I walked back to my motel room from the local bar. No problem. Once I got back to my room I grabbed the ice bucket and went to fill it up to ice down a few beers I had left over in my room. I should say here that I was not more than mildly intoxicated. After filling the bucket I started back to my room and took a misstep off the side of the sidewalk. My foot was caught in a decorative bush there and I tripped. I fell very undignifiedly on the pavement. I struck my elbow on the edge o...

Living in a truck, I don't get to go barefoot all that often. On most days I pull of my boots when I take a shower and when I go to bed. That is about it. I am spending a few days in a motel and nursing a seriously injured left big toe so I am trying to not wear my boots any more than necessary as the boot hurts the toe. I am loving going barefoot. Not only is it helping my toe heal more quickly but it just feels damn good. This motel is rare in that the room has hardwood floors instead of...

In a motel. I decided to order dinner from Domino's. I wasn't in the mood for pizza so I ordered their BBQ chicken wings. Just say no! These things suck moose tit through a straw. They are soggy. That is the best word I can use to describe them. The worst chicken wings I have ever tried to eat. Simply terrible. I have eaten a lot of chicken wings in many places over the years and I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever had soggy chicken wings. Perhaps Domino's shoul...

I am currently in Columbus, GA. I arrived here yesterday afternoon. I will be delivering a military vehicle to Ft Benning for a show on Tuesday, until then I am just taking it easy. There is a bar about a block down, and I visited it for a little while last night. I thought about going back tonight but I think I would rather just kick back in my room, enjoy a few bowls of pipe tobacco, and let my injured toe heal. This morning I visited a local pipe shop and picked up a new Peterson pipe. ...

Yesterday morning I and another driver delivered a couple of military trucks on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, right in front of the Capitol Building. Needless to say, getting in and out of that area in a couple of big rigs is no simple matter. The problems were somewhat compounded by less than perfect directions. I have been in DC many times and so knew a bit about where we were going, but when we reached the point where we were told to turn left onto 3rd Street SW off of Independence, we sa...

I had been feeling pretty tired and run down of late. Work has been fairly busy and I just haven't had much in the way of down time. I have been holed up in a motel for the past two days just catching up on my rest. I have to say that I feel much better. I had wondered if I wasn't coming down with some bug or other, but a bit of rest seems to have been just what the doctor ordered. I really should have left out at some point today as I need to be in Milford, PA 8:00 am Monday morning, but ...

I am hanging out in Carlisle, PA this weekend waiting to pick up at the Army depot in Chambersburg, PA Monday morning. I bobtailed down to Boswell's pipe shop in Chambersburg this morning. Boswell is a world famous maker of hand carved pipes and I have wanted to visit there for a long time. I was impressed with how friendly the staff was and wound up spending a good deal of time there looking over their pipes and tasting their tobacco blends. I wound up buying two pipes and getting two ...

On Friday I picked up a military truck at a trade show in Ft Lauderdale, FL. It is going to Ft Benning, GA. Unfortunately, I can't actually deliver it until Tuesday morning. I took my time driving up here, stopping in Bradenton, FL for the night where I took a cab over to a sports pub that has the Buzztime Trivia game. Normally you use a Playmaker to play the game, but I installed a Playmaker app on my iPad that allows me to log in and play right from my iPad instead of using their machine. ...

Ok, I haven't been posting as often as I used to post. I have received a (very) few messages requesting posts. Part of the reason I haven't been posting is just work stuff, but to be honest the biggest part has just been blog ennui. Basically, I have just been bored with the whole thing. Between the time it takes to write an article, the effort it takes to track what should be noted, and the obvious lack of reader interest indicated by the number of comments, I just haven't felt compelled to ...

I'll start this off by posting a current image of myself. Yes, I am a tad disheveled. I didn't bother running a comb through my hair or beard before taking the picture. Now, on to the story. This evening I visited a little pub in Gary, Indiana. I had some dinner and a few beers. During my visit I was talking with a youngish blonde woman. At one point she said that she liked my beard. Feeling a bit facetious, I stroked my beard and said "Thanks, I forgot to shave this morning". S...

Tonight finds me in a hotel in Florida. I pulled in rather early but still only an hour away from my planned Monday morning delivery. I wanted to stop early enough to get a good viewing seat for the Super Bowl game. After checking in to the hotel I made my way a half mile up the street to a steak house that had an enclosed bar separate from the restaurant, so that I could smoke while watching the game. Before the game started a fellow came in from the sports bar next door with a ...

Tonight finds me in Stony Ridge, Ohio. I checked into the hotel and went to the lounge for some dinner and a few adult beverages. I like this place as they are actively engaging in civil disobedience and one can smoke in the bar despite the fascist law. I support any business that engages in rebellion against the nanny laws. One guy sitting next to me, a fellow trucker, asked me, politely, to put out my pipe while he was eating his dinner as the smoke was drifting in his direction...

This afternoon finds me in a hotel in Hagerstown, Maryland. I am on my way to Baltimore to deliver a fire truck and a generator. The fire truck is a wide load, and, thanks to a toll booth worker who doesn't understand the rules, I was unable to make it to Baltimore before the afternoon rush hour curfew on wide loads went into effect. I'll be delivering tomorrow morning. The toll booth worker stopped me as I was exiting the PA turnpike. Instead of taking my toll money she began bera...

I seem to have come down with a head and chest cold. Last night, after checking into a motel in Ogden, UT, I visited the saloon next door for a couple of cold ones and to watch football. I felt ok when I got there, but as the night went on I started to cough a bit and to feel a bit under the weather. By the time I left and returned to my room I was feeling a bit crappy and was coughing quite a bit. I wound up spending most of the night coughing instead of sleeping. This morning my head was...

If there is anything that gets under my skin it is elitism/snobbishness. This can be found in just about any area, including pipe smoking. Tonight, as I was relaxing in my truck parked just outside of Des Moines, IA I read a comment from a fellow pipe smoker that was most certainly snobbish and elitist, not to mention just plain insulting. The gist of the comment was that anyone who likes less expensive tobacco blends, also known as over the counter (OTC) or drugstore blends, does so because ...