TRUCK STOP NIGHTMARE

Sooo I wasn't right. We loaded glass making equipment at the glass container place. A much lighter load than we anticipated, just around 25,000 lbs, a good hauling weight. We left Monday morning and had a beautiful drive, the day was great. We drove all the way through West Virginia this time, and Kentucky, heading eventually to I-40 to get to West Memphis to fuel on our way down to Laredo,TX. Drove in mountains all day, saw several deer, even a spotted fawn in one place. The truck had itself a work out up and down and Ricky's shifting arm too. Drove through Lexington, KY where the race horses are from. Saw some gorgeous ranches with mansion houses. Saw an equine podiatrists office and hospital, and some pretty murals on some kind of tanks. Then we went by the Mammoth Cave National Park (wish we could have taken some time there) there were several caves scattered down I-65, we plan to go explore some day. That is one hobby we have shared over our 34 years together. We spent the night at a Petro just south of Elizabethtown, KY. It was a nice and clean truck stop, it will go in my book as a good one. We stopped in West Memphis at the CFI yard to fuel and came on to this Flying J truck stop in Texarkana, AR. It started raining real hard a few miles up the road and it was just getting dark so we decided to spend the night here. Most of the spots were full already when we got here, the fuel island was all backed up where you couldn't hardly maneuver to get in off the street. Ricky found a spot and while he is trying to back in, trucks are coming out of the fuel island and getting in the way and backing up in a pile. We got parked and sat amazed watching as the trucks were coming in looking for a spot to park without hitting each other, it was like ants on a hot ant hill. This will not be in my book as a good one. I think we will avoid it like the Pilot in Hazelton, PA. It is just like this one for trucks going round and round all night looking for a spot. They are prime accident spots. There was a cop here when we pulled in working an accident where a truck took off the drivers mirror of a big RV.
So we will be off to drive on into Laredo all the way tomorrow. We've been on this route several times so it is getting very familiar.
I'm off to batten down the hatches for the night..Ricky's visiting with a driver from Canada right now, swapping stories. Paco has beat us both to bed..he has crawled under the covers here beside me while I've been typing. :)
Hopefully we will get a good run out of Laredo Thursday morning, will let you know soon.

Dreaming our dream together.......Belinda

IS IT TOMORROW YET?

This has been a heck of a day. We went to bed about 10:30, in the back of our minds thinking...that dispatch computer is gonna wake us up at 3:00am...we were almost right...it was 4:00, for a pick up at midnight... Duuhhhhhh!! I think we would have had plenty of time if they had sent the message at 8:00am, since the place was 33 miles away. Since we were awake ..we gave Paco his potty break, and got coffee and a biscuit and gravy..mmmmmm. Looking at the dispatch it was a drop and hook and was to be delivered in Ft. Worth on Tuesday. Thought we'd take the chance and see if we could pick up early. Got there at 11:00, looked like a CFI terminal, with several other trucks waiting at the gate. So much for a real early start, the guard wouldn't be there till 2:00pm. Ricky played on his harmonica and visited with the guys. I crocheted and watched a movie. Finally got in the gate, dropped our trailer, found the one assigned to us, backed up, almost had it hooked up... and another driver said that was his trailer..that this was his dedicated run... Ricky told him it was assigned to him at four this morning. So they got on the phone..someone in dispatch really screwed up. To compensated for their mess..they then assigned us a load to pick up for Monday 200 miles away to go to Laredo,TX , so off we go to Brockway, PA. Got here at 6:00pm, they are closed on Sunday.. :) so no early pick up here either. We parked here in the lot to await the morning. Walked up the street of this cute little town got a burger and a banana split to share.. :) made the day alittle better :) So now I'm getting ready for bed...it's been a longgg day. Ricky's visiting with another driver outside that came in for an early start too. So after we load here at this glass container plant with I'm guessing, bottles, we are heading to Laredo for a Thursday morning delivery. I'm sure for a temperature shock since it was low 40's this morning here and only 80 today.

Hopefully dreaming a good dream tonight..since 5:00 will seem tooo early in the morning...Belinda

DOWN TIME

The game plan changed a little. We got out of the shop bay at 9:00 pm. We were in there for 7 hours. Ricky had the guy at the idleaire place in the TA truck stop save us a spot for the night. If he hadn't done that, we would have been in a bind. All the spots were full in the parking lot and when we did leave, the exit ramps were full all along the highway headed north. So we parked the truck, hooked up the idleaire for the air conditioner to get the truck cool while we went in and got supper, came back and went to bed. Ricky decided we would leave at 3:00am instead of midnight since it was now 10:30.
We got up at 3:00, did the pretrip, got out of the parking lot, which was not easy, since people park where they are not suppose to when it gets late in a truckstop. Makes for some tight maneuvering..aahhhhh. Then we took off for Wilkes Barre, PA. The sunrise was gorgeous!!! It peaked up over the mountains with an awesome glow. Made it worth getting up so early. We got to our delivery with no problem, and it was shoes, packed from the front to the back, all the way to the top of a 53 ft trailer. 21,000 lbs worth. That's alot of shoes. There were 3 other CFI drivers, that had delivered to the same place ahead of us , sitting in an empty lot across from the warehouse. That is a sign of a long wait for a dispatch. So therefore if it was gonna be awhile, we decided to go to the Pilot up the road a bit, and get showers and stake out a claim for the night before it filled up. That was at noon and it is now 7:00pm and we are still here and our hours are up, and tomorrow is Sunday. So we may get a 34 hour reset sitting here. If the planners were more informative,we could have found a hotel to stay in, instead of this parking lot.
So I'm gonna try to find some t.v. or crochet a little.....Ricky is playing on his computer...oh yea, forgot to tell you, I got Ricky a teach yourself to play the harmonica kit for Father's Day. My kids asked me if I had lost my mind.. :) It has a cd with instructions and he can play it with one hand going down the highway. He's doing pretty good. I'm kinda proud of him.. :) We have had a lot of laughs... He's finding more stuff to learn about it on the computer now..He's playing Oh Shenandoah now.. :) good enough I recognized it!!

Dreamin our dream together.....Belinda

OLD TIMERS DISEASE

Oh well, sat down the other night to post and Ricky nor I could remember where we had been or really done in the last few days..decided to go on to bed and hopefully it would come back to me later. :)

So, we went to Atlanta and delivered the first of the forklifts, I can' believe the people that fight getting into work in that town every day. There are too many places to live and work in this country to risk your life in that traffic every morning and evening. We went on up to Dalton, GA to deliver the next set of lifts and then on to Chattanooga, TN. We didn't have to be there till the next morning, so we took the rest of the day off. Ricky called a cab and we went to the Tennessee Aquarium on the river front. It was really nice they had a penguin and seahorse exhibit that we really enjoyed. After that we walked the river walk and visited some stops along the sidewalks for some..refreshments.. :) .. and called a different...hoping for a cleaner one... cab, to take us back to the truck. It was a good break.

We unloaded the last lift in the morning and got a relay call for Nashville, TN. So off we went and got there a couple of hours early and got to take showers and walk to the KRYSTAL BURGER!!! My favorite.. :) We went to the one in Vicksburg, MS on our honeymoon many years ago, we've had them since then a few times of course but not often enough. Then the guy came on in with the trailer we were to relay and back to Atlanta we go. We got almost to Chattanooga and there had been a bad wreck just after we had left that morning on the south bound side of 24 about 10:00 that morning and it was now 5:00 in the afternoon and they were still cleaning up the highway. We sat in traffic for an hour, good thing the view of a beautiful lake was right by us. After we got into Atlanta, traffic was terrible again and it was late at night, and raining. We made it on into the CFI yard and switched trailers and went to bed. We were exhausted. The next morning we were dispatched to Cedartown, GA. It's northeast of Atlanta, to pick up some office furniture for Maryland. We didn't have enough hours to run it all the way in, so we relayed in Wytheville, VA with a guy named Joe. I love Virginia. It's my favorite state so far. The mountains there are so beautiful, the humidity in Georgia was horrible, the nights were cool in Virginia. The next morning we were off to Granite Falls, NC to pick up a load of lumber, precut bundles, for Laredo,TX. Got there and they didn't have a load for us after all, a big mix up with the business and dispatch. So we sat there a few hours till we got a dispatch to go to Gaffney, SC to pick up this load for Wilkes Barr, PA. I'm not sure what it is..just says 1002 cartons on the Bill of Laden :) We left there and found a spot in a rest area just over the Virginia line, finally fixed us sandwiches and went to bed. Ricky started the truck this morning and air went to pressuring up hmmmmm, air leak. The drums on the trailer were leaking. So here we sit at the closest TA we came to, in Roanoke, VA . Took a couple of hours to get into a bay( I got all our laundry done while Ricky waited for the call) and we are in the bay while they fix em and its been several more hours :( Ricky's game plan now is to go grab a nap and leave about midnight and deliver in the morning with a couple of hours left on his clock where we can get dispatched after that. This has been a long,long day. At least my memory came back so I could post on the blog :) I've just probably bored all of you out of your mind though, but at least you know where we are now. Mama was fussin cause she had checked here a couple of times and I hadn't updated. Sorry mama, I have that short time memory lose syndrome and sometimes long term too!
We are gonna highlight for home next week and take a few days off to go canoeing and see our kids.
Gonna go now..hoping we will get out of this bay soon.

This dream hasn't been too great today....but the good days out weigh the bad :) Belinda

DEJA VU

Well, Friday was a long day. We spent Thursday night in the parking lot at Michael's in Houma, La. We lucked up and didn't hit any bad weather. Got up early(4:00) and drove around back to the dock, Ricky got backed in and we were unloaded in a hour, which was really good for a hand unload. Then we took off for Lafayette, and then to Lake Charles... this looks familiar... Then we got dispatched to pick up a load out of Dayton, TX, which is just north of Houston about 40 miles.. to go to...they wanted Laredo, but Ricky only had 5 hours left on his clock, so we talked them into Victoria...but when we got to Sam's to get the trailer, the registration papers weren't in the trailer and a light was out...and it started raining..geezzz...So after a bunch of phone calls.trying to get all that straight we were an hour later , had to call and get our relay place changed to Ganado instead of Victoria, and what a real mess, we had no other choice because of Ricky's clock. Got to the TA(travel america) truckstop just a few minutes before Ricky's hours were completely up. While we waited for the relay guy to get there, Ricky had to get some papers faxed for the registration and get them in the trailer, and apparently the light just had a loose wire or something, because after the rough ride down to Ganado, it was back on. Then we realized we had not eaten, except for a cup of coffee and a honey bun at 5:30, all day, so we got some supper and went to bed.
Saturday morning we were dispatched to drop the empty trailer we now had to Lolita, TX, just 20 miles away and then bobtail to Houston to pick up a loaded trailer with muliple stops for Atlanta, GA, Dalton, GA, and Chattanooga, TN. Then it started raining...bob tailing on a wet road is not fun...especially 100 miles..but Ricky was very careful and we got there just fine. Drove on over to Frog City truck stop in Rayne, LA...close to my brother.. :) and gave him a call..he was still home..he works offshore..and he and his lovely wife, Kerry, and daughter, Amanda, came to get us for a visit. Got some laundry done and showers and a good time remembering some memories of our daddy..we really miss him.. They took us back to the truck and we went on to bed for an early get up..So today was a beautiful Father's Day drive to Tallapoosa, GA..about 45 miles from our delivery in the morning. Our oldest daughter, Kelly was the first to call her daddy, then our youngest son, Jason(Jay) who is a daddy himself, called, and then our baby, Holly, and our oldest Daniel. We have 4 wonderful kids. We are so proud of them and the lives they have built for themselves.
Ricky has taken Paco out for his potty break and that is my signal its time to wrap it all up.

Living our dream one day at a time..later.....Belinda

I had a better post written....I promise..but I mashed a wrong button somewhere and lost it all and had to start over and it's late and I'll have to do better next time.. :) ...

CRAWFISH PIE ????

We are sitting in Marianna, FL tonight. Delivered our cookies, in Stockbridge, GA, and yes, the seal was intact...I didn't get any to eat.. :) Stockbridge is just a part of Atlanta, we got in without any trouble thank goodness. We even went up north of there into the CFI drop yard afterward to wait on a relay. Got it and took off for Jacksonville, FL. Ricky said this was the best trip in and out of Atlanta you could wish for. Got to our delivery at 1:00 in the morning , then got a dispatch to pick up a load at noon just a couple of blocks from where we were. We have a multiple drop load to LA for Michael's Craft stores. So we are off for Houma, LA in the morning, then to Lafayette, and Lake Charles...didn't we just go through there??? We have had a good break today, got our showers, did a little shopping at WalMart, had some good Bar B Que...this Pilot was a perfect location so that we could just walk to all these good places. We needed the exercise..sitting all the times is not good. There have been some bad storms all around us. We have been really lucky, the one in Atlanta was just behind us as we left for FL. Ricky said the forecast for LA is storms possible tomorrow..hopefully our luck will hold out.

Gonna batten down the hatches, take Paco out for his potty break and get a good nights sleep tonight..
Dreamin our Dream and Living it too....Belinda
How ya like my rainbow phase I'm in???? :)

FAMILY TIME :)

Sorry I haven't updated sooner :( we stopped in Paul's Valley, OK for the night after we left Salina. Picked that particular exit because of a billboard about Bar B Que there. Parked at the truck stop and walked a few blocks down to the restaurant and low and behold...they were closed :( we were not the only ones disappointed, some people from California had stopped there too. At least they were in a car. We walked back to the truck and settled for the restaurant there. Got catfish..it was fair :) Drove all the way in to Laredo Friday..got there about 9:00p.m. Dropped the trailer and Ricky went on the board. Got a load of cookies to take to Stockbridge,GA. for delivery Tuesday morning. So that meant we had to get in our 10 hour break and roll. Got our showers and Ricky went on to bed, while I got our laundry done..2:00a.m. I go to bed and Ricky gets us up to roll at 6:30a.m. :( Drove all the way to Lafayette,LA Ricky's sister Cheri and husband Dan were in Baton Rouge celebrating their 26th anniversary. They happened to give us a call just to see where we were and since we were gonna be close, they drove on over to the stop we had planned and took us out to supper ( my favorite, Cracker Barrel's chicken and dumplings..ummmmm) We had a great visit. Always like to see them.

They dropped us off at the truck and headed home to Monterey. Then we got a call from my brother that lives in Lafayette and since it was late we decided to have breakfast together Monday morning. We haven't seen each other since our daddy past away a little over a year ago. We don't see each other often so a short visit is better than none. He's my baby brother, but he's bigger than me :)

O.K. so then we drove all the way to here..Newnan,Ga parked at the Pilot fixin to go to bed. Got a 6:15 delivery time in the mornin and we are about an hour out. Sorry I haven't given much about the trip on up here but I've gotta get some sleep...running on low steam tonight...

This job is really helping us keep in touch with our extended family..that's a plus :)

off to dream a different dream tonight...zzzzzzzzzzzzz Belinda

TIME FOR SHORTS :) :)

Yes, yes, yes...We left Aurora, CO for Salina, KS..and then on down to Laredo, TX, warmer temps!!! I'm afraid maybe too warm for Ricky.. then he'll freeze me with the air cond. I can't find a happy medium. O.K. so we left CO and didn't make it very far. We stopped at the first truck stop, cause we didn't have to be at Salina till 12:30 Friday, and got a good lunch and a warm shower. Theeennn we went outside, and the wind was blowing like a son of a gun. Filled my shoes and eyes with sand and dirt and hurt like heck. Left to start on our way to Kansas, we were hoping that if we could get on out of CO it would be better in Kansas, we were very wary. The high winds and gusts were bad. Got out on the interstate and before we got to the next exit Ricky decided it was not safe. We were pulling an empty trailer. Took the very next exit and grabbed the shoulder, thankfully it was wide, we joined trucks that were already there. Trucks had started pulling into the truck stop we were leaving, and talking about the wind on the C.B. but Ricky had to get the feel of the wind for himself. We stayed till 1:00 in the morning, the wind finally died down,ggeeeeezzzz, so then we had a nice safe drive on into Salina. :) We are being loaded now with light bulbs bound for Mexico, and warmer temps :) :) Did get our showers, I'll get our laundry done down in Laredo at the terminal Sunday, I guess. Ricky just pulled the truck up from the dock, so, that is my hint to get my stuff put away for the trip. Time for me to log off for now....

Don't know how far we'll get today..don't have to be in Laredo till Sunday...till then Living our Dream...Belinda

SNOW....IN JUNE???

We are in Aurora (Denver) this morning. Was so glad to get here safe last night. First thing yesterday morning, we woke up to rain. The Flying J where we stayed was at the bottom of the Great Salt Lake and at the base of a mountain. We looked up and there was snow on top and it was 40 degrees, good thing I left a few warm clothes on the truck from when we went home . Got unloaded in Salt Lake at 2:00 in the afternoon and started for Aurora. Going out of Salt Lake, it started snowing on us as we climbed up the summit and was already on the ground and rooftops. Was beautiful to look at!!! It turned back to rain as we went down thank goodness. Came up on a beautiful rainbow and we could actually see where it started from the ground. There was this awesome glow on the ground from which it started. Neither of us have ever seen the beginning of a rainbow before, kinda neat to see more firsts together. Didn't have time to stop to look for that pot of gold :) Trying to get a good picture of the rainbow, I missed something special on the other side of the road. While I was fooling with the camera, Ricky said, look... and on the other side of the road were two MOOSE !! Of course I couldn't get a picture of them, :(
As we got on in to Wyoming the winds picked up and there were signs warning light loads of high winds. We were light when we started and even lighter after SLC. Ricky was having a time staying in his lane. We ran most of the day in daylight. When we got to Cheyenne it was just getting dark and we were 100 miles from Denver. More signs of high wind warnings as we headed down I-25. Ricky has had practice in PA from high winds thank goodness. Got on in to our delivery ,got backed into the dock and went to bed. Ricky slept hard he was so tired.
We will be unloaded soon and off to a new destination...hopefully with some extra time, We need a shower break and laundry stop some time today. I'll be back with an update later...gotta get ready to roll...batton down the hatches and all that good stuff. :) :)

Looking into the bright sun.....Belinda

LOOK....IT'S THE MOUNTAINS

Didn't realize there were so many mountains in this country. We have been through so many different ranges in the short time I've been on the truck with Ricky. They have all been different though. We delivered in Modesto yesterday morning along with several other CFI drivers. Got a new pick up in Tracy,CA, left the Ranger at the delivery place, so we are running with no company again.
We left Tracy with a load of furniture to do a split delivery. Spent the night in Sparks,NV and are in Salt Lake City tonight. Ricky is exhausted after fighting the wind here in Utah this afternoon. We will deliver the first part of this load in the morning and then we are off to Aurora,Co. Hope the wind isn't a factor tomorrow. They shut down I-80 after we came through..we came up on a semi blown over on the west bound side just before our planned stop for the night. Ricky felt the truck lift a couple of times from the wind and had him tensed up and hurrying to get to the J for our shut down.
Well we are off to bed. Daylight comes too early...

Dream your Dreams...till another time...Belinda

GO WEST YOUNG MAN

Here we are...sitting in Reno, Nevada. Was too late and I was too sleepy to blog last night. So before we get started this morning, I thought I'd try to describe yesterday. We left Wyoming early, so we could make it here before dark. Worked out good, after a couple of stops, we got here at 7:00pm, our time, 5:00pacific. We have another CFI driver running with us, that is delivering at the same time and place, his handle is U.S. Ranger. It's been kinda fun having some company on this long run. Ricky drove 600 and something miles Friday and 700 yesterday. Having a couple of 75 mph states helps, even if the truck just maxes out at 69, makes it easy to not worry about getting a ticket. :) but those down hill runs in the mountain parts can be a hoot, I hear the Jake in my dreams after some of those days. :)
I would love to live out here, except, when you see these signs that say "Chain up area" and board fences that aren't finished and don't fence in anything, and learn they are for snow, then you know their winters are way different from Missouri's and since I don't like to be cold, I think this would not be the place for me. I'm originally a Mississippi Belle, and I like the winter temps better there. The sights make you contemplate a move though.

We got to see the Great Salt Lake, and the salt flats in Utah..thought I saw John Wayne walking way out in the distance :) I didn't know the Morton Salt factory was there on the lake. Looked over and there was the little girl with the umbrella on the front of the building. :) and piles of salt all around it. Alot of the scenery along the road reminded me of all the cowboy,western, movies and books Ricky and I have enjoyed over the years. His favorite channel on t.v. has always been the western channel. Well, then we got to Reno..after supper...we learned about slot machines...neither one of us have ever been in a casino..so we thought we'd have a little fun, Ricky and I played a while, with his luck being better than mine :) he called our oldest daughter, Kelly, and told her to listen as he held the phone to the machine with it just a dinging, she was laughing and said that sounds an awful lot like a slot machine (she's been to Vegas a couple of times) he said yea and I'm winning :) We got ahead by 15 dollars after a lot of laughing and having fun and then got a shower and went to bed...:) It was a grrrreat day! We haven't had so much fun since our last square dance..:)

My Honey is checking out the truck really good this morning ,getting it ready for anything that could be checked for in California. We don't want any delays. We are gonna go into a truck stop today and stage for in the mornings delivery and then see where this next trip takes us. Till tomorrow....

Living our dream with our eyes OPEN...Belinda

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Well off we go again. We took four days off to celebrate our Miss Emily's birthday. She is now a big 2 years old. Took care of some business, visited my OReilly friends ( got all my HUGGSS) and played with my children and grands. Came to Joplin Thursday, got back on the board, sent us to Kansas City to get dispatched, and Ricky finally got a load he's been hoping for....out to Modesto, CA. We left Thursday night and got to York, NE before his hours ran out. We spent the night there at a truckstop and left this morning driving in some heavy rain for a while. It cleared up by the time we got in Wyoming and we have seen some beautiful country today. The beginnings of the mountains...some pretty rock formations..crossed the great divide again. I can't wait till tomorrow, going to Utah and will get to cross the Great Salt Lake. I have always wanted to see it. Then we will be off to Reno, Nevada. I'll try to up date after I see these great sights tomorrow night. Gotta get some sleep, really sleepy tonight.

Dream your dreams...I'm off to do mine..:) Belinda