Wanderlust Times 2

Interanimal Breeding

2010-04-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

I just LUV this! Makes me smile and chuckle every time I think of it.

Time to Start Blogging Again

2010-04-06T05:13:00.010-04:00

I kinda dropped the ball on this blogging thing and frankly I have missed it. Who knew it would be so enjoyable to write a blog. I sporadically kept journals as a young girl. But somehow they never interested me like this does. Who knew, well I guess that was my mom and oldest brother. After all they are the ones who encouraged me to start this in the first place.

Everytime something interesting happens, one of the first things that pops into my head is I should be blogging this! Take for instance where we loaded at a few weeks ago. We went in to check in and get our passes upon our arrival. They have a temporary building set up that is very basic and the flow of people, well there was no flow! We went to the left to check in and get our papers first. We patiently waited our turn. When it came we both walked up to the counter and gave the lady our information. Now I know as I describe her some of you are going to think I am mean, but this is a dead accurate description and without this mental image the story just wouldn't be the same. She was a large, heavy set black woman. Maybe in her mid 50s who looked as though she had stopped caring about her looks decades ago. Her clothing was unkempt and she wore what looked to be a really bad wig (to make matters worse, it was even slightly askew). Her mannerisms were overly exaggerated in ever way. My instant first impression was of a lazy drama queen. Then I immediately felt bad for categorizing her without even knowing her. If I had only known then...

As we told her what we were there to pick up she made several dramatic and loud comments regarding possible problems with our paperwork and freight then immediately dismissed them. Frankly at first I was confused as I tried to figure out how to respond to her. Then increasingly worried she was just plain crazy and this whole thing was going to go terribly wrong at any moment. However we both somehow managed to quietly muddle our way thru her dramatics, that is till she asked us about placards. I told her no we didn't carry any on the truck and would need them. To which she just stared at us...and stared at us. I swear it went on for over a minute. Finally she said, well just go load and when you come back here for your paperwork you can get them then. I was really worried then because I knew I was going to have to explain something to her. I told her simply we needed to take the placards with us in order to be able to placard the trailer once the freight was loaded. As we couldn't move a hazardous load without being placarded. She just looked at me, slack jawed and dull eyed. I tried again, "really we can't move the loaded trailer back across the facility without it being placarded. If there was an incident or accident we would be in serious trouble." Finally it started to dawn on her I wanted the placards now. So she informed us that the placards were at the end of the counter in that cabinet. Mind the cabinet she pointed to was a large double doored grey metal storage cabinet maybe ten feet to her left. Then she just stood there staring at us. Like that explain it all perfectly! I had to tell her again we really did need the placards before we could leave to load. She finally, very reluctantly, with plenty of shuffling, loud sighing and moaning, moved to toward the cabinet. One of her co-workers had the misfortune of being right next to the cabinet as she approached. First she stopped in front of it and just looked at it for a bit. Then she reached out a hand and poked the front of it! After this she turns to her co-worker and loudly proclaims it is locked in a whiny voice. He has obviously dealt with her before, as he simply turned around opened and closed the cabinet, then went back to what he was doing. She contemplated this for a bit then reached out and sort of wiggled the handle with two fingers. Here she complains to her co-worker again that she can't get it open. He, never saying a word this whole time, turned around again and opened the cabinet. She looks at his back for a few seconds, then looks into the cabinet....and stares into the cabinet....and stares into the cabinet. FINALLY...she proclaims, "there they are." Pause........"they are on the bottom." Then, she reaches out with her right foot and gently prods them as she continues to stare at them. She then has the audacity to turn to us and inform us that they are on the bottom. We manged, not without a struggle, not to say a word and keep our faces neutral. At this lack of response she turned back to contemplating the cabinet again, finally reaching down and getting the small package of placards.

She slowly walked back to her place in front of us and asked, "how many do you want, 6?" I responded telling her, "no, 5 will be fine." To which she proceeds to lecture me that I don't need "6" as there are only 4 sides to a truck and if we are worried about losing one she suggests we get out our duck tape, as all drivers carry that stuff, and tape the placards really good to the side of the trailer. Yes she knows what a mess it will make, but that's the only way to do it! I just gritted my teeth for a minute then calmly said 4 would be fine. She didn't like this response and gave us the WHOLE lecture again, after which she dramatically handed them over with another admonishment about taping them securely! After all as she informed us we would be in serious trouble if we were to loose one of them and not have a spare on hand to replace it with! With great effort we both gave a smile and thanked her for her help, then quietly turned and left as quickly as we could.

Our next stop was across the hall. As we were standing there waiting this woman came out into the hallway. There were two men standing in the hallway, which is about 7 feet wide. One man was standing on the right side leaning against some lockers and the other was on the left side, about 10 feet farther down the hall from the first, standing next to the wall. This woman, came to a stop a few feet in front of the first man and said, "excuse me!" in a medium tone of voice. To which both men responded by standing up straight and flattening themselves against the walls to make more room for her. She stood there for half a second looking at them then yelled, "EXXXXCUUUSSSSE MEEEEE!" at them. They both just stared at her helplessly not having a clue what she wanted. It didn't take long to find out either. She proceeded to yell at them that they needed to both move to the left side of the hallway and stand straight so she could pass on the right side of the hall. OH, and I forgot to tell you about her gloves! She had been wearing latex gloves when we first came across her. Which isn't entirely abnormal, but she had removed one while hand us our placards and then replaced it! So here she stands in the middle of the hall way holding both gloved hands up in front of herself like a surgeon yelling at these poor guys to get out of her way so she can go wash her hands immediately! I couldn't hold it in any longer, I turned around buried my face in Randy's back and started shaking with laughter. As soon as I heard the bathroom door close behind her I just howled! Even Randy gave in and laughed out right. She, while impossible, had to be the funniest person I have encountered in a long time! What was even better was while in getting our passes I heard her repeat the entire scene in the hallway in reverse when she left the bathroom. It took all I had in me not to start howling with laughter again till we left the building!

Update...

2009-05-06T23:36:00.004-04:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. I got my new camera last week and while installing the software my laptop crashed. OOPS. Dell tells me I corrupted a library file. I repaired the operating system enough so I could backup all my data files one last time. Now, since the system is VERY unstable, I am going to wipe my hard drive and then reinstall EVERYTHING! Or so Dell tells me. Hopefully I will see you all on the other side of this nightmare.

I have soooo much to tell you and a lot of pictures to share. My new camera is REALLY awesome and I got lots of great shots at the Jeep Blessing. I took over 600 shots of Jeeps, trees, rocks, sand and mud, lots of mud... Even a few of a very unfortunate little boy who thought it would be nice to jump into the mud pit for a swim before going home!

Friends Arrive

2009-04-29T01:29:00.006-04:00

Our friends, Cathy and Ed, arrived today for a week long visit. It has been so nice to see them again and catch up. Only 2 more days to go till the Jeep Blessing and we all are furiously working on the Jeeps to be sure everything is in working order. I can't wait till we get to take them out and trail test them!

This was Ed's retirement present to himself after 24 years in the Navy! He just got back from his last 7 month cruise and will be "officially" retired in less than 30 days. He hasn't even put 300 miles on his new toy yet, so the first thing they did was to take a quick ride. Don't they look neat in their matching helmets, coats and boots?

Revenge on a Tailgater

2009-04-27T18:25:00.006-04:00

We took the truck into our favorite shop, Cadillac Truck, this morning and left it for its 6 month DOT inspections. On the way home, while still maybe 7 miles south of town, a little grey BMW pulls up behind me. Mind I am driving an Excursion, but I don't drive slow. Its a diesel too, so hills don't even faze it on cruise control. It just growls louder and up we go! I was doing about 6 over the limit and had the cruise set. I could almost hear the driver behind me gripping the wheel and grinding his teeth. Tailgaters are a huge pet peace of mine and I am sure there is an especially heinous place in hell, reserved just for them. Unfortunately for this idiot he decided he just had to get closer the rear of my vehicle. Like that was going to speed me up. Not! Just for him, since I was in a no passing zone for the next 6 miles, I tapped my brake, broke the cruise and slowed down to 5 below the limit!!!!! Na-Na-Na-Na-Na :-P

I could almost see the steam come out of his ears in my rear view mirror O:-D Randy, who was in the passenger seat wasn't perturbed at all by the irritating tailgater, but almost came unglued by me slowing down. I guess those tailgaters have to stick together no matter what, huh?

A little R&R

2009-04-26T02:37:00.005-04:00

The floors and bookshelves are clean, dishes done, groceries bought and put away... My oh my what am I going to do with all of this spare time. SPA DAY!!!

I spent 8 hours today at my salon getting polished and tuned up. It felt absolutely heavenly and I actually feel like a woman again! After all I have put in my fair share of time in the past 4 months polishing on the truck. Today it was my turn ! ! !

What you might ask did Randy do all day to unwind. Well he didn't go to the salon with me. Instead he went and played with his buddies working on the obstacle course for the upcoming Jeep Blessing next weekend. They met for an early breakfast at Sparks (absolutely delish local resturant). Then thru rain and wind, worked for 6 hours finishing the obstacles. Of course they all had to "test" them to be sure they were in proper working order for the eager Jeepers next weekend :-) By the time I got home, he was dry and cozy again. But the smile was still firmly planted on his face as he regailed me with the days follies.

Bonny - 1 Dust Bunnies - 0

2009-04-24T22:07:00.007-04:00

We finally made it home last night.

The vehicles all started on the first try, no dead batteries. Amazing after more than 4 months of sitting idle in the barn. All the locks opened, no ice freezing them solid, and the driveway was clear of snow drifts. I turned on the hepa filters, swiffered all the floors, dusted all the cabinets and shelves and lugged in all the food from the truck. The only real problems were a low battery warning on the house alarm system and I had to trash some freezer items that had obviously thawed during a power outage. Not bad for being absent for so long.

Of course we hit the trails almost immediately with the CJ. Had to burn the cobwebs out of the engine after all. After bouncing along for a little over 2 hours we called it a night and headed back to the house.

Back at the house I filled up the jacuzzi tub and we soaked away 4 months of tension. Man that tub felt great. Too bad it wont fit in the sleeper!

Serial Farter Attacks

2009-04-24T21:59:00.008-04:00

I was in the Book Nook (a used book store I like to frequent) in Cadillac, MI brosing the older cookbooks when I heard it. It wasn't a soft one either. It was loud and long. 4 octaves and better than 20 seconds. I glanced toward the noise and to my suprise there was only one person standing there next to me. A Woman! She didn't even react. Just stood there, completely dead pan, reading her book like nothing had happened. It wasn't long after this that the stench drove me from my stack of books. So I retreated to the cashier to buy my books and leave. Wouldn't you know it though, she followed me. Luckily I think the cashier had heard and when this woman asked if she could use the bathroom the cashier gave her directions. Saying after her as she walked away that this was a private bathroom and not normally open to the public. Even as I sit here writing this, I still can't believe it. Randy of course had a laugh spasm when I told him the story. He promptly dubbed it the Attack of the Serial Farter. I think it made his week ;-)

The Count Down Begins

2009-04-20T23:57:00.004-04:00

HOME. We are finally going home this weekend. We have been on the road for 4 months straight! I can't wait to see my friends and catch up. But I know there are going to be 4-5 mail totes to deal with too. Not to mention the deadly dust bunnies that are probably laying in wait under the couch and beds! Well, let them do their best. I have a Swiffer!

I am so excited to get home a whole week before the Jeep Blessing. I will actually have time to recharge the vehicles batteries, clean up the house, do some grocery shopping and get my hair done before our guests arrive. What a change. Usually I am getting home hours before our guests land. I am not sure I will know what to do with all of this extra time. But I am sure I will fill it up. I have already started a list of things to do. Might I actually have a chance to be a normal hostess? Nah, I have never done a normal thing in my life. Why start now >:-)

Friday Night Truck Stop Social

2009-04-18T09:18:00.003-04:00

It started out Friday afternoon as an imprompto get together, but continued all weekend. We drove down to Elkton, MD Friday afternoon for the weekend. Yes again. When we got there we noticed another custom bunk we knew was in the shop as we headed for a truck wash. By the time we got thru the wash and to the back of the lot to our usual parking spot, he was out. He works for a moving company and there were several other moving company trucks already parked next to us. It turns out we knew one of them and our friend knew the other one. I could go on, but I am sure you are already confused as it is. Short of it is we all got together and decided to park together in a way that would block off our section of the parking lot. Then out came the grills, chairs, dogs and polish rags. We had such a great time BSing and working on the trucks I forgot until Sunday night after the sun went down to take any pictures. Of course they didn't turn out good at all.

It was such a nice weekend and couldn't have come on the heels of a worse week. Of course, after spending so much time relaxing, I could simply couldn't care less. I am ready for another week. Bring it on!

Down Time - RV Style

2009-04-18T09:17:00.008-04:00

This is a great RV park in Florida we have frequented. This spot on the lake is great, except you have such great shade trees the satellite can't get a signal. But with all of this outside, who needs TV?

Down Time - Discovery Cove

2009-04-18T09:16:00.013-04:00

All I can say is, WOW! This place is so awesome. We went here several years ago while staying in Florida for a few weeks during the winter.

This is the entrance...

I loved these playful dolphins in the entryway.

Randy surprised me with a private cabana reserved just for the two of us! It came with a professional photographer who took some really great shots of us that day. Certainly better than we could have taken as distracted as we were by the main attractions.

My first ever dolphin kiss.

He was just like a dog and wanted his belly rubbed all the time.

See what happens when you don't rub his belly fast enough :-D

Randy wasn't so sure about the idea of kissing a fish and had a hard time not laughing!

Hitching a ride...

We happened to go the week of Valentine's and Randy surprised me yet again with a special delivery from one of my dolphins. He swam up to me with a buoy that said I Love You Oodles and Oodles. Randy. I was so surprised. It had to be one the best and most romantic days we have had so far.

Since we don't drink champagne, so I still have this unopened bottle and glasses. The chocolates Randy polished off in short order and the crystal frame sits on my dresser with a photo of us from that day. It is such a lovely reminder of the special time we spent together there.

The day started out beautifully, but by late afternoon some clouds had blown in and it cooled off a little. Randy was able to search out a cup of steamy hot chocolate for me while I pealed off my wet suit. I can't think of a better way to end such a lovely day!

He was so happy all of his plans had come together without a hitch. AND he just loved the private cabana!!!!

What a Crazy Week

2009-04-17T03:45:00.006-04:00

This has been such an insane week. It started out with a kind of slow drudgery, and I have never quite gotten up to speed. First off Monday, Randy had to wake me earlier than usual to do a random drug test. Then of course to top it off yet another rain front was coming thru and I got yet another headache. Of course I had to drive starting Monday evening around 1700, but it was just a short 350 mile run so we were parked by midnight. Then when we were sound asleep the delivery decided they wanted to unload us early, 2 hours early. We rolled with it as usual and got to our next pick up 4 hours early because there was absolutely no parking in the truckstops. Luckily, we had Live Searched the next pick up and knew the area was mostly opened and gaurded. So we went ahead in, thinking we would just park and catch up on paperwork and breakfast. Nope. As soon as we arrived they were out the door and wanting us in the dock and loaded. Of course this didn't make dispatch happy, because this was another TVAL load and the SOP on the Qualcomm wasn't set up to start recording on their end for another 4 hours. We had to sit there, loaded, at the pick up for another 2 hours while they got everything straightened out on their end. Which included them trying to tell us that our trailer traks wasn't working. Funny thing was though that they knew exactly when we had turned the reefer on and off all morning, but now they supposedly couldn't get any temp readings off of the satellite. We knew it was working (the previous load had been TVAL as well) and had to explain to them about 6 times that the problem was on their end. The just needed to adjust the pickup time in their system so it would start capturing data. Of course after the 3 try Randy was completely frustrated and tossed the phone at me and told me to "JUST DEAL WITH HER." It took 2 hours, but she finally got it right. With TVAL loads the satellite is set up to start capturing temp data from our unit 1 hour in advance of the scheduled appointment. It is hard wired into the system, as our customers want at least one hour of the unit at temp prior to loading. Well anyway, once we finally got that out of the way they released us to leave. We ran the 7 miles to the delivery. Of course the location was under construction. These last couple of weeks it couldn't have been any different. There were probably 30 docks open and wouldn't you know it, they just had to have us back into the one dock that had a huge dumpster/compactor on one side and a large ellevated cement ramp for straight trucks on the other side. Yup and of course all of the personal vehicles of the companies employees were parked right in front of the dock where we needed to be able to pull up in order to even get turned around, much less back up. But we did it. I tell you that $120 we spent on our little Radio Shack handheld CB was the best money spent ever! Oh and did I mention it was starting to rain. Again. Yup. Yet another headache too.

So then after this lovely morning we deadheaded 550 miles to pick up our next load. It was to load the following afternoon. I got lucky as Randy drove this stretch since I hadn't had much sleep since Sunday night. The next pickup was a usual customer of ours, but we haven't been in there for maybe 6-7 months. So it was, of course, nice to see them again. We played the usual musical docks before they finally decided on one. At least we are used to this dance and just wait it out till they actually all troop outside to access the sitution and point to the dock they REALLY want. What a hoot it is to watch. They take it all way to seriously!

So now it is Wednesday evening and I drove 626 miles thru sunshine, sunset, rain and finally fog into the delivery. I got there early as usual and was unwinding playing online, when the customer came out and banged on the side of the truck's cab wanting to get things started. I swear this sort of thing is taking years of off my life. I jumped so high when he banged on the door beside me I almost hit my head on the roof of the cab! If course this caused yet another run around with dispatch (yup another TVAL load). They take this stuff very seriously. Though things seemed to flow easier this time around, since it was an early unload. Then we actually had a second drop on this load. So I ran over to the location next. I sat there for another 2 1/2 hours so that the clock could catch up with itself. Even though eveyone was there and ready to unload. Nope, we had to end this one on time. So we sat till it was our confirmed scheduled appointment time. By the time I made it to the sleeper it was almost 0900. I was so tired of course it took me a while to settle in. But then I was gone.

For all of about 1 hour. ANOTHER RANDOM DRUG TEST!!! Of course they don't care if I just collasped and couldn't legally log anytime on duty for another 9 hours. We had one hour to find the test location and check in. Which in Allentown, PA it takes every minute. We ended up having to park at a K-Mart and walking to the clinic. At least it wasn't far and wonder of wonders it wasn't raining!

But by the time I got out of there it was after 1300 and we were locked down for another customer. So I didn't want to crash. Of course as a result here I am like an idiot still up at almost 0500 in the morning. Going on 40 hours here and feeling every single one. What is that saying...? THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY! Oh yeah.

I just really hope that this customer doesn't want us to do what I think they want. At least not for another 12 hours. Because once I fall asleep, I know from many past experiences just like this one. I will not be waking for at least 10 hours. I am NOT setting my alarm either...

106 TDOT Construction Deaths

2009-04-16T04:26:00.006-04:00

We were driving East on 40 in Tennessee the other day when I saw the sign at the side of the highway. At first I was both shocked and appalled at the high number of deaths. Then I started to remember the countless number of times I have almost hit construction workers in this state. I don't want to seem callous, but the State of Tennessee has a problem. I can't tell you how many times I have seen workers step into oncoming traffic as if it wasn't there. Or how many times I have had to jerk my truck off the road or onto the shoulder in order to avoid hitting absent minded and careless workers. I know all of you have seen the signs at the entrance to construction zones about years in jail and fines you will get for hitting a worker. What they should be doing is spending money educating these morons about the danger of becoming complacent regarding their environment. Then again maybe they are going for a Guinness Book World Record for the highest number of Darwin Awards!

Really Long Run...

2009-04-14T10:17:00.012-04:00

We unloaded this morning at 0600 and headed over to our next pickup. We had to deadhead a whopping 11 miles and the run was 7 miles. So we ran a total of 18 miles this morning. But one cool thing was we got to drive thru the tunnels at the airport again. We do this every so often and I never remember my camera. This time I did.

I don't know if everyone knows what I am talking about, so I'll take a second to explain. In large metropolitan cities like Memphis and Atlanta the airports are so large that the runways need to span the roadways. So they build a bridge and elevate the runways, thereby creating long tunnels for the roadways underneath. What makes this so cool is when you are lucky enough to come up to the tunnel just as a plane is landing or taking off.

Today we had to go thru 3 of these tunnels in a row. As we were coming up to them, but were just far enough away so I couldn't get a good shot, we saw several planes land and take off. With each one I was thinking, oh no, I missed it again and there wont be another one when I get there. But it was finally my day! Just as we pulled up to the second tunnel a FedEx plane landed right on top of us!!! Couldn't have planned it better if we tried to.

Random Drug Test - Yahoo!

2009-04-13T17:35:00.003-04:00

Yes I know it is a necessary evil in this industry, but I hate it. Since I started driving 9 years ago I have been getting tagged with "random" testing, while my husband never gets called. Interestingly enough I can't even count the number of other teams out here I have talked with who have the same problem. The wives always get "randomly" choosen, while the husbands don't. If this is such a fair system and is totally random then why is it that the female half is the one chosen most of the time?

Today when we arrived at the clinic to take the test, there was another straight truck from our company there as well. While waiting in the lobby the other lady turned to me and told me how great it was that her husband finally had to do one of these and not her. She has been doing at least 2 a year for the past 3 1/2 years. While other than the preemployment testing he did, this was his first random! We all had a good laugh at the system and our circumstances.

Fast and Furious 4

2009-04-12T23:18:00.006-04:00

What a GREAT movie!!! We finally got to see this movie. We didn't want to go opening weekend because we knew the crowds would be huge. Let me tell you it took a lot of control not to go last weekend. But we went to see two of the previous ones on opening weekend and the theaters were a madhouse. Since neither of us like crowds or lines, we prefer to wait and go when no one else will be there. Like Sunday evening and on Easter Day to boot! Worked like a charm, except for the fact that we were in Louisville, KY and our phones were on central time. That is until we walked into the theater. So we arrived a whole hour early. At least we weren't late ;-)

So we went ahead and bought our tickets for the Director's Hall. Let me tell you, they told us that the Director's Hall had big leather reclining seats and you could order drink and food while watching the movie. We have been to these types of theaters in Kansas CIty before and they were worth the few extra dollars per ticket.

Since we were early we spent a few dollars in the arcade to amuse ourselves. I played the usual Mrs Pac-Man and Randy played the driving games. It was a nice arcade with new machines, so we had a good time. But finally we decided to go ahead and check into the theater.

Since we had plenty of time we decided to get our food and drinks before going to sit down. It was a good thing too. When we got to the theater a girl showed us to our seats. What a disapointment. They were leather, but they didn't recline. The seats were regular theater seats upholstered in leather. They were comfortable though. So we sat there eating our snacks and watching comercials. Yes, comercials. I hate that you pay to get into a movie and then instead of the neat movie and tv trivia that used to be on before the previews to entertain us, we get comercials. ANNOYING! Anywho, the movie finally started. AND, no waiters ever appeared to take any food or drink orders. AND, there were no call buttons to call anyone. Good thing we didn't rely on them, huh?

The movie was great though. Lots of new nonstop action and it was great to see the original crew back together again. Each of these movies has focused on a different area of street racing, which is why I have enjoyed them so much. It hasn't been 4 movies all based on the same thing. Yet they did manage to keep a single story thread going throughout all. AND YES, we both are hoping they make a FIFTH...

Down Time - Sewing Projects

2009-04-11T19:41:00.009-04:00

Yes I love to sew. But obviously I don't get a lot of time to pursue this hobby any more. I do however do a little each time I am home. So I thought I would share a few recent and current projects.

This is a quilt I am making for my husband. When he was in the Navy he bought t-shirts at every port his ship hit around the world. You could say they were his souvenirs. Only problem is that he was 2 sizes smaller when he bought them. I know there are other wives out there with similar issues. My husband was a skinny teenager, but has grown up to be a well muscled large man. So the question was always what to do about these t-shirts. I couldn't throw them away, since they represented a lot of memories for him. Yet I didn't want to see him wearing them either. For a while the solution was just to pack them in a vacuum bag. Then I saw a sitcom on TV one night that was the perfect solution. She took all of her husband's "favorite" shirts and had them made into a memory quilt. What a great idea! I have always wanted to make a quilt so this was a double winner in my book.

I ran the idea past Randy and he wasn't to sure, but was willing to have me show him the idea. So I dug out all of t-shirts and folded them to show the graphics I wanted to use. Then I laid them out on the floor, along with some brown ultra-suede to use for the border. Randy is a very literal guy and has to actually see stuff like this to be able to "imagine" how it will look. He loved it and even wanted to help in the designing process. So we have been working on this for a little over a year now a little bit each time we have been home.

So far we have chosen all the panels, cut them out and ironed on interfacing to give a little more body to the flimsy cotton t-shirt material. Now I need to either buy an embroidery machine or have someone embroider the front border I want to do. We decided we are going to put things like the name of his ship, years in the navy, ports of call and medals he received along the outside edge of the quilt. It should look really neat when all done. Now all we have to do is get it finished.

Yes, you are seeing yellow rubber duckies. I get cold easily and so I love footy pajamas. But they are hard to find in adult sizes. So I went to the fabric store looking for some nice warm material. Randy was with me, so when I decided on blanket fleece and was sorting thru the stacks looking for just the right design, he chose this. He pulled the roll out and said with a big smile, you should get this one. At first I thought he was joking, but then after discussing it for a minute I agreed that they would be really cute.

I ripped apart one of my old pairs and used it as a pattern. I took care to lay out the pattern so all the little duckies swim across the front and around in a right to left pattern. I found nonskid on ebay for the feet and an extra long zipper at Wal-Mart. They couldn't have turned out better. These are the warmest, most comfortable things I have every owned!

We even went back last fall and bought more fleece. Enough for a another pair for me and even one for Randy. Not rubber duckies this time though. I got Randy a dark red fleece with black moose walking across it and mine is a brightly colored geometric jester like pattern.

NO, I am not going to model them for you...

This is my 6 bone hoop skirt. I have bought the material for the dress, but haven't started it yet.

It is going to be a beautiful purple shear over a lavender, mauve color with a huge sweep of somewhere around 200+ inches.

Down Time - Fall Trail Riding

2009-04-10T19:42:00.003-04:00

This is the highest point in the county and has a great view. Very few in the area can get up here to enjoy it though as the trail up is really made for dirt bikes. But a lot of horse power, 4 wheel drive and white knuckles will do it.

This was another adventure in the Bowl by Randy's buddy, Ed. He was climbing this run he had climbed several times before that day, when his engine suddenly started over revving and smoking! He had to shut it down just before he made it to the top of the run.
This picture kinda gives you a little perspective on how steep a climb this really is and in sand too. LOTS OF FUN!

Finally the guys gave up and rolled it down the hill.

The theory that flat ground might make a difference didn't hold up. So we hooked a strap to it and towed it home. It turned out just to be the throttle cable. From the heavy beating it was taking climbing that hill it had bounced up and back and gotten hooked onto something behind the carb. This effectively shortened the cable enough so that the throttle was full on all the time. That is till they found the problem and unhooked it! Such a simple thing, but they just couldn't see it till they put a trouble light under the hood.

Down Time - Jeep Upgrades

2009-04-10T19:36:00.002-04:00

Here we are installing new 7" fender flares to cover the wider tires. Randy is cutting out the rear wheel wells to allow for more tire travel. That is Cathy (Ed's girl) holding the trouble light so Randy can see what he is cutting OK. (I am taking the pictures and was using the buffer you can see in the picture to clean up some parts for painting for the soft-top hardware)

Amazingly enough the massive 7" flares just barely cover these tires on our widetrak axles. But they do and keep a lot of mud off of us compared to the little 3" flares that we did have on this Jeep.

Now its time to add the winch mounting plate and winch. Here we have removed the Hi-Lift Jack, but still need to take off the old plate.

Got the new mounting plate installed and are test fitting the winch.

Violla! Installed and wired in just about 2 hours. Not bad considering we had to take it all apart once just as we thought we were done, because we had forgot to put the lock washers on the mounting plate bolts. Oooops. Well it could have been worse and this little baby has come in handy so many times since. We have used it to pull trees out of the trail, get over piles of debris, up hills and pull many others out, up and over stuff too. Neither of us can figure how we ever lived without it!

Down Time - Picking Up Randy's New Plow Truck

2009-04-10T19:31:00.002-04:00

We were in need of a new plow truck when I found this little gem on Ebay. Only catch was that we had to go all the way from MI to Rouses Point, NY. A trip that was over 900 miles one way. It shouldn't seem like a long trip to driver's like ourselves, and the trip over wasn't bad at all. It was the trip back that was long.

We didn't realize how heavy the truck was when we headed out to pick it up. When they tried to drive it onto the trailer forward the first time, it bent both ramps! So the second time they braced the back end of the trailer with blocks so it wouldn't dip and backed the truck onto the trailer. This worked, but the weight was all at the back of the trailer. Effectively lifting the trailer tongue and drive tires on the Excursion. We have a diesel Excursion and figured that it and the tandem trailer should have been fine to pull our new toy home. It had the power alright, but was pretty squirrely on the road with all the weight being on the steer axle. To complicate things further, we had left our Blizex tires on for the trip. These tires are great for driving in cold icy conditions. But put them on the road in temperatures over 40F and it feels like you are driving on jello! When we left for this trip the weather forecast had been for cold and snow. It turned out to be in the high 50s the whole trip. So here we are over 900 miles from home and not able to run any faster than 45-50 mph. Yes, it was a very long trip home.

Totally worth it though. This thing, being a diesel, is a snow plowing beast. Nothing you put in front of it even slows it down! The front blade is 12' and the side blade 8' wide. So you can plow a 20' wide path in one pass! Sure cuts down on the time spent plowing. That is unless you plow all your neighbors out too.

Down Time - On The Road

2009-04-10T19:26:00.005-04:00

Columbia River Gorge in Washington

USA side of Niagara Falls at New Years Eve
Aquarium in Atlanta, GA

Down Time - Jeep Roll Over

2009-04-10T11:03:00.012-04:00

This is Randy's buddy, Ed, and his girlfriend, Cathy, in the green jeep. We were in what is called the bowl. A deep sandy valley with steep sides about a mile from our house. Great for playing in with 4 wheel vehicles. They had decided to try a new run up the hill and had caught a down tree partially hidden by grass with the front driver's side tire. It was enough of a glancing blow to throw the jeep over on its side and down into the old run, which is now more of a ditch after the spring rains. Here Randy is helping them get out just after the accident. The dust hasn't even settled yet. Luckly, no one was hurt.

You can see in this photo how deep the roll cage sunk into the dirt, about 5 inches.
Pulling out the winch line in preparation of recovery.

Wrapping the snatch strap around the roll cage.

Ed tossing the snatch strap over to Randy to hook to the winch line.

The winch line was ran thru a pulley hooked to a tree and then back and hooked to the snatch strap around the roll cage.

Now Ed slowly tightens the winch to bring the jeep upright.

We position our jeep at the top of the hill and run our winch line down to the green jeep's front bumper to keep it from rolling backwards as the winch line that brought it upright is slowly released.

They slowly released the side line as they brought it forward enough to stabalize it. Then completely disconected the side line.

Now it was time to bring it to the top of the hill.

Here we tied the green jeep's winch line to a powerline pole to lock it in place.

Now that it is at the top and locked in place it is time to see if it will run. Unbelievably it started up on the 2nd try and ran just fine. We didn't even go home. We just kept right on wheeling for the rest of the day! True to its name, ZOMBIE...

Stolen LEDs

2009-04-10T11:01:00.005-04:00

So here were are at the Petro in Glendale, KY minding our own business. We just had the truck washed. Then dried the aluminum, stainless and glass by hand to avoid water spots. Of course we always miss a few and the wash is never perfect, so we end up using a little polish to rub out the inevitable drip marks on the aluminum and the remaining bug carcases from the stainless stacks.

It was about then that Randy noticed something wrong with the dropped trailer we were parked next to. Every single LED light was missing. Some one had stolen all the marker, turn signal and brake lights.

We got the company name and number from the inspection sticker on the front of the trailer and called them to let them know. It is Easter Weekend and the poor guy pulling this trailer probably wont be back to pick it up till late Sunday night. We wanted to give them a heads up so they weren't blind sided. After all it is going to take a little bit of leg work to find and get your hands on that many LED lights in Glendale, KY.

According to the company, their driver lived in the area. Just as we had thought the driver had dropped the trailer to go home for the holiday weekend. Of course they were grateful we had called them to let them know, but also suspicious that the driver had somehow caused this. Randy explained that the trailer was dropped under two overhead lights and within clear view of the shop. We would have assumed it one of the safer spots in the lot as well, that's why we parked there. After hearing this explanation they seemed to relax and thanked us for taking the time to call them.

You can see the two overhead vapor lights in this picture and the shop was right behind me as I took the photo.

Such a dirty deed to do to another driver, especially on a holiday weekend!

Down Time - Grand Hotel Mackinaw Island

2009-04-10T10:52:00.006-04:00

Last June we spent a week on Mackinaw Island at the Grand Hotel. We have been there many times in the past but have always stayed at a bed-n-breakfast either on the island or mainland. I love the movie Somewhere in Time (which was filmed at the Grand Hotel on the island) and have always wanted to stay at the hotel. The hotel host's a special four day theme weekend every fall based on the movie. Most of the guests dress in period costume during their stay and several of the actors from the movie are usually there each year. I have always wanted to go, but have never made it. So when we decided to go to the island again I made reservations for us at the Grand Hotel.

When we arrived on the island and checked into the hotel there were several things that went wrong. As a result I called the front desk to have our luggage moved to another hotel (our room was horrible). Next thing I knew the general manager called us to say he wanted to make things right. He asked what had gone wrong. When I was done explaining the problems. He very simply addressed each problem one by one. The top two issues were our room and my food allergies.

When I made our reservations I was assured that the hotel could work around my food allergies. They even had a person in charge of this as it was such a common issue with guests. I spoke with her before I made the reservations and was assured it wouldn't be a problem. We even set up an appointment upon our arrival to go over the menu's and be sure everything was in order. However, when we arrived and met with her it was a completely different story. Basically I would be drinking water and eating green salads with no dressing my whole stay. Not acceptable! The manager told me that the hotel's head chef had just flown in from France that afternoon and he would have him contact me directly to take care of the food issue.

Next our room was tired, musty and overlooked the service and maintenance areas of the hotel. I would expect this quality of room at a mom and pop motel for $29.99 a night. Not for what we were paying for our stay. Also since we had been meeting with the dinning manager when our luggage arrived, it was simply abandoned in the hall outside our room. The manager asked if he could arrange a better room, along with solving the food problem would we consider staying? I said we would and thanked him for being so thoughtful.

In less then 5 minutes a bellboy arrived to move us and our luggage to the new room. It turned out to be the second largest suite the hotel had to offer! With a huge corner balcony, from which we could see everything! We really hadn't expected anything like this. We just wanted a clean, smell free room with a regular view.

Well after settling in, we decided to grab our bikes and head downtown before dinner. While we were downtown I got a call from the chef. He was extremely gracious and understood my allergy issues perfectly. He told me he would call me each day of our stay to discuss dinner and he did!

We were even further surprised when we arrived at the dining room for dinner. The general manager had arranged for a reserved table for us at the windows for our entire stay. He had also arranged for the same steward and waiter to be attached to us during our stay as well. Everyone had been briefed on the situation and they were all very gracious and helpful. The chef had gone over and above, by creating a special 7 course service just for me, complete with all the trimmings. Some of my favorites were his cold fruit soup appetizers and the freshly made banana chocolate mint sorbet was simply heaven.

We had planned on doing lots of out door activities during our stay (biking, golfing and sailing) but a few late spring rain storms chased in doors for 3/4 of our stay. Fortunately the Grand Hotel has an Aveda Spa. We were scrubbed, rubbed and polished from our head to our toes.

The best part was when we checked out and got the bill. The general manager had completely compt our room. So the only thing on the bill were the spa charges. We had met the general manager a few hours before dinner our first day and chatted for almost an hour. He was a very friendly guy and when he discovered my fascination with the movie Somewhere In Time, he regaled us with stories about past events that had been held at the hotel. He asked us that if we ever did get a chance to come to the Somewhere In Time weekend that we contact him and he said he would make all our arrangements for us. Such a turn around from our first 2 hours at the hotel. We couldn't have asked for a better experience. I hope someday I can take him up on his offer and attend the fall get together.

Here we are in front of the hotel, dressed for dinner. The hotel staffs several professional photographers that are always around to take pictures for the guests.

Unpacking on our first day in the new room.

On the porch of the Michigan Governor's Mansion after taking a tour.

In front of a teddy bear ferris wheel we found while exploring the hotel during a rainy afternoon.

Down Time - Off Road Park

2009-04-09T13:07:00.005-04:00

This was a trip to the local Off Road Park with our club the Cadillac Jeepers last November. Unfortunately I had forgotten to charge the camera batteries and didn't get a lot of pictures. We were the only ones in the group that didn't seriously damage our vehicle on this trip.

Us climbing out of a deep valley.

Waiting for the trail to clear. What you can't tell is that the white Cherokee is hung up on some wet logs. At this point you are headed up hill and as soon as you get over these 4 logs that are piled here you have to make a hard right toward the grey Grand Cherokee. These logs are all slimy and slippery from the rain we had and as you can see he has spun himself around in the wrong direction. He is facing left and needs to go right. He does make it through though.

Playing in the holes!

We did play in the holes too, but unfortunately because of the dead batteries I didn't get an photos of us in the holes. Next time though...

Down Time - Pink Lady

2009-04-09T12:19:00.005-04:00

This is one of my new toys, a Charter Arms Pink Lady .38 Special +P. It is made of aircraft grade aluminum with matte stainless and pink finishes. It weighs in at a mere 12 oz with a 2" barrel and is very compact, which makes it perfect for a self defense handgun. I got it last fall and absolutely love it.

Here I am at the shooting club's indoor range practicing with my new gun. Mostly I shot standard .38 rounds, which handle very nicely in this little lightweight. But I did fire off a few dozen rounds of +P hollow points just to see how they would feel since this is my ammo of choice for this little beauty. The +P rounds in this gun really kick! Its so light that it was harder to shoot with these rounds than one of my husband's .45s. But after a lot of practice I was able to control it and keep my grouping in a 6-7 inch area at distances up to 25 feet. Which I am more than happy with.

One addition I think would be helpful on this gun is a laser handgrip. I have one on my Ruger LCP and it is great. Plus I am told that just that little red dot on a person will make them think twice. They are also just a hell of a lot of fun to play with ;-)

I have been very fortunate as our shooting club has an ex-FBI tactical team member on staff. He has been helping me with my shooting and has been a BIG help. When I first started going to the range with my little LCP and Pink Lady last fall I could barely hit the target with them. The smaller guns are much harder to control than the larger semi-autos I have previously shot. But you just can't fit a large frame .45 in your pocket or purse very easily. So when Randy and I decided to get our CCW last year I started to look at the smaller more easily concealed guns for the first time. The Pink Lady was my choice for home protection. I chose the LCP to carry in my purse. Since I carry small purses I needed a smooth surfaced gun that would be easy to conceal in and remove from a small bag. The Pink Lady is great because is is coated and doesn't need oil to keep it from rusting, but it just didn't fit in my bag well and the hammer was an issue. As you can see from the picture below the LCP is perfect. The gun is very light weight and fits my small fine boned hands very well. Even with a full clip (.380) of six and one chambered for a total of 7 rounds it still feels like you have a water pistol in your hand.

I added a Crimson Trace red laser to it which in my opinion makes it just about the perfect concealed carry. The laser has an instinctive front activation button which activates the laser when you pick up the gun and hold it in a normal shooting grip.

Patience Revisited

2009-04-08T14:38:00.004-04:00

It turned out to be a double wammy on the other trucks that just had to get thru that gate before us. When we all got our dock assignments and were loaded we were the cleanup truck with a partial load, single stacked pallets, double wide. The other trucks that just had to be first got their dues! NA NA >:-) They got loaded down heavy with triple stacked pallets that were a nightmare inside of their trailers. According to the drivers when they came back in, the stacks were leaning every which way, including against the walls. Now I hate to wish anything bad on another driver, but I do recognize justice when I see it!

Now comes the icing on the cake. We always plan our trips carefully in advance, including paying close attention to the weather and adjusting our routes and fuel stops accordingly. This trip was going to be pretty straight forward except for the fact that we were heading into a potential ice storm. However, if we didn't dawdle and ran straight thru to the delivery location we figured we would get there just before dark. That way we could park for the night before the temperature really dropped and the roads turned to ice.

Worked like a charm. We ran thru rain, sleet and snow, but the temperature stayed above 37F till we were about 10 miles from our destination. Then it started dropping like a stone. Fortunately we were snuggled into our sleeper, snug as bugs in a rug, by the time sunset came. We ate supper, watched House and then went to bed early.

We got up at 0600 in the morning and were first into the dock to unload. Those other trucks that just had to be first to load, had stopped for a LONG lunch and hadn't bothered to drive in the night before. Rather they waited till this morning to come in, on those icy roads! We were empty and pulling out of the dock when they finally pulled into the delivery all frustrated at the strange weather they had encountered. They kept saying it is Spring isn't it?

Almost makes you believe in karma doesn't it?

It's April & It's Snowing!!!

2009-04-07T09:08:00.007-04:00

It was a surreal trip. Bright green grass coming up everywhere and pretty pink and white blooms on the trees. It makes you think the sun should be shinning bright and the sky should be bright blue with fluffy white clouds. Instead, it is overcast and alternating between rain, sleet and snow as I drive across Virginia and Tennessee.

Now it's morning and there are great big fluffy snow flakes drifting around us all as we are unloading. Such a beautiful sight, except it's SPRING dammit. Get with the program already!

Our Weekend Running Around

2009-04-06T10:19:00.012-04:00

We are back in one of our favorite stomping grounds, Elkton, MD, for the weekend. So I thought I would show you around a little. This weekend we are on practical missions. Food, laundry and misc supplies.

We got up early and bobtailed to a little shopping plaza right on Main Street in downtown Newark, DE. It is only about 5 miles from the Petro in Elkton, but a world apart. Since the plaza's parking lot is so small we either have to go here when we have a rental car or get up early and get in and out before everyone else gets there.

You may be asking at this point what's worth the hassle? Wang's Oriental Food Store. This store has a great selection of fresh produce and you can get all your oriental pantry staples here too. This trip I was hunting for sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis), tamari, baby green bok choy, white bok choy, bean sprouts (azuki and mung), sweet red mung beans, red bean spread, white and black fungus, straw mushrooms and of course Jasmine and Green Teas. I just love the smell of Jasmine Tea. If you have never tried it, please do. You wont be disappointed.

Oh and I just can't forget their Chinese Bakery. I got two Sesame Balls and a six pack of Moon Cakes with red bean filling. YUMMMMM!!

The second draw for us here on Main Street is the Newark Natural Foods Cooperative. They carry a great line of fresh sprouts (including sweet pea shoots YUM), organic fruits and veggies, goat and soy dairy products, as well as a huge dry bulk section (4 different varieties of lentils and 3 kinds of Jasmine rice!!). Both of us are lactose intolerant and finding good yogurt and cheese substitutes can be a daunting task with our nomadic lifestyle. I can get my vitamins here as well. I take live, whole food vitamins (they don't upset the stomach and can be taken without food), but finding them without garlic is difficult. I usually buy them at my home coop, but since we have been on the road now for 3 months I ran out. I think I like this new brand better though, since it has probiotics as well. I will definitely recommend them to my local cooperative when I get home.

This trip I was stocking up on yogurt, sprouts, golden and sea veggie miso soup mix, inca red quinoa, konjac shirataki noodles, sprouted grain pasta and bread, brown jasmine rice and salad dressings. Randy loves the orange cranberry vinaigrette and I love the sesame tamari. We both like the sweet onion salad dressing, which is great either on salads or in wraps.

In the alley between the coop and Wang's is this little art gallery. I just love to walk past their beautiful mosaic. So I took some pictures to share. Until I started taking pictures I had never noticed half of what is actually in this mosaic...

A little fishy

an adorable rose tea cup filled with marbles

words to live by? >:-)

a little love

freakish face and hand

Next we were off to yet another Wal-Mart to restock. Of course by the time we got here, everyone else and their brother was already in the store! Which I guess doesn't really matter because it isn't like we can park in the front row anyway.

Now Home Depot. This is a great shopping plaza as it has a nice movie theater, grocery store, Game Stop, Radio Shack and Home Depot along with misc other stores. But it is also, very busy. Today was no exception, so we opted to park behind Home Depot and walk rather than risk the parking lot.

As it turned out Randy walked in and I stayed behind to take pictures of the turtles. Yes, turtles. There was this little pond we had never really paid any attention to before that was full of turtles, geese, sea gulls and ducks.

You can't tell from the picture, but this one was at least 14" long.

This one had to be 12" long. There were 2 of these monsters sunning here when I first walked up, but before I took their picture one slid back into the water.

Another 12" + long turtle enjoying the water.

Then there was this "little" guy, maybe 6" long. But don't tell him he was the runt, he was very bold! He didn't budge an inch while I walked around snapping pictures and talking to myself. Instead he boldly watched me with a look that seemed to say, watch your step or I'll bite you in the ankle!

We ended our day on a high note. Laundry. We have been doing laundry at this location for years. Nice clean machines, with 4 triple and 3 quad load washers! Makes it really easy to do all the bedding.

Today was to be the exception to the rule however. We got there only to discover it was standing room only and customers were overflowing onto the side walk outside. Some times it really pays to have your house with you at all times. Instead of fighting the crowd, we simply had lunch and watched a little TV while waiting for the rush to end.

It finally did, and in we swooped. It took us 4 trips to get all the laundry, bedding and towels inside. We had no sooner got everything into the washers then 3 couples show up who are all smokers. YUCK. I can still taste their smoke as I write this. We don't do our laundry at the truck stops because of this. They were going outside to smoke, but of course it followed them back inside. I was afraid our laundry would stink, but we got lucky and they left after they got their washers going.

Patience

2009-04-06T10:12:00.006-04:00

We were supposed to load at 0800 this morning and had driven down last night to avoid Monday morning rush hour traffic. We had just hit the snooze button on our alarm at 0630 when the customer knocked on the side of our truck to tell us they were ready for us. There were 4 other trucks behind us that we were going to be loading with. We were first in line. However it wasn't 2 minutes (I had just started up the tractor) when the truck behind us pulled out of line and passed us so they could be first to be loaded. Some people just don't have any patience and have to be the first ones to load and unload. This is fine with us in this instance, because we know dispatch always offers out the short crappy paying loads first because they are harder to get covered. Sometimes it pays to have a little patience and wait. I guess we will see when we get to the other end of this one...

Easy Run, yeah right...

2009-04-04T09:45:00.006-04:00

So after playing musical loads yesterday we were deadheading out of the area (we hate the dreaded triangle NJ/NY/Long Island area) when we got offered a short 100 mile hop going to within 5 miles of where we were already heading. Cool. So we just pulled off at the next rest area to spend the night.

We got up at 0415 turned on the reefer (this load was running at 0F) and set the recorder. Then we had to fight rush hour traffic thru several construction zones and detours to get the pickup. Did I mention it was pouring down rain?

We get to the pickup 1/2 hour early get our dock assignment and are told to back in to the dock, but don't open the doors yet. They still had to pull the frieght from the freezer and put the barrels on pallets. They said they would come get us when they were ready to load us.

So an hour later we finally get loaded. It only takes 15 minutes to open the doors, load the trailer and then pull out and shut the doors. The bad news is that the guys on the loading dock have told Randy they can't believe we were sent after this load. Usually a straight truck does this run, because the delivery dock is so tight. OH BOY! We have heard this many times and been able to get in the docks. Yeah a little bit of hassle, but we always fit. The only dock we haven't gotten into was an underground one and it was because we were too tall to fit down the tunnel leading to the dock. But it does give us something to think on while driving to the delivery.

We get to the delivery and sure enough we have to back in from the street to get into the dock but it doesn't look to bad. The building was in a culdesac and there was a convienetly located driveway right accross from the one we needed to get into. So we hooked a sharp right into this other driveway and then backed accross the culdesac and into the driveway we need to be in. Mind it is still pouring down rain and this industrial park had little to no drainage. So the water was just backing up all over the place in little ponds about 2-6 inches deep. (We didn't get any pictures because it was raining so hard, we both were getting soaked and didn't want to ruin the camera) After getting into the parking lot Randy jumped out to go check in. The person he found told us they wanted us to open one door on the trailer and back into the dock. Keeping the reefing running meanwhile, so he could get into the trailer and check the lot numbers on the barrels. Then we would be leaving and going to another location to unload. This was supposed to be a one drop load! Well anywho, I got on my rain gear (again) and grabbed the handheld CB. This was going to be a tight dock and to make it even more challenging some idiot had decided to put in three foot high cement walls on either side of the dock extending out about 20' from the side of the building! Of course these walls just held all of that water in so I got my feet wet. The CB battery was dead (someone forgot to turn it off at the pickup) so we had to go get the spare battery pack out of the sleeper. Finally we got backed in. This guy was in and out of the trailer so fast I don't think it took him 30 seconds. Then we pulled out and shut the doors. Randy went inside to get the next stop's address and take care of paperwork. I didn't want to go in, becuase I wasn't sure I wouldn't be lippy with this idiot. I mean come on, we have a ladder on the back of the trailer, along with a nice handle, that makes it easy and safe to climb in and out of the trailer. But no this guy had to have us back into his small, flooded dock so he could spend 30 seconds inside the trailer!!!! Some hoops I can jump through, others just get under my skin, especially when I am standing in a huge puddle with wet feet and getting rained on! Not a good hair day ;-)

About 10 minutes later Randy comes back out with the paperwork. He tells me that they just told him that the next dock is even tighter and we will have to back in from the street again. OK. So we head over to the next location, which is only about 4 miles away. We get there only to find it is at the end of a dead end street and there are 3 VERY LARGE dumpsters right where we need to pull up to back into this parking lot. So out I go into the rain again. Third times supposed to be the charm, right?

Randy did manage to pull far enough forward that he could get back into the parking lot with a little jockying of the tractor and trailer. Once the truck was in the parking lot I went back to try and find someone at the dock. There was a nice "big" sign (a piece of 8x11" laminated paper) saying "Shipping and Receiving" I finally found, with an arrow pointing to a door. Of course the door is locked and there is no ringer button or call box. I knock on the door several times with no answer. So at this point Randy comes back to see if he can help me find someone. The customer at the first stop said he was going to call ahead and have someone meet us outside at the dock. Good thing we didn't hold our breath... Finally Randy found a door in a corner behind an enclosed pipe/value house with a door bell. This was not where the sign had pointed.

We were just about to give up, when a guy answered the door. Of course he had no idea who we were or why we were there. Even once we explained he had to go find his boss. His boss in turn had to go find someone else. Well we did eventually get the right person who said to go ahead and back into the dock.

The dock. This one would have been a challenge for a straight truck without all of the dumpsters, cars, pickups and 2 straight trucks in the way. Oh yeah, and there was an 8" high curb on the driver's side of the dock extending out about 20 feet. We figured we would at least give it a try. Big mistake! I don't know what that curb was made of, but when our rear axle tires rubbed it, it cut into the sidewall of the tire! End of that exercise. We pulled out and they unloaded it off the back of the trailer in the middle of their parking lot.

This was when we found out what we had in the trailer and why the guy at the other location didn't dwadle when in our trailer. It was a form of frozen cyanide they used as a binder in some of their plastic mixes. It was frozen for storage and transport to make it safe. They said that it takes days to thaw out enough to use. So they put the barrels on a rotiseree style turner in a room heated to 135F for 24 hours to thaw it. Apparently this is why the guy at the shipping and receiving department didn't want to be near it for any longer than he had to and why he wouldn't transport it to this other building.

What I don't understand is this. They do this load every 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. You would think that the kinks would be worked out by now. I guess this is a prime example of too many cooks in the kitchen.

Musical Loads

2009-04-03T09:44:00.007-04:00

So we were supposed to pickup a load in New Jersey going to Delaware. We arrived sharply at 0600 for our 0630 pickup time. We were pleasantly surprised to see some friends of ours in the other truck we were going to load with. After a dicey blindside back into the building (inside dock), we all stood around chatting and catching up with each other till the dock people showed up to load us. When everyone finally arrived for work we opened the doors and bumped the docks. 2 hours later we pulled out only to find out we were way over loaded on our drivers. We were pushing over 60 pounds of psi on the drivers and are in a sunken dock! When we checked in with the loading dock we were told that they had (we aren't allowed on this dock while being loaded) nose loaded us with 36400+ pounds!!

Now a little history on this load...yesterday they kept offering out this load with no piece count or weight listed so we kept turning it down. Finally after turning it down for the 7th or 8th time I called in to ask what the story was. I was told who the customer was and that their loads never went over 12000 pounds, but no they only had the piece count, no weight on this load. I agreed to do the load "IF" they would cover us by emailing the customer our weight restriction (we can only scale a little over 32000lbs). I was further informed that there would be 3 of us loading, so the other 2 trucks should be able to take any extra if necessary.

Of course the customer was never notified of our weight restriction and the other 2 trucks turned out to be 1 other truck and another reefer with just about the same weight restriction as us! Are we having fun yet? The dock guy didn't want to unload the entire load, he just wanted to remove a few pallets from the rear to reduce the weight. So we had to do the go around and explain to several people what it meant that we were over weight on our drivers. They would have to move the entire load more to the rear of the trailer as well as reduce it, in order to shift the weight back to the trailer axles and reduce our gross. Of course there were lots of suggestions from everyone else as to how we could avoid the scales (including driving half off the scales to avoid showing how heavy we were!!!) and the theory that once we were on flat ground the weight on our drivers would lift! We had to explain that we don't run illegal, some one would notice if we tried to only put one side of the trucks axles on the scale and that once we pulled out the hole the dock was in more weight would be on the drivers, not less. Of course they didn't believe us and left to decide what to do. They came back a little bit later and asked us to move both trucks down to the other end of the building and put them into two docks there. Then they would fix the weight issue down there. Sure enough when we got onto flat ground, the psi on the drivers was almost at 75!!! For those of you unfamiliar, the drivers are usually just a little over 40 psi.

So after we get into the docks at the other end of the building we get calls from dispatch asking us if we want to do a little 11 mile hop loading from these same docks. They had decided to off load us and bring in two dry boxes to haul our load. Which was no problem for us, expect remember what the customer had said about fixing the load? Apparently their idea of fixing the load was to completely unload us. I guess that they just didn't want to break the news to us. Like we would care. So now we are waiting around for them to unload us and then reload us.

In the meanwhile 4 other trucks have showed up. The first 2 get loaded right away and leave. Then the other 2 try to hit the docks next to us. Neither of them can drive for SH*T! The idiot trying to hit the dock right to our left has to be the worst driver I have ever seen (that is saying alot)! There are at least 3 truck lengths of open space in front of us and we in the dock. Should be no problem to pull up straight in front of the dock and back straight in, right? NOT! He tried to hit our truck numerous times to being so far off he was headed for 4 docks to our left! It took Randy and 2 other drivers over 45 minutes to get this moron in the dock!!!! I was sweating the whole time, thinking if he hits my truck or trailer I am going to skin him alive. Since he didn't speak English I would have to because yelling at him wouldn't have accomplished anything. I don't care who you are, if you can't handle a truck you shouldn't be in one.

Well after they loaded and sent these two morons on their way, the customer told us that something was going wrong with our loads again and they would be out to explain in a few minutes. So there we all sat for another half hour waiting. Finally the manager came out only to explain that we had in fact both been loaded for some time, but since someone had decided not to release the loads there was no paperwork and they were going to have to unload us. Oh Boy...

So we spent 7 1/2 hours in their parking lot, bumped 2 docks and were loaded, unloaded, loaded and unloaded. We filled out 4 bills of lading and got paid for 2 dry runs. All without driving even 1/4 of a mile! But we did get to spend a great day with our friends!

It was interesting to note that the customer continually acted throughout the day like we were going to bite their head off every time something went wrong. It wasn't til the last 1/2 hour or so that they finally understood we weren't upset by all the commotion. I mean we get paid whether we move the load or not. What's there to get mad about? We basically got paid $450 dollars to spend 7 1/2 hours catching up with friends. Not a bad day in my book.

Down Time?

2009-04-02T05:11:00.006-04:00

We have been on the road now for 3 months and I keep thinking of all the things I could be doing when I get home. This got me thinking that all I have been blogging about since I started this blog was pretty much trucking since we have been on the road working the whole time. Well I think it is high time I started showing you some of what we do when we are off duty. So I am going to do a little series of "Down Time" blogs.

Sticky Situation

2009-04-02T04:17:00.008-04:00

This was an early morning run we did for a customer. We even called twice to double check the directions because we had a "bad feeling" they were wrong! Boy were they ever.

It was dark, foggy and rush hour...and here we are at the bottom of a steep hill with a 2 ton elevated bridge to our left and a cement wall dead end in front of us.

What you can't read because the photo turned out blurry is that these are EMERGENCY VEHICLES ONLY and PEDESTRIANS ONLY signs. Of course they are posted at the bottom of the hill where they really didn't do us any good. (I know we told them we were in an 18 wheeler/tractor-trailer)

We couldn't have made this corner if we wanted to!

The endless stream of cars squeezing past us while we wait for a patrol car and more guards to control traffic so we can back out of this lovely little spot.

He had to back up the hill (about 7% grade) weaving back and forth between the low hanging branches (he did miss them both on the way down and up, but we took out several cones). Then blind side the truck and trailer into the highway. All of this while me, several guards and two patrol cars tried to control both the pedestrians and cars. The cars where easy to control. They just blocked them from coming forward with the patrol cars. The people on the other hand, kept darting around us and into the path of the truck! You would think all the flashing lights and the big truck coming at them would make them think twice, but nope. (more Darwin Award candidates)

If only we had come in during the daylight after the fog had lifted a little, we never would have driven down into that horrible place!

Here one of the guards helping us is taking ANOTHER call from his superior yelling at him to get that truck out of that gate. Apparently this gate is only open to vehicles for 45 minutes each morning so all the superior officers can get to work without waiting thru the lines at the main gate. OOPS. Of course they wanted the names of the people responsible. We gladly spelled out the person's name very slowly so they could get all of the credit for this morning's fine adventures!

Since we had already had so much fine fun this morning and they were already there, the patrol cars decided to give us an escorted pass thru the correct gate and on to our destination. This turned out to be a good suggestion, because they had to have us cross several coned areas and stop traffic for us to maneuver several times. They also smoothed our way thru all the gates and check points. Mind before we left with them on this little trip they told us not to worry about any cones, we would be driving over a few. UNDERSTATEMENT! We must have crushed over a hundred of the little buggers that morning. But they were right, there was no other way in.

The funny thing is that we ended up right below where we got stuck that morning. This bridge was the one we were first directed to. Only it took 5 more miles of driving to get around to the other gate and finally end up where we needed to be. Just a few hundred feet from where we started out.

Funny how things turn out some times isn't it?

Just a Pretty Picture of Truck & Trailer

2009-04-02T03:47:00.003-04:00

Cutest Hood Ornament Ever

2009-04-02T02:30:00.006-04:00

I stopped to fuel at the TA in Milldale, CT when I saw this little guy on the hood next to me. I know you all have seen the more common hood ornaments out there like the flying pig, ducks and ladies. But this is only the second one I would actually like to have. The first one was a chrome husky. Now with this bear I just don't think I could decide. But since I can't find either of them, I don't have to. I had Randy ask the guy when he came back out where he had gotten it (I was on the phone). He said he had got it in LA about 7 years ago. It was a special order back then and took him over 6 months to get it. So I am still out of luck.

On the Job?

2009-03-31T22:35:00.005-04:00

Last night I drove over and thru the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnels, twice. The first time while heading south around 0130 the northern tunnel was closed down to one lane for both north and south bound traffic. They had a transit authority car running first one way and then the other escorting the vehicles thru the tunnel. When it came to my turn to drive thru I was wondering what kind of work they were doing on the tunnel. To my surprise all of the workers in the tunnel (about 8) were actually asleep on the job! They were LAYING DOWN on the hoods of their trucks, cars and on the walkway along the side of the tunnel! Not one of them was even standing up. Of course this aggravated me exceedingly so I just had to reach over and flip on the engine brake. 8" pipes behind a big CAT and on high...I just let it rip all the way down the tunnel until we started back up the other side. I ALMOST couldn't resit grabbing the train horns when none of them even stirred at the racket, but Randy was trying to catch a few hours sleep before we got to our next stop. So I had to restrain myself, THIS TIME. After all I would get another shot at them on my way back north ;-)

Then on my trip back north around 0430 I was both appeased and disapointed to discover that they were back to work. They were braking down the work area in preperation of reopening the tunnel for rush hour traffic. So I just couldn't justify blasting them even though Randy was awake next to me in the jump seat. Oh well, there is always next time....>:-)

Hail Storm

2009-03-29T23:58:00.006-04:00

Here we are sitting in a truck stop just south of Lancaster, PA watching TV and waiting to go load in the morning. Randy has found a movie on HBO he has been wanting me to see "Birdcage." So we have tuned it in and snuggled into bed to watch it. The opening credits aren't even over yet when the screen goes black. The message on the screen says no signal. Since we know this happens occasionally and usually passes in seconds we wait...and wait...and wait. After a few minutes of nothing but a blank, black screen we get up and look out the windows. The sky is completely black above us. The cloud layer is so dense it has blocked out our satellite signal (which has never happened before in 4 years of owning one). I opened one of the side windows on the truck and that was when we heard it. The wind and low deep growling and rumbling. It kind of sounded like two ships rubbing against each other. Instantly we both thought tornado! But there were no storm warnings coming over the weather bands on our radios or CB. We opened all the shades over the sleeper and cab windows so we could watch. It wasn't long before the heavy clouds passed, maybe 6-7 minutes or so. The sky was still dark grey though and you could see what looked like a heavy curtain of rain heading toward us. Turned out to be pea sized hail!

Sitting Here

2009-03-27T04:58:00.004-04:00

OK so I have been neglecting my blogging lately. We were running pretty hard for the past 2 weeks and now I have been sitting here for 3 days. Doing absolutely nothing. Which I have to say after the last 2 weeks, FEELS GREAT :-D It's amazing how quickly time can pass when you are trying to entertain yourself with catching up on some sleep, watching TV, playing on the internet and talking on the phone.

Randy has rented a car and driven down to Norfolk to go on a Tiger Cruise with one of his oldest friends, Ed. Ed is returning from a 7 month cruise and it is his last one. He is retiring from the Navy after 22 years! It's a big milestone and Randy didn't want to miss it.

So here I sit...with so much time on my hands I forgot to blog :-)

YUMMY

2009-03-25T20:17:00.006-04:00

Mixed mahogany and brown rice with scallions and pineapple.

Poaching talapia in pineapple juice and tamari.

Rice and talapia topped off with lots of fresh scallions!

Some Areas Just Aren't for Stopping!!!

2009-03-24T22:21:00.005-04:00

I just couldn't resist taking a picture of this when on our return trip thru this area we actually saw a tractor trailer who had decided it was time to pull off of the road and take a nap! YUP! Right by two of these bright red 8' tall x 12' wide reflective signs! Maybe he will be on the Darwin Awards next time around?

foreign Driver

2009-03-23T04:39:00.008-04:00

So there we were sitting in the TA East in Ontario, CA when someone knocks on the back door of our sleeper. We weren't expecting anyone, so Randy cautiously checked and then opened the door to a man standing on our catwalk. He was a foreign driver who barely spoke English. He had a piece of paper in his hand his company had given him and he started to gesture to it trying to show Randy something. It was a PICTURE DIAGRAM showing how to axle out your truck properly. I mean come on is our industry getting so bad that we need 3rd grade picture diagrams to show us how to do our jobs. Apparently so.

Next the driver handed Randy his weight ticket and then started jabbering again. Of course Randy instantly saw the problem. This guys drivers were over by 180 pounds. But apparently he didn't know what to do with the information he had, so he decided to knock on our door and ask for help. I guess we present a knowledgeable image?

Randy put on his shoes, grabbed his gloves and went out to see what he could do. I grabbed the camera and followed. When this other driver saw we were going to give him a hand he slowed down and was able to speak a little bit of very broken English. Randy showed him how to slide his tandems first. Then he showed him how to put the landing gear down and slide his 5th wheel. Unfortunately no air was getting to the release pins on the 5th wheel and we weren't able to figure out why in short order. Since it was a minimum amount of weight he was over on the drivers and he wasn't over gross or any of the other axles, Randy told him to just run with it. He would probably burn off enough fuel to equal it out and then not to completely top it off again until empty or fixed. We also told him to call his company and get the problem fixed.

All in all an interesting and enlightening little diversion in an otherwise normal evening. It is depressing to see drivers of this caliber being sent out on their own with so little training. After he left, all we could wonder was what else he hadn't been properly taught...

Moral of the story...don't park next to the scales if you don't want to be disturbed.

Choo Choo Continued

2009-03-21T22:01:00.008-04:00

A little while back I posted about a load we did out of Kansas City's Union Station. I mentioned I would dig up some photos of our previous visit. So here they are. But first here are a few refresher pictures.

The following pictures where taken 3 years ago when we were in Kansas City for my birthday and visited this same station! It was so cool so be able to get photos of us and the truck next to this very same engine! Remember this is the guy who recently snagged that air line off of a train he found lying on the ground at a RR crossing.

Anyone who knows me understands this picture. I mean come on, chocolate and a big teddy bear who wouldn't fall in love :-D No he wasn't for sale, or yes he would have been my birthday present!

Touring the trains...

Chatting with the retired conductors...for several hours. Really nice guys and the one on the right had been to a lot of the same places we have been. It was really interesting comparing notes on how things had changed between our visits.

A neat mural on the wall done of this same station in years gone by.

I got to sit in the engineers seat. My left hand is on the train horns and YES THEY WORKED! The first time I pulled the lever at the conductors urging I nearly jumped out the window next to me :-D

Ostrich!!!

2009-03-20T18:17:00.005-04:00

We were heading north on 15 in SoCal and I was on the phone with a friend from home. When all of the sudden Randy starts waiving his arm in front on me pointing to our right, yelling "Look, Bonny, LOOK!" At first all I see is empty hills. No houses, vehicles, nothing insight. Then he points my head and I see it...an OSTRICH! The ostrich is running full out along the side of the highway headed to LA :-D

Sorry it happened to fast to get a photo of it racing the traffic. Boy that would have a been a keeper too.

Installing New Shifternob

2009-03-20T07:00:00.008-04:00

OK anyone who has ever changed one of these knows about all the little parts (2 springs, rubber gasket, plastic molded pieces, ball bearing, etc) that can and do go flying if you aren't really careful when you take the top off. We of course did great the first time, but we didn't add any extra petroleum and so had to take it apart a second time. That time both of those stupid little springs went flying as the air blew them to who knew where along with the rubber gasket. The rubber gasket and the first spring I found almost immediately right next to the gas peddle. The second one took us over an hour to find. It had landed and rolled just far enough under the base of the brake peddle that unless you lifted it you didn't see it. Can you imagine calling dispatch and telling them the truck can't make the pickup because we lost a tiny little spring less than 1/4" long x 1/8" wide? And all because I wanted to replace a scratched shifter knob.

Unless you are unlucky like we were, it really is a simple job to change

one of these out (I have changed many throughout the years

without incident). Remove the top access panel and the two screws.

Lift off the knob and the side gear splitter switch. This is where it

gets tricky. See those two very small holes at the right side that are

sort of outlined? Those are air outlets and are highly pressurized.

Once you loosen and lift off the cover they blow air hard, fast and loud!

This air blowing is how you loose those little parts.

Since we didn't have any petroleum jelly handy and didn't want to spray

white lithium here, we used just a dab of Carmex. It holds those tiny

little parts in place as you flip the selector switch upside down to put it

back in place, lubes and helps seal the air gasket.

Now that the air has drained off for the second time,

I flip and very carefully set the selector switch in place.

Now all we have to do is put the new knob on top...

and screw it back down.

The last step is to place the access cover in the top of the knob.

Viola. New fancy carved wooden shifter knob.

We started the truck and reaired the system to test it. It

worked better than before! I guess that Carmex was just the ticket.

Squirrel Email from a Friend

2009-03-20T01:01:00.011-04:00

I just had to share to share this with all of you after I read it...

Finnegan the squirrel

The moral of this story is the best part!!!

Debby Cantlon, who plans to release Finnegan, the young squirrel, back into the wild, bottle-fed the infant squirrel after it was brought to her house.

When Cantlon took in the tiny creature and began caring for him, she found herself with an unlikely nurse's aide: her pregnant Papillion, Mademoiselle Giselle.

Finnegan was resting in a nest
in a cage just days before Giselle was due to deliver her puppies.

Cantlon and her husband watched as the dog dragged the squirrel's cage twice to her own bedside before she gave birth.

Cantlon was concerned, yet ultimately decided to allow the squirrel out and the inter-species bonding began.

Finnegan rides a puppy mosh pit of sorts, burrowing in for warmth after feeding, eventually working his way beneath his new litter mates.

?
Two days after giving birth, mama dog Giselle allowed Finnegan to nurse; family photos and a videotape show her encouraging him to suckle alongside her litter of five
pups.

Now, Finnegan mostly uses a bottle, but still snuggles with his 'siblings' in a mosh pit of puppies, rolling atop their bodies, and sinking in deeply for a nap.

Finnegan and his new litter mates, five Papillion puppies, get along together as if they

were meant to.

Finnegan naps after feeding.

Finnegan makes himself at home with his new litter mates, nuzzling nose-to-nose for a nap after feeding.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Keep loving everyone,
even the squirrelly ones !

POP

2009-03-20T00:11:00.007-04:00

Randy was driving across 40 this week, while I was cooking Gumbriot, when we both heard a really loud POP! He pulled off at the upcoming exit so we could take a look at the tires. It was so loud that we both thought we had blown a tire off a rim or something. We crawled over and under the truck and trailer. We couldn't find anything wrong, so we chalked it up to another passing truck as the source of the pop.

You can sorta see in this photo we weren't stopped in the best spot. We were twisted on a sharp right lean pointed uphill.

Of course when you are in a hurry to find a place to stop you can't be choosy, but when we stopped looking at the truck and looked at where we were at, oops. The pot holes in front of us were plentiful, deep and of course going to be hard to miss when we left. The pot hole Randy is standing in is about 8-10" deep by 6' across and you can kinda see how sharply slopped the area is.

While looking at the pot holes I spotted this vertical windmill in the back ground. I was so excited at seeing it up close, because I have been reading a lot about them recently.

What a WHEEL HOG. While I was sidetracked by the windmill, he thought he would jump back behind the wheel. He had already done 700 miles on the nose at this point. Even though he could technically (as he was arguing) drive for a while longer, I put my foot down. Supper was ready for him to eat and this was as good a place to switch as any. He only had 30 minutes left on his log for that day anyway. Then he tried arguing that it was going to be hard to get out of the spot we were in and the next fuel stop was only a little ways away. I won. Of course I made it back on the highway with no problems AND managed to miss ALL of those nasty pot holes to boot!!! :-P

The culprit is found! We have a small basket next to the driver's seat where we keep the essentials (ie: pliers, screw driver, tape measure, gloves, etc). We had a small plastic bottle of aluminum polish here that the seat apparently came down on. HARD.

Hard enough to smash the top down and blow a hole in the side of the bottle! That's where the pop came from. We found this when we were getting the truck polished the next day and wanted to rub down the CB antennae while standing around waiting. From now on we will keep the touch up polish with the rest of the detail products in one of the trailer boxes.

In N Out Burger

2009-03-19T22:39:00.009-04:00

When we are in the Southwest we always make the trek to the closest In-N-Out Burger. Since we are staying in the TA East in Ontario, CA that is just across the truck parking lot (we always park in the back row and it's a VERY BIG lot), thru the truck stop to get out of the fenced secure lot, across the front parking lot, up the hill, over the bridge, across the highway and right at the first corner. A hike to say the least, especially in the California sun! But by the time you walk over and back you don't feel as guilty about indulging.

If you have ever eaten at an In-N-Out you understand. If you haven't, I hope you get the chance someday. For years we would make the trek just for Randy. He fell in love when he was in the Navy stationed in San Diego years ago. He tried for years to get me to try their food with no success. I am not a burger fan. Then along came my food allergies and I couldn't eat out anywhere largely in part due to the wide use of sulfite preservatives.

In-N-Out to the rescue. We were in Reno, NV a few years back when I discovered that all of their food is fresh, never frozen and absolutely no preservatives! So I finally gave in. Once is all it takes and your hooked. I still am not a burger fan, but I will hunt down an In-N-Out Burger. I always order the same thing: hamburger, animal style (lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and grilled onions) with no sauce, 2 orders of fries and a small coke. YUMMY!! We always laugh as we are eating and say it sure is a good thing we don't live down the street from one of these places :-D

Here are a few of their tag lines (I can tell you, you can taste that they are all true):

All our burgers are made with fresh beef that's never frozen.

Our buns are made without preservatives the old fashioned way-from real sponge dough.

We hand-leaf our lettuce every day.

Our fries are peeled and diced daily from fresh Kennebec potatoes.

We've cooked our fries in cholesterol free oil since 1948.

I love to watch them push the potatoes thru the hand operated fry cutter just before they cook them. Talk about knowing your food is fresh!

Train Airline

2009-03-19T19:47:00.006-04:00

On our way to and back from the chrome shop we have to cross a set of train tracks.

It was then that Randy saw it...

grabbed it up...

fell in love...

carried it back to the trailer...

and he is taking it home.

And he teases me about my rocks? ;-D

Chrome Shop

2009-03-19T19:45:00.004-04:00

We finally located the new light surrounds we have been searching for. They are for the turtleback style lights on the side of the sleeper. Since we needed over 40 of them we had to have them ordered. I can't wait to get home and get them on the truck!

I also finally found the correct shifter-nob in the matching wood to our wood/chrome steering wheel. We installed the new nob this evening. It looks so much better than the chrome one. I never thought I would say this, but I think that the chrome one just blended in with the rest of the chrome in the cab and never really looked that good. The wood one seems just right.

This is Denis who has helped us on many occasions, but today was the first time we really talked. The shop is usually to busy to even get help easily, but today things slowed down as we finished our order and we talked for a while. He has lived in SoCal since the late '60s, but he is a Canadian from Ontario. Two of his brothers moved to SoCal in the early '60s and it took him a few years to finally convince his wife it was a good idea. As soon as she gave him the OK, he said he sold everything (the boat, apartment, cottage, etc) in less than 3 months. They made the move with no job arranged for either of them. He said it was hard at first, but with some help from his brothers they made it. When we asked if there was anything he would have done differently, he quickly answered that the only thing he regretted was not doing it sooner! He said it has been hard being so far away from his wife's family in Ontario, but they make the trip in their RV every 2-3 years.

Pretty Fog

2009-03-19T17:23:00.006-04:00

It is kinda hard to see thru all of the bugs on the windshield, but it was actually very pretty.

Polish Me Please!

2009-03-18T22:21:00.012-04:00

If you remember we took that trip into the wilds of the Pacific Northwest a few weeks back and ran thru several ice storms. Then we were unable to find an open truck wash before we loaded our next TVAL load. As a result it was two weeks before we got all the deicers off the truck. By that time it had already etched all of the aluminum. It wasn't too deep, but it definitely was going to need to be wheeled to get it gleaming again.

So after running all out to cross the country (2200+ miles of it) in less than 30 hours we decided to forgo sleep and get the truck polished before we got dispatched on a load out of SoCal. So off to the new Little Sisters Truck Wash and Polish Shop in Fontana we went. We got the truck and trailer washed and waxed first. Why bother with polishing a dirty truck? Then got in the polish line. We knew it was going to be a long day since this wasn't going to be a simple touch up job.

Sure enough, after spraying everything down with acid and stripping off all the parts that would get in the way of the polish wheels, it took them over 7 hours. It was well worth it though as they did a great job. After the acid they took the time to run from brown tripoli rouge with yellow treated wheels to white jewelers rouge with soft untreated cotton wheels with petroleum distillates. It now shines like new again!

Waiting in the polish line...

Starting to disassemble by taking off the steer covers...

on to the drivers...

Pulling into the shade of the building...I just love the Little Sister's signs, don't you?

Of course this box has already been shot with acid, but I just love to watch it start to get shiny!

Starting to unbolt the side fairings so the steps can be polished.

Passenger side with side fairing removed.

Here you can see the train horns and generator exhaust

which normally are hidden behind the passenger side fairing.

Randy removing the sleeper steps so that the rear of the

passenger side fuel tank can be polished more easily.

Looks weird without the steps.

These are the train horns and PA speaker that are

normally hidden behind the driver side faring.

More photos showing it getting shiny...

So how do we entertain ourselves for 7 hours while waiting for the job to be done?

Clean and polish the antennas...

Take pictures of neat trucks going thru the wash and talk with the drivers...This one of course was of particular interest to us given our love of off roading and Jeeps!

We went to get some subs at subway and what do we find...the cutest little bug ever! I am still wondering if he would have fit in it?

Rosedown Plantation in Louisiana

2009-03-16T12:00:00.008-04:00

A few years back we visisted this plantation. Even though it was during the off season (February) it was still so very beautiful. Any I time I get within 200 miles of Louisiana I start to sneeze, so I was pretty miserable the whole visit. But it was so worth it. I will have to try and dig up the rest of our photos we took while there. The gardens were incredible. My favorites were the kitchen and greek gardens. I love the idea of a kitchen garden and this one was layed out so well. The greek garden was entered thru this really neat ivy covered tunnel. I have to have one someday!

The main drive up to the house was lined on both sides with 600' of antient oak trees

These pillars were outside the side door that led to house's library/office.

This was the drying house at the edge of the kitchen garden. We chased several cute little lizards around for a while trying in vain to get a picture of one of them. They were camera shy I guess.

This is the tunnel entrance to the greek garden. What a perfect addition this would make to my dream herb garden! Maybe dripping with chocolate mint instead of ivy...

Randy telling me to hurry up...

What you can't see in this picture is that there were two mirror gazebos on either side of this water feature. A very romatic spot. Can you imagine an evening spring party with the flowers all in bloom and soft torch light all around?

Randy is pointing to his watch and telling me to stop day dreaming of parties, gowns and dancing.

Ok, so I wasn't ready to go just yet. A few more pictures, please? He is still waiting patiently here, but his stance said everything. I had to admit it was time to go...

This is such a tight parking lot...

2009-03-16T11:46:00.012-04:00

As you can see from this little daycab hooked to a 48' trailer, there is only about 6' in between his front bumper and those posts at the edge of the pavement. Our sleeper's back door would be at about his hood if we could get in here straight. Of course that isn't possible. The loading dock manager laughingly calls their parking lot a driving test. If you can hit their dock (without loosing your trailer in one of the HUGE pot holes) your can drive the load. If not, oh well :-D

It is at times like these when I love our spread axle trailer with its individual axle dump valves. By dumping the air in either the front or rear axle we can change our trailer's track and pivot point instantly by 10.' Tandems have to slide their axles to get the same effect. I always have to chuckle to myself when newbies look at our trailer and inevitably make the same comment, "I would never have put a spread axle behind such a big truck." I guess they don't know anything about the advantages a spread offers. Like 40,000 pounds on the trailer (20k per axle) vs 34,000 on a tandem, and not having to slide your tandems to axle out or to corner or back in tight situations. Now what was that about not wanting a spread?

Laundry Day

2009-03-15T11:49:00.007-04:00

Yes. It's that time, again. We are in Louisville, KY waiting to load and I found this place on the internet. Their web page said that they had 3 triple load washers. Since I wanted to wash all of the bedding this weekend it sounded like the place to go.

Then we get there. Talk about a hole in the wall time warp...

We just beat the rush of people into the laundry mat. I had to sit guard over our 5 machines so no one would tamper. I guess we got the "primo" machines, because all of the regulars weren't to happy to see we had beat them to the them. We almost had to start a waiting list. Everyone kept coming up to us and telling us to call them when the washers were done. There was only something like 20 other machines in the place no one was using!

Yes, that is smoke damage on the wall and sign! I'm a believer, don't use the old broken down machines under this sign!

Randy saw this box of "Stiffy's" and just had to take a picture of it :-D

This was one of the three triple load washers this laundry mat was so proud of on their website. Talk about a blast from the past! At least it worked, or so the sign said, we didn't give it a go.

Have you ever seen a washing machine that needs stairs to operate? Me either, till today. Talk about a big machine! Even Randy, at 6' 4" used the steps to add the detergent. This was the only one of the advertised triple load machines that worked. But it did hold a lot of laundry and we were able to get all the bedding done. Randy is always teasing me about being so sensitive the princess and pea fairytale must have been written about me. I can't stand a messy bed. I have to wash all the blankets, quilt and shams every 2 weeks or it starts to build up allergens.

Here Randy is standing guard over the "big one."

Paperwork

2009-03-14T05:01:00.004-04:00

A necessary evil, but it must be done. We spent 10 hours on it yesterday. UGHHH

Coke Toll?

2009-03-13T09:08:00.004-04:00

For the last couple of days every time I turn around my Coke has seemed lighter than I remember leaving it. My husband isn't supposed to drink anything but water right now. Now I am sitting here working on the laptop and I ask Randy to pass me my Coke. He gets a glint in his eye and I know...

I had to inform him that there is NO TOLL on my COKES!!!

Safest Spot in the Lot?

2009-03-13T08:47:00.006-04:00

Dinner

2009-03-13T08:21:00.006-04:00

For sides we had basic steamed peas alongside mixed black and mahogany rice with brown lentils, thyme and red onions. For the main course we had poached wild pacific salmon with fresh mandarin orange salsa.

Ok I know that the presentation is a little crummy, but its winter and we have to conserve water when we are up north. So as a result it's paper plates and plastic utensils till spring.

The Wafflehouse....

2009-03-12T17:54:00.006-04:00

Yes I went to a Waffle House! We met up with some friends and they invited us to lunch. Of course I only drank while there and the conversation was stimulating, but oh the yummy smells....I haven't been in a Waffle House in years. Because of my food allergies I can't eat anything on their menu. I had a great time, but was sooooo hungry when we left!!!!!!!

12 hours of Sleep

2009-03-12T07:07:00.005-04:00

After our escapades yesterday we crashed for 12 whole hours last night. Once we were unloaded I made a late lunch (brown lentils & baby lima beans w/ mint scallion sauce along with steamed green beans as a side). After eating we didn't even do the dishes (paper plates mind you) we just left everything on the counter and fell asleep around 1630. We finally woke up just before 0500 this morning!

We felt rested though and spent the morning cleaning the sleeper. I guess we both must have dreamed of those dirty dishes all night long ;-) because we tackled the sleeper with a vengeance! Oiling wood, vacuuming shades, cleaning under the fridge, wiping down the walls, dusting under the spice jars.....

The sleeper feels so much better now that all the corners are all sparkly and squeaky clean I know I will sleep soundly again tonight. Well that is if I don't dream of all the things I just thought of while typing this....hmmm, I really need to organize the lazy susan, clean out behind the TV and sort thru our books and magazines ;-)

Windy City

2009-03-11T07:07:00.007-04:00

So much for easy going...I was on the phone talking with my mother when we got dispatched at 0030 to deadhead 200+ miles into the downtown Chicago area ASAP to rescue a load. Sounds easy enough, we can do that. Its a Temperature Validated run so Randy jumps out to set up the reefer and recorder, while I update my log, set up the route and get the load info off the C-Link. This is when we discovered that we have been blocked in by no less than 7 trucks who have parked in a row in front of us! Not one of which was in a parking spot of course. After looking at the situation for a minute we decide that we only need one of two to move so we can squeeze out. So Randy goes up and tries knocking on their cab doors. Of course no one wants to answer and it takes him 10 minutes to finally roust one of the drivers. Finally he gets one of them to move their truck out of our way. I squeeze thru the opening, in he jumps and we're off!

Into heavy rain and high cross winds. YEE HA! I know that Chicago's nick name the Windy City is a reference to politics, but tonight it was easy to believe that distinction came from a different source. It has been a while since I have seen tractor trailers with their hazards flashing traveling on the shoulder of the road at 20 mph due to high cross winds in Indiana. Of course these were mostly high profile open air loads. Still I had to travel most of the trip in the hammer lane as it was hitting me so hard on the drivers side I could barley keep it on the road from the right hand lane. Even so I really hate when I look in my mirrors and I can see about 6-12" of the nose of our trailer. Usually I can't see any of it since our sleeper is as wide as the trailer! Of course we were empty for this fun ride too. No weight to hold us down to the road...since we are only going after 4500 pounds I hope the return trip is calmer.

When I left Indy this morning it was 58F outside. By the time I got to O'Hare 3 hours later it was a balmy 21 degrees. BRRRRRR

Now we are trying to get out of town and have been sitting on a highway ramp for 45 minutes at a dead stop. The road ahead of us was flooded last night by the rain and now is solid ice and standing water. While we have been sitting here we have seen 4 cars spin out on the ramp in front of us and hit the cement wall in slow motion. The cops finally closed that ramp too. So we are all sitting on the highway waiting for the water pumps to do their job. No bypass around this one...

Hmmmmm, a salt shaker just showed up. Maybe things will start shaking now.....

In this photo you can see all of the water that was still on the road

when they started letting us thru once the jackknifed tractor trailer

had been cleared from under the bridge in the corner just ahead.

This picture taken was after pumps had been working for hours.

Yes that is alot of salt on the road in the above picture. The salt truck went back and forth several times over this section of road dumping all of that salt and sand before the cops would let us get going.

Finally a Calm DRY Night's Drive

2009-03-10T07:38:00.007-04:00

It was such a nice night...no idiots on the road pulling stupid stunts and good weather. It has been so long I almost forgot what it was like to have a peaceful night's work ;-)

Then just when I thought it was getting a little boring I stopped at a rest area to take a short break. Bless them, that's when I saw it. No less then 6 surf boards on the roof and at least a few hundred bumper stickers all over the vehicle! Finally something interesting...I read a good portion of their stickers just to entertain myself for a few minutes. And here I had always thought actually putting bumper stickers on was a dump idea....

Kale Puttanesca

2009-03-09T05:04:00.007-04:00

This really is sooooooooo yummy....

Here is the link to the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Kale-Puttanesca/Detail.aspx

New Day Same Old Icy Roads--Unfortunately

2009-03-08T06:01:00.013-04:00

Nice Deer

2009-03-07T09:18:00.009-05:00

The first time she showed up with all her girlfriends I was so excited I never thought of getting my camera. This morning when they showed up I finally remembered (well ok, I was reminded very sternly to "GO GET YOUR CAMERA!"). Yesterday we had 5 of these cute girls all eating right below the window. When I first noticed them I was talking with Cathy in the livingroom and started carefully creeping up the window to get a closer look at them. I hadn't even noticed Cathy had left the room. Here I thought I would be all sneaky like and watch them. Imagine my surprise when I realized I was the one being stalked! They were bobbing their heads, walking closer and closer all the while trying to see every move I was making inside the house...about this time Cathy showed back up with a bowl of food and asked me if I wanted to feed them. I wasn't sure what she meant so I just followed her into her bedroom. She opened the window and started calling to the deer who were just outside the window. They had seen us moving thru the windows and followed us. They obviously knew better than I what was up. They walked right up the window as Cathy started talking to them and tossing out food. One by one they all came up till they were all within arms reach. I could have easily reached out and petted them! It was so cool.

She told me how she has even had elk come up to eat the deer's leftovers and spend the night at the treeline just 15-20 feet from their bedroom window. You don't see that in Michigan!

We took this photo our last morning as the fog was just starting to burn off the lake. It was so eerily beautiful.

Kitchen PLEASE!!!

2009-03-05T20:54:00.008-05:00

We spent the weekend in Harrison, Idaho with Cathy and Dad at their place, Razzleberry Ranch. Here is Cathy cooking in her temporary "canning kitchen" in the basement. This is in use while Dad finishes her custom kitchen cabinets for the permanent kitchen upstairs. These temporary quarters haven't deterred her in the least. We were treated to the usual gourmet treatment. She is such a wonderful hostess! I have to say some of the absolute best pancakes (blueberry and walnut) and cupcakes (cranberry and vegan chocolate chip) ever and vegan to boot! Mind she grew the blueberries herself and ground the flour too!!!

Dad is trying to teach Randy how to make something square! How to draw and cut a straight line, etc. Randy isn't shy about his woodworking skills. As he says,"...it will hold, but it ain't going to be pretty!" Here they are working on one of the cabinet bases.

Later when I asked Randy what he did all day, he said he mostly absorbed information. I asked if he thought he could do a base on his own now. He laughed and said maybe after a few more weeks of watching! First he says he wants to make a squire feeder out of scrap wood and see how that turns out...baby steps.

This is where the kitchen will be once the cabinets are finished. Yes, that is a real working wood fired cook stove! She really uses it too.

This is where the dumb-waiter will be, the 2x4 topped square. It will allow food to be moved easily between the basement (where the canning kitchen, root cellar, walk-in fridge and freezer are) and the kitchen. Really cool design feature, huh?

Here is Randy starting the fire up first thing in the morning. His parents always heated primarily with wood and he loved using the bellows again :-)

Wrapping Up the Day

2009-03-02T10:00:00.004-05:00

I had just dropped our load and was trying to get out of Seattle before traffic started.

Good intentions, but thanks to this one little red pickup it wasn't to be.

You would have thought this guy was sitting in the middle of the road as slow as traffic was moving. We crawled along for a good 6 miles, taking an agonizing 40 minutes, only to find this on the side of the road!

Finally we made it out of town to our fuel stop. In 30 minutes I fueled, gathered our paperwork together, put paperwork in the mail, my husband got supper (Subway to the rescue), made a few phone calls, fielded multiple lookers on, updated my log and gps map. I also took a minute to enjoy the great view! This shot was taken just before I pulled off the fuel island.

We ate our subs as I drove East back thru Snowquamae Pass. It was a lovely end to a VERY long trip. Only 300 some miles to go to the next stop in the morning.....

IDAHO HO

2009-03-01T01:00:00.013-05:00

We survived our trip out west and are now sitting in Harrison, Idaho. It feels good to take a breath after our hectic run for the roses to do 2600 miles in just 48 hours.

I have video and photos of running thru ice and snow over the mountains in West Wyoming, Utah, Oregon and Washington! It took me 3 1/2 hours to run just under 100 miles in Western Wyoming and north up 84 past Ogden Thursday night on the ice. FUN FUN

Friday was the first time I have had the chance to drive thru Snowquamee Pass in Washington during the daylight. I took about a gazillion pictures. Not only did I get to run thru heading West, I also got to unload and return Eastbound an hour later. So I got to see the pass from both directions in less than 4 hours.

I was trying to show how bad the ruts were from all the snow chains.

Talk about a rough ride! East bound was alot worse though...

This is not a tunnel, it is a snow shed. A snow shed keeps the snow

from coming down the mountain and landing on the cars on the road!

The amber signs had ice warnings and I thought it was cool

with the snow blowing off the top of the mountain in the back ground.

A little bit of ice.

This picture doesn't do this snow blower justice.

It was the size of my truck and had to be throwing that snow straight up almost 100 feet!

The first time thru the sun was shinning with bright blue skies. There were ice warnings, but all I saw was wet roads :-) About halfway down on the Westward trip I got to see my first REALLY BIG snow blower in action clearing the snow away from the shoulder of the road. I wish I could get one of those for the house!

On our way back to Idaho we tried to wash the truck 3 times with no luck. It is covered with all of the sand and salt from the trip out here and looks absolutely terrible. But every time we made it back to the next truck wash they were already closed for the night. I never, ever, ever thought that I would see the day when I would wish for a Streaking Beakon. However I would have loved to see one of their glowing 24 hour signs last night. Of course not one of the 3 places we stopped had hours of operation posted either.

What a Day

2009-02-27T03:04:00.007-05:00

This trip is gearing up to be on the bottom of my list of favorites! It has been rush, rush, gotta go from the moment we got the dispatch. We were late before we even got started on this one since we were playing clean up for someone else.

I have been telling my husband for days that the front end of the truck was riding rough and wasn't stearing as smooth as usual. He of course didn't feel anything was different so business went on as usual. After bouncing across Missouri I had had enough and shot the front shocks with the IR Gun. Sure enough cold as ice and completely DEAD! We were just outside of Kansas City so we made a stop at the Kenworth Dealer and picked up two new shocks for a cheap $60. We have a 14600# front axle on this beast so the only place we could get the shocks locally was from the dealer. We were pleasantly suprised by the sticker for a change.

The pleasant feelings didn't last long though because when we got to Kenworth the whole area smelled like a sesspool! The parts guy told us there was a sewage treatment plant on the next block. He went on to say this wasn't bad at all, we should come back in the summer when it really smelled! Needless to say we didn't stick around for a second longer than was necessary. Instead we hightailed it down the highway to the next rest area. We figured it wouldn't be a big deal to change out the shocks there. After all it should only take 15-20 minutes...

We pulled in, got out the wrenchs, overalls went on and the first shock was changed in under 5 minutes. The second one was not so easy. It took all 6' 4" and 245 pounds of my husband balanced on the steer tire on one foot and using the other to force the bottom nut loose. The top one wouldn't budge. We kicked and pryed on it for about 10 more aminutes before I got the bright idea of getting a bigger hammer. Literally, we got out the sledge hammer. A little creative placement of the wrench, a few taps by me and then a few good hits from my husband and VIOLA! Stupid mechanics and their impact wrenchs was the topic the whole time we were wagging war on the nut. I didn't get any pictures of the actual battle, but I did get several after our victory!

All in all I think it took us just over 30 minutes to get the job done and back on the road. The difference was immediatly noticable. SOOOOO SMOOOOOTH!!!!!

It sure made for a nice smooth ride to fall asleep to......

7.54

2009-02-26T05:10:00.005-05:00

That was our mpg for the our last tank of fuel! We have never broken over 7.2 mpg before. We are light, but are heading into a head wind, covering hills and cresting mountains. I am excited to see what mpg the next couple of fill ups yield.

This is the first tank we have run through completely while driving down the road since installing the Turbo3000D. Looks good so far, lets see where it goes from here.

Oh Deer!

2009-02-26T04:18:00.006-05:00

I was driving along listening to Fox News on XM, the cruise was set at 63 mph and the road was all mine. So far a good night. I was just passing the end of an on ramp to my right when I caught a gleam arching over the guard rail on my right. Good thing I had just checked my left mirror seconds before to be sure I was clear to get out of the way in case some idiot came flying down the on ramp (a regular occurrence on my shift). I quickly swerved to the left as a VERY LARGE DOE cleared the guard rail heading straight for the side of my tractor. I swear I don't know who's eyes where bigger or heart was beating faster, hers or mine. I could see her in my passenger side mirror trying to reverse direction before she even landed! As I saw her twisting in midair I thought she was going to slide underneath my trailer when she landed as I watched it in seaming slow motion. I was pulling away from her as she was literally spinning her hooves on the moist blacktop trying to get traction. I thought it was too late, but somehow she just managed to miss the trailer tires. The last I saw of her she was sailing right back over that same guard rail. I don't think 3 seconds passed, but it seemed like an eternity.

ME AGS System

2009-02-25T00:52:00.000-05:00

This system is so awesome. It has cut our generator run time considerably! I can run both inverters, the TV, surround sound system, overhead fan and laptop without running the generator. I also don't have to worry about over stressing the batteries since this system monitors them and then turns on the generator only when its needed. So far that has been about every 8-11 hours.

There is one problem though. I was just sitting here in bed reading an online book about companion gardening, the lights are off, the TV is quietly on in the background and then VROOOM, the generator starts itself. I swear I must have jumped a foot!!! I was so startled I almost dropped the laptop. It is definitely going to take some time to get used to it starting itself.

Crazy Mini-Van

2009-02-24T03:34:00.000-05:00

I was heading North on I-75 and at this point there were 4 lanes to travel in. I am the only vehicle in sight (its 2:45 am) when I see another vehicle's lights come over a hill behind me. I am in the far right lane and they are one lane to my left. As they come up to pass me I see them brake suddenly and pull in within 10' behind my trailer. I know they are this close because I can see the glow from their lights, but can no longer see the vehicle itself. Since I see an exit is coming up and I don't like to be tail gated I simply move one lane to the left leaving the right lane open for them. This idiot mashes on the gas and passes me on the right, which I expected, but then he didn't take the exit! Instead they continued on down the road, except now they are weaving from one side of their lane to the other.

4 lanes of open road, we are the only two vehicles in sight and they HAVE to tailgate then pass me on the right? I just don't get some people's stupidity!

Cleanup Day

2009-02-23T00:42:00.000-05:00

Today was spent working on the truck. First my husband installed a Turbo3000D. He has been trying to pick one up for a few months and finally found a shop that had one on hand. Install kits are available specific to your engine make and model (ours is the Cat C-15 550 hp). The kit comes with all the fittings and hoses necessary to complete the install yourself. With the aid of the kit the install was quick and easy, only taking about an hour to install. Most of this time was taken up by my husband doing his best impersonation of a contortionist since ours needed to be installed behind the steering pump reservoir.

We have heard many good reports about how well these perform. The manufacturer guarantees a minimum 10% increase in your mpg or your money back. When asked if anyone had every returned one, the shop where we purchased the Turbo3000D said that one guy had. Apparently he had said the 1 mpg increase in mileage he had realized wasn't good enough! The shop said that he was just one of those people that you just can't please. Nothing would have made him happy.

The Turbo3000D.

It is installed on the outlet side of the fuel pump.

The simple explanation of how this works is this:

It acts as restrictor valve and equalizes

the fuel pressure across all the injectors.

Since it lengthened the fuel line and placed it in an odd position, a guard

needed to be put in place to keep a hole from being rubbed in the line.

Next we gave the truck a bath to get all the salt off from the last storm we ran through up north. This was a headache as usual. We had to have them rewash it twice the first time thru and then back the truck into another bay for them to get all the stuff they missed the first two times. The trailer rails needed to be acid washed twice because they are diluting the brightener so much anymore it doesn't work for crap. Then as usual they completely skipped the back of the sleeper, catwalk and rear fenders/frame area.

When we finally called it good at the wash bays we still had to use polish to hand rub the fuel tanks, wheels, boxes, handles, exhaust covers, exhaust stacks and catwalk to get all the stuff the wash had missed. Then after the truck was done drip drying we had to go back and wipe off the side fairings. The rinse hadn't quite gotten all the salt off and some had dripped down and dried while we were working on other things.

Since it was such a nice day and we had only been hit up by 3 panhandlers/businessmen selling services and wares, along with only a handful of admirers, we decided to go ahead and touch up the few paint chips we had received from an ice storm we ran in a month ago. It never seems like there is that much to do, but we were out there doing it all for over 7 hours. It was the gnats buzzing around our heads that finally drove us in for the night.

Since I weigh less than half what my husband does,

I always get the roof work!

At least it's always warm up there!

When working on the truck I wear these

old overalls of my husbands! Aren't they sexy? :-D

This collapsible ladder is one my husband's favorite toys,

even though it seems I am the one always climbing it!

After two severely bruised thumbs I absolutely refuse

to set it up or collapse it anymore.

Since I had so much to do up top today,

he graciously volunteered to do the tires.

This is a huge sacrifice for him, since its

hard for him to get his 6'4" down to this level.

Yes the cocoa mat is VERY uncomfortable to sit on,

even for short periods of time!!!!

Our Weekend Run

2009-02-23T00:02:00.000-05:00

This weekend was crazy! We were dispatched on a load Thursday evening that wasn't to pick up till Saturday morning and it was tentatively scheduled to delivery straight thru. We were told at the time of dispatch that they expected us to babysit the load over the weekend as they didn't think that the customer really wanted it till Monday morning. That was ok with us so once the repairs were done on the sleeper we headed down to the pickup town. We knew we could spend the night just outside the main gate where we could get a quiet nights rest.

While we were deadheading down Friday we received several calls from the delivery location saying they really did need the delivery Sunday morning. So we would head straight out after pickup and meet them at the main gate at 0700 Sunday. OK, we could do that. It was better than spending the weekend babysitting in safehaven.

Everything went as we expected Saturday morning at the pickup. Smooth. Then just after we left we started getting calls again about the delivery. They had decided to keep someone available to unload us as soon as we could get there. Just call when we were 30 minutes out and "whoever" would meet us at the gate to escort us. OK, we could do that too.

We kept getting calls all day and into the evening. When would we be there? How many pieces did we pick up? What did they each weigh? What did the load gross? Don't go to that gate, go to this one. So and so will meet you, call this number. No, this person will meet you, call this number.....and so on. Finally around 2130 they got it all figured out. We arived at 0015!

We dutifully called when we were 30 minutes out. Our contact said he would be waiting for us at the gate. When we got there we waited for 30 minutes at the gate (over an hour since we had talked to him) before we called him again. He cheerfully informed us he was at the waterfront and oh yes, he could come to front gate. GRRRRRR We kept smiling the whole time.

Then we got to the truck inspection area. We had to remain in the cab while they walked around the whole truck several times with mirrors looking for who knows what at this point. Then get out and get this....walk ONLY clockwise around the truck! If you were on the passenger's side you had to walk all the way around the rear of the vehicle to get to the hood latch on the driver's side! This made the inspection of all the boxes and comparments (by no less than 2 different gaurds doing completely seperate inspections) all the more interesting. Even the gaurds seemed on edge and were following their "book" to the letter. As the inspection was nearing its end one of them confided to me very discreatly that their comander was just over there (he covertly pointed close to his chest while covering his actions with his body) by the main gate watching. While all this was great fun :-P at least everyone was in good spirits and we all made the best of it.

Finally, we were let go to follow our escort. When we got to the unloading area we were told to bypass the dock and he would just bring the forklift out to the trailer since they were going to transfer the freight to another truck that wasn't dock height. A few minutes later out he comes in one of the largest forklifts we have ever seen. We just stood there and looked at him. He got off and walked over to break the seal asking what was wrong. I asked him if he thought his lift would be big enough? He looked at me and honestly said he hoped so. I knew that we had had numerous phone calls that day about the size and weight of the load, because they were worried about having a truck big enough to transfer it to its final location. We had repeatedly told them that there were 4 pieces weighing in at 3000 pounds each and 1 at 1500 pounds, grossing 15000 including shipping matterials. All were palletized and approx 4'x4' squares. Apparently they had told this guy that each piece weighed 15000 pounds! Talk about to many cooks in the kitchen. As soon as we opened the doors he got it. He just stood there laughing and said well I guess my regular 5 ton truck and lift would have been fine after all.

We went ahead and off loaded the pallets with the big lift which worried me at first, because most people don't know how to operate them smoothly and constantly bump the back of the trailer. Not to mention try to drop the frieght as they take it off the rear of the trailer because their movements are so jerky. This guy followed directions well and handled his lift with smooth, sure motions. In no time at all we were empty!

When he came back to sign our paperwork I told him how nice it was to see such a "smooth operator." He and my husband both just looked at me for a second and then had a good laugh.