SEMI-HIATUS RECAP

Before OC,SH returns to the “full speed ahead” complete schedule starting Monday, 04/04/2016, this week gives you time to review posts since the website officially started 01/19/2015.

To see the 56 “Tuesday Trip” entries, click HERE.

To see the 56 “Daily Dose: Trivia Tuesday” entries, click HERE.

PERSONAL NOTE:
The pic I chose as the featured image to publicize to Facebook & Twitter for this entry is from THIS recent post about a late March 2001 mini road trip. I originally had another image in mind, but then a startling experience happened.

~11:41p, Monday, 03/28/2016, while I was enjoying my nightly fun of visiting with friends on Facebook, a name from my past flashed across my brain. I’m not sure how I thought of him at that moment or what triggered my mind to remember him, but it stopped me in my tracks. You see, I hadn’t thought of him in years, but when I thought of his name, I instinctively did an online search to see if I could see any news about his family. Instead, I found THIS link to his gravesite.

15 years ago today, 03/29/2001, was a Thursday. That evening, I logged onto AIM (AOL Instant Messenger … talk about a blast from the past, eh!?) as I did in those days, but unusually, I didn’t see Donnie’s handle online. It bothered me a brief moment, but then I got busy chatting with other friends & preparing for my at-the-time annual pilgrimage to Tennessee. The next morning, I drove to Tennessee, & that Friday evening, while I was in my “usual” hotel in Antioch TN (southeast of Nashville TN), I was told Donnie had died early that Thursday morning. After his night shift, he steered his car onto an expressway in the Little Rock AR area &, upon entering the freeway, his car hydroplaned, crossed the grassy center median & was hit in the driver’s door by an oncoming Jeep. Donnie was killed instantly. “Best I Ever Had” by Vertical Horizon, which debuted January 2001, got a lot of radio airplay that March &, as such, became indelibly linked to my memories of that weekend, which includes the pic featured with this blog post….

Prior to my departure for Tennessee that weekend, I had started talking to people about a possible road trip to meet them, including Donnie. I started those yearly road trips the very next summer, doing at least 1 each year 2002-2011. In the midst of 1 of them, while driving through Little Rock AR, I pulled off the expressway on a whim, stopped at a gas station & pulled out a phone book to see if I could find his family. I remembered his Dad’s name from a fundraiser the Monte Carlo Mailing List had done; I found the name, but never made the call. I had my cell phone in my hand, ready to dial, but then I figured it would look weird. Now, I’d love to be able to reach out to let them know someone remembers….

The person who had spearheaded the fundraiser, Crazy Bill, died less than a year after I met him in New Mexico, October 2004.

Talk about a flood of memories from a name that just popped into my head.  Funny how that works, eh!?

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