Stories & Memories

This is Dan Tollett. I have a story about Levonn. When we were traveling to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, we were leaving the cave about late in the afternoon. And as we were going out, the lady said to Levonn, is the cave still open? And he responded, "yes, they haven't figured out how to close it yet." And she replied, "That was a kindergarten remark."

When it was time for us to move from California back to Nashville, we decided we'd just pack it up and drive the truck(s) ourselves to save money. We had my pickup truck and a trailer, and a big box truck, towing a car. I asked if Dad would be willing to help us drive. He of course said yes.

The day before we left, we were packing up and there was an air show over our house. I remember we got buzzed by an F18 Tomcat and it shook the house quite hard. Dad was very excited - he said it shook the paint off our house and "so low you can see the pilot's faces!!"

As we pulled away from San Diego that next morning, Dad really wanted to drive the big truck, but I felt it was better I drive it thru the mountains. I took the wheel while he rode in the pickup truck with Tracy. We communicated via handheld radios. He went on and on about how I was driving too slow (the truck could only climb at 45 up those mountains) and making jokes about going over the lines here and there. After we came down from the mountains into the desert, while crossing a bridge with no shoulder, a freight truck ahead of us blew a tire, which I then couldn't help but run dead-square. Which he then also ran over behind me. When I heard the radio a few seconds later, I knew I'd never hear the end of that.

I pulled over for a rest a bit later, and let him drive a bit. Once he got behind the wheel, he never gave it up. He drove as fast as that truck could go (85mph+) the entire rest of the trip and I had to beg him (over the radios) to stop to go to the bathroom. Turns out he had been urinating in a bottle to keep moving. We didn't figure that out until we stopped and he was complaining how his truck smelled - I think he tried to dump it out thru the big crack in the truck door and it backfired.

At some point we realized that every time we talked to him on the radio, the moving truck would meander all over the road. So, we stopped doing that. Even though it was funny, I was just imaging that truck running off the road with our entire house's contents in it.

We made it to Nashville in record time. It was a grueling, but hilarious experience. I wouldn't trade it for the world.