The location of the East Tennessee meeting was actually kept a secret. There were pieces in national publications wondering where it would be.

Sometimes mystery is more interesting than specifics.

I will reveal to you that the meeting was up a mountain a ways.

This is not exactly a revelation. To say something is up a mountain a ways in East Tennessee is like revealing that it was in California within a hundred miles of the Pacific coast. Not exactly dead GPS reckoning.

I had bitched at the last meeting that I was sick of not getting to speak at conferences until I had listened to the Name speakers and only got on when I was really exhausted. So in a fine act of courtesy they put Ole Bob first this time, with Horus as the other speaker to hold the old man up.

I then went back to my motel and slept through the rest of the conference. I was exhausted, and I had another problem I didn’t realize for a while.

As I said, the meeting place was up a mountain and the way there involved driving round and round and round in sharp turns.

When I was a kid, we went to my grandfather’s house regularly, and it was on top of a mountain. Back then before interstate, the drive up and down involved round and round and round sharp curves. I remember once in the evening seeing my face reflected in the mirror, and I was white as chalk.

This doesn’t happen when I’m driving, but I could never have found the place on my own, so I rode.

I had done my little bit and I just couldn’t go up there again. I felt like hell.

So my apologies to Don and Dave and the conference organizers for putting me on first. I don’t think I could have listened to all the other speakers AND ridden up and down the mountain BEFORE finally speaking.

My apologies for missing out the last part of the get-together. It was my only chance so far to enjoy the thing with my speech over, so I paid a price for it myself.

And I apologize for revealing that the meeting was somewhere “on a mountain in East Tennessee.” But I doubt the other side can use that.