Day 11 and Final Tally

We were close to Georgia this morning, so we had just one stop, and that one was simply to have some fun. When Taylor and Trevor were younger I used to take them to Sliding Rock near Brevard, NC. I did the same with some of my Collins Hill teams. If you haven't been there, it's a natural rock slide of about 30 yards that plunges into some of the coldest water in the south. We took two turns a piece and headed for home. I think the cold water washed some of the stink off of us that had been building up from 11 days of car riding.

We did three small deeds while at the rock slide and I think we'll count that as one full good deed. While going up the rocks and waiting my turn, there was a boy of 5 or 6 who was scared to death of the water slide. The kids he was with were trying to calm him down but they didn't care that much because they were going to make him go anyway. I did my best to make him laugh - I didn't succeed in that but by the time he got to the top at least he was settled enough to join the others with only a few tears. And of course he loved the ride. Then Pee Wee actually picked up two different boys and carried them across a very slippery area where they could get in line. I don't know where the parents were, but Pee Wee did quite well in their place.

We had a great time on our journey, learned a lot, and had a lot of fun with the good deeds. It should also be noted that 5 of my friends did their own acts of kindness back home while we were travelling around. Good job Jeff, Kirk, Jim, Philip, and now today my good friend Knox Porter organized donations for gift cards for one of his ESL students who was recently divorced and also just had a baby.
If you were planning on donating a dollar amount per good deed, our total was 17, and they are listed below. Thanks for following us, supporting the Co-Op, and please spread the word to others who might want to donate.
1. Window cleaning at Andy Griffith Museum in Mt. Airy, NC.
2. Cleaning the outside area of a restaurant without the busy servers knowing near Roanoke.
3. Pee Wee cleans up mess on ground at entrance to hotel.
4. Giving a drink to road worker on VA Skyline Drive.
5. Feeding and thanking Lt. Colonel Mark Laney for his service.
6. Emptying all of the trash cans at the Mennonite Information Center in Lancaster, PA.
7. Peach Pie for bored hotel manager in Lancaster.
8. Landscape and weed maintenance at the Vermont Welcome Center.
9. Keeping area safe on highway shoulder for flat tire changing in Vermont.
10. Carrying ice bags to a car for a woman at Dunkin Donuts in Maine.
11. Helping a woman at a laundromat by carrying some of her clothes to her minivan in Maine.
12. Paying the toll for the car behind us at a toll booth in New Hampshire.
13. Preventing a student from losing all of his or her papers outside a cafe in Salem, Mass.
14. Keeping a woman calm until police arrived after her car caught on fire in Massachusetts.
15. Giving a care package to two hikers on the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut.
16. Buying a meal at a drive-through for the car in front of us to honor a 911 victim in VA.
17. Three small deeds at Sliding Rock in N.C. equals one good deed.

Day 10

This is our last night of our journey, and as has been our custom for half the nights, we ended up in a motel where we back up to the door and no women have been seen. The place is Bristol, Tennessee and it works for us. Today we toured the Harper's Ferry National Park and it was a great pick. This was the site 152 years ago where John Brown made his raid in an effort to end slavery. He and most of the others were killed in the raid or were executed later, but it wasn't a failure because it had a lot to do with kick starting the Civil War. The artifacts and history of slavery exhibited in the various historic houses and shops in the area are still painful to see and read about.

The Appalachian Trail runs right through the town, so we took a two mile hike on it. We obtained some up close pictures of a deer until it caught Pee Wee's scent and headed for the hills. As we walked we made comments to ourselves and others on the trail that we were heading to Maine. That was until a tour guide going in the opposite direction informed me that we were heading for Georgia.

Then we made our way to Blacksburg, Virginia and VA Tech. I had been there for a wrestling camp with my Collins Hill wrestlers 3 years ago and I wanted Pee Wee to see the huge and beautiful campus. But the main reason for the stop was to pay our respects at the VA Tech Memorial which remembers the 32 students and teachers who were killed in a senseless rampage by a fellow student 4 years ago. Two years ago we visited the Columbine Memorial and like two years ago, our conversations ceased, lumps entered our throats and eyes welled up to the brink of overflowing.

The one good deed today was also a bit of a tear jerker. After leaving Harper's Ferry, Pee Wee pulled up to the drive-through window at an A & W Root Beer place to get a drink. The car in front of us had a memorial license plate - it read 911LAURA. There was also something else posted on the back of the car about the 911 tragedy. When Pee Wee made his order, he told the cashier that we were paying the bill for the car in front of us and for her to tell the lady we were doing it to honor Laura. When the woman received her meal she heard the explanation, put her head out the window and yelled her thanks. The smile on her face went from ear to ear - it was a good moment for us.

We have big regrets about a missed opportunity for another good deed. When we left the VA Tech Memorial, we both remarked how dry the flowers were. Why didn't we think to water them?

We will leave tomorrow morning for probably one more stop and then head home. The trip and deeds have been a lot of fun, but our final stop at our homes without a doubt will be our favorite one. Good night!

Day 9

Not a good day for our good deeds - we were shut out, but I think we are at about 14 all together and have two days left, so our goal of 15 is certainly reachable. We did have a great one done for us though. The first stop today was at George Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary War in Morristown, New Jersey. Sometimes we learn interesting tidbits in unlikely places. For instance in a museum next to the headquarters house we saw a baby bottle used in the mid 1700s as well as a breast pump. I thought those were more twentieth century inventions. Then a few hours later we saw Hitler's Toilet in Florence, NJ. Please Google it if you find it difficult to believe. It's in Greg's Auto Repair Shop and is the only toilet there. When people offer to buy it Greg tells them only if they replace the toilet and all the plumbing used for German fixtures. He would be fine with that as long as he has a toilet. We ate early, drank a lot of water, and saved up for our trip there so we could make a "contribution." Greg also told us a Philadelphia radio station had just called to interview him and he mentioned that he was expecting two guys to visit - we had called earlier. He told us we have the record for the farthest trip to see the toilet - I guess he thought we drove from Atlanta just to see a madman's toilet.
In between those two trips was when the good deed was done for us. We stopped in Point Pleasant, NJ for a little over an hour to visit with Doug Walsh - a wrestler Pee Wee coached 21 years ago. He owns 2 restaurants and demonstrated his cooking skills on us with an awesome and welcome home cooked meal.
We are staying tonight in Frederick, Maryland and plan to make an early tour of the Harper's Ferry, WV area tomorrow. We've heard from two or three people we've talked to on this trip about what a great place it is to visit. I would imagine it will be an improvement on Hitler's Toilet.

Day 8

Today was a good day but a long day. We pulled in real late to our hotel in Poughkeepsie, NY after a 4 good deed day. The last one was why we are so late but it was worth it. The first one was minor and not original, but it was a deed and it was good, and that sounds like a good deed. When we pulled up to a toll booth in New Hampshire we gave the toll booth lady our dollar and gave her another one for the car behind us. When the car and three passengers passed us a few miles later there were waves and smiles all around. Then in Salem, Mass. we were walking to our car after trying to solve some of the witch trials of the 1690s. We saw a table outside a tiny cafe with a stack of papers probably belonging to a college student. There was a drink on the table and it appeared that someone had stepped inside the cafe for a minute. A few small gusts of wind had begun to scatter the papers. Pee Wee gathered and straightened up the papers and weighted them down so any future wind would not affect them. The student will never know that someone helped he or she out, but that's OK. those kind of deeds are almost more fun anyway. Then a few minutes later we were on an interstate for a little while somewhere in Massachusetts and traffic came to a screeching halt because a car was on fire. We arrived right after a good Samaritan had put out the fire with a fire extinguisher. After parking on the shoulder we rushed back to the car. We saw oil coming from underneath the car and determined that it was safe to turn off the ignition. The driver was a twenty something girl and was very upset. We stayed with her until she calmed down and the police had arrived. Then we drove to Salisbury - a tiny town in the northwest corner of Connecticut. Pee Wee's nephew Eric is hiking the Appalachian Trail along with Ruffles who he met earlier on the trail. We met them near Salisbury where the trail crosses a road. We gave them a care package of food, drinks, and a few other items they could use on the trail. They have gone over 1000 miles and look great, and have been added to my prayers.
As far as places we visited today, we stopped in Freeport, Maine to see the Maine Desert. Believe it or not there really is an area of desert in Maine. Then we made the trip to Salem near Boston to see what was up with all of the witches. We attended a cool interactive theater production of a witch trial. All of the 80 spectators were the jury part of the trial and by a close margin we found the lady guilty. When we voted with a show of hands Pee Wee and I were the most adamant about our opinions. When the verdict was read, Pee Wee said some things to the guilty woman who then sent some curses and hexes his way. He mouthed "witch" at her over and over while she was putting curses on him. It was the best part of the play.

Back home in Gwinnett, another good deed has been done by one of my buddies. Philip Milam was at our church camp meeting on Friday night and helped an elderly couple who was having a hard time getting to their car in the dark. He used his cell phone to light their way, then helped the woman in the car, put on her seat belt, etc. Way to go Philip!
Four good deeds today ... now it's time to do a good deed for our bodies and get some rest.

Day 7

Today was a good day. After leaving our motel (pictured - we had one chair less in the morning than when we went to bed) we saw the Paul Bunyan statue in Bangor, Maine. We saw a great museum in the same city that had old forms of transportation - especially sleds (remember this is Maine). While there we met a museum volunteer by the name of Bill Park who is a REAL hero. He fought the Japanese as a Marine on Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu. I asked him if I could interview him on camera which he graciously allowed me to. There are not many of these great men left any more...
Then we went to the Acadia National Park, and WOW! It has over 50 miles of roads along the coast line looking up at the highest peaks and cliffs that there are along the entire Atlantic coast in our country. We went to the top of Cadillac Mountain - a scary drive but very worthwhile once we got to the summit. The three hours we spent there weren't enough - we needed a couple of days which I might just do sometime.
Then we ate some Maine lobster. I have to admit I'm a novice with lobster but I had some help with the mechanics from our waiter.
We shut down our trip a little early today in Waterville, Maine, which gave us time to get to a laundromat. After we finished with our clothes we stumbled on a restaurant for tonight and low and behold they were hosting a classic rock show from a great group called Full House. We enjoyed the music for an hour and came back to our hotel and had time to reminisce about our two good deeds from today. At breakfast this morning Pee Wee saw a lady buy four ice bags from the Dunkin Donut shop. Without really giving her a chance to turn him down he grabbed the bags and took them to her car for her. The smile on her face told quite a story. Then at the laundromat we met a very kind mother of four who was just finishing up folding an amazing amount of clothes, sheets, and blankets. She allowed us to help her to her minivan with some of the load, and then told us that we had "made her day." Which of course, made our day.

We made THE TURN after Acadia. We are now on a course in the direction of HOME. We still have a few more days of wandering, but thinking of home is a good feeling. And speaking of home, another one of my buddies back in Gwinnett struck it rich with a good deed. While on vacation in Florida, Jim Gassman provided a meal for a homeless man who was in need. Good job Jim!

Day 6

We were outdone back home again in the good deed department. We did a pretty good one today, but Kirk K. back in Gwinnett one upped us. He saw a stranded grandmother and daughter on the side of the road, picked them up and took them where they needed to go. He even did another one - he told me that this trip we're on influenced his decision in helping them. That made us feel good, so he doubled his good deed by saying that. Ours was on a highway somewhere in Vermont. We pulled over on a narrow shoulder when we saw a car with a flat tire. There were three women and a man - he was busy changing the tire. He had things well in hand, but we stuck around and waved cars around and tried to keep the area safe for them.

The theme last summer seemed to center around corn. This year it seems to be sugar. Shoe fly pie, then Hershey chocolates, then today's stops. First we went to the New England Maple Syrup Museum. We saw how REAL syrup is made and at the end of the tour we were able to taste the various kinds. We over did it a little. Two hours later we were at Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory for another tour and more free samples. We over did it again and I don't feel so great tonight. Ironbelly Pee Wee is OK though. In between the two tours we stopped at Wilson's Castle in Proctor, Vermont for a no calorie tour. The place is worth $50 million on today's market after being built in the late 1800s. It was lived in up to a few decades ago - 32 rooms, 84 stain glass windows, and 13 fireplaces. You can see a picture of me with a boar's head in one of the rooms.

After saying bye to Ben and Jerry we took off for the east. We went through some of the Green Mountains and then the White Mountains in New Hampshire. We drove next to Mount Washington - the highest peak in the northeast. Then we tore through western Maine and are staying in Newport near Bangor. The past 3 states are new ones for us - neither one of us had ever been to Vermont, New H., or Maine. We had to stay in another roadside motel tonight - Lovely's Inn. It's not as bad on the inside as the Oneonta hotel, but the outside is what worries me. I think this place houses a lot of laborers from out of town and as the night goes on the outside volume is rising as well. It's a one story hotel and is one of those with a couple of lawn chairs outside each door. We're staying inside for now - I'm afraid Pee Wee might break out the pink camera and I don't think that would be a good idea at a place called Lovely's. Speaking of Pee Wee, he keeps losing bets to me. We were driving along a real nice looking river in western Maine and he bet me that he could throw a rock all the way across to the other bank. Brakes were abruptly applied and we jumped out to see what he could do while cars drove by with passengers giving us some crazy looks. Pee Wee's attempt made it about a fifth of the way across. His payment is to sit outside on one of the folding chairs shirtless with black socks on.

That's it for today - we hope to see some great sites in Maine tomorrow and then make the turn for home. We also hope to increase the number of good deeds. I think our count is nine so we are on pace for 15, but we still need to do better. Good night!

Day 5

Oneonta is a college town and I had a difficult time getting to sleep. Not because of anything going on outside the room, but because of the scenes of past experiences running through my mind of what some college kids had done in this room, and more specifically on my bed. But I lived through it and then we had a great experience at the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. We saw the Field of Dreams last summer and now this - a lot of baseball I know but both places tend to bring a lot of smiles. I thought it was amusing to see so many men excited about reading the vast number of exhibits while so many women found places to sit and text. We also saw Pete Rose - he was signing autographs in the back of a baseball memorabilia store for $60 per pop. Pictures were $75, but we snuck a couple for free.

Then we took a fairly scenic drive to Saratoga Springs where we spent an hour at the Saratoga National Battlefield. This trip is good for faltering memories like mine - I had forgotten that Saratoga was such an important battle and victory for our country.
Then we drove just a few miles to the harness racing track at Saratoga Springs. We were excited about winning big bucks, but when we got there we learned that they only race during the week on Wednesdays and Fridays. I guess God wants us to keep our trip on the straight and narrow. But any money we would have won we would have donated ... I can almost hear some of the "yea rights." Since we couldn't do the harness racing we decided to win big at the electric slot machines. After I lost a dollar I realized how stupid we were to hang around. It took Pee Wee two dollars.
After proving our high roller status we drove east through some real nice scenery in New York and especially western Vermont until we reached a Red Roof Inn in Rutland, Vermont. It's a new Red Roof - a welcome room after the experiences of the last two nights.

Only one good deed today. We stopped at the Vermont Welcome Center around 6:00 p.m. - neither one of us had been in Vermont before. The place was closed and we noticed that a couple of the decorative four foot wooden human figures were laying on the ground. We picked them up and stuck them real deep in the ground. Then we noticed the numerous weeds creeping over the sidewalk near the entrance to the building, so we did some lawn maintenance for a few minutes to spruce the place up. Nobody was there to leave a card with, but we know what happened so we're counting it. We did have another minor deed, if anyone thinks it should count, let us know. When we were eating tonight at "99" - a restaurant by the hotel, we saw a mess on the floor by the kitchen door that included something that looked like a real large decaying pickle, or something even worse. We cleaned up the area ourselves - all of the servers were very busy and it was not very pleasant to look at. Let us know what you think.
We feel really far away tonight - and on our own. We miss everybody but it's still a great trip. Tomorrow we may go to a couple of cool places in Vermont that we've heard about. Thanks for the support and good night!

Day 4

Right off the bat, we need to admit we hit a snag in the good deed department. We struck out today - we look, we ask, and sometimes we just come up empty. We have done a total of 7 so far and our goal is 15, so we're not doing that bad. We just can't have any more days like today.
Travel wise, the first half of the day was great, then the second half wasn't so good. From 8:00 to 10:00 we toured the PA Dutch area some more, shopped in some really neat stores that were actually part of some Amish farms, and met some really nice people who live and work on the farms.
We left an area known for its slow pace, simple life, no preservatives, and healthy living to venture to ... The Hershey Chocolate World in Hershey, PA. After two hours there and tasting many different kinds of chocolate we didn't feel like eating again until late in the evening. The pictures you see are when we were in the "Make Your Own Candy Bar" zone. I give our visit there a 9 on the Coach / Pee Wee scale of tourism - it was a lot of fun and even somewhat educational. We felt a little strange at times though - every single man we saw in our age group had at least one child with him. Then when Pee Wee asked a nice couple to take our picture with his pink camera, the looks the couple and others gave us made us feel even more out of place. I loudly announced that it was Steve's (not Pee Wee's) wife's camera - I didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea ... "not that there is anything wrong with that."
After we left Hershey, we kind of accidentally took a northern heading, and ended up travelling on back roads up through Pennsylvania all the way to Oneonta, New York, where we are spending the night. The four hours travelling through PA were quite a disappointment. The scenery wasn't very good, the roads were bad, there were no interesting places where we could stop, and no good deeds presented themselves. So we resorted to talking about the good times we have had earlier in the trip, and talking about the awesome time we are sure to have tomorrow at Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Where we're spending the night is less than 20 minutes from there, so we expect to be there before 9:00 a.m. That is if we make it through the night. The 1970s hotel where we stayed last night was the Taj Mahal compared to where we're staying tonight. The way we travel sometimes causes this kind of thing to happen. We never know where we will be spending the night, so without making reservations we sometimes get stuck at places where we sleep with one eye open. Tonight is one of those nights.
So good night everyone - we'll try to do better with the good deeds and please keep spreading the word about the donations.

Day 3

Our travels today made us think. We spent six hours (a real long time for us to stay in one place) at the Gettysburg National Battlefield. It was interesting, sad at times, informative, riveting, and important. Then we went to the Pennsylvania Dutch area where many Amish and Mennonites live. The farm lands are beautiful and the people are as well.
The thinking part: Gettysburg was the site of a horrendous battle of a horrible war that came about due to one group of people oppressing another. Then all around the PA Dutch area we see tourists (unfortunately like us) who want to get a glimpse of Amish people just because they are different from their own culture. Then you can see local businesses who make money off of the Amish by putting up cardboard cutouts of them and extolling travellers to come into their store to buy Amish paraphernalia. After thinking about both places we visited today, I don't think God can be pleased about humans thinking their group is any better than any other group.
Speaking of the Amish, I think every "typical" American teenager and younger should spend a day up here watching Amish kids of their own age. Tonight at dusk, we saw 4 kids, probably 8 to 14 working and sweating with garden tools in a corn field. Then they go home to a no text / no Facebook night. Then more of the same the next day. And they're happy!
For good deeds, first off - someone did one for us. At the Gettysburg theater in the visitor center we watched a great movie narrated by Morgan Freeman. After that, the Cyclorama and the museum, then we got in the car and started to take off on the two hour auto tour all around the battlefields. But Pee Wee's phone was missing so we went back inside to the information booth. I asked a ranger if they had a cell phone turned in. He asked me to describe it and as soon as I said it was an old phone he held it up and asked, "you mean this one?" Pee Wee and I have two of the oldest cell phones still in circulation, and for once it was an advantage.
For our good deeds: at the Mennonite Information Center after just entering Lancaster, we were helped by a very nice gentleman by the name of Paul. It was near the end of the day - time to empty the trash. But this was one day he didn't have to empty any trash because we went around and emptied the cans and put in new trash bags for him.
Then tonight we're staying in a hotel we are 100% positive that neither of our wives would agree to stay in, but it's just fine for us. The 1970s decor and window air conditioner kind of add to the flavor of the day. The manager in the office was very bored - probably due to the lack of business and the fact that her boss makes her leave the office TV on the weather channel all the time. After we ate at a family style kind of restaurant, I thought I would brighten the end of her day, so I bought a piece of peach pie, put it in a to-go box, came home to our 1970 hotel, handed her the box and a card and then sat back and watched her face light up. A great way to end my day as well ...
By the way, the dessert I had was called Shoo Fly Pie - I understand it is big in this area and I can see why - maybe the best pie I ever ate. If anyone ever makes it up in this area - try an old hotel and some Shoo Fly Pie.

Day 2

First of all, props to my buddy Jeff Poynter. Back in Lawrenceville he outdid any of our good deeds today by changing a lady's tire in a grocery store parking lot. Way to go Jeffrey.

Early today we visited Natural Bridge in Virginia - a huge arch over 200 feet high designed and built by God eons ago. We walked around the area and stumbled upon an Indian village with pale faces acting the parts of Indians. One guy who I really think wishes he was an Indian demonstrated how to start a fire. Chief Wannabe did a good job and got it going pretty quickly. Next we visited "Foamhenge." This is an exact replica of Stonehenge but made out of foam. Last summer we saw "Carhenge" and now "Foamhenge." How many more "'henges" are there out there? We then drove approximately 30 miles on Skyline Drive until we got to the northern end. This road is an extension of the Blue Ridge Parkway and has awesome overlooks that look out on the Shenandoah Valley. We tried singing the Shenandoah song, but usually only got to "Oh Shenandoah." Anyone who knows the rest, feel free to send it to us. From there we drove an hour to Washington D.C. because Pee Wee's high school friend and teammate, Mark Laney, is a Lt. Colonel in the Army and works at the Pentagon. He treated us to an amazing one hour tour inside and outside of the Pentagon. It's huge! It has 6 zip codes - I'm not kidding! We visited the 9/11 Chapel and Memorial that pays tribute to all of those who were tragically killed in the terrorist action ten years ago. We weren't the only ones with lumps in our throats.

As far as good deeds, we haven't done any major ones, but we're plodding along. Pee Wee made me jealous this morning when he did one on his own and he was rewarded. I was loading the car in the hotel parking lot and he was at the entrance to the hotel. He noticed how someone had dropped what looked like their breakfast on the ground, so he took a minute to clean up the trash and some hard boiled eggs. The hotel manager saw him do it and she gave him some nice pens and put his name up as "Guest of the Day." He thinks he's hot stuff now. That's OK - he uses one of those mesh pouf sponges in the shower and he has a pink camera.
Then when we were driving on Skyline Road, we were held up for several minutes by a road crew. The guy holding the STOP sign was bored, tired, and looked like this might be his last day on the job. When we were finally allowed to proceed, we gave him a juice box from our cooler, a Good Deed Doers card, and a very brief pep talk. His demeanor in the rear view mirror looked a lot better - maybe temporarily but that's better than where he was.
Our third good deed may be debatable to some, but we're counting it. After Pee Wee's friend took us on our tour of the Pentagon, we insisted that he allow us to treat him to dinner. We explained that this was not as much a repayment for his being our tour guide as his willingness to serve our country. He's expecting to be in Afghanistan soon and we just wanted to show him our appreciation.
That's it for Day Two - we're thinking of checking out Gettysburg tomorrow morning. Good night.

Day 1 / Travels with Pee Wee 2011

I-85 North won the flip so we entered S. Carolina before 10:00 a.m. Our first stop was in Anderson, S.C. to view the statue of "Radio" from the movie named in his honor. The statue is missing, so our first stop was a dud. From there we went to the Kings Mountain National Battlefield on the S.C. / N.C. border to try to learn about an important Civil War battle. We gained no Civil War knowledge - we were a little embarrassed to learn that the battles fought there were almost 100 years earlier in the Revolutionary War. I take solace in knowing that some of you who may be reading this would probably make the same mistake. Our next stop was Mt. Airy near the Virginia border. Mt. Airy is the birthplace of Andy Griffith and the residents of Mt. Airy do the best they can to profit from that fact. We went to the Andy Griffith Museum which was a fun stop for us. Pee Wee thought he was real funny calling me Goober in front of everyone. We spent most of the evening hours on the Blue Ridge Parkway in southern Virginia. We are ashamed to admit that this was our first time on the beautiful highway, and we did not know what we were missing. If any of you have never taken at least a partial tour on the B.R. Parkway - please do. We have one of God's more creative gifts not that far away - you will be amazed.

Two good deeds today. That's kind of normal for the first day since we spend a lot of time getting organized and getting away from Georgia. We had an attempted good deed within an hour of our morning departure. We saw a car on the I-85 shoulder, hazard lights flashing, and two young guys sitting on the trunk. We pulled over and asked if they needed help. They said they had run out of gas but help was on the way. It was neat to see how appreciative they were though. Then at the Andy Griffith Museum, we noticed how dirty the glass doors were from the ticket area leading to the museum. The lady at the ticket counter said that happens after a day of young kids and old kids smudging the glass. So we asked her for some Windex and some paper towels and went to work. She was very kind and the deed kind of brightened other patrons up as well. Tonight we are staying in a LaQuinta Inn near Roanoke, VA and ate at a Mexican restaurant. The place was having a huge party for around 40 teenage baseball players and their families. There must have been an earlier party at the outside tables because those tables and chairs were all over the place. The waiters and other employees looked really frazzled due to the late night party, but at least they won't have to worry about the outside area - when Pee Wee and I were leaving we spent a few minutes straightening everything up, throwing away trash, etc. If they look close, they might find one of our "You've Been Struck by the Good Deed Doers" cards when they go out to clean up. That's it for Day One - thanks for your support and please spread the word about donating per good deed to the Lawrenceville Co-Op.

On the road again...

Travels with Pee-Wee Round 3!

This year will mark our 3rd random journey through the United States. Our trip begins on July 17th and will last approximately 10 days. We plan to flip a coin the morning of the 17th to determine if we take I-85 North or I-20 East to leave Georgia. As we have done the 2 previous summers, we will then leave the interstates and travel on back country roads for the remainder of our journey with no clue as to where we will go each day. We plan to visit unique places off the beaten path and look forward to meeting many new friends. The same goal still stands- 3 good deeds each day of our trip. We would still like our followers to make donations to a charity for the good deeds we do. This year we have decided on the Lawrenceville Co-Op as the recipient of donations made by you. The Lawrenceville CO-OP is an amazing ministry that provides food and emergency financial assistance for utilities and prescription drugs for the growing number of struggling families in this part of Georgia.

How to donate:
There are two ways you can donate throughout the trip.

1. Make a one-time donation: Visit the Lawrenceville Co-Op website to make a one-time gift on behalf of our trip.

2. Donate per good deed we complete: At the end of the trip we will tally up our good deeds. You can wait until then to donate $1, $5, $10, or any amount you wish per good deed.

*The link to the Lawrenceville Co-Op can be found in the right margin of the blog. More information on how to donate through the Co-Op site will be posted later.

-Coach and Pee Wee

day 9 and Final Tally

We got back late yesterday afternoon, and I went to my church's camp meeting in the evening, so it is Thursday morning and I am finishing up our blog. Yesterday we didn't see anything that interested us to stop for, so we made the 5 hour trip home from Holly Springs, Mississippi. Along the way we stopped 3 times to help cars stopped on the side of the highway. All 3 were very appreciative that we stopped, but told us that they would be OK and to go on. One guy, in a shirt and tie said that he was just collecting 5 smooth stones - was he a pastor on his way to a sermon?

As the picture shows, when we got back I paid up for bets lost to Pee Wee.

Just like last summer we learned a lot about our country and had a great time. Trying to good deeds and carrying out a lot of them really adds to a trip like this.

Good Deeds Performed during Coach and Pee Wee’s Great Adventure

1. Day 1: Helped “homeless” person in Nashville.
2. Day 2: Took over for clumsy lifeguard in French Lick, Indiana.
3. Day 3: Gave blackberries to highway workers in Indiana.
4. Day 3: Donated CDs to Christian Charity Goods Store in Worthington, Indiana.
5. Day 3: Took lost woman to her husband at a hotel 15 miles out of our way near Pekin, Illinois.
6. Day 4: Helped a family at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.
7. Day 5: Pee Wee scattered burros away from a car in Custer National Park in South Dakota – kids were upset.
8. Day 5: Brought back a coconut cream pie dessert for a very kind hotel manager in Alliance, Nebraska.
9. Day 6: Cleaned room and bathroom for hotel maids in Alliance, Nebraska before we left.
10. Day 7: Pruned shrubbery away from a historical marker in northern Kansas.
11. Day 7: Brought back an extra waffle for unhappy looking hotel manager. She smiled big time.
12. Day 8: Removed large truck tire tread from middle of state highway in northern Arkansas.
13. Day 8: Changed tire for pregnant woman near Trumann, Arkansas.
14. Day 9: Stopped three different times for three different cars on the side of the highway. All 3 thanked us for stopping but said that they would be OK. We’re adding all three of those together to make one. (We make the rules). One man in a tie said he was just collecting 5 smooth stones – was he on his way to a sermon???

So … our final tally is 14 good deeds. Thank you to those people who are able to donate to Family Promise. Any amount that you can give per good deed would be appreciated. The link to Family Promise is below. Once you get to the Family Promise website, you will see how you can donate. Thank you to everyone who followed our updates and prayed for us.
Coach and Pee Wee

Link to Family Promise: http://www.familypromisegwinnett.org/

Day 8 - Tuesday

We began the day with the end of our nostalgia tour - we looked around my old college for a few minutes in Springfield. We saw the athletic dorm where I had to climb in the window many times one year because money was low and I couldn't pay the small rent. The coach who lived there knew though, so it was kind of a Rudy thing. Then we saw the old wrestling practice room and the old gym where we had matches. But due to Title IX ... no more wrestling at this university.

Next we landed in Branson for a couple of hours. Branson is the most commercialized place we have visited, so it was not one of our favorite places. I'm sure it is a great vacation for many people, it just doesn't jive with our type of trip. While in Branson, we did see a very good military museum. It had several rooms with great artifacts from all of our wars from WWI to the present. One room - the one with the soldiers in the picture - lists every single soldier who lost his or her life in WWII - over 400,000 names. It is the only place anywhere that lists all of those names in one location. Visiting a place like that really makes you appreciate our soldiers.

From there, we decided to take a more direct route to Atlanta, with a goal of seeking out more good deeds. Somewhere in northern Arkansas we saw a blown out truck tire in the road that we had to steer away from, as did the cars behind us. We turned around as soon as we could and drove back to the tire and pulled on to the shoulder. Pee Wee waited for traffic to die down and ran out and moved the tire out of the way. Who knows - we might have prevented an accident. (Sorry about the bug splat on the windshield in the picture).

In a few miles we stopped at a rest area to get a better map of Arkansas. While there, we talked to a nice man and two women who were running the place. We told them what we have been doing over the past 8 days and one woman asked us to wait so that she could make a "to do good" list - she said if we were going to go around doing good deeds then she had a long list for us. That area of Arkansas just had some road construction so most people's GPS systems tell the drivers that they missed the turn for Branson and to make a u-turn. They get several drivers per hour who come in and ask for help in getting to Branson. I made a sign and put it on the door that said, "You Are Not Lost!" They said it didn't count as a good deed and I told them that they were not the judges. But we had made some new friends in northern Arkansas.

We made it to Holly Springs, Mississippi tonight, but about an hour before we stopped for the night, we had an interesting good deed. Way back in 1974, Kathy and I were driving from Missouri to Georgia to visit my parents in Macon. We stopped in Trumann, Arkansas to get gas. We both were using the bathrooms when a teenage girl (drunk) ran off the road and knocked over a gas pump and almost totalled our car. We held the passenger door together with duct tape and barely made it to Macon with Kathy sitting behind me in the back seat. Then today, I saw a sign for Trumann and pulled over to get gas and a picture for Kathy to see - for old times sake. Ten minutes later we pulled out on the highway, drove about a mile and saw a car pulled off of the highway with a flat tire. We asked the young woman (also pregnant) if she wanted our help and she said "Please!" She said she had just gotten the flat tire but didn't have a jack - her husband had taken it out of her car to change another tire. I got the jack out of my truck, but her car was sitting so low that the jack would not fit under it. Her husband's best friend was called because he had a mechanic's flat jack. We told her we would stay with her until he got there and we got her going. When he arrived, even his flat jack wouldn't fit under the car. We all put our heads together and figured out a plan - we moved the car forward a few feet with the two good wheels sitting a few feet lower on the shoulder of the road. That allowed just enough space for the flat jack to fit and within a few minutes the spare was on and she was on her way. The thought that occurred to me as we headed on down the road ... if Kathy and I had not had our car almost demolished 36 years ago, we would not have stopped in Trumann today and we would not have been around to help out the damsel in distress. Funny how things work out sometimes ...

We will head out tomorrow morning with a destination of ... HOME!

Day 7 - Monday

We finally made it out of Nebraska and quickly made our way to the Wizard of Oz Museum in northern Kansas. I can't believe that I have seen important sites on this trip for my two favorite movies: Field of Dreams and Wizard of Oz. This museum was not the best we have seen on the trip, but people can't help but smile there - people such as us. It had many rooms with each room a tribute to the many characters in the movie. The most popular room there was the one that simply shows the complete movie over and over again. People (like us) go in the room intending to stay for just a minute. We all end up sitting down and watching until you realize that there is more to the museum. That is the impact that the most watched movie of all time has on people. One trivia question we learned the answer to ... see who can answer it without looking it up: "What was the name of the professor's horse?" And what was the real name of the wizard and how many roles did he play in the movie?

From there we headed east into Missouri - the home state for both of us. We took a little time off for nostalgia time. Pee Wee remembered that he was a choir director in 1976 while he was a college student for a tiny church near his college in Warrensburg. The church was the Kingsville Baptist Church - it took us a while but we found it. We actually met a man there who teaches Sunday school who was a member of the church when Pee Wee was the choir director. Pee Wee had a big smile on his face as he walked around the church. The picture is a little dark, but trust me - he had a big smile on his face.

Next we drove 90 minutes south to Springfield, MO, where Kathy and I attended Southwest Missouri State - now Missouri State from 1971 - 1975. It was there where Kathy made the wise decision to say "yes." OK OK - I was the one who made the wise decision. I lived in a house of wrestlers there - right next to a McDonalds - not the best location for weight conscious wrestlers. The McDonalds is still there, but the house has been destroyed - which probably improved business at the McDonalds. I remember that most of my wrestler roommates had pets. I had a pet turtle - we hammered a nail through its shell near the edge and chained it to a spike in the yard so that it could roam all around the yard. It was a great conversation piece until we went out one morning and saw just an empty shell. I also had an ugly little dog named Igno (IgnoRamos).

Good deeds today - the picture shows one. We like to stop and read historical markers. We saw one in southern Nebraska but couldn't read much of it due to plants snaking their way up the monument. It took a while, but we manicured and pruned the area the best that we could so that future readers will have no problem reading the information on the monument.

The second one came tonight at our hotel. We are staying next to a Waffle House, and we used free waffle coupons given to us from Mr. Waffle - William Collins, who is the father of Collins Hill state champion CJ Collins. We ended up with an extra waffle when we were finished, so we brought it back to the hotel. The hotel manager was extremely serious and nonsmiling when we checked in, but we changed that. We offered the hot waffle to her and immediately the smile that had been hidden showed itself. It is amazing how being nice to somebody becomes contagious.

Possibly Branson tomorrow for a while, but who knows. We expect to be back home on Wednesday, which sounds good.

Day 6 - Sunday

Man! We have some long states in this country! We're still in Nebraska, but in the southeast in a town called Beatrice. We started off with a fun good deed today. When we left the hotel in Alliance, we didn't leave the way we and most people normally do. We stripped the sheets off the beds and stacked them with the towels. We put the blankets and pillows in neat stacks. We got rid of the trash and and cleaned the bathroom and the sink. In other words we made it very easy for the hotel maids to clean our room. We left a note and a good deed doers card on one of the beds.

We first visited "Carhenge" near Alliance. It is a replica of Stonehenge except that old cars have taken the place of the rocks. Everything is the right shape and the right size of Stonehenge - but with cars. It doesn't take much for Pee Wee and I to release the 12 year old boys still hiding inside of us, and they showed up at Carhenge as we ran around and on the cars. (We got there before anyone in charge was there so we probably got away with more than we should have).

Next we went south to see Chimney Rock near Wyoming. Most people have seen Chimney Rock in various wild west movies. It is visible for 20 miles and was a sign to the early western settlers that the flat prairie lands were coming to an end and to get ready for mountainous travel. Many settlers actually turned around and headed back to the east. If we see any of them, we'll give them a ride.

Next we headed east and stopped at North Platte to see the largest Rail Yard in the world. Our GPS kept sending us to dead ends so we spent way too much time there.

Pee Wee and I have many conversations as we travel when he isn't napping. We make a lot of bets and we have paid off a few times with push-ups. We need help in deciding who won this one: As we travelled eastward away from Wyoming, we were listening to a Cheyenne radio station. We made a push-up wager as to how far away we were from Cheyenne. I guessed 150 and Pee Wee bet 200. As we travelled at 70 mph, it took me close to a minute to plug in Cheyenne into the GPS and to determine the mileage - it was 176. I say I won because it took about a minute after we shook hands to get the GPS to determine the correct distance. So we travelled over a mile in that one minute. Pee Wee says he won because the final answer was 176, and that was closer to his guess of 200. So who wins??

Our morning good deed was really our only one. We keep stopping and asking cars stopped on the side of the road if they need help but they normally just wave us on. But we are always on the look out. In fact, tonight we offered our room to a soldier on leave from Afghanistan - he is staying here with his family and he said his air conditioning isn't working well. We said he could have our room but he wanted to stay in his because it has a jacuzzi. Oh well, we'll keep trying.

Tomorrow we're heading south into Kansas. We'll try to get Dorothy back home, maybe that will work for a good deed.

Day 5 - Saturday

South Dakota is a big state ... it took us a while to get there, but we finally made it to Mt. Rushmore around 1:00. On the way there, we enjoyed the terrain which was new to us. Lots of prairies and undulating hills leading up to the mountains of the Black Hills.

It was great to see Mt. Rushmore - the guy who started the Stone Mt. sculpture is the same one who did Mt. Rushmore. It took hundreds of workers, lots of dynamite, and 14 years to get the job done. Washington is the president on the left, then Jefferson, then T. Roosevelt, then Lincoln. But originally it was Jefferson on the left, but they didn't like how it looked so they blew the first Jefferson off of the mountain. Pee Wee thought he could have done the entire project in a few months.

We then went to the Custer Natinal Forest a few miles away. It is beautiful scenery and included a 10 mile wildlife loop where we saw various animals in the wild and near our truck. A herd of at least 50 buffalo were just a few feet from the truck, as were white tailed deer and several burros. Pee Wee made the mistake of opening a box of Waffle Crisp cereal in the truck. The burros smelled it and before long we had a few of them sticking their snouts inside the windows trying to get at the cereal. There was slobber on the windows, but no worse than we have done ourselves over the past few days. Pee Wee actually put a cracker in his mouth and a female burro tried to take it out. Somebody tell Teresa that I'll try to keep a better eye on Pee Wee around the women.

Two good deeds today - one of them related to the burros. For some reason, approximately 10 burros completely surrounded a car that was near us and were doing their best to get inside. There were a couple of little kids inside who were getting very upset. Pee Wee "risked life and limb" to get the burros away from the car. He successfully completed his mission and the kids were saved.

The other one involved tonight's hotel manager. She was extremely pleasant and kind when we checked in. We are staying in a tiny town called Alliance somewhere in northwest Nebraska. After we ate at one of the two restaurants in town, I got a coconut cream pie to go. When we returned to our home for tonight, I gave the pie to the manager - her face lit up, especially when it was explained to her that her pleasing personality gave us the idea for the gift.

The fact that we are now in Nebraska is both good and bad. The bad is that we are now on a path of an easterly direction. We have had a great time on our journey, but with this new direction, it means that we are over the halfway point and we are heading back. The good is ... that we ARE on that easterly direction. Even though we have had a great time, going east means going home, and no matter what or where we go, the best place to go is home.

Happy Sunday tomorrow everyone and God bless all of you!

Day 4 - Friday

To start off, after the Field of Dreams we made the decision to travel to Mt. Rushmore in S. Dakota, so we spent a lot of time today trying to make good time. Because of that, our opportunities for good deeds were minimal. We tried though - we stopped at two different broken down cars and asked if they needed help. They both had someone working on them and thanked us for stopping but no thanks.

Our day began with an hour drive to the Field of Dreams - the site of one of my three favorite movies. It takes less and less for me to get emotional these days, and I actually got a little choked up a couple of times while we were there. We met the owners who have done a remarkable job of keeping everything the same as the movie. They do a year round good deed, admittance is free and and they simply want a place for families to come to be happy for a while and to experience the promise made in the movie: "People will come." The only good deed today was when a family with little kids was trying to play a short game on the field. They were struggling to make it work and we helped them out. While we were there we saw a very touching scene. There was a TV crew filming a lady in a wheel chair along with the owners of the farm. The woman is dying of cancer and has very little time left. She is a big Cardinal fan and had a final request of her family - to see the Field of Dreams. Ours were not the only eyes there filling up...

After the Field of Dreams we made our way up into southern Minnesota and stopped at an interesting 1900s museum in Albert Lea. My team at Collins Hill actually competed against Albert Lea in a tournament in Minnesota two years ago. From there we ate up a lot of pavement and made it all the way to Mitchell, South Dakota. We visited the Corn Palace there, which is a large building for events that is made mostly out of corn - really.

Tomorrow - Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills. We'll do our best for more good deeds.

Day 3 - Thursday

We started off in French Lick, Indiana and ended up about 20 miles north of Davenport, Iowa. In between we toured a unique jail in Crawfordsville, Indiana. It was made in the 1880s and was used up to 1972. It is the first of 15 jails ever made that has the gears and levers to revolve the jail cells around in a circle. There are two stories of cells in a circle that revolve around when they are needed to - there is one opening where a prisoner can enter to be locked up, then the cells revolve all at the same time. We had some fun taking turns locking each other up in the cells.

Our next stop was Danville, Illinois where we visited a local museum that was a doctor's house in the mid 1800s. One of the doctor's best friends was Abe Lincoln. We saw a bedroom where Abe would stay and the balcony from which Abe gave a speech to the locals. He had to step through a window to the balcony - back then home owners were taxed by the number of doors they had, so a window to the balcony eliminated one door. I hope Obama doesn't hear about the door tax - he might try to bring it back.

We then took off through Illinois - we had a goal of Dyersville, Iowa to see the Field of Dreams, but that is going to have to wait until tomorrow because of a good deed we performed. Somewhere near Peoria we stopped for gas and a lady of about 30 pulled up in a small SUV. She asked for directions to a town named Pekin. She seemed a little upset so even though we had no clue where Pekin was we tried to help her. She explained that she was supposed to meet her husband at a Super 8 Hotel there. Her husband was trying to give her directions over the phone, but she was getting more and more lost and confused. Pee Wee and I made the decision to use our GPS and have her follow us all the way to the Pekin Super 8. We both considered what we would feel like if our wives or daughters were lost somewhere and quickly made the decision to help her. It took us over 30 minutes to get her to the Super 8 and back to where we were, so the Field of Dreams is going to happen tomorrow, but we felt real good after helping her out.

We also did a couple of other minor good deeds - we were stopped in a line of traffic on a country highway somewhere in Indiana. There was a guy at one end of construction being done holding up a stop sign, and another guy at the other end doing the same. Pee Wee had bought some huge blackberries at a roadside stand earlier. When we got to the workers, we stopped traffic behind us while we shared the blackberries with the workers who were sweating profusely.

One other - in the town of Worthington, Indiana we stopped in the town square simply because it looked interesting to us. We walked into a Christian book store that turned out to be much more than that. They had a big supply of clothes and and other supplies that anyone in need could come into the store and have for free. I had a few CDs in my truck of hyms - they are now in the store's collection. We wish we could have given more, but that is about all we could give - we didn't think it would be wise to drive around naked.

We can't wait for the Field of Dreams tomorrow and beyond ...