TheBanyanTree: Trip Report

[Russ Doden]

Some people had been asking how my trip went, so here is my "trip 
report"

I started this in the late afternoon on Thursday I was waiting for the 
printer to finish a pile of stuff I had sent it's way while I wait to to go to a 
Chamber of Commerce function in a bit.   I'm at least half way 
functional, which is much more than I could declare yesterday.  I think I 
was running on adrenalin on Tuesday after my trip, and yesterday was a 
"bottom out" day.

Anyhow, I promised a trip narrative so here it is.  "Fancy" and I headed 
out on my trip to the home office of my new employer on last 
Wednesday at about 6:00 AM central time.  (Fancy is my vehicle, a '99 
Mistushibi Montero Sport with more whistles and bells than I have ever 
had on a vehicle.) Oh-dark-o'clock it was.  At least it was overcast all 
day so I wasn't driving into the sunrise when it did finally decide to poke 
its bright face above the horizon.  The trip out to Jasper, GA was 
uneventful.  I discovered Flying J has truck/auto stops about every 200 
miles.  That made for a good target for stopping.  A chance to gas up, 
stretch the old legs, and maybe get something to snack on as well as 
making a potty stop.  The country was rather the same all the way 
across until it finally started to get dark.  Well, you might know it started 
to get dark about the time I started to get into some of the pretty country!  
About an hour before I got to my destination I heard something tapping 
on the windshield.  I thought it was kind of early in the season for bugs, 
then realized it was raining!  I really couldn't tell because I had put a 
heavy coat of Rainex on the windshield before I left so the rain was just 
flying off! 

The next day was spent in the home office of my new employer, getting 
to know what all they could do, and getting to know the people there.  I 
couldn't ask for a finer bunch of folks.  Each of them has a screw loose 
someplace so I fit right in.  

(Time to pack it in and go to the mini-trade show this evening.)

OK, it's the next morning now, so on with the report.  Thursday and 
Friday morning were a blur of activity, and trying to cram a LOT of 
information into my head.  By Friday afternoon though we were loading 
the company trailer to go up to Charlotte, NC to set up our booth at the 
NRB convention.  Another 5 hours of windshield time were involved 
there, but after the drive from Oklahoma to Georgia, 5 hours was 
nothing!  The drive was pretty, but seemingly slow!  The speed limit was 
a bit slower than I was used to traveling!  I had also forgotten how close 
together towns are the farther east a person goes!  

Saturday was "interesting" in a kind of strange way.  You see, we were 
setting up our booth at the NRB.  Now our company is very "non industry 
specific".  We do compact disc duplication and replication, plus sell 
supplies for this as well as equipment.  Equipment sales are big as well 
as the services.  Also please remember I'm not exactly mainstream in 
the spirituality department.  Being on the Toltec path as well as being a 
shamanic apprentice plus being very "earth mother - sky father" oriented 
puts me in the minority.  I only mention this because the NRB 
convention is the National Religious Broadcasters convention.  It is 
really a miss named convention.  It should be National Christian 
Broadcasters convention as that is the only religion they allow to be 
promoted.  Anyhow, there we were, working away with all these "big 
names" in the Christian broadcasting industry walking around.  Well, I 
had my medicine bag hanging off my belt.  I had forgotten about it as I 
have been wearing it so long.  By accident we had parked my bosses 
vehicle and trailer in the wrong area to unload.  One of the dock workers 
came along and was being a bit nasty about us being where we were.  I 
guess they were getting fed up with people thinking they could do what 
ever they wanted, and I can't blame them considering the attitudes some 
of the people at the convention had.  Anyhow, this big fellow came 
walking over.  It turned out he was the foreman of the dock workers.  I 
could see he had native american blood - somehow I "sense" things like 
that at times.  I almost laughed when he came up and asked what the 
problem was.  The other fellow told him we were parked in the area for 
drayage and shouldn't be there.  About this time, the foreman nodded 
toward my medicine bag and asked very quietly what nation I was part 
of.  I looked him in the eye, and said "None. I am not of any of the four 
directions, I am of the rainbow nation, I serve all"  He knew what I 
meant, because each direction has a color associated with it, red, black, 
yellow and white, which also corresponds to the four races!  He got this 
huge smile and made some comment about being out of place at that 
show and then showed us where we could park to unload.  It was right 
next to the doorway we had wanted to be able to unload in.  NOBODY 
was allowed there for some reason.  The foreman told his guys we were 
"friends" and they seemed to understand that we were not to be given 
any grief.  In fact they couldn't help us enough after that.  Everyone else 
kept looking at us wondering why we got such preferential treatment as 
we were setting up during the rest of the day!

The next day was a typical convention, with small time operators as well 
as heavy hitters all seeking information.  Some of them I recognized 
from fliting around the idjit screen at times.  My observation was that 
many of the small broadcasters were really called to their post, but many 
of the big names were in it for the money only.  This was kind of 
disillusioning to me.  Talking to many of them, it was kind of strange to 
hear them shrug off serving their ministry, focusing instead on profits, 
needing to spend money to show lower net incomes, etc.  Just when you 
were getting a little saddened by it all, someone would come along and 
really care about how they could serve their listeners better.  By the end 
of the day, I was one tired puppy though.

The next day I was scheduled to head home so I crashed early.  I was 
up well before 6 AM eastern time and checked out of the hotel by 6 
o'clock.  I had to chuckle about traveling in the dark again.  The drive 
back was a repeat of the drive in for a while.  Traveling in the dark, just 
trying to get the miles covered.  Then I got into Tennessee.  Much of the 
drive was rather dark or foggy or in dim light.  Some light snow was 
spiting here and there.  Then I got to the area between Knoxville and 
Nashville.  They had a good snow storm the night before.  I was 
concerned about the roads, but the roads were clear and dry, but oh my 
the scenery!  The "big hills" (eastern mountains) were so beautiful with 
their mantle of white.  Then I got into the higher areas and the snow was 
heavy on the trees yet.  It was still balanced on each branch and limb.  
As cars would drive past, every once in a while a load of snow would fall 
from a branch in a cascade down the tree.  I couldn't stop and pull over 
to take pictures, but would just point the camera out the window and 
click.  When I get the film developed, I will find out if I got any decent 
shots!

All too soon though I was coming off the hills, and into the lowlands.  
The snow was behind me, and the rest of the trip was a carbon copy of 
the trip out.  Hit the Flying J's which were my target for gas, food and 
rest and then back on the road.  All of the cities I went through, with one 
exception were barely noticed.  They all seemed to have efficient routes 
to handle the Interstate 40 traffic.  The exception was Memphis.  That 
city seemed like a bowl of traffic spaghetti!  I was glad to get out of there 
both coming and going!  I finally pulled into my garage at home about 
8:30 central time.  The round trip had covered 2200 miles, most of that 
was driven in 2 1/2 days.  The one incident was that somewhere 
between Little Rock and Fort Smith, I got hit with a paintball.  A big blue 
splotch on the drivers side door of "Fancy".  I hope it will come off with 
rubbing compound and wax!  She doesn't like that blemish on her!

My condo is a small place and often rather cluttered, but I don't think any 
place ever looked, felt, or smelled so welcome as walking back into my 
own little place!  As they say "Be it ever so humble, there is no place like 
home!".

The rest of this week has been a rush of one event after another as well 
as getting clients taken care of.  I'm ready for a weekend!  Like I told 
someone the other day, the last two weeks feel like it went Monday, 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, 
Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday.  I'm ready for Saturday!

It is good to be back, even if I did have over 120 messages 
this morning!

Peace,
Russ