The Mustang Replacement

This is more like it!

Long overdue

We are still here, alive and kicking! I just stopped blogging for awhile.  I was having trouble keeping up with driving, paperwork, and all the day to day stuff so I decided to take a break.

So much has changed in the last year, and all for the better! Probably the biggest change is that we switched carriers.

We've been at our new carrier since May and haven't regretted changing once.  Best decision ever.  So nice to not have to play the games with the dispatchers.  Our new company doesn't have dispatchers.  They have agents that deal directly with the drivers.  It's a huge difference.

This year we made the decision to stay home for as long as we could afford to during the Winter.  Turned out that we were home for 8 weeks.  Didn't think we'd stay that long but this winter has been brutal and we figured we were better off being safe at home.

We just went back in service today after getting home December 22. I know there's still some nasty weather out there but we're going to do our best to avoid it.

Other awesome changes this year include trading in the Mustang for a jacked up 4 wheel drive Dodge truck.  The Mustang was beautiful but after you get used to being in a big truck all the time a small car feels like a sardine can. Love the Dodge!

We also bought a pontoon boat. We got a used boat and fixed it up so that its practically maintenance free which is crucial considering the job we do.  We need the boat to be waiting on us when we get home so we can have fun not spend hours working on it.

Our sons bought a waterfront property within walking distance of us so the four of us split the cost of the boat and we keep it docked at their place.

Our truck has done pretty well for us this year.  We've made some improvements to it and it's in the best shape its been in since we bought it.

We can't legally drive it to California anymore so it will be interesting to see how that affects our revenue this year.  I personally don't think it will make a difference and I'm kinda glad we can't go there anymore.  I hate their deserts and mountains!

Another exciting thing for me is I finally got a new phone.  I now have the Note 3. It's huge and that's why I wanted it.  It's big enough that I can actually do my paperwork on it instead of my tablet.  I'm hoping that it will keep me from getting so far behind.

I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff but my toes brain isn't coming up with anything right now so I guess I'll move on to something else.

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!

Quality Control. Anyone ever heard of that concept?

I really do not know what to think about the problems we keep having. A couple of weeks ago, our turbo actuator went out and we ended up driving 1300 miles under load without a turbo. It sucked, but on that load, our freight was only 200 pounds and the route was from Iowa to Florida so there weren't any mountains to deal with. What we thought at that time was a terrible drive, we now know was only a nuisance.

We know this because that new turbo actuator that was installed two weeks ago failed while we were on a load from Alabama to California. This time our freight was 6100 pounds and we had mountain after mountain to deal with. Our total trip was 2230 miles and the problem began when we were in Tucumcari, NM. That left us with 1160 miles to our delivery. Sheer torture. I think we drove most of those miles with our flashers on. Every time we encountered even the slightest incline, the truck would lose speed and there was nothing we could do except downshift and put the flashers on when we got below 45 mph.

It was a test of our patience and determination. We were not giving up that load if we didn't have to. We wanted the revenue from the load to cover any repairs that we were going to have to make to fix the truck. Of course, we didn't know for sure that it was the actuator until we were able to get to the dealership and have it looked at, so there was the possibility that our turbo itself would need replacing so we were preparing ourselves for a $2500 repair bill.

Fortunately, the load had plenty of time on it for delivery. In fact, it had an entire extra day. But because this was a weekend load, we weren't able to stop into a dealership and get the repair made on our way since they were all closed and at home nice and comfy and not at all concerned about us and our problems. Problems that it turns out is caused by poor workmanship. It was indeed a faulty actuator. Two weeks? Two weeks is all it lasted? How can this be? We pay dang good money for parts and labor and I expect more  than two weeks! Sure, it was covered under warranty. But what about our down time? What about the frustration of driving over 1100 miles through mountains with no turbo? What about that?

I asked the service counter guy if that was unusual to see a part go out after two weeks and he said no. He said unfortunately they get a lot of angry truck drivers who are upset because their parts aren't lasting. I asked him where these parts are coming from and he said Asia. I don't know if he really knows or if he made that up, but wherever they are coming from, it needs to stop. How about making them here in America? How about holding manufacturing companies responsible for quality parts? We would be money ahead if we had to pay a little more for a quality part that will keep us running rather than paying less money for a part that isn't going to last and is going to cost us downtime, potentially a tow bill and a loss of a load.

What do I know? After all, I'm just a driver!

Looking for a new ride

We are back to work again after a short (for us) visit home. We got a lot of things accomplished while there this time. We didn't have any company which allowed us to stay focused on getting things done.

International in Ocala repaired our broken turbo actuator. That was no fun driving 1300 miles with no turbo. They also replaced our ac compressor. Again. This is the 3rd compressor in 9 months. We had to pay for the first one (in El Paso) the last two have been under warranty. Makes me wonder what is going on with the parts we are getting from International.

We took the truck there to get the turbo fixed. Along with a clutch adjustment and we had a freon leak from the hose running out of the compressor. Those were the known problems that we had. In addition to that, while they  were testing things out, they said we had a low fuel pressure reading so they wanted to change the fuel pump and the fuel pressure regulator. We dropped it off late Thursday night. We rented a motel room for two nights. On Saturday we were told that it would probably be Tuesday before they would have the truck done.

We decided to rent a car and go home and come back and pick the truck up when it was done. I first called Enterprise since they will come and pick you up. They informed me that they had no cars available and no person available to pick me up even if they had a car. I tried another nearby Enterprise location and got the same answer. I tried called Hertz and was told no cars. Getting desperate, I called Avis and hit the jackpot. They had a car available.

I called up the International dealership and asked them if they could come and pick me up and take me to Avis. They said no problem. Someone was there within 15 minutes. He dropped me off at Avis and I left there with a very nicely loaded Chevy Cruze. Leather, sunroof, all the new gadgets, push button start and best of all, air conditioning that worked!

I went back to the motel, picked up John and Cody and we drove the 100 miles home. It's always so nice to go home and walk in and find everything exactly like you left it. This time while we were home we had to find a plumber to come out and do some drain work for us. The thing I've noticed living in Florida is that getting any kind of contractor to do work for you is a challenge. They don't return phone calls. They're over priced. They work when they want to work and a lot of them do shabby work.

I had no idea who to call so I just googled plumbers and started down the list. We got lucky and one finally called us back two days later and we set things up with him. He ended up coming a day later than originally planned because we had major rain the day he was supposed to come but he did get the job done and did it very well. His price was reasonable also so we feel very lucky that we now know a good plumber.

On Tuesday we drove back up to Ocala to pick up our truck and return the rental car. We started the drive back home and stopped off in Wildwood to fill up at the TA. I put the nozzle in the drivers side tank and tried to set it to automatically fill so I could go to the passenger side and get it going. It kept clicking off and wouldn't stay running. I finally called inside and asked if there was a problem with the pump. The lady said not that she knew of. I went around to the passenger side and put the pump in and it started filling up like normal. I went back around to the drivers side and pulled the nozzle out and found the problem. The tank was completely full. The passenger side took 35 gallons to fill it up.

This isn't supposed to happen. The truck is supposed to keep both tanks equalled out. I called International back up and asked them if they had done anything that would have caused this. They said no they hadn't, bring it back in. We turned around and drove 30 miles back to them.

We only had to wait for about 20 minutes for a tech to come out and hook up with his laptop. He ran some tests and determined that the fuel transfer pump wasn't working. Apparently, our trucks engine pulls the fuel from the passenger side tank. The drivers side is just a supply tank. There is a pump that will monitor the level in the passenger tank and pull from the drivers side over to the passenger side to equal them out. He replaced that pump and we were good to go again.

Back home we headed with our fingers crossed that nothing else would happen. We also needed to get our translucent roof resealed. Because we had been in so much rain we saw a couple of spots that were leaking a little bit. We decided to get it done on Monday right before we went back in service.

Another thing we did while we were home was car shop. When we started this job 3 years ago, we sold our vehicles and our boat. When we are at home we use our sons car. John has recently gotten the fever to own a car again so now we are shopping. Something that I consider sheer torture. I couldn't care the less about a car, but he is a car fanatic.

Our first test drive was a brand new Cadillac ATS. It was nice, not as nice as I had imagined a Cadillac to be, but we were seriously going to buy it. However, as usual, they tried to play the numbers game with us and we told them no and walked out.

We also test drove a new Dodge Dart. It's a nice little car but too small for me and not enough power for John. We drove a slightly used Chrysler 300. That was an absolutely beautiful car. We really thought about getting it. The only thing that stopped us was John wanted a hemi and it didn't have one. Honestly, it doesn't need one. He's just being a power hungry guy. Our next test drive was a Dodge Durango. It was a 2011  like brand new. We both really liked it. It had a lot of room in it. All the fancy gadgets. But, again, no hemi. If it had a hemi, we probably would've left with it.

So, we are still without a car, which is fine with me. John can continue looking for his dream vehicle while we are out on the road. The internet makes dreams come true, so we will see what happens!

Final Countdown

Just about ready to hit the road again. It has been a LONG vacation. Not complaining...just saying. With the surgery, the ear infection, the sinus infection and the flu, it seemed like I was never going to be able to get back on the road.

With the extended time off, I have been able to get a lot of projects completed. Nothing major, just little things like organizing my online photo albums, working on this blog layout. Paperwork of course. Lots of little projects around the house. It's nice to have those things done so they don't eat away at you while you're on the road. It sucks that while you're on the road you have so much downtime but since you're away, you can't do the projects that wait for you at home. But, that just gives you an excuse to do fun things, like reading, watching movies, shopping.

Now that we're preparing to get back at it, I feel like the New Year is finally starting for us. I never really make resolutions but this year I am going to try and get healthier. That includes losing some weight, which I have never had to do in my life, and trying my very best to get some excercise, something I have done very little of in my life. Getting older stinks. My metabolism is finally slowing down. I've always been able to eat whatever I want and never had to worry about gaining weight. My body just seemed to maintain itself at the weight it thought it needed to be. I still pretty much eat whatever I want, but I also am not happy with the weight that I am right now. I don't like having a little fat roll around my middle. It's disgusting. I also don't like seeing the loss of muscle tone, what little I had anyway.

Tomorrow will probably be a pretty busy day. Our last one at home for awhile. We'll have to get the truck packed back up and the house locked down. We're planning on only being gone at most 3 weeks before coming back home this time. If we can get back home after two weeks out, we'll do that. We're definitely not fans of winter weather and the more days we can be at home during the winter, the better. We can always make more money during the summer and fall and be safer while doing it!

Sick of being Sick! I wanna go back to work....

Today I went back to the walk in clinic to see about getting help to put this sickness to an end! Seriously! I usually never get sick and since Thanksgiving, that's all I've done. First, what seemed like the flu, then the thyroid surgery, then the middle ear infection, then what seemed like the flu again. Now, I have a sinus infection.

This is the first time I've ever had a sinus infection and I hope it's the last. My entire body has been aching for a week. I've been living on Tylenol for the pain. I have to blow my nose nonstop. I have a horrible cough that scares me to death and makes me think I'm going to cough up a lung. I can't take it anymore!

The Dr. today prescribed two medicines and I'm really hoping they work fast. I didn't get any sleep last night and very little all week and I'm becoming a real bitch because of it. I took the first dose of medicine and laid back down hoping that it would knock me out and I could finally get some rest, but that didn't happen. Ever since I had the thyroid surgery, my body clock has been out of whack or something. I'm not sleeping much at all. When I'm not sick, it doesn't seem to be a problem, but now I really need to sleep and give my body a chance to heal.

Our company that we drive for today called and asked when we were planning to come back to work. Boy, did that dispatcher pick the wrong to call! I had just gone into Walmart to pick up my prescriptions that the Dr's. office had called in, only to be informed that they were marked "pickup tomorrow". I nearly snapped. I told them to cancel it, called the Dr's office back and told them to send the order over to CVS. I am not dealing with that Walmart pharmacy's stupidity anymore. The last thing a sick person wants to do is sit and wait for hours on their medicine. By the time we drove across the street and pulled into the drive thru at CVS, they already had my prescriptions ready. They will be getting my business from now on! Job well done CVS!!

Right after I got back into the car in the Walmart parking lot after learning they messed up my order, dispatch called and wanted to know if we were enjoying our vacation. I kinda went off on his and feel bad about it, but this sickness is kicking my butt and I'm really not being nice to anyone right now. Hopefully he understands as I explained to him all that's been going on.

It sucks that we've been home this long and I haven't been able to make more progress on projects that I want to get done, but that's the way it goes I guess. I still have some bookkeeping work for the business to get done. Need to thoroughly clean the house. Especially with all the germs in here. Need a big bottle of lysol for that!

Guess I've whined enough for now. Can't wait for bedtime...

Jo Koy Rocked It!

John, the boys, and I went to the Orlando Comedy Improv last night and watched Joy Koy. We know of him from watching Chelsea Lately. He far exceeded our expectations. He is seriously funny!

Loved his jokes about "parent sex" vs "couples sex". His routine is a bit on the vulgar side, but that doesn't bother any of us. If it did, we probably wouldn't be able to be truck drivers!

I was the designated driver for the night. After the show, we hit up the Fat Fish Blue Bar and then Hooters. Hooters was quite disappointing. Pretty empty and the Hooters girls were kind of lacking in the looks dept. Normally I wouldn't be so judgmental, but isn't that kind of the draw for Hooters?

Paper Work Never Ends

I've spent all day trying to catch up on paper work and trucking related stuff. I'm still not done, but I put a good dent in it. The rules and regulations for trucking are unbelievable. I got the mail yesterday and there was a piece of mail telling us about a new requirement for cdl holders regarding self reporting for our medical cards. Not exactly sure what that's all about, but I followed the instructions and got it taken care of.

John went out to put the new visor clip on the truck and found out that International sold us the passenger side clip instead of the drivers side. Not surprised. Even though they double checked it, they still got it wrong. Guess we'll have to go back there tomorrow and see if they have the correct one.

I'm getting my hair cut and highlighted tomorrow and then tomorrow night me, John and our two sons are going to the Improv in Orlando to see Jo Koy. We're pretty excited about it. We see him quite a bit on the Chelsea Lately show and he's always funny. We've never been to the Improv, so not sure what to expect, but I know it'll be a good time!

The weather today was absolutely perfect! Not that I did anything outside, but where I sit and do paperwork I'm surrounded by windows and I had them all open with the breeze blowing in. It was in the 80's today and is supposed to be the rest of the week. I love Florida weather in the winter time!

The boys got their Vegas trip booked for March and we agreed to babysit their dog, so we will have to be home in March for that. I guess I'll go ahead and do our taxes then. With all this fiscal cliff talk, I'm dreading that. Don't know what to expect.

Went to the endocrinologist yesterday and got great news. My blood work was so good that they didn't put me on synthroid. At least not yet. I have to go back and have it done again in 8 weeks and see how that goes.

A Productive Day at Home

I got the house completely and thoroughly cleaned today. Mom and Dad are coming tomorrow to stay for a few days. While cleaning, I found some old pieces of jewelry that I haven't worn in years. I took them to a jewelry store and they ended up paying me $240 for them. I was shocked. I doubt if I paid that much for them new. Gold must be really high right now.

Tomorrow I am going back to have a follow up visit with the lady who does the permanent eyeliner. Cant wait to get it done!

Also today, I am trying out monovision with contacts. So far I think I like it. Only thing is, I'll have to get some glasses made for driving because it would be too much eye strain without them. It's nice to be able to read without putting on reading glasses.

That's about it, feeling really good still since the thyroid surgery. Wish I would've had it done sooner now!

Full of Energy Today

It's been 5 days since I had my left half of my thyroid removed and today is the first day that I have felt really good since. I woke up today full of energy and spent the whole day cleaning. I hauled out 8 garbage bags of stuff. Went through every cabinet, closet and drawer and pitched anything that didn't seem necessary. Why do we save some of the things we save? Empty boxes, clothes we haven't worn in years, kitchen utensils that I don't even know how to use....

 Yesterday, I went to a walk in clinic and found out I have a middle ear infection. Got a prescription for amoxicillin and another for some kind of steroids. Must be doing the job because I feel awesome now. Still can't hear 100% out of my left ear, but much improved over how it was. The whole weekend it felt like the left half of my head was stuffed with cotton.

 Tomorrow, I will need to go get a blood test done and then Monday I will follow up with the surgeon and on Tuesday I will see the endocrinologist who will have the results of the blood work from tomorrow and then he can decide what dosage of medicine to put me on. Hopefully he gets it right because I am not looking forward to any side effects from too much or not enough synthroid.

 I don't have much experience with drugs of any kind since I hate taking anything, but I do have a prescription for vicodin that they sent me home with. The best benefit I found from it so far is yesterday I took it and on the way home from the Dr. we stopped at Walmart to stock up on some groceries and other household items and by the time we got there, the drugs had kicked in and I was able to shop without being in misery the whole time. I absolutely hate shopping at Walmart and wish I was rich enough to never have to go there again. But since I'm not rich, yet anyway, I still go to Walmart. Anyway, for once, thanks to the effects of the vicodin, I was able to shop and still be happy.

 I plan on more cleaning and organizing tomorrow and then Friday, Mom and Dad will be coming to spend a few days. My Christmas gift to them this year is taking them, us and our two boys to see the Blue Man Group at Universal. Every year I take them somewhere different. Last year we went to the Polynesian Luau at Sea World and the year before that we went to Cirque De Soleil at Disney. All have been wonderful. I love going to the parks just to walk around, they are always so beautiful and have such a wonderful atmosphere. Always feels like you're on vacation when you're there.

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!

On a Good Roll for a Change

After we delivered in Ft. Campbell Ky, we drove to Richmond, Ky to pick up our next load. We didn't have to pick up till the next day so we got a good nights rest. Went there the next morning and got loaded. This load had a lot of extra time on it so we just stayed at the shipper to kill off several hours before heading out to Charleston, Sc. This would be our first delivery to Charleston AFB.

 I always hate going to a military base for the first time because you never know what you are going to run into. Some of them have multiple gates and depending on what you are hauling, there may be a specific gate that you have to enter through. Of course, nobody lets us know in advance. We have to find out the hard way. We got there and found what we thought was the correct gate. Wrong. The guard wouldn't let us in and directed us to a different gate. It was about a 10 mile drive to the next gate in bumper to bumper traffic. We got there and the guard let us in and told us how to get to the building our paperwork showed as our delivery point. We drove to it, went in to check in and were informed that we were not supposed to be allowed in that area with the freight that we were hauling. That guard called someone and informed them that the guard at the gate had mistakenly let us in and now we needed a police escort to get us to where we needed to be. I pointed out to him that our paperwork showed this building that we were at as where we were supposed to be and suggested that whoever sets these loads up should be informed to use a different address or include specific directions on where they want the drivers to go. I guess they think we're psychic or something. The police came along and escorted us across the flight line to where we were to get unloaded. About an hour and a half later we were out of there. Now in the future we will know where to go. Unless they change the rules before our return.

At this point, we were out of legal hours to work so we headed to a truck stop to spend a couple of days and get some much needed rest. We ate, showered, and I think I slept for about 15 hours straight. I slept most of the next day too. I didn't know how tired I was until I got there. I guess your mind knows when you need to keep going and when you can rest and you don't even realize it. We met a nice couple at the truck stop who was asking questions about the company we are leased on with. These people had just gotten back into driving after 2 and a half years away from driving. The husband had fallen off the flat bed he drove while tarping a load and got some serious injuries. They ended up losing their truck, their house, pretty much everything. I hate to see things like that happen to people who are just trying to work and make a living. Their goal is to save up enough to buy their own truck again. I hope they make it and I think they will.

After our break was over, we got a load picking up in Weaverville, NC delivering in Livonia, Mi. Non government, no special requirements. The only difficult thing about this one was driving through the freaking mountains. We can't seem to get away from them. We delivered that load, went to Meijers and stocked up the truck and drove to the truck stop. We were fueling up when our phone started ringing off the hook. Our qc started going crazy with messages also. Load offers from about 3 or 4 different dispatchers at the same time. The one we ended up taking was picking up in Jackson, Mi in a couple of hours and driving straight through to Maxton, Nc. Yep, back the way we came, more mountains!!

  On the trip down, John noticed one of our steer tires had a cut on the outside edge. We knew we could complete the delivery, but after that, we were going to need to get it changed. We delivered the load, drove about a hundred miles up to Kenly, NC and got a new set of steer tires and an alignment done. While changing the steers, they noticed that one of our tie rod ends was bad, so we had them change both of those while they were at it. The next day we went to the Speedco and had the maintenance done and then went to the Blue Beacon for a truck wash. Now she's riding smooth and looking mighty shiny!

Dispatch called us the next morning before we were even out of bed with a load offer picking up on Friday delivering on Monday. It's a whopping 15 pounds. So we are hauling our 15 pounder 2300 miles across the country.  We are on that load now, having to take our time on it because we can't deliver till Monday, but that's okay. We don't mind not having to push it. We will end up in the Northwest so we will see what happens from there. We have decided to stay out on the road instead of going home right now. We are enjoying the weather, the freight seems to be running strong right now, so we are hoping to get the bank account built up and take off later in the year. We will see how long we can stay out here!

Loving the Cooler Temps of Fall

We delivered our load in San Diego. Afterwards we drove down to a Pilot truckstop very near the Mexican border. We aren't familiar with that area so we were blindly following along with our trusty gps to get us there. Sometimes, that's not such a good idea. I swear, one day that gps is gonna send us over a cliff! They were doing road construction in that area, so I am assuming that is the reason for the error in the gps. She didn't tell us to take the exit when we should have and next thing we know we see a sign saying last US exit, all trucks must exit. One of these days I just know we're going to accidently end up  in Mexico. Luckily, we avoided it this time and managed to find our way to the truckstop.

We were both really worn out from the long drive and frustrated from the chaos of the delivery. The place we had to deliver to was in the middle of an area that had road construction all around and we couldn't get there the way we planned on. We had to detour and the detour included crossing railroad tracks. Not a big deal, normally, but at this crossing, the rr arms that come down to prevent you from crossing when a train is coming got stuck in the down position and we couldn't get across. We sat and waited for a while and nobody came to fix it. There was no other way out, we were trapped there. Finally, in desperation, I got out and manually raised the arms one at a time and John drove through. It was perfectly safe, there was no train coming, and the arms were spring loaded so as soon as you start raising them, they go right up. Probably could have gotten in trouble for doing it, but we needed to get out of there and we had waited long enough.

After that, we had to figure out how to get to the delivery with the detour and construction messing up everything. It took us awhile but we finally found it. This place had really tight security protocols and they wouldn't let our dog go in, so I ended up having to sit outside the gate with the dog while John went in and completed the delivery. Needless to say, we will not be delivering there again. What a bunch of crap. Our dog is a Maltese/Poodle mix and weighs 13 pounds.  I don't understand what harm he is going to do as long as he stays inside our truck. I'm sure they have their reasons but we're not going back there because I don't like sitting outside with a dog, waiting. There are plenty of other loads that we can do.

After getting to the truckstop, we filled up the tanks and found a parking space. Went inside and ate at the Wendy's. Came back out to the truck and got some much needed rest. We had ourselves off the board till the next morning. We went in and had a shower in the morning and then went back in service. We got a couple of crappy load offers that we turned down and then finally on Wednesday evening we got an offer that we accepted. It was picking up in Carson, Ca going to El Paso, Tx. I drove the deadhead up and got checked in with the shipper. John went inside to find out if the freight was ready and while he was inside, dispatch called and said the shipper just called and said it wouldn't be ready till sometime the next day, so we got dry run pay. We headed out and went to the TA truckstop in Ontario, Ca.

We usually go to that one when we're in the area because they have a special parking area just for expediters and it's free to park there. A lot of places in Ca charge for truck parking. The drive up from San Diego was nice and easy. It was about 3 AM when we got there and I was starving. We went in and ate at the restaurant there and then back out to the truck to sleep and wait for another load. When I got up later that morning, I turned the key in the ignition to the on position so our qualcomm would come back to life. When I turned the key, the windshield wipers started running and a check electrical system light came on the dash along with a buzzer sound. After about 30 seconds it all finally stopped. Me and John looked at each other and said what now? We looked at fuses and he checked the wiring in the battery box, but all seemed to be okay. We turned the truck on and let it idle for a while and everything seemed okay. I lost my appetite because I knew that there was a problem somewhere, but we were going to find out what it was the hard way.

While we were looking around at things on the truck, dispatch called with a load offer. He started out by telling me that he had the best weekend load offer I would ever get. He was right about that. It picked up the next day on Friday up at Beale Air Force Base, a little north of Sacramento. Then it went almost 2900 miles to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. The weird thing was that our sons had just gotten a load to deliver at the same place, but we wouldn't be seeing them because we had to deliver on Sunday night and they weren't delivering until Monday morning.

We accepted the load, even though we were worried about what might or might not be going on with the truck. The deadhead on this load was 450 miles so we figured that would be enough time for any problems to show up. John did the first half of the deadhead and the drive was pretty sucky heading north through California on I5. That road is a joke. So bumpy it's awful. Add in the congestion, the mountains, the heat, and it doesn't make a pleasant drive. He made it about 70 miles or so when I noticed that our battery gauge was dropping. This was in the daytime, no headlights were on so there was no way our batteries should have been that low. Suddenly we realized our alternator must have stopped working. Fortunately, we have our generator so we turned it on and it kept the batteries charged up. I started making phone calls to different places along our route and found an International dealer in Turlock, up by Stockton who said they would take us in and change out our alternator.

We made it there and they were awesome! It only took them about half an hour to do the job and the bill was only $289. We had had the alternator changed 15 months ago at a TA in Baltimore and they charged us $480 and it took them almost 3 hours. Hard to believe that a TA charged that much more than a dealership. What a racket!! The good news in all that is that we now know why we had the crazy ck electrical system message that morning. Apparently the truck somehow knows when it has a problem and tries to tell you. If only it had a message on the dash that would say, need to replace alternator instead of a generic check electrical system. Oh well. It's fixed now.

We made our pickup the next morning and began the long long drive to New Jersey. This load was a straight thru drive. We only stopped to fuel up and switch drivers. Our delivery time was set for 11:30 Sunday evening, but we got there two hours early. I was pretty impressed with us! Before we had even left out of the delivery point, dispatch was on the phone with three more load offers. They were all military loads. First one picked up in Connecticut on Monday morning and delivered to Crane, IN on Tuesday morning. Then we reloaded in Crane, In at the same place and delivered to Ft. Campbell, Ky on  Wednesday morning. The third load we are on now, so I won't say anything about it until later. After we make this delivery, we are out of available hours to work so we will have to do a 34 hour reset. We will be happy to do the reset as we are pretty well wore out. Very happy though as we have made quite a bit of money these last two weeks. It's about time!!   

A funny story involving our sons. They drive a truck just like ours and are signed on with the same carrier as us. Our oldest son called me up the other day and said you will not believe what just happened to us. I said what now? He was driving along the interstate and a truck pulled up next to him and was honking his horn so Johnny looked over at him and the guy started waving his cb microphone at him. Johnny just kind of ignored him because he didn't want to talk to the guy.

The guy kept honking and waving and then finally gave up and went ahead of him. Johnny suddenly had the thought that maybe the guy was trying to tell him of a problem so he turned on his cb just in time to hear the guy telling another driver that he tried to tell him but he must not have his radio on. Johnny got on the cb and said I have it on, what's going on? The driver says, man, you got sparks coming out from under your truck! Johnny looks in the drivers mirror and sees nothing so he yells at Steve and Steve looks out the passenger side and sees the sparks. Johnny pulls over on the side and they get out to look and find out that their tail pipe that comes out of the muffler had rusted through and broken and was hanging there dragging along down the road so sparks were flying off it. The pipe is about 4 feet long and they had a load in the trailer with a seal on the door so they had nowhere to put the pipe. They just took it the rest of the way off the truck and had to continue on to the delivery without it.

Repairs, Repairs and More Repairs...Did I Mention Repairs????

When I last posted, we were on our way to Laredo and I was hoping that we wouldn't break down and have to go back to the International Dealer there. Happily, we did not. We delivered and went back to the truckstop and was about ready to head in for a shower when we were dispatched on our next load which went to the Los Angeles area of California. We were really upset that we didn't even have time to take a shower, but couldn't pass up the good paying load, so we figured we would just deal with it.

We headed off to California and since the load was delivering Friday evening, we assumed that we would sit in Cali till Monday which would have been great with us. We desperately needed showers, rest and wanted Sunday evening off for our fantasy football draft. About 50 miles into our load, dispatch called and offered us a load picking up in Cali on Saturday and delivering in Ohio on  Monday. We turned it down because they couldn't give us the weight and piece count and I told him that I wasn't going to disrupt my weekend plans if I didn't know for sure the load would definitely fit on our truck. He wasn't happy about it, and we weren't either really. It was a lot of money, but whatever.

The next morning we got another call from dispatch for another load offer. This time picking up as soon as we could get to it after making the delivery of the load we were on. Only problem was that it was going to Canada, which we no longer do, so they wanted us to take it to a crossdock in Michigan on Sunday night. I told the dispatcher that we already had plans for Sunday night and could not be driving at that time so they worked it out that we could deliver the load to a crossdock in Indiana on Sunday morning instead. That was perfect. Right. Funny how things never go according to plan.

We delivered the load we were on and it was a nightmare dealing with rush hour LA traffic. We immediately headed to the next pick up which was next to the LA airport. More nightmare...Anyway, we got there, got loaded and headed out. Still in rush hour traffic. I fought my way out of it and eventually things settled down. All seemed to be going well except for the fact that due to the traffic we were now not going to be able to deliver until around noon on Sunday. Still not a problem. Right...

John and I took turns driving and I took over again in New Mexico. I drove about 100 miles and it was about 100 degrees outside. I had just passed thru Santa Rosa and was climbing up and down the hills. I was keeping a close eye on the temp guage because we are obsessive about trying to make sure our truck never overheats so that we don't damage the motor. We want it to last as long as it possibly can. Everything was running perfectly when all of a sudden the temp guage starts climbing. It went up to 200. I was listening for the fan to kick in but didn't hear anything. It went up to 205, still no fan. I start worrying. Temp goes up to 210, no fan and I know somethings wrong. I look ahead and see an exit coming up so I pulled over on the exit and stopped. The temp had made it up to 217 but then came back down to 210 after I stopped. I got out and pulled the hood open and saw our coolant leaking all over the ground. I opened the truck back up and yelled at John to come look. He immediately saw a hole in the hose. I shut the truck off and thought okay, no big deal, we'll just call roadside repair and they can fix it. I got the cell phone out and tried to call, and got a message on the phone saying no mobile network service. Emergency calls only. What?? Thinking that maybe it was just my phone acting retarded, I got John's phone out and tried it. Same result. I continued trying to call over and over on both phones and finally gave up.

I told John that maybe a cop would come along or some kind of highway helper and they could call repair for us. I waited about 10 minutes (still no patience) and finally decided I was going to call 911. Sure enough the call went right through. I explained our situation to the 911 dispatcher and he helped us out by calling the TA RoadSquad. However, due to TA's policy, they ended up taking about 5 hours to show up because they couldn't call us to verify how we were going to pay. Fortunately, I was able to send a message over the qualcomm to our carrier and they contacted the TA and reassured them they would get paid.
The problem started at 5PM. The repair guy showed up at 10:15 PM. We didn't get out of there until 12:45 AM. He did do a good job repairing the hose. Just took him awhile because he was working by flashlight and it was a tight squeeze for him to get his hand into. He filled us back up with 7 gallons of coolant and we paid him $370. Not too bad considering that included 7 gals of coolant. While he was fixing the hose, he pointed out to us that we had a diesel fuel leak. He said he wasn't authorized to repair it but it should be okay till we could get somewhere to fix it. Great!! Not what we wanted to hear.

Off we went. I was so upset because now our load was going to be late. Up to this point, we have never been late. Our fantasy draft was up in the air. Were we going to have drop out? We now had our sleep schedules messed up. To say it nicely, we were both getting a little cranky. There was nothing we could do but continue on and hope we made it to our delivery without any further problems.

It turned out that John was going to be driving the last leg of the trip which freed me up to be able to do our football draft. It was horrible. It was pouring down rain the last 300 miles of the trip, road construction, it was dark outside, the roads were so bumpy and again, we were both grouchy. I had to work two laptops to do my draft and John's draft and it was all I could do to keep track of things. John arrived at our crossdock right about midnight and I was almost done with the draft. Problem was, our crossdock was closed and they had the entire parking lot roped off because they had repaved their parking lot. We parked across the street and called in to dispatch and let them know the situation. About an hour later they called back and said, change of plans, you need to take the load to the crossdock in Michigan. Another 260 miles!! We were furious! We had already made plans to get more repair work done on our truck in Indiana. Now we had to drive another 260 miles away from where we wanted to be, not to mention the fact that we were both exhausted! I had stayed up doing to the draft thinking that our trip was done and I wouldn't need to drive. It was a disaster. We split the 260 miles in half. John drove the first half while I slept. Then I finished the drive. It was all I could do to get it done. We got there, unloaded, parked and slept till 2:30 PM.

We got up, showered, ate, filled the truck up and headed back to Indiana to get the work done on the generator that we had been wanting done. After that we were going to go down to Lafayette to the International Dealer there to get the fuel leak fixed along with having our AC repaired. AGAIN!! It started having problems on the way to our delivery. Not happy about that at all since we had just spent almost $2000 and three days getting it worked on in El Paso back in May.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, there was more to come. John only made it about 15 miles when he called me up front and said we had a problem with the truck. You could feel the engine cutting out like it wasn't getting fuel. It would run okay, and then cut in and out. We pulled over at the next truckstop and looked under the hood. We couldn't see any problems. We sat there and let it idle. It seemed okay. I called a couple of the closest International shops and both said they were swamped and couldn't look at it right away. We debated on  what to do and finally agreed to give it another try. John took off again and went about 20 more miles but we decided to stop because it was running really rough. We parked for the night and in the morning I called the International in Toledo and he said he could take us in and if it wasn't anything major, he could fix it that morning. We headed over and the truck ran like crap but it made it.

They replaced the fuel line and showed us the old one that was worn out. I asked them if they thought that was the problem making the truck run rough and they said it could be if it was letting air in the suction side or something like that. Okay, whatever. $150 for that repair. We started the truck up, it seemed to run fine. Off we went. Again. The first 50 miles were great. No problems. Nice and smooth. Then, it started acting up again. Just a little at first, then a little worse. I just kept on driving and at that point, we decided to just keep going and if it quit, we would get towed. We finally made it to Remington, In which is where we were getting the work done on the generator. The truck had ran bad off and on but the last 20 miles it ran great. We had no idea what was going on with it.

We couldn't get in to the Chrome Shop for 2 days so the next day we spent visiting with our sons who were still there and then visiting some of our friends who live in the area. We took the truck in to the Chrome Shop on Thursday and they raised the generator up several inches. Thank goodness!! No more worrying if we were going to tear it off going over rr tracks or speed bumps. Cost of repair, $350. The next morning we got up and drove the truck about 40 miles down to Lafayette. It started out running great but the last 10 miles it acted up again and by the time we took the exit ramp it was a nightmare. The truck was bucking like a bronco. Acting like it was going to die. But it made it. Barely....We gave them the keys and a list of the repairs we wanted done. Called Enterprise for a rental car. They came and picked us up and we headed down to southern Indiana to visit family. Figured we might as well treat this as vacation time since we were in the area of all our family.

I called later in the day to see if they had figured out the problem and was told no, that their senior mechanic wouldn't be back until Tuesday due to the Labor Day Holiday so I called and extended my rental car. The good news was that the rental car was only $17 a day. We didn't have to pay for a motel since we were staying in my parents camper. We had a great visit with our families and get rested up. The truck was finally done on Thursday. The problem turned out to be the wiring for the IPR valve. (Injector Pressure Regulator). Apparently when we had our fuel leak which is right next to the IPR wiring, the fuel got into the wiring and caused damage. So, we got that replaced, a new air horn, (when John hit the wild hog, it broke our horn), added an extension onto our air hose inside the cab so it would reach into the back of the sleeper for easier cleaning, replaced a couple of marker lights, and fixed a problem with our air  compressor. The pop off valves weren't working properly and were allowing air to leak causing the compressor to run pretty much all the time. Oh yeah, they fixed the AC. Again. After all that, the total bill was $2100. No charge for the AC since it was still under warranty. So....to sum up, we have spent about $2900 on repairs in the last two weeks. Not including rental car and lost wages. It's hard to believe, but we somehow still have money in the bank.

After picking up the truck and returning the rental car, we stopped in at Meijers to stock up the truck with all the necessities. Diet Pepsi, Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke Zero, snacks, paper towels, baby wipes, etc. There was a Steak and Shake next door so we had lunch. After that we were discussing which direction to head to wait for a load when dispatch called. Surprising since we weren't back in service yet. They had a load offer for us which we accepted. It picked up the next morning in Southern Indiana and delivered in San Diego, Ca on Monday morning. That one load paid enough to cover all the repairs we had done, plus put a little extra in our pocket. The deadhead to the pickup was 150 miles which was great. We wanted to give the truck a good test drive before actually picking up a load to see if everything seemed to be running properly. It ran fine, but I was so anxious the entire drive listening and seeing if I could feel anything that didn't seem right. This truck is driving me crazy and making me so paranoid.

We got the load picked up and headed off to San Diego. We had about 30 extra hours on the load so I actually had to come up with a trip plan. The load was a military load which only allowed us to stop for 3 hours and 30 minutes at a time. After that time, you must start moving again. In addition to that, one person must remain with the truck at all times, be awake and in the cab of the truck, not the sleeper berth. It's a pain, but it paid well. With so much time on the load, we only drove a max of 200 miles before stopping to take a 3 hour break. This continued all the way from Indiana to Ca. 2100 miles. You would think that you would get a lot of rest with so much extra time, but you actually get less rest due to the security requirements of having one person in the cab at all times. The person in the sleeper can't really get rested due to all the stopping. Im not going to complain too much because the truck made it here, on time, with no repairs needed and lately that is saying A LOT!!!

If only I could blog while driving...

Wouldn't that be great? I spend so much time sitting in the drivers seat driving along with so much time to think, it would be awesome if I could somehow blog it while I was thinking it. I think of so many things I want to write about and I always tell myself that as soon as my shift is over I'm going to log on and write it all down, but of course that never happens. If I do actually get out the computer and try to blog, I can't remember anything that I was thinking about earlier.

We are currently on our way to Laredo, Texas. Keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have bad luck while we're down there because if we have to take the truck back to that crappy International dealership for repairs I think I would go postal. Such a shame to have to worry about that because I really do enjoy going to Laredo. For me, Texas is such an easy place to drive. I know a lot of other truck drivers don't care much for Texas, but I personally enjoy it. Any state that makes everything truck size is all right with me.
I'm hoping that after this load we will get something going towards Indiana. We would like to go back to the shop that installed our generator and have them raise it a couple of inches to give us more clearance. We've been dealing it with it since March, but it is a worry that we would rather not have to deal with. Also, our sons are there right now getting their generator put on and will be staying there the weekend. We have our fantasy football draft on Sunday night and it would be awesome if we could all be together while drafting. Unfortunately, we can't choose where our next load will go, so we just have to be flexible and work with what we get.

I was talking to my Mom on the phone yesterday and they have a camping trip planned next month at Lake Monroe, In. My sister and her husband will be going also. Mom wants us to come, but I think we are going to try and go home again around that time. I've been hearing talk on the news of a possible hurricane that may affect Florida in the next few days. I hope it isnt something that we need to be worried about. Guess I need to get some more in depth info.

Another reason we want to get home is to sign up for gym memberships with Anytime Fitness. I am really excited about the thoughts of having nationwide access to a 24 hour gym. I truly hate exercising so it's kind of weird that I would be excited about it, but after riding around in a truck for over two years, the idea of actually getting out of the truck and working out sounds good. I really like the fact that they have private showers. I didn't like showering in gym class in school and I still don't like the idea of public showering as an adult. I've been watching as I drive and I've spotted a lot of Anytime Fitness locations. Also, anytime we stop somewhere I use google map to check for nearby locations and there's always one nearby. The only downside to the whole thing is that it's a 30 day wait period for our membership key to become activated for nationwide use. Again, I need patience and  I still don't have any!

Who's hiding the freight?

So we delivered yesterday in Shreveport. It was a nice smooth routine delivery. I love those and wish they happened more often. We drove about 2 miles to the Petro after that and parked and waited for the next load. We've had about 3 load offers but turned them all down for various reasons. Probably should have taken one of them but at the time we didn't realize that we would still be sitting here this morning. We had been having pretty good luck with getting loads, but since coming back out after our last time at home, it's been completely different. Hopefully things will turn around soon.

This particular segment of trucking is unique because of the nature of expedited freight. What can be a good area one visit can turn into a slow area on your next visit. It's always a gamble. Patience is a requirement for this job. You really must have some form of activities that you enjoy that can be done while sitting and waiting or you would go nuts. For me, it's reading. I read books, news, and blogs. We watch movies and tv some. Not a whole lot, but if we're in the mood, we will. I have the ancestry project that I started on. Also, my newest project of the travelblog for expediters. I can keep myself occupied pretty well. As long as I'm satisfied with the amount of money that we have in the bank, I can sit for a while without getting too cranky.

Thank goodness the weather is starting to cool down a little. It's 10 AM here and it's still cool enough that we haven't had to run the ac. I much prefer to have the windows open with the fan running. We had breakfast this morning in the Iron Skillet. We had high hopes for it because we ate there yesterday and everything was delicious. My eggs were the best I'd had in a long long time. My bacon was cooked perfectly. The french toast was delicious. Today, however, all those same things were completely different. Apparently there was a different cook today. Very disappointing.
I think it's nap time.