Home Sweet Home

Wow! I can't believe I haven't blogged since last Tuesday. We enjoyed our time in Great Falls. We got a rental car for a day and found a bar with pool tables to hang out in for awhile. It was fun and the food was good. We played some casino games and lost a few bucks. LOL Every other business is a casino there and I think they define casino as a business having 3 or more electronic games.

I hit WalMart to get groceries the next morning before returning the car and withing 1 1/2 hours of going back into service we were called for a load. They asked us to deadhead 800 miles to Winnipeg to pick up a load that would then go to Kentucky. We agreed to do it because the miles were good and it would get us within a few hours of home. Since we would hit the border about 3 am, we asked dispatch to confirm that the port of entry they were routing us to was open 24 hours. They confirmed, but I could tell by the voice in the background that they hadn't checked it out, they were just assuming. Well we got fuel at the last possible place before the border and must have got some bad fuel. We started having problems and losing power. We nursed it to the border because for 50 miles we had no cell service. Lo and behold, the border crossing is only open 8 am to 9 pm!! Had they let us go to the one we KNEW was open we would have gotten fuel at a more reputable establishment. So now we were sitting at a closed border with a truck that didn't want to go over 30 mph! Thank goodness at the border we picked up the Canadian wireless (read EXPENSIVE) service and could call our truck owner to see what he wanted us to do.

Our owner is responsible for maintenance and repairs so he told us not to cross the border until the truck was fixed as Canadian repairs would be really expensive. We nursed the truck back to the nearest town and parked in the Freighliner dealer lot waiting for them to open. Dispatch kept bothering us because now we would be late for pick up but there was nothing we could do. The dealer finally opened, wasn't very helpful and wouldn't even say he could look at the truck maybe until Monday!! We found a garage across the street and they got us right in, replace our fuel filters (that had ice in them) and we were on our way but the load cancelled. Then we found out that because we were unable to make the pickup they weren't going to even pay us for th 600 miles that we had driven!! At this point we had been out 24 days and were tired so we started heading across North Dakota towards home.

We got another load later in the day from ND to IL that delivered Friday morning. We ran it and then seriously headed home. So, here we are...the truck is due for an oil change so we'll probably take care of that before we head out. I need to work on the taxes and Alex's FAFSA too.

Stay tuned and hope to have some exciting posts soon!! LOL

Here we are..

It's been a busy week! Last Thursday we went back to Wednesday's delivery spot to pick up a load. We delivered it that night to Travis AFB, 14 hours early! We moved to a truck stop, slept in Friday and started making some plans to see San Francisco over the weekend. HA! So much for that idea...We were dispatched along with another nearby truck to pick up a load in Oregon late Friday night. Of course along the way it began to snow in the mountains and we had to chain up again! One of our chains broke during the previous trip so we had to stop and buy another set. They're so shiny!! LOL

We were able to unchain after about an hour and then came upon another checkpoint where we were to chain up again, but the check-guy was asleep in his truck so we just cruised on by...

We picked up our load, which was recovered from a semi, so was split between our truck and another one. We drove through Oregon and Washington Saturday, slept at a rest area and crossed the border to British Columbia Sunday morning. We drove through the Cascade and Rocky Mountains with 7000 pounds of corrosive liquid. What a ride. It was gorgeous!! I'll try to get pics posted soon.

After we delivered our load eight hours early, we found a rest area and got a few hours of sleep and then headed to Montana for a couple of days of much needed rest. We found a nice hotel and are off duty until tomorrow. Then we're hoping to head toward Ohio to pick up mail. Gotta get those taxes done so we can get the FAFSA done!

Stay tuned.

Wow, what a ride...

Here we are in southern California. We left Portland, OR Tuesday morning for what should have been a straight 24 hour drive down to Barstow. As we headed to the mountain passes, we came upon hundreds of trucks, pulled over beside the highway and stopped in the right lane. All were putting chains on. Apparently it was beginning to snow and there were inspectors at every entrance to the highway checking for chains. Trucks without them had to exit. So we got to chain up for the first time and headed into the mountains at 5-10 mph to start with and then got up to about 30-35. Needless to say, it was a little stressful and very slow-going. We actually went through more snow in December in Flagstaff without chains, but they are required here. As we passed into California, we were listening to the weather radio and the areas requiring chains. We got to the area where they said we could unchain, stopped and took them off, went two miles down the road and the chain-up sign was flashing again! So we stopped and put them back on!! When we finally were able to take them off for good, the radio was now stating that the highway we just drove down was closed from the Oregon border to where we were! Last truck through again!!

It was wonderful to move down through Sacramento, then across the Mojave Desert, through Bakersfield and on to Barstow. It was about 60-65 degrees and after we unloaded and had some lunch, we were able to let the dogs out to play for awhile without being on leashes. They chased the ball and each other and just generally had a good time.

It's still amazing to me the differences in the landscape as we drive. We were here in December, and yet it's like seeing it new again! I hope you enjoy the new slide show.

Eagles and Beavers and Bison, OH MY!

This has been another amazing drive! I hope I never lose the sense of awe I feel as we drive across this grand nation of ours. I've added a slide show to the blog page so you can view more pictures. If you click on the picture, it will open another window so you can see the pictures full screen. Some are better than others. Please keep in mind that most of these are taken from inside the cab while in motion.... This is definitely a trucker's point of view.

We left South Dakota around 10 am EST on Friday heading to Port Hadlock, Washington. This is a special load so our stops were limited to no more than 3 1/2 hours at a time, so there was no stopping to sleep for the night. We arrived at our destination about 11 pm EST Saturday, so we did over 1600 miles in 37 hours. Not bad. LOL We even took our time...in Montana where the speed limit was 75, I was doing about 60 just because we didn't want to get here any sooner than necessary. For those of you that know me....you KNOW I would have LOVED being able to legally drive 75 mph!!!

Along the way, we saw beautiful landscape as well as amazing wildlife. We went through/past several national forests and parks. We saw bison and pronghorn antelope. There was an area with several small bodies of water littered with beaver huts. Some were small and some were huge! We watched a bald eagle fly parallel to the highway and we saw a coyote walking across the ice of a small lake. We also saw one cute little skunk!!

Driving through the mountain passes was incredible!! There was a lot of snow on the ground going from Montana to Idaho as well as about two inches of fresh snow. We saw hundreds of snow-mobilers headed for a show/competition in Idaho. The moon is close to being full so even at night the view was breath-taking.

We are on the military base until we can unload tomorrow morning, and we couldn't ask for a more beautiful place to wait. We are surrounded by a huge stand of towering pines and there is only the occasional military police patrol for traffic. Other than not being able to have a campfire, it feels just like camping! Including the outhouse (porta-potty)! I told you this truck was 1/3 RV, 2/3 truck!!! And we're getting paid to do this. Oh yeah, we get to remove Montana, Idaho and Washington from our list of states we haven't visited and tomorrow we should get to remove Oregon as we are tentatively scheduled to pick up a load in Portland on Tuesday.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Let me know if you have problems viewing them.

Westward We Go

Just a note...this was to be published on Thursday, February 5 but I had internet issues.

Today is both exciting and bittersweet....my baby turned 18 today! I can't believe it. Where has the time gone?? And my other angel is already 21. Geez, Mom, I'm starting to understand how you're feeling now that you only have one child under 40!! LOL

We're headed to South Dakota to pick up a load tomorrow morning and will deliver in Washington on Monday morning. Good miles! :) And, they've already scheduled us to pick up a new load in Portland, Oregon Tuesday morning to deliver in Barstow, CA Wednesday morning. I wouldn't mind running up and down the west coast for awhile!

We stopped at a gas station/convenience store/restaurant in Minnesota tonight for something to eat and met the most hilarious guy! He was missing the first two finger joints on every finger on his right hand, is from Louisiana and team drives with his wife. He had us cracking up the entire time we were in there! He told the story of his Sears refrigerator breaking down. Since we never got his name, I'm going to call him Joe Trucker.

Since Joe had bought the warranty, he called Sears about getting the refrigerator fixed or replaced and was informed that a repairman would have to come out to see it. Joe explained that he's a truck driver and the fridge is in his rig and he can't just sit around waiting for a repairman but would try to figure something out. Finally, he needed to get some maintenance done on his truck and Sears sent the repairman to the truck dealership to see the fridge. The repairman looked at it and informed Joe that it would cost more to fix it than for Sears to replace it,to which Joe replied, "tell me something I don't know!" Well, the repairman called in and was told he should try to fix it. He pulled it out, inspected the back and said,"it's dirty; I'll try cleaning it." Joe couldn't understand this...he and his wife kept their truck clean and the fridge wasn't even a year old! The repairman returned from his van with an air tank that looked like it was for scuba diving with a hose attached and proceeded to blow the dust out, and succeeded in shattering the plastic fan. "Well, I guess now it needs replaced!"

The repairman called in to apprise the warranty department of the situation, put his hand over the phone for a moment and told Joe he would have to wait two days to get his authorization number in order to be able to take the fridge to a Sears store for replacement. Well, this didn't go over well with Joe so the repairman handed the phone to him. The lady explained that this was company policy and Joe retorted that Sears sure didn't wait for two days for him to pay for the fridge the day he got it and put it in his truck!! Besides, were they willing to pay him $20 a meal for each of those two days since his warrantied fridge couldn't keep his groceries cold?? The repairman got back on the phone for a minute, hung up and told Joe where the nearest Sears was located and to go ahead there and return the fridge...it would be taken care of.

Joe bob-tailed over to Sears, grabbed the fridge and hiked across the parking lot, across the store, up the escalator to appliances. He was met by a man who said, "Oh! You're here! You almost beat me here!" Apparently he was an area manager and he had a loaner fridge for Joe. Now Joe was getting a little frustrated. "You understand I drive a truck, and I can't be here to return this in two or three days?!" The manager said he did completely, and by the way, the loaner was brand new, still in the box, but he had one favor..."please call me when you get your authorization number."

Joe described how he hightailed it out of the store, lugging the new fridge and when his half-fingers slipped off the strap around the box he discovered the box had no bottom! He said he bear-hugged that fridge all the way to the truck!

Now, Joe is about six feet tall with a very southern accent, and is obviously a trucker. Just listening to him tell the story had us just cracking up!!

I wanted to share a few photos of some of the windmills here. I know a lot of people don't like them, but they just look so amazing when there are hundreds of them spread out through the field, just turning and turning....

Short lived LOL

Well, THAT was short lived!!! We REALLY didn't want to leave Texas but unfortunately, there's work to be done. Anyway, we got a load from Ft. Worth to Chicago. We picked up at 1 pm yesterday and delivered at 8:30 am today. Whew!

We're sitting on the western outskirts of Chicago hoping to go south and/or west. We were offered a load to Canada but we were on our way to get in the shower. (At least we weren't IN it this time!! LOL) We told them if they could give us 30 minutes to shower before we had to leave we'd take it, otherwise we couldn't and apparently they got someone else. We'll probably end up going to Canada anyway...there seems to be a lot of freight going that way.

Well, I guess this is a slow-blog day! Check us out again soon.

This is more like it!

Ok, so I'm really liking Texas!! We got our truck washed on the way down here. It was the first time in a month! We drove about 100 miles on a state route which was a really nice break from the interstate. We saw some cool things. Dana spotted a roadrunner. I saw this and decided this is one way to really tell you are in Texas...when there are horses going down the road totally unconcerned with traffic!

We made it to our planned staging point, about an hour from our delivery Sunday night in time to watch the second half of the Super Bowl.

We delivered this morning, got a nap and made some phone calls. I thought I was going to get to see my BFF, but it turns out she was still about 3 1/2 hours south of us and the company wanted us to move north, closer to Dallas. Ah well, maybe next time, eh? We've been friends for about 23 years and after we parted ways in Germany 21 years ago, we've only seen each other once; we'll survive! LOL

So we headed north in I-35 and had to make a stop at Willie's Place at Carl's Corner. Willie Nelson is building a huge truck stop and sells biodiesel fuel. It's not completely finished, but it was fun to stop in. I'm hoping we get to stop often and watch the progress. Here are some pics:

Since the restaurant isn't yet open at Willie's, we went on down the road and had some really good BBQ. What's awesome, is that it's almost fast food, so it doesn't take long and is extrememly casual. The food, however, didn't taste like fast food! Right next to it was a dome building. Dana suggested we buy it and move here after we don't have to keep a house in Ohio!! Great location: next to the highway, safe in tornados, and awesome BBQ within walking distance!! LOL

Now we're sitting at a rest stop, just waiting for a load. There's free Wi-Fi here, which is cool and we've picked up several TV stations out of Dallas so I figure we can spend the night if we don't get a load out tonight.

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