Drove back to the county Sunday. Left late so we had to take I-81 with our mini-caravan of two Wrangers (my 2000 and Amy’s new-old ’95 which is destined to become the designated farm vehicle). I had satellite radio installed in both before we left so we could listen to the Golden Corral 500 Nextel Cup Race in Atlanta for most of the drive.

Nextel Cup. Still have trouble saying that after so many years of calling NASCAR’s premium series the Winston Cup. Appropriately, we used our Nextel phones to keep in touch with each other during the 300-mile drive from Arlington to Willis.

Or at least we used them when they worked. Nextel doesn’t have the widespread coverage of Verizon’s wireless phones and don’t work at all in Floyd County. While the “walkie talkie” feature of the phones is nice, the spotty coverage in rural areas makes them less than useful. We will probably drop the Nextel service when the contract expires and stick with our Verizon phones.

Can you hear me now? Good.