HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

First, we had a wonderful Christmas day with our nieces and their parents. Emily and Olivia, it was great seeing you!!!

WOW!! What a crazy three days!! We left Sunday evening to deliver our load to Chicago. Before we even cleared the load we were asked to move to Milwaukee, WI to stage for a late afternoon load. So much for getting to visit our cousins!! Maybe next time!

We met another couple who drive a Genie Express truck. Nice people...they live in Tennessee and were waiting to pick up a load at the same place we were.

We FINALLY got loaded about 9 pm and pulled out, headed for Atlanta. We literally got around the corner when they called and asked us to come back for three more pallets!! Finally we headed out for an all night drive to Georgia.

As soon as we delivered in Atlanta we were asked to move to South Carolina...they needed a truck there. Since we had 24 hours to get there, we stopped in for a much-needed oil change which took almost 3 hours. LOL

Sooooo we headed north on I85 to SC hoping for a shower and a good nights sleep. Maybe even the holiday weekend in the warm south. My mom is right...there's no rest for the wicked!! One hour north of Atlanta they called and needed us to return to pick up a load going to Martinsburg WV. During this whole time, poor Dana tried to get some much needed sleep. Badger Belly and Weasel Head enjoyed the warm Georgia sunshine and always having a warm body in the bed with them!!

Wow. Another all night drive....delivered in the most eastern part of WEST Virgina this morning. We took ourselves out of service to drive home to pick up new permits for the truck (since the old ones expire TODAY).

So, now you are caught up!! LOL We are home...ready to bring in the New Year...our 8th together. :) Saturday I'll take Alex back to Athens and Sunday we'll start again.

Here's wishing you a WONDERFUL new year. Love to all!! Hope to see you all at least once this year!!

Merry Merry Happy Happy

We made it safely home around 10:30 pm Christmas Eve. Time to make the pumpkin pie for Christmas breakfast (weird tradition, I know) and wrap gifts picked up along the way.

We hope everyone out there has a wonderful Christmas. We'll be back on the road Sunday, heading to Chicago to deliver our load, so more adventures will follow. Zeke might even get his computer privileges back! Sosa isn't really interested in blogging even though he does seem to be computer literate. He got his daddy a travel mug with his (Sosa's) picture on it for Christmas and managed to have it wrapped and under the tree before we got home.

Love and happiness to all!!

We're getting closer to home for Christmas.....

Well, it took 3 1/2 hours to make it to Flagstaff. What a trip! We made one stop at a rest area and here's what it looked like:



We stopped after Flagstaff to sleep for a few hours and then moved on. We're now in New Mexico, had a good meal, replaced a headlight and are getting ready to move out.

Talk to ya'll soon!!

I'll be home for Christmas.....

Well, we hope so anyway....Right now it's Tuesday, the 23rd, 2:30 a.m. MST and we are sitting still on I 40 about 40 miles west of Flagstaff. It's snowing, but the problem is multiple accidents ahead of us. According to the voices on the CB, everybody is sitting everywhere.


Anyway, we brokered our own load to Chicago....we can deliver by 11:30 Wednesday (don't see that happening!) or Monday morning. So Kathy, we might get to stop in!!

Sosa is trying to make a comfortable place to sleep among the blankets and pillows and Zeke won't leave him alone! He keeps pulling the blanket away from Sosa and biting his legs. He had a pretty good nap already so he wants to play. I already took him out to potty along the road and he just wanted to play in the snow! Sosa wouldn't even go out....he looked at me as if I had lost my mind!

Meanwhile, we're grateful for internet and satellite radio. Once we get moving we're going to get to Flagstaff and sleep for awhile just to let them have time to clean the roads.

Stay tuned..........

Today was a day to just enjoy the sunshine. We stayed in Simi Valley again. Dana built step extenders for the dogs to get in and out easier. So far, they don't seem to trust them, but I'm sure that will change with practice. Sosa seems to think he should drive most of the time, but as you can see below, Zeke always seems to think he knows better than Sosa!

It really is awesome to see flowers blooming outside on the first day of winter!!
This was this sky this evening. Enjoy. We did.

Sunny California

California is beautiful! We delivered on time yesterday after driving 2263 miles which included 2 snow storms. What a trip!
We found a Comfort Inn in Oxnard and got a beautiful room that had a private patio, king size bed, kitchenette and allowed pets. If you ever get out this way, it's a great, very reasonably priced place stay. Uncle Robert and Uncle John picked us up and took us to dinner at Scotch and Sirloin which sits on the harbor. What a fabulous dinner!! We got to see the holiday boat parade while eating dinner and fireworks afterward. Of course, no matter how great the food was, it couldn't beat the company. We really enjoyed seeing our uncles.
Today after checking out and having a great meal, we did some grocery shopping at a local grocery store. The produce choices and prices were incredible compared to back east. We moved to Simi Valley to a Wal Mart shopping center to wait for a load. We should be out by Monday...hopefully headed home. Sosa and Zeke are certainly enjoying the warm weather.
This is the view outside our truck sitting in the Wal Mart parking lot. Not bad, eh?
Stay tuned, stay safe....we'll be back soon!

ROAD TRIP!!

We got a load Tuesday to leave from Columbus, OH Wednesday at 5 am going to Chatsworth, CA. What a trip!! Somehow we missed the sleet in Ohio and Indiana and had pretty good driving through Missouri, Oklahoma and into Texas. What a beautiful rest area.


I saw 2 young coyotes playing in a field in Missouri. The reminded me so much of Zeke (aka Badger Belly). In New Mexico we saw a herd of antelope. It was sooo cool!! NM was beautiful...and it was sunny all day.



Flagstaff got hit with 3 feet of snow and we were called and told we might have to change our route because I 40 to California was closed. We decided to sleep for awhile and they got the road cleared and opened. Dana watched a beautiful sunrise over the mountains as he drove into California. The scenery when I got up was awesome!

So we delivered the load and decided to get a hotel room to shower and sleep. We plan to meet up with our favorite uncles, Robert and John this evening. Can't wait! We haven't seen them in 5 years.

One last note....for the followers....remember the garnet from Georgia? Here's the before and after.

Home Sweet Home

So we made it home sweet home. On the way we were offered 12 different jobs...except all were headed in the wrong direction. Several to Canada, some to Oklahoma, Tennessee, Michigan. One was from Illinois to Indiana, but we would have had to backtrack 2 1/2 hours to get it and there was no way we could make their pick up time.

Laundry is started...groceries are bought...good night's sleep last night...things are good. We should be here until Monday morning, so there might not be any entries until we head out again.

So...keep warm out there and tune in later!! Cheers!!

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH

Wow. What a frustrating day already. Dana and I both have bad colds so we stayed at a hotel last night. I had a shower last night and one this morning just because I could!!!! LOL We've requested to be routed home, and three times they've sent the same load. We'd have to drive five hours to Minneapolis to get it and then back to Winnipeg. NO THANKS! The high today is 4 degrees!



Besides, I don't have any of the paperwork I need for us to get back into the states from Canada. I've requested it be shipped to me but gee, I can't get home to get it!!!



So, we decided to have a good lunch, a cold beverage and a nap. Then we will decide what to do. I believe the decision will be to move southeast, although we'll watch the storm carefully that is in Wisconsin now!



So, folks, another slow day, but this blog lets me vent so I don't get nasty with dispatch when they keep sending me the same load as there ARE NO OTHER TRUCKS from our company a 300 mile radius! LOL



Stay tuned, stay warm!!!

The end of the Earth

Ok, maybe we didn't go to the end of the earth, but I swear we could see it!! It was SO COLD and snowy. Our drive from the border, through Winnipeg to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan should have taken about 10 hours but took about 13. Did I mention it was COLD COLD COLD?!

Anyway, we delivered our load this morning and are nearly to Winnepeg, then it will on to Grand Forks, North Dakota. We've requested to be routed to Ohio. We've been out for 17 days now and it would be good to check the mail!! LOL

Dana saw a wolf and a coyote today and I saw a huge owl and a coyote. Everything is so flat it just seems like you can see forever!

Stay tuned!!

Great White North, eh?

Our wake up call this morning was a plea to drive to North Dakota to pick up a load and take it to Saskatchewan. Since we were over 500 miles from the shipper, we figure no one else wanted to go to the Great White North!

The wind is blowing pretty hard and there's about 2" of snow on the ground (some of which fell while Dana was driving up here). We're a couple of miles south of Fargo and will go to Canada on Sunday for an early Monday morning delivery.

Well, that's all folks!! See you again when we return stateside!

We're not in Kansas anymore!

Yesterday was an interesting day....after the move to Illinois for our load we got a phone call. The driver making the pick up in NC was still at the shipper (apparently they goofed on when it would be ready) so they needed us to meet him in Nashville instead of Illinois! So we hopped in the truck, drove 200 miles south to wait for the load to arrive. It was raining cats and dogs and small ponies all but the last 30 miles. What fun!! LOL

After a 3 hour nap, the truck arrived, we moved to the loading docks so they could unload one truck and reload ours and we headed to Kansas! All in all it was a good run for us; we got additional paid miles. :) AND even though the load left the shipper 5 hours later than it should have, we got it there only 2 hours later than the original delivery time!! They were very happy.



Once that load was finished, they asked us to move to Sterling, Ill. so we headed northeast. We've stopped for the night somewhere in Missouri (hence, we aren't in Kansas anymore). We had a good supper, talked to a nice guy from NY and may watch a movie.

See, not all the days are exciting!! I did see another bald eagle today, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. Well, yesterday in Kentucky I did have some sweet tea that was so good it'd make you talk southern!!

Thanks, followers, its good to know someone out there cares! Stay tuned..........

He's gooonnnnee...

Well, Zeke couldn't keep himself out of trouble so he lost computer privileges again.

We left Oklahoma on our relocation to Paducah, Kentucky yesterday. We weren't under a delivery deadline, so it was nice to take our time. We stopped at a place called Hillbilly Junction just north of Branson for lunch. Great food!!! It was a nice little place to stop if you ever get out that way.

Today I kept busy with cleaning the truck and washing sheets and blankets. It's nice to have a nice clean truck again! LOL We moved about 65 miles northwest this afternoon to pick up a load at 3:30 am tomorrow going to Eudora, Kansas. At least we're moving!

Let's hope that Zeke can stay out of trouble so he can get back to blogging. Or maybe we can get Sosa to add something.

Stay tuned..........

I'm baaaack.....

Hi everybody! This is Zeke, aka Badger Belly. It's December and that means I'm off restriction. At least for the moment. I have a hard time staying out of trouble and keeping my computer privileges!!! I tore up a pillow today so I'm trying to get this done before Mom takes the computer away again.

So, Dad, Mom, Sosa (Weasel Head) and I left Atlanta yesterday headed for Miami!! Whoo hoo, sunshine and beaches here we come!! Then Mom said no, not Florida, we're going to Miami, Oklahoma. OKLAHOMA?? Who wants to go there? So off we went, driving all night to deliver of all things, empty dog food bags. Can it get any worse for a dog like me??

No sooner had they emptied the truck (geez that place smelled good ) than the company asked Mom and Dad to move the truck to Kentucky. So, we're off again after a nap at a truck stop. I know Dad likes Kentucky....something about bourbon. LOL

Mom got all excited driving through the Ozarks in Missouri. She and Dad saw a bald eagle fly over the road. She said it was really beautiful.

I'll see if I can get Sosa to do a blog soon. He has a hard time typing with those big paws, but we'll see. Ya'll take care and come back soon, y'hear!

What a Blast!!!

We had a blast today!! We figure we won't get a load out until Monday so we decided to check out one of the places on our list of places we want to visit. We went to Gold'n Gems Grubbin' north of Atlanta. We saw it on the Travel Channel. We bought a bucket of rocks and sorted through looking for gems. It was chilly out and a little drizzly, but we were under cover so we didn't get too wet!

We felt like little kids playing in the rocks! We brought a lot of "pretties" home and left a garnet there to be cut and mounted for my birthday. Right now its about the size of a golf ball so it should come out really nice! We also found a good size emerald, some rubies, tiger eye, amethyst, citrine, and others. We figure we can get one cut every few months if we keep working! LOL

Rainy Day in Georgia

Well, we're north of Atlanta and it's raining. BUT, it's also in the mid 50s, so it's NOT snowing! Not sure what our plans are for today, but thought I'd share a few more photos.

It's a Beautiful Day!!

Atlanta has been a wonderful change from New York! It's in the high 60's here today and I'm in shorts and a t-shirt. I have to laugh because the locals have coats and even gloves on and I'm in summer clothes. I guess that's how you tell a Yankee down here! LOL

After we delivered our load, we found a park to let the dogs get out for some exercise.

We all enjoyed getting out and walking down the path and enjoying the mild weather and sunshine.

Sosa and Zeke met a spitz named Nutmeg. Zeke really wanted to play but she was older and didn't want anything to do with him! Poor Zeke.

Waiting for a load and hoping it goes further south!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We are traveling through Virginia today. We slept well and played ball with Sosa and Zeke in a big field at the rest area. They had a good time! Right now Dana is driving, Sosa is sleeping on one couch and I'm sitting on the other. Zeke is with me right now, looking out the window. He goes up front for awhile then back with me!

Enjoy your day and be thankful. I'm thankful for my family, scattered as we are, and that I'm employed and spending everyday with my best friend!

Love to all out there!!

I should have known....

As usual, I spoke too soon! LOL We planned to head home around noon if we didn't get a load. 1205 we got a load offer to go to Atlanta GA. It needs to be delivered by 5 pm Friday, so we got 48 hours to make an 18 hour drive. : ) So, we're spending the night at a Virginia welcome center. Not nearly as many trucks in the rest areas tonight. A lot of drivers headed home for the holiday.

While we are getting to go somewhere warmer (thankfully!), it's still 8 hours from Mom and Dad. :( Who knows, maybe we'll get sent further south.

I'm really proud of my niece, Emily, who has started her own blog. Keep writing, Em!!

Thought I'd share another pic from the other day....can't remember where.

Turkey Day Eve

Well, it's the day before Turkey Day. We're still in NY. We had a good supper and slept great last night. This morning we had a leisurely breakfast and are preparing to move out around noon. Panther asked drivers to remain available until 1500 today, so we could still get a load.

We'll head home for a couple of days. All the blankets (seat covers) and rugs need washed so going home will be good. : )

I thought I'd add a picture we took driving through northern NY last week. Thank goodness the snow didn't last long!

Slow day

Well, we delivered our load around 0430 today, parked for a nap and headed south. We wanted to stop to see the Falls but it was cold and rainy and we were tired. I'm sure there will be another opportunity!!

We're sitting at a truck stop west of Syracuse waiting for a load out. Zeke likes to go out to the end of the lot where there's a field that still has some snow. He likes to hunt in the snow for whatever it is he thinks he finds. He's so silly sometimes! All the way back to the truck he tries to chew on Sosa's back legs.

Sosa likes to spend most of his time sleeping but today he sat in the front seat watching trucks for awhile. People always give him a second look as they walk by.

Talked to a good friend of mine today from my previous life. : ) Thanks for the phone call!!

Told you it was a slow day..... LOL That's how it is sometimes, but its still fun.

Remember, smile; it makes people wonder what you're up to!!!

A funny thing happened....

We delivered our load early this morning and headed to a truck stop for breakfast and a shower. While eating breakfast we saw a guy that could be kin to our friend Pat. Talks like him, walks like him....

After breakfast we returned to the truck for shower stuff and watched one truck take the front corner off another while driving through the lot. Couldn't believe it. The poor guy who got hit was asleep in his truck! What a lousy way to wake up on Monday morning!!

After our showers we returned to see a different truck stuck. Not in the mud...he had tried to drive over the grassy area into the parking spot instead of pulling into the lot and backing into the space. His tractor got hung up in the grass. HILARIOUS!!! So now, not only was his tractor hung up, but his trailer was blocking a street into a residential area.

We watched the NY State Patrol officers laugh at both drivers. We figured they handed out some pretty pricey pieces of paper today.

Since things happen in threes, we decided to exit that property!!! We moved west to Syracuse to await pick up for our next load. We'll load at 22:45 tonight and head to Ontario. We're hoping the snow stays east of us.

Stay tuned.............

Getting Started

So, we started this trucking adventure finally together in late October. Just the four of us....Dad, Mom, Weasel Head, and Badger Belly. Moving from a three bedroom home into a 96" sleeper has been a challenge.

Weasel Head (aka Sosa) and Badger Belly (aka Zeke) have adapted well. They sleep a lot while we drive and sit in the front seats whenever we leave the truck. They are great security!

We have been running to eastern NY a lot as well as Canada. We've seen some beautiful sights. We've seen some really stupid people!! LOL

Visit again.....we hope to keep you updated on our travels.