Living the Dream

2009-04-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family. Yes I know, it's been way too long since I've made an entry here to keep you informed of our travels. Right now we are sitting in Brandon Connecticut enjoying a leisurely weekend. May as well just enjoy it as it seems there is no freight moving over the weekend. We made a delivery early Saturday morning in Plainfield, CT and then moved down here to the TA in Brandon. It's over 60 miles from were we delivered, but truck stops are really scarce in this part of the country.

Spring has finally sprung up here and it is very nice. I really don't have much news to bring you as it all seems to be routine now. We just get assignments and go get them. Crossing the country is still very enjoyable and we love to take in the local culture when we can. Like yesterday... we walked a few blocks to a place called "Chowder Pot III". It is an upscale seafood restaurant and mostly the locals go there. But as I sat there enjoying my meal, I couldn't help thinking that I was sitting in the middle of a mobster meeting place. LOL It was just the stereotype that I get from TV. Seems every table had the "godfather" that was in control of everything. With there mannerisms and accents, I just could not help seeing that image in my mind. Oh, I'm sure they were all really nice folks and that Belinda and I were the only ones with the "accent" LOL.

Well there is one piece of news that I should share with all you that keep up with us. A few weeks ago March 24th, I was involved in a pretty serious accident. I knew the odds were against me with as many miles as I drive. Anyway to keep this short and sweet and not provide too many details, a fellow ran a stop light and clipped me doing about 50 mph. I was moving very slow as my light had just turned green. A mid sized car does not fair very well against big rig as you may suspect. The law cleared me and the company cleared me as a non preventable accident so all is well. The driver of the car also seems to be ok after a few days in the hospital and I am most thank full of that. My biggest fear out here has always been that I may hurt someone whether my fault or not. I am much relieved that he will be OK. It did not look so good at the time of the accident.

Well, that's it for now. I'll work on getting Belinda back in the groove to keep "my blog" up LOL.
Till next time......
LIVE YOUR DREAM

Ricky

2009-03-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

AH, SPRING-IT'S ON IT'S WAY!
The temperature has been well above freezing for a week and that has been welcomed with much gratitude. It's raining today with a little thunder. A good day for doing some computer browsing and crocheting.

Ricky made it here for Valentine's Day, well a little piece of it, a little before midnight. We spent the night at Kelly and Brian's, since Holly and Ryan had taken Kaitlynn to see his family in Terre Haute.

Kelly made Ricky a coconut cake for his birthday from his mother's recipe. We enjoyed it and a couple of days with her and then he stayed with us at Holly's for 2 days to see Miss Kaitlynn. I hated to see him go. We swapped dogs on this trip. He took Paco and I kept Isabelle.

He is in Taylor again today, he took a load from above St. Louis to Taylor that is headed to Canada. He dropped it and is waiting for a new load, we hope south. While he was in St. Louis he got to go out to eat with Kelly and Brian, who were there looking for a house to move in to. They sold their house here last week, Brian is being transferred with Domino's to St. Louis.

Holly goes back to work Thursday, and Ryan is being transferred to the town where she works tomorrow. That will make it easier for them to carpool to work. Now as soon as she finds a daycare there for Kaitlynn I will be looking forward to joining my other half for our (normal?) life again.

Well, there you go, caught up, phone signal and Internet is a hit and miss around here and I get frustrated looking for either one sometimes.

Until next time..Living our Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2009-02-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

GOSH,SO MUCH SNOW
We had a foot of snow that has been hanging around and this morning it's snowing again. There was a bad wreck this morning on hwy 69, and my new son is a fireman,EMT, he was on off time but got called in to go help, things were so bad. He said they had to call a surgeon to the scene. The fire engine from Fishers was hit by 2 semi's.

Kaitlynn went to the doctor yesterday for a check up. She weighed 7lbs 2ozs. She slept really good last night. She was having some belly problems since she had been on an antibiotic for a week. Holly got some Mylicon for her and it seems to have done the trick. She is such a cute baby, like all of mine were ; )

Ricky is having kidney stone trouble again. He was on his way to Taylor, MI Saturday and was having bad pain on his right side and a bad headache. He was about to come on into Indy and go to the hospital. He stopped around Nashville and took some Tylenol and a nap for an hour or two and his side eased off. So hard headed as he is, he went on to Taylor. He took that load on into Canada after getting his paper work at Taylor. They deadheaded him back out to Taylor after he unloaded and got a load out of the yard to go to New Jersey, and he is on his way there now.

We are hoping for no more pain, that he just passes the stones on his own. His birthday is next Tuesday, so we are planning on him coming here around then for some cake. He may have to go to the doctor then. If not , I have to go back to mine in April and he is for sure gonna go to some doctor then. It sucks, getting old and falling apart. Although, he has been falling apart for years. ; )

Guess I'll close for now...till next time.

Living our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2009-01-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

GRANDPARENTS AGAIN
Kaitlynn Brooke Timmermon has made her appearance at last. She was born Thursday January the 22nd at 7:44 a.m. weighing 6 lbs. 15 ozs. and 20 inches long. She came in blue and not breathing, but thank God after they worked on her for a few minutes she was fine. Holly got an infection from her water breaking early, so Kaitlynn got it too. There for she has been in ICU getting antibiotics and will come home tomorrow. Holly has been staying at the hospital so she can nurse her. I will be glad to get them both home.

We got 10 inches of snow last night and it made for a rough morning all around and in Indianapolis. Ricky was coming down from Montana on his way to Louisiana, and got caught up in the ice storm coming down to Oklahoma City and was in snowy dangerous roads coming out of Montana. He has had a bait of winter this week. He should be in Baton Rouge tonight. Hopefully he can get a rest from the extreme cold for a day or so.

The kids in Missouri had an icy spell too. Jenn did some sliding the other morning. Cody has been out of school for a couple of days because of the cold too.

Just wanted to catch you up with the baby news. I'm still trying to catch up on some sleep before Kaitlynn gets home tomorrow. I cleaned the house all up today getting things ready for the homecoming. Until next time.

Living the dream....Belinda and Ricky

2009-01-07T11:12:00.000-08:00

AT MY POST
Wow, it's truly been a while since I have been on the job of keeping this up to date. There is not much signal here for the computer or my cell phone. So I'm not sure how many posts there will be while I'm here. Hopefully more than there has been.. ; )

We had a great Thanksgiving and I got to go back out with Ricky for a short time. We came back home a week before Christmas and got our shopping and decorating and celebrating done for that holiday. Cody and Emily had a great time and so did their Mamue and Paw Paw!

We left from home on Friday night after Christmas to set back up in the truck. There was no board when Ricky checked in at the terminal so we got a load right away to go to Canada. We threw our stuff in and took off to get ahead of a weather front of high winds. We drove to Illinois and took a 3 hour nap and then we took off for Indianapolis to do our 10 hour break.

So we made a decision to leave me there with Kelly, to spend a little time with her and Brian, before I go to Holly and Ryan's to get ready for Miss Kaitlynn to arrive. I spent a nice week, mostly with Brian, since Kelly had to work, we had a good visit. When Kelly was home we watched old movies, made a cake, and had some good meals out.

Now I am at Holly's and we are having a good visit, hoping our new grandbaby comes soon, mostly so my Holly can get some relief in her back. She looks like a toothpick with an olive stuck on it. : ) She is so small herself this is really getting hard on her this last few weeks. The baby is a real gymnast in those small quarters.

Ricky is on his way to El Paso today, he went on to Canada from here and was lucky to get out the next day after he delivered. Power was out in Detroit when he went across the border from a strong storm that blew down a lot of lines. He was lucky that the power to the terminal had been restored an hour before he was getting his escape papers faxed back to him, so that he could come across the border with his load to Ohio. He got that load delivered then picked up one in Cincinnati and took it to Atlanta, Ga.

He got there in time to sit for the New Year and for a couple more days waiting to get a new load. Finally he ran up just north of Atlanta to pick up a beer load and run it to Memphis, I guess they drank all theirs over New Years... Ha,Ha.... He got in the icy weather when he got to West Memphis, he did some local work for the terminal after he delivered his beer. The temps were just at freezing, so it was raining and freezing on everything.

He left the next day after picking up his load in Memphis taking it to El Paso, Tx. He called me as he drove across Arkansas, telling me of all the ice on the trees east of Little Rock. I called him last night and he was just getting into Lancaster for the night. He was a tired puppy when he made his landing there. He got up and called me for my good morning call and is going across west Texas now, out of the bad weather finally.

Well, now we are caught up...except, yesterday was my baby son's birthday...number 30!!! Happy Birthday again, Jason, we love you!!

Until next time.....

Living The Dream......Belinda and Ricky

2008-11-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

ANXIOUSLY WAITING
Ricky is going to put in to come home Monday or Tuesday and the company should have him home within 5 days, then he will stay home through Thanksgiving, and then hopefully I will go back out with him. : )

The doctor said all went well with my procedure and I go back on Monday for test results. I had a rough few hours after I left the hospital, till Jenn got me my pain meds and my stomach settled down. Jenn stayed with me till I kept some food and water down. Jay had my spot on the couch made up with pillows and blankets.... he loves his mama. : ) Then he checked on me before he went to bed, all my kids and my mama called to check on me, Jenn had called them all from the hospital. So after I got off the phone I slept good and had a good day yesterday... just crocheted and watched some t.v. .... pretty much back to normal today.

Ricky is in St. Louis, picked up a load of tires in Alabama, Sunday but couldn't deliver till Tuesday, short run with too much sitting time, and that is too common lately, freight is taking a hit too in this economic mess, but the planners suck. They surely should be required to ride in a truck for a week or two before they plan a run. He is picking up a load today, after he delivered yesterday afternoon, a beer run from St. Louis to ( I forget where ) in Iowa for delivery tomorrow. He has been short-runned and sitting to death, it seems staying away from home doesn't guarantee more miles. He hasn't been home since Sept.10th.

Enough bitchin and moanin....at least he's got a job and working. I just miss him..... but he'll be home soon : ) and I'll be through at the doctors and the kids will come home............ and life is good.. : )

Kelly and Brian are having a great time in St. Croix, ( except Kelly is having sinus problems ) went scuba diving, their friends are flying in today, and they are getting married Friday.

Living the Dream.....Belinda and Ricky

2008-11-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

COUNTDOWN TO TURKEY DAY
Can't wait now for Thanksgiving, the girls, Kelly and Holly, and our new sons, Brian and Ryan, and Jay and Jenn and the grandkids, Cody and Emily all here for a big ole southern style holiday dinner. Nothing like a big family, just hoping for a surprise from our other two kids in Texas, Daniel and Tricia.

I went to the doctor on Friday and I have to go to the hospital for an out patient procedure on November 10th.
Ricky can't come in and then be sure to be back home in time for Thanksgiving, so we decided he would stay out till a few days before Thanksgiving, so I'll have him to help me with the holiday preparations. Jenn said she will take and bring me home and I am very thankful to have her, she is very special to me, she and Jason are good about being there for me.

Cody and Emily had a good Halloween, Jay decorated their yard for the trick or treater's and I was so proud of him, he thinks of some cool stuff. He put a projector in the driveway and had "The Night of the Living Dead " playing on his garage door. How cool is that?

So I guess that's the update for now. Maybe Ricky will add his 2cents when he reads this.
Till next time....

Living the Dream.....Belinda and Ricky

2008-10-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN
I've finally gotten in, I have tried several times and it has said,"This page is not found or something like that, very frustrating. Any way, let's see, Ricky is still out, has been almost 2 months since I've seen him. Talk to him several times a day, but it's not the same. He left Baton Rouge yesterday going to St. Louis with a load. Too bad there isn't a road to get there through here.

I've got a doctor's appointment for this Friday, hopefully this will all be over soon. I guess I'll be home through Thanksgiving though. The girls are coming home from Indy so I've been doing alot of cleaning and throwing away to get ready for their visit. Not being home but for short visits during the year leads to alot of accumulating in spare rooms.

I've been doing some crocheting for the new grand daughter that's coming in January. A little shopping too. : )
I found a few things that were Holly's too when she was little, that I've gotten down for her to take back with her at Thanksgiving, stuff I've held on to for 21 years. Gosh, her birthday is just before Christmas, 21, time goes by so fast, and now very soon she will have her own little girl.

Kelly and Brian will be leaving next week for St. Croix to get married on the beach there. I'm afraid we won't get to go after all. Things just didn't work out like I wanted, : ( She knows we'll be with her in thought, and will see them for Thanksgiving when they get back.

If our son, Daniel and his wife Tricia could come up for Thanksgiving it would truly be a house full. Maybe if I wish it hard enough....

Cody and Emily are looking forward to Halloween Friday. Jason gave me a pumpkin painted like a witch for my front porch. I've gotta load up on candy for my two, Sponge Bob crabby patties are their favorites. We didn't have many other children come the last couple of years. Since it's gonna be warmer than usual maybe there will be more this year.

Guess I'll close, glad the computer worked for me today, till next time it lets me in again.....

Living the Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2008-10-01T06:32:00.000-07:00

I"M BACK
S-o-r-r-y, I've just been a very bad blog tender. It's been a month today. We came home on 9-04-08, Ricky had his physical for his health card and passed with flying colors, in spite of passing a 5mm kidney stone a few days before we got home. He amazes me, he started producing these painful things when he was around 23, and has passed hundreds of them since and had several professional removed. I wish doctors could find a cure for them.
Three of our four children, have inherited this bad trait, two of which, have only had one, and one that takes more after his father.

Anyway, I had to make a doctors appointment for me and had to stay home for that, while Ricky went back on the road with Isabelle, but, without me and Paco. He's leaving Texas today, headed towards Denver,Co.

I have been making up for missed time with Cody and Emily, they have been a regular fixture at their Mamue's house. Miss Emily has become quite a talker and even a little singer... Ghost Busters song is one of her favorites for now. Cody is doing really well in 1st grade, he is really looking forward to Halloween though. He will be Indiana Jones and Emily will be a fairy princess. I'm not sure if I will be home for this special day though. After Oct. 7th, if all is well, I think my sweetheart will be coming to get me. We just miss being together. We are on the phone all the time though, worse than a couple of dating teenagers sometimes. : )

I have been to O'Reilly's and seen my friends, and the last two nights, I went to the Rec Center and did some square dancing with our friends in the Rangers and Solo Swingers Clubs. I was thankful to my friends for keeping me from messing up their squares, it's been a while since we have had an opportunity to dance. When Ricky comes back in, I'm gonna try and get him up there for a refresher course. I had a great time, and enjoyed seeing all our friends.... Square Dancing is truly...friendship set to music. If you have never tried it, take some time to find a club giving lessons near you and go for it, I promise, you will love it. I always leave feeling better for being there, alittle out of breath,( it's great exercise), but smiling all the way home. They are having a big dress up dance on Saturday and on Monday nite, hmmmm, gonna try and go, gonna miss my partner though.

Guess I'll close for now... maybe Ricky will add his 2 cents to this after he reads it...

Living the Dream.....Belinda and Ricky

2008-09-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

HAPPY LABOR DAY
Ricky is taking a nap, so I decided to use his computer, since it's already sitting out. Mine is somewhere in the back and we've been so busy since I got back on the truck, driving and sleeping, and getting loads picked up and delivered, I haven't tried to dig it out.

I had a good visit with moma, we sat with a friend that had a stroke, we gave him a few laughs and fetched stuff for him, keeping him company while his wife was at work. We got to go out to eat a few times and shopped at Wal Mart...about the only variety store left in the town.
We went up to Indy for Holly's wedding, was a very pretty ceremony and our new son-in-law, Ryan, is very sweet, he is a fireman at a small station there. Our son, Jason and his family couldn't make it, he was having meetings at work he couldn't miss. Our son Daniel flew in from Houston. His wife Tricia, wasn't able to come, she was taking care of things at her mother's while they were away. We had a good visit with Kelly and Brian, Daniel, and Ricky. He got there the day before us. He didn't get a run back by mama's to get me till our 35th anniversary, August 4th. Mama drove me up to Crystal Springs, just south of Jackson, to meet Ricky, on his way from El Paso, TX to Buford, GA.

So we are back together, just busier than we've been in a while. : ) This weekend kinda ended our good run though, did a 3 stop pick up on Friday, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, to finish up in Illinois, but can't deliver till Tuesday afternoon. So we got a hotel room, out from Peoria, for 2 nights and moved back in the truck today to wait for our delivery tomorrow. We are suppose to be getting a load to get us home by Friday, after we unload this one. I am past ready to see my Cody and Emily, I have missed this whole summer with them. Cody has started 1st grade last week. Mamue's got a sack full of treats though, when I see them. : ) maybe they will forgive me.

Guess I'll go for now, got you caught up for now.

Living the Dream.....Belinda and Ricky

2008-06-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

My oh My am I way behind or what?
Belinda is spending a month or two with her momma. I sure hope she is enjoying her visit because I miss her out here on the road with me. I'm currently sitting in Jackson, MS waiting to get my truck fixed. I may be here for a few days, but I'm really hoping to get it in the shop and back on the road tomorrow Monday, June 30.

Hmmm where all have we been? This trip started out back on June 4th with Belinda and I together and headed with a short run over to Columbus, KS to pick up some roofing supplies and take them to Tuscaloosa, AL. That went without a hitch and we were dispatch for Prichard, AL(Mobile) for a load headed for Laredo, TX. And just as fast as we could get there... I got there early by over 12 hours and was able to drop that load without delivering it to the brokers. Lot's of freight in Laredo... Grabbed a load headed for Loudon, TN. Now we made a decision. With just a few miles out of route I could take Belinda to her Mama's. She was wanting to spend the Month of July with Mama anyway, but this was just June 7. Most of you know we lost my mother a little over a year and half ago now when I started this adventure and I really wanted Belinda to spend good quality time with her mom while they both are in good health. Even though Belinda is much younger then her mom (naturally... hehehhee) you never know if our own health may fail. "May God not let that happen I pray" Anyway, I sort of talked her into going early and spending almost two months with Mama. Sort of good deal for next month... Our Baby girl Holly is getting married on July 20 and Belinda will be able to drive Mama up to Indy for the wedding and I'll get to rondavoux with her then.

OK so where does that leave me?.... I drop Belinda off June 8 and head on for TN. Make that delivery and run down to Wildwood, GA to rescue a load headed for Chambersburg PA and complete a drop and hook. Then I'm off for Allentown, PA for some hot freight that is needed in Plymouth, NC. Complete that run without a hitch and then find out there are thirsty folks down in Wilmington, NC but the closest Budweiser plant is in Williamsburg, VA!!! So I take a leisurely drive on some back roads along the NC/VA coast and work my way up to Chesapeake and have a good nights sleep. Then roll on into Williamsburg get some 40,000 + pounds of beer and fix them thirsty folks in Wilmington up.

Then wouldn't you know it... The good folks in Florence, SC hear about the beer and they want some too!!! So I have to leave Wilmington NC... drive back up to Williamsburg VA for another load of beer and then drive it all the way down to Florence SC to keep them southerners happy.

After that, the OPs back in Joplin think I haven't been in the big cities enough and they send me over to Atlanta GA for an over night red eye back into Spartanburg SC. So I push a bit and run some more hot freight. Now Walmart over in Grove City OH runs out of Golf balls and needs more advertising stuff for their end caps. Where do I find this stuff at???? Well seems like they have this stuff over in Charlotte!! Now I have to make a two stop pick up... One at big warehouse in Charlotte and the golf balls are at someones "garage" out in the outskirts of Charlotte with a gravel driveway! The first stop is not too bad as far as getting in and out of big cities. But finding that gravel driveway turned out to be a challenge for a big ole over the road tractor and 53 feet of wide turning storage box dragging along behind me. I MISSED the driveway!!! took me 10 more miles to find a place to turn around. Ok ok, so it wasn't really a garage, but almost. It was medium sized metal building with a hard blind side back to get the golf balls. But it was a gravel driveway... LOL
So I leave Charlotte headed up I-77, one of my most favorite places to drive and just as I start up one of the BIG hills in West Virgina... about a 15 minute climb to the top... my little Isabelle jumped off the back bunk and hung one toenail in my hand crocheted bed cover(Thanks my Love) with her little front paws barely able to scratch at the floor below. I listened to that baby "scream" for about 20 minutes until I could top the mountain and find a place to park so I could rescue her. It was a Long 15 to 20 minutes up that mountain.
The rest of the trip went great with beautiful scenery.

Oak Grove OH is a suburb of Columbus and they have another overnight redeye of hot freight that needs delivered in Newark NJ. For those of you that don't know... I consider Newark part of NEW YORK CITY!!!!! and those of you that have kept up for the past year and half or so know how I love NYC. Anyway that run also went off without a hitch and I spent the night underneath the I-95 interstate so that I could run into Union NJ the next morning and grab a load headed for Elwood KS.

It was a nice long run that got me off the east coast. I delivered Elwood, Jumped the river over into St Joe and grabbed a preloaded trailer off our drop lot there to take some lumber that another driver had dragged out of Oregon to the hard working Dutchmen in Carrol IA. Seems they have a Pella window plant there and needed some more framing to put glass into. Then The main Pella plant over in Pella IA had some windows that contractors needed for new construction and wanted me to deliver for them. They had a trailer loaded that had four deliveries put on it and I had to take it to Springfield MO... Two stops over in the Dallas/Ft Worth area and the final delivery down in San Antonio. That last day took me from San Antonio back up to Austin for another HOT freight run down to Laredo TX. Any of you other drivers that have run the Austin HiPriorty freight will know what I'm talking about.

That Austin freight is so secure I had to show My drivers license to four different people, sign papers that I would not stop in route and make the 300 mile run without even a pee break! I've had to make this particular run a few times now and it's not so bad when you are prepared for it. :)
So this now brings me almost up to date... I run into Laredo and pass the Con-Way trailer inspection and they say... "This is HOT freight", take it right over to the brokers...
So I run it over to the brokers make a fast drop to get rid of the stuff and bebop right back over to our yard as I already have a load assigned to me headed for Charlotte NC!!! :)

So now here I sit 600 miles away from Charlotte with an empty trailer waiting on the Kenworth shop to open up in the morning. Seems I have lost my turbo and this ole truck just does not want to climb hills or even pass a granny in a wheel chair without having some turbo Boost to help push that $4.80 a gallon diesel fuel into the thirsty engine to develop the horse power needed to pull freight. So last night I contacted the people in operations and set up a relay with another truck to rescue my load and get it delivered on time Monday morning.

OH!!! and I did get to spend last night with my darling wife at her mothers house before getting up this morning to come meet my relay in Jackson MS

Whewwwwwwwww, dang sure will be glad to get Belinda back on this truck to keep up "My" blog hehehehe. This is almost like work trying to catch up and I'd rather just sit here in my office with a view and watch it change as the miles go by.

Till next time...
Living the Dream

2008-05-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

LOVELY MICHIGAN
Well, we got a dispatch to go just out of Syracuse, NY, but it wasn't until Friday morning. So we went to the casino to have a little fun. We took our friend, Andy, he drives for Conway too, and had a bite to eat and play the quarter slots. Had fun, won a little and lost it back, but we never risk much, no more than a night at the movies. The Turning Stone Casino is a really big place. Is a pretty place too.

So we went and got our beer load, was a trailer load of Molito, going to Howell, MI. just west of Detroit. A HEAVY load. Had to be here this morning at 5:30. Got here a hour early and they wouldn't open till 6:00, so sat a little on the street and watched all the trucks come to wait too. Got unloaded really fast though, that is always a plus.

So we are in a empty lot just up the road. Shopping and restaurants nearby and another driver for Conway here too. We are 23rd on the board, : ( , looks like a long weekend in the lot, was hoping for good long run for the weekend.

Thursday was our Kelly's sweety ,Brian's, birthday, gave them a call and they were trying out a new restaurant that they said was a fun place. Wild animals making sounds and Kelly said great Pina Coladas, they have alot of choices in and around Indy, I forgot the name of the place they were at, something about The Woods? Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, again, Brian :)

Got to see my first live, wild, porcupine walking down the side of the road in New York yesterday on our way to Michigan. Saw several wild turkeys too. A local hunter at Verona had killed a 20 pounder Friday morning, he was telling us about it while we were getting coffee at the gas station.

Well, guess I'll get off and crochet on my project I'm working on while I have this down time. Catch you up later.

Living the Dream... Belinda and Ricky

2008-05-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

WHERE'S MY JACKET?
We had a nice stay at the Bandit Truckstop, in Smithville, outside of Allentown, PA. Got our water an hour early, and took off for Myrtle Beach, SC, Drove to Dunn, NC and visited with our friend Jerome and his lovely wife Angela. Had a delicious lunch and supper with them.

Drove on down to Sam's, had a 1:00am appointment there and unloaded the water. Then got a dispatch to go to Sanford,NC to pick up patio lounge chair cushions for Marcy,NY. We were at the dock for 5 hours while they ( I think made them and) loaded them one at a time. Ricky went in to get soda's and in the back of the warehouse were people sewing them. Made for a long day, finally drove on down to a restaurant called Checkers that has truck parking, a scarce commodity in some places, and got a bite to eat and a nap.

Our drive to New York was a beautiful one, the sun was shining and the flowers and green trees and grass were a site to see in the mountains and valleys. Got to the Pennsylvania-New York line and took our 10 hour break, can't idle your truck in New York. Got up and drove all the way to Marcy and did a drop and hook. Empty trailers were scarce since there were at least 5 more drivers coming to the same place, finally found one and off to Verona where the casino parking is. Laid down for a nap waiting for a dispatch. (we were #3 on the board)

It is now 10:30am and we are #1 on the board still waiting for a dispatch, a run to Texas would be nice from here. I just prefer south or west from here. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Will let you know what our next destination is....

Living the Dream..Belinda and Ricky

2008-05-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

CRAZY PLANNERS
Well, Ricky called his Fleet Manager and talked to her about the long dispatch, she called the customer and they said if we got it there by 9:00pm Friday we could drop it. Ricky said yea, I can do that. So we picked up early Friday morning and got there with a couple of hours to board again. Waited, and just after our 14 hours were up they called with a pick up in Baltimore, MD. for that night. Ricky told them no way till after 3:00am when we picked up our hours again, told them we could be there at 5:30. They said fine. Got up and took off, got there at 5:15, they were on the phone checking to see where we were when we pulled in,then the guard wouldn't let us in the gate, Called in and they didn't understand what was going on,the guard said we weren't on the list, and if we were to be a live load, they wouldn't be in till 7:30, waited till then, went to that gate, they had changed shifts out, and the new guard told us they wouldn't be open till 7:30 Monday morning. Called in, what a mess, got the load unassigned, and now came back to Pennsylvania, to get a load Sunday afternoon to be in Myrtle Beach, SC Tuesday 1:00am. What a morning..geezzzzzzz!

Saw the news about the bad weather in Missouri, called the kids, said they were fine. Prayers were answered! It has been cloudy and cool here. We are just west of Allentown,PA.Drug my sweats back out, had put them up while we were in Texas.

Was a pretty drive up from Baltimore today, the pink dogwoods were just gorgeous around York,PA. and had a few white ones mixed in. All the streams were flowing and grass was so green. Was nice even though I had been up since 2:00am.

We saw our friend Paul (Croc) in Fremont,IN when we picked up our load. Was good to see him again. He was going out to Salt Lake...where there was snow.. glad we were going the other way.

Well guess I'll go for now gonna chill a little and get a full nights sleep tonight :)

Living the Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2008-05-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

HELLO....
Ricky unhighlighted in Memphis, he got a load to Portland, Oregon and just dropped me off in Joplin. I made it home for Grandparents Day and stayed till Cody's birthday, Ricky got home for that too, got a lot of Honey Doo's done and took off again, we have been back out for 3 weeks. I saw my friends and played with my babies the first week, then I got sick with some bad cold-flu stuff that the kids had, that held on for forever, didn't even go see my friends to say bye. I was sick for awhile even after Ricky came and got me. Now I'm all back to normal..normal for me. :)

We are in Indiana waiting to get a dispatch now. Delivered here way early this morning. We were in Texas for a solid week when we first came out. Finally broke out of that pattern and we went to Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, and came here.

Have decided to go to mama's in July, that'll be after Emily's birthday, that way I can stay a long time. Mama's birthday is in July..a young 70... she will be :) and I want to be there. She said we can wear our jammers all day and eat chocolate :) That's a Great mama there!!!

Just got a call from my Charlie!!!! Was so good to hear from him...guess I was sending vibes :) ...told him I was updating the blog.. he said they were wondering about me. :) I love my friends at O'Reillys, best job I could ever have, best people I could have worked with. We'll be home in about 3 weeks, see ya'll then :)

Still waiting on a dispatch.... guess I'll crochet a while.. catch you up in a bit when I find out our next direction.

Ricky got this new router thing for us to use all the computers on and finally got my computer to accept it, so I'm in business again.. gotta get my postcards out too!!

Living the Dream...Belinda and Ricky

PS....got a dispatch...sorry weekend run.. just 600 miles to deliver on Monday, and today is Thursday!

2008-02-29T10:30:00.001-08:00

LONG HAUL?
Got to Jackson, MO and our directions told us a truckstop was beside our delivery, was even in one of Ricky's little books, of course we plan for that one, AND... it's closed down. : ( Drove back up the road to a small convenience store with parking and made it our stageing spot, but not till after we found a Pizza Inn and Dairy Queen with parking first to get a bite to eat. : )

Was a long drive back up in a cut out hill to drop those pallets. Wasn't too bad, except for the huge holes that you could have lost a truck in out around the warehouse, then we went to St. Louis to do a Conway run from the terminal to the Nashville terminal, a night driving run : (
then a run that was going to Laredo from Nashville but we didn't have enough hours to run it very far, and just relayed it part of the way out to another truck. We really needed some sleep anyway. Then we deadheaded to Southaven, MS to get loaded and drop that load at the West Memphis terminal.

Got here way early this morning and crashed for a few hours. We were 20 something on the board and it's going down slowly today, so off to a good hot shower and laundry. Now that's done,
we are 12 on the board, so Ricky is napping in case we get sent out on another night run. We did highlight for home when we boarded this morning. So hopefully I'll get home for Friday to go to Grandparents Day with Cody at school. Ricky's coming down with another cold too, he could use a couple of days off, and it's tax time... he's gotta get that done too.

Then when we get back to work, I've set my goal of going to mama's for a visit, by getting a run that way or a highlight. We are gonna get some quality time to learn a new crochet project together. It's been too long since we've had a good long visit with just the two of us. I'll be there before long mama..... I love you!

Kelly girl has started her new job, gotta call and get an update on her today... Tuesday she was liking the people she was working with and that is always a plus. It's gonna be the hour drive into work everyday that's gonna be the worst of it I think, and the parking.

Guess I'll go for now, will update when I find out our destination.

Living Our Dream.....Belinda and Ricky

2008-02-25T06:20:00.000-08:00

FEELING AT HOME
Got my hot chocolate and cake : ) we were in Laredo till we were down to 4 on the board....then we were deadheaded to Houston, to wait some more for a dispatch. Got sent to Port Arthur to pick up some oil to run a short run down to Victoria, TX then went empty up to Houston for a load to Ft. Worth, then empty down to Lancaster, TX to get a load going to Joplin and then ran empty to Chetopa, KS for a load of charcoal to go back to Houston, TX.

Can you see why Texas is starting to feel like home? We got to Houston early Sunday afternoon and were very lucky to find a spot at the truckstop. The spots were very few already. We were staged just a couple of miles from our delivery, got up early to miss some thick traffic, and are at the dock waiting to get unloaded now.

The temps are suppose to be around 80 today and cooling to 60s tomorrow. We could go anywhere from here. Will let you know when I know. : )

PS... we ran up on hwy 45 to the pallet place and got a load going to Jackson, MO, it is just out of Cape Girardeau, MO We don't have to be there till Wednesday morning, but will be there Tuesday.

Dreamin Our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2008-02-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

PASS THE SUNSCREEN
Well, we didn't make it to Kentucky, there was ice up from Nashville, so we stopped just west of there for the night. Drove on up to Taylor the next morning, the shoulders were scattered with cars and trucks north of Nashville, there was ice still on the trees and fences. The salt trucks had it in good shape for us till we got to Dayton, OH.. There it started to snow and sleet. It got worse when we got into Michigan. We decided the plow trucks were on strike. Couldn't see a lane, just followed the other traffic real slow hoping they knew where they were going. Got to Taylor safely, really tired, a tense day. Got some pizza ordered in and took showers and off to bed. The load didn't deliver for a day and a half so they took it from us so we wouldn't have to sit on it. We got a dispatch for Kalamazoo the next morning to take to Ft. Smith,AR.

Drove to Joplin on our Valentine's Day, looking forward to seeing the south again. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for supper. Had an easy ride into AR for delivery the next morning and then went to Tulsa to pick up a load for Laredo. Drove just a short way, our hours were almost out for the day, and there were weather reports of ice in OK. The next morning we saw ice all on the trees and grass as we drove to TX. Drove through hard rain and hail till we got to Waco. Kept looking for them tornadoes.... : ( Didn't see any... : )

We are in Hot Laredo today, in the 70's... stripped the truck out for a good cleaning...did major laundry... bed covers and all. We were #74 when we got on the board...slowly going down...a big plus... they finished the terminal....good new bathrooms, no port a anything....the only real down side I see...they did not enlarge the laundry room. Still bumping into everything.

Well, think we will be here long enough for me to get Hot chocolate and cake at Danny's tonight.. : )
Even if it is 70 something degrees.. : )
Catch you up later....

Living Our Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2008-02-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

WHERE'S MY COAT?
We left Salina giving the plows time, we got 6inches of snow over night, the roads weren't too bad, the wind was the problem. Parked at the Flying J right by our delivery for the night. Was a long cold windy walk back and forth to the bathroom. The dogs weren't too happy either. Dropped part of the load the next morning.. the lumper thing is such a rip off. When you bring their product to them, it should be their responsibility to have their employees unload it. Nooo, we have to deal with arranging for lumpers to be paid, and it's way too pricey... $235 not much more than we got for hauling it across country.

Then across Denver to deliver the rest. No lumpers there : ) Just a real tight dock because of cars parked everywhere, took us 45 minutes to get docked. Then off to the Pilot to wait dispatch. Looked like a CFI terminal there were 10 trucks just that I saw, but remember my El Paso thought? Well, we wound up being at the Pilot all night and half of the next day, but... then we got dead headed to .... El Paso. : ) Was a real nice drive, just a long one, we drove all the way. Got there and went straight to bed. Went to breakfast at the Petro and got a load to Memphis, didn't have to set long.

Was a light load and it was a beautiful sunny, warm day. We enjoyed the day and didn't have to worry about parking for the night since we were gonna drive late. Drove to Lancaster (Dallas) to the CFI yard there, got showers and since it was after midnight.... told my Honey, Happy Birthday. : ) and went to sleep. I got to thinking about something neat.... He is now 53, and I will be 53 this year and we will be married 35 years this year... one of those things that makes you go hmmmmmmmm.

We drove to Nick's BarBQue in Carlise, AK just east of Little Rock, for his birthday supper. All the kids, one by one, called to wish their daddy a Happy Birthday. Was a really good meal and a good day. Then drove in to Memphis to do a drop and hook with our load, 12 hours early, and went to the West Memphis yard for the night, and do laundry. The terminals really take a load off when you need a parking spot.

Got up this morning and we got advanced from #10 to come in for a load, because it was going to Canada, and alot of the drivers have opted to not do these loads, we are on our way to the real cold, : ( I guess it's our turn.
Jenn called a little while ago and said they got ice in Springfield, the tree limbs are broke off again and she is out of power, school was canceled and the car is covered in ice. SPRING... we're ready.. : ) It sounded like the kids were having fun though, running around with flashlights. Too bad the fun won't last long.

I think we are about loaded. We are gonna try to get to the Kentucky border for the night and drive on into Taylor, MI Tuesday to get our paperwork for Canada ready, the delivery isn't far into Ontario. Just hope the roads and wind are good.

Catch ya up after we get back... no cell phone or computer untill we get back out, way too expensive across the border.

Living Our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2008-02-05T19:48:00.000-08:00

LOST OUR SOUTHERN LANE
Well, got our reset in the warm El Paso truckstop. Came on up to Coffeeville, had a stop planned from my truckstop book, they are apparently gonna make hwy 169 wider, and half the town is being torn down, including the stop I had planned on. So off to the side of the road at the customer at 5:00pm on Monday to wait till 10:00am Tuesday. We were warned to not try and deliver early, for threat of losing the account. So there we sat, no good signal for phone or computer or t.v. So off to bed, and then a lightening storm and just after I take the dogs out, pouring down rain. Great night.

Got a preplan to go to Pittsburg, KS after we unloaded, just 80 miles away. Drove in heavy rain all the way, did slack up as Ricky dropped and hooked to our loaded trailer. : ) Then we took off for Denver, CO. Stopped in Newton to weight the truck, our load was about 43 thousand lbs. Ricky wanted to make sure the tandems were set right. Decided to stay in Salina, KS for the night since fog and snow and ice decided to move in. Man, the wind is so cold after we have been in the coastal south. Got the fuel filter changed and had a good supper, now for a good nights sleep, gonna get up early for a HOT shower and then a careful drive on into Colorado after the salt and snow trucks have done their jobs. We don't deliver till Thursday morning. Hmmmmm, should we highlight for El Paso?????? Like the temps better there.. : )

Check us out later....
Living Our Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2008-02-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

T-SHIRTS TODAY
Finally have some time and a good connection. Sorry so long since a post. Let's see, Ricky was sick and we were in Laredo. Got there on a Monday, was Tuesday before we got low on the board. They called us in to dispatch, (we were thinking.. where will we go this time) well, Ricky was lucky enough to be called in to go to the clinic for a drug screen. : ) We were # 4 on the board... so off we go, and while we are there Ricky decides he will see a doctor...Dr. Ramon Sande-Louro, speaks very little English...oh man... he gives Ricky an antibiotic and cough medicine. So we are hoping it will help. Off to WalMart to fill it, took 2 hrs., anyway, he still has the kidney stone but he is some better, We think he had a bad case of the flu, he is still weak and coughing. He gave me a small case of it. I was better after a week. So we stayed in Laredo for him to get some better, they called us for a load to Canada while we were at the Drs, he was too weak to make that long trip. He got them to take us off the board till Wednesday. His fleet manager got us a load out then so we didn't have to get back on the board with a long wait.

We got a load to Meridian that didn't have to be there till Friday. So we just went 300 miles and shut down for the night. Ricky was wore out and I was running some fever, so we went to bed, both of us woke up at midnight, decided to take a hot shower, hoping to make us feel better. Went back to bed, ( we couldn't leave till 3:00 am), but we did feel better.

The load was a familiar place and we got to stay at our favorite TruckStop (Spaceway) in Meridian. Then we got to go to Mobile, AL to pick up a load to Brownsville, TX. I was liking these southern loads since the winter weather was hitting hard up North.We met an interesting feller at the Love's in Mobile, said he was deported to the US from Belize, he was an American citizen, but lived in Mexico, and was trying to get a ride to the border in Texas and hopfully to Mexico. We helped him with some warmer clothes.. he had on shorts and a thin shirt, and got him a shower and something to eat. Couldn't give him a ride, so we did the best we could do. Wished him luck and told him to e-mail us after he got home. You never know who you might help on the road. The load to Brownsville wasn't to deliver till Monday, so we got to stay by our favorite wing place for the night. Met a Canadian driver named Bill and he ate and spent some time with us. He was a nice feller.

Delivered on Monday morning and then ran over to Mission, TX for a load of potato chips and cheese dip to go to Mexico : ) Took it to El Paso, TX to go over the border. Then we got a load out of there to Calexico, CA
Kenworth truck parts, left there for Loma Linda, CA with a load of hot water heaters, Ricky had to back the trailer in off the street through a fence gate, beside a building (with an overhang),along a fence with limbs sticking out. He did really good. Sure was proud of him. Took 2 boys almost 3 hours to unload 58 heaters, an old woman like me could have done it alot faster. They wouldn't last at O'Reillys.

Soon as they were through, got a dispatch to Carson, CA....which is really... Los Angeles...by Long Beach. We were lucky it was about 1:00pm there so we got over there faster than we thought we would. Was a drop and hook and it was all ready, even though we were a little early. It was3:00 their time when we left, hoped for a easy out too. WRONG, those people must not work till 5:00, took us almost 4 hours to get across LA. I don't see doing that traffic twice a day every day to get to work. Lets live where you make less if we have too and the cost of living is way lower.

We were going back to El Paso with another load going to Mexico. Got here Friday night and went straight to bed, was a long hard day, seemed like the miles didn't pass quick enough. Now we are hooked to a trailer going to Kansas that doesn't have to deliver till Tuesday, so we are sitting to get a reset. We needed our log fresh for the week.

Heard from my Kelly girl yesterday, am so proud of her, she got a job at Chase, where she will be using her degree finally, and not working so hard. Restaurant work is alot of hard work. Our Jason works for Chase in MO and he just got a good review with a bonus, I'm so proud of him too. Holly is going to school to be a EMT with the fire department in Indiana. She is really excited about it all. I'm proud of her too. Our Daniel just got a good review too at his job in Texas, I'm so proud of all my kids, they have grown up to be very consciencious about there jobs, making for good employees. They are chips off the old blocks. : )

Well got laundry done, think I will go in the Truckstop and watch a movie. They have a nice little theater in there.
I've got you all caught up now. : )

Living Our Dream.... Belinda and Ricky

2008-01-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

WAY SOUTH
We had a choice of 3 loads...Canada, North Dakota, and Texas. Duh, the winds were 30something below up north, course we took Texas. Got a loaded trailer that came in from Iowa on Friday and didn't have to be in Pharr, Tx till Sunday. Drove down to Anna,Tx for the night, just north of Dallas, the wind was brutal cold even there.

Drove all the way down on Saturday, was a really good day. Went to the customer Sunday morning....no one there..closed on Sunday : ( was lucky to find truck parking one mile away to wait for Monday morning. We were looking at the gate to go over into Mexico, the town of Reynosa not far. I'm a little leary of going over to do the tourist thing there. Ricky is sick so no real reason to test it this time. He has a cold and is fighting another kidney stone. He is running fever, not sure from the cold or an infection. Can't talk him into seeing a doctor yet.

They dead headed us to Laredo after our delivery. # 54 on the board when we got here, will give Ricky a chance to rest. He didn't sleep much last night. They are remodeling the terminal here... it is a mess. portapotties, portashowers, and no laundry. One good thing... 75 degrees today : ) hear there's another artic blast comin though. We'll probably get a load into it. Now Florida would be good... although my mama got snow in south Mississippi this week, it is so rare to snow there. I've just seen it about 3 or 4 times in my 52 years.

Well our soup is heated up, gonna grab a bite and try for some sleep tonight. Catch you up later.

Living our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2008-01-17T13:46:00.001-08:00

ENOUGH SNOW
Well, we went and got the load to Cheyenne, one we have done before, (I like familiar : ) Had just gotten over into Kansas and the check engine light came on... checked all the gauges and all is good. Called road service and checked the truck manual and decided all was o.k. till we could get to a Kenworth dealer... called several and even stopped at the one in Cheyenne.. would be at least 3 days before any could look at it. Got into snow as we went through Kansas to the west, all on the grass in places, like that in Colorado, and Wyoming too. Made our delivery and went to the truckstop to wait on a dispatch.

Was really cold up there, nice vacation spot, don't think I'd live there, unless I lived like a hermit in the winter. Got the dispatch to wait on a driver to do a relay..one to do over night.. to Salt Lake City, UT... Had been watchin the weather and knew a storm was comin... was not happy about a night run in snow and wind.. The run was tight.. but thank goodness the driver got there an hour early.. left at 1o:30 at night to deliver at 7:00 am.
Wasn't too bad till we hit the Utah line...that's were we met the snow and wind and the road signs warned of slick spots...black ice... Ricky did really good..drivin slow and steady... our load wasn't too heavy or too light...we went up the east side to the north and came down around the west side to the south of Salt Lake to get around the pass... they had the chain law in effect there.. and then shut it down completely. The snow was deep on the mountains and coming down hard and blowing across the roads in Utah. We sent in a delay message after we were easing into town because of the roads and then we hit stand still traffic comin into Salt Lake, Ricky just eased along and we were just 45 minutes late. The manager said he couldn't believe the over the road guy beat the line haulers in.. made Ricky smile : )

Dropped that trailer and went for breakfast at Sapp Brothers truckstop, just down the street, thank goodness. Got a nap and then a dispatch to pick up a load in Ogden, with another storm pumping up for the night up that way. Left to run up there and it was snowing hard.. had to weigh the empty trailer on the way there... gosh that Pilot up there was a mess. Snow and wind, parking lot not cleaned off and trucks out the A.. trying to find a parking spot and getting fuel. Finally got out and went to the customer...parking lot worse... one of the other drivers was stuck and had to call a wrecker to get out...got the loaded trailer..Ricky waded in thigh deep snow to check it out and hook it up..and then had to go back to the Pilot to reweigh it and come back to the customer and get the Bill of Laden so we could finally go... 4 hours to do a drop and hook...geeezzz.

Weather was getting scary... I-80 was closed but had just opened back up as we got there.. winds were 50mph with 70mph gusts... Ricky decided we needed to get past the Sisters(a hill that goes way down one side and way up the other side just after crossing into Wyoming) at least before we shut down, and we did : ) without me crying once : ) found one spot at the TA, that was not really a spot...some of Ricky's creative parking : ) parked for the night, wind was rockin us all night. The snow was blowing up drifts, a truck over to our side had to get a wrecker pull him out that next mornin.

We took off for Georgia...got warmer as we went east and south...poor paco's feet got froze one time Ricky took him out to potty...Ricky told him to find his perfect spot faster.. Isabelle did her business as soon as she hit the ground, no waitin on her. Oh well, I'll wind this up, delivered in Georgia, just north of Atlanta, Ricky had highlighted for Joplin so we could get the truck fixed, so we went to Tennessee just west of Nashville, got a load to Memphis, and then a load from there to Monett, Mo and then dead headed to Joplin. Got our truck fixed this morning,(bad sensor) and are waitin for a new dispatch now. Big board, little freight...hold up in the truck...cause it's freakin cold... a Miami run would be nice : ) will go for now. Ricky's gettin a nap case we have to run tonight...the dogs are gettin a nap too : )

Livin our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2008-01-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

HOME WAS SWEET
Sorry....I didn't pick this computer up while I was home. We finally got a dispatch to go to the CFI yard in Kansas City to pick up a relay to run on down to Joplin, so we got home on Holly's birthday, the 19th, I had left her present at Thanksgiving with Kelly, so she didn't feel left out... : ) Sure was good to see my house and my waterbed... : ) Was really busy the first few days putting up our tree and doing all our shopping for a big dinner and presents from Santa. Holly came on home on Sunday nite, was so glad she got there safe and sound... our Daniel called and said he wouldn't be coming : ( was so hoping for them all to be there this year... The grandkids sure grew while I was gone... my Miss Emily is a hoot, she was just a singing her version of all the Christmas songs : ) Cody got all his favorites from Santa so he was a happy camper. Watched him play his Mario games on the Wii, he is so smart, goes through those levels like a genius. Kelly and Brian went to Kansas City to see his family first and came on to our house on Christmas Day. Ricky and I cooked all day and had a big dinner ready for everybody, they got their bellies full and then had fun with their Christmas games.. that's the best... watching the kids have fun together... Ricky and I use to lie in bed on Christmas morning just listening to hear which of the kids got up first and scoped out what Santa brought and then go wake up the other 3...that was our best present.
Went to O'Reilly's and saw all my friends... went out on Saturday nite with Charlie and Anita to Buffalo Wild Wings and we had a ball playing Trivia and catching up. I miss my time at O'Reilly's with Charlie.
Had us a good long time off, was 17 days. Not bad for being gone for 3 months. Ricky and I didn't leave the house at all for a couple of days.. I didn't even get out of my pj's one day, : )
We blew out the water lines and shut up the house Friday, and loaded the van up for our trip out this time, came on to Joplin to pack the truck back up and went to the Safety Meeting this morning, we are now employed officially by Conway, says so on our paychecks. Ricky won a cool bag, thermos, watch and coat from Kenworth this morning in the drawings at the meeting. That was worth getting up for after just four hours of sleep... you see they didn't fix our windows like they were suppose too while we left the truck here, so we had to put it in the shop again and it was 1:30 this morning before we got it back and still had to put all our stuff up and make the bed : ( took us a nap after lunch though and then got a load to Cheyenne, WY to be there Tuesday morning. So we pick up Sunday afternoon and will be on our way.
I guess I've rambled long enough, got you all caught up I think... wish us a safe trip, and I'll try to post often.

Living our Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2007-12-17T12:29:00.000-08:00

SNOW
We left the plaza and drove in some serious snow all the way back to New York.We saw alot of deer along the I-90 highway and when we came down before it was dark, I didn't see all the grape vineyards outside of Buffalo, NY. there were miles and miles of them. Ricky was wondering how we were suppose to keep the pickles from freezin. Just hoped for the best. We were lucky to get a spot in the small truckstop so that we had bathroom access. Drove down the next morning and got to do a drop and hook. The roads weren't too bad, the parking lots are always the worse. Went back to get our spot, buttt, of course it was gone... so back to the casino parking lot. We sat until our hours were getting short again of course, but we are headed home... after a side trip outside of New York City in New Jersey. All that area is just one big nightmare traffic wise, We did get down there without any problems... even though the directions were off. We got there and another driver had taked our load, but his was going to the same place, so was just a matter of getting numbers straight... and off we went to Lawrence, KS. Made it to Pennsylvania just as our hours were out, so that meant a good thing for the traffic the next morning. Got to the Ohio-Indiana line for the next night, was snowing really heavy, the rest area lot was very thick with ice and snow and fog was moving in. Left Sunday morning and when we hit the Indiana line the roads were terrible, Ohio salt trucks had done a lot better job. We saw several trucks in the median and on the side. Ricky did really good, I was very proud of him, his practice last winter helped. We called the girls as we drove through Indy, they were digging out their cars in their driveways. I told them to stay home, make hot chocolate and watch a funny movie... that's what I would have liked to do... : ) Called Jenn and she said they had gotten a little snow at home too, not nearly like what we had been in for several days, Thank goodness... She said they were all fine though, just cold. We got to a Petro just out from Kansas City last night... got there at 6:00pm and were lucky to find one parking spot way down by the lube shop.. was a long cold walk up to the restaurant and bathrooms. People were driving all around looking for a spot all night. When we left at 4:30 this morning trucks were parked in every available spot they could get away with. Spots for truckers to stay can get to be a nightmare most of the time. We delivered without any trouble this morning... was a chilly 19 degrees... but we are still waiting for a dispatch, hopefully to go on to Joplin..we were 27 when we went on the board this morning after our empty call. This is the part I wish the planners had a taste of. Sitting in a customers lot or worse waiting, for hours.Oh well, hopefully we will get home tomorrow.. I'm ready to sleep in my waterbed : ) Catch you up later.....

Livin our Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2007-12-12T19:37:00.000-08:00

WINTER TIME IS HERE
We got up at 5:00am and the spots of water on the parking lot were frozen, just spots, we didn't get ice on everything. Thank goodness! Ricky drove on up to our delivery with ease. Got unloaded in just an hour this time.
Yessss that is a double plus. Right after Ricky punched in our empty call, we got a new dispatch, that's the way we like it to be. We left Hartford, MI and ran up to Zeeland, just out from Holland, where all the tulip bulbs come from : ) and we saw lots of blueberry bushes on our way there too... Picked up a truck load of pickles and are backtracking going right back to the same area we just left in New York, in fact we will take the same exit off of hwy 90 and stay in the casino parking lot again, cause our delivery isn't till Friday, but in Rome instead of Marcy. We drove to a service plaza just west of Cleveland and are staying here for the night. We took free showers here. This is a wonderful service they provide for truckers, even though they pay alot in toll charges.They have a lounge with TV's and a laundry too. The weather is saying snow and ice by in the morning here and all the way up to NY, we were hoping to get up there before it caught up with us, wish we had checked before we shutdown, would have driven further for the night. Oh well, I'm riding with a professional truck driver, : ) he can handle it : ) Gonna highlight for home after we deliver this load... gotta get home and get my tree up and shop for my Cody and Emily!! Get my Christmas cookies and candy made and plan that big Christmas dinner : ) Told you this snow is puttin me in the mood... : ) Gotta get in the bed, think we will leave alittle early in the morning to get ahead of the majority of the weather. Catch you up later.

Livin the Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2007-12-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

SLIPPERY THREATS
We are sitting in Paw Paw, MI right now, it's west of Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. We have a delivery at 7:00 in the morning in Hartford, just a few miles away. It has been raining with the temps daring it to turn to ice all day. There has been ice on the trees and fences ever since we came through Toledo, OH this morning.Oh yea, remember us getting loaded in Marcy? Well, it was about 11:30 before we got to the dock, and they were out of the windshield washer fluid they were making and we had to get loaded off the production line as they packaged it. So we didn't get to leave for a couple of hours. Getting somewhere early doesn't mean much sometimes. Made it to Pennsylvania for the night. Drove on to Fulton, NY and did a drop and hook, was driving around in the snow in the parking lot looking for an empty trailer. Snow was all on the landscape, none on the road, thank goodness. Drove on to a parking lot for a local casino to wait for a new dispatch, had a special one for big trucks. The local small truck stop had only 5 spaces.. and with a Wal Mart Dist. center there were a lot of trucks looking for a spot. The casino sent a shuttle to pick you up if you wanted. I didn't feel very good so we bypassed this fun this time. Was the next morning before we got this load. Snowed during the night but was still good on the roads. Left for Fulton, NY, not too far away, and picked up a loaded trailer and will get unloaded in the morning, hoping the ice won't cause us problems . They are calling for it to be very icy here in the morning, we are at a small truckstop, but they had 1 washer and 2 dryers, well, 1 working washer, and even though its raining and cold and nasty, I did get the laundry done. Needed my sweatshirts clean so I don't have to wear my coat in the truck.. : ) Heard from Joplin Terminal about them losing power.. called Jenn and she said they were OK. Not out of power... that is a plus after the ice storm last winter. Hope my friends at OREILLY'S are OK delivering from the warehouse to the stores. Ice melt and antifreeze are in big demand this time of year. Well, gonna go for now. Catch you up again after we deliver.

Livin our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2007-12-08T06:19:00.001-08:00

HURRY UP & WAIT
Well, we got a dispatch about 3:30, to run up 200 miles to Reidsville, NC for Saturday morning. Had just enough hours that we decided to go on up there hoping for a parking spot. Got to the customer and they had alittle room in the back by the docks, and we got permission to stay. Heated up some Ravioli, Ricky got on the computer, and the guys said if they got our order ready they would wake us. Well, they didn't, so much for leaving early. Our appointment is at 10:00 am et and other trucks are pouring in this morning. So we'll be lucky if we get to the dock for our appt. We have to be in Marcy, NY tomorrow, east of Syracuse. The weather site on the internet is letting us believe the snow and ice will be moving out while we are driving up, but more is moving in Sunday night. Man, we may get stuck up there for a couple of days. The dogs and me like to look at the snow, not get out in it. Well, I'm looking at the bright side, just another week and a half or so and we will go home for Christmas. I haven't been home in 2 1/2months, Ricky in 3. Time to see my grandbabies. I am looking forward to putting my tree up this year and dragging out my other decorations. Ricky might not be so happy to do the dragging out : ) He has to do all the moving around of the boxes for me : ) I think I will even get him to drag old Santa out of the shed, along with my candles and put them up in the yard. : )
Guess I'll go for now, it's time for us to load, yea..right..and hopefully the Werner truck is through, and we can get to the dock. That means Ricky needs me to batten down the hatches.. Catch ya later....

Living the Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2007-12-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS TIMES ACOMIN
Snow sure puts the holidays in your heart...Got to PA and it was snowin like heck...the wind was blowin, Ricky was holdin hard to the steering wheel.Got to a service plaza about 70 miles from the customer and found a spot, lucky, and shut down. Was so cold, had to park a long way from the doors to the stores, the wind was blowin hard...my ears were freezin, gonna get my earmuffs before we come back after Christmas. Gettin unloaded was an ordeal. Had to turn the truck off while we were at the dock, and it was 26 degrees. kept waiting for them to call us on the CB to come get our paperwork.. was there for 4 hours. Ricky finally went in to check and tell them we were freezing.. no one had been in the trailer in a while.. the load was short or something.. nothing to do with us..picked up the trailer preloaded from Mexico... arghhhhh... after he went in they decided to let us go... on our way to a truckstop..got a dispatch to pick up the next day in Pottsville, PA, about 70 miles from Carlise.. where the truckstop was. Got fueled.. had a few hours on our clock and decided to get close to our customer for the night. Went on up and got about 20 miles from it. Was a good thing we didn't try to find them in the dark...was in a residential area where the road was tight.. got a partial load of ladies undergarments, then went to Pine Grove, PA, about 17 miles back and picked up bird seed. Quite a combination. : ) Then took off for Laurens, SC. Was still just a snowin, made it to a rest area in Virginia.. just above Roanoake.. for the night... still snowin... got up, no snow, : ) drove on down to Laurens, wouldn't take us early... had to sit at another truckstop for 5 hours waiting, got a good late lunch at the waffle house, then went in to the Wal Mart Dist to do a live unload... was there for 3 hours... then got a dispatch to drop our trailer around the corner at a tire place and bobtail to Lugoff, SC. Now who would name a town such a dumb name? Came over to a Target Dist. and found an empty trailer. Came over to the Pilot and have been sitting here all day...just waiting... can't really go get a shower or anything... might get a dispatch that is a hurry up and go... hate this part... give the drivers some info to work with... arghhhhh... anyway..gonna go, will catch you up when I know something..

Living the Dream....Belinda and Ricky

2007-12-03T06:53:00.001-08:00

AHHH JOPLIN
Made it to Joplin... like to have never got out... We knew we had to get the oil changed, but there were a bajilion other trucks there getting stuff done.. hardly anyone on the board for new loads.. there were 5 other trucks in front of us to have work done. So they got us a hotel room.. : ) off we went with the dogs, got good showers, and slept on a real mattress, headed out at 6:00am to pick up the truck and start towards PA... got to the yard and they haven't even touched our truck. : ( would have laid in bed a little longer... anyway, so I got the laundry out and got it done, Ricky worked on some new papers for getting on the better insurance plan... his anniversary of 1 year at CFI was Nov. 29th. Time goes by faster the older you get.. sure doesn't seem like he went to school a year ago, or that he's been driving that long. Anyhow.. it was 1:30 when we finally got out of there. So we had to drive till late in the night again. Got to Indianapolis to shut down.. were lucky to find a spot.. : ) but that winter cold got here first.. was 60 when we left Joplin was 30 here.. and 26 when we got up this morning. Trying to hurry and get the dogs in the truck after a potty break, I had the door open and stood up and whacked my head.. have a bad head ache this morning.. think it might be a concussion...hit just below where the doctors left that hole in my head.. maybe I need to wear a helmet instead of a CFI cap..haaa well we are gonna drive on in to our customer or at least to the closest service plaza, if there's a spot, cause it will be night time when we get there. Gonna take some Tylenol... catch ya'll up late..

Livin the Dream... Belinda and Ricky

2007-11-30T21:47:00.000-08:00

ET PHONE US
Has been a GREAT day today. We left the yard after having the trailer worked on, with just a couple of hours left on our clock, but it was raining and the yard was kinda crummy, so we were hoping to find a good spot to sleep and do our driving in the daylight. Got up to Benson, AZ to the Gas City truckstop.. a really nice parking spot!! : ) That one goes in the book... : ) Had a good nights sleep and left this morning with a little low clouds in the mountains... was a really pretty drive on I-10. Went through the Mascalaro Apache reservation and stopped at a couple of places for a quick bit of shopping. It's hard to find a place in the truck to put my stuff till we get home... I'm having to move all kinds of stuff to be able to go to bed.. heeeeheee. Then Ricky took me to Roswell, NM... they have a bypass for the big trucks, so we couldn't go see downtown... just the truckstop. Did a little shopping there though and ate supper.Will have to make it a high light day and walk downtown from the truckstop or rent a car and really see some other places around there that we couldn't in the the big truck. Well We are in Amarillo, TX now at a Love's for the night...was driving in the dark, looked all around for them aliens... didn't get abducted or nothing, saw some flashing red lights... I think someone was talking to outter space in morse code, telling them if I saw one of them I would take it home to Jason, : ) gonna go for now and get some sleep and we are going on in to Joplin tomorrow.. gotta get the oil changed in the truck and then get on our way Sunday towards PA Catch you up later...

Livin the Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2007-11-29T10:17:00.000-08:00

MEXICO JUST A STONES THROW
Here we are...sitting in a drop yard in Nogales, AZ. Made it safe and sound. Left Sunday afternoon and ran on over to Paris, IL and found our pickup spot, and got staged to get our load Monday morning. Picked up some farm equipment for Mexico. Didn't get out of there till 3:30pm, so was night driving on up to Joplin for the night. Got there and dropped the trailer to have some work done while we got a nap. Had a quick breakfast Tuesday morning at the yard and took off for AZ. Did some straight driving, not many stops, to make some miles. Drove to Santa Rosa, NM and stopped at a TA for the night. Wasn't a very good TA, but there was plenty of parking, to our surprise for that time of the night. Good thing for us... : ) Grabbed some supper and a shower and headed off to bed, was a long day, but wanted to do all our driving in New Mexico in the daylight. We had only been in a small piece in the north and Ricky had been in a small piece across the bottom without me. This time we were going down the middle. Ricky had fought the wind all afternoon on Tuesday, so we were hoping for less of it on Wednesday. Had just a little, so was better. We had a good view of New Mexico since it is so open.. : )
There were mountains all scattered, just sticking up out of the desert. Temps were cool but not too bad. Drove all the way to Tucson for the night, just 60 miles from Nogales. Stayed at the TTT truck stop, happened to find a spot... and it was close to being no spots open, it was packed. The temps were in the high 50s and low 60s, so we didn't have to run the truck. The lot was paved and that was good since it started raining a little this morning. Got up at 7:00 this morning, which was 6:00 here... Mountain Time. Had a nice drive on down to Nogales and our delivery was a broker at the border... was looking right over into Mexico where we dropped the trailer. The warehouse Foreman spoke very little English.. knew I should have finished that Spanish class in high school. : )
So we've been sittin since 10:00am at this drop yard.. was number 5 on the board when we first got here.. were #3 when Ricky checked a few minutes ago.... and it's now1:00pm... hopefully we'll get another good long run towards Florida or North Carolina, since we are so close to I-10. Catch you up when I know somethin...
O.K.... so I'm making an addition... we are on our way to Mechanicsburg, PA... picked up a load from here in the yard that was here all this time... dahhhhhh.. we could have been long gone.. geezzzz these planners.. : ( but it is great miles.. : ) have to be there Tuesday morning. Hope the weather holds out on the good side.

Livin the Dream..Belinda and Ricky

2007-11-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

LATE HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Wow! I've really been bad this time... almost a month : ( Well, between bad Internet signals and not in the mood itiss, it's just too long.. I know. Oh, and Ricky gave birth to triplets... yea.. had three kidney stones.. yea.. ouch... Let's see we left Laredo and went to Meridian, MS, then Charlotte, NC, Granite City, NC, back to Laredo, then Byhalia, MS, Southhaven, MS, to Nichols, NY, Topton, PA, to Carrollton, OH, to Grove City, OH, and then to Indianapolis, IN where we took off for 4 days to spend with our girls and Brian for Thanksgiving. Jay, Jenn, and the grandkids went down to my moma's for thanksgiving in Mississippi, she was all excited when I talked to her on the phone.. just a cookin away. This was the first days off for Ricky since September. The kids fixed us a wonderful meal and took us out for several too! We had a great visit! Now we are back in our home away from home.. THE BIG RED TRUCK.. waiting for what we hope will be a good run. It's raining and cold and about 5:00pm and dark already... hope we don't pick up a load till morning though... I hate night riding. : ( I guess ya'll know that already...
When we were in New York we got our first snow since last March... it was all on the trees and countryside, not the road, thank goodness, but it was beautiful to look at going down to Pennsylvania. Really got us in the holiday mood. Can't wait to go home and decorate for Christmas, and go shopping for Cody and Emily.. along with the grown kids. : )
All caught up again... gonna go for now... .Ahhhhaa. just got a dispatch for Paris, IL to Nogales, AZ..Yessssss

Living our Dream... Belinda and Ricky

2007-10-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

AHHHHH, FALL......
Well, here I am, behind again... : ( Sorry! We took off from Meridian, with a load from there going to just outside of Indianapolis. We drove in so much rain, I was glad to finally get there. That gave us a chance to see our girls. After we delivered the keyboards and amps, we couldn't pick up our new load till 6:00 the next morning. So we called Holly and she came and took us back to Kelly and Brian's new house. We stopped at a pumpkin patch on the way there and Ricky bought Holly a pumpkin to carve and me some apple cider and him some tomatoes for sandwiches. Got to the house, and it is a beautiful 2 story with 3 bedrooms and 2 and a half baths, and we all went out to eat and visit. Stayed for just a couple of hours, cause we had to get a nap for a long run the next morning to Knoxville, TN. The ride up there was gorgeous from north TN up to Indy. The trees were in their prime colors. We couldn't have timed it better. Going back through Kentucky down to Knoxville was even better, cause there was no more rain, : ) After we dropped that relay, we picked up a load to Byhalia, MS and then one from there to West Memphis for a relay and did a short local delivery there before we went to Paragould, AR to pick up a load of shocks at the Monroe place to go to Mexico, which we took to Laredo to be relayed of course. We were 72 on the board when we got here to Laredo Saturday night. We are 10 this morning... Monday... Ricky delivered our shocks to the broker this morning and then did a local run to another broker with a load that was here on the yard. I took a shower while he was gone, I had the laundry already done from Sunday, so now, here we sit.....waiting on what we hope will be a really good load, with some good miles. We did get a 34 hr reset though, and that was a good thing. So, now you are all caught up. Oh, by the way, last Thursday was my birthday, and all my kids and Grand kids called to wish me a Happy Birthday.. and that was great!! I guess I'm through ramblin for now.... Later...

Livin our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2007-10-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

FALL IS IN THE AIR
Took our load on in to Houston and was glad to get rid of that heavy sucker. We were on the southeast corner of Houston and on a week day, so we didn't get to see our son on this trip. Sat at the nearest truckstop for a good while before we finally got a dispatch to pick up on the north side of town to go to Laredo. Was the same place we had taken the tires to from Alabama last week, so a plus was that we knew right where it was. So off we go back to Laredo. We delivered that load and got one to Meridian, MS. My Ricky's hometown, before we happened upon each other. So he has cousins and uncles and aunts still there. We give them a call and they meet us here at a truckstop that had great food in their restaurant, homemade tasting food. Had a great meal and visit with two of his cousins and an aunt and uncle. Since we moved to Missouri, we haven't had many visits back here to Meridian, with four kids in school and a business to run during those years there weren't many opportunities, so this was a special day. Anyway, we deliver in the morning and then.... where to? Will let you know later. Maybe I can get down to mama's this next trip. No time to do it coming here, on our way out, maybe? We were in a night running cycle so I haven't been up on my correspondence this week, sorry... will try to do better this week.
Oh, my Holly made it to Indianapolis safe and sound today, she had a little side trip with a wrong turn, was going west when she needed to be going east, but phoned her moma and we got her going in the right direction. I'm so proud of her, she scares me sometimes though, cause she's not scared of anything, except... maybe spiders. : )
Hopefully this move will be a good one, I wish only the best for my children. Letting them grow up is hard.
Gotta wind this up and get in the bed. So till next time... Oh.. by the way.. he still hasn't passed the stone. : (

Living our Dream.. Belinda and Ricky

2007-10-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

BACK TO THE WARM SPOT
Am starting to wonder if we need to move our stuff down here with our son in Houston. We are coming through here more often than Joplin. We stopped east of Des Moines last night and drove on in to Cedar Rapids this morning. Worked out good. Got a load assignment while we were being unloaded, so we had it all routed by the time we were through. Ran down to Fort Madison and picked up this load to take into Pasadena, TX.... which is really Houston. Have stopped for our 10 hour break and will run the most of the way on in tomorrow. We deliver Thursday morning, so I'm hoping we have managed to get in between the rain storms. We got into some of it leaving Texas last time after we got to the Oklahoma and Kansas border. Saw a little color in the leaves coming out of Iowa... was kinda hoping for a more easterly run to see the trees before the leaves fall off. Maybe next time. I won't complain if we stay out of New York. : ) The Carolina's would be o.k. or Pennsylvania. Anyway... the cool nights are good, wore a sweatshirt in Iowa this morning... was raining so I had to put real shoes on instead of crocs... didn't want cold, wet, feet. O.K. ... so I'm ready for bed. I expect Ricky is too... he has been fighting a kidney stone for around 2 week, he's a little stone factory... just wish he'd pass them without so much trouble. Catch ya'll up later.

Living our Dream.. one day at a time...Belinda and Ricky

2007-10-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

HEADING FOR COOLER COUNTRY
We didn't get to lay down for a nap. Got a run up to Dothan, AL to pick up some tires for Houston. Didn't pick up till 9:30, and deliver on Thursday night. So it was a full run, but stopped for a 10 hour break shortly after our pick up, and we were going to a familiar area, got there and did a drop and hook, and was lucky enough to find a spot for the night real close, isn't easy to do late at night. Went on the board Friday morning and got a quick dispatch to Dayton, TX to pick up a load to take to Brownsville, TX. Wow... in just a few days we have traced the Gulf of Mexico from Miami to Brownsville. We delivered last night in Brownsville and got sent on up to Laredo this morning. Got a load as soon as we checked in to take to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We've been in that area a couple of times, but not there, so we got showers here just short of San Antonio and are ready for a good nights sleep. Don't have to deliver till Tuesday, so not a hard couple of days. The nights are cooler and makes for sleeping with the truck off a good thing, I like the quiet. Catch up with you later.

Living the Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2007-10-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY ALREADY?
We had a very full day yesterday. Got unloaded, ran over to the closest truckstop to get on the board. Wasn't very long and we got a hot load that would have us up driving all night. Ran up to Miami Lakes, FL to get some Caterpillar parts and took off for Ocala, FL dropped part of the load and then on to St. Augustine, FL, was a short run...about 400 miles.. but we didn't get through till 5:00 this morning. Came up to Jacksonville to the Pilot to grab some sleep, got up, took showers, did paperwork and are getting ready to go back on the board. Guess we better grab a nap in case we run all night again. I hate the night runs, can't see the sights in the dark. Maybe it'll be a good miler though...Catch you up later..

Living our Dream..Ricky and Belinda

2007-10-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

THERE'S COCONUTS ON THOSE PALMS
We wound up setting at the West Memphis terminal the rest of Friday and half of Saturday waiting for our pickup time in Jackson, TN. Went in 2 hours early and lucked up. Our load was ready and we hooked up and took off. Got a couple of hours down the road....stopped at a rest area and we went to leave and... brake trouble... called road service and they have Ricky "Cage the brake" to let us make it on down the road to a Petro and get it fixed. Couple of hours later...on our way again. We make it to Chattanooga to get shut down for the night. Oh, yea... forgot to tell you. We are on our way to MIAMI, FL. Would you believe potato chips could weigh 35,000 lbs ? Well, they do when they are packed in a trailer. We got here for our delivery an hour early this morning... our dispatch.. was for today at noon and we got here at 11:00, but, our appointment, was actually for tomorrow at noon..aghhhhh. No one thought to tell us, So here we sit in this parking spot over night till we can deliver tomorrow. We had a Japanese supper across the street in a shopping center here. Was alright for Japanese food I guess..we decided we are more Chinese food eaters. We had a good laugh anyway.
Came down the turnpike past exits for Disney World and Cypress Gardens and Silver Springs, FL.... Ricky and I were at all these places about 33 years ago. We came down here with his cousin and his wife, who were married 2 months before us, on our 1st year anniversaries. Brought back some fond memories... like staying in a motel in Kissimmee, FL and Wayne and I getting to stay for free, because 18 and under were free, and we were just 18, and Ricky and Charmaine were 19... sso, we were the kids and they were the adults... heeeee, heeee. and paying 20 something dollars for our supper one night, for all four of us and thinking how outrageous that was.. saving the receipt for all these years. Our Japanese supper was way more than that for just the two of us tonight... my.... times have changed.
Another first, coming down this far together. Saw palm trees, even palm tree farms for sell in Palm Beach, a new career? hmmmmm, as we got down to Miami, saw real coconuts in the palms, actually growing. : ) heard people speaking "Cuban?" Spanish?" Thought we had left the U.S. Was kinda uncomfortable, thinking we were out of place..... Even though our parking spot is not one I would have chosen, we have had a good day, because.... we are together.
Will catch you up tomorrow... off to crochet a little before I go to bed...

Living our Dream ,beside each other...Belinda and Ricky

2007-10-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

HOME SWEET HOME
We're on the road, together again. Finally have everyone better. Jenn is back into her normal routine, Kelly is settling in her new surroundings in Indy, Holly is getting things together to move to Indy, and I'm back with my Honey : ) Well, let's see, first, we finish his run from Laredo, after he makes an over night stop in Joplin, to get me, and ends up getting a new windshield in the truck, caused by a Texas rock, to Indianapolis. So we get to see Kelly and Brian for a quick supper, we didn't have time to go see their new house this time... : ( but they got to have a truckstop supper with us... hadn't seen them since May, so even a short visit is a good one. Made our delivery the next morning a short piece away, then got a dispatch to go north of Indy for a pick up to run to Laredo. So off we went and got a quick light load... dog rawhide chew toys.. Good thing Paco doesn't like them.. : ) Got just into Texas for our night stop..when we went on towards Dallas the next morning we got caught up in some pretty hard rain with some fog and heavy traffic.. not a good start to the day. We were lucky that it disappeared not to far on the other side of Dallas, so the rest of the trip was sunny. Got into Laredo and our hours were up.. so shower and laundry time. Then Ricky checks in and gets a load to Mississippi, hhmmm, a visit to mama? Wellll.... no... this is Wednesday night..our hours don't pick up till the morning and the load has to be there Friday morning.. Mama's would take us too far out of route for the time span..so hopefully we will get the opportunity soon though. Any way, we got the load delivered this morning, and we are now in West Memphis waiting for a new dispatch... sure is good to be back with my partner though, I missed him. My grandbabies and I had a good time together though..been a long time since I had to get a little one off to kindergarten..Cody said his Mamue's bed puts him right to sleep..( I have a water bed) he loves to sleep in my bed. Emily kinda likes it too. Told them I had to go be with PawPaw though so he could make Christmas and candy money. Gonna go for now...catch you up later...

Living the Dream, beside each other..Belinda and Ricky

2007-09-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Belinda has been off the truck for a couple of weeks and I've let the blog fall behind again. What can I say. I'm a procrastinator, always have been, and will probably be late for my own funeral. We had a bit of a scare with one of our Daughter-in-Love's. She ate something and got a touch of food poison we think. She was very sick for 4 days and our son finally convinced her to go to the emergency room. They admitted her as soon as they got there and took 3 days to nurse her back to go home. We just happened to be home when this happened and I left Belinda there to take care of the Grandbaby's while she was in the Hospital. I needed to get back to work and earn us a living.

I had a bit of a scare myself that week. We had left Wichita and had a run up to Kansas City to pick up a loaded trailer and relay it to Joplin for Team to run it on to California. Anyway on our way into Joplin the company sent me a message that I needed to update my health card as it expires next month. I figured while we were in Joplin, I'd take care of that before we headed home for a few days. I "Flunked" my physical.... Seems I am having a bit of kidney problems and had excessive blood in my pee test. I just figured I was passing another one of my kidney stones as I have passed many at home (and on the road) without seeing a doctor.

This was on Thursday 9/06. They said come back in Monday and retest. Meanwhile, they notified CFI and the company RED listed me not able to drive unless I pass the physical. This really had me worried now. We go home for the weekend and then I worry about it the whole time. Monday, I leave Belinda at home taking care of the babies since mama's still in the Hospital. I go to clinic and fail the test again. I then go to the doctor and he pokes, prods, and asks a lot of questions and decides that I have a bladder infection. He writes a letter for me stating that I am being treated with antibiotic to take back to the clinic. They then give me a new health card and I'm back on the road.
I end up getting a run to Minnesota to add another state to my list of states visited. Then it's off to Georgia, up to Boston back down through all the big east coast cities to Philly and finally a run back into Missouri. Belinda still needs to stay home to wait on another test on our Daughter-In-Love, so I'm off to Mission TX and 100 degree days!!!
Finally I get a load out of Laredo TX to Indy and will be able to pick up my true Love on the way there. This Saturday the 29th we'll be back together :)

OH, by the way, if your ever in Boston and go into the Harbor tunnel (the Big Dig) be prepared that thing is huge and has interchanges in it. Just blew me away. I seen tunnel ahead and expected to go into tunnel, come out of tunnel. I've done it that way all over the country. NOT in Boston. You see, I really don't make notes of where I need to turn since I use GPS navigation. GPS does NOT work under ground, hehehe, took me totally by surprise. There are several interchanges in that tunnel and I just happened to get the correct lane that took me from I-93 to I-90 west. Whooo, that was a close one, I almost ended up in China Town in Central Boston!

Living the Dream and Loving IT

2007-09-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Could you guess we're in Kansas? We went to a town in Iowa named Pella. We delivered our wood molding to Pella window company. We got there on Monday afternoon and got a spot at a small Casey's truck stop just a couple of blocks from our delivery. Walked into town, about 2 miles to the actual downtown, and got a pasta supper at a small cafe. They had a big Dutch windmill in town, and the tourist info booth on the square was shaped like a windmill and one of the banks was too. A guy we talked to while we were checking out the town square said in the spring they have a tulip festival that we need to see. They had wooden shoes on display in a little shop. All the stores were closed so I couldn't do any shopping for my Emily and Cody. I thought the shoes would be such a cute idea. : ) Made our delivery Tuesday morning and got a dispatch to run up above Des Moines at Ames to pick up a load of empty water bottles to bring down here to Wichita for this morning. Ricky's trainer, Jerry, was passing through Ames on his way to El Paso just as we were leaving, so we ran the run together as far as the toll road down here in Kansas. It was nice having company on a night run. We came on up to a service plaza close to our delivery and got lucky to find a spot to shut down, at such a late time of the night, and got to come on in this morning for an earlier delivery and are now sitting waiting for another job. It's been a good month. We've really seen some pretty places and made some good money this time out. Ricky has now driven 91,000 miles since he went to work for CFI. He said he is glad he made the decision to make this change in our lives. I'm so glad to see him happy again. We have put in to go home, so hopefully we will get a load back towards Joplin from here. Just gonna take a couple of days off, we need to check up on the house and get some hugs... : ) to refresh for another trip out. Catch ya'll up later.

Living our Dream... Belinda and Ricky

2007-09-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

HELLO AGAIN

Sorry it's been so long. We've not been in a computer friendly environment apparently. The signals for our phones and computers and even my TV haven't been worth a toot. We delivered our furniture in OK City last Monday morning. Then we got a great run. Picked up some shocks and struts out from OK City and guess to go where.... yessssss... Oregon!! We had so much fun seeing firsts together again. We went through Idaho to get into Oregon. We have now been to 40 states together. We went through the upper east corner of Utah this time, saw a different tip of the Great Salt Lake.. just a little piece out from Ogden. There is a beautiful pass through the mountains there. Oregon was kinda bland in places on hwy 20, till we drove along the Snake river and till we came down into this valley from a mountain to where we delivered.. Prineville was the towns name, a small cute little town. We delivered on Thursday, and picked up a load Friday morning in the same town to take to Pella, Iowa. So we are on our way there now, we have to be there Tuesday morning. There have been sooo many trucks on the road this Labor Day weekend.. but have seen very few Highway Patrols, to my surprise.
Gonna go for now, hopefully I can get this to post without losing it.

Dreamin our Dream... Belinda and Ricky

2007-08-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

HOME AGAIN

Gee, just looked at my last post. Didn't realize it has been almost a week since I posted. The time has went by fast. So let's see, we didn't get to clean the truck.. came a gully washer Monday morning, so we held up in the truck, but did get out to get a shower. The truck had to wait. We didn't have to deliver till 6:00pm and the delivery was just an exit away. Got unloaded and went right back to the same exit, different truckstop. We got a dispatch to go on to Clinton, OK and do a drop and hook for the next morning. Back to Laredo, TX.. seems like home. Was an easy pickup and go, and off we went, stopped at a Cherokee Trading Post on our way down, took some pictures, had a great lunch, and shopped a little. Ricky bought me some cute earrings, and a pair of moccasins. He loves me :) We drove on to Denton, TX for our stop. Then on into Laredo. Got to the CFI yard and our delivery wasn't till the next morning. Ricky went on the board when we first got there, we were number 38. So Showers and laundry and off to bed. Got up Friday morning and off to a ghetto WalMart Distribution Center. The lot was full of holes and was in the middle of nowhere. Did a drop and hook, kinda... backed the trailer to the dock and left it to be unloaded, and we picked up an empty trailer in the yard, and while we were doing all this we got a call to come to dispatch for a load. We were 24 on the board when we left the yard, we thought we'd probably be waiting all day for a dispatch. We got a load to go to Illinois... just above Chicago... but doesn't deliver till Monday. We got our stuff together and hooked up and took off. We got to Joplin to fuel and got the truck and trailer tagged for a download of the computer, and repairs to the trailer we picked up... we had not planned to stay in Joplin for the night... thought we were gonna make it on to Springfield and sleep in our own bed.... best laid plans... So, we decided to do a reset there, visit with some friends, and I came home today by myself. Our son went out of town on business, and I thought I'd help with the grand kids since I was so close. Ricky is going on to Illinois by himself early in the morning. Our anniversary is next Saturday... so when he drops this load he is gonna hi-light for home... hoping to make it for the weekend and our 34th anniversary. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
We did get the truck cleaned out with this free time.. :) in Joplin. Poor Paco though... Ricky went to take him out for his morning potty... and when he jumped on the step up Ricky shut the truck door on the tip of his tail.... he let out a holler... I told Ricky I guess it would probably be like shutting it on one of our fingers. He's got it straight so I'm assuming its not broke. It bled just a little. Ricky hugged him up and told him he was sorry. Hopefully he won't hold it against him...
Gonna go for now... Ricky is suppose to call me later, catch you up soon.

Dreamin our Dream...Belinda and Ricky

2007-07-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

COWBOY KNOWLEDGE

Had a nice time together today. We are at a truck stop on the northeast corner of OK City, staged for our delivery tomorrow. We decided on the Cowboy Museum for our treat today. Started to go to the zoo, but it's really hot today, and I'm concerned about Ricky. He's having some pain in his back. We can't decide if it's another kidney stone or his back muscle spasming. Since the museum was air conditioned and it is a common interest of ours... called a cab and off we went. It was a lot of fun. All aspects of cowboys.. movies, rodeos, military, and ranching. We were there for several hours but didn't get to read all the information in that length of time. It would take 2 days to take in all the knowledge they had for all the exhibits. It was just something we have shared in all the years we have been married, the western channel is on alot at our house when we are home.
Tomorrow..cleaning day for the truck before our delivery and then a nap so we will be ready to go again. Will catch you up later.

Dreamin together...Belinda and Ricky

2007-07-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

WAITING TIME

Got to West Memphis last night. Was a really good day. Had a great breakfast at Kelly's Plaza in Greenwood, La., enjoyed the back roads going on to Little Rock. Ran into some pretty heavy rain there. Made it on over to Nick's for a late lunch, early supper. Was good as always. We gotta go on a fast now, too much food. : )
There are alot of drivers here, we dropped the trailer and Ricky got on the board, number 13 last night. We got our showers and then I did laundry. Wanted to get in bed in case we had to leave early...well, we were #11 when we got up this morning. Loads aren't moving too fast. It's 10:00am and we're still here. Don''t know what place we're in right now. I've got videos playing on t.v. Ricky's visiting with drivers, and there are more and more coming in the yard. Glad we got on the board last night.
Guess I'll go for now...catch you up later.....Belinda
We finally got a dispatch : ) Not a good one, but at least it was west and not northeast, where what few that had left, went. We came to Little Rock,AR to rescue a load from a driver that needed to go home. We can't deliver it though till 6:00pm Monday. Gee, no miles, no money. This sitting is getting kinda old. Gonna watch a little t.v. and get a nap. I've got one of my headaches tonight.
Catch ya'll later....

Dreamin our Dream......Belinda and Ricky

2007-07-19T18:32:00.001-07:00

BYE BYE TEXAS

We are on our way out, finally. We got a dispatch about 10:00 Tuesday nite to pick up a load in Austin, TX at 1:00pm on Wednesday, and guess where it had to go.... Laredo, TX. for 6:00pm the same night. We had plenty of sleep, that's for sure. We took a different highway down from San Angelo and got some different scenery. Saw a lot of goats and pecan orchards and crete myrtles, pretty pink, red, and purple ones... didn't expect all the pecan trees. Thought of pecans being from more south like in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. I had picked a many of them up out from under the trees in my grandmothers yard as a kid, in Mississippi. Stopped at a picnic area and read a historical marker. There were a lot of them scattered all along the roads, but no time to read them all. The one we read was about the indians using the hills around there to send smoke signals, and how the pioneer women tried to stay safe from the indians by putting out their fires and being quiet. Well, we got caught up in rain, traffic, and an accident after we picked up the new trailer, between Austin and San Antonio. So we didn't get there till 8:30pm. The load didn't have to be delivered to the broker till 9:00 Thursday morning. Ricky had enough time to go ahead and get on the board, so we got assigned a new load, so we didn't have to stay and deliver there in Laredo. Got a relay load to West Memphis at the CFI yard, to be delivered Monday by someone. So after a really long day, I took off for the showers to take a long, hot, relaxing one. Ricky started to hand me a key to the truck, I laughed and told him I knew he'd be through before me and he'd be back to the truck before me. :) :) and I was right. :) :) There he was on the computer already.
The load doesn't have to be in Memphis till Saturday morning at 6:00. So we left this morning at 9:00 and are in a small town not far from the Louisianna line. Gonna go on in to Arkansas, with a stop a Nick's BarBQue, on the other side of Little Rock, for lunch, and on into West Memphis. We are running low on hours, so we will be at the CFI yard for the night for sure tomorrow. I think it will be laundry time again. Since I won't have to be rushed, maybe another loooong shower : )
I'm off to bed, catch you up later.

Dreamin our Dream... Belinda and Ricky

2007-07-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

IT'S HOTTTT IN TEXAS

Mannnn, It's hot here!!! We were in and out of Laredo in record time. Didn't get a good load :( would you believe... back to Temple! For a Monday delivery at 2:00pm. Went back to Trucker's Heaven, the truck stop we had just left, was just a mile from the delivery..plastic cups. Got up Monday morning, went in a little early, got out at 2:00 instead of in, went to wait on a new dispatch. Got a load to be picked up in Houston at 10:00pm...beer.. to go to San Angelo, Tx., just 400 miles away. Was hoping for a day trip and got a night one, puts us in a night driving cycle and I hate that. Ricky hates it too cause I'm so spastic in the dark. My surgery left me with bad side effects for being a passenger at night. I try to be good. So we get to San Angelo at 7:30am and Ricky didn't kill me on the way, delivered the beer and headed for a small truck stop just around the corner, and went straight to bed. We had the air conditioner turned way up, the thermometer said 103 degrees. Slept for a couple of hours, woke up for a short time, laid down to try for some more sleep, cause Ricky was going back on the board at 6:00pm. Well, we're awake again, and still no dispatch, and it's almost 8:00pm. Just as we lay down again... if we can make ourselves go to sleep again.. the durn computer will go off. Maybe we can pretend to be asleep now and fool it into going ahead with with a dispatch...Hmmmmm.. :)
Forgot to tell you.... We went to bed Sunday night with Ricky being a CFI driver, woke up to him being a Conway driver. CFI sold the company to Conway and had the computer going off Monday morning telling us to check the web site for some exciting news.. The deal won't be final till September, and they are telling us it will be great for the drivers..Keep your fingers crossed.. hopefully better insurance and shorter wait time for loads, and longer loads.
Welllll, guess I'll sit and listen to the CFI CEO with Ricky on the XM radio show with Bill Mack about all this buy out stuff., hoping for a load soon.... catch you up later.....

Dreamin our dream...Belinda and Ricky

2007-07-13T05:45:00.000-07:00

BACK TO WORK

Time goes by quicker at home, than it does when you are trying to get there. Got the relay done, and got to Joplin Wednesday night. Ricky got some things done Thursday morning in the CFI yard and finally got home that night. Slipped in and went to bed. Felt good to not have a schedule for a few days. Called Jay and Jenn Friday ,and took them out to eat with Cody and Emily, to Fazoli's, I like their spaghetti and breadsticks. Emily is talking up a storm now. She is so funny; she copies everything Cody does. Saturday, took Kelly, Brian, Holly, and the dogs(Kelly's lab, Hannah, and our Paco) to Hawg Wild Bar-B-Que in Aurora for some good eating and then to Flat Creek to play in the water and let the dogs swim. It was a lot of fun. Was gonna take the canoes out but with all the rain they have been getting, we were afraid the rivers would be to dangerous for now. The beaches at some of the lakes were closed, there has been some flooding in alot of the areas. Sunday, Ricky and I got up and made a quick trip to Panera's for bagels and Dillon's for juices and cream cheese. Kelly and Brian were leaving to go back to Ohio. So we had Jay, Jenn, Cody, Emily,Kelly, and Brian for a small breakfast. Started that day off good. Cody stayed with me for a while..playing games on the t.v. and coloring. He doesn't like me being gone so much. Time flew from then. Visited some more with Holly on Monday, went Square Dancing on Tuesday nite and left from there to get our stuff and drive on over to Joplin and get set back up to leave. Got in the bed finally at 3:00am. Ricky went ahead and got on the board when we first got there so we had a load by 10:00am...going to Wisconsin, just out from Milwaukee. A light load of plastic cups.. :) Had to be there Thursday at 6:00pm. We got there at 5:00..an hour early. So Ricky backed to the dock and laid down for a nap...we were to pick up a new load 30 miles up the road at Allenton at 10:00pm. An hour later he woke and they hadn't started unloading us. They thought we had dropped the trailer and left..duh..no..it's a live unload. So long story short.. was 9:30 when they were through. Ricky gets us on up to Allenton..few minutes past 10:00pm, and they aren't ready with the full order.. so our hours run out and we sleep in their lot till morning. Now we are on our way to Laredo, TX. Drove all the way to Springfield just in time for Ricky's hours to be up. Jenn and the kids picked us up from the truck and took us to our house for a shower and to sleep in our own bed for the night. Jay got up early this morning to give us a ride back... We have some really great kids!!! Stopped in Joplin to fuel., have to go through the inspection bay as you go in ...shock needs tightened and tires need rotated on trailer..so that means we use up a couple of hours there.. we have made it to Temple,TX for the night and will knock this trip out in the morning. Hoping for a good run out with some good miles. When you take off a few days, makes the check short if you get short runs instead of a long trip. The run from Wisconsin to Tx helped, a long run out will help. O.K. now , I've tried to catch you up..sorry not too much excitement so far this week.. gonna get a nap for now, catch you all later..

Dreamin of retirement.. :) Belinda

2007-07-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

HURRY UP AND WAIT

O.K. so we go to get unloaded in Terre Haute, our appointment was for 5:00pm, we get there at 4:30 and they let us on in :) we get to the dock and it takes 2 hours to unload half a trailer load. Man, I'm glad it wasn't full. Then we get dispatched to go to the Pilot in Indianapolis for a relay to Joplin. They tell us the relay is set for 9:30pm and we get almost to Indianapolis and get a message the relay is now for 2:00 tomorrow. Apparently the other truck had some problems and got delayed. Eventually we will get in Joplin, looks like in the wee hours of the morning Thursday. So home maybe by Thursday night. I'm afraid to make plans after the last few days. Ricky said he feels like he's been snake bit and bound to die. We need a reset of luck :) He's got a broken headlight, so we went in the Pilot to buy a new one. Thought I'd watch a little t.v. but the reception is too lousy. So we're listening to some wild entertainment on the c.b. You wouldn't believe it.

Dreamin beside each other at 65 mph.....Belinda

2007-07-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

BEST LAID PLANS...

You know when you think you have a plan all ready to execute....you can count on something going wrong! So we walked down to a little restaurant for a quick burger, got back to the truck, and had a great surprise..our son, Jay, Jenn and the grandkids, Cody and Emily, had been in Tenn. and were on their way home, going by where we were sitting , by about 10 miles. So they made a side trip and came for a short visit (since they still had about a four hour drive to make, it had to be short), got some good hugs and kisses and Cody got his picture taken up in his pawpaw's truck seat. After they left, we got a short nap, and took off to Pocahontas, IL, just 50 miles away. Got there, dropped our trailer...hooked up the relay..did the pretrip..which includes pulling up to check the brakes..and two wheels were locked up on the trailer..and it's 3:00am..Ricky does all he knows to do, which is alot, see he's very smart :) and they are still locked..has to call in and then get road service..they get there about 4:30..he gets a biggg hammer and beats on one and finally gets it loose. The other has a broken brake disc that has the wheel locked, they get pieces out and loose enough to get us to the shop. This is about 5:30, and the shop and parts store doesn't open till 8:00am..so the mechanic goes home, we go back to bed. Got a little longer nap. The guy comes back at 8:00 and we finally get out at 10:30. Our relay time was for 8:00 that morning..we were late...the office was to take care of all that..dispatched us for a new time of 2:30et, 1:30ct, our time, got there at 1:00ct, they wouldn't unload us..no appointment. So Ricky calls the dispatch, and they are working on it. We sat for 3 hours on the side of the road waiting to hear something. Ricky calls the contact number for the company and they say the girl that does the setups, went home at 2:00et, which is 1:00ct, which is when we got there..and that meant, no delivery till maybe tomorrow. So after 3 hours with no amenities, Ricky calls dispatch, tells them we are going up the road to find a Pilot, and wait for an appointment. Got here just in time..spots are almost gone. got a bite to eat, took showers and played on the computers and went to bed. So the pick up for the preplan to take on to Joplin went out the window...and here we sit at the Pilot waiting and hoping we will not be sitting here till after the 4th. Guess I'll get out my blanket I'm crocheting and put a movie in the dvd and relax...I'd rather we were on our way home.. :( Fill you in later.....

This isn't the way our dream played out a couple of nights ago...Belinda

2007-07-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

TIME FLIES WHEN YOUR ON THE ROAD

Geeezz, looked at my last post, didn't realize it was from Tuesday and it,s Sunday already : ) So let's see..left the crazy truckstop and drove on into Laredo, got there about 9:30 Wednesday night. Ricky dropped the trailer, went to check in, and got a new load to take to Fairburn, GA. A trailer load of bowl cleaner and paste wax, of all things, and Fairburn is just outside of Ricky's favorite town....Atlanta...aagainnn, so off to get a quick shower and a nap. Drove through some heavy rain on our way out of Texas, the roads were flooding in several places. They shut down 59 hwy behind us after we drove through a flooded part. We drove to Frog City truckstop out from Lafayette, got a bite to eat, did laundry and went to bed. Drove on into Fairburn and got there two hours early. They said they would unload us when they could, but not before Ricky's hours would be up. So we dropped the trailer at the dock and parked in the lot for the night. Got up saturday morning..and guess what..still not unloaded..arghhhhh..had to wait alittle longer. So unloaded and now off to Macon, Ga to pick up a loaded trailer to take to Centralia, IL. Got this heavy..78,000 lb load of paper on rolls to bring up the mountains.
Monteagle was fun. Crawled up and jaked it down. Paco hates the jake brake. At least ours has a good muffler on it. The high pitch does a job on Paco's ears. Just after we got into IL , we had a good scare, all of a sudden , there was a air hose noise, Ricky got stopped on the shoulder of the hwy, thinking we were gonna lose our brakes, a hose came shooting out from under his chair, spraying air and waving like a snake. His seats have an adjustment where you raise them up or down with air lines, and his came loose. It had great timing. Like to have given us both a heart attack. When we recovered and got back in the busy traffic, we got on into our delivery 3 hours early and got unloaded but since we are running on a ragged book...we are out of hours again. Sitting in there lot taking a 10 hour break. Have to go to Pocahontas, IL in the wee hours..leaving here at 1:00am.to pick up a loaded trailer in the CFI dropyard to take and deliver in Terre Haute, IN. about 8:00 in the morning and then pick up a load somewhere there to take to Joplin, after another 10 hour break. Some times these hour of service rules are as dumb as a box of rocks. I think we will finally pick up enough hours after midnight Monday to get us on into Joplin, but we will have to drive after midnight and get into the yard about noon Tuesday, but then we will be off for 5 days. We have been out for about 5 weeks. So off to bed for a nap for a busy day tomorrow. I'll be glad to be home.

Off to do some short dreamin tonight...Belinda

2007-06-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

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.. :) ...

2007-06-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

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???? :)

2007-06-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

BOILED PEANUTS ANYONE?

You can't go to Georgia and not eat boiled peanuts. They were my daddy's favorite snack. On our way to Henderson, we stopped at a road side market and got some hot, fresh,boiled peanuts, some peaches, and tomatoes. I called my mama on the phone and told her to guess what I was doing, of course she couldn't, told her I was riding in the Georgia hills eating boiled peanuts. She just had to laugh. :) It's hard to find places like that, that you can park a big truck. There was another place we stopped at too, just north of Albany, Stripling's General Store, it has a web site...www.striplings.com they have some great gift baskets. We had one sent to our daughter, Kellly for her birthday, which is tomorrow, Happy,Happy Birthday my Kelly girl, we love you!!!

Then we stopped at a truckstop in Dunn, NC for breakfast, where a friend of Ricky's lives, and had him come visit with us for a quick bite. After a nice visit, off we went to deliver our load, at a Rose's distribution center, didn't know there were any of those stores still open, and we were off again. Off to Charlotte, NC to pick up a load to Oklahoma City. After we loaded, Ricky's hours were up and we had to stay there for 10 hours to pick up more time to run on. We decided to walk to a Chinese restaurant about a mile away and have supper, it was alright, not really worth the walk for the food, but we had fun taking the walk together. Sleeping in the lot of the business had it's plus..no other trucks..so it was a good quiet night. We got orders to bring this load into West Memphis instead of going on to OK, driving up through the north part of NC was beautiful, we drove close to Sylva,NC, and that's where Ricky's brother lives. He gave Pete a call and said hello, told him we'd stop for a visit another time, had to get on our way this time. We were hoping to come on home from there, but it seems we will have a bit of a run around first. We got a relay in TN to take to Pocahontas,IL and now we will be leaving in the morning taking a delivery from here to Ottawa,KS . Keeping our fingers crossed that then we'll be on our way home for a couple of days.

I guess I'll shut 'er down for the night, Ricky said we'll be leaving about 2 in the morning and it's almos 7:30 now....gezzzzz.....sometimes the nights aren't long enough!!!!! till next time....live your dream....time goes by quickly!!!!

2007-05-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

TIME FOR A CHANGE?

How about a new author? Ricky is trying me out as the new story teller. I hope I don't let him down. I have been out with him now for almost 3 months, when he left off last we were in Chicago. The delivery went really well for the location. We had a great view of the Sears Tower from where we were. I am so proud of Ricky being able to dock this big truck and trailer. Some builders really need to sit in a truck drivers seat before they design a dock. If a company's focus is on safety and having no accidents then room in a docking area should be a priority.
Oh well...no more ranting..by the way, they have big rats in Chicago..in the dirt between the sidewalks and the street were some big holes, Ricky took Paco to pottie and saw rats as big as the dog stick heads out. When we have a better connection I'll have Ricky post those pictures he promised. I'm not a great picture taker, but I try.

Well, let's see..we left Chicago for South Bend, IN. and then to Chattanooga, TN, and New Johnsonville, TN, and Laredo, TX, and Hammer, SC, which was fun, we had a day off and spent it there at a place called South of the Border, we plan to take the grand kids there one day, I wanted to play mini golf, but they didn't have the park open yet. So, a few souvenirs for the kids and on our way again to Statesville, NC, and Bensalem, PA, and York, PA, and Sparta, MI, and Muskegan, MI, and Taylor, MI, and Girard, OH, and then to Columbus, OH, for a day off at our daughter, Kelly's, house. This was our first trip to where she lives since she moved from Missouri. She took us shopping and out to eat and then to her favorite ice cream shop for a treat. We drove down the highway by where she works, on our way to the yard where we left the truck, and Ricky was talking to her on the phone, and when we got to where she was, she got to the window and saw us go by in the truck, it was so cool, she was just a laughing, and saying, I see you...We miss her a lot since she moved, but we are so proud of her and her accomplishments.

O.K. so, from there we go to Delaware, OH, and Smyrna, DE, and then, oh no, Staten Island, NY, apprehensive and hopeful for a easy trip in, off we go, and thank goodness it's Sunday, and the traffic was perfect, not to busy!! Got to see the Empire State Building again from way off as we left out for Valparaiso, IN, and that was fine with me..then on to Kout, IN, and Delano, PA, and Green, NY, and Brownsburg, IN, and Pocahontas, IL, and then a perfect run..Springfield, MO, for a layover delivery, on Mother's Day weekend, We parked close enough to our house, that we walked home. We got to surprise our kids and grandkids and I had a perfect Mother's Day!!!!
O.K. so off we go again....to Joplin, Mo, and Lamar, MO, and lo and behold.. to Brookhaven, MS, got to see my mama {hee,hee} had her to come to the truckstop and we had breakfast together and I stayed and visited with her while Ricky made his delivery. See more of my family now then I did for a long time. Wasn't a long visit ,but was a good one, any time I can get a hug from my mama!!

Now, let's see, off to Columbus, MS, and then to Brownsville, TX, wow, what a good run. Got to see where all the Snow Birds go, not much of a view on the way down, kinda repetitious, a lot warmer than where we have been for a while though- thank goodness. Then to Jacksonville, FL, that was some nice sights.Had been about 11 or 12 years since I had been there, our oldest son, Daniel, was stationed at Cecil Field, just out of Jacksonville, and I went to see him before he left on his first 6 month cruise on the USS Enterprise. He was in the Navy for 10 years, and now lives in Texas.

Sooooo, let's see, this is almost over...I promise....then to Lee, FL, and Columbus, GA, and Albany, GA, and now on our way to Henderson, NC, We've had a nice rest today waiting for our hours to refresh. We are having a great time together, feels like we are on a long camping trip sometimes. We have always spent most of our time together, he worked 7 off and 7 home for years in the oilfield, and we owned a business for years, where we were together 24/7 and now we are back 24/7 and haven't tried to kill each other yet, so we are meant to be together.

I hope I haven't bored you to death yet. I hope to get better at this with practice. I'm open to suggestions...until next time.{ hopefully, I will update quicker, nooooo promises}

2007-04-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

A MILD IRISH DAY IN RHODE ISLAND

We finally got away from Joplin last Monday with a load to Hammond, IN. Hammond is a Chicago suburb on the east side. We had plenty of time on this load and delivered it as promised. We then accepted an assignment that took us to Lincoln, RI. WooHoo... Look out New York and Connecticut we're coming thru to get to Providence. Lincoln is a part of this beautiful old city.

Wouldn't you know it... Rhode Island has not had a snow storm all winter. Let us come up here for a visit and we get the first Blizzard this year.

We are having a great time and enjoying each other as we travel America. It even looks as though Belinda is happy waving from the drivers seat of the Big Red truck.

We are now taking a break waiting for road conditions to improve before we head back across the Hudson to complete our new assignment of delivering an old trailer in exchange for a new one in Lafayette, IN. CFI is really good about keeping our equipment current.

Untill next time.....

Living our Dream

2007-03-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

BELINDA IS ON THE TRUCK

She sure looks good sitting up there with our fearless protector.

Just a quick update to let you know that I have picked up Belinda and we have moved into our truck together. I got home this past Friday night and quickly got a few things done over the weekend. Belinda and I left Sunday evening to get things placed in the truck and spent the night on the Joplin yard so we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing Monday morning to start seeing America. It is now almost 6:00 PM and we are still sitting here waiting to get started. Seems there is not much freight moving out of the Joplin area right now and we just have to wait our turn for a load.

She looks pretty good walking across the yard too.

Maybe our adventure will start tonight or sometime in the morning. We are ready to roll, so stay tuned for more.

Living the Dream

2007-03-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

When I last updated, I was still in the Dallas area. I know, I know, I'm not doing a good job of keeping ya'll up to date with where I'm at or what's going on with us.

Anyway, I got a relay load right out of Lancaster with a load of salt to Springfield Missouri no less. It was a very heavy load running over 45 thousand pounds. But I guess as you can see by a few of my pictures, Springfield really needed the salt to help out with the ice clean up.

I took off a few days to patch holes in the roof of our mobile home and cut up some of the trees that had fallen on our house and yard. I road around town a bit and the whole city was a mess. Belinda said we had no electricity for about a week. I just can't imagine all the noise she heard as the trees were snapping and coming down on our house and yard.

I left Springfield on Jan 20 to grab a load in Monett and take it up to KIRKSVILLE,MO, from there took me to BURLINGTON,IA . I took that load to GORDONSVILLE,VA. I then had to run down to Richmond and pick up a load headed for ST JOHNS,MI. Of course this took me right into the Lake effects snow and I had snow about half of that trip. I just thought I had driven in the snow up to this point. My next assignment was to go pick up a HEAVY load in MUSKEGON,MI and take it down to Cincinnati, OH. Oh my God! I got down to Kellog City (Battle Creek, MI) ok, and needed to take my 10 hour break. When I got up there was a light dusting of snow on the truck and I headed out. As I eased along south, the snow got heavier. And heavier, and heavier! At one point, I could only use the ditches to guide me and keep me in the road. I would have pulled over and parked to wait it out, but there was no where to stop. I slogged on and was about ready to just attempt to stop on the shoulder when I was finally able to see the center line again most of the time. Then the salt trucks decided that maybe a little road clean up was in order and things got a bit better. Needless to say, it was a very interesting night of driving.
From there, I relayed a load from Cincinnati, to Columbus, OH so that a team could run it on to it's destination. Our daughter Kelly lives in Columbus and she took off a bit early to come have a short visit with me in my truck. I had already been assigned another relay load to pick up there and run down to Pocohontas, IL. Part of all this relay assignments was to also help me. Belinda and I had a party we wanted to attend coming up on Febuary 3rd and I had requested to go home.
I now got my assignment to get me home. I ran over to St. Louis and picked up a reloaded trailer to relay to Joplin headed for Calexico, CA. Darn I've been waiting on a load like this to get me out of the north east and let me see some of the western states. All I was going to do was take it to Joplin and some other lucky driver gets to take it to California. This sounds like a nice little short run to get me home. It ended up being one of the worst drives I have made so far. The place I had to drop and hook was like a mess and very hard to negotiate in. Of course ice on the lots made it even tougher. When I backed under the trailer, I thought it was empty. I opened the doors and could not see anything. This was about 2 in the morning and dark. I went back to the cab and got my flashlight and then saw my load. It was one piece of equipment sitting right up in the nose of my 53 foot trailer and weighed only 1000 pounds. Any other day this would be a dream load to haul, but today was not that day. I was treating my throttle like it was an egg and I didn't want to break it. You see there was black ice off and on from St. Louis until I got almost to Springfield. There were several big rigs and cars off in the median and ditches. There was a bad wreck under the overpass at Strafford that required life flight ect...
I'm watching all of this as I head west for Joplin to take my days off. I was giving the throttle a feather touch and still broke traction and had a power skid several times as I pulled the hills of Missouri. One time I had tractor in one lane and trailer was still in the other. Yes, the crease in the seat got more and more built in as I moved west. The truck, load, and myself finally arrived safely in Joplin and I had a very enjoyable visit with my wife and friends.

February the 5th sees me back on the road. I get a nice long run to Bridgewood, NY. Almost 1300 miles one way. Guess where Bridgewood is??? I should have gotten my map out and looked before I accepted this one. You see, when we are in the Joplin terminal, we are normally offered a choice of what ever loads are available. I took the longest one!!! After I got back to the truck and found Bridgewood, I was having regrets. You see Bridgewood sits right where Queens and Brooklyn meet in NEW YORK CITY!!!! The drive there was great, but the night mare began soon after I crossed the Manhattan bridge. This delivery was about 4 miles off the interstate and my directions were no good. They led me down streets designed for horses and wagons back in the 18th century. I came to streets with signs that said "CARS ONLY" and had no idea of how to get around them, so I went down them anyway. A 53 foot trailer and over the road tractor is no place for this city, but we must delivery there every now and then anyway. At the consignee, I had to block traffic for about an hour while I used all the street and sidewalks to persuade my trailer to get inside the building where they had a dock hidden. Finally, I get it there and unload. When I leave, I have an assignment to pick up across the Hudson on the New Jersy side. It's only a 28 mile dispatch and they give me an hour to get there. It's now 5pm in New York and I am to drive 28 miles in 1 hour. Of course I'm late and operations keep sending messages to me about being late. 4 and 1/2 hours later, I reach my destination.
The best thing about going to New York is LEAVING :)
I pull this load down to Louisa, VA and then deadhead to Richmond for a load going to Alachua, FL. It sure was nice to get out of the ice, snow and cold. This assignment allowed me plenty of time and I was able to stop in Dunn, NC to visit with a friend of mine that I have only known by Internet communication and telephone. And it was my Birthday no less. He took me out for a fine steak dinner and we had a great visit.
Now I knew it would happen sooner or later. I've been told about them, read about them, but so far have not seen or heard from them. And in DUNN, North Carolina, I least expected it! A small quite southern town.
But this is where I was approached by my first "Lot Lizard"
I've stayed at truck stops all over the big cities and even on the "South side of Chicago" and in the small town of Dunn is where I had my first encounter. LOL
Freight is rather slow coming out of Florida, but not for me. I am assigned right away to run over to Jacksonville to grab a load that is needed in Selma, NC. Then it's off to Raleigh to load up for Greenville, IL. Deadhead to Mt. Vernon, IL for a load headed for Atlanta, Ga. I hit Atlanta on early Friday evening and the traffic is horrendous. This was taken to our drop yard that is located on the south side of Atlanta. I then had to go back thru Atlanta and pick up a few miles north at Cartersville, GA for a load headed to Rockledge, FL. This of course meant going back south thru Atlanta again for the 3rd time.
Florida was interesting negotiating all the tolls thru the Orlando area to get me over on the East coast for Rockledge. A short run from ther for Palatka, FL to pick up a new load took me back to the north east. A delivery was required in North Andover, MA. A tea party was in order as this is a northern suburb of Boston. From there it was off to Providence, RI for my first really Over the road long haul trucking. Not that the last load wasn't bad at over 1200 miles, but this one is the kind I have been waiting for. 2700 miles to Nogales, AZ!!! YeeHaw, I'm trucking with the big boys now! A few days later I'm in Nogales, make the delivery and get assigned right away with a load for Buford, GA. Look out Atlanta! Clear the streets because, I'm on my way back!!

As I sit now getting a reset on my log book, I am assigned from Buford, to pick up a load in the morning at Calhoun, GA destined for Seymour, IN

Whew!!!! That was long and I'm now out of breath, so I'll quit for now and hopefully, I won't get this far behind again. By the way, the only states left for me to visit east of the Mississippi are Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. I've got special plans for Maine ;) but only my wife can know about that.

Oh Yeah, somewhere in one of those trips, I missed a turn in Washington D.C. and figured I could just continue north on I-395 and continue my trip on the north side of D.C.
Wrong!!! I'm too tall for the tunnel and ended up screaming like a little girl for someone to help me get this truck out of Washington. A very nice driver stopped up ahead and waited for me to get my truck moving and he led me out. I owe him a BIG steak dinner if we ever meet again out on the open road. It was a very scenic route that I took and I got a close up view of the Washington monument, the White house, and even drove right by Arlington Cemetary. I may go back, but you can bet your sweet arse, that it won't be in a big rig.

Belinda worked her last day this past Friday and I will soon be working my way back home to pick her up. This is what I've been working toward the whole time. Getting her back by my side to spend our time together. I'm really looking forward for us to see spring bloom all across America as we travel the interstates and hiways together.

Untill next time, I'm living my dream.

2007-01-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

A NON TYPICAL DAY IN CENTRAL TEXAS

I had a load assingment to get me closer to home since I have requested time to go help clean up the damage from the Ice Storm that hit Missouri. This trip turned out to be very much a work out for a rookie driver. My air ride driving seat will never be the same again. I think it has a permanent crease in the middle after today.
I left Laredo headed for Dallas Sunday with an early Monday morning delivery time. I shut down and notifed operations that I was holding up for the weather. I started hitting a bit of ice about 1:00 in the morning and said I would attempt to continue in the daylight. I had to hole up for 8 hours in order to split my sleeper berth time to stop my 14 hour clock so I could continue to drive. I had only made it up to Temple TX. Anyway I left out of Temple at 9:00 am and immediatly started hitting icy slick spots. It only got worse as I went north. The Ice front had moved down into the Waco area with a vengence. It does not make a rookie feel very confident when he eases past 4 wrecked 18 wheelers. Also passed a wrecked straight box truck and numerous 4 wheelers. I even witnessed a pickup truck spin out on the oppisite side of the interstate as I was venturing north. I made it to Lancaster where we have a terminal and had decided to not go on into Dallas for delivery as the reports I had was that Dallas was even worse. After a two hour break to settle down a bit, the terminal manager here advised me that the roads had improved greatly and I decided to finish my run. It is amazing what the sun will do even in still freezing tempatures. It had only rising to 28 degrees. The roads in Dallas were dry and easiily manipulated. I had to deliver over at the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport.
I am back now in our Lancaster terminal awaiting a new assigment to me home.

I had to take a hammer to my landing gear before I could drop this trailer after hauling it from Laredo, TX to Dallas.

A cold day in Texas makes for some unusual sites.

Oh no a nightmare! I'll get back to the dream tomorrow :)

2007-01-10T17:26:00.000-08:00

BIG WHEELS KEEP ON TURNING

Hi All! Well this will be just a really quick update since I've allready used about two hours out of my 10 hour break for tonight. I've got one thing to say about the new hours of service rules that were put into effect last year. I've seen many drivers complain about especially the 14 hour rule wich forces us to complete our 11 hour driving day within the 14 hour window. IT SUCKS! There are times when a driver is very well rested, but can not drive due to this rule. Example.... You drive only 4 hours to get to a pick up point, but they may not be ready for you. So you lay down in you bunk and take a nap. Say 6 hours of napping. At this point I am very well rested and could make a good run. But you see the day started when you made that first 4 hour run. The 6 hour nap is not a "qualifying" break so you now have eat up 10 hours out of your 14 hour shut down time and can only drive an additional 4 hours. Since your not sleepy yet, you sit up and watch a bit of TV or whatever and don't get your needed 7 or 8 hours of sleep to be ready for the next day. The next day, you need to make that full 11 hours of driving to complete the run but your dead tired about half way thru. See the rule is a stupid rule and we need to make our lawmakers get it changed. Now I like the 11 hour rule... After 11 hours, I guarantee that most any of you are ready for a good nap.

Well I've not even completed two months yet of driving. That's including the time spent with Jerry, my trainer. But I have covered over 14,000 miles and visited 20 states.
I've been to... AL - LA - TX - OK - MO - IL - OH - PA - NJ - MD - CT - WI - NY - DE - KY - TN - WV - IN - MS and AR so far.

Note to self...
DO NOT BLOW BY AN OPEN SCALE HOUSE
It really pisses em off.

Well, got to get to bed, I have a long run from Milwaukee, WI to Laredo, TX and still have almost 1200 miles of it left to run for a Saturday morning delivery time.

WooHoo, I'm not having to head back into the NE.

Living my Dream

2007-01-04T17:10:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Hello to all my Fans.
I'm behind again but will try to bring you all up to date. After spending a wonderful few days with my family for Christmas, it's time to get back to work. This time I left Joplin solo... well almost solo. I have Paco our little 6 pounds of pure terror to keep me company as I travel. We left Joplin, MO headed for Federick, MD to deliver some roofing products. The load was very heavy and the hills in PA really made me work to get over them. Then when I got to Federick to make my first dock all by myself, this is what I had to do....

Here is my truck all backed into place and being unloaded on my first solo run. Do you notice that the trailer is back into a hole with concrete walls down both sides!!.

Here is another view from the side to give you an idea of a tight hole.

From there we left for Winchester, VA to get a new load and take it to Twinsburg, OH. Then it was off to Florence, KY to get a new load for Swedesboro, NJ. Don't let that Kentucky thing fool you. Florence, KY is actually just a southern part of Cincinnati, OH. That is one big city!!!
We went on to Swedesboro, NJ and then had to pick our next load up in Somerville, NJ.
That Somerville load needed to be taken to Milwaukee, WI. The only problem I see with Milwaukee is that You must go thru Chicago to get there. I can truly say that I do not like Chicago!!! I think I had rather go back to Ney York. Well why do I say things like that??? LOL
So they are not sending me back to New York yet, but I am headed for the east cost again. I am to pick up a load in the morning from Sturtevant, WI and take it to Seaford, DE.

So as you can see I have been quite busy. I think I'll go back home about middle of the month to visit with my lovey bride for a day or two.

Mean while here is something I found and then put some thoughts to it.
Paco and I spent one evening at a truck stop in Smithton, PA. I chose this spot since it would let me get up and run the turnpike in the daylight next day. I took Paco for a walk and climbed a grassy hill. Anyway there is a fellow buried there that died in 1818. I'd like to think maybe he was a teamster and ran wagons over these hills. But then across the street was The Filly Corral...
Either way, I figure the guy is quite happy with his resting place. If he was a teamster he is overlooking a large truck stop and can see how things have progressed over the years. And if he wasn't, I'm sure he enjoys seeing the girls over at the Corral. hahahaha

The Filly Corral... Paco kept pulling me toward the Corral, but I finally won over him and got us back to the truck before we got into trouble.

2006-12-24T09:32:00.000-08:00

"I'M LOVIN IT"

Me and Ole Blue, My Trainers Truck

Merry Christmas every one.
Ok, now where did I leave off... Oh Yeah!, I was headed to New York!
This turned out to be a great start. We turned ole Blue north and went a bit out of our way thru Oklahoma City. We did this for a couple of reasons. We have five days to make this 2 1/2 day trip, so we decided to slip by the house and surprise our wives with a visit. The other reason is I can go up to 75 mph on the Oklahoma Turnpike :), and get that visit a bit sooner. We slide into Joplin Friday night and my bride was there waiting on me. (I had called her while on the "Pike" and let her know I was coming in.) She was all dolled up, smelling good, and looking fine when I got there. We took a 34 hour reset since we had the time to reset our clock and enjoyed a day or so with our wives.

Jerry my Trainer and Me ready to leave for New York

Sunday about noon I met Jerry at the old Hoods Truckstop on I-44, kissed my wife goodbye and left out for NewYork City. This trip took me thru St. Louis MO, Effingham IL(Where I actually typed up the past weeks update), Indianapolis IN, Columbus OH, across Pennsylvania, thru New Jersy, and into New York. Ohio... Trucks 55 mph... OMG this was pure torture. PA was just gorgous, drove right thru the Poconos. New Jersy started to pick up with the traffic. We were sitting on the New Jersy turn pike since it was a good place to stage our trip into New York City. This took us just a few miles south of where we needed to enter the city, but there are very very few places you can park a big rig once you leave PA headed east. The turnpike service plaza was very convenient. We were sitting there Tuesday morning about 9:30AM ready to cross over the GW Bridge and go thru the city to get to Long Island. I called our consignee and asked first if he could take us early since we had a Wendsday appointment. I was told that the chances were slim. I then asked if it was possible to park there over night and got a good reply of "We have plenty of parking" and will attempt to off load you this afternoon. So off we went... Crossed the George Washington Bridge and you are immediatly in the Bronx!

George Washington Bridge, New York

All this was pretty interesting for an old country boy. I had driven up to the point of the service plaza on the NJTP, but Jerry said he would take us into the city so that I could look around as we went thru. He told me I would get plenty of experiance since I would be bringing us back out when we left. I snapped a couple of pictures to share with you all. Anyway, long story short, I did not see anything that would scare me away from driving the rig thru the Big Apple. Sure it's crazy, lots of traffic, lots of lanes to pick from as you work the rig around and thru the city, but I still love every minute of it.
We sat at the receiver up untill about 3 PM and was told it would be in the morning before we get unloaded.

Next morning, I finally get a dock assigned and go to back her in. These docks are inside the building. All 42 of them! The only proplem that I see is they were built for trucks that use a day cab and pull 38 or 40 foot trailers. I'm in here with an OTR condo cab tractor and 53 foot trailer! After many attempts and pull ups, it's finally getting close to where it needs to be. The dock forman is getting impatient and Jerry says he'll finish getting it into position just to please the customer. This dock is so tight that we drop the trailer and take the tractor back outside while they unload it so that other trucks can squeak by the front of the trailer to use the other docks.

We leave there with a new load assignment for W. Haven CT. I drive us out of Long Island and about a hundred miles north to our new location. I'm still loving every minute of piloting the rig, even in New York City. The new location was a small company that had a three door dock. Again, they were built for backing a wagon in using horses I think. This was just off of a small two lane street that had a wall oppisite of the docks. I end up pulling up on the sidewalk on the same side of the street as the docks and sort of make a backwards u-turn into the docks. Of course I have the traffic blocked on both lanes of the street and make several pull ups to wiggle ole blue into the docks. Just as soon as I get one lane clear on the street, the cars start pulling around the rig to get on there merry little way. I just continue to watch the traffic and slip my rig on back into the dock. Made a perfect touch down and have the trailer nice and squre to the dock. I sit there and wait on my new load for about and hour when the MobileMax goes off and tells me that this load has been canceled. I walk into the warehouse and he said he just didn't have enough product to fill a trailer yet. So off I go to seek out a truck stop to sit and wait for more orders. Just as I get back on the highway, the MobileMax goes off again with a new load assignment. Jerry won't tell me what it says and only says to find a place to stop the rig and he'll let me figure it out. He then tells me, He does not think we can get there from here. LOL
After I get down to the next truck stop just inside CT, I look and our assignment is to pick up at Lakewood NY. Now this is in what is called "upstate" New York and I have two options to get there. I can either go northeast a bit and then turn back west or I can go south back into the edge of New York and go west. We choose the south route that takes us to state Hwy 17. Now this is the Future I-86 and is pretty good road. It takes me thru the Catskills and Alleganys all the way across the state of New York. I end up actually South of Buffalo down near the PA state line. We pick up a load headed for Calexico CA. If not for takeing some time off for Christmas this would have been a great run. We just take it to Joplin MO so that it can be relayed by another driver.

When we arrive in Joplin I have 8242 miles under my belt and have now qualified to be assigned my own truck. No more chaparone for me. :)
I am assigned a 2005 KenWorth T-600 with C-15 twin turbo Cat engine and 13 speed Tranny. She is a beautifull truck with only 153,000 miles on her. Looks to me like she's just broke in and ready to take care of me as I travel the rest of these United States. After a very through inspection I find a few minor things that I want took care of by our shop as I take my days off. I'm going home for Christmas and Paco and I will be back to accept our new assignment Tuesday morning. Stay tuned.

Living the Dream

2006-12-17T17:15:00.000-08:00

HELLO FROM EFFINGHAM, IL

I promised myself that I would update my journal at least once a week while out on the road. I'm running a bit behind in keeping this promise. I'll try to do better in the future. Maybe in a few months when I get Belinda on board with me, she can help me keep it up.

Ole Blue wanting to get rolling.

For now, let me bring you all up to date. I left Laredo TX headed for Smyrna, TN. This trip took me back thru Austin, Dallas/Ft Worth/Little Rock and Memphis TN. We had spent our second night in W. Memphis with the final leg to take us thru Nashville and down into Smyrna. Just as I pulled out of our West Memphis terminal and pointed across the Mississippi River bridge, Jerry said something ugly and then said he had left his blanket in the dryer at the terminal. Now Jerry is very fond of his blanket. Actually I think he resembles Linus on Charlie Brown and must have his blanket. So I start making plans as I cross the river on how to get him and his blanket back together again. Actually Jerry starts telling me this is practice for when I miss my turn when looking for a customer and it would be good for me. I'm looking for a place during morning rush hour traffic to do a U-turn pulling a 53 foot trailer with an over the road tractor. We spot that "Danny Thomas Blvd" actually makes an over pass of the interstate, so I whip her off on that exit, smartly cross three lanes of traffic and catch the on ramp headed back west across the river. I seem to always hit the major cities at rush hour.

Ok, we now have Jerry and his blanket reunited and I head back across the river and point her east. A few hours later and I'm in Nashville for the first time. I head on south from there and deliver my freight to a small company in Smyrna. I then get a dispatch that send me to Dover TN. I head north thru Nashville about 5 PM that afternoon. Did I mention I love to hit all the major cities during rush hour traffic. I just grin and laugh and love every minute of it. We go north just across the Kentucky state line and spend the night there at a nice Pilot truck stop. Early the next morning I head along a very nice two lane highway that takes me thru the "Land between the Lakes" It was a most enjoyable drive. I pick up my freight at a well tucked away little place in Dover TN headed back to Texas.

The job from Dover was needed in Mansfield TX. This is a suburb of Ft Worth. The morning of my delivery was very foggy. I'd rather drive on ice then I had in fog. Anyway that delivery went well and we had a dispatch to pick up north of Ft Worth in Roanoke TX. Actually, the day before I had called Lancaster TX terminal since they handle the Dallas/Ft Worth area and explained that I was a student driver in training and had not yet been challenged with area that I had driven for the past two weeks. I said I needed some East coast or mountain driving experience while I had a trainer on the truck with me. So he pre planned me a load from Roanoke TX to Farmingdale NY. I had no idea where Farmingdale was but gladly accepted the load and then looked to see where it was. NEW YORK! BIG TIME! Whoo Hooo, I'm going to New York, Not just New York, but the big Apple itself. Yep, Farmingdale just happens to be on Long Island and my trip plan is telling me to go across the George Washington Bridge, across the Bronx and on to Long Island where I will find my customer in Farmingdale. I should be there Tuesday and hope to get unloaded then. My expected time of arrival is actually Wednesday morning, but I may get lucky. My next post will tell of the experience and we shall see if I still love the big cities at rush hour after I have been thru the Big Apple. LOL

Living my Dream

2006-12-09T18:15:00.000-08:00

I'M BACK

Yep, I'm back in Laredo TX. We left here Tuesday afternoon headed for West Memphis, AR. We made that run as a deadhead. With the empty trailer, you don't even know it's back there except when you look in the mirrors. This was soon to change. We got to W. Memphis and took a 10 hour reset and was then dispatched to Sikeston, MO. The load I picked up there was quite heavy. We had gross weight over 77,600 and when I went to pull it away from the dock I just grinned and said, "Oh Yeah Baby!, We got a box full now". You are very aware of when you have a full load. I shifted thru each of the 13 gears to get her moving and up to speed on the hiway. It was not very many hours and before I knew it, I was in my old hometown of Brookhaven MS. Yep, my second load and I'm in old stomping grounds. We were told that we could take our ten hour break at the WalMart DC, but the parking there was just on the industrial road with no bathroom or any thing else. I suggested that we just move up the road a bit and spend the night at the OLD Brookhaven Truckstop. When we got there we decided to get a bite to eat before we hit the sack. I ordered pancakes and sausage. Jerry got bacon and eggs, toast and hashbrowns. Forty five minutes later we were still waiting on our food. Seems the 11 PM shift change is not a good time to place an order. Finally our food arrived and mine was well done. Pancakes were almost black. Jerry and I was laughing, and I said, I'd just eat them as they were. There was no way I was going to wait another half hour or more to get another order. Actually, they were not burnt and were very tasty. I guess after you run for over 8 hours and tired, it's all good.
We left Brookhaven the next day and headed to Mobile AL, to trade our empty trailer for a loaded one that came out of Florida. The driver we relayed with was from that area and wanted to take his days off. We then took that loaded trailer to Laredo, TX.
That is where I am now as I bring my journal up to date. So goes the life of an over the road trucker. This puts me at just over 3200 miles in my very first week. Not bad for an old dog learning new tricks. Until next time....

Some of the trucks on call in Laredo, TX

Living my Dream

2006-12-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

MY FIRST DAY

Joplin the day before I left for my Training Run.

Well it was a long wait and seemed to never get here. I finally got in the truck Sunday morning. My finisher wanted to get us out of town and away from the ice and snow, so he drove the first two hours or so and got us to Muskogee, OK. I took over and got behind the wheel and Jerry just said get us moving. He was great and let me make and recover from my mistakes on my own. We had great conversation and the day just quickly drifted by. I really was not thinking about what was ahead very much, but it was no time at all and I'm in Dallas, TX. I'm glad that this first day actually ended up being on Sunday. The traffic was fairly light and I got good experiance drifting through a big city and practicing my lane control. Just as I got on south side of Dallas ready to merge back onto I35 we hit a "break check".

That's trucker talk for all vehicles are stopped. So now I got a bit of practice at creeping along. I'm pretty good at creeping along and managed my way across three lanes of traffic and made my intended off ramp.
I thought Texas was wide open country mostly but was in for a rude awakeing as I traveled down I35. Austin, San Antonio, and even the little border town of Laredo are huge compared to what I thought they were. We checked into Laredo this morning and got out orders to deliver the trailer across town at a local wharehouse. I got to drop my first trailer in a fairly tight little yard they had next to the wharehouse. Actually put it into the last spot they had there in between a couple of other trailers. I know this is old hat to any other driver, but I was proud that I got this into a place where I could not get full school taught 45 degree setup.
More soon to come I'm sure. Stay tuned.

Living the Dream

2006-11-29T14:56:00.000-08:00

IT IS OFFICIAL

I am now a truck driver. Orientation is finished, after another half day of paper work. Somehow, I just knew when I got up this morning it would involve more paper work. But it has all been worth it. We also had a bit of training today on what paper work is required, how to use the on board computer system, and watch a couple of training films. Then it was off to get pictures made for our official ID cards.
We were then assigned our finishers and welcomed to the company.
I called my finisher and found out he is still out of state picking up a load that headed south and it will be Friday afternoon/evening before he will be here to get me on the truck. Unless something changes, I will be heading south this weekend. :)

Living the Dream

2006-11-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

ORIENTATION DAY 2

Yep, you guessed it... More paper work. I had heard there was a bunch of signing papers, but now I know first hand. There is a LOT of paper to read and sign. We were introduced to trip planning today. I have made many many personal trips as well as business travel in my personal car. I have always been able to read a map and find where I wanted to go. This involves so much more. Planning where you will fuel, streach your legs, eat, and take your qualifing break so you can drive again legally. Do this while meeting the on time delivery and getting the freight there safely and no damage. Wow, there is much more to it then just picking the route you want to drive. I really got a steep learning curve to conquor on this, because if I don't, I'm going to be late before I every start the truck up. I can't belive that it took me OVER 3 hours to plan a trip from Laredo, TX to Tayor Michigan. Shucks, I could have been over 150 miles up the road by the time I had decided wich way I was going to leave out the gate. I've got to get much better at this, as I am sure they are not going to wait 3 hours or more for me to tell then what my ETA is. By the way we do not have "Estimated" time of arrival. We have "EXPECTED" time of arrival and if some unforseen problem is going to cause us to be late, the shipper must be notified in advance. This is why CFI is so successfull. I forget the exact percent, but I think it was like 99.8% on time delivery success. I have a lot to live up to. Considering that the company only hires about 3 out of every 100 applicants, I consider myself very fortunate to be accepted with this outfit.

This afternoon brought the real world road test to us. I scored just a bit above average and will now strive to improve this should I ever be tested again. I want to be the best I can be and do it safely. Tomorrow I should be an official CFI employee and be hitting the road very soon.

A "significant" ice/snow event is predicted to hit us tomorrow. Not real sure what they have planned for us, so stay tuned.

Living the Dream

2006-11-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

ORIENTATION DAY 1

Paper work, paper work, paper work!!! I'm not sure, but I think I may have given my first born son away. I sure hope he doesn't mind. I have hired to many companies in my early life and have never seen so many forms. The trucking companies must protect them selves from all possible liabilities I'm sure, but man O man do they have a lot of paper.
Then had to take another drug screening. No problem for me and no worries here.
More Paper work.
Lunch and film about Highway Watch to help look out for trouble and terrorists.
More Paper work.
Out to the range to test our skills using a T-2000 KenWorth attached to a 53 foot box.
I was second in line to do the 45 degree alley dock back. The driver in front of me... An experienced driver I might add scored something like 60 out of 100. I said to self as I watched, "you did not set up correctly dummy"
My turn... Set up... Looked perfect as I was taught at Crowder (Thanks Kelli) Got out as required after turning on my flashers and secured my area. Got back in truck and backed to within 15 feet of gate. Got out again to check position as required. Made a pull up or two so I would be square as I slid her in. Backed about 10 feet inside the gate. Got out 3rd time as the company requires. Nailed it home and scored 100. Man that felt good.

Obstacle course...
Hmmmm, This course is tight. The instructors walked us around explaining scores and how each obstacle is graded. There is total of 120 points and the instructor piloting the truck scored 114 as we walked around with him. (Show Off)
I am glad that was not cars that I was bumping up against as I went around those curbs. Scored 62... I was not happy with that score, but as I watched experienced drivers score in the mid 40s, I did not feel so bad about my score.

This was a long full day. Tomorrow, we will take road tests for the company while interacting with real traffic. I not sure what else, but I have a feeling there may be more paper work.

Did I mention there is a LOT of paper work?

Living the Dream

2006-11-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

RARING TO GO

Sunday night and I'm checked into my room at the local Holiday Inn in Joplin. We are supposed to be in the lobby by 6:15 AM ready to be picked up for first day of orientation. I'm keyed up and not the least bit sleepy. My plan is to get up about 5 AM and fix coffee and have a bit of breakfast. The way it is looking now, I'll probably go to sleep about 4:30. LOL
I know we'll have at least 3 full days ahead of us before we are actual CFI employee's. Stay tuned as the adventure continues....

Living the Dream

2006-11-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

YeeeHaaa, School is out. It has been a whirlwind of a day. We had the all day thing with Robert yesterday while the rest of the class took final school tests on backing, and road trips. So today those of us commited to CFI had to play catch up.
First thing we took our road trip test. I got 121 out of possible 125. Then straight line backing. I don't know how that was scored but I backed without encroching on the lines and then stopped my front bumper on the stop line that was also being graded.

When all was said and done, I ended up with a GPA of 95
Not too bad for an old foggy like me. Look out Joplin, the new batch of kids will be hitting your streets come Monday.

Day before Thanksgiving you would think not many folks would be wanting to do business down at the local DMV. Oh my gosh! I think this was the worse part of the whole school/CDL experiance. But I do now have a shiney brand new CDL in my pocket.

See you all on the BIG road soon.
Living the Dream

2006-11-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

SMITH TRAINING

Today Those of us that are pre hired to CFI spent a day together in a 12 passenger van learning and practicing the Smith system of defensive driving. It really is just a lot of common sense that we should be using everyday anyway. We all develop bad habits and my main bad habit is pulling close to intersections that have a stop sign. By leaving a cushion at stops as well as while your driving you always have an out or safety barrier. Learning to recognize hazards while driving is also good common sense. Anyway, this was a laid back, informative day. I think most of us actually enjoyed the day.
One day left. Tomorrow I will take a road trip for final scoring to be used by the school to determine if I earn the certificate that is required by CFI and many other over the road carriers. I have allready passed the tests required by the state for my CDL, but CFI requires a higher standard and that is what this certificate signifies.

Living the Dream

2006-11-20T16:43:00.000-08:00

CROWDER COLLEGE DAY 22

WARNING WARNING WARNING
You may want to pull your wives and children off the roads. It appears that they are going to allow me to obtain a Commercial Driving License and pilot a big rig all over this country.
Today we took the driving and skills portion of our state required testing. I was the second person to do the backing skills. It was ugly and I PASSED. "That's all I got to say about that." I then moved over to the where the state required pre trip inspection test was being given. I only missed a couple of items out of 105 and scored 103 on this test. I then waited my turn and took my road skills test after lunch. You start off with zero and can lose up to 25 points before failing this test. I scored 13. I was told that the average runs between 9 and 15, so I performed ok with this. Over all I am pleased that I have passed all tests and will get my CDL, but I am personally disappointed in my performance. I know I can do better than what I showed the testers. I am really glad that this day is over. I didn't think my nerves would get to me like they did today. I am just now winding down and it's been several hours since testing ended. I will now take the skills that I have learned here and work my best to improve them and become one of the safest drivers on the road. My goal is to begin and end my career with NO accidents or tickets.
Tomorrow those of us committed to CFI will go out with a representative from CFI to learn the Smith system of defensive driving. This will be an all day event. So my days at Crowder College are now coming to a close and My new career will be underway.

Living the Dream

2006-11-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

The folks that are committed to CFI and our instructor Janice Coberly in the middle front row.

THURSDAY 11-16-2006
Wow, what a week this has been. Those of you that have read my earlier posts know that I had to leave school for a couple of days to attend my mothers funeral. Belinda and I got back to Springfield about 3 AM and I just went straight to the shower and then got ready to head to school. I got to the dorm a little after 5 AM and knew I would be back up at 6. So I just laid down on the couch in our common room for an hour.

Thursday involved some general discussion about our final written test to be given Friday and a few safety film movies. The movies were "Mountain and Grade Driving" and "Truck Stop Accidents". I sure had a hard time keeping myself awake for these but wanted to learn any tricks and techniques needed for mountain driving for sure.
Then our instructor wanted to teach us the effects of drinking and driving, so she got us all drunk! LOL well sort of... I think she had too much fun with this, but she has these "drunk goggles" and had each of us put them on and attempt to walk a straight line, catch and throw a small ball, and attempt to pick up the little ball while it was rolling. Many folks almost fell down attempting these simple feats. It was a very enlightening experience.
After class we headed for the trucks. I was first driver to start the road trip through downtown Neosho. I want to apologize to all the good citizens that were behind me that morning for I missed many gears, did not set up properly for my turns and just seemed that I could get nothing right this day. I did finish the road trip with no accidents and was happy for that. The rest of the day was spent practicing on the range with backing, parallel parking, and down shifting. Keep in mind that we normally share a truck with one or two others so all of the time is not spent behind the wheel. We take turns. Sitting in the back seat, I almost dozed off several times as I was completely exhausted from the trip to Louisiana and back in the past two days and very little sleep before class time this day.
Class lets out about 5:30 and the guys in the dorm wanted to treat me to a good outside meal instead of the cafeteria at school. I agreed and we headed up to Joplin, MO only 17 miles away. We met some other friends at Applebee's and had a great visit and meal. (Thanks guys for the treat. I appreciated it even if I maybe did not show it that night.) We got back to the dorm about quarter to eight and I laid down at 8 PM. The next thing I saw was Jim turning the lights on saying "it's about that time" at 6 AM the next morning. I don't think I have slept that hard for 10 solid hours in a long time.

FRIDAY 11-17-2006
This day started immediately with our final written test. This is the last of 3 tests that will make up our class room score. We are graded on 3 areas, class time, pre trip inspection, and skills. So the class room time makes up a third of our earning our certificate. I am happy to report that I aced this test and have a 98.3% average for my class score. Some one in the class asked Janice how many aced the final and she responded "only Rick". This sure did make me feel good today.
Out to the trucks and off to the same road test through Neosho that I drove yesterday. This time I did much better and actually think I may earn my CDL.
We then practiced what ever areas we felt we were weak in and spent most of our time on backing, dock backing, and parallel parking.

The afternoon brought us a treat. We were introduced to the obstacle course. This is not required to earn your CDL but does test your skills of control and knowing where your trailer is. It involves stopping your trailer tandems on a small area that simulates a scale. Then your off to a very tight left hand turn that scores how close you can bring your tandems to a curb. Then a line is painted on the ground and your scored how close you can stop your front bumper before crossing the line and then stop your rear bumper after crossing the same line. Next is an offset alley that would simulate driving between two buildings and crossing a narrow street and then entering into the next ally but it is not in line with the one you are leaving. Sort of like the trailer is still partly in one alley as you cross a street and enter the offset alley. A very challenging exercise. Just as you come out of that you enter into yet another alley that narrows as you get into it to almost truck width and immediately sets you up into a serpentine S curve. That leads into a very tight right hand turn and again you are scored how close your tandems get to the curb. We then enter into a simulated entrance/exit type exercise that scores how close your fenders get to an object such as another vehicle or building. We are then sent to a final tight left hand turn. Whew! I'm tense now just typing up this description. I think the top score for this course is 120. They tell me that 40 is passing. I went through it two times scoring 42 and then 66. This was a most fun afternoon.
The entire Crowder College Truck Driving Class of November 2006

Monday will begin our skill testing. This is where the rubber meets the road. Tuesday will be an entire day with Robert from CFI doing "Smith Training" and Wednesday we should be new trainee truck drivers.

Back to the Dream

2006-11-15T17:53:00.000-08:00

GOD SMILED AT US
Today started out with blustery storm clouds. Severe weather watches were all over south Louisiana and Mississippi. We had drove over to Brookhaven, MS about 2 hours from where my mother was in Ferriday, LA. We drove in the rain back to Ferriday this morning. We had a lovely service where my sister spoke of mother and brought back many good memories. One of my nieces told of her experiences with mother. It also happened that she was on duty in the ER where mother was brought in. She and my sister are nurses and they got to spend the final two hours and minutes with mother as she gently left this earth.
One of my other nieces shared some good stories and then she and one of her daughters sang most beautifully as a send off. The entire service just brought peace and happiness to me for mother moving to a better place. My heart was sad and tears flowed, but I had smile on my face most of the time just knowing she was in the Lord's arms.
I had brought umbrellas, but should have put my faith in the Lord. The clouds parted and the sun came out to give us one of the most beautifull hours you could ever ask for. We had about a 25 mile trek from the funeral home to gravesite. The cemetery sits over looking an old Mississippi River oxbow lake. My mother loved to fish and this setting just seemed to be the perfect place. I know my mother is not there and rests in the arms of Jesus, but when we do go to visit, it is just perfect to sit and reflect on her life and bring back some of best memories.

She was truly Loved and we know she Loved us all. She will be missed.

2006-11-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

DAY 15 CROWDER COLLEGE
I made it through this day with a very sad heart. My mother passed from this earth about 8pm last night. This was not unexpected news as mother has been in very poor health for the past few years. It is still very hard to handle losing the one who loves you unconditionally and has always been there for you.
My instructors have assured me they will help me catch back up if I take a few days off to attend mothers funeral. I decided to stay in class today and go home tonight. Belinda and I will leave at 5am in the morning to make the trek to south Lousianna to share closure with the rest of my siblings and family.
Today, my instructors took a little extra time to set me up a little in advance to prepare me for missing a couple of days.
I have extra reading to do to prepare for a final written exam coming up Friday.
Then I went on a road trip to Cassville, MO. If you have been in SW Missouri, you may relate to the hills, winding curves, and narrow highways found in the Ozarks. Driving a truck that is about 8 feet wide and pulling a 53 foot box behind you is quite challenging on these roads. AS you take a curve to the right, you must run right at the yellow line to keep the trailer from taking out signs and running off the road. Then as soon as you get through that the road turns left. Now I have to run right on the edge to keep my trailer from entering into the oncoming traffic lane.
I can tell you one thing concerning the HOS. No one will have to tell me to pull over and stop after 11 hours of driving this thing. I'll be more then ready to take my break and get some rest.
Ok, that was fun, now back to the range to practice backing. Remember I could'nt put the truck in two slots the other day. Today I learned to parallel park this beast on either the right or the left. Yes, I still need some practice, but I think I have the hang of it. I then went back to the angle dock backing area and nailed each time I attempted it. It is all coming togther now and I'll soon be out there on the big road bringing the goods to someplace near you.
I'll be back posting in a few days after I come back. Please keep me in your prayers as I make my sad trek south.

This post dedicated to my Mother
Bonnie Jean Russell
January 30, 1934 - November 12, 2006
May she forever now rest in peace.

2006-11-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

All revved up and no place to go. All of today was spent in the trucks. Janice our class room instructor had some commitments that kept her away from school today, so we spent all day practicing in the trucks. Some of the class got to go on road trips and the rest of us just spent the time working on our shifting and backing.
Most drivers will tell you that some days, they just can't back for anything. Well today was that day for me. Past two days, my backing went very well. Today, I could'nt hit the slot if you made it two trucks wide.
Andy, a former Crowder student that was here two classes ago came by for a visit. We took him to lunch and picked his brain about every thing we could think of. He has finished up with his trainer and been out on his own for two weeks. He was issued a Kenworth T-600 and invited us to climb in a take a look at it since that is what we will be assigned also after getting on the road. Andy is sort of a neat freak and had every thing in it's place. He had his truck looking really good. It was a two year old truck, but looked like brand new. I am looking forward to getting one of my very own.
Monday we are supposed to learn how to parallel park an 18 wheeler!! And unlike your car, we must learn to parallel park it both on the right side and the left side! Maybe they can teach an OLD dog new tricks.
I left Crowder for the weekend and am home to spend a few days with my wife. Posts will continue again Monday when I return to school.

Living the Dream

2006-11-09T18:23:00.000-08:00

Day 11 Crowder College
Again, two hours of class time... General discussion, Load Securment, Driving strategies, and HOS.
Do you see a pattern here? HOS is very important. Seems we have hours of service discussions every day. I think we will have better knowledge of the HOS rules then most average drivers on the highway today.
We also had another road trip. This one was called the water plant trip since it went out by Neosho water works is my guess. But I was so busy watching the road, the trailer, the traffic, the gauges, and listening to my instructor for direction that I never saw the water plant. The trip went mostly well and I lost the gear only one time this trip that I can remember. LOL So I learned a bit more on gear recovery and tried to learn to relax a bit more. It gets a little easier each time out of our protected range and soon we will leave the nest and fly on our own.
No pictures of me today, but here is one of my new friend Turtle Bob from California with the truck we took on road trip today.

Living the Dream

2006-11-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

CROWDER COLLEGE DAY 10
I am now officially an "INTERSTATE" driver :)
Our road trip today took us into Oklahoma. Now I only made about a half mile loop in Oklahoma since that was our turn around point at Seneca, MO, but I DID drive in two states today, heheheh
Class today was spent discussing Driver Qualification, Driver Wellness, Hours of Service, and Whistleblower Protection. These are all things required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to be taught. We then watched a short movie that covered a scenario of Driver Fatigue and the consequences of what happens when drivers do not rest. The HOS are designed to prevent accidents of the type we witnessed in the movie.
To the TrucksMore practice... shifting... turning... backing... do it again. Road Trip to Seneca, MO for a taste of a small hill and interaction with traffic.

Living the Dream

2006-11-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

CROWDER COLLEGE DAY 9
Today's class was spent mostly watching some films concerning safe driving techniques, night driving, emergency manuvers, and effects of speed and space needed to stop.We then went to the trucks and started our 45 degree dock backing. Robert Castillo (CFI recruiter) provided luch and explained a bit about CFI to entice others to join us.Back to the trucks and more dock backing. Just look at that concentration in my face as I watch the mirrors. That is some serious backing!!! LOL I am making myself get out of the truck at least 3 times and often more to build good habits. All that climbing down and back into the truck has me somewhat sore in the legs. The clutch leg is begining to feel better though as it gets stronger from all the clutch work.I think tomorrow brings another road trip and more much needed backing practice. I did get in a little range practice with up and down shifting and did very well today. My goal is to grind no gears. Actually, I did grind a time or two, but compared to a week ago, I look like a pro. :)

Living the Dream