Well he did it!

We got home and he got the car he wanted !

Sometimes dreams do come true!

This is a 2008 Ford Mustang GT Convertible that my husband just had to have!

John was like a little kid wanting to get home so badly so he could race down to the dealership and buy this car. He was so worried someone else was going to beat him to it.

Fortunately, it all worked out and he's a happy man!

The weather has been perfect for driving around with the top down.


He finds an excuse everyday to need to go to town, just so he can drive his car. Oh well, at least he's happy!

Parked in town at the Lakefront while we ate breakfast

We drove it to town and parked at the Lakefront and ate our breakfast. Just like old times. I'm just happy we got it so I don't have to go look at anymore cars or talk to anymore car salesman. That is the most painful experience. I hate it. They play too many games when it comes to cars. Just tell me the freaking price and let's be done. I do not want to spend my whole time at home car shopping. Luckily this time it was a half a day deal. I can live with that!

Truckers Paradise

We are still sitting here in Ripon. Unfortunately the delay caused by the repair made us miss out on a load for the weekend. Hopefully something will come thru by Monday. We need to get home for several reasons.

We promised our sons we would watch their dog while they go to Vegas. They leave next Sunday. John wants to buy the car he found online. I have family going to bikers week in Daytona that we want to visit.

Walking to the Taco Bell

Nothing we can do but keep our fingers crossed and wait. In the meantime we have been using the down time to start educating ourselves about the stock market and real estate. Coming up with some ideas. You tube can teach you anything and everything.

Almond Capital of the World

Everywhere we look we see these Almond Tree Orchards

We are sitting in Ripon, California. Not a bad place to sit actually. The weather is beautiful. The almond trees are in bloom. We have plenty of food choices from where we sit. Life is good at the moment.

After getting the turbo actuator repaired, again, we left the shop in Turlock, Ca and headed north to Ripon to visit the Speedco. We needed to get the maintenance done on our apu and figured we might as well do it now. We weren't going to go back in service Tuesday anyway since we had both been up all day while the repairs were being made. I'm still ticked about that whole deal, but I'm trying to move on.

After the apu was serviced we filled up the tanks at the Flying J. We were hoping to get a parking space there but they were all filled up. At 7PM local time. Amazing. We drove back across the street and hit the jackpot with a parking spot at the Loves that is pretty sweet. It's a straight walk into the Loves if I need to use the restroom. John can watch me walk in so he doesn't feel the need to accompany me for safety reasons. I'm a free woman! Haha!

The Loves has an Arby's. The Flying J across the street has a Denny's. There is a Sonic, a Taco Bell, a McDonald's, a Jack in the Box and a Carl's Jr. right next to us. All within easy walking distance.

So far in the three days we have been here, we've gone to Denny's twice, Arby's twice and Sonic once. These places are getting rich off of us! You know you're living a weird life when you base your location happiness on your available food choices. That, and whether or not we have 4G. Which by the way, we do not. And it's really annoying. Shouldn't 4G be everywhere by now?

Will this be John's Dream Car?

We've been using our downtime to continue car shopping. I think John has found the car of his dreams. It's right down the road from where we live. Now if it's still there when we get back home next week, he'll be a happy man. It's a 2008 Bright Red Ford Mustang GT Convertible. We used to have a 2005 Mustang GT Convertible and he's always regretted getting rid of it.

I applied for a Capital One Auto Loan yesterday. You can do it online and it's a pretty easy process. You should get an answer almost immediately, but of course, since we are self employeed, it required that we send in 3 months of bank statements. And since we have 4 different bank accounts, it turned into a lot of work for me. I finally got them all printed out today and faxed them in. 38 pages. Haha, bet someone's gonna have fun sorting through that!

We should get an answer within 3 business days. We've been preapproved pending the approval of the bank statements. They have a pretty sweet deal. 4% interest. They will mail a blank check to the house upon our approval and we do have to buy a car from one of their approved car dealerships but there are many of them on the list. Pretty much all the namebrand places. Luckily for John, the dealership that has the car he wants is on the approved list.

I swear sometimes he is such a kid. He's spent most of the morning looking at pictures of that car on the internet. I think he's in love!

Recovery Time

Taken about 4 hours after surgery

I had my surgery on Thursday. Luckily it went well and they only had to remove the left half of my thyroid. I stayed one night in the hospital and have been at home recovering since then. The surgeon did a great job and the cut is very small.


 The only problem I am having is with my left ear. I don't think it's related to the surgery. It's like it has water in it, but I dont think it does. I just can't hear out of it and it pops and cracks a lot. I finally broke down and made a Dr. appt. for this afternoon to have it looked at. I can't stand the feeling of having half my head feel like it's stuffed with cotton!

Other than that, Christmas was nice. Time at home has been nice. New Years Eve is tonight. Obviously, we have no plans for that. Just can't wait to get back to feeling 100% again. I am actually already starting to miss being out on the road. Although after hearing the weather reports, I am glad I'm home in Florida. Don't look forward to driving through all that snow.

Getting a Thyroidectomy for Christmas

First off, I need to catch up where we have been since my last post. I am terrible about consistently blogging on a regular basis, and I've gotten really behind. Last time I blogged, we were on a load that picked up in Indian Head, Maryland and was delivering in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

After that, it went like this: Tooele, Ut to Barksdale AFB, La
Conway, Ar to Houston, Tx
Del Rio, Tx to Kansas City, Ks
Kansas City, Mo to Forest Park, Ga
Home for a couple of weeks (October 13 to October 26)
Ocala, Fl to Batesville, Ms
Ft. Worth, Tx to Travis AFB, Ca
Madera, Ca to Bridgeview, Il
Grand Rapids, Mi to Brooklyn Park, Mn St. Cloud, Mn to Kansas City, Mo
Kansas City, Mo to Ypsilanti, Mi
Holland, Mi to Canton, Ms then deadheaded home for a LONG Thanksgiving break.

Inside a cave in Kansas City. This is where we delivered.

The coolest thing that happened during those loads was the delivery to Kansas City, Ks. We weren't told ahead of time what kind of locaton we were delivering to. A lot of times I will look at the pickup and delivery addresses on Google Earth when the load offer first comes in just to get an idea of what to expect. This time when I looked at the delivery address it brought u what looked like an empty field area. I wasn't too concerned about it because sometimes places are built after the Google image was taken so it won't show up on the map and I assumed that was probably the case this time.

 We arrived at the location that our gps said was where we should be for the address that we had input and all we saw were cave entrances. I suddenly remembered reading stories that other truckers had posted about delivering inside a cave and it clicked that that was what we were just about to do! It was actually pretty cool. A little unnerving at first to realize that you have to drive your truck inside a cave and not knowing what to expect when you get inside, but they give you a good map and it's not bad at all. It was pretty amazing. According to the security guard there at Subtropolis, as it is called, there is a little over 4 square miles of businesses underground in the caves. There was a variety of businesses that we saw while in there. We delivered to a place that was responsible for distributing sales ads. The ones we brought were for the upcoming Black Friday sales.

A dock inside the cave

Other than that, from what I can remember, everything was pretty routine. We saw our first snow of the year on our trip to Minnesota. One night the temps got down to 14 degrees! I guess winter is coming. Sometimes being in Florida, you tend to forget about things like that.

We've now been at home for about 2 1/2 weeks and it's been beautiful weather. I am sure we are in for a shock to the system when we get back up North.

While home this time, I saw my endocrinologist and got the results of my latest blood work and ultrasound. The ultrasound showed that my thyroid nodules have doubled in size over the last six months, so it is now time to have my thyroid removed. The surgeon is going to remove the left half and if the right half is okay, it will stay, but if it shows problems when he gets in there, it will come out also. Either way, after the surgery, I will be on thyroid medication for the rest of my life which I am not happy about. I am the type of person who hates to take any kind of medication unless I absolutely have to. I take nothing now, no vitamins, no calcium, and ony tylenol when I can't stand the headache pain anymore. Guess those days are over.

The best thing that happened during our time at home this time, other than getting to spend time with our family, was getting permanent eyeliner!! My friend in Indiana had it done and loved it so I got the courage to go in and get it. I love it, and wish I had done it years ago. Which I couldn't have, since I didn't even know you could get it. Driving a truck as a team means not being able to shower every day. While I can live with that, I still want to look decent and eyeliner is something I like to use everyday. Problem solved now!

At long last

We have a new bumper!!

Traveling Giraffe

We were traveling south of San Antonio when we were passed by this cute little giraffe. An unusual sight!

Wild hogs and no AC

This poor piggy didn't stand a chance!

What an eventful drive! John started his drive from Oklahoma City. He was only driving 260 miles for the night. The route took him from I44 to US 277 thru Texas. With 50 miles left to go I was sound asleep in the back when I was awoken by him carrying on about something in the road. I came up front to see what was going on and he was pulled over on the shoulder looking in his mirror behind us. I said whats wrong? He said he hit something in the road, he didnt know what it was, maybe a bear. I dont know if they have bears in Texas or not and I never felt or heard anything so I told him he was crazy, he didnt hit anything. He insisted he did. This was at 2:30 in the morning, pitch black outside, not a town around for 30 miles, no houses, nothing. Just us. He starts backing the truck up and goes probably a tenth of a mile and stops. There! See it!

I looked in his mirror and sure enough, there was something laying there. He backed up again till we were right next to it and we were both staring down at it trying to figure out what it was. It really did look like a bear. Finally we noticed the long snout and decided it was a wild boar. We have them in Florida also.

We sat there a bit trying to decide what to do next. We were looking around the area and realized how isolated it was there. It was a very creepy feeling and I was imagining all kinds of craziness. He got the flashlight and said he was going to have to check the truck and make sure it was okay to drive. I kept a close watch out the windows and mirrors in case someone or something tried to sneak up on him. After checking the truck out he put on gloves and grabbed a leg of the hog and drug it off the road so no one else would hit it.

He got back in and said the only damage he could see in the dark was the bumper was bashed in. We both looked at each other and cracked up laughing. Wow, how lucky were we? Thank goodness we didnt get the bumper in Joplin it would have been a complete waste of money! He took off driving and it was 50 miles before we found a lighted truck parking area.

After checking the truck in the lights we only found the dent in the bumper. The oilpan has a small dent in it but shouldnt be a problem. There are pig guts and gore all under the truck. Really nasty. Going to need a major truck wash. We are going to sleep a few hours and head out in the daylight.

Happy 30th Anniversary to Us!!

From our wedding May 14, 1982

Yesterday was our 30th Anniversary. Surprisingly John forgot. I don't think he's ever forgotten before, and this was kind of a milestone anniversary, but oh well, I don't really make a big deal out of birthdays, anniversarys and all that stuff. If you love someone, dont wait for a holiday to tell them. Show them with your actions year round.

 Greeting cards dont really mean anything to me. Just words someone put on paper and people get guilted into spending money for. I'm much happier with being taken out for a good meal, skip the card. I remember way back, John had a dozen roses sent to me at the office I worked at. I was so mad at him for spending that much money on flowers that were only going to last a couple of days. I told him to please never do that again. Guess I'm not a typical girl, which is probably why I love the job we do now. Typical girls aren't crazy about becoming truck drivers :)

 We just got back on the road today after being at home for a week. It was unplanned time off but our last load took us within 150 miles of home so we decided since we were that close to go ahead and get some more work done to the truck. There is an International shop in Ocala, Fl that we really like. We've been wanting to replace our front bumper with a nice new shiny one. The shop there supplies the fire department with bumpers that also fit our truck and if the bumpers come in with any blemishes no matter how small, the fire department rejects them and orders new ones. So then the shop has to turn them in to insurance or warranty or however they d o it and about 3 months later the bumpers are released to be sold or sent to scrap. We found one there that is a perfect fit for our truck and only has the smallest of a scratch that most people would never see and they will sell it to us for half the cost of a brand new one. So, $400 instead of almost $900.

 We thought we were going to get lucky and get it put on while we were at home, but it didn't work out. The bumper hasn't been released by the warranty company yet, so maybe next time we go home . We also had an air hose installed inside the cab of the truck so now I can blow the sleeper and the cab out and get it clean like never before. We have a MaltiPoo (Maltese Poodle) that travels with us and he doesn't shed, but loses hair like a human and between me and him, there tends to be quite a few loose hairs that are pretty easy to deal with now that I have the air hose.

 We also had an airline installed on the air tank outside of the truck so that John can hook a hose to it and air up our tires if they are low. The other thing we had done was to have a metal transfer plate made to carry with us. It's just a flat heavy duty plate that can be used anytime we have to do a swap with another truck. We drive a straight truck, so if you back two trucks up to each other there is always a little gap between them. You can't get a pallet jack across the gap, the wheels would fall down in the gap and get stuck. So that is what we will use the plate for. All about making our lives easier.

 We just recently did a swap with another truck. They had picked up the load, which was only one pallet, about a thousand pounds. They made it about 25 miles down the road and discovered the bearing was going out to their drive shaft so they stopped off at a truck stop and let our carrier know that they werent going to be able to finish the load. The carrier called us since we were only 25 miles away and offered the load to us.

It was a good load about 750 loaded miles, only problem was, we didn't have the transfer plate. Carrier says no problem, head on over and we'll figure it out. So we get there and back the two trucks together. The other truck had a piece of heavy plywood that he laid down to drive the pallet jack over. It looked like it might work, but it didn't. As soon as the wheels of the jack got over the area where the gap was, they crashed through and everything came to a screeching halt. The jack was stuck. The freight shifted forward and spilled all into the floor of our truck. You should have seen the look on everyone's faces.

 About two hours later, the load was on our truck after being restacked piece by piece by John and the other driver. I couldn't help because it was pieces of steel and each piece weighed about 55 pounds That incident is what made us decide we were getting a plate made asap. It's kind of funny now but John was certainly not laughing at the time. It was in Texas and it was so hot and muggy. His shirt was wringing wet with sweat by the time he got done. Now all we have to do is wait for another truck to break down and we can try out our new plate...just kidding, I really don't wish that on anybody. Breaking down sucks!! We've got two loads booked right now. We will deliver the one we're on now in the morning and then take another to Ohio.

Our first Ferry Ride

Waiting in line for the ferry 

We left our comfy hotel room on Monday and made a pickup in Maple Grove, Mn. We delivered that load to Lebanon, Ohio and immediately made another pickup in Cleves, Ohio with a delivery in Athens, Tn.

From there, we next picked up in Anniston, Alabama and delivered in Colchester, Vermont. This was not the most pleasant of drives as it involved a LOT of small two lane twisting winding highways. Some drivers prefer those kind of roads for the scenic view, but I'm not one of them. I prefer to stay on interstates and large highways.

After our delivery we found a so called truck stop and headed there to wait for the next load. We went inside to eat and they had some brochures near where we were sitting that happened to catch my eye. I picked up a couple and they were ferry schedules. I took them back to the truck with me and studied them. For some reason, they were interesting to me.

The ferry pulling into the dock

As luck would have it, our next load was picking up in Liverpool, NY. I studied the map and saw that there was a big lake between where we were and where we wanted to go. We could either take the highway down, around and back up the lake, or......we could take the ferry across!

I was pretty excited about it. John was not thrilled at all! He did not like the thought of taking the truck onto a ferry. This was a new experience for both of us. I had read about other drivers having to take their trucks on ferrys to get where they needed to be so I wasn't too worried about it. I had to convince John of the safety though.

Our view out the windshield while on the ferry

I got my brochures back out and figured out which ferry we wanted and took off. John said since it was my idea, I could do the driving. Fine with me! I found the ferry with no problem and we got in line. As luck would have it, we were first in line which meant that we got loaded onto the ferry first. They motioned me forward until I swear I thought we were going to go right off into the water, but we didn't. We now had front row seats to enjoy the view across the lake!

We made it to the other side!

Luckily it was a pretty calm day and there weren't a lot of waves. After John's nerves calmed down, he actually was able to enjoy it also. The ferry took us across to the other side and we drove off and continued on to our next destination. Simple!

Introducing the Newest Member of our Family

I've been wanting a dog for quite some time. I just had to get John convinced that he wanted one too. He said he'd never have another one after our last one passed away. The emotional trauma is just too much. I figured after some time passed that he would change his mind, but it has taken six years to talk him into it.

Gracie and Cody

We first decided to get a Yorkie. They're small and seem pretty intelligent. We wanted to get one from a shelter or a rescue so that we would be doing a good deed at the same time as fulfilling our desires. I started looking into the rescues and it was unbelievable to me what the requirements were to adopt one of these dogs. They want to come to your home and do a home study. You have to fill out questionnaires and provide them with the name of your vet so they can call and ask how you took care of your last pet. Pretty shocking really what they expect people to go through to get a pet.

We were sitting up in South Carolina waiting on a load to take us home and I got onto the county shelter website for where we live. I couldn't believe some of the animals that they had there. It's sad to think what must have happened to the families of some of these pets that caused them to have to be brought there.

Who could ever resist this sweet little boy?

One of the first listings I saw was a beautiful all white male dog who was listed as a Maltipoo. Half Maltese, Half Poodle. He had only been there a couple of days. I immediately called and asked if he was still there and they said yes. I asked if they could hold him for me until the next day and they said no. First come first serve.

I told John I wanted to get home and go see this dog. I thought he was the one. John agreed and we went ahead and deadheaded home. The next morning we were at the shelter as soon as they opened. Cody, the dog we came to see, was still there. They put him and us in a playroom to see if we all liked each other and while we were in there, another woman showed up and was wanting to see him also. I told her no, he was ours. We definitely wanted him.

Poor little guy was underweight and needed groomed badly. We paid the fee of $100 which would cover neutering and shots. The only bad thing was that because of the holidays, we weren't going to be able to take him home for 9 days. They absolutely would not let us have him until he was neutered. We told them we would bring him back in and have it done when the vet was there, but they have their policies and would not allow it. It broke our hearts to have to leave him there for another 9 days!

We seriously discussed sneaking back there at night and breaking him out. The pens they are kept in allow the dogs to go back and forth from inside to outside. It wouldn't have been too hard to get him out. I was so worried about him because we were about to have some record breaking cold temps. Since we weren't really going to break the law, there was nothing we could do so I just put it out of my head and tried to focus on the holidays.

As soon as the day came to pick him up, we went back and got him. He was still groggy from the anesthesia. He looked so cute with his eyes out of focus and wobbling around. Poor little guy! We took him home and he got to meet the rest of the family. He was a hit and everyone loved him. He was introduced to our sons dog, Gracie. She's a black lab mixed with something else. She came from the same pound as Cody.

The two of them have become very good friends, we just have to supervise their playtime right now until he gets fully healed up. It will be nice to have Cody along with us on the road. He can be our ears while we're sleeping. I'm sure it won't take us too long to get him completely spoiled!

Deer in the Headlights

Freaking Deer!

The repairs were completed on our truck and we finally got a load picking up on Tuesday in Indian Head, Maryland. Some cities have the strangest names. That load delivered in Patuxent River, Maryland. Maybe all the cities in Maryland have strange names?

Next we picked up in Dahlgren, Va and delivered in Yorktown Va. If you have a military background, you probably guessed that all these loads were in military bases. Fun times!

Deer damage

From there we headed to Richmond, Va and took it to Wilmington, Ma. The next day we got a load picking up in Ft. Devens, Ma that was supposed to be going to Nogales, Az. After we took off with it we were informed that the shipper changed his mind and now we were taking it to Chicago, Il.

We were really not happy about that, but there wasn't anything we could do. It was a nasty night out. Windy and rainy. John drove first and we saw a one vehicle accident on the passenger side of the road. Somehow the guy flipped his car. We can only assume speed had to be a factor.

After John's shift was over, I started driving. I was on the NY thruway (90). Cruising along, talking on the phone with the boys, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a deer standing in the left hand lane. I hit the brakes and kept it straight on the road but the stupid deer jumped right in front of me. It was so loud when it hit that the boys could hear it through the phone. I pulled off on the shoulder and John came flying up front to see what happened. I told him I hit a deer.

Poor truck, stupid deer

We got out and looked at the damage and we had coolant running on the ground. The headlight on the passenger side was knocked completely out. The hood was knocked at an odd angle. We weren't going to be able to drive it with the coolant leaking. About that time a cop pulled up and I told him what happened. He reversed down the road and found the deer laying dead off to the side. I was so happy that the stupid deer was dead!

Lost our coolant

The cop called the tow truck company and the guy showed up and hooked us up. We had him take us to the nearest Freightliner dealership and he dropped us off there. Our carrier found another truck to come and take over our load. They showed up right after we got there and John and the other guy transferred the load to their truck. It was the middle of the night so we slept in the truck until they opened in the morning. We got things set up with them and then packed our bags. There was a motel down the road a little ways so we called a taxi and had him take us over there.

We got checked in and we are now waiting for the truck to be repaired. I can only imagine how long this is going to take.

Venturing West

We finally made it out west! It only took 8 months but we did it. Boy, is it ever easier driving out here. You can put your cruise on and do just that. Cruise. Listen to the music and relax. It's a nice change.








We took a whopping 5 lb. box from the Kennedy Space Center and drove it 2200 miles to Chandler, Arizona. We got to see sand, cactus and a lot of wide open spaces. It was hot, hot, hot out there. Thank goodness we didn't sit very long because our apu was not keeping us cool in the truck and it would have gotten ugly in there.



We got a load picking up in Nogales, Az. Being still new to this job, we are always surprised when we go somewhere and it's nothing like we think it will be. I didn't realize we were going to a border town for our pickup. It was kind of a scary place. Maybe it's safe there, but it didn't feel like it to me.

80mph? Wow!

While doing our pickup, John had a run in with another driver who is with our same carrier. He was mad because he thought it was taking too long for us to get loaded and he wanted in our dock to get his load. John talked to him and got him calmed down, but that poor guy was really stressed out and I think he needs to go home and take a break!

Our Nogales load took us back to Laredo for a Friday delivery and we got a Saturday pickup in Laredo that will take us back to Canada. Boo!

Back to Work

Enoying ourselves at Cocoa Beach, Fl

We've been off for a while and had a great time at home. We got our new smartphones, now we just have to be smart enough to work them. I think they're going to make our job easier and more enjoyable.






We went back in service and got a load picking up at Kennedy Space Center. This should be interesting!

Twic Card

Dad and John in a game of Cornhole

Wow, two weeks off with no worries. We never had that in our former jobs. Another benefit to be had from expediting. We camped in a state park with several members of the family.

 Other family who live nearby were able to come and visit so it was a nice family reunion. We played a lot of cornhole.


 Ate a lot, went for a swim in the river and played many many games of cards. We were all sad when the time came to leave. Hopefully we can do it again next year.

Mom and Dad 

When we left there, we drove up to Hammond, Indiana to apply for our Twic Cards. Our carrier has agreed to reimburse us for the cost so we figured why not? It wasn't too bad of a procedure and it's done. It'll take a few weeks to get the cards and then we'll see if anyone really wants to see them or not.

After that it was back to work. It was Crane, Indiana to Ft. Hood, Texas. Austin, Tx to Round Rock, Tx. Brownwood, Tx to Midwest City, Ok.

Nothing exciting, but good money and a weekend off. Love it!

Visit to Graceland

After a couple of really busy weeks we have found that in our line of work, weeks with a holiday usually mean that things are going to slowdown if not actually stop. This is okay with us because it gives us an opportunity to do one of the things that attracted us to this job in the first place. Sightsee.

Last week we ended the week in Massachusetts. We got a nice long 4 day weekend and eventually got a load picking up in East Granby, Ct. That load took us to St. Peters Mo and while on our way there we received our next load which was picking up in Washington, Mo with a delivery in Laredo, Tx.

Gates to Graceland

I was happy for a couple of reasons. One was that it was keeping us out of Canada and the Northeast and another is that I like driving in Texas. Little did we know that it was going to lead to something even better to be excited about.

We received a load offer picking up in Laredo right away. It was picking up on Thursday and due to the Memorial Day holiday it wasn't delivering until Tuesday in Evansville, In. We were paid layover pay for the additional days that we would be stuck with the load. We were happy with the deal and after looking at the map to see what our route would be and trying to decide what to do with our extra time, we realized that we would be going thru Memphis.

Elvis' Pink Cadillac

John at Graceland

John and his Mom have always been Elvis fanatics and neither one of us had ever been to visit Graceland. We did some research and found out that they offered truck parking so we made a plan to stop in and take the tour. I wasn't expecting much. I figured it was just a house, what would be so great? But, I have to say, there is something really special about that place and the way they have preserved his memory. You get caught up in the atmosphere and you can easily imagine what it must have been like in his glory days. It was one of the best tourist experiences we have had and well worth the money.

We took a ton of pictures, took our time walking through the  house, the outbuildings, the planes were awesome, we ate at the restaurant and toured all of the cars. It is just really nice what they have done there.

One of Elvis' two planes

I am so happy we have a job that allows us this kind of opportunity!

First time to Manitoba

We ended up sitting in Kansas City until Tuesday. Almost a full week! That was not a good feeling. We were wondering if we had been forgotten, if we were being punished for something, if the economy had come to a halt. We were being told over and over by dispatch that Easter is always slow. Factories shut down for a long weekend or whatever. All I know is that we sat way too long. After a certain point, boredom sets in and the only thing to do is start picking at each other.

I wonder how team drivers who are unrelated to each other would handle sitting that long? I can't imagine sharing this small space with anyone other than my husband. I don't think I would last long in this job if I had to do that.

It was Tuesday when we finally got a load picking up in Kansas City, Ks. It delivered to Clifton Hill, Mo which was not a great load, but because we were so desparate to get moving again, we took it. Probably a mistake, but again, we're learning.

After that delivery we had to wait a couple more days for the next load. It picked up in St. Louis, Missouri and will once again be taking us back to Canada. This time however, it will be to a province that we haven't been to yet, so that makes it a little better. We will be delivering in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

One year, our son John went on spring break to Florida with some friends and he met a girl whose family was there on vacation. She was from Winnipeg. Other than that, I don't know anything about Manitoba. More paid sight seeing!

Getting Tired of Canada

With the  air conditioners off our truck, we had no desire to stay in Canada any longer. The weather was miserable and so were we, so we deadheaded back into the US. We stopped at the first truck stop we came to inside the US border and enjoyed a nice hot meal and  then a nice long sleep.

We were in no hurry for another load which was a good thing because we didn't get one for 3 days. The next load picked up in Aberdeen, South Dakota. South we went and made the pickup We then continued south to Newton, Iowa with some supplies for a wind turbine factory.

A wind turbine on its way to its final destination

Our next load offer came quickly. We picked up in Chicago, Il with a destination of.....once again...back to Canada. Kinsley Falls, Ontario. After delivery, our next load offer took us back into the US. We exited Canada through Vermont on our way to Somersworth, NH. The weather had been nice while in Canada but as soon as I approached the boder snow flakes started flying.

An unwelcome sight!

Continuing on into the states the snow started flying harder and harder. I was driving up into the mountains through a national forest. Eventually the roads were completely snow covered and I had to reduce speed to 30 mph. I was gripping the steering wheel tightly and fighting the nerves. As I started down the mountain on the other side, the lower I got, the less snow there was and eventually I drove completely out of it.

I made it to the factory and found my way to the dock for the pick up. Then for the bad part. The load was going right back up into Quebec. This time to Montreal. I have found that we don't enjoy going to Canada anymore and especially into Quebec. Montreal has some horrible roads and it felt like our truck was going to be ripped apart by the potholes and uneven surfaces of the roads.

Pretty..if you like winter

We may need to reconsider doing Canada loads. We would really like to see more of the western United States.

Air Conditioners in a Blizzard

It's been a pretty busy week. We were waiting on a load in Quebec. The load we got was picking up in Ithaca, NY. So we had to leave Canada empty, pick up in New York and then return to Windsor, Ontario. I had no idea when we agreed to do Canada loads that we would be spending this much time in Canada. I would really love to see more of the United States.

We always feel out of place in Canada. It's definitely not home. I don't have anything against Canada, I would just prefer to be in my own country.

After delivering in Windsor, we again left Canada empty and picked up in Saint Clair Shores, Michigan. Back in the US! This load delivered in Ridgeville Corners, Ohio.  After that, our luck ran out and we were again asked to do a Canada load.

This time the load would be another swap with a driver who had a load going to Saskatchewan. This driver also does not go to Canada. The swap was set up to take place in Lake Station, Indiana at Waffco Towing. We arrived and the other driver was there waiting for us. He was in a tractor trailer. We both backed up to docks and the workers there began taking the pallets off of his truck. He had eight pallets of air conditioners. These were large units that were going to a hotel that was under construction. When the forklift driver brought the second pallet over to our truck and tried to sit it next to the first one, we ran into our first problem.

The pallets were wider than standard and would not fit side by side in our truck. Because the semi is 102 inches wide he was able to sit them that way, but our truck is 96 inches wide and they wouldn't fit. There was a lot of discussion about how to resolve the problem and someone came up with the idea of restacking the units on standard size pallets. A call was put in to dispatch and they had to get permission from the customer. Finally, we received approval to go ahead and the job got completed.

We had an interesting conversation with the tractor driver. He's been with our company for quite a few years. He enjoyed telling us stories of how it used to be. Apparently the pay used to be quite a bit higher than it is now. He also said he refuses to go to Canada. As a matter of fact, he doesn't go west of the Mississippi River or east of Ohio, or South of Georgia. As a solo driver, he said he's learned over the years to stay in that box and he does okay for himself.

After loading was completed, we headed out to Stoughton, Saskatchewan. This load had a lot of extra time on it since we were picking up on Wednesday and it wasn't delivering until Friday. We decided to use some of the time to stop off and eat a good meal together and get a shower.

We drove up to North Dakota and stopped off at a truck stop. We got our showers done and were sitting and enjoying our meal when dispatch called and said the customer had noticed that our truck hadn't moved for awhile and was getting concerned. Our truck is equipped with a satellite tracking system and customers are given tracking info and can actually track our truck during the delivery process. We told the dispatcher that we had stopped to eat and shower and nothing was wrong. We just had quite a bit of extra time on the load so we wanted to stop and kill some time while in the US and had internet available.

He said okay, he would pass it along to the customer and let them know that their freight would be there on time as planned. We hung up and went back to our meal. A few minutes later, dispatch called again and said for some reason, this customer was really uptight and worried about this load. Could we please go ahead and deliver direct. We were aggravated about the inconvenience, but agreed.

We took off driving and made our way up into Saskatchewan. This being our first time there, we were wondering what road conditions would be. Turned out, they were not so great. In addition to that, the weather turned really crappy. We started running into snow, we saw a lot of deer and we were hoping and praying they didn't decide to jump out in front of us. We worked our way to the consignee according to the directions we were given. We got there and immediately realized that something was wrong. We were in a residential neighborhood. This was at 2 AM. There was no sign of a business in this area. We called dispatch and informed them. They tried to call the customer and got an answering machine. Remember the customer who was so concerned about this shipment and wanted us there asap?

With no help from dispatch or the customers, we wandered around for a little bit and eventually we found a small gas station. We decided to park there and wait until morning for someone to tell us where to take this load. In the morning we made phone call after phone call and finally got ahold of the customer who advised us that we were given the wrong address to deliver to. No duh!

The funny thing was, the delivery location ended up being directly across the street from the gas station we were parked at. We drove across to the construction site, which had no docks and found a guy who was taking responsibility for the air conditioners. We told him about the request to deliver direct and the wrong address and he apologized and said he wasn't even ready for the air conditions yet. He was going to have to find a place to store them until he was ready to install them. While he was using a machine that I don't know the name of, it looked like a forklift on steroids with forks that extended,  the snow was flying, the wind was blowing and it just struck me as funny that we were delivering a load of air conditioners in a blizzard!

First Trip to Quebec

We made our delivery to Waterloo, Ontario. From there our next load was being picked up in Woodhaven, Mi. There is a crossdock there that our company uses to do swaps. Another driver had a load that needed to go to Canada, but that driver doesn't go to Canada, so he takes it to the dock and drops it off and someone else finishes getting it there. This time, that someone else was us.

We drove down to Woodhaven and let our company know we were there. They said the other driver should be there in a couple of hours. I set the alarm for two hours and we went to sleep. I woke up when the alarm went off and went inside and asked if the other driver had shown up yet. They said they hadn't seen him. I called dispatch and asked them when he was going to be there. They said he had to stop to have a light replaced and should be there anytime.

I continued to wait and watch but never saw him. After awile, I went back inside and asked if he had been there and I had somehow missed him. They again said no. Back out to the truck and more waiting. An hour later, dispatch sent a message and said the driver had sent a message saying he had arrive and departed. I went back inside and found out that he had indeed somehow gotten in and out of there without me seeing him. It was so nice that neither he or the guy that works inside bothered to let me know.

Near Niagra Falls

We finally got loaded and headed off to Pointe Claire, Quebec. This was our first trip to Quebec and we were unsure what to expect. The only thing I knew about Quebec is that they speak French. I was hoping we wouldn't have a communication problem.

For the most part, it went okay. Our gps had major problems though. I was ready to throw it out the window. Despite the gps issues, we got to the consignee and made the delivery. The road signs were a bit confusing because they were written in French, but most of them also had an English version. The people we dealt with all seemed to know enough English so that it wasn't a problem communicating.

We decided to go to a nearby truckstop and see if we could get a load out of Canada.