TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905

Seven States

First of all after hitting seven states in less than three weeks, it’s time for a break. Learn more about my latest mega trip in TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905.

Questions About Travel

These days I am asked a lot of questions about my travels.

Food and Laundry

Certainly the best questions are about simple stuff. What do you eat? Where do you do your laundry? Is Mobile Podcast Command an RV?

Truck Stops

Let’s start with two friends of the traveler. WalMart and Truck Stops.

Pilot!

When it comes to Truck Stops I have my favorites. Flying J, Pilots, Loves and T/A’s. Even more, some of the truck stops with names I can’t remember are great. Pilot is my favorite.

Wash Day At The Truck Stop

In TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905 we spend wash day at the Pilot south of San Antonio, Texas. The music’s classic rock, the People’s Court is on TV and there’s a full range of stuff to look at.

Travel In An America You Don’t See On TV

In addition in this podcast I make some observations about travel in an America saturated with political ‘news’ coverage.

Stressed Drivers and Travelers Need Calm

In contrast at most of the truck stops there’s no CNN, or Fox News or talk radio. There’s country, and classic rock, and a generally calm atmosphere for stressed truckers and travelers.

Back On The Road

Fill up. Get Something to eat. Take a shower. Do some laundry. Back on the road.

24 Hours of Driving and Back To Minnesota

Four states in one day in this podcast. From San Antonio to Dover, Oklahoma, and then onto Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, to finally end in Minnesota on an unusual sunny and warm day in February.

Unsung Heroes

Here’s to the unsung heroes on the road. The drivers, the people at the Pilot, the WalMart, the guy in Oklahoma who stopped to talk to me about my T-shirt.

No Academy Awards Here

Especially relevant is the fact that none of these people will probably ever win an academy award, run for congress, or even make a speech beyond funerals or their kids’ birthday parties.

On The Job

Above all though, they’re back on the job every day. All across this vast country.

Real America

Finally it was a great relief to see real America after two weeks of speechifying and media coverage of politics in Iowa.

Sponsored by the Strategists at Virtus Law

TruckStop-Washday-Four-States-24hours-Bob Davis Podcast 905

Election2020-Andrew-Yang-Fairfield-Iowa-Bob Davis Podcast 894

On The Road In Iowa

I am live on the road covering the democrats in Iowa. With the much talked about Iowa Caucuses less than ten days away, the campaigning is in its final stages here. Most noteworthy is an appearance from a Fairfield favorite Marianne Williamson in Election2020-Andrew-Yang-Fairfield-Iowa-Bob Davis Podcast 894.

Fresh Approach To Campaign Coverage

I have a fresh approach to campaign coverage. In contrast to everyone else, I won’t tell you what to think and I am certainly not going to tell anyone who to vote for.

Taking You Inside

Because of my strict observance of this rule, my podcasts covering these events takes the listener inside the event. Moreover I’m not there to judge or tell subscribers and listeners whether the candidate is right or wrong.

No Judgements

Seems like all media outlets these days are bent on telling you what to think. As a result I think it’s time for political coverage that doesn’t do that.

Younger Voters

What’s especially relevant about Andrew Yang at this event is the appeal to younger voters and to the tech community.

Universal Basic Income and Tech

Yang’s self described signature proposal is a universal basic income for all Americans. He spends a lot of time talking about the inevitable loss of jobs due to artificial intelligence and robotics. Hear Andrew Yang in Election2020-Andrew-Yang-Fairfield-Iowa-Bob Davis Podcast 894.

Fairfield Iowa Is Unique

Fairfield Iowa isn’t just a farm town either. It’s home to a sizeable meditation community as well as a tech community.

Workers and Farmers

Finally Yang and other democratic candidates vying for a strong showing in the caucuses have been touring communities hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs over the last thirty years.

Where The Votes Are

Also important is the fact that many of the democrat candidates are going to where the democrat votes are, in the final week or so of campaigning.

Seven Days

I’ll talk more about the trip including my personal observations in the next podcast from the campaign trail.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors

Election2020-Andrew-Yang-Fairfield-Iowa-Bob Davis Podcast 894

 

 

 

 

Podcast 377

Summer 2015 Road Trip Part 1. A midnight ride to Iowa, with the first leg ending at Walcott Iowa’s ‘Iowa 80 Truck Stop’ where we encountered the first blush of Internet Upload problems. While I usually don’t write these podcast notes in the first person I have to break format to suggest that a real problem with traveling and ‘untethering’ is spotty Wireless Internet Service, particularly at Truck Stops. Iowa 80 gets points for allowing free access to their WIFI, but when you start uploading huge audio files, it becomes impossible to file. Starbucks used to require people to sign in with AT&T Wireless Service (blah blah blah) but figured it out. It’s free, and its fast downloading and uploading. Unfortunately, in the desert that is Central Illinois and Eastern Iowa, there aren’t many Starbucks. So, Kudos to the Sapp Brothers Truck Stop near Peru, Illinois. I was able to get this package uploaded and posted by around noon central Wednesday. Anyway. Lots of energy and enthusiasm for this trip out east, to the Atlantic Coast, with stops in Illinois, via Kentucky, Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, onto Richmond, and Washington DC. Bored with the Bruce Jenner changeling story, as the moon rose over the fecund fields of Iowa last night, I began to wonder whether ‘The People of Iowa’ really deserve all the attention their getting in the media, because they hold the ‘first in the nation Caucus’, in 2016. What has become a cliche of American politics; The Diner photo op, the chat with the farmer by the barn, the waving fields of amber, is abundant in Iowa. What happens when an honest, real population becomes aware they’re on the Truman Show, as politicians and Media caravan all over this state? Lots of federal largesse evident in Iowa from Wind Farms to Bio Diesel. Is this good? Is Iowa, with its farms and burgeoning small cities, aspirational? 100 years ago most Americans lived in rural, small towns and cities. Does Iowa represent a desire to get back to that kind of bucolic existence or is it just that they have the first major political contest in what is becoming an insane circus called the Presidential Election of 2016? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul