other dog

couldn't say- I was just a boy then! BTW, if you're around Abingdon and want a crooked road to ride your bike on you should head up 81 a little farther to Marion. Then take rt. 16-it'll either be 16 west or 16 north, most likely west though. Goes to Hungry Mother State Park. From the top of the mountain where all the towers are over to rt. 42 is undoubtedly the crookedest rode i've ever been on. I went across there in a big truck one time, going around the scales at Bland. Since I was going to Atkins to the Utility trailer factory, I looked at the map and decided i'd just take 42 south down to 16 and back to 81 instead of the usual "bypass the scales" route, highway 52. 42 was nice, but when I got on 16- what a mistake that was! Never again! You couldn't keep the trailer on your side of the road because there's a mountain on one side and a cliff on the other with a guardrail, then a 10,000 foot (my estimate) dropoff. It has a length restriction on it now anyway, I think it's no vehicles over 35', but it didn't then. It's certainly no road for a truck to be on. Worst part was when I was motoring down 42 I heard somebody say the scales were closed anyway! Here's a google earth image of it, one looking north, one looking south. First picture is from directly overhead, second is tilted, looking from 42 towards Marion. Looks about as crooked after you cross rt. 42, but i've never been on that part of it.

ah-HA! ...solved another case...

The website had lots of info, maps showing different elevations, curve names, and the locations of all the fatalities on it since 2000. Didn't say if cement mixers were allowed. Gladys is about 50 miles from Roanoke. Downtown Gladys is on rt. 501 south of Lynchburg (well, there's a store and a post office there!) and between Rustburg and Brookneal. I actually live off of rt. 699 about halfway between Gladys and Altavista.

I'd never heard of the dragon-just googled it and looked at the "tail of the dragon.com" site. Pretty neat stuff.Don't think i'll be attempting the trip in a big truck. Also looked at it on google earth.

maybe that's the winter uniform. she's YOUR co-driver, tell her to wear something skimpy this summer, and post more pictures!

It would surely increase UPS's binness if the drivers looked like that

Naw, I didn't say anything. He'd gone back in the shop by the time I saw it.

you can do it either way, but one key thing Fred and 417mack are right on is make your upshifts first, which would be in the main first when upshifting, compound first when downshifting. as in first high to second low-shift main first, then compound to low. 5th. low to 4th. high-shift compound back to high first, then downshift the main.

They were installed new when I got the truck, so they're 4 or 5 years old. They're heavy duty NAPA's and I shut them off when i'm not using it, so they should have a little more life in 'em. It doesn't hold a lot of fuel, 40 or 50 gallons- I don't remember, but it'll get you out of the driveway!

OK, it started right up Saturday and it's almost full of fuel. Bad part is the man on the driver side holding the hood let it get against the radiator shell and it scratched it up pretty good. Gotta get some touch up paint now.

does that mean everybody in town rode her?

I didn't put that on there-i'd have put "village idiot"

I only stumble around inside-i'm afraid to go out after dark...unless my fearless dog is with me The paint doesn't match exactly,but it's close enough. Actually it's more noticable in the picture than when you're standing beside it. I just finished the last of a jar of pesto I had-it was delicious too! I was just reading about pesto on Wikipedia because Jo was wondering what was in it. The article said you could store it for up to a week in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator. I had that in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator for months and it tasted the same as it did when it was brand new.

Great googly-moogly! she might be too much of a distraction for him to make his p&d's in a timely manner, even with a high speed package car!

UH-OH! And,yeah it was-just happened to by passing by.He went up 501 north towards Lynchburg when he left Rustburg,and we took 24 to Concord.

I'm not sure about that, but he has a B.S. degree in high school-most people have to go to college to get one of them ***note-Rob is on a field trip, so it's OK to talk about him behind his back today***

He did! That's why he's so smart-said he spent 14 years getting a high school diploma. Most people call it quits after 12 years, but he went above and beyond- spent 2 years in the third grade and 2 years in the sixth grade just to make sure he didn't miss anything, and now he's a rocket scientist. That's dedication right there!

I thought there couldn't be many units like this out and about.

That sure is a good looking truck!

Well, I mowed the grass early this morning, had to wait 'til daylight to finish though, because the batteries went dead in the flashlight. Then I went to Concord and finished putting that hood on the mixer. Don't remember when it was last started, but it fired right up. I dumped about 800 gallons of water out of the drum and let it run about 15 minutes. Then I stopped at Carson's Store and got 2 rolls of chicken wire and made a fence around the garden. The chicken wire was way more expensive than I thought it would be-$28 for a 50' long, 3' high roll and I needed 2 rolls. I could probably go to the vegetable stand in Gladys and buy $56 worth of produce and get more than the total output of my garden, but I can't let the creatures get the best of me, right? They're already eating my cabbage plants! I feel like Bill Murray after the gopher in "Caddyshack". Fence looks pretty good too. I left some extra at the bottom, folded it out on the grass, then laid 4x4's on it. The owl certainly doesn't do his job, the pepper spray didn't work, Other Dog the beagle won't work, so maybe this will do the job. I hope so, because there's only one option left that I can see- fried rabbit...squirrell stew...rabbit pot pie...squirrell and dumplings...rabbit on a stick...sauteed squirrell with peppers and onions...marinated grilled rabbit...barbecued squirrell-what am I saying?!!I couldn't do that!..could I?..maybe Saw 3 doves at the bird bath...no squirrells reported in the area.

...it would probably look something like this. We followed this bus up rt. 501 from Gladys to Rustburg. When it pulled into a gas station we pulled in right behind it. I asked the owner if I could take some pictures and he said "help yourself". All the guys, and the familiar looking woman "Jo-bingo", in the picture started pulling out their cell phones and cameras to take pictures of it. The owner is the guy standing by the gas pump. He said it used to be a real bus, and him and "a lot of buddies" built it. Even still has the door control lever by the driver's seat-an awesome looking vehicle, even though by the looks of that engine he probably doesn't pass too many gas stations without stopping . It's a pretty short bus- yeah, I could see Larry taking Rob to school in this... ''Git in,sit yer ass down,hold on, and shut up-we'll be at the school in about 11 seconds"

I put the hood back on the mixer yesterday. When I took it off a while back to have it painted I left all the nuts, bolts, and screws inside the cab right beside the driver's seat. I put it together and got a couple of the guys in the shop to help me set it on. Then I couldn't find the little clamp that goes over the center strip on the front. I looked all over the cab, where it should have been, and all over the ground around it. I knew I didn't bring it home...or did I? I was going back today and roll the wheeled magnet around in case it was on the ground hidden in the grass, and if I couldn't find it i'd have to make one. When I got home sure enough it wasn't where i'd had all the emblems. Might be time to panic. When I went out to look at the garden, where creatures are nibbling on the cabbage plants already, I picked up the little metal tool box in the shed with the quarter inch socket set and a few wrenches in it and opened it-and there it was. I'd taken those tools with me when I took it off, and dropped the clamp in the box. Now i'll go over and put it on today, and try to pick up some chicken wire to fence in the crops.

you're welcome

great story, pretty neat to find a unit like that and drive it home after it was setting that long! It looks pretty good now, soap,water,chrome polish,and turtle wax will make most of it look new.

ohhh, I shoulda known. Last time I passed by there it was still Norwalk Raceway Park I think. Sometimes i'd go by it on rt. 18 coming from Fremont. I used to go to the old Richmond dragway a lot and went to Suffolk a couple of times-I guess Suffolk's closed now, but they had big time national events there then (in the 70's). I always liked watching the 10-12 second cars with 4 speed trans. better than funny cars or top fuel. That's a pair of great looking cars! True drag racing story- in the mid 70's I was at Richmond Dragway and a car ran a 6.06-I remember it like it was yesterday. Seems to me it was an exhibition run, not a regular, by a funny car or top fuel team. I told my buddy "some day they'll have a car in the fives". He said "it'll never happen.they've gone about as far as they can go with the engines, and the tires-that'll never happen"...guess we know how that turned out-now they're getting close to getting under the 4 second mark!