Call me
Uncle Doug...it was the best of times; it was the worst of times. As an over-the road truck driver, some may immediately pigeon-hole me into the stereotypical image of a gun-toting, horn-blasting, tobacco-chewing, cussin' and yellin' redneck...tattooed from head-to-toe with a wallet on a chain and a dagger hidden in my cowboy boots...and singin' country songs on the CB.
Forget it! That's definitely not me. I don't even have a CB in my truck.
Truth be told, I don't have all that much in common with truckers. All they want to talk about is trucks, shippers and truckstop waitresses....and they bitch all the time. I don't have time for that kind of nonsense.
What I hope to share on this blog will be more like a travelogue that not only highlights the places I visit, but hopefully, gives some flavor of the people I meet in the cities, towns and hamlets of America.
As we are in the middle of the
2008 Election Campaigns, I believe I am closer to the pulse of the American people than political pundits and talk-radio hosts and, therefore, have a better informed opinion regarding the thoughts, wants and wishes of mainstream America.
I do have satellite radio in my truck and I listen to
Bill O'Reilly,
Sean Hannity,
Laura Ingraham,
Ann Coulter(she's a guest so often, it seems like she has her own show),
Rush Limbaugh and countless other conservative hosts who dominate the airwaves. These folks are quite popular with truckers...which is another area that distinguishes me from the typical truck driver. I listen because I disagree with most of what they say...but I believe it's important to know what their argument or position is if I'm to have an intelligent opposing view....
So politics will be a big part of what I'd like to share.
And , as I have traveled in all 50 states plus Mexico, Canada, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, I think I can offer some travel tips and recommendations for hotels, restaurants and sightseeing.
While I have visited every major American metropolitan area, I often find some great treasures in the small towns and villages not frequently traveled to by the
jet set.
So come along with me as I travel the highways and byways, coast-to-coast...
Looking For My America....
Let's Hit The Road!
lines...Started out near Lexington just east of Jackson on Hwy 412...driving through small towns on a beautiful sunny day, it was very uplifting to see people going about their business and chores with smiles on their faces...old folks, long into 
retirement, sitting on their front porches giving me a friendly wave as I went by...I also noticed an abundance of small, wooden churches along my route..not the ostentatious, mega-churches personified by Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Robert Schuller and others...and I wondered, who had a closer bond with their god....the small congregations of maybe 100 or so??...or the 2,900 worshippers who show up at Schuller's Crystal Cathedral every Sunday? Somehow, 
I just can't visualize a Sunday evening potluck supper at the $17 million(nearly $60 
million in today's dollars) California shrine...oh, well...if it makes them happy, I guess.. Another thing I noticed was that every bridge more than 100 feet long seemed to be a memorial to some obscure person that I doubt was even familiar to the local residents...such as the "John Calhoun Brown Memorial Bridge"...perhaps John was remembered for his service in the Civil War(isn't that an oxymoron? Are wars ever civil?)....there is no end to the Civil War historical points in the South... 
Interesting signs along the way, too..."Rabbits for Sale"...I wondered if they were for pets or stew...I didn't stop to inquire...they might have been better at selling rabbits than my ability to say "No"... I moved along through the towns Darden, Linden, Hohenwald...seeing towns as they used to be..no malls...no big-box stores...just main streets lined with mom & pop stores and houses with well-kept lawns and century-old trees...I turned 
south on Hwy 43 and began to see road signs to be cautious of horse-drawn wagons...turns out this area of Lawrence county has a substantial Amish community..being from the Midwest, I just assumed most Amish were in the Indiana-Ohio-Pennsylvania corridor...obviously, I was wrong...I stopped at the Dutch Country Bakery in Ethridge and bought a jar of banana nut butter...it's akin to apple butter in texture and color..very flavorful... A few more miles down the road is David Crockett State Park...evidently, the famous pioneer lived in the county for many years... I then headed south on I-65...I stopped at a truckstop for a coffee to-go...at the cashier counter was an Easter display of individual chocolate marshmallow eggs...most truckstops might have candy, gum, cigarettes, work gloves or key chains near the cashier...I get that...but I'm not seeing marsmallow eggs as an impulse purchase for your everyday trucker...just as I crossed into Alabama is the tourist welcome center which has an Atlas missile on the grounds in reference to the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville...I guess I'm a northern snob because I somehow just can't equate Alabama with rocket science... It was really one of my favorite trips in sometime...hope to get through that part of the country again...
