I used to hate having to drive in fog, after a show somewhere and going on to the next town to do it all over again. One trip where it got really bad was up in the Upper part of Michigan, in about 1965. On this particular road trip, Loretta Lynn and I were on the shows together, and she had called and asked if she could ride with me to the show. I was glad to have the company, and we all used to double up like that when we were doing shows together. This was pretty early in Loretta's career, as it was in mine, and neither one of us was carrying a band. Our first stop was in Saint Louis to do a Friday night show, and then on to Upper Michigan for a Sunday night show and dance in a pavilion that was built out over a lake.
I remember it was in the hot Summer, and I did not even have air conditioning in my car, driving with the windows down and all vents open. On the way from Saint Louis to Michigan, Loretta and I kept hearing tales, on the radio, about some UFO sightings in the Upper Midwest, and we were both pretty interested in it.
In this point in both our careers, money for travel was tight. We left Nashville on Friday morning, did the show in Saint Louis on Friday night, drove on to Michigan, driving all day Saturday, and finally getting into Alpena Saturday evening where the promoter had a two bedroom cabin next to the dance hall for us to crash and get a few hours sleep and clean up for the Sunday Afternoon and Sunday night shows. There were not a whole lot of Interstates finished in those days so a lot of the trip was on two lane roads.
I'll tell you what, Loretta Lynn was, and still is, a trouper. As hot and uncomfortable as the trip was, she stayed cheerful, and we talked ourselves hoarse the whole way. When she got tired, she would just have me pull over, crawl into the back seat and stretch out for a nap. An amazing artist, and an even more amazing person, Loretta Lynn is a true champion.
The last show and dance was over about 1AM, now Monday morning, and we loaded up the car to head back to Nashville. During the evening, a heavy fog had settled over the whole region, and the car lights just barely showed the blacktop road enough for me to ease along South. This part of Michigan was dense woods on either side of the road, so it was like driving down an endless tunnel. Loretta had changed out of her show dress (I think she only brought one for the trip) and put on her shirt and jeans, crawled into the back seat, and was asleep before we had gone two miles. I was already wore plumb out, and the fog was not helping that condition a bit.
About two hours into driving on that tunnel road, fog you couldn't cut with a knife, I noticed a strange light through the fog behind me, kinda hazy blue, swirling and pulsing....then I heard this equally strange sound...whoooop...whoooooop...whooooooop...and it was swooping down on me from behind! Awww, man, this is it...that UFO they been talking about has got us...I was going as fast as I dared go, but it was closing in on us...closer...closer...I hollered for Loretta to wake up cause I sure did not want her to miss being abducted by Aliens...awww, man...just when our records were doing good and all...oooooooooooooo....the ambulance swept around us in the fog....with the new sound of ambulances they had started using in the North country, and that we had never heard, and the new color of blue lights on emergency vehicles, also that we had never seen in the South at that time. I had to stop and pull off the road to collect myself, cause it is not everyday you have an Alien Encounter....whew, that was a close one.
Loretta just laid back down and went sound asleep most of the way back to Nashville, which is what Future SuperStars do, they go back into their private Suites of the Luxury Tour Buses, and sleep the sleep of the Special Ones, and she was just practicing in that hard back seat, for the time soon to come.
Above is a picture from that time, when it was all about a song. Stan
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