitchen. But check out the scraper built in to the freezer door!!! Shouldn't someone tell the Army that refrigerators are available that are actually frost free?? Nah!! Our taxes would go up if they replaced all these. I've actually had referigerators that had to be defrosted by hand and I never had one with the scraper built in. This room has two double beds and a separate sitting area with a couch and coffee table. The bathroom is really big and there's a large kitchen sink beside the refrigerator and a microwave above that. It's a very nice room, so I guess I'll be pretty comfortable here for the next couple of days.

Trip to (H)EL PASO

Let me start by saying that I would not trade this time with my daughter and her sons for any amount of money, but make me an offer and we'll talk about it. That said, we are on a very long road trip with a 2 year old and a 2 month old. If you ever attempt such a thing, bring plenty of aspirin and a good set of ear plugs. So, as I said, I have spent the last 24 hours with my two grandsons mostly in a car on our way to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The first night was pretty good since they both slept while we drove and then we got a motel room. Yesterday was an all day drive from Atlanta, GA all the way to Fort Worth, TX. Maverick let us know all day that he wasn't very happy being in a car seat facing backward while Bailey watched videos!! I would buy Maverick a DVD player if I really thought he would watch it. He's only 2 months old, so I'm not sure he would. Anyway, we made it to a motel west of Fort Worth and now we have the added delight of spending the morning with my EX-husband. My cup runneth over!!!

To be honest, it hasn't been that bad. Surprisingly, loading the car before we left with the 700 pounds of stuff (and I know because we weighed it) that was in the basement was harder than driving for boring hours on end with a baby crying in the seat behind you. Or, if you aren't the one driving, you get to sit on a cooler between the back seats and try to comfort a baby who has to stay strapped into a car seat. The funny thing was that when we got in the back seat, the baby was quiet, but Bailey fussed. So we got back in the front seat, and Bailey was happy, but the baby fussed. Next time we'll rent an RV and just camp our way across the country.