Pardon me boy... is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Oil, oil, Oil!

This past weekend took me to Chattanooga to visit my best friend, Marc, his wife Nancy, their three lovely rascals -- Hayden (my goddaughter), Kali, and Wil, and Marc's folks, George and Patti. Hayden is fast becoming a fabulous performer, Kali -- a budding sculptor, and Wil -- well, ladies, watch out for Wil!

In between playing with the kids on Saturday and watching the Superbowl on Sunday, Marc took time to introduce me to several folks who may be able to help move the Vanishing America project forward. We also met up with our friend Dan, and his wife Scottie, a local news anchor who wants to do a story on me when I come back through in the Spring.

On Sunday, before the game, Marc took me to the Chattanooga Golf & Country Club to collect some oil. We had spoken to Alvin, the Club's Director of Services, two nights before about getting some of the used oil from the Club's restaurant. They currently have to pay for it to be removed, and he was more than happy to have me haul some away.

I didn't realize how fortunate I was to connect up with Alvin. Not only was I able to fill my tanks with over 50 gallons of oil, but the oil was incredibly clean and hardly needed filtering at all! It made oil collection an almost pleasant experience -- except for when the hose on the pump popped off and sprayed oil all over Marc!

On Monday, I headed back down to Atlanta to prepare for a meeting with the Atlanta Preservation Center, the Southeast Tourism Society, and to give a presentation to Etowah High School in Woodstock, GA.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks -- so busy, in fact, that I've gotten behind on my blog, and have yet to take a single photograph!

Looks like it's time to get an assistant.

Oh, and we're still looking for sponsors...