On the Road Again with Merle

That was my first time by there, also.... I plan to stop in sometime when they are open.... we ran into the owner (I think) a few months back at the Ponderosa BBQ place in Dickens... he didn't say much.
 
hornetguy said:
On the way back home, we did a slight detour to go past the Moore Maker knife place.... being Sunday, they were closed, so we didn't get to tour the store, so we just settled for a photo-op... Merle turned out a little blurry...
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Who's making the moore maker knives these days?
 
Fodderwing said:
Who's making the moore maker knives these days?
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I'm not really sure.... I'll bet someone on here knows, though. I think I heard at one time it might be Bear and Sons... but I might have dreamed that up.... I've had a couple of their knives, and both were pretty nicely made... the one I have now is as good as the better Case knives, at least..
 
Merle indicated he was getting bored just riding to work and back with me, and he'd like to move along to the next location.... I suggested we should try one more stop before he goes.... so we left work a little early, and met my wife and grand girl down at the State Fair of Texas.... being greeted by none other than Big Tex...
Merle Big Tex.jpg

Merle got pressed into duty, helping my wife enjoy a Texas Fair staple.... a Fletcher's corndog... my wife has recently had to have some serious braces put on her teeth, and she can't chew much of anything, much less bite something off a stick, like a corndog.... so Merle volunteered to slice her some pieces off one so that she could enjoy it as much as I did... (thanks, Merle)

Merle corn dog.jpg

Merle insisted on a glamour shot in front of the world famous Cotton Bowl stadium before we headed out..... all in all, a pretty nice afternoon/evening....

Merle Cotton Bowl.jpg
 
hornetguy said:
Back from the panhandle... when we got to Lubbock Merle asked "what's there to do here?" I suggested we could go see Prarie Dog Town out at the park, Merle said "Meh..... there's prarie dogs all over the place here.." Yep.... I told him that Lubbock had produced some pretty good musicians, but most of them are gone on.... we stopped out at the Lubbock cemetery and saw a sign describing Buddy Holley's grave site... so we stopped by there.... I find it interesting that most people that mention him spell his last name Holly..... according to his family, it's Holley.... even the sign got it wrong.. :rolleyes:
The "day the music died".... Buddy, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper... gone too soon.

View attachment 1947577
View attachment 1947579

Also, another music legend from Lubbock, who passed very recently.... Merle said "I remember him! He's the one that sang my theme song! Oh, lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way...." it was my turn to roll my eyes....

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Great post, thanks for sharing! That’s interesting about the difference in spelling of Holly/Holley. I’d only ever seen it spelled Holly, which seems to be the spelling he used professionally, but using the family spelling makes sense for the gravestone. I forget that he was only 22 when he died. 🙁

hornetguy said:
Merle indicated he was getting bored just riding to work and back with me, and he'd like to move along to the next location.... I suggested we should try one more stop before he goes.... so we left work a little early, and met my wife and grand girl down at the State Fair of Texas.... being greeted by none other than Big Tex...
View attachment 1951032

———

Merle insisted on a glamour shot in front of the world famous Cotton Bowl stadium before we headed out..... all in all, a pretty nice afternoon/evening....

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Thanks for taking Merle to the State Fair. I’d have to imagine they do it pretty big in Texas. I remember a storyline about Big Tex in an episode of King of the Hill. 😁

hornetguy said:
That evening Merle got to help with some good Texas barbeque... He said "this is more like it..."

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hornetguy said:
Merle got pressed into duty, helping my wife enjoy a Texas Fair staple.... a Fletcher's corndog... my wife has recently had to have some serious braces put on her teeth, and she can't chew much of anything, much less bite something off a stick, like a corndog.... so Merle volunteered to slice her some pieces off one so that she could enjoy it as much as I did... (thanks, Merle)

Merle corn dog.jpg
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Good to see Merle’s still eating well. 😉 Both the BBQ and the corndog look delicious! :thumbsup:

hornetguy said:
Merle wanted to tell Duke goodbye, but Duke was already asleep... he's just over 15 years old, and he sleeps a lot now...

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Hey, at 15 years old, Duke deserves to enjoy all the sleep he wants. 🙂 We had a dog named Duke when I was a kid, border collie mix, great dog.
 
Got Merle yesterday. Showed him to some friends that was over. Both agreed he was nice. One asked about cost and where to acquire a similar quality knife. I told him of how you couldn’t just go to the store and get a GEC and the secondary price was outrageous. A big turn off. Being a sportsman but not a knife nut he certainly seen the quality.

The other guy still preferred his smith and Wesson flipper Walmart special.

I got in the notion do some reloading. So I rode heard on ol Merle.

https://imgur.com/NE0UUb9
https://imgur.com/zuf6Jcd
https://imgur.com/8ohut2i

I trim all new revolver brass for consistent crimp, these had been trimmed down from 44 mag with a drill press trimmer and are getting the trim to final length.
https://imgur.com/Xxd3UgD

Caught him swimming in the gas checks.
https://imgur.com/7JdwkSa
 
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JM2 said:
Got Merle yesterday. Showed him to some friends that was over. Both agreed he was nice. One asked about cost and where to acquire a similar quality knife. I told him of how you couldn’t just go to the store and get a GEC and the secondary price was outrageous. A big turn off. Being a sportsman but not a knife nut he certainly seen the quality.

The other guy still preferred his smith and Wesson flipper Walmart special.

I got in the notion do some reloading. So I rode heard on ol Merle.

https://imgur.com/NE0UUb9
https://imgur.com/zuf6Jcd
https://imgur.com/8ohut2i

I trim all new revolver brass for consistent crimp, these had been trimmed down from 44 mag with a drill press trimmer and are getting the trim to final length.
https://imgur.com/Xxd3UgD

Caught him swimming in the gas checks.
https://imgur.com/7JdwkSa
Click to expand...
Good thing Merle's keeping a close eye on the reloading....
When he met the troll, I can just hear him thinking.... "that trashy old thing....." 😁
 
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SVTFreak said:
I’ve finally read through all that I’ve missed. No way I can take Merle on adventures that can compare to y’all’s. Especially Alaska, Britain, Scotland and Pennsylvania. Loved reading about those parts. But I’ll do something with him! Gonna leave New Orleans to Wurrwolf. Starting out, I have to work a little extra this weekend so this week won’t leave a lot of time. Today, it’s work. But I have some reading time so working on some self improvement! Here’s merle with a few things he’s sharing my pocket with today.
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Thanks for the heads up. Merle likes it the second time round too.
https://imgur.com/iaXIxfj
 
Wonderful pictures so far JM2.
I've got my grandfather's reloading supplies from when he passed. I've still not taken the time to learn the knowledge of how to operate it correctly. But I've gathered that finding/buying reloading supplies is still not easy over the past 5 years.

We have Devil's Walkingstick trees here in my area too. Nasty stuff if they grow in a large patch. Even the deer won't go through it, they prefer to walk around.
 
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