True Life Stories About 'The Voice', VERN GOSDIN

THE TRIP TO COSTA RICA

Have you ever had someone tell you about an experience or a place of beauty that sounded so appealing that you just could not get it out of your mind? Vern Gosdin had that happen to him after a friend returned from a visit to Costa Rica and told him about all of wonders that he had experienced in that far away little country.

It was one of those situations where the more he thought about it the more his mind just would not have peace until he could go see that magnificent place. There a burning desire was created in his mind to mingle with the local population and witness the sights his friend had describe.

Vern’s friend had told him about the beautiful mountains, the comfortable temperatures, and the majestic oceans bordering two sides of the dynamic landscaped little country. Vern is quick to admit that the most interesting item his friend had mentioned was his characterization of an abundant female population. He had described most of these ladies as being beautiful, charismatic and down right friendly. At the very least, the presences of these ladies certainly complimented all of the aforementioned factors.

Vern spent the next few years thinking, plotting, and planning a trip to visit Costa Rica. As you can imagine, an airline ticket would have been a logical and easy solution to the whole situation. Vern’s personal policy was not to fly on the airlines or any other airplane for a very long time. Over the years, each time he thought about going to the airline ticket office he would think about his promise. Making this trip by boat did not seem like a logical solution and with flying out of the question; it appeared that going by land was the only option left.

After doing some geography research Vern verified what he thought he already knew. With any mode of transportation it is one heck of a long way from Nashville, Tennessee to San Jose, Costa Rica and it is especially long if the choice is by ground. By land the route would wind southward across several US States with a border crossing most likely at Matamoras, Mexico. From that point, the journey would be required to continue and go south to southeast from one end of Mexico to the other end. Then the route would cross all the way through the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua before reaching Costa Rica.

Vern worked on a plan to drive there and was extremely satisfied with the long journey that lay ahead until he heard all the stories of the bandits and robbers along the way. Vern is not one to back down from a little danger and he told me that he would feel safe as long as I was with him. Vern told me that he knew that I had held some kind of World Championship chap14 in kickboxing. He reasoned that my skills should be sufficient to take care of us if we happened to encounter any life threatening trouble along the way. I wished that I felt as sure about my skills as he did.

The big obstacle that now lay between Vern and Costa Rica was trying to convenience me, his good friend and manager, to go on the land version of the trip. I pointed out that we would be on the road at least two weeks going and the same amount of time coming back. I also told him I just could not take that much time away from my daily business commitments. He wanted Mike Parsons, a friend who sometimes opens shows for Vern, to go along as well. However, Mike said that he could not spend that much time away either.

Well a sane guy just does not make trips like that by himself. What could Vern do now? Should he scrap the idea after all these years or should he go back to the drawing board? This trip has been a major aspiration of Vern’s for many years and he just could not stop thinking or talking about it.

They say that desperate people do desperate things. Maybe his mind was starting to think in a desperate way. As part of his argument to me or maybe the argument to himself, he acknowledged that he still remembers that promise he made about airplanes. But, he pointed out that the airplane incident had now been over twenty years ago. In his desperation to make this trip, he was willing to do any thing to make it a reality. Vern indicated that he was adopting the assumption that the statute of limitations had expired on that promise and that he was now free from it.

Well here we go back to the drawing board with a clean slate. The three of us pondered the trip for what seemed like forever. The concern that Vern’s two potential traveling companions had for him being on that airplane was the fact that we were going to be sitting right there with him. I will not attempt to reiterate the intense discussions the three of us had over the next few days. “Let’s do it” were the final words and on one beautiful sunny day in Nashville, we boarded a Delta flight headed for Costa Rica.

The day started out uneventful other than what two mischievous single guys and our buddy Mike could get into on a trip of this sort. The real truth is that Mike was more mischievous than both of us put together in most instances. In a short time we had made it to Atlanta and boarded the final plane to Costa Rica. What a smooth flight it was and our stewardess (referred to these days as flight attendant) was so pretty, cordial, and nice. She came up to our seats about half way through the trip and uttered the following statement: “I know you...don’t I? Some of the passengers have told me that you are country music artists.” Then she asked if that was true. Vern said, “Yes ma’am!!!” Then he turned and pointed to me and said, “This is George Jones and I am Charley Pride.” I had been George’s manager at one time and I quickly turned toward Vern with what I am sure must have been a very surprised look on my face. She wanted to know if we had any pictures and of course I had some of Vern in my brief case. I wrestled one out and handed it to Vern. He signed Charley Pride across the picture and gave it to her. The lovely stewardess thanked him and went on about her business. The three of us had a big laugh at her expense after she turned away of course. I warned you about the three mischievous guys.

The flight was very long and we had almost worn out all the jokes and pranks we could play for the time being. I looked over at Vern and asked if he could smell electrical smoke. He answered me with a yes but Mike said he did not smell anything. We had all been silent for a short period prior to the mention of smoke. Mike and Vern had their seats in the reclined position and seemed to be getting a little rest.

I was still sitting upright and getting petty restless even before the thought of a smoke smell had crossed my mind. I had been thinking about Vern’s promise to God and I may have been letting my imagination run away in the direction of all those things that could be about to take place. On the other hand it may have just been my natural demeanor because I never could sit still for five minutes at a time anyway.

Vern assumed the smoke could be any number of things on the plane including the food. When five minutes had passed, we had almost forgotten the smoke ordeal until the pilot’s voice came over the speaker with an announcement. He said, “Some of you have indicated a concern about the smell of electrical smoke inside the cabin. We believe that we have located the source of the problem and we think it is coming from the air conditioning system. The air conditioning system packs have been turned off and this should remedy the problem.”

We settled back with a sigh of relief and we were ready to get a little rest. When fifteen minutes had passed, the air seemed clear of any odor. I soon felt the urge to go to the restroom that was just to the right of our seats. I was in the middle seat so it was necessary for Vern to stand up so I could step into the isle.

When I came back to our seats, he had to stand up again and I had to tell him something even before we could sit down. I told Vern that I could smell that smoke again and it was really strong in the restroom. I also told him that I could swear that I could feel the airplane go into a bank and do a complete turn around. Vern assured me that he did not feel the airplane make any turn and that he did not smell any burned wire odor either.

In a couple of minutes, Vern looked at me and said, “Now that you have mentioned it maybe I do smell something.” Then he said, “I don’t know if I really smell something or if my mind is just reacting to the power of suggestion?” We agreed that maybe it was our minds that had started to play games. I turned to the right and saw a stewardess correcting a foreign guy who was leaving the restroom with what appeared to me to be a cloud of cigarette smoke around him. The cigarette smoke is really what we smelled and I was about to put the odor issue to rest for the last time.

Almost immediately a voice sounded over the speaker with these words, “This is your captain speaking.” I thought he was going to tell us that every thing was going just fine and that we would be at our destination in a couple of hours. Unfortunately that was not what he said at all. This is what he did say, “The location of that electrical burned wire smell was not as we had originally suspected. We are southeast of Cuba and about one and one half-hours out of Miami. I am asking everyone to please take a seat and keep your seat belts on for the remainder of the flight. We have already turned around and we have declared an air emergency. The plan is to try to make our way back to the Miami Airport. When we get to the airport, you will see emergency vehicles on each side of the runway. These vehicles will be in...