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. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:12 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 356

Utah and Wyoming. Stranded at a truck stop in Sinclair, Wyoming. A long day (or two?) of travel comes to a screeching halt at a truck stop, where hundreds of trucks and drivers are stranded after the State of Wyoming shut down I-80. The cause? A 70+ car pile up during a spring snow storm. Coming out of the Wasatch mountains in Nevada, into the salt flats of Utah, into Wyoming. Following the path of the Donner-Reed party in reverse. So, in this podcast, on a snowy Friday night in Wyoming, time to break out a few more facts and opinions about the tragic story of the Donner party. In 1846, a series of mistakes by a group of around 100 people heading to California for a better life, led to one of Western History’s most enduring and compelling stories, with the chief character in the tragedy, the unpredictable and fierce western weather. What was the Donner-Reed party’s gift to us? Did they find a happy life once the survivors reached their final places of settlement? Visiting the various waypoints along their trail shows what an almost impossible task it must have been for 87 people, animals, and baggage in tow, to cross to California from Missouri. (Editor’s note: I-80 finally opened, but we were advised to hang around awhile. I did this podcast, and finally decided to head up 80 East, because another storm was brewing. It was a little icy, but I made it to Laramie. There, I decided to take a nap. When I got up about 2 hours later (at about 5 AM) it was snowing like hell, and all the drivers were hightailing out of the truck stop at Laramie. I decided to make a break for it, because I did not want to get stuck at another truck stop. Mountains, steep grades, freezing pavement, blowing snow, snow and ice encrusted windshield wipers, following trucks up the mountain toward Cheyenne at 25 miles and hour. We were our own little Donner Party in reverse, but the Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8 did not falter, slip or slide. Thanks to all you truckers that let me hang close and follow. Whew!) Sponsored by X Government Cars! Don’t forget to Join the Bob Davis Podcasts and Mobile Podcast Command Unit 8 live at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater on April 25th. Details here. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:26 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Podcast 259

Road Trip Pt 1. From southern Minnesota to Iowa, over to Indianapolis in one night, on the first leg of the East Coast Road Trip, Pt 1. A stop at the largest truck stop (anywhere?), along I-80 in Iowa. Or somewhere. How do you get from Minneapolis and Saint Paul to Virginia? Do you go 94 to 39 to 74 to 65 to 64? Do you go across the Indiana, Ohio and Penna Turnpikes? Do you go the southern route? A tortured path to Virginia, avoiding snow squalls and winter warnings all the way. Anything for Thanksgiving with the family, right? Especially when you’re cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Hauling ass! Along the way, breaking news coverage of the two big stories; No indictment from the Grand Jury in Ferguson, Missouri … and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is resigning … some say due to pressure from the White House. (Editors note: Somehow I find myself out of synch with the two big stories of the week; Ferguson and Bill Cosby.) More and more it seems the media has a symbiotic relationship with victims, protesters or the otherwise aggrieved. They seem to feed on each other, whether there is a story there, or not. Meanwhile, the media continues to ill serve the American people. Forget ‘objective’, as in ‘both ‘ sides of a story. We’re talking about just getting the facts out. They just can’t seem to do it. Witness the actual live reporting as we drive across the Midwestern US, via scratchy AM radio. “Yes, I hear pops. I can’t say its gunfire, but…”. Really? All you need is a Guy Fawkes mask and a hoodie these days, and you’re a bonafide protester. Now. What to protest. Hey, my neighbor says he was raped by Bill Cosby! Is that good enough? Procedure? Evidence? Well reasoned arguments for and again? Forget it. The road beckons, and it is a good thing. Only thing to think about is avoiding black ice, and keeping your speed up. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:35 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS