ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART
On The Road…..”Leaving beautiful California is kind of like leaving the vacation spot of the world,” says Bob Everhart, the 12-string guitar picker for Bob & Sheila. “We were all set to do a couple of small shows with Patti Page, but she is not doing well at all health wise. She’s 83 years old, and we sure wanted to do some shows with her, but it didn’t happen. We’re on the road now, which might delay our weekly column, and staying at the Lake Casa Blanca State Park in Texas was exactly that experience. No wi-fi. There’s a tremendous amount of road construction going on in the Laredo, Texas, area too, and even finding this particular State Park was a chore, but we managed to get in before dark. Casa Blanca Lake, translated is the White House Lake, and it’s water level is really down, according to the lines on the shore. Everywhere we’ve been in west Texas has been a drought area, even all the way over to Big Bend National Park. Another thing we’ve noticed in traveling off the Interstate, there are a lot more ‘check points’ than we remember from the past. These ‘check points’ are stops to check citizenship papers, and are always where dogs sniff your entire vehicle. Needless to say, our own dog and cat get excited by the additional visitors. These stops are only very short interruptions to travel, and the Border Patrol is very busy on this highway all the way south.”
“We thought it was kind of funny when we went through Eagle Pass,” Sheila added. “We stopped at a Burger King which is located right next door to a large cemetery. It must have been some sort of ‘day of the dead’ for Mexicans, because the cemetery was completely full of very colorful plastic flowers, lots and lots and lots of them. While we ate at the Burger King, a guy sitting next to us piped right up, and said, “I always have lunch with my grandmother.” We thought that was nice, except he was all by himself. “Where’s your grandmother,” I asked him, and he said “Oh she’s over there in the cemetery.” I guess the Burger King should put some umbrellas and picnic tables over there too.”
“Budget lunch on the road has a whole new meaning,” Bobbie Lhea, the 15-year old daughter of Bob & Sheila. “Dad doesn’t look for a ‘cheap’ place to eat, he looks for a ‘CHEAP’ place to eat. We don’t often do McDonalds, but this time was our time. Still, they have some pretty good chicken nuggets, and mom and dad think their coffee is better than most any other fast food joint. Anyway, I usually get something I like, so I don’t mind.”
“We’ll be in the Rio Grande Valley for a couple of months,” Bob added. “When Sheila and I asked Bobbie Lhea a couple of years ago, what she would like to do for her 16th birthday, lo and behold she said she wanted to go to Paris. We’ve been there lots of times, but the last time Bobbie was only about nine, so she probably doesn’t remember it. We’ve been saving our coins to do that, but we’re still coming up short, so now if Bobbie takes care of the CD-table, she gets all the profit toward our trip to Paris, hopefully right around her 16th birthday which will be in October.