friends and FAMILY

of the lady butterfly

                  Here is John with his new " Lady", Bonnie.                    Bonnie came on board as "crew chief" and partner in April, 2006.  She is now able to be recognized, as John had to wait for his divorce to be finalized before going public with this great news.  They have been working together since March, 2006 and she took over many of the responsibilities of the business then and has since become a full partner in the business as well as at home.  John found Bonnie quite by accident.  He was looking for someone else and called Bonnie's number by accident.  Bonnie was "unconsciously" looking for a new job  and when John called her, his one question intrigued her.  He asked if she was "HAPPILY EMPLOYED??"  Employed, yes....happy not then.    Their conversation turned to what John did for a living and Bonnie couldn't believe what she was hearing.   Bonnie had always said that when she was ready to retire, she would love to travel the United States up in a Semi-Rig!!  Well.......... Retired......not !!   traveling......yes and loving it!!  Then when tractor pulling was added  to the conversation.....unreal.  What a perfect phone call!!  John called the next day and they set up a time to meet and talk.  Lunch began at 1 pm  and went on thru dinner and ended around 6 pm.  There were some bugs to work out, but they continued to meet and talk about the possibilities and finally  a decision was made that Bonnie would travel on one load to see how things would work out.  There was a possibility that Motion Sickness could play a big role in whether or not Bonnie would be able to pull off her dream.   She gets "car sick" often if she has to read or look at a map while traveling.  But.......as you may have guessed.....she doesn't get Semi-sick!!   John was taking a missile launcher from Crane Naval Station in Crane, Indiana to Avondale,( New Orleans) Louisiana.  Bonnie decided that she would like to see New Orleans since the Katrina hurricane so she made arrangements to take time off work and reservations to fly home from New Orleans.  John picked Bonnie up and off they went.  4 days Bonnie will never forget.   John took her to the airport to fly home and he continued on to work alone for the next month.  He went clear to California and Bonnie thought he would never get back to Ohio.  While he was away, Bonnie was busy working on a plan of how she would be able to make this work. When John finally returned from his journey, Bonnie had taken a leave of absence from her job and was ready to work full time with John.  That was the beginning of  what has become the best of the best.  Within 4 weeks Bonnie had resigned from her job and was totally into "truckin" and taking over the website.. Follow your dreams.....they can come true.    

This is a  picture of John with his good friend Tom.  Tom lives  just about a half an hour from John.  Tom is a very good diesel mechanic and he has come to John's rescue many times over the past years.  This particular picture was taken in July, 2006 after Tom spent over 60 hours helping put the Butterfly back together after spinning the bearings at Hemlock. We had to  replace the engine and then  also had to replace one of the heads. We were so happy to hear that engine turn over once again.  What a good friend to help out like he has.   When he isn't helping out in our garage, Tom is either in his garage polishing his Harley or his Corvette or out on the highway with the wind blowing thru his hair  Tell the truth Tom, where would you rather be?  Our garage.......right??!! 

  While on the road, John's daughter Cheryl is a dynamic helper and devout fan.  We can count on her to help in every way necessary, from helping with the mechanical work, being a go-fer for any tool needed and putting the final touches to washing, shining and polishing the Butterfly just  before she heads to the track to pull.   You can always hear her cheers above the crowd.   She truly is an asset to the team and her help is really appreciated .  Paul has been there to help us with alot of the mechanics and is a super crew member. He has traveled with us and made things so much easier on the track  and at home when we had to rebuild the Butterfly to keep her going this past year. Thanks so much Cheryl and Paul for being there for us.  We love you both.  Oh by the way Paul and Cheryl were just recently married on October 3, 2008  Congrats!

Here is John and life long friend Jerry Brooker, "Brook".  Jerry lives in an upstairs apartment at John and Bonnie's home and serves as  Mr. Fixit,  lawn mower, maintenance man, security guard and mechanic.  We can always count on Brook to help out when things need done. Last fall he painted the master bedroom for us  while we were traveling. Jerry has just completed helping to remodel the kitchen at the farm.  What a difference there is, the wallpaper was maybe early 60's and now the walls are an antique white and one wall is brick.  We removed old wainscoat and replaced it with drywall and have a great border to finish it off.  Thanks for all the  hard work, Brook..... 

And  here is Brook celebrating his last birthday with his beverage of choice!!!!!!!!   

Below is our friends Ross and Diane Simpson from "DOWN UNDER".  They live in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.  Ross is an owner-operator who works for Safeway Foods.  He also  works as a machinery relocation specialist.  He has the nickname "The Professor" as he has alot of knowledge regarding mechanical workings.  If you have a question you can usually get the answer from Ross.  Ross is also the safety director for the Australia Tractor Pulling Association.  He contacted John through this web site over three years ago and they have formed a great friendship via the phone lines and emails.  Diane is an artist and has some of her work published. She is supposed to be working on a picture of Bart.  Ross made  out a vacation schedule to include a visit to the good ole U S of A  and planned a visit with us .  We surprised John on July 30th .  Ross arrived and spent all of August here in the states.  We visited his mums homestead in Detroit and family farm outside of Grand Rapids.  Met up with several of his mums  old schoolmates and he got to attend several of our pulls including  Bowling Green.  Sure was difficult saying goodbye.  Hope to get some pics online soon of his visit.      

Above on right is John with his good friend Tom Brown. Tom and his wife Helen live in Walcott, Iowa. John and Tom have been in trucking together for many years. Tom is a load coordinator and has worked with John over the years.  Tom's busy schedule and family has kept him from attending any of the pulls but we're hoping to get him out to one someday soon.  Every trip near Walcott we always try to get together with Tom .  Looking forward to seeing him again soon.  

Below is John's and Bonnie's friend, Karla with her horse. Karla traveled with John a few times to different tractor pulls when she was in her teens, she lives in Pennsylvania.  She is now attending college. Looking forward to seeing her soon.

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