Trale Makes Honor Roll

My little man, Trale, is in Kindergarten and doing great academically. He made the Honor Roll for the first time! Sorry the video is kinda shoddy. It was taken on my cell phone.

Trale with his "Honor Roll" ribbon. Way to go Trale! Keep up the great work!...and Happy Halloween!

Fell Off The Face Of The Earth?

So what... I do 100 posts, and then I fall off the face of the earth? Not quite.

Mullet Festival was crazy! It kept me pretty busy along with my other duties around the radio ranch for the better part of two weeks.

I have some new pics posted to my Flickr page. It features some of the fun from Mullet Festival.

I'll be back to my ramblings shortly...In the meantime, enjoy this nice foreign film.

Post #100 and Cars

Hey lookie here! Post #100...
Geez, I'm long winded!

The Cars movie came out over a year ago now and we've owned it on DVD now for a while too. Here recently my littlest boy Mason, who is 2 1/2 now, has made Cars his new favorite movie! And, as such, we are watching it alot lately. I was able to get a viewing in this morning at 5:55am when he woke up.

I love Cars too! Mater is the coolest! I've been pretty interested in the story behind Route 66 since the movie is loosely based on Route 66 and the towns that were affected when the US Interstate Highway System was put in place.

Route 66 has some real stories. It's pretty neat! I'd love to take a month long trip on the "Mother Road" someday, since some of the towns have been brought back to life again recently.
I love history and I love the road.
Check out more on Route 66 here.

Stuck!

I got my Jeep back in May and have been in love with it ever since... blazing trails across Florida! One of my favorite places to "Jeep" around is on the Eglin Air Force Base Reservation, which is open to the public with a permit you get from Jackson Guard. I'm into geocaching and there are tons of them on the reservation. I wanted to hide my own there too.

So, Sunday morning, I opened my reservation map to hunt for places that I haven't been before where I might hide a geocache. I noticed there was a place just a few miles down the road! I was pretty excited to go scout out a new place on the reservation.

Off we went with my wife and two boys. It was great, a nice paved road at the entrance, there was a river running through it, just a great natural area. We drove down a "not-so-traveled" road just off the main dirt road. It was a nice drive until we got to an old culvert pipe. I didn't want to attempt jumping over it, especially with the kids in tow. But, my wife said, "you can make it!" So, I drove over it, and made it ok. Not even 100 feet from there we ended up in a huge sand pit! I've drove through sand pits a million times already, so no big deal right? If I was only paying attention to the road. I was driving too slow and got stuck....big time!

I tried everything to get us out... no good. So I called the Air Force Range Patrol. I had my GPS on so I was able to give him exact coordinates as to our location. Thank goodness, because I don't think I could have given him directions since I was unfamiliar with the area. The range officer was great! He came out, helped us call a 4X4 tow truck. (which they all declined) The officer told me that this road was notorious for swallowing vehicles. The tow truck guys knew that too. So, after about 30 minutes calling every tow truck in the county, we were stuck. The officer offered us a ride back to our house, just down the road. It was up to us to get it out.

We went back that afternoon with a jack and ply wood to try to boost the jeep out of the sand. Our first attempt was no good. By then it was getting pretty dark... we remembered the officer telling us not to stay out too late: very poisonous snakes and the over 400 bears on the reservation were enough warning for us to bolt at sundown.

Monday, I came back to try again only to find out the reservation and base were closed due to test missions they hold. I thought, "great! my Jeep will be blown up when I get back"

Tuesday, baby sick... daddy duty since Holli was out working on the other side of town.

Wednesday! This is it! I can do it! um.... no. I tried all day long. I even got the Jeep to move... 20 feet... still in the sand pit! I was beat down, physically and mentally. I was ready just to leave it there to become part of the forest. When I went to work that night to catch up, I checked my voicemail... A nice fellow on there offered to pull me out of the sand... he had a big truck with two winches he said on the message!

I thought this was great! One of my listeners is going to help me out! How cool is that! Yesterday, he came out there. The truck was huge! I walked up to the truck and said jokingly, I don't think your truck is quite big enough! Ha! It was more than enough truck to get me out. My Jeep looked like a matchbox car next to this monster truck. He didn't even need the winch. Just a tow strap and off I went, the Jeep rolled like it was on a concrete paved road.

I was so relieved! There was a tropical storm coming and I knew it was the last day or my Jeep would become a permanent part of the swamp. Thanks again Chad! I'm in your debt bro! Can I keep your number for next time?

I learned a wonderful lesson that day... never listen to your wife! Haha!

The Radio Station Sponge

Sure, we have a station mascot, The Wolf... but did you know long before we had the wolf, we had (and still have) the radio station sponge. This blue sponge has been an employee of the station since 1993 and has cleaned a many a dish over the years. Cleaning everything from plates to the tupperware left unclaimed for years by some guy in the sales department.

It's been a tough go for the sponge in years past: contracting salmonella twice in 1997, typhoid fever in 2000, and several severe bacterial infections. It married scrub brush (pictured) in 2001 and have been living in the sink ever since.

Here's to you our stinky little sponge. May you always be spongy