Billy Currington's Stories Are Worth Listening

One of my favorite artists is Billy Currington. His country music strikes a chord with me. His song... Good Directions... has a neat ending, but you really have to listen. I just took this photograph in Macon, Georgia this past weekend in Hill Street Park and titled it "Good Directions." I wish I could have seen this cherry tree at the height of the bloom.

Good Directions

I was sittin' there sellin' turnips on a flatbed truck
Munchin' on a pork rind when she pulled up
She had to be thinkin' "This is where Rednecks come from"
She had Hollywood written on her license plate
She was lost and lookin' for the interstate
Needin' directions and I was the man for the job

[Chorus]

I told her way up yonder past the caution light
There's a little country store with an old Coke sign
You gotta stop in and ask Miss Bell for some of her sweet tea
Then a left will take you to the interstate
But a right will bring you right back here to me

I was sittin' there thinkin' 'bout her pretty face
Kickin' myself for not catchin' her name
I threw my hat and thought, "You fool, that could've been love"
I knew my old Ford couldn't run her down
She probably didn't like me anyhow
So I watched her disappear in a cloud of dust.

[Chorus]

I told her way up yonder past the caution light
There's a little country store with an old Coke sign
You gotta stop in and ask Miss Bell for some of her sweet tea
Then a left will take you to the interstate
But a right will bring you right back here to me
Is this Georgia heat playin' tricks on me
Or am I really seein' what I think I see
The woman of my dreams comin' back to me

She went way up yonder past the caution light
Don't know why, but somethin' felt right
When she stopped in and asked Miss Bell for some of her sweet tea
Mama gave her a big 'ol glass and sent her right back here to me

Thank God for good directions and turnip greens.

Ode to my GPS Garmin nuvi 255W

A friend bought me a wonderful photography tool, my GPS, pictured on the left. Of course it was very helpful on our yearly road trip, but it had a use I didn't imagine, which I want to share. On the trip, we were driving from Key Largo north and my daughter wanted to go to one more beach before we left Florida. So as I headed north on highway 75, I zoomed in on the coast on the left and I saw there was a quick jaunt to the beach at Naples, so we took 5th avenue into the coast. The city was gorgeous for photography, and we had a nice dinner. So, until you have a GPS, you don't realize what it can do outside of the obvious "get me there." Here's what I saw from the GPS (sort of) below.

This GPS has a picture viewer, which you will love as a photographer. After a shoot, I pop in my SD card, and it creates a slide show. The screen is about 4" x 2", so it makes a bigger image than the back of my camera. I don't know how to delete 12 shots Garmin has included with the GPS, which we have to view each time, but that is my only complaint.

The Garmin runs on batteries and holds a charge for a long time, so you can plug in your cell when driving or use it out of the car to view images. 

My model also tells the arrival time, which I like when heading to a meeting etc. It is very accurate and makes up for this model not displaying the time, which is in the car anyway. Don't buy a lower end model and lose this feature. But my favorite feature is that it displays the speed limit in the bottom right. This is especially helpful on long drives when I miss the speed limit change.

I do want to include a funny story, so it doesn't happen to you. This GPS used to fail everytime I didn't follow the route and made it recalculate. One day I was looking through all the functions while waiting in carpool line and I realized that someone had told my GPS to avoid u-turns, highways, toll roads, traffic and ferries, which made the machine quite confused when recalculating directions. To get to those features, click the following:

tools
navigation
avoidances (u-turns, highways, toll roads, traffic, ferries)

Make sure they are all unchecked. This was a good chuckle, and I loved the look on his face when I asked him about it! Go buy one. Or, if you have a GPS, let me know what model in the comments and what you think of it.

And, if you haven't listened to Billy Currington's boy meets girl song and story about Good Directions, take a listen.

Billy Currington's Cup of Joe

Billy Currington is all country and has many great songs. My favorite songs of his are "Good Directions" and "People are Crazy." "People are Crazy" can be found on The Little Bit of Everything CD. There is a story in this one that surprises you when you are listening. It's chorus says, "God is great, beer is good, people are crazy." The song explains what one crazy person did with all his money.

I started writing this blog because the lyrics in Everything refer to cup of joe, which I gathered was coffee, but have wanted to know for certain. Currington sings.

"The way you stumble in the kitchen
Lookin' for that first cup of joe
How you put on your mascara starin' in the mirror
On your tippy toes
If you wonder why I love you baby
I can't boil it down to just one thing, yeah

Everything

Every little thing about you baby

Turns me on (if it ain't one thing it's another)"

So a friend of mine posted a blog about joe this week, so here's the scoop on joe.

"Good directions" is another story in song. This one is about a boy selling turnips who encounters a cute girl. He sends her on her way, but wishes he'd been a little more assertive. This song is on the Doin Something Right CD.