I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Subject: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Sourdough
Date: 26 Jun 99 - 10:28 PM

It may have been twenty years ago that I left Fruita, CO about an hour before dawn on a summer morning heading west to Green River, Utah. It is 110 miles and at that time there were no services available along that entire stretch even though it was an Interstate. I was on a motorcycle and wanted to make the trip before the sun got up too high and the road started to bake.

I started the bike and turned the CB on to CH 19. There was no traffic on the road so I didn't expect to hear anything. I set the radio's squelch so that I didn't pick up any static that would destroy the quiet of the fading night and I headed west. As the sky behind me turned to cobalt blue, the color in the rocky landscape started to become visble. Black silhouettes were filled in with grays, then purple, and then reds and greens. It was a beautiful morning, like watching creation. I could see six or eight miles ahead and there wasn't anything moving on the road. I didn't know it but there was an eighteen wheeler heading towards me and the driver must have been driving all night.

When I saw him ahead of me, I didn't pay any attention and I don't think he gave me particular notice. I'll bet that if he saw me at all as we passed that he didn't see the small CB antenna mounted on my luggage rack.

He had just gone past when he picked up his CB mike and began singing into what he probably thought was the empty desert. When he got to the line, "The moon has gone behind a cloud / I'm so lonesome I could cry.", I was as moved by the song from an unknown trucker as I have ever been listening to any performance.

I was thinking about that trucker today as I was driving my motorcycle down another road. When I got home, I turned to DT to see if I could find the words. When I couldn't, I decided to try creating a thread.

Any suggestions?

SD

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jun 99 - 10:36 PM

I guess we don't have that Hank Williams classic in our database, although I'll bet it has been posted in the forum. Click here to get to the song at Cowpie, a great place to find country songs.
Great story, Sourdough - and a great song.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Jun 99 - 11:59 PM

Thanks for that, Sourdough. Moments like that are what life is all about.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: puzzled
Date: 27 Jun 99 - 11:27 AM

he was singing real good for free. thanks for the story sourdough.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: WyoWoman
Date: 27 Jun 99 - 11:26 PM

Sourdough-- Did you find the words? That's one of my favorite songs -- I used to sing it. I can dig the words up if you didn't find them (might refresh my memory).

KC

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: The Burren Ranger
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 01:14 PM

I sang it in my bunk one early dawn in May 1986 as I crossed the Yellow River in Mid-China on a train heading for Xian. Hearing the steam-train whistle made me think of Hank and his classic song.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Fadac
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 07:01 PM

Sourdough, What kind of motorcycle? I ride a full dress BMW K-75. And am restoring my old 1976 R75/6. No CB on either. However I'm installing a 2 meter rig for our planed ride this september. (Up the west coast, hwy 1 to Canada from San Francisco, Ca.)

-Fadac

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 09:33 PM

SD: That was beautifully written and a wonderful story. Thank you. Now, what really caught my eye was Fruita, CO. I used to live there, paritally grew up in & had all three of my kids in Grand Jct. and still have some very good friends there. Are you from there? Still there?

At one time, I used to help patch up motorcyclists who were almost roadkill victims of sleepy truck drivers at the hospital there. Sure glad that isn't where your story went!:-)

This was great! Thanks.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 09:42 PM

A nice story 'Dough......One of those one off one time only and not to be repeated moments. Had a few myself which I've shared here.

Gee kat, a quarter million miles on street bikes and I never met you, but I've been lucky and only made the ER scene once.

catspaw

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: WyoWoman
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 11:50 PM

Hey Fadac, I've been considering getting a motorcycle. (My son would kill me -- all the time he was an adolescent, he begged for a motorcycle and I wouldn't get him one. Now that he's an adult and I'm a woman in her "Power Years," as they're calling them now, I'm considering getting myself a bike. (I probably won't, but the fantasy has been pretty insistent lately ...) I had a friend back in New Mexico who had a Kawasaki that went like a rocket and he used to take me riding often. Now that I have no men friends with bikes, I've been considering taking matters into my own hands. However, I'm not all that big and bikes look pretty heavy, so my second worst fear (after going splat! in the middle of the highway) would be tipping over and not having the muscles to keep the bike from falling on me...

Now, Sourdough -- here are those words:

Hear that lonesome whipporwill, he sounds to blue to fly. The midnight train is moaning low, I"m so lonesome I could cry.

Have you ever heard a robin grieve When leaves begin to die? That means he's lost the will to live. I'm so lonesome I could cry.

Did you ever see a night so long, when time goes driftin' by? The moon just went behind some clouds To hide its face and cry.

The silence of a falling star Lights up the purple sky. And as I wonder where you are I'm so lonesome I could cry.

KC

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 12:01 AM

Get a bike.........There's a freedom in motorcycling like you don't find in many other things. There are a lot of bikes that are not all that heavy and you'll find that "tipping over" isn't a big problem.....More to the point is wrestling it around in and out of the garage. *Grin* Find something that fits and you can easily touch the ground with your feet.

catspaw

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 12:11 AM

'Spaw: don't know how I missed scraping you up offa the tar!**BG** I did EMT work for a race track one summer. Got so damn tired of fixing up people who had not brains, as far as I was concerned, that I quit. One idiot fractured his clavical (collarbone), we got him ready to transport to hospital and off he went in the next race.

Mom and dad had only an old Harley with a sidecar when they were first married in 1936. We've got a picture somewhere of them on it at Easter time. Mom was all dolled up and dad accidentally took her through a mudpuddle on the way to or from church. She's got a smile, even though she is covered with mud. They looked like pretty hot stuff on that thing. He wouldn't even let anny of us kids ride any motorcycles without wearing a full set of clothes and helmet. After enough times of seeing what was left of skin that met asphalt at 50mph, I fully understood his strictures!

KC: there's a fmaily here in town, mom, pop, and adult kids (now) who all have Harleys. The mom is one hot momma and not all that big if I remember right. Rue went to school with their son who rode one as soon as he was old enough to be legal.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: WyoWoman
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 12:30 AM

Kat -- Well, the "skin on asphalt" image doesn't exactly inspire me. That's pretty much the direction I start thinking when this little voice in my head says, "You want to do WHAT??? Are you outta your freakin' GOURD???" Do leathers actually help that much when the skin meets the asphalt? (Sorry for the thread creep, Sourdough... Hope you're happily singing that lonesome song now. It makes me cry just about every time I sing it. It's been my theme song often in my life.)

KC

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 01:14 AM

KC-----Leathers help as does clothing in general.... in other words, don't ride in shorts and sandals. And regardless of what the image may be ...WEAR A HELMET! I've been riding street bikes, except for an eight year layoff when I was trying to look "responsible," for 35 years and I leave the cool looks to others and have always elected to shred cloth before skin.

catspaw

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 02:23 AM

Catspaw, what do you ride? My guess would be a cruiser of some kind. I ride a 1992 Yamaha Virago 750, and what a fine piece of equipment it is. I usually ride helmet-less unless my daughter rides with me. She's got a hell of a lot more sense than I do.

LEJ======= O-O

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: WyoWoman
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 10:27 AM

Well, I'm a sometime cyclist, and when I first started riding, a friend of mine decided to forego the helmet because she had a date and didn't want to end up with helmet hair. She hit a rim, went down, hit her head and had double vision for about six weeks. Big fat hairy bummer! So I'm completely religious about helmets -- and seat belts. I like my big, beautiful brain.

KC

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Allan C.
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 11:56 AM

The first car I ever bought was from the estate of a young biker whose head had met with a roadside rock. It impressed me enough to always use a helmet. (Although it didn't keep me from breaking my collarbone some years ago, it probably kept my brain intact.)

Allan C. -- trying to picture KC in leathers...

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Fadac
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 12:02 PM

KC, My wife is 5'4" and she has a Honda Shadow. Sort of a small Harly looking bike. She has it rigged up like a little cruiser. Windsheld, leather bags, etc.

She wears leathers, chaps, pants, jacket, vest (with "Lady Rider" and rose on the back) and a helmet.

Suggestion, take riding lessons! Most places have schools, they are not all that expensive, and you will learn a lot. I've been riding sence 1962, and I have taken the course a couple of times, (mostly to bolster up a friend) but you know what? I learn something EVERY new time. The only time I have ever had a problem on a bike is when I was showing off.

Things to look for: Make sure that you can sit comfortably and have both feet on ground. Feet flat is best. One toe dosn't do it, suppose you have to stop on the side of a hill? Then what? (thud)

Consider crash bars on the front. If you do fall over, they will protect your legs. They also make it eiser to pick the bike back up.

Oh, you might lookd for a motorcyle club in your area. Check out the AMA, American Motorcycle Assoicion. They have 'road' clubs, where they all get together and go on camp outs and go to rallys, lots of fun.

There are three main clubs baised on the brand of motorcycle. BMW Owners of America, Goldwingers (something like that, for Goldwings, the big Honday road bike.) and HOGs for Harley.

If you can handle it, you can find a very nice used Goldwing for under $4000, sometimes under $2500. These are very comfortable mounts.

Oh yes, classes of bikes. roughly this is Fadacs classes.

Cruisers, sort of an "outlaw" look, some chopper styling.

Road Bikes, The big ones, Harly, Goldwing, etc. My K75 sort of fits here. I have a faring, saddle bags, and top box.

Dirt bikes; I'm lumping all the high fender knobby tire bikes here. (Not fair, but this is MY list. )

Crotch Rockets: Race looking, you lay forward, short handlebars, lots of fiberglass, look very fast. This is also a big group. I don't care for them, because I find the position very uncomfortable for long periods of time.

Street bikds: Basicly just a stock motorcycle, the old Honda 750 fits here. I would have a windshield as a min. I also like a luggage rack, to put stuff on.

The one trick that I can think of for safty while riding. Watch car drivers heads. The car will go where the nose is pointing. This has saved me many times from the "illeagle left turn" (about #1 motorcycle killer). You can do this while driving your car. As you drive along, expesily when near a shopping center, watch the head of the drivers around you. If they are looking at the shopping center, WATCH OUT! they are going to do something real dumb. Like turn. Women are good at this for shopping centers, Men at gas stations. They are so intenet on what they are doing, they don't see you. (I used to think it was the motorcyle, but I drove a truck that was 13'6" tall and 8' wide and painted bright yellow...they didn't see that either. )

Last bit of advice. GO RIDE. DO It NOW. When your 95 years old, sitting in the wheel chair, drooling like a happy banjo player, it's too late for adventures. I don't care how long you live, life is just too damn short. So live life. Fly, ride, drive, write a book, sing a song, but do something.

Perhaps we should start a motorcycle thread?

-Fadac

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 02:11 PM

I had a Honda CB 500 4 as my first motorized vehicle. I was fortunate enough to have my dad teach me to ride, he grew up in Ireland where motorcycles were a much more common mode of transportation and he rode for years. I love the feeling of being on a bike, a real sense of freedom. But I will say here and now that living where I do I would never ride again. There are far too many bad drivers on the road, and even though it's usually the other guys fault, it doesn't matter when a Honda meets a Buick. I think that the deciding factor was when I drove a truck for a while. I had difficulty seeing small cars, let alone motorcycles with mirrors.

If you do ride, make sure that you wear leather and a Full Face Helmet. Take a course. If you are not very big, a 500 or 650 c.c. bike is plenty. Yes, life is short and should be lived to the fullest, but there are risks worth taking and then there is plain stupidity, this comes from a guy who came off the back of friend's bike at a very slow speed. Landed on my head, thank God I had a helmet. I was wearing a tank top and shorts though. I had the same five minute ride, but instead of going to McDonald's as planned, we ended up in ER. I can't imagine what would have happened had we been doing any sort of speed at all.

Personally I hope you choose not to ride unless you are in a very remote area, but if you do, be careful and always ride defensively.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 02:32 PM

Sourdough-- I used always to pull the red-shift driving our tour bus, and on one occasion, out in western Kansas, I had a similar experience, except that the song was the old mournful gospel song "Suppertime." In that dark night, out in the middle of all that flatland (which scares us mountain folks anyway), it was an experience I'll remember for all my life.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Fadac
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 03:03 PM

I used to drive an 18 wheeler too. What I hated more than motorcycles was people that would do real dumb things. Like cut right in front of you, for an exit. While you look at three or four kids heads looking out the back window. Big trucks can't stop on a dime, or even a silver dollar. So these people were using their kids as wepons on the street. Then there are the drunks. I think 12 lashes with a Cat-O-Nine tails for first offence, might work.

BTW both of my bikes are 750cc. Pleanty big enough to pull leagal speeds (and above) around any hill here in Ca.

Funny thought about helmets. I did see a young lady riding on back. Flip flops, short shorts, tiny tank top, no gloves, but a full face helmet. I guess she figgured that when she fell off, she would just slide down the road on her head.

I have a "bomber" jacket, and I alwise wear long pants, shoes, and gloves when riding. I do use an open face helmet rather than the closed face. Mostly because I ride a lot, and I haven't been able to get a closed face helmet that has a "beak" like a cap. I like that to keep the sun out of my eyes for part of my commute.

-Fadac

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 03:17 PM

Fadac,

I know what you mean about drivers of cars. I live in the Toronto area and there are numerous jack-knifings, roll overs etc. that tie up our main Highways. People are always complaining that the truckers are driving too fast or dangerously. I will admit that there are some cowboys behind the wheels of these rigs, but most are very good and respect the road. The biggest problem is that leaving enough space between you and the car in front invites all of these drivers to cut in front of you, leaving little or no time to react.

I think that everyone should spend a week behind the wheel of a big truck so that they would have a slight idea what is involved in driving one. Having said that I only drove for a couple of years while I was trying to decide what to do when I grew up, (twenty years later I still don't know), but I must admit, I enjoyed a lot of things about it.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Penny S
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 04:26 PM

So whose fault is it when I'm driving along at the speed limit (70mph), in the centre lane as I'm passing something, in the middle of the night, and the front end of a huge artic appears in my rear mirror, so close I can't see his bumper (fender?), and when he has forced me over, I find that this large and intrinsically heavy vehicle is stuffed to the gunwales with Aga cookers. And has no number.

Penny

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 04:49 PM

As I said, there are some cowboys who give the majority a bad name. But most drivers don't realize that there is a reason there is so much room between a truck and the vehicle ahead of it and just nip in there, often have to hit the brakes immediately and cause the truck driver great difficulty.

By the way, I just love the term cookers. Just another example of how the same language is spoken on two sides of the ocean. Perhaps I should have said Lorry Driver(?)

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Fadac
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 05:34 PM

Yup, truck drivers make mistakes too. Classic. Come down an on ramp to the freeway too fast. Truck rolles to one side, compresses springs. Truck gets on freeway, springs uncompress, trailer pops back up, load shifts, plop trailer goes on side, (or all over the place.). Classic screwup by truck driver.

I took a driving school for trucks. My rule (from school) if the ramp is posted at 40 I do 20, 30 I do 15, or 1/2 of what is posted for cars. Never dumped a load, or even knocked a stack over in the trailer. Had lots of cars beeping their horns at me for being too slow. But I alwise figgred they would rather be a little late, instead of being the 2nd one there at a truck wreck.

Usualy didn't worry too much about motorcycles. They were fast enough that they didn't get in my way at all.

-Fadac

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Penny S.
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 07:21 PM

Fadac, we do have drivers with your sense here, but it sometimes seems that they're outnumbered by cowboys. Even so, it is usually the car drivers who are the real menaces. (Leaving aside the "Duel" re-enactor I had to deal with in South London.) And I agree with you about cars with children being bad offenders - another of my nasty experiences was driving down a 3-lane motorway, overtaking, in the outer lane, a bunch of large outside broadcast or film location trucks driving as if they were a train. I didn't know they were doing this when I started the manouevre, but I was committed. They weren't moving in, going past something slower. Up comes a large car, not flashy, but class, lights on full, sits on my tail. Hoots. Gesticulates. I deliberately stick to the limit. He tries to push me. (I get very obstinate in situations like this.) Unfortunately I hadn't bought the model with the vertical take-off option. Eventually I reach the front of the trucks, and move in, along a gradual line so as not to cause the trucks to brake, he storms up beside me and past. And there, in the back, is one of those signs, "Child on Board". He disappeared into the distance, and I drove very cautiously, expecting to find his accident around every curve. But, fortunately for his offspring, I didn't.

Penny

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 08:49 PM

Sorry Leej, I've always ridden big bore street bikes starting with Beezers and Trumpets in the '60's. You didn't have much option then if you recall. Harleys were ridden then by only cops and outlaws and the Japanese bikes were buzzbomb little jobs or totally ludicrous (Dream 305). Brit bikes looked great, handled well, were quick and fast, and vibrated like a full sheet orbital sander! Not to mention those fantastic electrical systems! (Remember: Joe Lucas says, "Don't go out after dark.") Anyway, I never got into low rider street cruisers or hiway tourers either. So I went to the Honda 750, Kawa 750, then bought the first 903 in Columbus, then another, then a Suzi GS11, followed by an '85 Honda Sabre 1100. THEN I tried to go "straight." I sold the Sabre in '89 and missed it a lot. It's kind of the desendant and best example of the rest. I just loved the big wench!

Along comes '97 and Karen says I can get another bike. I really don't care for anything much that's new and the prices are ridiculous. What I really want is another Sabre, so I spend some time looking. Find a couple, but finally find one at a lesser price, so I go have a look. It's seen some rough times, but the problems are only cosmetic. The guy tells me how he got it from a repo deal. I start noticing a few things...like 2 scrape marks on the bars where a fairing may have mounted. Mine had a small smoked plexiglass handlebar fairing. Finally after I notice a few more things I reach under the swing arm on the right side, and sure enough, the "marks" which I file in all my bikes are there! It's her...a little worse for wear, but it's definitely my Sabre! She and I went back home that very afternoon and she reclaimed her old spot in the garage where she happily sits right now. I guess she missed me too!

catspaw

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Jun 99 - 12:23 AM

PennyS: I just love the parents who have bumper stickers declaring their views which would ban a woman's right to choose and there they are with a car full of kids and not a one has on a seatbelt. Usually they are climbing all over the place. That is against the law here, but I've never ehard of anyone being pulled over specifically for not wearing a seatbelt.

It really burns me up to see any kid with one on. I always want to either report them and make sure they get a ticket, or take them to the ER sometime to see what a kid looks like after they've gone through a windshield like a human torpedo!

Then there are the ones who hold the child on their laps. My daughter calls them "human air bags".

KC: I think you must have gotten the message by now....cover up your epidermis and GO for it, woman!!!

Katlaughing

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: WyoWoman
Date: 30 Jun 99 - 01:04 AM

Catspaw -- That's a GREAT story about finding your Sabre. What are the odds? I had this wonderful '64 Thunderbird that I sold in '90 or so because it had electrical problems I couldn't seem to get fixed. It had a 397 and would pass anything on the road but a gas station. White over red, black leather interior. Lord, I loved that car. I've been looking at new cars, thinking about getting rid of my little Chevy truck and there's just nothing I can get emotionally involved with. I want my T-bird back. But, alas, I don't think I'm going to have a Catspaw ending on this story. It's in New Mexico and I'm up north in Wyoming.

Yes, I promise, if I do get a motorcycle, I'll always wear a helmet and always wear clothes and wear leathers as often as they won't completely smother me and send Allan C a picture of me revvin' up that ol' motor. ;-}

Where's Sourdough? I"m afraid I stole his thread, and it was a lovely thread...

KC

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 30 Jun 99 - 07:43 AM

Har-umph. Thread's supposed to be 'bout "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", not "Lonesome Road". Durn bikers, anyway. They're everywhere! :-)

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 30 Jun 99 - 10:08 AM

Catspaw, Those old British bikes were something. I remember my dad going to look at a 1962 Norton Atlas 500. This bike had been meticulously maintained, classic Norton Black with gold lettering. We looked the bike over for a few minutes and then asked the owner to start it up. I will never the forget the sound. I have never heard a machine of any kind sound like this bike did. I had a such deep rumbling balanced tone and the timing was perfect. It was truly musical. My dad decided against this bike and bought a much newer Honda (probably because he'd had Norton's in Ireland and was very familiar with Lucas electrics and leaking oil) but I sure wish I could have recorded that sound.

A buddy of mine used to build race cars. In his shop was a regular light switch on the wall. He had written on it Lucas and had off written in both the up and down position.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Fadac
Date: 30 Jun 99 - 11:21 AM

Ah, Lucas, prince of darkness. I never owned a British motorcycle, but I did have a MG B. Let's see, I had the back seat catch on fire. (from battery wire rubbing through, car had 2 six volt battries in series). Oh, yea, the steering wheel smoked one day. They had about eight switches in there. Someting smoked, but I never figgured out what. Everything still worked. Well as good as it worked before the smoke.

Never again.

-Fadac

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: SOurdough
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 02:50 AM

I was surprised and delighted that I got an answer to my question about the lyrics for "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry" in just a few minutes! The Cowpie site is terrific. Thank you all for the pointer.

katlaughing: I never did live in Colorado. At the time Iof the moment I wrote about, I was living in Boston. I used to ride out to California by one route or another every summer. It wasn't so much California as it was the trip back and forth that made me want to make these two-wheeled voyages. I did this for years until I stopped having the kind of flexibility in my job that gave me four to eight weeks off when I wanted it.

I used to combine my love of music with The Ride. I guess I still do. If when I am traveling I see a place on a map that reminds me of a song, I head there. Some places that come to mind where this conceit has taken me include Big Rock Candy Mountain in Utah, Dumas, Texas (Ding Dong Daddy), Okema OK (Woody Guthrie's hometown), Shawnee OK (where the log chain and the deputy had their run-in), the Banks of the Ohio, Sugarland ("You'll be Sugarland bound"), Cripple Creek, Grand Coulee Dam, The Mohawk Vale, and a lot of Red Rivers Valley. When I get to one of these places, I like to find a quiet place by myself and play for a while, including, of course, the song that motivated me to come to that particular place. From then on, it seems as though the song and I are more a part of each other. The really nic thing is that the sense of place comes back whenever I play the song.

I usually carry a mountain dulcimer a couple of harmonicas and a limberjack on the bike. (The limberjack is greatr if you run into some kids.)

Fadac: I have a 1983 BMW R-80 RT. I no longer carry a CB. I actually prefer the aloneness on the bike even though when I get into a car the first thing I do is turn the radio on. I only had one other good ecperience with a CB and that had nothing to do with music. My closest and longest time friend was working for a man who was quite well known. I heard on the news that the guy had died and I knew Joe would be very upset. He lives on the other side of the country but I called him immediately and we talked. He was very depressed. I made him an offer. I told him that I would meet him at the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, KS in exactly 2 weeks at noon ("Do not forsake me, oh, my darling"). He had always said he wanted to take his bike across country and now he had the time. I'd meet him halfway.

He agreed and after each of us had driven 15-16 hundred miles, we actually were able to call out on our CBs and first "met" that way.

The way it happened though was that I walked into the Long Branch Saloon (which is a tourist attraction) on the appointed day. My bootheels made a satisfying "Crump", "crump" sound as I crossed the board sidewalk, leaving the bright sunlight as I pushed through the swinging doors into an empty barroom. The two arrow hands of the Regulator clock above the bar were pointing directly at the XII at the top of the clock. Underneath the timepiece, the bartender, wearing a white shirt and an apron with his shirtsleeves held up by broad black elastic garters, looked up at me and asked if he could help me. I was hot and as dusty as any of the thousands of cattle drovers that had come through Dodge City in the years long past and I asked for the same refreshment they would have. "I'd like a beer."

"Sorry, we don't have a liquor license here. WOuld you like a sasparilla?"

I had to face it, Joe was late but I didn't feel like waiting for him in a beerless barroom so I went back outside and sat on my bike with hte CB on. Every so often, I would call out on it, "Rainmaker, this is Sourdough. How about it?"

THe third or fourth time I did this, I got an answer.

"Sourdough, you got the Boise Boxcar here. You waitin on a friend on a two wheeler?"

"I sure am Boxcar. You know something abut him? His handle's Rainmaker? Come back."

"I passed him about fifteen minutes ago. He was getting some fuel. He was on the radio asking some drivers to carry a message to you saying he'd be right on behind."

Sure enough, a couple minutes later, I raised Joe on the radio and we took a commemorative photo in front of a big longhorn steer statue in the center of downtown Dodge.

That was the only other trip I really enjoyed my CB on the bike. Joe and I completed his trip together and we chatted a lot on the way.

My most recent trip started in Petaluma CA. It was in late September and I was planning on going to Banff and Lake Louise but I was warned by a Canadian mc friend that it was too late in the season for that unless I wanted to test my endurance. By that time, though, I was committed to going to Oregon on business. Plan B was to cross the Siskyious (Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail) and head for Wyoming. There is a Whitney Museum of Western Art there I wanted to revisit. When I finished up my work on the Oregon Coast and headed east, the weather in the mountains was awful so I headed southeast along the weather front figuring I'd go due east or northeast when the front had moved on. It turned out to be a stationary front, at least for a few days and I ended up in Big Bend, Texas. Of course, I stayed out of the rain though.

I camped that night near the Rio Grande. That afternoon, I went down to the river and waded across to Mexico just for the hell of it. Then I found myself a patch of tree shade and played Rivers of Texas for a while. I may have confused the Mexicans who were passing away the same afternoon on the other side of the river. I mean, I played Rivers of Texas a lot!

I sure can let my fingers run on at some length once I get started. I think it's time to stop.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: WyoWoman
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 12:49 PM

Now I REALLY want to get a bike.

KC

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: annamill
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 01:22 PM

This is my first time in this thread and I'm so sorry I didn't read it earlier. Sourdough, that is one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. Like someone here said, it's what life's all about.

I haven't mentioned this, though I think in one thread I did mention that I was looking at a Harley. Well KC, I bought it. A 1974 1000cc Harley Sportster. It's a mess though, and I am going to totally restore it. It's going to be a real learning experience as I don't know a whole lot about auto mechanics, but I've ordered a lot of manuals and a few friends have offered to give me advice. I'm very excited about this project and hope to be up and out riding by next spring. It's going to need new everything, but I'm hopeful. I want to get black leather studded saddlebags and I'm going to have it painted professionally in black and yellow.

I didn't mention it, because it isn't related to music and it's personal and I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested. Now I see I was wrong.

Go for it KC. Just get good instruction. We're lucky here in Jersey because the state offers a defensive motorcycle riding course for about $200. I'm definitely going. Maybe your state has something like that. Always follow the road rules and stay sober. I think that is where so many cyclists go wrong. It's so easy to circumvent the traffic on a bike, but auto drivers don't expect bikes coming up on their sides when they're driving.

I can't wait to get out on mine. ;-)

Love, annap

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: I'm proud to be a truckdriver's daughter
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 02:05 AM

Sourdough- My dad passed away on Jun 5, 1999. He got off the road in 1990, after driving an old truck (a big rig) for years. Your story sounds like something "Lil' Rascal" (my Dad's CB handle) would have done. My dad used to sing and play his harmonica to keep himself awake and keep the other truckers company. His favorate tune to play on harmonica was "Wildwood Flower". "Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don't let'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks..." Beautiful story.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Sourdough
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 03:36 AM

I don't recall running into your Dad on the road but I sure have spent a lot of time in the company of truckers. Before I took the CB off my bike, the people I would talk to most were the truckers. After all, they were the ones who would be on the road for the long haul. Most everyone else on the highways is heading twenty or thirty miles. I always felt that the truckers and the long distance riding motorcyclists, (in CB, the Evel Knievels) shared something that the four-wheelers didn't. What was it? I'm not sure but it had something to do with a realistic evaluation of The Road, its pleasures and its dangers. Both types of vehicles are demanding and unforgiving. Both are subject to the weather more than a car. Fear of high cross winds, slippery pavement, thoughtless four-wheelers, police antipathy are all things we share. And then there is the cowboy thing. Truckers have been called "the last cowboys" and if you look at bikers, they wear the boots, leather tassels, western shirts and other affectations of the cowboy. I always wear a red bandana in my belt when I am riding for much the same reasons that a rider on the Great Plains would have carried one a hundred years ago. And I put it to the same uses.

I have spent many miles in convoys with some great story tellers. My favorite storytellers by profession are newsmen, policemen, truckers, and show business people. An awful lot of truckers are gifted story tellers. I don't know whether or not this is the place to tell my own favorite trucker story. Maybe we ought to move this to a "Big Rig" thread. :-)>

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: WyoWoman
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 10:45 AM

Hey, you started the thread. You oughta be able to talk about whatever you want.

I'm a "newswoman," does that count?

I love to stop in truck stops when I'm traveling and just listen to the stories. I've heard some peaches!

KC

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: LEJ
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 01:51 PM

Hey, Sourdough, you sure know how to tell a story.So give us the favorite trucker story!

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: SOurdough
Date: 06 Jul 99 - 03:32 AM

I have a little hand held Psion computer. Today, I went to my local caffeine corner and spent about a half hour there starting to write down the trucker story. I am a slow writer so it will take a while to get it down but I am glad to be doing it. I like having these stories in one place and all I need is a little encouragement and I'll get it done. Now I've been encouraged.

I mentioned earler that I like to go to places where the name of the town rings some sort of musical bell. A batch of years ago, I was wandering around the Texas panhandle on my motorcycle when I saw that I was only about sixty miles or so from Dumas. For those of you who don't know anything about Dumas, TX, it achieved a level of fame due to a song called "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas". I think the song was from before my time because I don't remember anything about it but the title. That was all I needed though to head for this musical destination.

It was a raw evening and by the time I found a likely looking motel I was pretty much chilled to the bone. I made my way into the office of The Green Lantern Motel and got myself a room. The owner, Luther Jeter, was standing nearby and asked me if I'd had dinner yet. He said he also owned the supper club next door but I should hurry because the kitchen would be closing in about ten minutes.

I explained that I needed to unpack the bike and wash up. I couldn't make it in ten minutes. Luther was understanding if I promised to show up, he'd keep the kitchen open an extra ten or fifteen minutes. I figured that would be enough.

When I walked in to the supper club, the bartender asked if I was the guy from Massachusetts. I allowed that I was. "Luther told me to expect you", he said as he passed me a menu.

I am what a lot of people would call an Adventurous Eater. If I have the chance to try something different, I will. If there's something on a menu that I have never had before, it is almost reflexive for me to order it. Calf Fries was one of those things. I didn't know what it was so I orderd it... and a Pearl beer.

Luther sat down on the stool beside me a few moments later. "How're they treatin ya?" I certainly had no complaints. "What d'ya order?" He knitted his eyebrows together a little when I mentioned the calf fries.

"Do you know what they are?" I explained that I didn't and that was why I'd ordered them. He drawled thoughtfully, "Well, I better not tell you what they are or you just might not eat 'em". It was right about then that I figured out that we weren't talking about just any calves, we were talking bull calves here.

Calf fries turned out to be quite a treat. They tasted a lot like brains, which I think tells you a lot about bull calves.

Luther gave me a chance to eat undisturbed but as I reached that point in the meal where you rest on your elbows and enjoy the beer at the bottom of the can (OK, this was not a fancy place), he came over to chat. I had noticed that there was a stage at one end of this room which was retty much filled with local people finishing their dinners and drinking a lot of Pearl beer. On the stage there was a string bass, a couple of acoustical guitars and a piano. I asked if there was going to be music tonight. "Naw, only on weekends. I have a Western band on weekends." It was Tuesday.

"That's too bad", I said. Luther was surprised. He found it very had to believe that someone from Massachusetts would like any of the music here. My feelings were hurt, or maybe it was my pride. I made a point of telling him that I sure did like Old Time Western music. To make my point, I even told him that I played some of it. He was incredulous. Of course, he wouldn't have used that particular word but he sure as hell didn't believe me. I had to insist.

That did it. He got up from the stool, went to the stage and announced that "We got this boy from Massachusetts here who plays guitar and he's gonna play a few songs for us." I was so stunned that I didn't even hear the clapping stomping and rebel yells for the first minute or so. Then I realized that I was going to have to do somehting here. Of course, my fingers were still stiff from having been wrapped around the motorcycle handgrips for several cold hours and this crowd of inebriated Texans, most of whom it turned out worked for Shamrock Oil in town, might be a tough audience.

I may not be a good musician but I am a canny performer. I figured these guys would recognize my guitar playing for what it is, something less than what they would expect to be hearing at a Dumas bar but I had an idea. I excused myself, promising that I would be right back.

I was only gone for a few minutres but when I came back I was carrying a cloth-wrapped package about two feet long. I could feel the room tense as I walked in. A stranger carrying a package that could turn into something like a sawed off shotgun always gets attention in a Texas bar. They watched me guardedly as I unwrapped it. Just as I suspected, even when they saw it, they didn't know what it was but they were intrigued. It certainly didn't look dangerous. It was a mountain duclimer. Hey, they could never compare me to local dulcimer players, I might get out of this all right after all. I tuned all four strings and got up on stage.

I probably know a couple of hundred songs well enough to perform but at that moment, on the stage of the Green Lantern Supper Club in Dumas Texas, I couldn't think of one of them, no melodies, no lyrics, nothing. I considered praying but before I could mouth a prayer, I had a solution, I'd sing a rousing gospel number. Maybe they'd join in. It turned out to be exactly the right choice. I don't remember what it was, "I'll Fly Away" perhaps, but it was clear that everyone in the room knew it and there was no trouble getting people to join in. Luther's wife climbed up on the stage with me and picked up the double bass. We went on to another gospel song. Two people from the audience grabbed the guitars and so began an evening of gospel and sacred songs at the unlikely venue of the Green Lantern. There is nothing like a llittle whisky or a few beers to loosen people up for gospel singing and Luther's wife had a voice that shone. It lit up the room with it's clear joyous tones. We plyed for two hours. We were even getting requests to repeat songs we had sung a half hour before.

REvcently, I was going through a box of papers and I fond a photograph I had taken the next morning of the Green Lantern Supper Club as I drove away. It all came back, Luther, calf fries, gospel music, Pearl beer.

Do you think any of this qualifies me as a Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas?

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Jul 99 - 10:42 AM

SD: I think it qualifies you as THE Ding Dong Daddy of the whole wide world! Tell me you haven't been a professional writer for many years! Hah! If you haven't been, you should be!

More, More!!!

katlaughing, who also lived in Massachusetts for a time.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Fadac
Date: 06 Jul 99 - 11:15 AM

Great story.

Times like that are what make life worth living.

Makes me want to jump on the old BMW amd shove off. Well, I'm planing a trip in Sept. We are going to take Hiway 1 up the coast. From San Francisco to Canada. Stopping in the little towns along the way. I'll be happy if we do 300 miles a day. The idea is to have fun.

BTW, do you ever make it to the Aspencade run in upstate NY? I road to that one from Joliet Ill. one year. On my R75/6. (Still have it, but now ride a K75)

Perhaps next year, Sturgess. Ok, I don't ride a Harley, any more. But I think it would be a real great ride.

-Fadac

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Sourdough
Date: 07 Jul 99 - 12:54 AM

TO: La Chat Qui Rit

Did you say your Significant Other worked for Wayne Green. I think you did so that would put you/him/both of you in Peterborough aka Our Town, NH. Is that right? I can't remember his name but there was a novelist friend of Wayne Green's (I never met Wayne G. but I knew the friend) who had written a semi-successful book called "The Interns". It was transformed into a movie of the same name and he made more money than he had even had before. THen he got a call frm Hollywood. They wanted to make a sequel with the imaginative name, "The New Interns". They did not want him to do anything except to sign over the rights to the characters. In return for this, they would send a couple of trucks up to New Hampshire filled with money for him.

Richard (I can't remember his last name) now was able to buy everything he ever wanted. One of the presents he got himself was a plane. I don't know if he ever published it but his journal about learning to fly, "Notes of a Fearful Flyer" was a wonderful piece of self-revelatory writing.

Fritz Wetherbee, one of New Hampshire's best eccentrics and a good friend, said that he had been at a party where Richard and Wayne were comparing their toys. In a moment of transcendent understanding, Richard suddenly realized something and blurted out, "I now have everything I ever wanted.... When I was twelve."

Sourdough

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Sourdough
Date: 07 Jul 99 - 01:29 AM

TO: La Chat Qui Rit

Did you say your Significant Other worked for Wayne Green. I think you did so that would put you/him/both of you in Peterborough aka Our Town, NH. Is that right? I can't remember his name but there was a novelist friend of Wayne Green's (I never met Wayne G. but I knew the friend) who had written a semi-successful book called "The Interns". It was transformed into a movie of the same name and he made more money than he had even had before. THen he got a call frm Hollywood. They wanted to make a sequel with the imaginative name, "The New Interns". They did not want him to do anything except to sign over the rights to the characters. In return for this, they would send a couple of trucks up to New Hampshire filled with money for him.

Richard (I can't remember his last name) now was able to buy everything he ever wanted. One of the presents he got himself was a plane. I don't know if he ever published it but his journal about learning to fly, "Notes of a Fearful Flyer" was a wonderful piece of self-revelatory writing.

Fritz Wetherbee, one of New Hampshire's best eccentrics and a good friend, said that he had been at a party where Richard and Wayne were comparing their toys. In a moment of transcendent understanding, Richard suddenly realized something and blurted out, "I now have everything I ever wanted.... When I was twelve."

Sourdough

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From:
Date: 07 Jul 99 - 08:09 AM

Well, just not to stray too far off the thread I'll mention that the moon was certainly hiding behind a cloud;

Favorite Lucas story:

It's midnight or so and I'm tooling along at about 45 mph on my classic 1971 650cc Triumph, complete with aforementioned Perfect British Exhaust Tone (B-Flat).

It's a 2-lane (barely) country blacktop road with regulation ditch, standard stone walls, and generic trees on both sides. No houses, no streetlights, no road shoulder, no traffic, just me and this museum peice painted gloss Rustoleum Black, no speedo, no instrument lights, if you couldn't tell by the sound of the engine how fast you were going and your approximate RPM you didn't belong on the thing anyway. I was in Heaven. Almost literally, because Lucas, P.O.D. came to visit. The headlight went out and I was suddenly riding in comeplete and utter darkness. WHEEEE! The distance it took me to gingerly stop felt like the longest journey I ever took on that bike.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Fadac
Date: 07 Jul 99 - 10:52 AM

Rick, Yup, darker than the inside of a cow.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Jon W.
Date: 07 Jul 99 - 12:29 PM

I had a couple of Triumphs but the 4-wheeled kind. Does that count? My first car ever was a '69 Spitfire (some people spell it with an 'h' instead of a 'p' but I would never do that). It had a choke cable that came through the firewall about 1/2 inch above the battery positive terminal. This was late enough that they had negative grounds. My friend and I were house sitting for a couple of weeks and I was working graveyard. He borrowed my car to go somewhere just as I was getting to bed, about 5:00PM. 5:15, he comes back: "Jon, I burned up your car." We walked down the street a block to where the car was sitting. I opened up the clamshell hood, and there was the choke cable, bare metal outer cable welded to the battery terminal. I guess he'd gone over a bump and it had shorted and stuck. We were able to push start the car, it ran fine, and we got one of his mom's square Tupperware containers, cut a corner out of it, and glued it over the corner of the battery which had melted off. I replaced the choke cable with a bicycle brake cable which had a plastic covering. The choke worked a whole lot better after that than it ever had, anyway. Two weeks later I sold the Spit. Those British engineers sure have good brains - in fact they're just like new, never been used.

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: Sourdough
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 09:18 PM

Fadac:

I used to ride a lot in the East. I rode up to the Gaspe and down to Florida with trips through the Smokies, Alleghenies, Whites, and the Blue Ridge. For the most part, I've generally ridden alone, staying away from large concentrations of bikes although recently I have been reconsidering that. I joined a club. Of course their motto is "Ride to Eat - Eat to Ride" and their biggest club activity is a day ride culminating in a good meal somewhere. They are a very interesting group of people and I enjoy them for their off-bike company at least as much for their riding companionship. Their backgrounds vary from winemakers to retired commercial pilots to painters and chefs. These guys really ride. Most have been riding for at least twenty-five years. One guy has logged more than fifty years as an adult rider! - and he is still riding!!

I did attend the now legendary (among those who have heard of it anyway) Gypsy Tour in Gilford, New Hampshire in the 1960's where ten thousand motorcyclists gathered and some of them burned down a good portion of the town of Weirs Beach. Maybe that's why large groups make me nervous.

I think your planned trip up the coast sounds great. DOn't wait too long or you may run into some uncomfortable weather on the northern end - at least that's what happened to me and a trip to Banff had to be changed to Big Bend, Texas.

Happy trails -

SD

Subject: RE: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 11:53 PM

Yep, my many relatives in the medical profession tell me that ER personnel refer to them things as "donorcycles."

My handsome young ex (see bawdy thread) rode one, including a stint as a street messenger. He made me get a helmet to ride with him, then lost it.

A VERY long time ago when I was hitching around the British Isles, a nice student of parapsychology gave me a lift on his scooter. My backpack fit very nicely on the footboard.

Truckers. Met some good and some bad.

Not long ago, as I was starting up what we call nine-mile hill, on my way home from Portland, I discovered traffic was stopped, both ways, by a semi which had managed to get jammed at right angles to the road: he must have tried to turn around or something: the front wheels were hung up in the left hand ditch, and the back wheels inthe right hand ditch. It was hours before a special tow got there to jack him out. Now HOW???