Apr 27, 2010

      virgina to phoenix

     one thing is for certain, the further we get from the pacific northwest, the worst the coffee gets.  at breakfast today we each got coffee. plain coffee, no splenda, no honey, not flavored coffee, no flavored creamers, no cinnamon sprinkles on top. no whip cream, no hot sleeve. wth,  i know, thats what i thought.

      maybe we drink too much coffee, naaa  thats not the answer.

     if i didnt live in oregon, i could probally live in the southeast part of the country. alabama, south carolina, north carolina, kentucky, tennesse, virgina.  (if it wasnt for the humidity.)  but my whole family would have to move with me. spring time is just perfect now.  everything is new, that light spring green is everywhere,  the trees are greening up , the flowers are starting to bloom, it is just so beautiful. 

 before leaving virgina i noticed  many citys and some  countys on their signs that display their names, under some of them was also written  'a certified business location' i looked it up and it basicly means what we call shovel ready property.  its to try and encourage businesses to the area. 

  i saw what looked like and important sign, "y 12 national security complex " in tennesse.  thats a business that helps keep america safe.

  in texas , since we were on a different road we havent yet driven on, i saw a bunch of interesting signs.  

On hwy 30 there was a road side cemetery with i guess about a dozen or so headstones. there was a  brown historical marker ahead sign.  on the marker it states that an alien body, (ufo, not an illegal from across the boarder)  is burried there.   texas is  a little ways from roswell , new mexico and area 51.   this is what i gleaned from the web site: 

          Newspaper accounts in April 1897 reported that the alien craft hit a windmill pondaros and was torn to pieces, along with its occupant. A 1986 movie, Aurora Encounter, recreates the tale.   i snagged their picture of the historical marker since mine didnt turn out well.

 another site was a tribute to Dan Blocker, Hoss on the tv show  Bonanza. 

      Across the street is the O'Donnell Museum, displaying some Hoss memorabilia and area history. Dan's other claim to fame is that he was the largest baby ever born in Bowie County (14 lbs.), in the town of DeKalb in 1928.

   there was a sign that read, rattlesnake bomber base.  i thought they really have a problem with rattle snakes dont they.   it was really announcing the Pyote Air Force Station, AKA "Rattlesnake Bomber Base"

 a very funny sign  when entering the city limits of stanton texas.  i got a picture of it , a picture is worth a thousand words.

 oh, yea almost forgot, i was driving when i had a blow out.  it was one of the rear trailer tires. and guess what happened.  nothing, not a thing.  i heard the tire blow out, but never lost control etc.  in fact will said to continue 10 more miles to the truckstop and then call roadside service.  i guess its a good thing to have 18 tires, when one goes, you still have 17 left.

      

      we are in phoenix, waiting to be unloaded.  hoping it does not take 13 hours, like it did to load us in virgina. we both have a simulator class to take while here in phoenix so we will get that out of the way.  the truck needs service oil change, etc.  hoping to get laundry done. since the last 2 hotels didnt have a laundry. whats up with that?  also need to upload those pictures.  need to do a little grocery shopping, running out of fruit, and crackers.  my kids have nearly convinced me that diet soda is bad for you, so i am trying to stick to one a day, ok , ok,  maybe two.  that is quite a drop from my 6 pack a day habit. it has cut down on my bathroom breaks.  which on a side note is a good thing in texas. the majority of road side rest area are called picnic areas, there is no restroom. 

i cant believe it , it is way to hot  to be sitting on the road side in the sun just to eat a  peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  thats crazy. thats what air conditioned vehicles are for.

 by the way it is 8:30 am in phoenix and our outside thermometer  says  87 degrees.   UGH!!!

  love and miss you all,

      Apr 24, 2010

      kansas to virgina

      kansas is a busy place for weather. the weather man (and woman) certainly earn their money.

 so far i have learned that there is more than one kind of tornado.  there is a stove pipe funnel and a cone shaped funnel.

      it was pouring this morning, and now it is fine. no rain, no wind but oh so muggy. it really does feel like storms are all around.

 we will begin heading to virgina tomorrow.

  in the morning the news said there were 32 tornado's yesterday  with no injury's, or damage.  wow

      we went into the truckstop in the morning for coffee, brush my teeth etc.  i could not believe my eyes where they usually have donuts, they had  krispy creams, so i got a cup full of krispy cream donuts holes.  uummmmm  good.

       will  said he had to run back into the store real quick and i told him it better be quick, we have a schedule to keep im leaving in 15 minutes with or without you.   (he always tells me to hurry up we have a schedule to keep)  he said  thats ok he'll just wait out front for me to come around again, cause he knows i'll be driving in circles trying to find the freeway. haha, very funny,  bad karma points for him.

 there sure are a lot of adult shops around here.  with this being the bible belt  i was thinking that we in the pacific northwest may not be as 'saved' as they are in the south and south east, but at least we dont have  porn shops on every exit, advertising truck and rv parking.

 we saw a couple of billboards that were clever. one was from a doctors office and said, "make your mammogram appointment today, we'll squeeze you in"  the other one said "Squeeze in time for a mammogram"

 we are not even to virgina and we already have our reload. its from coors, where we are dropping off and going to phoenix.  its beer this time.  so we have  nearly been a part of the whole system at one point or another. for coors we have hauled big plastic pallets, cans, can-ends and  next  the finale product, beer.  i dont know how they could have done it without us. well us and the farmers.

                       the kegs are under heavy lock and key

 im a little bummed that we arent spending more time in virgina, i was really looking forward to hanging out for 34 hours.  i'd better have more luck with postcards than i've been having. 

                           yoo~woo sailors, i'm over here boys

we are also bummed that swift has a  monthly mileage limit.  if or when you go over that  you are charged  10 cents a mile.

      this week for last month they took at $520 dollars.  OUCH!!!  i told will we should not accept any loads that take us over our miles. he said we are only losing  10 cents a mile so we are still making money.  i dont know, just seems like every time we turn around   they have their hand out and it comes out of our pocket.  we got a message from swift that every 90 days swift requires an annual d.o.t. inspection.   i know you are thinking the same thing i was thinking.   isn't an annual inspection done annually.  the way swift has set it up is every 3 months when it is time to maintenance the truck, change oil etc. if that service is done at a swift yard, (which we pay for $175) then that will satisfy the annual inspection requirement.  our driver manager said they are trying to stop people from going off site and getting service done somewhere else.  our dm said it would cost us more, but we would get more for our money.  but that was before they started requiring an annual inspection every 90 days.    UGH!!!

                                    where the buffalo roam

     love and miss you all

      Apr 22, 2010

      kansas

      turns out we didnt get very far before we had to stop.

       will counted his hours wrong so it worked out that we needed to take our 34 hours off now rather than later.  darn, i was looking forward to time off in virgina.

                                                            the mountains of kansas

 a light house? maybe they use it to look for lost hikers in the mountians

      time off now suits me just fine thou. we are in kansas and it is pouring, thundering and lightening.  we do get 2 channels on the tv and both are flashing warnings about severe thunderstorms,  'know where the nearest shelter is  in case you need to use it' ...............WHAT!!!!!!.......................... 

i told will i was going to go in and ask the pilot truck stop where is their shelter.  will said they dont have one and this truck is my shelter.  i dont think so, i saw 'twister' this truck is not a shelter.  besides we only have 7,540 pounds. (can ends for beer cans)  maybe if we had 45,000 that might last a little longer. but still.  they keep announcing the warnings by counties.  i had to look at my post card receipt to know what city i was in. (did not say what county we are in) why is that , you think all the  emergency agency might think that  at some point there might be visitors in their area.

                                 this yard is well protected

      we are in salina, kansas, on i70.  so watch tv and call me if you hear i should be heading to a shelter, other than this truck.

     love and miss you all

     Apr 21, 2010

      north carolina to denver

     

we thought we were , going to take this load all the way to ogden utah, but they called it off us and gave us a load to virgina.  we have just enough hours left to do this run.  will has 27 hours left to work and i have 9 1/2.  so if everything goes off without a hitch, we will be spending the weekened in virgina. 

it delivers in elkton. i know i need a spoon from virgina. i always teased my mom about me being born in virgina but not having a spoon from there.  i am really about 12 or so spoons away from having one from every state.  i have lots of doubles  i dont know who i know in arizona, but i have 6 spoons.  i have i think 8 spoon racks, but i need a couple more.  i still have spoons  i cant hang up.

      the country side in alabama, south carolina and north carolina was just beautiful.  the evergreen trees, the spring flowering trees. the spanish moss hanging from the trees was  different. 

it was pretty but i could tell it was a problem. 

  the people could not have been nicer.  in fact i now think every kid should grow up in the south. they will all be polite, courtesy, and patience and have a helpful attitude.  when we were at a store there was a little boy sitting in the shopping cart must have been around 5 or 6.  his mom was trying to decide between two products.  he said *say this part in your best southern drawl*  hurry up and pick one mama and lets gooooo.....

 the churches on my gosh, there are some beautiful buildings here. i took as many pictures as i could. every church i saw i thought was beautiful, then around the corner was another one.

 i like the way this one came out, i forgot to turn the flash off and it reflected on the truck window

i really need to get a photo file for just the churches.

i hope the trip to virgina  starts off better than the trip from north carolina. we were driving on  40 west and there was a detour because of a rock slide.  will was sleeping so i just started to follow the detour signs. as soon as i got off my route both of the map programs started yelling at me.  "just ahead make u turn" "just ahead take right exit then turn right in 50 feet"  ( you know what they say, 2 wrongs, dont make a right, but 2 rights make a left)  anyway all the noise from them woke will up.  i wish you would have told me there was a detour, i could have looked at a map a found a quicker route. yadda yadda yadda.... that detour was slow because that roads normal traffic, plus all of the I40 traffic. it ended up being around 75 miles. 

 the rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful.  until we got to colorado.  i had been watching a storm brewing in front of me.  we changed drivers and it wasnt 20 minutes before that storm was right over us. it really started to pour. then we saw emergency lights ahead of us and all the traffic slowed and stopped. we were wondering what was up. people in  colorado should know how to drive in the rain, not like when it rains in california.  but it wasnt the rain.  up ahead their was at least 10 to 12 inches of hail.  HAIL!!! cars were in the ditch on both sides of the highway. there was a snow plow but he really wasnt making any headway. he would push it off to the right but it would just slide right back on to the road behind him.  it was crazy. it only lasted for about 2 or 3 miles.

 in golden colorado we are picking up can ends from coors and taking them to  virgina.

      well i gotta go to bed, got to  get my beauty sleep you know. need to be awake for my big 9 hour day tomorrow, its going to seem like a day off.

 i have some neat pictures i need to upload.

  love and miss you all

            Apr 18, 2010

     our home time was great.   i must say i am always a little surprised that the house is still standing and there is food in the cupboards and refrigerator.  (maybe they dont need me as much as i need them ?!?!)

      it was good to get home when it wasnt raining. got more outside chores done than inside.  pulled weeds out front, spread new bark in the front flower beds. pulled weeds out back in one of the flower beds, the biggest one, left instructions for how to spread the bark in the back.  got the grey out of my hair.  went to the hospital and got casting material so we can play doctor to schultz's leg.  the problem was the nice weather  and working out side, i never got to schultz, so left instructions for that.

      my grandson was a litle upset that we were not home on a weekend so he could stay the night.   he tried to convince me that he could skip school and stay the night.  i wonder how he  even knows the words  'skip school'  he's only 9 or is it 10??

      when we left this time my granddaughter asked if we were going to be gone forever again.  not if i can help it.

 we are on our way to alabama...........

      no we did not sign up for any canoe trips or banjo lessons.  we are taking toliet paper from troutdale oregon , to a walmart distribution center. (nobody closer makes tp?)

      we left oregon on friday and i drove until my shift was over, then will took over, while i went to the sleeper to read, yes another christopher moore book, "the island of the sequined love nun". no  vampires in this one, not yet anyway.  he has a new one out, "you suck."(yes, vampires) so maybe i will grab that one  at a store. and of course continue my quest for the perfect bejewled score. (whatver that may be) i  was getting board with tetris, not because i win but because i need to switch games sometimes.

      the weather on the trip was very good. no snow, no thunderstorms, no problems.  the first day we drove to nebraska. the second day i woke up in Missouri.  we should be at our destination in alabama by around noon sunday.

 the first think that struck me about alabama is that driving down 65south, looks like i5 in ashland.  the rolling hills, the trees. just beautiful. but when you open the window you are slapped in the face with what the difference is. the humidity,  it is muggy here. and oh my gosh, its only april. cant imagine what august is like.  but in all fairness, that was at high noon, so as it got later in the afternoon and evening , it turned into a beautiful day.

      boy do they have bugs here. yuck!!! they have dragon flies that are so big, im sure you need a hunting tag to kill one.

               i got chills getting this close to get a picture.                                         i thought i  was  going to pee my pants

  this being sunday the roads were fairly empty.  i looked and looked and could not see any catholic or episcopal church.  i remembered when we lived in oklahoma the little church i went to , used to be an older home but remodeled into a church. the parking was still the same household driveway, but the church had permission from the piggly-wiggle (grocery store) that parishioners could park on the far side and walk behind the store to the church. you couldnt see the church from the parking lot, the church and the grocery store backed each other. and every sunday in the bulletin there was a reminder to show our thanks to the piggly wiggle for letting us use their parking lot. so we usually did a little shopping there. felt like we were going to worship in a cult, hidden around the back where nobody  can see us.

     

many big and beautiful baptist churches.  at one point i saw a  big lutheran church right across the street from a big lutheran church. no i didnt get my camera, i was to busy trying to figure out what the deal was.  at first i thought maybe one expanded and built on the other side of the road, maybe they didnt have land to expanded where they were at.  i looked back and forth all through the red light and decided they were 2 different , separate, churches, they both had different names. different architecture on the outside, that just happened  to both be lutheran. (things that make you go hum?)

      it is 7pm local time and no reload yet. hopefully soon. cant wait to see where we go next.

      love and miss you all, already.