I had to drive to Memphis to shoot a couple of trucks Saturday. The spousal unit and I left on Friday morning, driving the company Silverado. The weather was wonderful and the scenery was terrific. A bit west of Nashville I was commenting to my SU about how bad the drivers were on I-40 (lots of trucks in the passing lane passing other trucks at +2mph. I especially noted a lot of FedEx doubles just cruising in the passing lane) when we saw a cloud of smoke ahead. There was a pile of vehicles on fire in the eastbound lane and grass fires on both sides of the road and in the median. EB traffic was backed up for miles. I found out later it was three semis (two of them were doubles) and the 75 year old driver of one of them was killed. There seem to be more and more doubles on the road and I don’t think there are enough skilled drivers for them all.
We got to our hotel, the Holiday Inn downtown, which was packed and the elevators were barely moving. When we finally got to our room we opened the door and there were clothes everywhere and someone asleep on the bed. After a spousal unit meltdown we finally got into a clean room an hour and a half after arriving.
I went to the bar while my SU went outside to smoke. She came back in with fellow smoker Karen who came in to talk with SU while she waited for her husband. I ordered something to eat and a guy in a suit sat down at the next table with a bowl of the most fabulously aromatic soup I’d ever smelled. I said, “Wow, I didn’t see that on the menu.” The guy, who turned out to be the night manager told me he started as a cook and he cooks for himself when he’s on duty and asked me if I’d like some. Hells yes! So he brought out this bowl of chunks of smoked pork in a thick stew of great northern beans and peppers. I thought I had gone to heaven. Karen’s husband, this skinny 70 year old guy, showed up and the night manager brought out soup for us all and we all started talking about the life of traveling all the time. He said he was a musician and he was only home 40 days last year! He asked what I did and I told him and he said, “You ought to meet up with Neil Young, he’s got barns full of old cars and trucks.” I asked how he knew that and he said, “I used to tour with him. I was his keyboardist, Spooner Oldham.” Spousal unit knew just who he was and junped up and got Mustang Sally going on the juke box (it’s one of her favorite songs - Spooner played the organ on it) and all the girls in the bar were dancing while Spooner and I ate soup and talked about his ’71 Dodge pickup.
I Googled his name when I got back to the room later. “Oldham has written a brace of soul classics with Penn, including James and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet,” James Carr’s “The Dark End of the Street,” the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby,” and Janis Joplin’s “A Woman Left Lonely.”
Who knew.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky the Saturday morning and I had to shoot a Buddy Stewart pickup - dark green and black truck on a bright sunny morning in a place with no shade. I worked my behind off to get a couple of decent shots.
The second shoot was in the ‘burbs and some clouds had rolled in and I had a great time shooting this 1930 REO pickup. I was kind of dragging along, waiting for the sun to get low when the owner told me that when he said he had all day he meant he had to leave at 4:30, so I had to hurry at the end and missed some of the shots I wanted.
We were booked at the Peabody Saturday, but once again there was a problem at check in and we went over to the Rendevous for an early BBQ dinner while they straightened it out. The cole slaw was fabulous but I don’t know what all the fuss is about the ribs. Really, really good, but there are a lot of places to get really, really good ribs. Back at the hotel they regretted to tell us the room we had booked was unavailable and the only thing they had was the presidential suite. Spousal unit was about to go ballistic when they said there would be no extra charge and they’d throw in a bottle of champagne for our trouble. The Pres Suit is 2500 square foot apartment on the top floor with a full bar right outside the door! I took full advantage of the amenities, let me tell you. I had THREE football games going on the TVs that I could see from the sofa while the spousal unit watched a movie in the next room. I think there were 6 or 7 TVs in all - and free drinks and snacks a few steps away. Nice!
The trip home was beautiful and mercifully uneventful, no thanks to the idiots driving on I-40. Man that is a crappy road.