Friday Night Truck Stop Social

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

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?

Just a Pretty Picture of Truck & Trailer

Hail Storm

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

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

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!

Ostrich!!!

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.

Squirrel Email from a Friend

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 !      

Pretty Fog

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

Rosedown Plantation in Louisiana

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...

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?

Coke Toll?

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!!!

Dinner

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.

12 hours of Sleep

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 ;-)

Nice Deer

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.

What a Day

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......