I took this photo a couple of weekends ago.  David Van Winkle and the other great Americans at the Van Winkle Service Center, you should go there, in Ramsey were tending to the oil changing my 1999 Dodge Stratus needed very badly.  The aforementioned establishment is a primary reason the car is still in as good of shape as it is.  When I came back around to pick it up, David Van Winkle made a comment that the car just keeps on going.   Yes, thanks to him.  The vehicle has 240,000-plus miles on it.  It still drives quite well.  The stereo is great and the gas mileage is acceptable.  Tunes and miles?  I drive alone in this car.  When I am not talking to God or my mother, I crank up The Moody Blues and the others on my iPod as I drive to and from work everyday.  That would be either 108 miles or 130 mile, depending on whether or not the East Fork of the White River is rolling over Highway 235.

When I took the picture above I was walking.  From the Van Winkle Service Center to the parking lot of North Harrison Elementary School (the Whiskey Run Road side), it is 1.25 miles if you take the gravel road on the South side of Hwy. 64 to the East entrance of the school system’s high school.  This is where I took the picture of the rail road tracks.  The direction the camera is looking is East.

If anyone else is scratching their head’s about the sensibility of a school being located on Whiskey Run Road, know you are not alone.

I walked 5 miles on this day.  I like to walk.  It is good exercise for the body and the mind.  Many of us have occupations that make us process information faster than we can comprehend as we are walking along a lonely gravel road with a cool Western breeze at our backs and, in my case, with ear buds snugly placed so that all the music stays between the ears.  I listen to slow songs and fast songs…rocking songs and sacred songs…country songs and mostly rock and roll songs.  I indicated what is on my iPod  many posts ago.

The Moody Blues claim the most songs on my iPod.  That is no shock to anyone who knows me.

Though I have yet to mention it yet, My dear wife, Carrie, and I  saw The Moody Blues sing last weekend.  I know. I know.  Some of you in the know just wondered aloud, “Again?”

Yes, again.  Another town and another venue.  This time at Merrillville, Indiana’s  Star Plaza Theatre.

The regular camera was not working.  I took this picture with my antiquated phone.  This phone does great when you have great light…the railroad tracks pic was taken by the same instrument, as have many other speaktherights.com pictures.

Maybe this was a good thing.  Maybe this is a good last shot, just in case this was the final Moody Blues concert we get to see.  I first saw them in 1986.  I was 18.  You do the math.

I do know the band has a few dates set for 2016.  You just never know.

Personally, I hope they hang in until 2017 and do a 50 year anniversary of Days of Future Passed at London’s Royal Albert Hall.  That would certainly be recorded.  Perhaps they could get the other two members from that day, Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas, back in the fray for a one-off performance.  I am probably dreaming here.  Pinder last played with the boys in 1974 at San Francisco’s “Cow Palace”.  Thomas retired from the group after 2002.

Know this…the concert we took in last weekend was one of the best Moodies performances I have ever seen.  Justin Hayward is still an impeccable guitar player and his voice is a marvel.  John Lodge still shows off as he is playing the bass and rocks with a purpose.  Graeme Edge, at 74, can still keep time with the sticks and incite a crowd with his antics.  I don’t think we could have asked for a better show.

Maybe I am the one who should walk away.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson