You have probably read the term "green shoots" as related to the economy. This, of course, is a term that means the first signs of growth after seeding. What is making economists nervous is the fact that many key growth indicators are either mixed or unstable.

I refer to this situation as "brown shoots." You can seed and fertilize all you like, but heatwaves and droughts can still wreak havoc on your lawn. The grass is there, but the tint is an ugly brown. Even as it grows, it isn't pretty.

This is what I see happening to the economy right now. Obama, the Fed, etc, have done everything they can (short of taking extreme measures that could rip the country apart) but the reults remain tenuous. Let me tell a personal story that I think best reflects the situation.

Two things happened to me recently: the economy tanked and my student loans capitalized. I reacted in the usual way. First, I made financial cutbacks. Second, I began to pay down debt. Third, I began to pay down debt.

These things worked well for a while. The cutbacks and savings actually offset the debt reduction to the point that I could spend a little more. Rent a movie here, eat out there. No big ticket items, of course, but spending nonetheless.

Then my son lost his job. So I dipped into the savings to keep his rent and utilities paid until he found a new job. At the same time the little spending that I did dried up. After a few months he got back on his feet and things went back to normal, not the old normal, but the post-recession normal.

Shortly thereafter my daughter lost her home to foreclosure. Again, I dipped into the savings until she could, as a low-income worker, get into HUD-based housing. It didn't take long to find out that HUD is massively under-funded and so I had to borrow in order to get a roof over her head, as well as her three children.

So now I find myself back to square one. The savings are exhausted, all of the repaid debt has been replaced with more debt, and all disposable spending is slashed.

My gut tells me that the situation is the same across the country. It may not be helping out kids. It may be a job loss, or a health care emergency, or a foreclosure. Our best case scenario, at least for the short-term, may be two steps forward and one step back at best, the reverse at worst.

At the very least, this may help explain the current mixed indicators in the economy as a whole.  

Back when I was young I would go cross country in the summer in my grandpa's 18 wheeler. I've been through well over half the states in the union but never really got to spend time in many of them. Recently, a fellow member of the Cafe Chat Room encouraged me to share some of the stories here.

Without further ado:

Many may know the famous CCR song Lodi. Well, I was actually stuck in a Lodi motel and missed the first three days of school back in North Carolina. To my father's chagrin, grandpa decided a trip to Oregon was necessary before we headed back east.

Speaking of California, one year the AC broke down from Phoenix to LA. Grandpa, of course, could only get the AC fixed by his AC guy in LA. That's 400 miles of  pure heat, the kind of heat that takes your breath away.

Alcatraz is visible from the Oakland Bay Bridge. Not so much from a picture taken on a disposable camera at 90 miles an hour.

The casinos in Laughlin, Nevada has great arcades for kids.

The Mojave desert is very, very windy, especially at night.

Louisina has very bumpy roads. Reading Mad magazine from the sleeper is next to impossible.

Driving through Texas takes a long, long, long, long time.

Don't play with the CB radio.

If you can't eat all of your Shish-Kabob at the Sizzler, don't order it.

The best truck stops are the ones that have gift shops, especially if you can get grandma by herself with the cash. I prefer T/A and Petro. Flying J has the largest sodas known to man, and the smiley-face station, while offering cheap diesel, is quite dull.

Dwight Yoakam sang about it, but I literally walked the streets of Bakersfield to buy $100 worth of scratch off lottery tickets.

If possible, always stay at a Best Western.

There is nothing to do in Oklahoma.

Flagstaff has good showers, until you see your grandpa wash his ass with a cloth because there is only one free shower per fill-up.

Weigh stations are a bummer.

Don't slow down, go around.

Florida isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Log books are fun for kids, not so much for drivers.

Don't put quarters into those stuffed animal claw machines, or the vibrating bed.

If you put a penny on a railroad track, it looks very cool after the train runs over it. But you need to put down at least five to get one back.

Don't put pennies on the railroad tracks.

Even if your grandparents saw you nude as a baby, it doesn't make it easier to shower in front of them in Flagstaff when you are 12, regardless of what they say.

No, you can't drive.

No, you should have peed earlier.

No, we're sleeping in the truck tonight. You spend the motel money at the Petro gift shop.

Seeing your grandparents drunk on Coors and wine coolers in a Lodi motel is almost as bad as seeing grandpa wash his ass with a cloth in Flagstaff.

Always get the buffet.

The white pills are vitamins.

So there you have it. My experience on the open road with grandpa summed up in one post. I learned a lot. I know how to navigate. I know how to make good time. I know how to be thrifty on a trip. And most of all, I know that truckers deserve full respect, but never to be one.