On the way through Oregon yesterday we got stuck in Baker City and then La Grande, Oregon.  First due to a wreck and then there was a chain law on I- 84 and since we were hauling an explosive load we can not chain.  Soooo we sat for about 4 hours, then finally the chain law was lifted and I drove us over the pass.  It wasn’t too bad at that time.

We arrived in Washington at the consignee late last night; we finalized the load this morning. We then went and had breakfast with two other couples.  Jan and Ken from R&R and Ike and Toni from another company.  Always good times to be had.

We are now on our way to Albany.  We are going to meet up with Jarod somewhere on 101 and I am going to ride down with him.  We are going to take about a month off for the holidays and get some things done in Coos Bay.  So this will be my last entry until after the first of the year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!    God Bless

We picked up our load last night in Oklahoma.  We are now heading up to Washington State.  The weather has been pretty good.   Although in Wyoming the other night there was about a 5 mile stretch of black ice.  There are still hand grip marks on the steering wheel.  Yup I was driving.    We are in Colorado and it is cold and sunny.     It’s my turn to drive…..more later.

When I first started out on my shift yesterday in Missouri it was snowing and traffic was moving pretty slow.  The roads did not feel slick, (at that moment anyway) mostly very slushy.  The temperature was only 28 degrees and dropping as it got closer to evening. So I knew they could become icy later.  But the road crews were out in force working like crazy to sand and plow.   Going through Kansas City on the four lanes, traffic almost came to a stop and then started moving very slow.  I found out what was going on, there were four snow plows one in each lane taking care of the highway.   It was slow going for a while, but I was so grateful they were out there.

I drove on into Nebraska where in some places there was foot or more of snow.  Lincoln looked like they almost had two foot.  I keep checking the outside temperature as I was driving and it got as low as 14 degrees.   The roads were well taken care of, I was cautious and had no problems. 

We arrived in Utah today; it is very cold. It is 29 degrees but feels colder to me.  Even after Coops went potty, he was ready to head straight back to the truck.

We will finish out this load in the morning and then head to Oklahoma to pick up a load and deliver it to Washington.   Well Tim and Cooper are both sound to sleep, I guess I better get there myself.   More later...

We finished out the load in Southport, NC on Wednesday.  We didn’t have a load assigned to us until Friday.  So we got a hotel room where we had stayed before.  It’s always nice and relaxing to get a nice comfortable room. 

The weather was great in NC.

We arrived at the shipper Friday morning. This particular customer does not allow dogs, so Cooper and I stayed at a ball field that was located across the street. There was another R & R couple Jan and Ken who also had the same load assignment and a dog, so Jan and her dog Buddy stayed behind with me and Coops.  We took the dogs off leash and let them play and chase each other.   They would zoom by us I swear going 90 miles an hour.  The dogs totally wore each other out.  They guys finally got the trailers loaded and the paperwork taken care of. All in all we were out there for 5 hours. Luckily for us the weather was great; we also had a nice visit and fun with the dogs.  Cooper pretty much slept for the rest of the day. 

On our way out we stopped and had lunch with Jan and Ken.  Jan and I ran together for about 3 hundred miles, we chatted on the CB, which was fun, it made my shift go by really fast.

This morning when I woke up, we were in St. Louis where there is about 2 inches of snow on the ground and it is 28 degrees.  We are heading to Utah……so I think we will see more snow as we go.  So far the roads look OK, Tim keeps checking on the NOAA website (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) for the road conditions.   Well that’s it for now as I am going to start my shift here soon. 

Well, hmmm let’s see, since I last wrote we were heading down to Saint Marks, Florida.  Wow, the weather there was awesome it was nearing the 80’s, but we didn’t get to stay too long.  We picked up a load there in Saint Marks and finished it out in Marion, Illinois on Tuesday.

 As we traveled northwest the weather became colder and colder and wetter and wetter.  When we finished in Illinois we deadheaded to Middletown, Iowa where it was absolutely freezing; the wind made it much worse.  There was about 1-2 inches of snow on the ground.    The trees were incased in ice and the signs had icicles hanging from them.  We heard that there was another ice storm coming, so we hooked up to our preloaded trailer and got the heck out of there.   I started my shift there so I drove us out, it was raining and temperature was at freezing.  The road crews were sanding the roads so I didn’t have any problems at all.  When I reached Indianapolis, Indiana the temperature was in the 60’s.   We will deliver this load to NC this afternoon.   The temperature now is 76 degrees under beautiful clear skies.

We delivered the load from Pennsylvania into North Carolina Friday evening.  Since we don’t pick up our next load until Monday afternoon, we decided to get a hotel room for a couple nights and it's always nice to get out of truck for awhile.  We stayed in the quaint little town of Southport.  We relaxed and I got caught up on laundry.   The weather was beautiful; clear and sunny. The temperature today when we left was 76 degrees.   It’s been strange to be experiencing such a variance in weather as we travel along.  Upon leaving the shipper Friday morning in  PA where we were in 3 inches of snow and then waking up Saturday morning in NC only to have to dig out some summer clothes. 

I must say it was nice to warm my bones.

Our next load assignment is taking us down to Florida where we will pick up pre-loaded trailer and the head up to Illinois.   Hmmm maybe more snow???

We finished out our load in E. Camden, Arkansas on Wednesday and then had a load that has brought us back to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  We got out from underneath that load this afternoon.  We traveled through Tennessee, Virginia, W. Virginia and Maryland.  From Virginia on there was snow on the ground.  The roads were nice and dry though.  Here in PA there is about 3 to 4 inches on the ground. The current temperature here is a balmy 18 degrees under clear skies…  Brrrrrrrrrrrr 

Today while we were getting unloaded Cooper and I had a blast playing in the snow, talk about a happy dog.   Our goofy little Coops just loves the snow. 

The place we deliver to is out in the country, pretty area and it is full of white tail deer.  We must of saw 50 to 60 on customer’s property.

It was a fun afternoon. 

We have a load in the morning that is taking back to North Carolina.

Oh my gosh! 

My baby is going to be 24 years old tomorrow....sheesh   How old does that make me feel??? 

   Happy Birthday Jarod 

I drove through Maryland and this time I actually drove around Washington, DC instead of directly through it.   It wasn’t as exciting but that’s Ok with me.    I couldn’t believe the traffic near DC at 11pm a on a Sunday night.  Good grief…crazy

We delivered our load to PA on Monday; we actually arrived Sunday evening and stayed the night in the consignee’s safe haven.  The weather in PA was very windy and quite cold, the security guard said it might freeze.  This wouldn’t have been very good since it was raining.  We got up the next morning quite early and luckily it did not freeze. We unloaded in PA,  then had another load that took us back to North Carolina which we delivered yesterday.  The weather on that leg of the trip was beautiful, but a little windy. 

Today we picked up a load in Georgia and will deliver it to Arkansas.  Today there are no clouds in the sky and the temperature is 64 degrees.   It sounds like we are lucky to be missing all the storms going on around us. 

And thankful…

On the road again

Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world be turnin' our way
And our way
Is on the road again...   

We had a nice relaxing break, although it seemed to go fast.  We stayed at a very nice extended stay hotel with a small kitchen.  They also had about 100 DVDs in their library which they loaned out for free and also free laundry.  We ended up watching about 10 movies.  I usually fixed breakfast and lunch in our room so we had our dinners out. 

There was a nice mall close by which gave me the opportunity to get most of our Christmas shopping done.  Yeah!

We have a load that has taken us from Joplin, MO to Arkansas to North Carolina.  We are now in North Carolina.  Tomorrow we will head to Pennsylvania and then back to NC.

On our way to PA today we stopped at a restaurant and watched most of the Oregon vs. Oregon State civil war game…..YES!!!   The Beavers pulled it off, wow it was a close game, double overtime.   GO BEAVS!!!

The weather has been beautiful     ….although it did snow one night when we were in Joplin. It was so pretty...