Early morning sunrises are always special to me. This one was overlooking the Mississippi River, in West Memphis, Arkansas on one of my recent trips. As you get older, sunrises are more special, you awake and realize that God has made another day for you to enjoy, and given you life to enjoy it with. Whether it was an early morning on the farm, growing up, an early morning on board my ship during my Navy years, standing the late...watch on the platform joining the bridge and watching the sun come up over some Pacific blue water, getting the boys up early at the Boys Ranch to do chores before school and watching the sunrise, but the best times was driving all night, after a gig in some town or other, heading for another town and another night of songs, so sleepy you could hardly hold your eyes open, and then over the mountains the sky starts to brighten and the promise of a new day, new adventures, new songs drew me like a magnet on and on. One morning, I viewed the sunrise from a different angle. We were on the way to Texas, from Nashville, to do a tour of Texas honky tonks, headed for Dewey Grooms Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas. The year was 1966 and I had just bought a new Dodge Motor Home for me and the band to travel in and I was pretty proud of it. I had taken the first driver duty from Nashville to Memphis, and turned it over to my Bass Player and Band Leader, Buck Evans. Buck was an old road hog and had been down about every road that ever was so I went back to my new bunk in the back of the Motor Home to enjoy the new luxury of sleeping in a bed while traveling on the road, yeah, buddy, this is the life. I went into a wonderful deep sleep with the gentle rocking of the Motor Home, like the rocking of the ship I used to love to sleep on, dreamless and sound. I awoke to a horrible ripping sound...what th' heck! I am staring out at the new Texas morning sunrise streaming in what used to be the back of my Motor Home, but was now a ten foot by ten foot picture window. I'm laying in my bunk in my skivvies with Dallas going by and staring. Well, Buck, who had been driving long night hours, had stopped for gas when he reached Dallas about 6 in the morning. After filling up he got back in and started to back up to turn around and get back on the road. As he was backing he didn't see the filler pipe for filling up the storage tanks for fuel that stuck up just at the right height to fit snugly under the back of the Motor Home and lodge solidly under the back cap of the vehicle which was made of fiberglass and covered the whole back end. When Buck pulled forward the pipe simply pulled the complete end cap off and the Motor Home became a sort of convertible that was never in the minds or imagination of the engineers that created it. Well, after that rude awakening, and looking at the sorry mess of our Motor Home, I wasn't near as proud as I had been. In fact, after we bought all the Duct Tape that the store had in stock and used it to Duct Tape the rear end back on my beautiful Motor Home....it wasn't beautiful anymore..it looked like something the cat had drug in. We made it to the gig that night and then did a couple more Texas towns and headed for Florida for some shows. A week later, in Tampa Florida, Buck was driving again and pulled under a canopy of a gas station that was too low and tore the air conditioner plumb off the dang thing. More Duck Tape. The rest of the tour, in 90 degree weather was done with a very grumpy, hot and sticky band. My great travelling vehicle idea had turned into a pretty sad state of disrepair and the most unartistic use of Duct Tape ever known to hillbillydom. I sold the Motor Home a year later, after Buck, during an ice storm and going down a slight grade to stop at a red light, meant to stop alright, but the Motor Home didn't even slow down and ploughed into an older couples pristine Buick ramming their rear bumper up into their nice trunk and taking the pristine away forever. Well, by that time Buck had got the back end, the top and now the front end...I didn't want to wait and see what would happen to both sides. So, I sold it and figured Motor Homes just were not tough enough for a traveling bunch of hillbilly gypsies, who could play music a heck of a lot better than we could drive....but I've often thought of how nice the Texas sunrise looked coming through the picture window that was not designed to be there. Sunrises are always worth the trouble. See you at the next one, I hope. -Stan
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