other dog

I guess he figures it's much better to move that crude oil by rail, there's little chance of a train derailment and explosion- oh, wait...never mind.

Highly interesting stuff, to me anyway. I have seen Spears Mountain in Buckingham, Va. myself and it's still a mystery. We'd go right by the access road to it on the way to Covington. Check this out- http://www.wset.com/story/22982860/the-mystery-of-spears-mountain Back in the early 80's you couldn't get anywhere near it, and the top of that mountain was lit up like a Christmas tree at night. Old "hard rock", who also drove for H.H.Moore and lived in Gladstone,Va. said they "worked on that mountain for years and years, with the biggest bulldozers i've ever seen". And there's very little to be seen on the mountain itself except for the huge buildings- they can also be seen for miles. The rumors were that the whole inside of the mountain had been dug out and the president and other top gummint officials would go there if there was a nuclear attack. They would seal themselves inside, and the only way they could get out was to take a bulldozer that was kept inside, and started periodically to make sure it ran, and knock the door down. Al Moore said he rode up the mountain one time and there were armed guards at the gate, which was about half way up the mountain. They had M16's and axed him what he was doing there. He said he told them he was looking for his hunting dogs- they told him if they saw his dogs they'd let him know, now get the hell out of here. I rode up there myself once, until I got to the locked gate, but at that time there were no guards there. More interesting stuff about Spears Mountain- https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/coldwarcomms/conversations/topics/11699

.

.

Here's one-

And more...I took Jo over to Altavista to the DMV Tuesday, it's conveniently located next door to the liquor store... I saw some gulls flying around, so I threw some chips out... I didn't know they had signs on all the poles there saying not to feed the gulls, or you will be arrested! When I got up Thursday morning, it was looking like this around here- Other Dog barely had enough ground clearance to make it to the bush. I made it out to go load the Charlotte load though- at least I could see a little bit of pavement this time. Saw a pretty neat looking machine at the shop, don't know who's it is or where it came from. Richard Childress' winery on rt.52 in N.C. Crossing Smith Mountain Lake on rt. 122, on the way to Moneta. ...and last but not least, I saw a very poorly photo-chopped girl in Princeton,W.V.

I've been sitting around running the electric bill up more than i've been working lately. I took a load of lumber to Bluefield, Va. Wednesday and came back empty. Then I took a load of steel to Charlotte from Lynchburg and came back to Moneta and loaded lumber for Coconut Lake,Pa. to leave Sunday with. Got a return load of roll-off bodies in Greenville going to Ringold, Va. I saw the radar dome from Bedford when I went to Moneta. I saw a gator before I got to Roanoke. ...on the back of a container. Rt. 460, west of Blacksburg. New River- some equipment in Narrows- and a big Mack truck- Rt. 460 between Narrows and Rich Creek. The New River is to the left, them there hills and the big stack are on the West Virginia side. Who names these roads around here anyway? Lots of big yellow machines in Princeton, W.V. Lowes store in Bluefield. I'm headed back out from behind the store here. I went inside and they said to go back around front and they would unload me in front of the main entrance. They got 20" of snow out there, so I had to go all the way behind the store, turn around in a snow covered parking lot, the go all the way back around to the front, and even then they got the forklift stuck and broke the bands on a pack of 2x4's trying to get me unloaded, dumping them on the trailer. The big stack from W.V, looking towards the Va. line. Four wheelers, dump trucks, trains...the New River is in front of the train, the road curves to the right and crosses the bridge into Va. The New River, from the bridge. A man, in a boat, in the river...fishing. I don't remember exactly how cold it was, but I think it was around 30 degrees. New River- Art Reed's place, Montvale, Va.

The truck over in the corner was pulled and then pushed there with the big fork lift. They had it behind the shop with the hood open when I came in yesterday and everybody was working on looking at it. Jimmy, the head mechanic, came over when I was fueling and said "that truck's gonna need an engine, it's locked up tight now- $35,000...Todd's gonna have a fit!" "What happened?" "driver ran it hot, only had about 2 gallons of anti-freeze in it when he got here with it". "didn't the warning lights, bells, horns, and whistles come on?" "yeah, he said the light was on when he called, I don't know why it didn't shut itself off when it got that hot, unless it did and he just kept restarting it to get it to the shop". I don't know either. I met the guy that was driving it bobtailing west on 460 before I got to the shop. I always say "stuff happens,and it can happen to anybody" but all you used to have was a temperature gauge to keep an eye on, now you've got warning lights for everything, even if a headlight bulb is out it tells you on the dash so there's really no excuse to keep driving if the engine is overheating.

Ah-hah! I found it. It was on this page- http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2007/10/mountain-assaul.php the link to the picture was in the replies.

That's very interesting. I went back and did more research on the radar station on Apple Orchard Mountain to see if it had one of those "super-powered" radars. It might well have been, because when the Air Force base was there, there were three of those large units on the mountain. I found a picture of them last night, but I forgot where I found them. I thought it was operated by the Navy, but it was Air Force, and I thought it was a weather station, but it's not- The mountain also has a large FAA antenna on the top. The antenna is the only working remnant of the old Bedford Air Force Base, which operated on the summit from 1954 to 1974. As many as 120 airmen were stationed on the mountain during those years. http://radomes.org/museum/recent/BedfordAFSVA.html This link shows pics. of more than one, the page I was looking at last night had an aerial photo of them.

Are you where I saw the red H model cab on 360?

We sawed slabs for firewood with a Farmall C with a belt driven saw when I was a kid. Don't know what ever happened to the saw, or if it's still around.

I started to buy some too, but something just didn't look right...I that that squiggly icing on that one should have been all the way around, instead of just on one side.

This was my favorite book when I was a young'un. I bought it for my son when he was little, and i'm pretty sure he still has it or bought a copy for his son.

oh...I wasn't even close!

ATAAC? What's that?..automatic transmission and air conditioning?..no, 5 and 4... a truck and a computer?..hmmm, probably not- a terrapin and a cougar?..aha, a tri-pod and a camera?

Well, I stand corrected- somebody in a 4wd pickup truck with a plow on it just went by slinging slush- thank you whoever you are!

Good picks, any of the Hendrick cars could do it- but one to watch might be Martin Truex Jr.

.

.

I ventured out to the store to get some beer snacks for watching the Daytoner 500 and swung by the dumpster to drop off some trash just now. The road is still slush covered in most places, but it's up to 36 degrees and I cut tracks almost down to the pavement in the Ranger pickup. One pass up and back with a plow now would clean everything, but i'm not expecting that to happen. And it's just going to re-freeze tonight.

The real question is, the next time there's a "meeting of the minds", who's going to figure out what number it is?..this is more confusing than the Super Bowl!

Of course!..would Al lie?