Friday morning Day Four, Honest Mike and I split up. No, we were not mad at each other. BTW, that photo of us arm wrestlin over the hood of our Double Exposure Deuce roadster was only a symbolic struggle about the two different numbers (founding years) and company logos on either side of the car.
I flew back East to be with the good folks in Somerset, KY for their big finale Somernites Cruise banquet. (http://www.somernitescruise.com) Mike had our girl all to himself and took the Deuce westward toward Albuquerque by himself. Ken Gross, Hot Rod historian n author road with Mike in my place. More later…
I taxi ‘d to the Amarillo airport by 5:30 AM for a 7 AM flight,.. only to have the first and the following flight from Houston to Nashville also cancel. The plane finally made it to Nashville with just enough time to motor the 3-hour drive (according to mapquest) to Somerset, KY for their banquet.
Dr James Sawyer and I had met at the Hotrod Reunion in Bowling Green a couple of years earlier. He started communicating with my assistant, Crystal about speaking to the group at their big finale banquet to celebrate the end of the Somernites Cruise Season. Crystal and I committed but then found out the banquet was the same week as the Driven Dirty tour. Oops. But I committed to both! Well! A man’s got to do what he says he’s gonna do! . If he don’t, ..well…it just aint good. That’s all there is! So.. I flew back. What a cool time I had too!
A bunch of local Somerset car guys got together in 2001 and started this great cruise by being servant leaders with a spiritual foundation, commitment to family, a desire to involve n lift up kids, and have some good clean fun time centered around cruising their collector cars n hotrods. These guys inspired the whole town to make cruise deal a success. They got everyone involved!!!!… like the local Walmart, the Chamber, local businesses, and the Mayor.
The banquet. All seemed to have a good time. We ate well, and talked about the things we love best. I sat next to a very special team member named Roy “Pepper” Pully. Although clearly loved by all the Somernitecruise team, Pepper is a little different. He wore funky earrings on one ear. Once homeless, this big hearted, soft spoken man was helped by these friends, then pulled himself up by his own bootstraps n set his heart toward helping others…. especially kids. He drove the church bus, worked at the local church camp, and just focused on serving folks. Then he raised money to send underprivileged kids to camp any way he could like collecting aluminum cans. I was impacted by his story and the way he apparently reaches kids.
Why am I writing about all this? You see Pepper is dying of cancer; the cancer is one of those big words that mean cancer of the blood. The leadership team of the Somernites Cruise just last night started the Roy Pepper Pully Foundation to honor Pepper and continue his passion to help kids while he is with us and the plan is to hopefully continue it after Pepper goes home.
After I spoke, we had an auction solely to benefit the Pepper Foundation. They raised close to four thousand dollars in honor of Pepper for the kids. Car guys did it too! And they did it in a family way, and they had fun!
All I can say is that in Somerset, Kentucky they got it goin on! Hang in their Pepper!
I bet you can find out more about Pepper and the Foundation on the cruise website at http://www.somernitescruise.com
From the road,
Corky
