Happy Veteran's Day!
EXIT 14B I-95s To:  Jersey City, Hoboken, New Jersey


In 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month... the Guns fell silent ending World War One. So this is now celebrated as Veterans’ Day.  Hoboken and Jersey City were once the major disembarkation docks for a million Yankee Doe Boys who went to fight World War One in Europe. ​

Much like New York City, Jersey City, New Jersey has always been a destination for new immigrants. In its heyday after World War One, German, Irish, Polish, and Italian immigrants found work along the docks in trade and shipping services.  One famous Italian from Hoboken, was Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. ​

As an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents, the huge Black Tom explosion occurred in 1916 helping to prevent war materials from being used by the Allies in World War One.  German spies ignited stored munitions leveling several blocks.  While there were only 2 casualties, the Black Tom explosion was heard as far away as Trenton, New Jersey and Greenwich, Connecticut.   


#VeteransDay #BlackTom #BlackTomExplosion #ArmisticeDay #JerseyCity #Hoboken #GreatWar #Hoboken #GoldmanSachs #HollandTunnel #FrankSinatra ​

In an era before names, the anonymous monster blasted away with wind gusts of 150 mph. The tropical cyclone devastated the Greater Miami area having hit both the Bahamas and later the Gulf Coast. It accrued $100,000,000 in damage, a toll that remains the costliest in American history when adjusted using inflation and wealth normalization, yielding a cost of nearly 165 BILLION dollars in today's currency!

Think of that:  $165,000,000,000! 

Oh my God...That's more money than Jeff Bezos has!  
​

Fast Fact: August 28, 1929 was the height of the 1920’s Bull Market  just before the bottom fell out. The Stock Market would take 40 years — not until the 1960’s — to attain the same level as this day in 1929. Scary huh? 



As you drive through today's packed South Florida communities, think about it.  A storm actually started the 12 year Great Depression.

Not even a Hydrogen Bomb can do that!​

#MiamiHurricane #FloridaHurricane #AtomBomb #NuclearBomb #Hydrogenbomb #Bahamas #GulfCoast #1926 #Landboom #GreatDepression #Category4

​Hear this here> I-87n: Westchester, Nr Bronxville, Yonkers, at EXIT 6A


Look up. You will see Tuckahoe Road. Its  name means corn-bread in the Lenapay Indian language.  Meanwhile, the story of Yonkers' namesake is the story about a founder of liberal capitalism in America.


Thanksgiving is commemorative of the English Pilgrim settlement of what would become the United States. However, the laws and liberties we now hold dear are more the heritage of the Republican Dutch than the Feudal British.  Later English and American settlers co-opted the traditions of the Dutch and laid a narrative which honors England’s contributions to America.

But as we will see, the long forgotten Dutch had a far larger role in laying down rituals that elevated laws over tyrants.


Only a few miles from here, in the 1640’s a young entrepreneur named Adrien Vander Donck received a grant of land from the Dutch East India Company. Adrien built one of the first saw mills in the New World at the junction of the Hudson River and a smaller river. That river and a parkway beside it are now named Saw Mill River.    ​

Adrien Vander Donck was referred to in the Dutch language as a “Jung Herr”  or a "young Gentleman”. This name, “Jung Herr” evolved to become the present Yonkers as in: "this is the property of the young gentleman’s."


Adrien Vander Donck's lost story was uncovered recently in forgotten archives  in Albany.  The story of Adrien essentially tells the story of the Dutch influence on the founding of the United States. Its capitalistic democracy, the book claims,  was much different from British feudal intentions.  The Best Selling Book, ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD, by Russell Shorto tells this story:

​“When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, multilingual society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor.


But the story of the Dutch colony was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Drawing on this archive, Russell Shorto has created a gripping narrative; a story of global sweep centered on a wilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding of early America.


The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive young lawyer named Adrian VanderDonck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant the autocratic director of the Dutch colony.

​“The struggle between liberalism and autocracy laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own modern  American culture.”   


No surprise: that struggle between autocracy and liberalism continues very much to this day, many hundreds of Thanksgivings after Britain and Holland first came to America.   


Happy Thanksgiving!  Or rather we should say, “Vrolijke Thanksgiving”


#Dutch #Thanksgiving #Islandatthecenteroftheworld #RussellShorto #NewAmsterdam #NewYork #AdrienVanderdonck #nationaltreasure #Strugglebetweendemocracyandautocracy

Hear this Here!

Wendy’s Sign on I-95 approaching EXIT 27s in Florida.

“Upcoming is a Wendy’s Restaurant.  New Jersey 10th Grader Ace Kim loves Wendy’s so much he submitted this Road Test to the creators at RoadSpoke.

Thanks Ace Kim!  

Writes Ace...
"In his book "Dave's Way,"  Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas recalls how the family dressed up Melinda Lou, his 8 year old daughter, in a striped dress for the opening of the first location. To make her pigtails stick out, Mom put pipe cleaners in her hair. That's the little red-headed girl in the logo.​

Now time for a Road Test: So turn down the radio and listen up!  This Road Test is not easy.  The winner of this  gets a free Frosty at the upcoming Wendy's.  Here now are the Fast Facts:

  
Fast food outlets are all along Interstates. You are all familiar with Wendy’s, Burger Kings, McDonald’s or my favorite, Jersey Mike's Subs.  Believe it or not though, back in the 1800’s, establishments that sold just food were almost unheard of.  Eating out was rare if largely unheard of. That is because everyone ate at home. Eating out  was only something travelers would do. And so hotels, inns, or taverns may offer meals to their nightly guests but no one else.


Then just before the Civil War,  fine dining became a thing with rich people but mainly in big cities. Delmonico’s in Manhattan is credited with being one of the first eat-only places. ​

All the fashionable and famous in the Big Apple would gather there to see and be seen.

​Then came the Civil War.  Perhaps it was then with vast segments of the population traveling far from the farm did offering meals for pay become an idea. ​

From the Civil War forward, inns, taverns or saloons would offer food to supplement the sale of their profit centers which was liquor or beer. But except for pickled or salted meats and vegetables,  almost all food was cooked to order.  There was no standardization of meals nor were meals pre- fabricated in industrial capacities.


FAST FACT One: In the 1950’s Fast Food rose in tandem with high speed travel along interstates. ​

Upcoming is a Wendy’s.  Founded in 1969 in Ohio by Dave Thomas and named for his daughter, FAST FACT  number Two:  Wendy’s claim to fame is being the home of fresh, never frozen beef. Did you know that?  Not frozen meat!  The chain is also known for its square hamburgers, sea salt fries, and the delicious Frosty, which is a form of soft-serve ice cream. ​

​Fast Fact number 3:  Despite being bashful and self effacing Dave Thomas held the record for appearing in his own commercials. He starred in them over 800 times. FAST FACT number 4:  Remarkably his daughter Wendy never did. So while you may be familiar with all types of fast food, eating out, Dave Thomas and even Wendy’s fast food, well you nor anyone in America has ever met Wendy herself.  

​EXIT 15W; I-95N, to  Meadowlands Sports Complex,  Met Life Stadium


Ok Football Fans, now it is time for another Road Test and this one can save you maybe a cool thousand bucks. Here now is the Question... how is it that New England  Patriots' Quarterback, Tom Brady has the rival New York Jets to thank for his career?

​Since the inception of the American Football League in the 1960’s , the Jets have clashed in a marquee rivalry with the New England Patriots.  But it was not always such a huge rivalry till the mid 1990’s.  The rivalry began to receive increased media attention in 1997 when a disgruntled Hall of Fame Coach Bill Parcells  quit his head coaching position with the Patriots to join the Jets.  This left New England seeking vengeance on an annual basis.  Fast Fact:  Parcells was born in nearby Englewood, New Jersey and most famously turned the New York Giants into a Super Bowl winning franchise in the 1980's.

​But I digress. Fast forward to 2001. The New England Patriots star quarterback was Drew Bledsoe. Then just 12 days after 9/11, on September 23, 2001 Jets linebacker Mo Lewis slammed Drew Bledsoe, leaving the New England star with internal bleeding. This provided an opportunity for a young unknown to take over.  That unknown was a gangly hard working backup named Tom Brady.  So... now if you tap Deal Radar on your Smart phone, you can use the RoadSpoke RoadTest to get 20% off Season Tickets starting next season. 

Anyways, getting back to Tom Brady and his New York roots... ​Since that game against the Jets, Tom Brady led New England to four Super Bowl titles and arguably had become a dynasty of sorts.  Meanwhile the Jets have struggled in the shadow of not just the Patriots but even their crosstown rivals, the Giants.

The New York Jets was founded in 1959 as the New York Titans, an original member of the American Football League.  The current name was adopted in 1963 when the franchise moved to Shea Stadium in Queens.     
​

Led by the quintessential playboy quarterback, “Broadway Joe” Namath, the Jets advanced to the playoffs for the first time in 1968 and went on to compete in Super Bowl 3.

​There they faced the much favored Baltimore Colts under Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas.   To great surprise, they defeated the Baltimore Colts, becoming the first AFL team to defeat an NFL club in an AFL-NFL World Championship Game.

Since 1968, the Jets have appeared in the playoffs 13 times, and in the AFC Championship Game four times, most recently losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010. However, the Jets have never returned to the Super Bowl.

On your left is MetLife Stadium. If you are passing it on a Sunday evening in the autumn you can tell which team is playing.  Back in the early aughts, the Jets agreed to enter a 50–50 partnership with their rival, the Giants, to build MetLife agreeing to a 99-year lease.  MetLife Stadium became the first in the history of the NFL to be jointly built by two franchises. It opened in April 2010 and saw the Jets and Giants open the stadium together in a preseason game.

​Except for such so-called “subway series” contests, the stadium is illuminated in different colors depending on which team is hosting a game: blue for the Giants; green for the Jets.   

Will this season be the one in which the Jets win their next Super Bowl?  If the lights glow green, just ask any nearby fan on the Interstate.  The answer is always yes.   
​
Go Gang Green!


#NewYorkJets #GangGreen #BroadwayJoeNamath #SuperBowl #NewYorkGiants #NewYorkTitans #Meadowlands #Englewood #BillParcells #NewEnglandPatriots #TomBrady #DrewBledsoe #MoLewis #NewJersey

On his death, in February 2019, the Baseball Hall of Famer was survived by his two children and his wife, Barbara Ann Cole Robinson. ​

Final Note: Barbara Ann Robinson is herself a force to reckon with.  After being turned away from living in racially segregated neighborhoods in Baltimore, when the Robinsons next moved to Los Angeles, Barbara Ann herself became a Realtor. Targeting professional black athletes, she became one of the top grossing Realtors in Southern California. ​

​Hear this Here at:


Exit 35 I-278n:  Calvary Cemetery, Maspeth and Woodside, Queens


"Nikki Minaj's Pink Album is one of the top all time selling records in Hop Hop. If you listen to the Entirety of this RoadSpoke -- about 2 minutes long -- we will tell you how you can get it for 20% off. So Stay tuned." 

As you come up on the Calvary Cemetery, which with about 3 million burials, it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States. So you may naturally ponder mortality, immortality, death and even birth.

“An immigrant to Queens,  Onika Tanya Maraj was born on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad on December 8 nineteen eighty two. Her father is of Indian descent. He was a financial executive and part-time gospel singer. Her Mom, also a gospel singer, is of African ancestry. Onika's  dad was an alcoholic and had a violent temper. He burned down their house in nineteen eighty seven.  As a small child, Onika and a sibling lived with her grandmother in Saint James, Trinidad."

The population of Trinidad is composed of two large ethnic groups of Africans and Indians from India — both of whom were brought in to work the once vast sugar plantations.

Today, Trinidad is famous for celebrating the biggest and most outrageous Carnival in all the Caribbean. It’s probably bigger than New Orleans Mardi Gras. People in Trinidad, who call themselves Trinis,  work for months to create the most imaginative and beautiful costumes. Then they party for days.  This may have later resonated with little Onika when she finally found her calling.   ​

Seeking opportunity, Onika’s mother moved to New York to attend Monroe College, and later like many immigrants, brought the kids to Queens. No surprise she ran a strict household and her kids had structured times for study every night.  

Still living at home, her mom impressed upon her the need for higher education. But to attend college and to work menial jobs was mutually prohibitive. Plus she wanted to keep the dancing dream alive.  So what’s a curvaceous lady to do? Onika today suggests she began moonlighting as a pole dancer earning large tips from appreciative men as she slithered and writhed in a stripper bar. During the day, she answered audition calls for song n dance while acting in off-broadway theater. 

Meanwhile Onika moonlighted on her moonlighting gig by singing back up vocals in rap videos.  Using her actor chops Onika debuted various accents often conversing between several alter egos. But the debut in the R&B community was not just her songs’ characters but also her own — Onika Tanya Maraj became Nicki Minaj.  


No surprise, that tough attitude, resourceful work ethic,  and frankly her signature backside got Onika noticed by the Hip Hop community.  Rapper Lil Wayne saw her rapping in 2009 and was impressed. That November, she premiered with Gucci Mane and Trina on the remix of "5 Star Bitch" by Yo Gotti.

Late in 2009, Nicki dropped her first solo album, Pink Friday. Pink Friday boasted 375,000 sales in week one and quickly became number 1.  ​

Soon she got a third name. Folks in the R&B community crowned Nicki Minaj “Queen of Rap.”  ​

Now hanging with other young stars like her pal Taylor Swift, Nicki also appeared on "BedRock" and "Roger That" on the compilation album, “We Are Young Money”. Largely due to her recent fame, the singles peaked at numbers two and 56, respectively, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Other solo songs and albums followed. Her cumulative sales exceeded 100 million. To share some perspective, by comparison fellow New Yorker Billy Joel has sold 150 Million albums in his long career.

Nicki Minaj is now celebrated as one of the all time greatest female rappers ever.  Her rapping is distinctive for its fast flow and the use of alter egos. Early in her career, Minaj was known for her colorful costumes and wigs. Today, she does not need any shtick,unless she wants to!   She has the most Billboard Hot 100 entries for a female artist in the chart's history, while being #9 overall. 

That said, she does love her outrageous outfits and the loud lifestyle. She even honors her Trinidad heritage by dressing for Carnival — whether she is shopping on Fifth Avenue or stopping traffic in Beverly Hills.

Returning to the nearby graveyard theme, such accomplishments  make Nicki Minaj -- not just a rags to riches immigrant -- but nearly immortal!

If you want to claim 20% off  a copy of the Pink Friday Album, you can claim it here by saying "Claim Pink Friday and RoadSpoke sent you."


#NickiMinaj #Onika #HipHop #Stripper #Trindad #YoGotti #TaylorSwift #LilWayne

The EXIT of the DAY is a Bridge
Hear this... right HERE!

Ok. So now for some humor — some Construction Worker Humor.  But first the Fast Facts: you are now crossing the George Washington Bridge high above the Hudson River. ​​

Likely you are in traffic.  The bridge carries over 106 million vehicles per year - about 300,000 vehicles per day. This makes The George Washington Bridge the most heavily travelled bridge in the entire world. ​

Because of the huge traffic, in 1961, construction workers then hung an underneath level. ​ 

Ever thoughtful, the construction workers nicknamed the underneath level “The Martha Washington Bridge”  for George’s wife Martha.


George, of course, is on top.


#GeorgeWashington #GeorgeWashingtonBridge #GWB #MarthaWashington #HudsonRiver #ConstructionWorkerHumor #NewYork #NewJersey #ConstructionWorkers
​

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration honoring the end of slavery in the United States.  Also known as Jubilee Day, it really commemorates the date that the last slaves learned that they were free.


In the North, African Americans had learned of their freedom when Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation three years earlier in 1862.   The Proclamation was a Presidential Executive Order.  Many of the freed slaves immediately signed on to fight as soldiers in the Union Army. ​

President Lincoln had issued the Executive Order to liberate slaves in September 1862 but it was not passed into law by Congress until January 1, 1863.   

Fast forward to recent history. President Obama displayed a keepsake of the date in the West Wing of the White House.  ​President Obama once said:


“Outside the Oval Office, I kept a painting of a small crowd huddled around a pocket watch, waiting for the moment the Emancipation Proclamation took effect…” ​

Having attended the University of Iowa, Brown University, and Harvard, at the age of 27, Dr Kim started a non-profit called Partners in Health.  Headquartered in Boston, Partners in Health launched in Haiti to fight infectious diseases.  There the organization started community-focused health care programs, which provided treatments based on local data, needs, and limited resources.   The net result was to succeed at minimal cost, spending between $150 to $200 per patient.  The same treatment in a U.S. Hospital would have cost $15,000 to $20,000 per patient. ​

Wow!  How did Dr Kim do this?   


Dr Kim’s Partners in Health trained local citizens to conduct contact tracing. They tracked who may pass a virus by finding out which patient was in contact with another person.


The organization also achieved economies of scale by ordering bulk nationwide quantities for cheaper drugs.   


Finally, Dr Kim also insisted patients self quarantine.   He and local doctors would cure super contagious patients in their own homes.  By the early 1990s, the program in Haiti was serving more than 100,000 people. ​

​Battling AIDS and tuberculosis in Haiti’s most impoverished conditions, the success of Partners in Health catapulted Dr Kim to being a leader in pandemic healthcare.   Back in Boston,  he accepted the chairmanship of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School before being selected as the President of Dartmouth College from 2009 to 2012. This made him the first Asian American president of any Ivy League institution.

Then President Obama came calling.  President Obama nominated Kim to become the President of the  World Bank.  On April 16, 2012, the World Bank officially elected Kim as its next president.  He is the first World Bank leader whose background is not in the political or financial sectors.  Most notably, Dr Kim is also the first Bank leader to have previous experience personally and intimately battling infectious viruses on a national scale.


At the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, instituted structural changes. As The New York Times noted in an article by Landon Thomas Jr in 2018, in order to revitalize “a hidebound institution” the good doctor embraced the tactics of Wall Street.   ​

This new mission statement was considered very unorthodox.


Still, Dr Kim has presided over the dispersal of billions of dollars of World Bank funding. Positioned at 41 in Forbes' Power People 2018 list, Dr Kim oversaw financial loans worth $67 billion in that year alone. ​

Hear this here!
I-95n at Exit 10  to Fairmont, North Carolina


Ok Road Trippers, time for a Road Test. And no you do NOT win a Drivers License!  But you do win $5 worth of Pepsi or Dorito Products with a fill up of fuel at the upcoming Exit 10 to Fairmont. If you take the Exit bare right to the Extra Mile Chevron and tell em RoadSpoke sent you. So get right to Exit. ​

Now for the Fast Facts.


Can you guess which of the following Fast Facts about the state of North Carolina is false? Three of them are true, and just one is false. Here we go.


1. Krispy Kreme Doughnut was founded here in North Carolina.


2. The first miniature golf course was built here.


3. Coke was invented here.


4. Babe Ruth, as a pro ball player, hit his first home run here.


What do you think? Which is false? Krispy Creme? Mini Golf? Coke? Or Babe Ruth? First I’ll reveal which are true. ​

Which means that if you guessed Coke wasn’t invented here, you’re correct!  But in this case, the lie is not too far from the truth. Because even though Coke wasn’t invented here, Pepsi was!


Pepsi Cola was first introduced as a product called "Brad's Drink" in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1893 by Caleb Bradham, who made it at his drugstore where the drink was sold. It was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898. In 1931 at the depth of the Great Depression the Pepsi-Cola Company entered bankruptcy. Eventually Pepsi's assets were purchased by Charles Guth, who was the president of a candy manufacturing company with retail stores that contained soda fountains. He was interested in Pepsi because he wanted to replace Coca-Cola at his stores' fountains after Coke refused to give him a discount on syrup.


Think about it, if Coke had just given that discount way back when, there would be no Pepsi to rival them! ​

And even after Pepsi took off, the Coca Cola company was offered the opportunity to purchase the Pepsi-Cola company not just once but on three separate occasions between 1922 and 1933. But they declined on each occasion and the rivalry has just kept growing.


Time to play another game. I’ll give you four Pepsi slogans from the past sixty years or so. Three will be true and one will be false. Can you guess the false one? Here we go. The first slogan is "Any Weather is Pepsi Weather.” The second slogan is “More Bounce to the Ounce.” Here’s your third option: “Born in the Carolinas.” And finally the fourth option is “If you’re peppy, get Pepsi.”


Are you ready to answer? Do you think it was the slogan that said “born In the Carolinas”? Well you’re wrong, that’s a real Pepsi slogan from 2011! The false slogan was “if you’re peppy, get Pepsi.” ​

Why not get right and take the next exit to Fairmount?  I know I am thirsty, and you are likely too. Let’s get a round of sodas or maybe a soda and some Doritos. And when in Carolina do what the locals do. Make it a Pepsi!


#Pepsi #KrispyKreme #NorthCarolina #BradsDrink #NewBern #BabeRuth #CocaCola ​

Hear this right…. Here!
EXIT 14b-a; I-95s to: I-78 to Staten Island, Jersey City & Bayonne, New Jersey

Onramp to I-278s; New Jersey, Goethals across I-95 to Elizabeth, NJ & Staten Island NY


Ok Road Team, look out on this vista of swamp and marsh.  No place  like this to offer you and your family inexpensive yet comprehensive Life Insurance from Triple A.  Yes you heard that right.  AAA does not just offer travel services. If you tap the Deal Radar Logo on the phone ,  you will help protect your Loved Ones with affordable Term Life Insurance. Request a quote any time in the next 2 weeks and get term life insurance for your family for as low as 65 cents a day for a $100,000 policy.  

Speaking of family, you are surrounded by miles of salt marsh which were once considered useless except as a dump yard for New York City’s garbage.  Now we know New Jersey’s salt marshes --especially here in the town of Fresh Kills New Jersey -- are in fact an essential nursery for many families of commercial fish like striped bass and flounder as well as hundreds of species of wading birds like egrets and herons. ​

Continuing on the family theme, Tony Soprano knows something about Fresh Kills.   Tony Soprano is in the waste removal business. A lot of his garbage ended up in these wetlands. “The Sopranos” television show made much use of the wetlands in and around Staten Island and  North Jersey.  Utilizing the gritty beauty and the sad industrial patches of these wetlands, scenes were shot showing recyclables being dumped,  hijacked trucks getting offloaded, and bodies being disappeared. ​

In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named The Sopranos the best-written TV series of all time while TV Guide ranked it the best television series of all time.


Chase had been fascinated by the mafia from an early age, witnessing such people growing up. The series is partly inspired by the Boiardo family and the DeCavalcante family.  Both were prominent New Jersey organized crime families when Chase was growing up near here in Clifton and North Caldwell. ​

I-95 Exit 380 in FL To: US 17, to Yulee, Florida and  Kingsland, Georgia


The Florida town of Yulee is named for the first Jewish member of the United States Senate who was also considered the father of Florida Railroads.  However, the first railroads in Florida transported more logs and less people than would be thought!  The first railroads were used for logging operations -- but I digress. 

David Levy Yulee was born David Levy in 1810 in Charlotte Amalie, on the island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. His father Moses Levy was a Moroccan Sephardic Jew who made a fortune in lumber.  At the time, the Virgin Islands were owned by Denmark and a sizable Jewish population lived there.  One of the oldest synagogues in the western hemisphere still exists today in the capital of Downtown Charlotte Amalie.

After the family immigrated to the United States, Moses Levy bought 50,000 acres of land near present-day Jacksonville in Florida Territory. Moses wanted to establish a "New Jerusalem" for Jewish settlers.
​
His son, David Levy, dutifully served in the territorial militia, including the Second Seminole War, and in 1834 was present at a conference with Seminole chiefs, including the famous Seminole War Chief, Osceola.

-Thereafter, the handsome young David married well.  Soon after his 1846 marriage to the daughter of ex-Governor Charles Wickliffe of Kentucky, David Levy added Yulee to his name, the name of one of his Moroccan ancestors. Though Yulee became Christian and raised his children as Christians, he was subject to anti-semitism throughout his career.

​In 1845, after Florida was admitted as a state, the legislature elected him as a Democrat to the United States Senate, the first Jew to win a seat in the Senate, and he served until 1851. In 1855 he was again elected to the Senate, and he served until withdrawing in 1861 in order to support the Confederacy at the start of the American Civil War.

David Yulee is considered the father of Railroads in Florida where he built the first cross peninsula line from Fernandina Beach near Jacksonville at the Florida-Georgia line to Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast.
​
In the 1850’s, cedar lumbering was big business since light weight cedar was used to produce Faber Pencils.

​Incidentally,  Faber Pencils are still in use today.  Using his influence in Congress to procure Federal Funds, Yulee engaged slave labor to lay the tracks across Florida and access the dense cedar wilderness along the Gulf of Mexico.

Today, at the Fernandina Beach Train Depot, a statue of Yulee sits “waiting for his train.”  No doubt, this statue has invited some controversy.

​Yulee's inflammatory pro-slavery rhetoric in the Senate earned him the nickname "Florida Fire Eater”. David Yulee supported slavery and secession.

After the war, Yulee was imprisoned in Fort Pulaski for nine months because of his support for the Confederacy. He then returned to railroad building.

Selling the Florida Railroad, Yulee retired with his wife to Washington, D.C. in 1880, where she had family. He died six years later while visiting in New York. Yulee was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
​
Both the town of Yulee, Florida and Levy County, Florida are named for him. In 2000, the Florida Department of State designated him as a Great Floridian.

Exit 75 I-95n in NC To: Jonesboro Rd, near @Dunn,North Carolina


Ok Road Trippers time for a Road Test. So put on your thinking caps.  The winner of this gets something valuable at any Love's Convenience Stops along the highway in the next 7 days. More on that in 10 seconds. Now pay attention and keep your eyes on the highway. 

Quick, take a gander at the shoulder on the right. See the big hole in the ground and the sign about "Another Love’s Travel Store Coming Soon"?   Seeing that love is coming soon gets me all wistful and teary eyed. Why, you may ask?


Well, seeing another convenience store rising from the red American dirt gets me very patriotic. ​

America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave. It is also a place where with grit, luck, and smarts, anyone’s dreams can still come true. The convenience store chain, Love’s is still a family business.  The c-store chain is owned by Tom and Judy Love. ​

So now, dear Road-Trippers, Tom and Judy Love would like to make you an offer you cannot refuse.  They would like to offer you the chance to get $5 of free Pepsi, Dorito, Lays and Gatorade products with any fill-up of over $20 in fuel at ANY Love's Convenience Store along all Interstate 95.  That is right! Tom and Judy want you filling up -- and stocking up -- only at Love's all along the interstate.  You might as well call it the "Lover's Lane". No?  Ok...ok... maybe I am getting a little crazy here.

To get this deal, remember to just tap the huge Deal Radar logo on your smart device and say out loud, "RoadSpoke, get me that Deal."  This deal will be good for up to 7 days from when you start it, so keep on truckin' Road Crew. 

Likely you have passed thousands of Love's and other such fuel and food convenience stores in your life.  Convenience store sales in general are huge. According to GasBuddy, as recently as 2017, Convenience Store sales were 60% bigger than all online sales. And that includes sales by Amazon! Wow, right? Well you could call Love’s the grand-daddy of the c-store industry.


In 1964, Tom and Judy Love spent $5,000 to lease an abandoned gas station in booming Watonga, Oklahoma. Watonga is an hour northwest of Oklahoma City. They named their company Musket Corporation. Over the next 8 years, Musket opened 40 additional gas stations.  But then came the Arab Oil Embargo…


When the fuel crunch of the early 1970s began, gasoline was in short supply. ​

​Tom and Judy Love diversified for the sake of survival. They launched a new concept: the "Mini Stop Country Store." By adding groceries to their self-service fuel sales, Musket became one of the nation's first to offer one-stop shopping for road trippers. The so-called convenience store was successful and the company quickly opened more stores in western Oklahoma.


In 1972, Musket set out to convert all of its locations from gas stations to convenience stores. By 1973, the company began using the family name instead of Musket. Love's Country Stores was the new name.

​By 1981, Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores celebrated its 100th store in small communities throughout Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. That same year, the company began offering the Fresh Daily Deli, sandwiches made fresh daily on-location. Food service became the company's third profit center along with self-serve gasoline and convenience store items.

Despite the founders becoming some of the wealthiest people in America, with a net worth of around 7 Billion Dollars, Loves transformed its country theme but not its folksy service. Despite the mansions and flying around in private jets and yachting about in a 7 million dollar mega yacht, the Loves joint ventured with such regular folk eateries like Wendy’s, Dunkin’ and Taco Bell. ​

​The founders are still homey folk: the Loves expanded service to professional truckers with showers, overnight parking for big-rigs, and even barber shops.