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July 24 I'm still here...We recently had a load that took us up to Green Bay, Wisconsin. We ended up staying a couple nights with Tim's little sister Leslie, Taylor and her husband Paul. We had a wonderful relaxing visit with them. They have a beautiful house that sits at the end of a culdasack . Since then we've been up to Vermont for the first time, that was fun...lots of old Colonial homes. From there we had a load that took us to California and then back up to Illinois. We delivered there this morning and have a short load that is taking us to Indiana. From there we are heading up to Cincinnati Ohio for Jeanette's son Kenny's wedding. Yesterday In Texas as Cooper and I were out for a walk I came upon a snake that was about 4 feet long and about 2 inches in diameter. Oh yea...I probable would have stepped right on it if it hadn't lifted it's head out of the grass and stuck it's tongue out at me. Let's just say I didn't waste too much time leaving the scene. I did glance back to notice it was not a rattlesnake...but it is the biggest snake I have seen out in the wild. "People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln July 06 Go west young man....On this particular load we started out in North Carolina, we deadheaded to Missouri where we picked up a preloaded trailer. Since the load is not to deliver until Tuesday in Washington we have been able to relax and take our time. So instead of driving 4 to 5 hundred miles each we have been shutting down after 600 miles period. We are now in South Dakota. It is nice to revisit a state that we have not been to in a long while. You again can appreciate what it has to offer. The area around the Badlands and the Black Hills National Forest is a place I want to come back and explore. I would love to see Mount Rushmore. There is an abundance of things to do and historical things to check out.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Gandhi
June 23 Rejuvenated...Last week we were in Tooele, Utah with a load that took us to Hawthorne, Nevada. Talk about driving through the desert...sheesh. From there we deadheaded to California to pick up a load in Moorpark, but someone on the customer end messed up and that load got canceled. Our company will charge the shipper for not having a load for us and we will get a chunk of that money. So it wasn't a total loss. Plus we parked at a Mall for a day and I did some fun shopping, I found a dress for Kenny's wedding, oh yes and a pair of matching shoes; I enjoyed the day. I drove us into the Salt Lake City area early Saturday morning. We arrived at the customer around 5am. We ended up having to safe haven the load for the weekend since there was no one there to offload. Tim decided to get us a room at the Hilton near the airport, where we laid by the pool and relaxed. It was very nice and refreshing. This morning we headed back to the customer to get offloaded, which didn't take them long at all. But as of yet we have no load assignment... "You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it." Charles Buxton American writer June 08 Yep I'm back...It's hard to know where to begin, it's been a long time. And there has been a lot that has happened. I am pretty sure that I don't want to get into it all. I will say that my parents are doing much better. My dad is holding his own undergoing chemotherapy. He keeps a positive attitude. I am happy to report my mom has a spring in her step again. She has been having fun planting a garden and working in her yard. Dad is getting out of the house by working in his shed and helping mom with the garden. I do miss them, but it was time for me to get back to work. It was a blessing that I was able to take the time off, it wasn't always easy, I would say mostly good, but the challenges we did face have made us closer through God's loving grace. I do not regret one moment. With that said I will say it is good to be back out on the road and to be with my Timmy. I was worried about how Cooper would do, since he was out of the truck for so long. But he seems to be enjoying the ride, right from the co-pilot seat. Since I've been back out we have been to Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Missouri, Illinois, down to Texas and then back to Illinois where we are now. We will be heading back to Kentucky tomorrow. The weather has been mostly hot and humid. We did hit some pretty strong winds in Arkansas and Missouri. On a side note, Tim informed me today that since we started driving in May 2006 that I have logged 135,000 miles....sheesh...pretty crazy I know. whodaknew? "I don't know the secret to success, but the secret to failure is trying to please everyone." Bill Cosby March 08 March 8th~Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been on here. There has been a lot going on since I last wrote. We had a very nice Christmas and New Years. We spent January in Coos Bay. We had the opportunity to visit lots friends and just kick back and relax. Tim did some fabrication on the truck using the service of Tom Hull’s high school students. It was a fun and rewarding experience for him.
We were to get back on the road in February, but my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. So we decided I needed to stay and help my parents until things got settled with dad. He is now on chemo and holding his own. However while I have been here; which has been about 3 weeks, I have noticed that my mom has gone down hill in regards to her health. So with my insistence we have run many tests on mom and some have not come out with good results i.e. liver and kidney functions. More tests and procedures are going to be run next week to determine what is causing the problem.
Tim is back on the road, running solo. They are keeping him busy he has already been up to Canada and back into Tennessee and Kentucky. Cooper stayed back with me. He helps lower my stress level and alleviate the worries of the day.
Keeps us in your thoughts and prayers! December 22 Dec. 21st~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 December 19 Dec. 19th~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. December 16 Dec. 16th~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. December 15 Dec. 15th~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.
December 12 Dec. 12th~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. December 09 Dec. 9th~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???
December 06 Dec. 6th~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. 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???
December 04 Dec. 4th~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.
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… December 01 Dec. 1st~On the road again Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
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 November 20 Nov. 20th~We delivered our load to Louisiana yesterday and then had a load that has taken us from Arkansas (where everyone we ran into looked like Larry the Cable Guy) to Oklahoma. From Oklahoma we will head to Joplin, Missouri where we are going to take a week off. Yeah!!!
November 14 Nov. 14th~We arrived in Washington early Monday morning, but since Monday was a holiday we put the load in the military safe haven. It was a long run and we were tired so we decided to get a motel room. It was nice to get out of the truck, relax and watch some mindless TV; which we rarely get to do. Seems we haven’t missed too much.
Early Tuesday morning we headed back to the base where they unloaded our flatbed. We then deadheaded to Richland, Washington; we arrived at the shipper late last night. This morning they loaded us, it only took them 5 hours
 It really was not a big deal; we have lots of time on this load, so I finished up the paper work from our last load, Cooper and I went for a walk and played in the grass. Tim talked with the guys that were helping with the loading and he did some research on the computer. And with all that said and done we are on our way to Louisana.
I must say the weather on this trip has been freeeezing and we've hit some strong winds. Good thing we have a heavy load!!! November 11 Nov. 10th~Wow, fun flies when you’re having time…..
We ended up deadheading down to Georgia from NC; we dropped our trailer and then picked up a flatbed. We have a load that is taking us from Kings Bay, Georgia to Washington State. We are now going through Nebraska. The weather has been sunny but the temperature is cooling off.
November 07 Nov. 7th~Well we really missed the vibrant fall colors this year in the eastern states….darn it. It is still beautiful, but we missed the peak time when the leaves really show off all their different colors. We’ve hit the end of fall and the beginning of winter. Speaking of winter sounds like we just missed some snow storms hitting the northeastern states. Although on my shift I did run into some heavy rains and wind going through New York and into Pennsylvania.
We received another assignment that has taken us from Indiana to North Carolina. In Indiana we traveled on some beautiful country roads with some gorgeous properties... I just wanted to pull the truck over and stay for a long while…
We arrived at our destination in North Carolina this evening; we will spend the night here and get unloaded in the morning. Tim and Cooper are already fast asleep. November 04 Nov. 4th~We arrived in Plattsburgh, New York late last night around midnight. We awoke this morning and headed to Starbucks
It was a nice crisp fall day today; temperature was in the 50’s. Later we went out to dinner and met another couple who work for the same company; we invited them to sit with us. The guy Ed had us in stitches most of the evening. They were a very nice couple, they have a ranch that sits on 70 acres in Minnesota. They have been trucking for 14 years together…lots of funny and scary stories to share.
We have a load assignment that is taking us to Fort Drum, New York with the delivery going to Indiana. November 03 Nov. 3rd~Yesterday I drove us out of Laredo and almost made it through Texas, but ended up stopping in Mt. Vernon where Tim started his shift. There was construction for most of my drive…..geez a lou pretty crazy...not the most relaxing drive. Tim and I have traded hours, my shift is from noon to midnight and his is now midnight to noon. It varies from time to time, but it is good to keep some sort of schedule. I think it is working out better. But I do miss the mornings when the sun starts painting the landscape it is my favorite time of the day.
Today I started my shift in Benton, Tennessee, we were there for a couple hour getting a new muffler installed, the other one’s shaft broke off…..rather strange. Anyway it is fixed. The weather started out beautiful it was in the 70’s clear and warm. Well now we are in Virginia and it is 34 degrees…..brrrrrrr I wasn’t quite ready for that bone chilling cold when I stepped out of the truck.
Well, it's late I better get some sleep, that's all for now... |
Anyway we ended up in California for 2 nights before we got a load from China Lake, CA back to Utah near Salt Lake City. In China Lake which is north of LA, that particular load had to have tarps. Which isn't so bad but the temperature out was 110 degrees...ouch! Tim wouldn't let me help, he ended up with a couple of blisters because the tarps were so hot.
More later...
Happy Birthday Jarod 
I couldn’t believe the traffic near DC at 11pm a on a Sunday night.
and then went to breakfast with our friends Jay and Christine.|
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