Mmmmmmm

My belly is very HAPPY. We got to Oklahoma City just a little while ago. Supper time. : ) We delivered a load in this same area about a month ago. The Flying J is right next to a Cracker Barrel....chicken and dumplings, turnip greens, fried okra and cornbread muffins.... that's the best. Not often we can park were we can eat food this good. Didn't have to get up real early this morning. Had the clock set for 6:00. Got up, Ricky took Paco out and then we went in for our coffee and potty breaks before we got on the road. On our way in the truck, Ricky always tells me to check the tires on my side as I go to my door. Kicked the first outside tire on the trailer in the back...gooood... kicked the inside one on the rear... not right.. hollered at Ricky to come double check it... shoottttttt it's flat. Soooooo, call road service...thank goodness we are still at the TA. Pull around to the service bay... nobody's working.. one of the shop guys called in and the other is out on a road call. We are there 3 hrs waiting for them to get someone in to fix our flat and wind up needing a new tire instead. Sooo after all that we get on the road and have a nice trip on up to Oklahoma. Came on up to the J and our delivery is just right here by us and it's not till 7:00am. No wee hours two nights in a row...yesssssss. So I guess I'll go for now, Paco is digging into the pillowcase, hinting for bed time.

Dreamin our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

IN AND OUT

We got up early this morning and eased through Houston. Early satudays are a good traffic time for such a busy city, Dayton is about 40 miles north of Houston. We went west on 10 and caught 35 all the way down to Laredo. Stopped at a little restaurant named Franks Place for breakfast. It has been there for a long time, they had a lot of pictures around the walls of the progression through the years. Even a picture of the owners with Joan Crawford, the actress. I can't remember what the years were under the pictures, but it was real interesting.. and the food was good.. : )
We watched so many CFI trucks coming north as we went south, that we were sure we would have to wait on a load till tomorrow or Monday. Not the case though., there were a few trucks still in the yard when we arrived, but no one on the board, so Ricky got a load to Oklahoma City for Monday as soon as he checked in. We had a few hours left on the clock, so we took off to get a head start. Made it to just north of San Antonio and pulled into the TA. Ricky hooked us up to IdleAire and turned some Air on for Paco and we took off for a long shower. I'm gonna sleep good tonight. We are close enough there will be no wee hour take off in the morning : )Ricky is reading his boards and surfing his net and I am listening to a little TV while I catch you up, and Paco is trying to crawl under the covers behind my back. He is liking this more relaxed atmosphere. : )
Gonna wrap this up before I get disconnected. Catch you up later.

Dreamin our Dream... Belinda and Ricky

BACK IN TEXAS

Well let's see, picked up part of a load in Iowa, went to Illinois, above Chicago, and picked up the rest of the load for Houston. There was talk of a lot of flooding in the Iowa and Illinois area on the news, while we were there. We saw the rivers up and out of the banks in a few places, but none that gave us any problems. Went on down to just above St. Louis for the night with what was left of our hours. Got on up in the wee hours and made it down to Shreveport to Kelly's Plaza for Thursday night and got up in the wee hours again this morning to get into Houston to deliver. A little road construction delay but still an hour early. Did see a drivers bad luck on the way into Texas on 59 this morning, he had lost his tandem wheels and the heavy load he was carrying broke the trailer in half after the wheels wound up in the ditch, and his load was being transferred to other trucks.That made for a really lousy day for him. Left the business to find a place to wait till we got a new dispatch. Decided on a truck stop close to our drop yard, just had a few hours left on Ricky's clock, of course just before they were totally up, we got orders to go north of Houston and drop our trailer and bobtail to Laredo. So here we sit after dropping the trailer waiting for 10 hours to be up where we can go on down to Laredo. Didn't have time to see Daniel and Tricia like we had hoped. We are too far for a quick visit, so maybe another time. I'll just give them a call tomorrow to wish them a Happy Anniversary. Hoping for a good run out before the weekend is up. Gonna head for bed, Ricky says we can leave in the wee hours again for this run. When I do go home I won't be able to sleep late after getting in this habit. : (
Catch you up later...

Dreamin our Dream....Belinda and Ricky

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT

Sorry,.. it's not tomorrow.. : ( I'm afraid it's Tuesday.. I didn't get around to posting like I promised. We've been in a sleep and drive rut until we got this last load delivered. Left Colorado and made it onto Nebraska, and tried to get to sleep so we could do a 2:30am get up. The noisyest trucks in Nebraska were parked in this truck stop. Drove me crazy trying to make myself go to sleep. Ricky wasn't in the mood to go on to bed either, so it was a rough, short night. Got on up to get to Davenport, Iowa for our delivery. Omaha was a lot bigger than we expected, but we flew right through there, Des Moines wasn't so bad either. Got on into our delivery with out any trouble, ( I'm so PROUD of Ricky : ) We had gotten a note on the Qualcom to do a PM, Preventive Maintenance, ( I had to ask, : ) So over to the Speedco we went when we left, that was gonna do it for our hours, and it was right by the Iowa 80 truckstop. Got business took care of and off for our break. Got laundry and showers done and off to bed. Ricky had to go back on the board at 2:00am, so we needed to catch up on sleep in case we had to run. We wouldn't have but 3 hours, but you never know. Anyway, we didn't get a dispatch till later and it picks up in the morning and we will have had our 34 reset. That's a plus. So we will be off to Illinois and then Houston. Our son, Daniel and his wife, Tricia live in Houston, and this next weekend is their 8th anniversary, hopefully we will get in a visit with them. : )
My Jenn called and our grandson Cody got his transfer approved to go to the elementary school our daughters went to and I was treasurer for the PTA there for 5 years. We are so HAPPY. The secretary there is a good friend of mine, and I know she will keep an eye on him for me. He went to preschool there last year and loved it. My Jenn is a great mother and I know will be an asset to the school too. I was there so often my jeep is painted on the wall by the office in a mural of the front of the school. : )
Our Kelly is moving to Indiana and I think Holly is planning to move in with her and Brian for a while and go to school there. The girls are good for each other, if Holly will listen to Kelly like she should. All our kids are close and that is a comfort to me. I know if something happens to me and daddy, they will be there for each other. Kelly and Brian were in town last week and took all them, Jay,Jenn,Cody,Emily, and Holly out to eat and they had a great time. Cody really liked them cooking the food in front of them. He wants to go back. : )
Guess I'll close for now. Will get back to catch you up when I can....no time promises : )

Dreamin our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

GOOD-BYE WEST COAST

Just a quick update... gotta get in the bed for an early and long day tomorrow. Gotta make some miles . We delivered our load of beer in San Diego, and got a dispatch to go to the yard right on the border to pick up a relay from Mexico to go to Davenport, Iowa to be delivered by Monday. Almost 2000 miles, gee.. and running on a ragged book... one of Ricky's terms. So drove the rest of our hours trying to get to Las Vegas to spend the night : ) Neither of us have ever been there.. our daughter, Kelly has been there several times with Brian. So another first for us, but, ... we didn' t get to stop and play. : ( didn't make it... Got to the brake check spot just 16 miles from the Nevada line and Ricky checked the brakes.. one of the brake lines on the trailer had blown off... long story short.. by the time he had it ok-ed to try and fix it himself.. our hours were up and that's where we spent the night.. :( Ricky got the brake fixed, and down the mountain we went. Some beautiful sights in Nevada, Utah and Arizona that we didn't see before because we were on different roads. Gotta go home before long to get Ricky to burn off my memory sticks on a disc so I can take more pictures.. : ) We have made it into Colorado and are west of Denver at a little truck stop. We are gonna get as far as we can in Nebraska tomorrow. This has been a hard run with no fun built in. : (
Try to write more tomorrow.. off to real dream land

Dreamin our Dream together..Belinda and Ricky

LOOK HONEY.. THE OCEAN

So we left Phoenix headed for West Sacramento. Got a good look at the desert off of interstate 10 as we drove into California. Then we say alot of those big windmills as we made our way up and around Los Angeles to I-5. That's when we found the mountains on the highway called the grapevine (I-5) Gee that was a climb, and a heck of a ride down.. we saw a cloud of dust in front of us.. then saw that a big rig had taken the runaway ramp. Ricky got on the radio to warn anyone else that might be needing it. We got to a Petro at Wheeler Ridge late Tuesday nite, we had called ahead to reserve a spot in the idol aire, afraid we wouldn't be able to find a spot. After we got there, we found they had plenty of empty spots in the aire and in the general lot. We were very surprised for it being after 10:00pm. Better to be sure of a spot than not though. So we didn't have to run the truck and the ones around us didn't either, so it was a good cool, quiet night for a sound sleep. Drove on to our customer Wednesday, saw thousands of almond , pistachio, apricot, English walnut and mandarin orange groves. Saw several trucks loaded with garlic, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelons. Also huge vineyards of grapes. Saw what we decided were California versions of rivers... aquaducts. They looked very inviting for kayaking and swimming, but I'm sure that isn't allowed. Then when we got to SBC with our load of paper rolls and Ricky had to do his first unload here. He got to use a power pallet jack, I think he kinda got a kick out of it. I told him we had used old ones at O'Reilly's that you had to pump up and pull, a couple of times moving ice melt and stuff. The warehouse guys had the power ones. Then we went to a small truck stop just a short way up the road for the night. We got a preplan to pick up a load 40 miles away to take to San Diego for a early delivery Friday morning. The pick up was just outside of San Francisco, thank goodness, I've seen the roads there on TV , and I'm not sure I want to drive a car there. We came back down I-5 and this time we went down the middle of LA. Saw the signs for Hollywood and Sunset strip and Disneyland and a few others I had only seen or heard on TV. Our youngest daughter Holly had gone to LA with a girlfriend all by themselves a few months ago. I am so proud of her for being able to do this. I was a mother of 4 and 30 something before I had any adventures and she has been to Europe and California and drove to Mississippi a couple of times on her own and she will be 20 in December. Soooooo, Now we have seen the Pacific ocean together, we are sitting in a rest area just off the beach 40 miles north of San Diego. Ricky use to live in Washington State when he was a kid, and says he remembers his dad talking about taking them to the ocean, but he doesn't remember it. So we have another first together. Our list is getting longer, : ) We are gonna walk out and take a few pictures and then head for bed, Ricky's had a hard drive today, wrestling a heavy load all day in some tough mountains and traffic. Looking forward to another adventure tomorrow....

Dreamin our Dream Belinda and Ricky

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME

So this part of Utah was the best. Reminded me of dinosaur movies, remember the one with Rachel Welch.. Million Years, BC ? Ha,Ha. Saw all those big rock towers. Stopped at the hole in the wall place where this couple built a house in the side of a mountain. They wouldn't let me take pictures, so we decided not to take the tour. : ( Went on to Arizona, came close to the four corners, Came within 32 miles of the Grand Canyon. No truck route, will have to be another time for that. Spent the night in Flagstaff, got up real early, 4:00am to go on into Phoenix to stag for our delivery, couldn't get in for that till 7:00pm MST, 9:00 our time. Got there early, but the night crew wouldn't be there till 8:00 instead of 7:00. So, waiting in the truck in the parking lot.. the thermostat on the truck for outside says.. 123 degrees. I had to carry Paco across the parking lot to a median in the lot to potty so he wouldn't burn his feet. Why would you want to live here with this heat? The scenery is great, but my lord this heat is unreal. They have had 24 days of over 100 degree days. Kinda gives you an idea how awful hell will be, hmmmm. Just had to do a drop and hook there at Lowes, after they finished unloading the other trailer. Left for a parking spot search. Had a blow out on the trailer, got in a shop to get it fixed, and parked there for the night, had to have the bar for the mudflap welded this morning and are waiting now for that to get finished, so we can pick up a new load to go to West Sacramento, CA All this repair time is eating our break time up for the day. Gotta be in CA tomorrow. Will have to go through Los Angeles.. that's a scary thought. Hopefully the rest of the day will be getting better. Ohhhh yea, we finally got to see big cactus. This is what I had expected south Texas to look like around Laredo and Brownsville, but apparently its all further west.
Gonna go for now, gotta change my memory stick in my camera and change batteries to get ready for the sights today. : )

Dreamin our Dream... Belinda and Ricky

WE'RE ALL SMILES

We had such a great day. Got up this morning went in and got unloaded at WalMart with no trouble..and decided to try for an early pick up on our Arizona load. Yessssssss got it and out of there by 1:00pm. Can't beat that...get to run this load in the daylight. This day was wonderful, the weather was perfect, the traffic a little heavy, (vacationers) saw 4 wrecks just around Denver, none bad, then we saw the best mountain view . This part of the country is our favorite. We were here this same time last year on our vacation. We were on the other side of Denver though. I took tons of pictures.. gotta get a new memory stick.. : ) I'll fill this one the rest of the way up tomorrow with Arizona and Utah sights. Ricky and I are seeing all this country for the first time together. That makes it really special. We are in Fruita, Co. tonight.. There is a dinosaur museum here.. wish we had time to check it out. They probably won't be open on Sunday. Well, I'm ready for bed, it's been a long drive climbing these beautiful Rocky Mountains today. We are off to Phoenix for the night tomorrow. Can't wait for the scenery on our way there. Catch you up later.. : )

Dreamin our Dream side by side...Belinda and Ricky

TOGETHER AGAIN

Well, it's been a while, so here's catch up.... Ricky went to Waukegan, IL and delivered the Laredo load, without me.. then he went to Pocahontas, IL and then to Atoka, OK, and then to Tulsa, OK, and then to St. Louis, MO, and then to Joplin, MO, finally getting to come home. It was Saturday, August the 4th, our 34th anniversary. So I left home to meet him at the yard (with card and a rose in hand) and bring him home. By the time we loaded the car with all the stuff we needed to take home, it was about noon, so we opted to go to the Chinese restaurant, we now call our favorite, to eat lunch and then go home. The food was great, and we were full, so for our anniversary supper we decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and have some fun, had a few drinks, ate some wings, and played trivia games. Our daughter, Kelly took us to the one in Ohio and introduced us to this new treat, and I kinda liked it alot. We'll have to take our friends, Charlie and Anita, to do this when we go back home. We had a nice visit and supper with them on Monday before we came back to work.
Had a great time with my Cody and Emily while I was home. They had sleep overs with their Mamue and we played games. Cody wanted to live with me and just let his mom and dad visit.. : ) I told him they would miss him too much, that he could call me any time he wanted and could visit me next time I came home. I went to O'Reilly's for a visit with my friends at the warehouse, I didn't have time to go to my stores this trip.. I'll have to make them my next trip.. not enough time to get all I want to done sometimes... : (
We came back to the truck Wednesday night to get all the stuff put back in.. Ricky had a bout with a kidney stone on Tuesday, but hasn't passed it yet... : ( Hopefully it won't cause him any real trouble. He has had too many of these in the last few years.. I hate to see him in pain that I can't help him with.
We got a dispatch on Thursday morning to pick up at 3:00pm there in Joplin to go to Cheyenne, Wy for a Saturday delivery. Got loaded and took off, stopped just south of Kansas City, to keep from hitting the 5:00 traffic. Went on through a couple of hours later with no problem. Decided to stop just over the Iowa line for the night. Got a good nights sleep..even though there was thunder and lightening going on about 3 in the morning along with the rain. Left this morning and stopped just once at Gothenburg, NE and visited a sod house museum across the street from the truck stop, was very interesting...we didn't have time to really see all the pictures and information that they had so we plan to stop there again some day. They have a Pony Express station there too that we would like to see. Our final stop for the night is just a few miles from our morning delivery, we got here with time to catch up on the computers and get a shower, so we will be good and rested for our day tomorrow.
We got a preplan on our way here.. : ) yesssssssss. We will go to Arizona after we pick up a load here in Cheyenne tomorrow evening. We are hoping we can plan it out where we don't have to run in the dark, since we haven't been south of Denver in CO or to Arizona together. I'd really like to be able to see the scenery.
OK so there it is. You are caught up... : ) Will try to be better this time we're out and post more often.

Dreamin our Dream...Belinda and Ricky