On the Road Again with Merle

[Rookie82]

That was a wonderful week tour of the cowboy life.

 

[Fodderwing]

After seeing all this work to restore USS MONITOR, Merle wondered what else the museum had to offer so off we went.

Isle of Wight County Museum. There, Merle learned everything that went in to creating a "Smithfield Ham

Great posts Jeremy! Very interesting and Merle was having a blast I'm sure. Yeah I'm a little late catching up but better late than...

 

[Fodderwing]

Markeologist
Wonderful pics of your part of paradise and I love the 62 F150. Thanks for hosting ole Merle.

btb01
Great post on the knife show Barrett! I'm really enjoying catching up on Merle's travels.

 

[sbh06]

Great posts Jeremy! Very interesting and Merle was having a blast I'm sure. Yeah I'm a little late catching up but better late than...

No worries, glad you enjoyed them, Dwight.

 

[Fodderwing]

One thing though with dairy cattle, the bulls are notoriously vicious and you can never give them an inch.

Interesting bit of info. Never knew it.

Horsewright
Dave thanks for giving Merle (and the rest of us) a proper GRAND FINALE! What a fine spread you have and a lifestyle that no amount of money can buy. Congrats to Alyssa and I wish her well on her medical training endeavors. Always a treat to view your work in both image and prose. You're a mighty fine writer too but we already knew that. Oh ... and what a magnificent animal MITCH!

When ole Merle is bent over and gray headed he will still be telling anyone who will listen about his travels abroad. btb01 Many thanks Barrett for ramrodding the adventures.

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks again for a wild ride.

Thank ya sir!!

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks again for a wild ride.

Ya bet!

Interesting bit of info. Never knew it.

Horsewright
Dave thanks for giving Merle (and the rest of us) a proper GRAND FINALE! What a fine spread you have and a lifestyle that no amount of money can buy. Congrats to Alyssa and I wish her well on her medical training endeavors. Always a treat to view your work in both image and prose. You're a might fine writer too but we already knew that. Oh ... and what a magnificent animal MITCH!

When ole Merle is bent over and gray headed he will still be telling anyone who will listen about his travels abroad. btb01 Many thanks Barrett for ramrodding the adventures.

Thanks! Ya bet!

 

[Horsewright]

That was a wonderful week tour of the cowboy life.

Thank ya! Merle was fun to have around!

 

[RLB0414]

Horsewright , Dave thank you for taking the time to provide the great photos and information of a working ranch.
When it comes time to trade the saddle for something more comfortable you should consider becoming an author of modern western novels.

 

[Horsewright]

Horsewright , Dave thank you for taking the time to provide the great photos and information of a working ranch.
When it comes time to trade the saddle for something more comfortable you should consider becoming an author of modern western novels.

Thank you sir! I have a buddy that does something similar. I've proofread some of his stories for him in the past.

 

[Peregrin]

Horsewright
Dave, Thanks for great posts! Informative, interesting and just a pleasure to read and view. Merle will surely remember his adventures fondly.

 

[Horsewright]

Horsewright
Dave, Thanks for great posts! Informative, interesting and just a pleasure to read and view. Merle will surely remember his adventures fondly.

Thank you Gary!

 

[btb01]

Well, Merle has arrived home safe and sound from his cowboying adventure. (He actually got back a couple days ago, but I haven’t had a chance to write this post until now.) Here he is with the beautiful belt sheath Horsewright made for him — if I haven’t said it already, thank you for that Dave!

Now that Merle’s travels have ended, I thought I’d provide some interesting info about his journey.

Counting from the start of this thread, Merle was on the road for a total of 567 days. That’s almost 19 months, over a year and a half. He visited the following 18 US states: Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. He was in California on four separate occasions, visited New York and Oregon three times each, and Florida twice. (He was in Pennsylvania twice, as well, if you count the very beginning of his journey at the GEC factory.) Merle visited 4 (or is it 3?) different countries: the United State, England and Scotland in the UK, and Australia.

Traveling to and from all those destinations, Merle obviously covered quite a few miles. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet, conservatively counting the miles “as the crow flies” between destinations. All told, Merle has travelled at least 63,221 miles. The longest leg of his trip (not surprisingly) was 10,573 miles from Scotland to Australia. In fact, his trip to and from Australia accounts for almost 1/3 of his total miles traveled. The longest leg of his trip within the US was 2,493 miles from Virginia to California.

Merle ate and drank quite well on his trip. He had pizza and a Nathan’s hot dog in NYC, Juicy Lucys in Minneapolis, moose steak in Alaska, a Yorkshire chip butty, Texas BBQ, boudin in Louisiana, and the four B’s of cowboying: beer, bourbon, beef and biscuits n’ gravy. He had American beers, English beers and Aussie beers, Irn-Bru in Scotland, and plenty of whisk(e)y. He visited the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Tennessee, and had a bit of a wild night drinking with meako down under.

Thanks again to everyone who hosted Merle and made this such a fun thread: WValtakis Pàdruig Peregrin Hyesouljah abbydaddy beezwax paulhilborn Nature Boy TheChunk91 mqqn JTB_5 Jack Black Magizm7 meako Rookie82 SVTFreak HEMI 49 hornetguy JM2 glocktenman BigKurtHaze sbh06 Markeologist and Horsewright

(I sure hope I didn’t leave anyone out!)

To wrap things up, I’ve put together a compilation of photos from Merle’s travels that I liked, one from each host. There were so many great pics, it was hard to pick just one in a lot of cases, but I did my best. I will admit that I picked two from Jack Black simply because I didn’t want to leave Tool Man out.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, both the hosts and those who just followed along, commented, etc. This has been a lot of fun, and I hope y’all have enjoyed it as much as I have!

 

[Peregrin]

What an awesome journey, Merle!
Thanks for driving this bus, Barrett!
Barrett this thread was so much fun to follow. I need to go back through it though. I think missed some things!
Thanks for doing this, and thanks to everyone for making this place such a great place!

 

[JJ_Colt45]

Thanks Barrett for sending Merle on his travels. And to all Merle's hosts for sharing his adventures with all of us here!

It was fun to see the sights, hear the stories, and even learn a thing or two along the way. This thread has been lots of fun and provided entertainment all of these months.

Thanks to everyone involved.

 

[pistonsandgears]

Quite an adventure for Merle, it has been fun following along. Thanks everyone.

 

[Jack Black]

Wow, that's incredible Barrett, Merle sure had a great adventure my friend Thanks for the great wrap-up

 

[sbh06]

Fantastic write up and summary, btb01 .

 

[beezwax]

Welcome home Merle! Such an amazing adventure, thank you Barrett for letting me join in. It was an honor to host Merle in AK. I do hope you'll update this thread from time to time to let us know what he's up to, I know there are many folks around the world including myself that have grown quite fond of him

 

[WValtakis]

Well, Merle has arrived home safe and sound from his cowboying adventure. (He actually got back a couple days ago, but I haven’t had a chance to write this post until now.) Here he is with the beautiful belt sheath Horsewright made for him — if I haven’t said it already, thank you for that Dave!

Now that Merle’s travels have ended, I thought I’d provide some interesting info about his journey.

Counting from the start of this thread, Merle was on the road for a total of 567 days. That’s almost 19 months, over a year and a half. He visited the following 18 US states: Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. He was in California on four separate occasions, visited New York three times each, and Florida twice. (He was in Pennsylvania twice, as well, if you count the very beginning of his journey at the GEC factory.) Merle visited 4 (or is it 3?) different countries: the United State, England and Scotland in the UK, and Australia.

Traveling to and from all those destinations, Merle obviously covered quite a few miles. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet, conservatively counting the miles “as the crow flies” between destinations. All told, Merle has travelled at least 63,221 miles. The longest leg of his trip (not surprisingly) was 10,573 miles from Scotland to Australia. In fact, his trip to and from Australia accounts for almost 1/3 of his total miles traveled. The longest leg of his trip within the US was 2,493 miles from Virginia to California.

Merle ate and drank quite well on his trip. He had pizza and a Nathan’s hot dog in NYC, Juicy Lucys in Minneapolis, moose steak in Alaska, a Yorkshire chip butty, Texas BBQ, boudin in Louisiana, and the four B’s of cowboying: beer, bourbon, beef and biscuits n’ gravy. He had American beers, English beers and Aussie beers, Irn-Bru in Scotland, and plenty of whisk(e)y. He visited the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Tennessee, and had a bit of a wild night drinking with meako down under.

Thanks again to everyone who hosted Merle and made this such a fun thread: WValtakis Pàdruig Peregrin Hyesouljah abbydaddy beezwax paulhilborn Nature Boy TheChunk91 mqqn JTB_5 Jack Black Magizm7 meako Rookie82 SVTFreak HEMI 49 hornetguy JM2 glocktenman BigKurtHaze sbh06 Markeologist and Horsewright

(I sure hope I didn’t leave anyone out!)

To wrap things up, I’ve put together a compilation of photos from Merle’s travels that I liked, one from each host. There were so many great pics, it was hard to pick just one in a lot of cases, but I did my best. I will admit that I picked two from Jack Black simply because I didn’t want to leave Tool Man out.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, both the hosts and those who just followed along, commented, etc. This has been a lot of fun, and I hope y’all have enjoyed it as much as I have!

This post is just EPIC