Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Jefferson Highway Show. This historic highway was formed in 1915 by the Jefferson Highway Association. It runs from Winnipeg, Canada, all the way to New Orleans, Louisiana. Let's go! Well, we got us a convoy here on today's Jefferson Highway Association Show. I'm very excited about this. I know Roger Bell, who is here, the president of the Jefferson Highway Association, has been talking about this military vehicle convoy. It is going to be going all through October from Minnesota, all the way down to New Orleans, which is basically the Jefferson Highway, right? They're following the whole route for the entire month, October 1st through 31st. So I think what they're going to end up in New Orleans for Halloween, this is perfect. But this is all through the MVPA, which is the military vehicle preservation association, and they've joined hands with the Jefferson Highway Association to do this convoy, which is epic. So, of course, the route, the actual listings of the route for this convoy, you can go to jeffersonhighway.org for that, and then learn also more about the convoy and the military vehicle preservation association, go to mvpa.org, standing for a military vehicle preservation association. But I just want to say it one more time. We got us a convoy, boys. So welcome back, Roger. How are you? We got us a convoy, Roger. Lisa, I am really good, very excited about our guests today in this upcoming event, which is going to be really, and I'm part of the history of the whole highway in my opinion. So we talked a lot about historical things on here, places, but this is an historic event about ready and full right in front of us here. It's big because you do the social ability runs, right? In these caravans with the conference, this is like the entire route. And that's what Nancy keeps saying. She's like, I just want to do the whole route in one thing, not the little bits and pieces. I want the whole thing. And I'm going to do everything. And I'm like, well, then we just need to live on the road. It's a little hard. So I really take my hats off to everyone organizing that. And we have two of the organizers on the show. I'm going to start with John Varner because he's up in Minnesota. That's where they're starting. We also have Tony joining us. But welcome, John. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. We're coming up on October faster than I want now. We still have a lot of things to get done. But it's an exciting time for us. If I can give you just a brief background on the MVPA, we came up with an idea that came from a history book when I wrote about the Lincoln Highway. Maybe the original Good Roads program in the United States that ran from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. But in that, I found out that in 1919, the U.S. Army did a post-war celebration. Thank you to America for buying Liberty bonds. And they sent a military convoy down what they thought was the Lincoln Highway. And at the time, there was a young major named Eisenhower who was born in Washington and said, well, I think I'll hitch on to that. And Dwight D. Eisenhower did, in fact, go the whole route as one of the officers. And I thought, well, we're the MVPA. And we're celebrating American military history through our vehicles. What a better way than to recreate the 1919 convoy across the United States. And we did that in 2009 and then again in 2019. So the Jefferson Highway is yet another great traditional historic highway through the Better Roads system that swept America, thanks to Mr. Firestone and Mr. Ford. And I pitched this idea to the MVPA Committee in 2016 and it kept putting me off and putting me off. But our number finally came up and we're tremendously excited about this. We're finally going north-south in the country rather than east to west. And a lot of our members are too. That's why we have historic military vehicles rolling down the Jefferson Highway to bring back the history of this country to people who live along the Jefferson Highway and may not even realize that. And part of the Jefferson Highway, in fact, the large part of it was actually a military road before it was ever a highway. More Plevinworth, for example, south to Fort Scott was the old territorial military highway. It's so fascinating because the military history is really huge and we always think about, especially World War II, being mostly like, you know, the Pacific Coast was huge and I've done a lot of travel on that even like on the highway 101 and one. And you'll get to places like Crescent City off of that old historic highway, which is iconic throughout the world. And there's like a piece of submarine in a park. Like you're going, oh my gosh, it just floated on up and you're going, what? And it brings it home really quick. And I think this kind of convoy, and I'm sure many people, like, we used to live outside 29 bombs out near Joshua Tree in Southern California. And you would see convoys all the time and it was just-- All the time. But we're not like what you're doing, but it stops you short. You know, it makes you just go, wow, this is pretty big and yeah, it is. And so I think this kind of thing brings some patriotic pride into our country a little bit on a different scale that we don't see every day. And also it's great for these small communities, because oftentimes these kind of big events, because this is a big event, right? But it doesn't happen in small towns. It doesn't happen in the small towns as much, you know? I'll tell you-- Yeah, and John's-- Go ahead. John was, you know, told me about some of these-- and Chuck told me about some of these small towns and the excitement on previous convoys that they've had. You know, that's really, to me, what it's really about and-- I want to bring our other chance on the-- That's what they do. Yeah, I got to bring Chuck Tony on and he's in Texas. Welcome, Chuck. How are you? Chuck, you're on. I was taking an act there for a moment. Oh my gosh. You know, I think I need one too. You know, I hope you got some extra ones for me there. But, Chuck, welcome. How are you? I'm good. Oh, it's good to have you here. My first convoy was Route 66. And Roger and I talked about this briefly. I said, you know, when you travel Route 66 to 30 miles an hour and you see a sign up ahead, welcome to Joke Town, population 200, and you're going to Joke Town, and there's a thousand people out there waving flags. I'm a Vietnam veteran. And I didn't get a parade when I came home. I had garbage stuck on me. And so, this was my coming home parade and it led me to tears to my eyes. So, when Roger and I talked about this some time ago, because John told me, hey, we're going to do this. Jeff is in highway. I said, Jeff's in highway. Where does it go? And John said to me, well, it starts up in Winnipeg, goes to New Orleans. I said, John, you're going to plan the whole thing? Well, yeah. I said, I speak Texan and Louisiana and I get older. Okay. How about if I do this other than half? So, this is an exciting thing to go through all these little towns. And literally, a lot of them have no clue what the Jefferson Highway is. So, for us, we get to educate local people, kiss babies, and enjoy the planning portion of it. And I think the convoy itself is going to be unbelievable, right? I love this because it does bring history to the forefront. And, you know, that's what I was saying. It brings this other, you know, token of patriotism that you're talking about, you know, coming home from Vietnam. There was that really awful side of our history in America of not recognizing those who fought in Vietnam and having that respect. And so, I think this is really important because you're also going through the heartland of America, you know, and so many men and women fought and went from the Midwest left their farming, you know, their farms, their family farms, and went out and fought not only in Vietnam, but the Korean War, you know, you've got to think about, you know, both World Wars. So, with these vehicles, what's the oldest vehicle? And are these all people that own the vehicles? Like, I want to hear about the actual vehicles themselves. Like, are people that own them and take care of them? Or is it like museum pieces that you have to be a qualified driver? How does that work? Yeah, actually, they're all privately owned. And part of that MVPA is a group of private owners of military vehicles. And, you know, the government routinely sells military vehicles on surplus, they have for years. For example, I drive a 1953 Dodge ambulance that the Army got tired of it sometime in the 70s and sold it at auction and it went to a farm and sat there. And I wanted one and I fixed it all up and it's road worthy and I had a good time doing that. And I'm in a state club that has dozens of activities every summer, especially with for the July parades and things like that. But we're all privately owned, we're all privately insured and people just can't hardly believe that sometimes, but all kinds. But I'll tell you this, you don't really get America until you drive down the Jefferson Highway at 30 miles an hour in the country. And farm families are out in their front yards waving at you and you can hear the cows move and the kids laugh and the birds sing. And it's just such a immersive event in your life. And exactly what Chuck said, I've had tears come to my eyes many times as a veteran. And talking to veterans in these towns, big and small that hadn't seen this vehicle since they were in the service. Oh, I used to be one of those. Is it still hard to shift from third to second back? And yeah, it still is. So that's why we do it. And we're just having a blast at the same time. Are you going to American legions as you travel through? Yes, ma'am. In fact. Oh, thank you. Because they need help. They actually are losing veterans keeping them open. We almost exclusively stop at VFW and American legions for many of our meals. And they know how to put on a spread. I've done it. Yeah, it's cool. We tell them, look, we'll be a fundraiser for you. People will turn out, have a big community supper. And it works quite well. As Chuck said, you'll come into a small town. We had a small town in Wisconsin on the Yellowstone Highway. 3,500 people live there. And what? 70,000 people showed up that Saturday. It was just like we were the circus coming to town or something. But it's a joyful occasion when we get to go on a convoy. And when people see the vehicles, I think they start to understand how because they're hardcore, it's not like this is about comfort, right? It's about utility and what to do. And you know, it's not about necessary comfort. So maybe through that, they kind of understand the reality of what war is too. You know? Well, they know that the trucks were designed for 18 and 19 year old drivers. Yeah, that too. That too. So I think, so it does look, you know, John, like you're, you know, part of MASH, as we said and record this with all the ambulance in your butt in the background. So it's kind of like a MASH thing. So I wonder if people are going to have that kind of flashback to the TV shows and relate that, you know? They do. They do. I get asked a lot about my ambulance. And I say, yes, it's the one that comes up the hill at the beginning of MASH to the helipad. Oh, wow. Wow. Remember that ambulance? So yeah. What about you, Chuck? What are you driving? I'm driving a Ford after a 50. I actually put RV carrying convoy supplies up to East Grand Forks. And it's just too much to fit in either of my military vehicles. And so basically hauling stuff up until I get down to a TOCA and a TOCA, I'm going to run back to the farm, which is a 90 minute drive, get rid of the RV. And I'm bringing my Jeep and my grandsons driving my three quarter ton Dodge. So I'll have two vehicles on the convoy. There you go. Well, this is amazing. And so, you know, are you guys all staying in hotels? I mean, I know you're not going to do military camping style from a month, right? Yeah, we are. We are pretty much. But historically, every convoy member. We're being dinged in. So literally, I've got some that will be in RV parks with full hookups. Some will go to motels and a few will do what we call dry camp. Basically, they're going to live in their vehicle and kind of rough it for 20 something days. Good nation of all three. Oh, wow. Roger, doesn't that go to the old school way of the Jefferson Highway travel with the old tourist camps? Yeah, it's kind of like tourist camping. You know, it's, and that's going to be kind of unique to see. I know it aren't there. They have an overnight schedule from my hometown in Muskogee. And actually, the place for those hookups for the RVs is going to be in an original World War II era or an old airport that was used for World War II training. And so it just, it has old hangers and it's going to be really fun. There's places like that. You know, one thing is really intriguing. We've talked about this before, Lisa, is the military history on the route. It's just kind of one of those interesting things. You've got Civil War history. I mean, one other route has the World War I Museum on it and the World War II Museum on it. You've got some iconic Fords along the route. You've got Civil War history along the route. They're going to be going into Kansas where the, you know, the Buddy Kansas and John Brown and all that is going to be right there and to all the way. And then even when you get into Louisiana, I mean, I was just there at our caravan this year at the Battle of Mansfield. They're going to go right, I assume they'll be going right close to that as they go through Mansfield. Those people there, while I guarantee you, they will be super excited. They are a really great and comfortable battlefield parks down there. So it's just, and then, heck, you go like we talked about, get to Alex and Andrew and down in the area and what the Louisiana maneuvers were. I mean, how great is this? Roger, you just said Louisiana maneuvers. So this is very important. So, you know, this is a spot. And I know that you're going to be going there on this convoy. You've got us a convoy. I still have to say that over and over. It's annoying. I know, but it is fun. Do you guys do get to have radios, like talk radio, like to each other, right? Or is it, can you go like, you know, we've got us a convoy and talk to each other as you drive? Come on, you have to. Yes, we do, but it's more military protocol rather than come on back, y'all and all that stuff. I'll come up, but it's fun. See, I'm just close to getting a CB radio just so I can make truckers on the road. But going back to the Louisiana maneuvers and Nakadish, Louisiana, I think you guys are staying there for a night. I'm going to give them a shout out because they sponsor our shows and they're awesome. It's an awesome destination. And if you're driving a long way, you have to have a meat pie. But the Louisiana maneuvers, I learned about that from going to Nakadish and then going south, going to Leesville. There's for poke out there. And the military and the Kissachi National Forest, are you going to be driving through that area of Kissachi National Forest? Because that was used, I think, for World War II training with the tanks. We actually, when we get down to Mansfield, if you, if you remember the route for the jump to the plate, you're heading down towards Louisiana Six, which is the old Royal Road. And it's south of that in a town called Mani, M-A-M-Y. Yeah. Oh, it's awesome. You're gonna love Mani. And we're going to actually take the Louisiana maneuvers highway from the Jefferson Highway over to Louisiana 117. And that will take us through the heart of the Louisiana maneuver country. And we've got a local historian that's going to meet us there at a local church. And the church is going to give us a nice break there on the Louisiana maneuver's highway. And Ricky is going to give us some history of that area because those families were there when Patton and all those men were doing this, this war game prior to World War II. And the local inhabitants shelter the soldiers and their homes. And we're talking about primitive Louisiana homes that electricity privy out behind the house. And so we're going to get a flavor of that and then head back towards Macadish. And we're going to go through an area that during the Vietnam war, 90% of the men that went to Vietnam were trained in a place called Tiger Land. And Tiger Land's there on 170. And we're gonna possibly get in there and visit with Tiger Land and see some of the landing strips and the area that these guys trained in. And then we'll be a Macadishian some civilization again. And some meat pies and meat pies. That's important. Well, when you're doing this, I mean, to me, this is this history because I think we're in a generational change. And I think that's what's so exciting about the highway, the Jefferson Highway, is that it's a multi-generational way to travel and experience things. But doing the convoy with these military vehicles, what a way for the youth when they see you drive through to understand a little bit about what World War II or one looked like, Vietnam or just to kind of understand if they're not around. I mean, they don't know what a real telephone looks like. So we're in a different change. So I think going through these communities gets people to have a little bit of understanding. And I'm sure stories are shared. And then going to places, I wonder how many places that you're going that your drivers, you know, the people on the convoy, the convoys, I don't know if that's a word, it is. Okay, the convoys, if they're going to places, maybe they were at in some kind of training, too. Does that happen? Sometimes, yes. And even more interesting, the people from California and Florida and New Jersey just totally freak out here in the Midwest, because they've never been here and they haven't seen it. And all of a sudden, they're a historic Fort Scott, Kansas, and they've never heard of Fort Scott, Kansas. And Chuck has set us up a real good program there, for example, that's it's pre-Civil War. Chuck, can you say a couple sentences about Fort Scott and who we're picking up there? Well, this is kind of an interesting thing. Fort Scott was the location where the first black Americans were actually brought into the US Army during the Civil War. And that's where they were mustered into service and got their initial training. We feel that we're going to have at least one, if not more than one, Medal of Honor recipient meet us there and participate with us for a little while in the Fort Scott area. And our problem is, as you well know, that these guys that go through war, it takes a tremendous toll on their body. And so literally, it's a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month issue as to whether or not some of these guys have got the help we're with all to be able to participate with us in these programs. But we're hoping in Fort Scott that we're going to have at least one area, Medal of Honor recipient, join us for part of our activities. That's amazing. Isn't the regiment going to be there too, re-enacting regiment for 1844? Second, the re-enacting soldiers at Fort Scott are they going to be there? Because it's my birthday weekend, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I think it's a long they just celebrate that same done. So Carl Brenner, who's the he's in charge of interpretations, he had mentioned they thought they were going to be able to have some re-enactors there dressed in very close. They were Dragoons, which is a mounted form of infantry. They rode on horses, got off the horse, and then they fought as infantrymen. And he thought they were going to have some there. So that's going to be one of these surprises. This is incredible. Roger, I mean, you've got to be excited about that. And then you're going to be there right when they get to Muskogee. You have to have another. Oh yeah. I may tag along through Oklahoma if they let me put up with me a little bit. I'm not sure exactly my schedule, but I want to be involved here as much as I can. And this is, you know, when we've talked to the communities about this, they're just so excited about it. There's still a lot of planning to be done by everybody, but it's just kind of like a lot of things. They, you know, generally it finds a way to get all done, you know. And these guys, you know, I think that's something to talk about too. This has not just been something that was dreamed up a few months ago. The planning for this is tenths. They have to go over every bridge that they're crossing with the late issues and, you know, understand the traffic concerns of a convoy going into certain large metropolitan areas or how they would deal with this. So every step on this convoy is going over and double checked and probably is continuing to be double checked as we go forward. But you might kind of tell us a little bit about those, that gentleman in your planning. That's a good point, because as you well know, portions of the Jefferson Highway are still gravel. The old sections are gravel. So if you've got one car traveling out on a gravel road with the dust, they drive, the dust is behind them. In a convoy, the headquarters commanding officer has got a nice clear drive. The guy that's number 36 has got this dust of 35 vehicles coming up through this open vehicle. There's no air conditioning, there's no air filtration. So that's one of the considerations we've got to look at. Another thing is what happens in bad weather? Somebody's roads are not passable if we've got bad weather because they tend to flood. Then you look at local traffic and we avoid interstate highways like the plague, because we're only traveling 40 miles an hour if that's a good speed force and we're getting past the 70 miles an hour and it's a safety issue. So we avoid certain bridges because of weight. We avoid certain roads because of road conditions, but also the traffic. Unfortunately, we had to bypass a couple of really nice communities because in driving that route, there were traffic light after traffic light after traffic light filled with semi-trucks. It wasn't a safe situation for the general public and the convoy. Yeah. How many vehicles are on this convoy? I mean, we're at 36 vehicles registered now and I think we're going to have regional participants add to that in certain places like in Kansas City and in Minnesota. So I would like to say we'll have at least 36 at all times, but we don't know. People change their minds at the end or drop out. Join last minute. They go, "Hey, yeah." I mean, that's pretty amazing. I mean, just even seeing that. I'm sorry, but even two cars is a big deal. You know, or ambulances, excuse me. We'll have big two and a half, 10, five, 10 trucks as well. What about tanks? And then you have a height restriction. So you can own these old back roads and nobody cared that the railroad was only 11 feet, 9 inches above the pavement. So you got to be very careful about low overpasses as well. And we've never had an issue. And this is our seventh convoy. We've never had a serious accident. We've had a little friend or two from lack of attention. But I think part of that is luck, but most of it is a good planning. Because we just don't stick our noses into situations that are not going to be good. Do you get together with the drivers and like have meetings and go through some of the safety protocols beforehand? Good question. John, did you read that manual that they issued to us? Oh, yeah. 80 pages long. 80 page protocol, right? It's the standard operating procedures for the VPA convoy. We have a meeting, a driver's meeting after the day is over. When we've hit our rod, hang on. We've got the bells. I like the bells. I'm sorry. It's the bells of St. Mary's here apparently. Geez. It's eight. It's luck. It is a bear. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Talking. We'll have a driver's meeting at the end of each day before anybody goes anywhere. When we stop for the night, we bring all the drivers together and we do a situation report. We do a review of the day. What right? What wrong? What can we do better? And then we talk about the next day's route. Everybody has their own mapbook and hopefully I'll get that done and they'll have a good route to follow handmade because we do have to tweak things and change things sometimes. What about mechanics? When things go wrong because this isn't like you just take your car to Toyota or Ford. Henry Ford would dig this though. You know he would. He would be all four of this. He was the ultimate start of the road tripper. Him and Firestone, they were epic. And they even had naturalist go with them on their road trips. It's cool. But what do you do in regards to breakdowns and tires and? Well, that's covering the procedure manual. Phase 53. The person that has a problem pulls over to the side and the person immediately behind them is required to pull over. And between the two vehicles, they try to get the issue resolved. If they can quickly get resolved all well and good. If they can't, at the very end of the convoy is a recovery unit. And if they can't get it fixed, they will put the vehicle that's broken down up onto a flatbed trailer and it's hauled to the next stop. I will tell you this from experience. We had a guy that was driving a vehicle and it broke down and they put it up on a flatbed. They found the part, had it shipped in and it was waiting in the town when we spent the night and a group of guys for that vehicle part. Overnight, made the repair, put it back together, returned it, and it was back in the convoy the next morning. Can you bring those guys over to Tucson, Arizona, where I am right now? I need that. I want to go to Roger on this because, you know, before we started recording, he was saying, yes, this is celebrating history and the history of the ride. It's the history of America in war. It's the history of Americans as veterans and those who have also passed on. But it's also making history because of what you're doing on the route. We say route and route here. But also, the fact is, when you think about, when you have those situations arise, which anything happens in travel, it's a good story later and it's camaraderie, which is what the military is about. You get each other's back. So when things happen, I'm hoping the community stand in two to help out. And yeah, if you're going to stay up all night, someone's got to bring the coffee and the donuts. But Roger, yeah, isn't that an example of community in that connection and making history? Oh, yeah, I think so. I know that I think that they also have a few days where they may have a couple of overnights and might be part of that. It's kind of assessed some of the things that they have and on their vehicles. And I look back into the early Jefferson highway, sociability runs, they did the same thing. When I studied them, they would go in and have their vehicles looked at by local car dealers, which muscles car dealers had only been in business a few years. And the communities were involved in helping those vehicles get along as they were stuck in the mud somewhere. Yeah, I'm sure there'll be some stories just like that on this probably bound to be. I would say that we have three or four drivers that live for people to break down. That's why they're on the continent. No way. They get real excited about it. And they just jump in. And some of these guys have been mechanics 50 years. Wow. Wow. And they know these old vehicles. And I'll just say a quick story. I broke an axle in the Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania. And I was done. They put me on a flatbed. Two days later, we had a rest overnight. And a guy drove down from Ohio, northern Ohio, and brought me a new axle. Five guys showed up and took my rear, well, my rear end apart and replaced it and put it back together in about three hours. I have watched that same group replace an engine in a vehicle. Wow. Wow. They're having fun. When I tell you that our big trucks, the two and a half ton, and the five ton trucks, the wheel, the tire and rim weigh over 300 pounds. And for us to change one of those tires, it is a monumental six man effort because we've got to jack the truck up. We've got to break the lug nuts loose. And we've got to bring the spare tire down out of where it's stored, lift the bad one up, change things up. And it is a back breaking process, but they can manage it in a couple hours time. Looking together. Well, okay. So this is, all right. I, you know, the new cars of today, I mean, I was raised where you learn how to, it was one of the first things you, you know, as soon as you are not allowed to learn how to drive until you learn how to change a tire, do an oil, like that's kind of how I was raised. And now in today's society, there's no way in hell you can replace your entire, it drives me bonkers. Like it doesn't, it's like if you're just, that's it, you know, so when, but then when I'm thinking about the military vehicles, I'm going, it's almost the same because they're that strong, right? It's not like you can just fix, you can't just fix it. You have to actually have. So it's kind of like, today's vehicle's no way. You know what I mean? It does that make sense? Yeah, somewhat, but, you know, we have a shop van at the back. And I guess if the guy I wanted to, he could probably start making his own parts. I mean, they're that end of this. These guys, they're good. They're really good. That's why they come on convoys, but very vehicles are simple until you get to the Humvee. Oh, okay. They're easily fixable. Okay, so do you have tanks or no on this? No. I'm like, I, because I would go, who would want to drive a tank all the, that way? That's a little intense. But I wanted to ask, so with people fixing, right, and helping you guys, what about when you get to the destinations? Are you, you were talking about, we were talking about legions and things like the American legions? When people come in, are they, do you get a bunch of veterans going, yeah, I drove one of these or I was in that vehicle? Is that part of it? Is the actual, I was there? Absolutely. I had a guy tell me he rolled his ambulance in Korea. He went down, he rolled about six times down the side of a mountain. No way. He was all bruised up and everything. But the truck was still drivable, if you can believe that. They winched it back up. So yeah, but he was 18. If he'd been 45, he would have been dead, probably. But, you know, these are tough vehicles. They are, and they're hard to drive. And I'm worn out at the end of every day, muscling that, that 1953 ambulance down the road. So when you do stop for those two night things, that's kind of like you need to give your bodies a break from driving. And do laundry and just get. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, very excited about Mason City, a beautiful town in Iowa that apparently nobody knows about. And it's a great place, you know, beautiful area. You can go see Buddy Holly's, big glasses and the big boppers landing spot, you know, her lake. Yeah, sure. So, but here again, somebody from New Jersey doesn't know about Mason City. Somebody from Minnesota does. And, you know, so Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel is right there where the Jefferson Highway had their conference last year. And, you know, but it's a nice town, especially for the music man, you know, so. I think this is so cool. And I hope people come out to see you guys and support you and wave you on, you know what I mean? Do you get that? Do people sit and wave? Do kids get involved? Oh, they do. Make sure. Right, Chuck? Well, I wonder what say one thing. And this is John and I developed a schedule. And we've added some stuff here and deleted some stuff. And we're continuing to get our messages. Can you stop in this town? And the sad part is I wish we could stop in every town. And you have to kind of pick and choose. But I'm going to tell you a funny story that occurred on a very recent convoy. Our convoy commander got a call and says, will you stop this town? And the convoy commander says, well, we really can't. The only way would be able to stop is if there was a roadblock. And so we're going down a two lane highway. And there is a fire truck blocking the road and they detour this into the town and hijack the convoy. So I'm saying, please don't hijack the convoy. But we're reasonably flexible. It case something would have happened like that. We probably could make it happen. It was a fun time. I've got it. I've got a special request that you have to tell you on this podcast. I've got a I've got a young lady in Pail, Look, Kansas, it's a great year. Yes. We've had a special deal about her. And then last week, I've been talking with her dad and she's going to she's going to do some more signs there. And just really excited about the you all coming through there. And I think it'll probably be a morning when as you go into make your way into Fort Scott. But you might find a way to say hey to her. And that's a big deal. I think what she's doing in that community, an eighth grader going out, she's got two or three more signs, I think sponsored herself in that key. So great. I think she should ride with the commander in this Jeep. I think it'd be awesome. You know, he could she could lead that convoy through. Yeah. You know, it's a it's a pretty simple route. I just did the map for two days ago. So we could do that, but I have to have contact information. Maybe I could definitely get this way. So when you do the maps, are you using like Google and stuff like that now or like, yeah, because when when people are following it, I mean, you're talking about historic military vehicles and everything. What are what are they using as drivers? I mean, remember the Thomas guides. I remember being in a wildfire once and having to help firefighters and they're having Thomas guides that weren't making sense to what was going on at the fires and having to guide them around or tell them. But what like, I remember the Thomas, do people remember maps anymore other than GPS? You know, that's part of why I like the Jefferson highways. I hope people actually get maps out like atlases and things like that. And their kids get in there. But driving wise, are people programming in GPS to do this? They try, but it doesn't work. No. I mean, I think it will someday and I would love to be able to electronically publish the maps so you can have it right on your screen in your in your car or vehicle or your laptop computer. We're just not quite there yet. Maybe somebody is, but I'm certainly not. But we will we will do the route foot by foot basically. Wow. Go to the Jefferson Highway site and they have a map. Yep. I put it up and then I'll open up Google Maps and I'll literally trace it on Google Maps down. And then I have to zoom in and look at a bridge that's limited to three tons. I think, well, we're not going that way. But that's the beauty of it. Between Chuck and and me, we've driven the entire route. Wow. I believe there might be between Fort Scott and Alma. I'm not sure. Did you drive that Chuck? Fort Scott to Alma? Yeah. Okay. So always looking for stuff that way. But I can also, I quote, fly the route. I can go down on Google Maps and touch the little golden guy in the corner, put it on a highway and I can literally look for railroad crossings or bridge overpasses and things like that. So it takes a lot of time. But I don't want to be the guy that gets piled up because, you know, the bridge is closed. We really try hard to verify where we're going, what we're doing. Wow. This is amazing. I mean, I mean, Roger, this is epic. And I know you're going to, Roger, I know you're going to go outside of Mistogi, right? Oh, yeah. We will definitely be along the route in Oklahoma. And much as I can. And it's like, like I said before, this is an historic on the history of the highway. And, you know, I think one of the things that you've seen here, and I think is we are our two groups and these two gentlemen specifically and I have conversed and, you know, both of them were at our conference in Mesa City two years ago. And Chuck, what a barring an injury had would have been in our conference this year. But we've got to be really friends of this whole thing ourselves. And, you know, we're, it's a camaraderie, I think, among us. So it's, and I think it's only going to expand as this event goes on. And we are, like I told them there today, where we'll help them wherever we can on the big thing. But as you can tell, they got this already pretty well planned, I think. And we're just getting ready for this big event to happen in the whole month of October. This is fantastic. We'll have to catch up with you maybe during or after. It's probably after it's easier, because you'll be, I know how it is. But we have to catch up with you after. And even beforehand, let's everyone, if you go to jeffersonhighway.org, again, the actual route of where they're going to be when is there. And then you can also go to mvpa.org, military vehicle preservation association, so mvpa.org. Click on the link for convoys. And you can say convoys and whatever, kind of, we'll continue to create our sign with information as we get closer to the convoy. We'll work with them and try to get information best we can on what people can expect, things like that. So, I think the convoy may have a Facebook page. It's not run by Chuck or me. But I think they're going to get that up and running. Oh, cool. Like an event page. And then everyone can follow along. Hopefully. And there's also, we have a radio beacon kind of thing, satellite beacon on the lead vehicle that if we get that up and running, you can go to a website and see exactly where the front of the convoy is at all times. And that's not set up yet. So, and it never gets set up until about the time we leave so we can advertise it very well. But yeah, we'll try. We can put it on the Highway Association website. That's right. The Facebook group. I, everyone, if you follow the Jefferson Highway Association Facebook group. Oh my gosh. You, you, I love that group. It's my favorite group. You know, and I'm a national park person too. But like that group, like the history that because when you follow our route, okay, it's just, it's rabbit hole century. I mean, everything is a rabbit hole of history of what to see and do. There's so much happening on the route, whether it's events and things like that. But I love that group, Roger. I mean, you've got a lot of people on there and people post things. And then there's also like the history that you guys are always, hey, did you know back here and then this happened, you know? So I know during that the month of October, it's going to be busy on that group, don't you think? No, no. And we're hoping people will take pictures as they pass their communities. And we'll share them, you know, kind of like we've done, people do conferences and stuff. We're going to definitely encourage it. Just about every community goes through there. If we can find people to post pictures along there. And I'm sure we'll get a lot of that. But we want to document this because this is, again, a story can be on all the highway. So it's itself. So we would help people help. Yeah, absolutely. I guess, yeah, make history be now, like you're saying, it's making history. You know, it's not old history. It is old history, but it's new history celebrating the past, the present and the future. So that's what I love about it. So I thank you guys for joining us Chuck and John and what you're doing. It's fantastic. Everyone again, I'm going to give out the websites are linked in the episode notes that wherever you're listening, whether it's Spotify or Podbean or YouTube or Facebook, wherever you are, Apple, just go to nvpa.org and go to jeffersonhighway.org. Also, nagadish.com, N-A-T-C-H-I-T-O-C-H-E-S, nagadish.com, there are sponsors of today's show, and it's a destination to go get your meat pies. And they have so much film history. I mean, they've even got brick streets. It's just an amazing destination and is very much a part of the highway at the jefferson highway, and that's how we found out all about it. So thank you to Arlene Gold, who's now retired, but I always want to give her a shout out because I think she really did a lot for the highway association, including the lodging part, right? Roger, so that's another thing to think of when you see this. Something tells me she might be listening. I have a funny feeling. She doesn't let go. Oh, we already all miss her, but I have a funny feeling she may join him. I have a feeling we'll see. I have a feeling, and I have a feeling we're going to see her in like a month and a half. When we get to New Orleans, we get to go find, we're going to go to New Orleans so we can do the jefferson highway there. So I'm excited about that. Speaking of that, before you guys go, aren't you going to the Big World War II Museum when you get there? When you get to New Orleans? Yes, absolutely. That's one of their ending stops or kind of their completion stop, my understanding. I think you have another place after that if I'm wrong, Chuck. I'm sorry, my microphone went out. I was asking both of you if you were going to go to the World War II Museum in New Orleans. Yes, yes. That's supposed to occur on Tuesday, the 29th. Wow, wow. Roger, that's epic. That's it. So you're going to all park there at the museum? Yes. Wow. Okay. Yeah, and both the World War I and the World War II Museum will be part of it. I think that's just perfect. It's just going to add a lot to be the final part of the route when they basically end in New Orleans or, you know, to be at that museum. That's just how good could it be, you know? That's as bad as it could be. It is. It is. Well, thank you all for joining us again. Everyone, jeffersonhighway.org, look at the links in the episode notes. I want to go on the ambulance. Like, that's the only ambulance I want to go in because I don't have to go anywhere. Like, you know, I don't want to go, I don't want to see the people in the white coats, but, or, you know, the padded rooms. So, anyway, thank you both for what you're doing to make this happen. We really appreciate it. And really, Roger, this is epic. This is cool. We're going to have to do more. We have to follow up on this for sure. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you, John. Thank you, Roger. Take care, guys. Thank you for joining us here on the Big Blend Radio Jefferson Highway Show. The show airs every fourth Thursday, and we encourage you to go to jeffersonhighway.org to learn more about the Jefferson Highway Association or even become a member. You can also dig into the history of the highway and share travel notes with friends at the Jefferson Highway Association Facebook group. Follow our shows at bigblendradio.com. Happy travels.
