>>>Now, I don't make this offer to just anyone, but, from the title, I might be interested in seeing your pictures from the trip!
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>>Unfortunately, there aren't any. We were driving to Valpo from C'Ville, about a 10 hour trip. Things were right on schedule when we hit Nashville, TN around noon. Then we hit a traffic jam getting onto I-65 from I-24. It took around two hours.
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>>We made it to Bowling Green, KY and decided to take a short break. All of a sudden a violet thunderstorm popped up, so we got back on the road, trying to get away from it.
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>>We're driving along, when all of a sudden there's a lightning strike a couple of miles dead ahead of us. A couple of minutes later, we see what looks like fog coming up. We looked, for some reason to our left, and here comes this semi, smoke billowing out from directly behind the cab. It was apparently on fire and we don't think that the driver realized it. The smoke reduced the visibility to virtually nothing. That's when I gave it the name.< g >
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>It sounds like you finally made it back to the Promised Land, which we're all glad to hear <g>

Yep! Made it safe and sound, but it marked the second straight time driving that we encountered such difficulty that it made the trip take on a level of almost biblical proportions. The previous one was named, "The Journey to the 7th Level of Rain Hell".

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>>I have a different plan in mind and actually, the "payback" part is not directed at our birthday friend, but his wife. You might want to head over to www.roxworld.com and check out the "Backdoor" pictures. There's a picture of me there, that I call "Fruit Salad". After seeing that be advised that she (with my wife's help) did something similar to me last year. Then they wrapped me in toilet paper, put lipstick on me, surrounded me with empty beer cans and liquor bottles, put a sign on me reading, "I'm a Party Pooper", and took a similar picture. Last Saturday, I got a card from her, implcating that she thought of me when she read the article that was enclosed. It was from a publication called "The Onion" which is a humor newspaper. The article supposedly was written by an old man and was entitled "Don't depend on Depends". I swore vegeance right then.:-)
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>George, good buddy, it's time! <bg>
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Yep, and I going to get the "birthday boy" to help me (but he doesn't know it yet).:-)