WE ARE NOW INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS

I know, I know, I promised to keep things up to date and now here we are again a month behind. I left you all hanging with us sitting out a snow storm in Rhode Island. Things improved a bit and we left out in the early morning hours. The roads looked good when we left but drastically worsened as we trekked through Connecticut and New York.

We did make it out with a few close calls and finished our assignment to Lafayette, IN. From there we went and rescued a load from a drive that broke down in Brazil, IN and finished his run to Edgerton, OH. We then met another driver in New Paris, OH and relayed that load to Pocohontas, IL so that a team could run it to California. I sure wish that it was a load for solo driver since I've not been out to the west coast yet.

Our next assignment was to pick up at Budweiser in Granite City, IL (a St. Louis suburb) and deliver it to the thirsty folks in Frontenac KS. Since I was the closest driver to Salina KS we ran across to the other side of the state and picked up a load headed for Mexico and relayed it to Laredo TX. We were able to take a needed break there to reset my clock before taking a load that no one else really wanted. They had a load that was a just a little over 800 miles but the delivery was 4 days away. No one wanted to sit for 2 days and lose the miles. It was just perfect for us as it allowed us to stop in Houston and spend a day with our eldest son and then move another 150 miles or so to Brookhaven MS and spend a day with Belinda's mother. We got up on delivery day and knocked out the last 70 miles to deliver in Canton MS. This load really turned out to be great miles in the long run since they then ran us down to the gulf coast to relay a load from Pearlington MS back to Laredo TX. A little over 1600 miles to make the whole round trip from Laredo to Mississippi and back. While back in Laredo, I highlighted for home and we took a load up to Iola KS and then deadheaded over to Joplin to take some time off.

We took a week off and got things closed up at home, spent time with the kids, and had a great time dancing with our friends at our Square Dance club.

April 6 was time to go back to work. When we got to Joplin they had a lot of drivers there and not much freight going out. Late in the day I did get several options on short loads only a few hundred miles and two longer runs. One was to New Jersey and one to Simcoe, Ontario, Canada.

I've never been to Canada, so Canada was my choice. Belinda moaned and said "it's cold in Canada!" But it was pretty darn cold in Joplin that day too. The Canada load did not pick up until the next day (Saturday) so we spent the night in the truck and was able to attend the monthly safety meeting at Joplin headquarters before we went after the load. We picked up the load that was only across the street from CFI that afternoon and headed out. Stopped in Pocohontas where CFI keeps a drop yard to take our break and then headed off for Taylor MI to get needed papers for going into Canada. We crossed the border from Detroit MI into Windsor Ontario, cleared customs and we were off....

(insert pictures here... having trouble uploading tonight will come back and add pictures another day)

We delivered at Simcoe and waited for new assignment. We can only deliver into Canada and pick up loads to take out to the US. We are not allowed to move loads within Canada. Finally something came and it took us to Toronto. Well actually and suburb of Toronto called Mississuaga. It was to pick up a load of soda pop for Wal-Mart and deliver it to Bedford PA. We crossed the border this time in Lewiston, NY. This took us through Niagara Falls. We couldn't see the falls from our route, but enjoyed the drive anyway.

After Bedford, our assignment was to go to Troutville VA and pick up a hot load headed for Newark NJ. Oh Yeah! we get to go back almost to New York! This load delivered right next to the Newark airport and we got to spend the night there listening to big Jet engines, Locomotives on the train tracks and Big Rigs moving trailers around all night.

I then had to Tunkhanock PA to pick up the load that we are sitting on right now. As I type this I am staged about 40 miles outside CHICAGO!!! ready to run into the city for a Monday delivery. Wish us luck... I hope to get us out of there in one piece. I love what I am doing and almost feel guilty about making money since we have so much fun. But then along comes the big cities and think, they should pay us more to do this. LOL

We have a ton of pictures from Canada and all the mountain driving we've done the past week or so and I'll come back to this post and update it with pictures soon. Right now I need to get some sleep so I can mingle with the Chicago drivers tomorrow.

Talk to you all again real soon I hope... Until next time....

LIVE YOUR DREAM