Plum Trucker

Two Bradbury's And A Plum!

2011-10-26T20:45:00.000-04:00

I think it was sometime...last week ( days seem to run together when you are out here) that our friends Brad and Ruthann Bradbury realized we would be crossing paths. This wasn't the first time, we have passed each other at night a few times before, but since our companies are so demanding we couldn't make it work. However, this time we were all bound and determined to finally stop! So stop we did!

It was only for about 45 minutes and I think that was a little longer then they really should have stayed with the load they were on, but worth it! We had so much to say that 45 minutes did not even begin to touch the surface. Everyone says Ruthann is "the mom" out here and meeting her only proves it! She jumped out of the truck handing us pumpkin shaped cookies! She is beyond caring, sweet, and quite funny and that completely shows through as soon as you meet her! And since Brad has been driving for like what?...50 years :) you would think he would be a little rough around an edge or two but he is a complete Teddy Bear!!! They are both two people you could spend hours talking with ...maybe next time we can over some nice warm coffee! Oh and they both give great hugs!

Just What We Need!

2011-10-25T23:11:00.000-04:00

Finally a pub for truckers...only in California I tell ya!

Finally Rolling On

2011-10-23T18:05:00.003-04:00

After spending three days in Charlotte, NC we are finally up and running again. The load we originally had going to Blythe, CA got cancelled and since it was the weekend I guess there wasn't much freight moving. We are actually deadheading 312 miles up to Suffolk, VA to get a load today, it is heading to Vernon, CA. We made the best of being stuck we had Five Guys one day and walked around a nearby mall for awhile. We figured out how to rent movies to our DVR and caught up on a lot of sleep. It isn't the most exciting place and we were limited to what was around us. Then today we got the truck washed, which made Kendall super happy! He hates it when our truck is dirty.

Look at her shine!

Now we will bust out almost 2800 miles, hit California, and put our request in to go home for a few days. There you have it, my agenda for the next 3 days.

No PC For The South?

2011-10-20T14:25:00.003-04:00

Gil has left a new comment on your post "Got The Belt and The Boots":

One one of our two cross country trips we hit the Oklahoma State Fair and they had a high rodeo. I was so surprised to see all of the women young and old with belts like that and their double names in those silver metal things. Is it required to give your daughters names like Billie-Sue, Donna-Jean, etc down South?
Posted by Gil to Plum Trucker at October 20, 2011 2:11 AM

I thought that I had made my intentions very clear with this blog. I write for my family, friends, and anyone who is interested or enjoys finding out what our life is like out here. I know that I have also made it very clear that I will not tolerate those who only want to read to judge and criticize. However, I guess I was not clear enough. So let me be clear now, degrading comments also will not be tolerated!

Gill, did I offend you? Did those women at the rodeo offend you? Did they hold a door for you and that rubbed you wrong? Was it the fact that they were probably throwing their garbage into an actual garbage can? Maybe it was their good family values that made you feel that you should be making fun of them. But what really gets me is that not only do you want to belittle those from the south, but you wanted to do it by leaving a comment on my blog, a person who is PROUDLY from the south.

I wonder, if I was a black women writing about going to a rap concert vs. a rodeo would you still have been so quick to make stereotypes about the commonality of names used or that the young men wore their pants too low, showing their underwear and have the gall to ask me if that was a "requirement"? I think not, because that would be unacceptable. Perhaps you just don't feel that southern people should be treated with the same political correctness as others.

I truly appreciate all of my readers, you guys are the best and I am sorry that I am even having to write a post like this, but I simply refuse to be degraded because of where I come from or who I am. I do not pass judgement on others and expect the same in return.

Got The Belt and The Boots

2011-10-14T19:16:00.003-04:00

We completely scored today with a Good Load Friday. We left Charlotte, NC this morning are Blythe, CA bound and we don't deliver until.... Monday night!! This gives us nearly an extra 48 hours. The smart thing to do here is to get a rolling restart in to keep our hours fresh. The awesome thing to do here is choose the best location. We have chosen Amarillo. Just so happens that tomorrow only 3 exits away from our truck stop they will be having a rodeo, chili cook off, and a dance after the rodeo. Oh my god, I KNOW! I've got my boots on and my belt ready to go...

I just don't think there is a better place is see a rodeo and eat some chili then in Texas! In the words of King George "Amarillo by morning, Amarillo is where I'll be!!"

Picking Up Portillo's

2011-10-13T18:37:00.001-04:00

We rolled out of Washington headed for the Chicago area on a pretty tight run but we were not worried about it because we not only got to go through Montana, my favorite state, but we also got to scratch another one off the list...North Dakota! I drove through it, it was at night, and no one was around... My kind of state!

We had about 10 hours in between dropping our load and picking up our next one so we headed to Portillo's for some jam up Chicago dogs. I love how we have found our favorite little places around the country that we can sneak into.

Saying Goodbye To Summer

2011-10-12T06:25:00.002-04:00

They say that all good things must end someday
Autum leaves must fall
But don't you know that it hurts me so to say goodbye to you
Wish you didn't have to go...
And when the rain beats against my window pane
I'll think of summer days again and dream of you..

After driving through wonderful Montana, only the second time I've had the opportunity to do this, I took this photo and instantly got into the "fall" state of mind. Being in Montana made me realize now is the time to enjoy the weather and colors and not to worry about what comes after. Besides we have learned so much from last winter that I think this one will be much more enjoyable, plus we have the satellite now.

The Best Thing I Found In Scotland...

2011-10-11T16:02:00.000-04:00

So if I haven't told you, here it is...I Love Cows!! I think they are the cutest damn things, until I met this Highland Cow or "Heilan Coo" I now am completely in love with these fuzzy things. I mean just look at him...

I kept referring to them as "hippie cows" with their long hair and all. LOL This cow and his friends were actually just standing on the side of the road munching down on some grass when we pulled along side for a photo op. No fence to keep us apart, I could have literally touched him, which I tried to do while still sitting in the car, he gave me a "What the... " type look and backed away slowly. So we all had a chat in the car about who should get out and try to make first contact with our new found friends. We all tried convincing Kendall's Dad, Dan, we thought he would be the fastest runner if anything went wrong, plus animals just love him. He declined though, actually he said "Hell no I am not going to be on America's Funniest Home Videos." I could see the point, so we just hung out in the car along side and snapped a few photos.

Hello Harry!

2011-10-10T16:04:00.000-04:00

One of the most exciting things on our trip for me personally, because I am such a dork was visiting this bridge..

This happens to be the bridge that is in Harry Potter!!! The coolest part is there is actually a train that goes across it called the Hogwarts Express, we didn't see it though. The place was super cool though!

Global Warming My Ass!

2011-10-09T14:13:00.001-04:00

Does this picture make anyone else cringe? Well if it doesn't then you are just sick...(Salena) :)

This was taken THIS morning in Laramie, Wyoming. For the majority of last night and early this morning they had 80 shut down. This was our first time experiencing 80 shut down. It was no problem for us we stopped way outside of the mess and took a nap. We decided to chug through it this morning and what I saw did not make me feel good...snow, obviously and 28 degree weather outside. UGH!! That wintery witch giving us a little tease if the horrid nightmare that is coming...

Just A Nip...

2011-10-09T12:10:00.001-04:00

I took this outside a cafe and thought it really summed up how it is done in Scotland.
Neeps = Turnips
Tatties = Potatoes
Haggis = A Scottish Stable, it is a type of sausage made up primarily of sheep heart, liver, and lungs with oats and spices packed into a sheep intestine. We knew going over here we were going to try different things so we couldn't be afraid of this and it is actually quite good. I mean I couldn't eat a ton of it but I did enjoy it. Which you better because it comes with a lot of meals.
A Nip Of Whiskey = The Cure For Any Problem

You can actually go on the whiskey tour while you are in Scotland, which basically means you just hop from distillery to distillery. They take their whiskey serious over there, which they should I would say it is one of their biggest exports, ever heard of Glenfiddich ? I saw the distillery, every bottle comes from that one distillery in Scotland. We toured the Talisker distillery it is located on the Island of Skye and the water they use to make their whiskey literally comes from the springs located in the ground there. That is what gives them their unique flavor, that is also why these whiskey companies never change their location. So next time you grab a bottle see where it came from, If it is somewhere in Scotland I probably saw it :)

Loch Ness

2011-10-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

Well of course we had to visit Loch Ness. You know the tale of old Nessie the water creature who lives in the deep and has had mysterious sightings. I am sad to report we did not capture or sight her, but the place was beautiful none the less. I wasn't sure what to expect I figured it would be touristy, but it was so far from that. In fact, once again we were the only people there, minus some ducks.

The place does hold a sense of mystery. I was happy the day we went the myst or fog cleared for what turned out to be a beautiful day, very windy but beautiful. We drove the Loch several times to and from the village we were staying at and sometime you couldn't even see it because the fog was so dense. There is a castle on one side of the Loch as well, at night they light it up which only adds to the erie feel of the place. I can't really put it into words, it is hard. But there is a certain feel to the place, maybe it was because there was no one around, no one on the water. It could also have something to do with how the look of the Loch changes with the fog, but either way it is a very neat. A place for your imagination to run wild, a great place to camp, which we saw many people do from old camp fires, and just a very different place to visit.

Don't Call Me A Laurie!

2011-10-08T18:14:00.003-04:00

This is their semi trucks. They call them "Laurie's" but if you notice the rack of lights at the top of the cab you won't be calling them Laurie's when they beam you with those suckers! Believe me, we had to see them in action so one night while driving Kendall flashed them and BAM! We saw the light!! I am still trying to figure out how we can get those for our truck so I can blast those unwilling drivers out there who refuse to dim!

Breakfast At The Cottage

2011-10-08T18:06:00.002-04:00

Here is our set up from The Rowan Cottage. Pretty great huh?

(Side note: Since I am using my iPad I can only upload one picture per post so you might see these multiple posts to give you more pictures)

On the side of trucking today: I80 in Wyoming is currently closed, due to snow fall and limited visibility. We are headed that way... Mother of Pearl!

The Way To Stay...

2011-10-08T17:37:00.002-04:00

Scotland is not just a different country, it is a different way of life. One of the best examples of this is that there are no hotels. Okay I take that back, I saw ONE and it was in Edinburgh and like I said only ONE. So where do you stay? At Bed and Breakfast's. They are everywhere, they are all charming looking, and that is all we stayed in. I had never stayed at a B&B before so I was beyond excited and I have got to tell you they are AWESOME! It really goes with what Scotland is about, that is why I wanted to tell you about them first because it helps set the vibe of this vacation, it isn't Disney world and tour buses, it is relaxed and off the beaten path, with plenty of room for adventure.

You are literally welcomed into someone's home. Each place we stayed was lovely, each place hand cooked us a fabulous breakfast every morning, but one place was incomparable.... The Rowan Cottage

When we first arrived and walked inside the sweet smell of homemade bread baking filled up the air. The place was beyond clean, it was the cleanest place I've ever been to. It was warm and inviting. We each had robes to wear, the bed felt like heaven, and fresh fruit was placed in a bowl by our television every morning. But none of this compared to how wonderful the owner was. It was such a wonderful way to start our vacation and get a feel to what the Scottish people are like, friendly, funny, and warm. Plus, we were the only people staying, she only has two rooms.

Every morning we had a breakfast that she hand prepared, coffee and tea, and a fresh fruit salad.... She even sliced the grapes. How do you slice grapes? With a small knife I guess? The fruit salad was amazing, with pomegranate, grapes, bananas, peaches, oranges, pineapple, pears, apples, strawberries...etc and it was always a surprise of what you would get. The majority of the fruit came from her garden and she even made our jams and marmalades. Oh and the home made bread.... It was fabulous!

Being welcomed so freely into someone's home was such an experience. I totally heart B&B's now !!!!

Sorry To Interrupt...

2011-10-07T14:54:00.003-04:00

Ok, ok... I was going to wait until I filled you all in on Scotland, but I just couldn't ... We Got ENGAGED!!

I know I always refer to Kendall as my fiancé, but he finally made it official by dropping to one knee and giving me a ring!!!!

No, he did not do it in Scotland, he did it somewhere else, a very special place to both of us... All I can say was that it was under an oak tree and it meant the absolute world to me, plus it made going on vacation that much better!

We are thinking next winter :)

Alright...now we can get back to Scotland... But I had to tell you this exciting news, I couldn't wait a moment longer!

We are back!!!

2011-10-06T14:54:00.001-04:00

We are back from Scotland and back on the road. I am currently sitting in Jacksonville waiting to get loaded so that we can trek across America all the way to Washington state!! But after two weeks of being on vacation I would say we are ready for it.

From the run around we got trying to make it home for vacation, vacation and Scotland itself, and some other exciting news. Plus, all the stuff in between.... There is so much to fill you in on I almost don't know where to start...

So why not just start with a castle...

The Eilean Donan. It is actually the most photographed castle in all of Scotland, I think it is because it was just made for pictures, she photographs well...

In Scotland we visited Edinburgh, Loch Ness, and the Island of Skye, all were amazing and all I will never forget. Our companions on this adventure included Kendall's best friend and his wife, or aka Mom and Dad. Yep, we went with Kendall's parents! They have already been before, they are great company, like I said that is literally Kendall's best friend, and Kendall's mom lives for planning vacations so all we had to do was fork over some money, show up, and have a great time! How lucky are we? I know!

Hello!

2011-10-01T16:02:00.002-04:00

I have not forgotten about you I have just been super busy....

As someone commented, we are in SCOTLAND !!!!! I know! Things were really crazy leading up to getting here. Then once we did we didn't have Internet for the first four nights and etc ...etc.. A lot has been happening and I have full intentions of sharing everything and maybe even a little more with you once we get back to the states. I can upload my pictures, sit down, take a breather, grab a cup of tea and just give you the load down.

So keep the faith.... I will be back soon

XOXO

Labor Day..The Beginning Of The End!

2011-09-05T20:03:00.000-04:00

Happy Labor Day!

Everyone says this is the final weekend of summer. I must agree because I woke up this morning in West Memphis and it was 56 degrees outside! I mean what the hell is that???

Then we got our load that picked up in Huntsville, AL and on the entire drive over it never got higher then 59 degrees! I do not like this at all. This is not good. This is the devil saying hello I am coming back in only a few short months, miss me? NO!

I don't even think I can enjoy the fall this year because I know what is behind fall.... Ohhh it was quite a scary reminder!

On a good note we had some extra time as we headed over so we totally sneaked into our secret hiding spot that is within walking distance of... 5 GUYS!! It totally cracks me up that I know where the 5 GUYS is not only located near Huntsville, but we also have found a way to get into it. Lol. Makes that burger even better, if that is even possible.

Kind Trucking Gods

2011-09-04T19:58:00.000-04:00

The trucking gods looked favorably on us as we drove from Calexico to our terminal in West Memphis. Well this was after I drove through some crazy western rain through Amarillo into Oklahoma. The whole sky would light up with each lightening strike, the wind was blowing me around and made the rain seem even worse. But I was one of only a few on the road, I knew the road well, and just slowed down as I was do to stay in my comfort zone and trucked on up to my stop.

We napped for a few hours, took a shower, then Kendall drove us to a Love's that has a Sonic at it in Oklahoma. I have been seeing their hotdog billboard for miles and miles and weeks and weeks. I really wanted to try their Chicago dog. Yeah.... Disgusting! I don't know if it was just this place or what but all of our food sucked! This was my first time ever eating at Sonic and it will be my last!! Yuk!

After that I went to bed and Kendall drove us in. We arrived pretty late around 23:30 and the place was packed. We really weren't surprised as tomorrow was Labor Day and usually whenever there is a holiday there isn't too much freight moving around at this yard.

We crossed our fingers and totally got lucky! We slept through the night, woke up in the morning and we were still #5 in line waiting to get a load. So we headed out for some blueberry pancakes to redeem our nasty meal the day before and it totally did! We went to Wal-mart to do some restocking of our supplies. When we got back to the yard we were still the same number and so we felt our chances were good to get a 34 hour restart. We not only needed one because our hours were looking rough, but it is also so nice to get a little break after about two weeks in. It really helps. I don't think people understand that when we come out we literally work 24 hours a day 7 days a week, unless we get lucky and get a restart then we get 24 hours to just sit and it is just so nice!

We spent the rest of the day watching TV. I watched my all time favorite movie Shrek 1 and 2 and thought about my best friend, who I miss terribly! Then we went for a jog and did some free weights, which just about killed me , I am so freaking out of shape. We made dinner in the truck, yellow rice and black beans, our favorite and finally we caught up on the new season of American Chopper! Such simple stuff but felt so awesome to us!

We fell asleep and waited for our chirp to get rolling again! Rested and ready to go! I wonder where we will head....

PB and J

2011-09-03T17:00:00.001-04:00

Here we are at the races the other night...

He's the peanut butter and I am the jelly, mostly because I am allergic to peanut butter. But also because we just go :)

Breaking 7,000 miles this week and we only got started around 23:00 Monday night! Nap? Yes, please.

Goodnight Big Apple

2011-09-01T19:35:00.000-04:00

My first New York City Sunset!

Scary Signs!

2011-08-31T19:35:00.005-04:00

You know when you are looking up at a sign that says Manhattan and Queens it is a dangerous situation!

Thankfully, we made it out once again unscathed. After we got unloaded at a Home Depot in Yonkers. We were carrying shop vacs. We buzzed down to Bay Shore, where we picked up before, so it was quite relieving to know and be comfortable with the route already. Then it dawned on me how ridiculous it is that we are driving around Long Island and I actually know where I am going.... What a crazy life!

We then had to haul ass to South Carolina to drop, hook, roll and load again. We dropped in SC then got loaded in Tennessee and were bound for Calexico, CA. We were carrying Kenworth seats and apparently that is a hot item as we got a pretty tight dispatch, only an extra 7 hours on a 2100 mile run. After fueling, traffic, and stopping to potty that really isn't anytime, but we totally rocked it out like we always do. We asked for some extra time to do laundry and we were denied, but that didn't matter, we still managed to do laundry and take an hour nap before we dropped the load. Don't ask me how we do it, we just do, young whipper snappers is all.

Pharr-ucking Morons!

2011-08-29T11:39:00.000-04:00

We left our Laredo yard at 0500 bound for Pharr, Texas. I was driving and my route was simple, just follow hwy 83 south and don't turn into Mexico. Pharr, Texas is as far south in Texas as we have ever gone, so the name certainly does it justice.

We had our suspensions about this load as soon as we received our assignment for it. It had no directions to the pick up and under special instructions it said "This is a dummy load booked from Pharr, TX to Boston, MA"

Dummy load? What is that? Well I had to call for directions anyways so I thought I would ask, naturally they did not know.

So we arrive to what we think is the place since we weren't sure I pulled over into a driveway of a business that we knew wasn't the place,asked if we could park there for a minute, thankfully she said yes, usually people run big trucks off, then we went to investigate.

We found the shipper, he was a real nice guy, but he had no clue about any loads shipping out. In fact, he wasn't even a warehouse or anything, he made custom signs and did not even have a dock. He said usually a small FedEx truck comes and picks everything up that he needs to ship. Also there was zero place for us to park in his lot.

So we call the company and began what was the most bullshit no one wants to do their job run around of my driving career! Before I even get into it I have to say, Kendall handled it all and I was so impressed and thankful he did. I get so aggravated with this kind of stuff so quickly that I would have been in a full out rage mode by the end of each conversation.

Kendall though, he handled it well telling them the same line time and time again...
"We are at the shipper and he doesn't know anything about a load for us. No, he has no clue about the load and the situation is that there is no where to park, he does not even have docks, or a yard, or anything, we are parked at another business and they are growing impatient, can we go to a truck stop 10 miles away while things get figured out?"

Every time he called he got a different person and he would have to reexplain and every time he was told...
"Well hold out a little longer we will have customer service look into it." OR "Give us 5 more minutes and we will send something over the qualcomm."

30 minutes would pass, then another 30. We could call, same response ..."No don't leave just wait it out." Then another 30 minutes would pass. So on and so forth. After 2 hours we finally called and got some info, Joplin was not working on the problem, Laredo was and we would need to talk to them.

We called them and they told us they were sending stuff right over and fixing the load. They sent over the same exact load and a message saying they were changing the destination and would send everything over, just to bare with them.

After another hour passed we said forget it. We drove down the street to an HEB. We parked in the back where no one was around. The sign read "For paying customers only" So we went in and bought a few things. We were right in the middle of a lovely nap when we heard the "bang, bang, bang" on the door. Now anyone who is a driver out there knows there are few other sounds that are more awful then someone knocking on your door, because you know what is coming. And you betcha, we got kicked out by some punk security on a golf cart. We even showed how we were paying customers, he didn't care though, NO TRUCKS he said!

So when we initially arrived at the shipper and started making phone calls it was 08:30. It was now 13:00 and at this point we had no other choice but to drive 10 miles up the road to a Flying J truck stop.

I was getting worried that they had forgotten about us and somehow it would be our fault for not checking back in with them. So we sent them a message and got "still no news." it wasn't until around 16:30 that we got the chirp saying our load was now fixed. The pick up location changed to a tool place and the destination changed to a Home Depot in Yonkers, NY.

That is 8 HOURS to fix a problem with them booking the wrong load, or pick up place or whatever! What makes me mad though is that they could have cared less if we would have gotten hit, or gotten a ticket for sitting there waiting as they wanted us to do. And could you imagine if we made a mistake that caused an 8 hour delay?? They would have our ass headed straight for the unemployment line.

We headed for our new shipper's facility and it was such a cluster. Of course the order number they gave us was wrong. We sent a message over the qualcomm and Kendall got on the phone, finally when a dispatcher picked up, she gave him the number but left off one digit. Which of course Kendall found this out by going back into the shipper and the shipper once again saying denied. No message on the qualcomm, so I gave calling a try. Finally, we got the right number. An hour later we got the qualcomm message containing the number...finally!

Every time we called earlier, which equaled about 8, we got a different dispatcher, yet there is no one for over an hour that can respond to a message on the qualcomm ? And I have to go through 2 people until I can get the correct information I need to do my job? The problem is these people are not held accountable for anything. Whoever booked this "dummy" load and wasted our entire day and cost the company and us money, will not even be talked to about it. Since they have a scape goat, the driver, no one in the entire company is held responsible for anything and that is wrong! I just have zero tolerance for people who are stupid and lazy. I am not allow to conduct myself or my business in that manner and they shouldn't be allowed to either.

Like my good friend Ruthann said "I can go there and do their job, they can't come out here and do mine." And it's oh so true....

Ahhhhhh.... Well thanks for letting me vent. Lol :) Now we are headed for Yonkers. Yep, back across the George Washington bridge! Oh and this load is apart of the "relief effort" for the people of the east coast. Every truck that was getting loaded up where we were, were all headed for the east and were all team and that was just in Pharr, TX so I can only imagine what it is going to look like over there. Wish us luck :)

Freebird

2011-08-28T16:55:00.003-04:00

I am beginning to think I should write a book of "Places to Eat for Truck Drivers" because I share all of my finds with you. This one is in Texas. I-30 Exit 68 there is a TA that is basically in the middle of an outdoor shopping plaza. There are a bunch of places to shop and eat, depending on how far you are willing to walk. Kendall and I walked the whole place and found a ton of places from Buffalo Wild Wings to The Cotton Patch Grill. But if you aren't in the mood to walk then just stop by Freebird's and grab a taco or burrito, it's literally next to the truck stop or behind it depending on where you park.

We were pleased with the place. It kind of has the modern hippie feel to it, but the food was fresh and tasty. The place is loaded with hand made artwork from the tin foil they use to wrap the burritos, as you see in the picture. It was cool and a neat place to stop. So get out of your truck and say no to the Country Pride or Iron Skillet.

Make Room For The Big Boys...

2011-08-27T16:50:00.001-04:00

Out of Canada we dropped a load in Chicago then buzzed down to Salem, IL for our next pick up. The load is Laredo bound. While we were in Canada we got a message saying we were due for a PM. A PM is preventative maintenance, basically they change the oil, the filters, and the fluids. Usually we can just stop at a TA to get this done but for some reason our company requires some special filter that TA doesn't carry, found this out by stopping at two of them and being told they couldn't do the PM because our company would only allow them to do it with this specific filter. Ugh! So we ended up having to go to a Speedco, but it actually worked out great. We still had extra time on the load even after the PM was done, we were right by our terminal, and it was Saturday night!!!

What does that all add up to? Drop the trailer and bob tail to the Dirt Track Races!! Remember we discovered the track when we were stranded in Memphis for like two weeks broke down. We NEVER get this lucky so we were beyond excited. The best part was when we pulled in, we saw other drivers there!! Two of which were from our company, which was awesome because when we dropped the trailer the yard was packed and you know most of them aren't going anywhere until Monday so why not get out and do something. It made us so happy to see other drivers venturing out!

Look at us big guys!

The races were so much better then the first time. A ton of action, aggressive driving, and some crashes. (no one was hurt, they were just the fun kind) They disqualified one driver and he refused to leave the track the announcer said "looks like we have a failure to communicate here." It was great!

Then we headed back to the terminal to shower and take a short nap before rolling the rest of the way to Laredo. Ah... If all loads couldn't be like this one. But then I wonder if we would still appreciate these special times the same, because as a company driver it feels good to score like this!!

Say Hello To My Little Friend...

2011-08-26T12:42:00.000-04:00

We all know I usually drive at night and although I do hold my pee for long hours, I can't hold it that long and so I do have to stop at least once during my 10 hour shift drive. Rest areas pretty much freak me out at night, so I will usually just use the porta-potti. Otherwise I try to stop at a truck stop and park in the closest fuel island to the door. It is also nice to get out and stretch your legs too. Either way Kendall is asleep for this and so he decided to buy me a little gift....

You are looking at a 800kv Zap Stick and it is sure to light your ass on fire! I think just the noise alone would scare most would be predators! It offers a little more peace of mind and protection when I go walking in and out of truck stops at night! The funny thing is Kendall ordered this long before that scary night with the weirdo in Mississippi.... Just thinking ahead I guess.

Just Cute..

2011-08-25T12:38:00.000-04:00

Pretty houses just a bridge away from Niagara Falls.

Hey Neighbor...

2011-08-24T12:39:00.000-04:00

Our first load on this trip out took us straight to Canada! We crossed in Niagara Falls and although we didn't technically see the falls we did see the mist or "spray" they created and that sure is a lot closer then I have ever been before!! It was neat.

The crossing was a breeze, they were so friendly and we stayed in Ontario for our drop and pick up, which means everything was in English. It was a great trip. We are becoming more comfortable with the procedures, the paperwork, and the roads in Canada and it actually seemed too easy, which was a little scary. I am always on guard a little more and we learn something new every time we cross, but this was the first time I felt like we had a handle on things going in. It felt good!

Here is the beautiful blue water you cross while going from the States to Canada.

My Kansas!

2011-08-22T12:39:00.000-04:00

We decided it was time to take a breath of Florida air after working so hard and surviving NYC so we highlighted to go and they immediately shot us there. I think it had everything to do with us dropping our load in South Carolina, being so close and on the east coast. It was nice to go home, but it went by fast. You never seem to have enough time to see everyone and do everything and still catch up on sleep. We only spent 4 days and when I got back into the truck it had felt like no time had passed. The passed few days I've actually been asking myself, "did we even go home?" THEN I look down at my feet and say....YEP!!!

Say hello to my new work boots, winter boots, driving boots, super cute boots! I know I am jumping the gun on winter but these will be what I am wearing. They are Ariat and they are so comfy. I haven't given up my Keen's I just want something that I can stuff my pants into and walk around on dirty, slushy snow and ice during winter.

That is always one of the best things about leaving home, you get to enjoy your new treats, whatever they may be... A new pillow, different type of foods, fresh bread, new clothes, or even new boots!! So instead of tapping my ruby slippers, I'll tap these and say "there is no place like home."

The Only "I" In This Team Is IPad!

2011-08-19T13:11:00.005-04:00

After surviving some of the scariest places as far as no trucks allowed, low clearances, restricted routes, tight turns, and traffic that we've been to it has occurred to me that I need to give some credit to the single device we own that really and truly makes it possible for us to go into these places and have a clue about what we are doing..

What you are looking at is a picture of google maps off of my iPad! We use google maps every single day we are out on the road. You can zoom into any location of any place, view satellite images, which help to find places to hide, allows you to see how populated the area you are going into is, how tight the turns are, and the biggest one.. IF There Are Other Trucks On The Road, plus the little blue dot follows your every move and always let's you know where you are, so when we are getting close to a turn I can let Kendall know "the next light you'll be turning left" before we ever even see the name of the street physically. (This does not mean we just turn, we still verify the street name before turning...just wanted to make sure I clarified that for any crazy thinkers out there)

I honestly do not know how truckers go day to day with out this thing. I do not know how they find locations and roads. For example the load we dropped in Elizabeth, NJ you had to make a right hand turn at Elizabeth (per the directions given by the company) what the directions did NOT tell you is that there will be no sign for it and you will have to get off at Jersey St and go down an access road to get to Elizabeth. Anyone who did not have an iPad would have gotten lost, there is just no doubt in my mind. And I can assure you being lost in the middle of New Jersey, especially somewhere like Elizabeth which is completely up in the hub bub is NOT where you want to be in a semi truck pulling a 53' foot trailer! You can not just go down and make a u-turn or even find somewhere like a parking lot to turn around. You just do not fit and there are restricted routes and low clearances everywhere you turn! I truly believe the majority of minor accidents companies face is due to poor directions, drivers getting lost, passing up turns, and attempting to turn around.

When I was with my first trainer all we did was u-turns. She never knew where we were going and sucked at helping with directions. Thankfully we basically stayed in Texas, I would have made her drive if we ever got close to the north east. "Knee Deep" my second trainer, on the other hand just had so many years under his belt directions or no directions wasn't an issue, again we never really got too far into the north east or into areas he wasn't familiar with. That is one good thing about working for a company, you get a lot of repeat freight and the same runs again and again and you become comfortable knowing where to go.

But it is not always the driver's fault. Usually the directions the company provides are terrible, completely wrong even! The load going to Elizabeth had two sets of directions, the one set was for directions off of interstate 77, which isn't even in Jersey!! I had to learn the hard way that they do not give proper directions most of the time and I have now become almost narcotic about making sureI have the route down to a tee! I aways check and double check and then check one more. I check the directions, the GPS, the atlas, and then the iPad. But without the iPad I would miss so many things, it is literally a life saver!!

Therefore, I would just like to say Thank you to my iPad for helping us to navigate safely around the New Jersey and Long Island. She got us in and out and we never missed a turn and never had to do any evasive maneuvers because we knew where we were going...

Thank you iPad.

The Big Apple And Semi Do They Go?

2011-08-17T14:32:00.000-04:00

Alright here we go...
So we had a 400 mile deadhead from Pennsylvania to Bay Shore, New York, that is on the island, east of Manhattan. The problem was that we desperately needed new tires, our steer tires and drives were really looking bad and no longer DOT legal. So our Fleet Manager and Road Service both said without a doubt, get them replaced so we went to a tire shop like a mile from where we dropped our load. Our Fleet Manager said to just call him when we were done, if there wasn't a window to pick the load up they'd figure it out, he also thought a 400 mile deadhead was ridiculous. (Remember deadhead= the trailer is empty) It is simply not cost effective to go that far empty, there is literally nothing in the trailer that anyone is paying you to move. So we "hoped" maybe they would just unassign it since we had a tire issue.

Well they did not, they did however, find a solo to go to the island and pick it up. We were to relay with him in Newark, NJ, which was still a 300 plus mile deadhead, but it did save us from going to Long Island though. Well we got our tires fixed and we were then Newark bound. About 150 miles from Newark, we got the "chirp." Apparently the driver ran out of hours sitting at the shipper and we had to go to Bay Shore, like originally planned, the only problem was now the load was late and they gave us an extra 10 mintues! Yes, I said 10 mintues... Insert sarcastic laughing! Our first traffic jam was a 40 mintue dead stop and they thought 10 minutes should do!

We weren't mad about having to go over there, it was later in the day and put us heading through about midnight/0100, which also meant coming out would be nice. What I was mad about was that they would not change the dispatch time to allow us to stop and look at our route! They sent over the address and directions when they changed plans so it wasn't as if we had all day to figure out how to get to this place. People say going to New York and Long Island is intimidating and yes it is, because it is unforgiving!! You can only cross at the George Washington, you not allowed on any parkways, roads are restricted everywhere, even more scary are the low clearances which are rampant! Actually once you cross over the George Washinginton Bridge there is a nice little sign that says "Welcome to Manhattan" then the next thing you know you are going underneath bridges with the clearance marked 12'10 and 12'9.... WE ARE 13'6!! But the crazy part is... You make it under, so that only shows you can't really trust the signs. You just follow the other trucks and hope for the best. Some of the bridges flat out say "trucks must use center lane" because that is the only place we can squeeze underneath!

Those areas were NOT made for trucks and it is scary as hell! You can't mess up! And one of the worst things is the local drivers who do this all the time.. They fly pass you, cut you off, drive like crazies, but we still try to follow where and what lanes they are getting into because it is so specific from the time you are approaching the GW to cross until you get back on the Jersey side of things. I guess until you are there and you are respoinsble for this truck and trailer there is no way I can truly convey the stress. I mean can you imagine actually getting stuck under a bridge, having to call the police, your company, we would be fired without a doubt.

But the good news about all of this is that WE MADE IT! With careful planning on my end, checking the route 100 times, checking which side our exits would be on, where the roads where and burning up the battery on the IPad and Kendall being such a great driver, going slow, watching out and staying calm ... We made it!

And I have to tell you... It was quite a RUSH! I don't think there are too many more beautiful and special moments then seeing New York City all lit up at night! New York City is America, she is our big apple and she doesn't disappoint. How many people can say they've even been to New York, let alone drove a semi truck onto the island and did it perfectly? I am sorry, but I am impressed with ourselves, it truly shows how far we've come in only a year. We were scared, sure, but we were prepared and never got into a pickle. And like I say the feeling you get looking across the water while you are driving and seeing New York City, I mean it will send chills up your spine, as it did mine. It's beautiful, its scary, and it's like Wow we just did that all at the same time!!

So any new drivers out there or those who are thinking about becoming drivers or even you drivers who just haven't went yet... Prepare, prepare, prepare, but also take a moment to realize as scary as it seems, you can accomplish it and once you do it is the neatest feeling to know you have!

East Coast Run Around...

2011-08-16T13:06:00.000-04:00

You know how some athletes have superstitions and will wear like the same socks for a week because they think it helps them win. Or a person who might carry around a rabbit's foot for luck, whatever it may be. I have never in my life been someone like this...until I became a truck driver.

Sometimes when we head to the east we can get back out quickly, but I totally believe if you don't immediately get a load going west of Pennsylvania you will NOT make it out of the east coast hole that you will soon be digging yourself.

Needless to say... We did not make it out. Jersey to Pennsylvania and back again on short terrible runs. Yes, I would say we are in a hole. And after today that hole is going to get much bigger then anything we've seen before, as we are forced to take a very large 400 mile empty step into a big dark hole. So big that it could fit...let's say .....

LONG ISLAND!!

Brace and Cover....this could get ugly!!

For the love of...

2011-08-15T13:15:00.000-04:00

ARGYLE!!

Check my new cup out, isn't it adorable? I know!! Kendall bought it for me while we were in California, I know I am totally spoiled!

I love the argyle print on almost anything and had never seen it on a cup so I was quite excited. Now when I go into truck-stops for ice with my jam up awesome new cup, all those guys will be so jealous! LOL

Blame It All On Laredo!

2011-08-13T12:47:00.000-04:00

We dropped a load in Laredo and hung out for about 5 hours before we got the "chirp." This chirp was a good chirp though. A load crossing into Canada via Montana! How exciting!! I totally fell in love with Montana and the thought of having another opportunity to go before the snow was such a great thought. But as many "thoughts" fade, this one did to and reality hit that we were actually going to Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Apparently, the load was detained in customs and was going to be for a long time so they gave us a different one. Anytime I hear New Jersey I can't help but to remember the time we were there delivering a load to a UPS and the guy in dispatch there was all like " yah we know Jersey is the armpit of the nation, who we trying to kid." It totally cracked me up and now I am always thinking "great here we go to armpit." I can see how it could be like an armpit. I mean at some point an armpit is always going to get stinky on you and at some point Jersey is always going to get stinky on you too!

We were not too upset about all of this though, it has literally been months since we've been that far east, we knew our time was coming. So off to Jersey we go.

Food Alert #2

2011-08-12T13:01:00.001-04:00

I know you must be thinking, are they getting any driving in with all this stopping and eating? Well we are, just also have gotten lucky this week. Our next food alert bring us to the Lone Star state, Texas!! Ah, I really do enjoy Texas. I've never been somewhere, where there is just all out pride for the state you live in, and everything is done in the "Texas" way. For example, billboards, it seems that when a company puts up a billboard in Texas it's gotta say something about Texas. I'll see the same billboard in California and it won't say anything about "all you Californians" but when they put it in Texas, it will say "all you Texans" or find some way to make a Texas reference. I just think it's great and although I am not from Texas whenever we are here, you cant help but feel a little bit of that pride too! But on to the food...

I have driven past this Soul Man's BBQ like a million times, this one is off of I-30 as you are heading into Dallas, but they have them everywhere. This one has truck parking, plus two gas stations next door that also have truck parking, so even if it's at night you should be able to find something.

It is kind of like a buffet/ fast food situation. We usually stay away from buffets, nothing against them, its just if I am going to go inside somewhere, sit down, and waste my limited amount of "free time" out here, its gotta be more then a buffet.

All they have is BBQ, but you can order it all kinds of ways, sandwiches, entrees, etc.. It's set up like a cafeteria, the menu is on the wall behind, you grab a tray, walk up and order your meat. The guy cuts your meat or prepares your sandwich and then you move down the line picking your sides, when you get to the end you pay.

I was really surprised to find the food tasted just like ....home! I got fried cabbage, a baked potato, corn on the cob and the chicken. You could tell everything was "fresh" so to speak, it hadn't been sitting there for hours going bad. Everything was cooked perfect and tasted really good. I absolutely loved my baked potato, I know it sounds simple but you would be surprised at how hard it is to find a good baked potato when ordering out.

Good stop for some down home food.

Food Alert #1

2011-08-10T12:58:00.001-04:00

Okay, listen up, got a great food alert for you! On California HWY 99 at exit 237b you will find three truck stops. If you park at Jimco you will be very close. If you park at the Flying J you will be too far. And if you park at the Love's you can get a nice walk, which is where we parked. And if you don't happen to drive a semi truck, well then just pull into the parking lot.

There is a plaza there with a grocery store, a Little Cesar's Pizza, a Japanese Steakhouse and Esmeralda's! Esmeralda's is a fabulous little Mexican place that you wouldn't even know existed if it weren't for google maps on my iPad. There is just no doubt that Mexican food is our favorite! We try it every chance we get, everywhere we go. We have a place back home which will always be true in our hearts, but our current favorite place on the road happens to be in Birmingham, Alabama (who would have guessed that one) But that might change after experiencing this new.

The place was a bit more fancy then normal Mexican restaurants, with bright colors. This place was very moderate with kind of olive green colors on the wall and dark wood tables. The menu too was a bit more fancy, offering more specialty creations. In fact, I ordered one..."Somas" I had never heard of them before.

Basically they are two individual circle dough things, which I think were fried. They top them with a bean spread, your choice of meat, (I got one chicken and one pork) then cover them with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and a green sauce, which has some heat to it. They were awesome! Plus, when they served us our chips and salsa, they also brought out a bean/cheese dip which was heavenly!! We were literally scrapping the bowl for any remnants!

I was beyond excited to try a restaurant setting Mexican place in California finally! They have a ton of fast food ones, which we've had but we hadn't, up until now been able to locate a restaurant we could either fit into or nearby and had the time to stop. I knew California would put their own twist on Mexican and they did, my dish was different and excellent and Kendall order a burrito that had everything you could think of in it, plus avocados, which is most deff. a California specialty. So this was a real treat!

My Tomato Fantasy!

2011-08-08T12:57:00.000-04:00

As we traveled north on I-5 in California, bound to pick up a load near Sacramento we came across my dream truck..

Ahhhh... Just look at all of those TOMATOES!!

Tomatoes are my absolute favorite food. Any grocery store or produce stand you will find me there buying a bundle of them. I eat them all the time, sometimes two a day, just like an apple, expect I sprinkle salt on them. I love them! I love, love them!! My favorite are vine ripe and cherry, the ones in the picture are plum tomatoes actually :) I could have just jumped in the back of that truck and had a field day munching all the way up to Sacramento!! If I was a tomato driver I would totally steal tomatoes all day long.

It has always been my dream that when I was old I would have a glorious tomato garden, wear a big hat, and sip sweet tea all day in my garden. I will make everything with tomatoes! Tomato pie, tomato cake, tomato everything. My grand kids will always be complaining.."aw man do we have to go see grandma she only feeds us tomatoes!" The crazy old tomato lady, that will be me!

The Gems You'll Find

2011-08-07T11:10:00.000-04:00

We finally got rid of our Canada load. It was the longest load I think we've ever had. We then buzzed up to Phoenix to drop a different load off, which was kinda cool because we've never delivered there before. We didn't sit around long. We picked up a relay bound for California. We drop it today then dead head to Sacramento to get a load bound for Texas. I really like when they plan us like this. Sometimes it doesn't stick but since it's the weekend crew and they don't seem to mess with stuff unless they have to I think it will. The neatest thing is, they gave us quite a bit of extra time, like I said "yay" for the weekend crew. Plus, getting your plans in advance allows you to plan your meals and showers more adequately.

On our way into California off of I-10 we stopped for a potty break at a random no name truck stop and came across this old vintage car.

I saw it just sitting there baking under the warm California sun. I love finding things like this, I just imagined how it came here. I can picture a family from back in the day taking a road trip across America in it. Maybe they loved California so much they stayed, who knows, but it is fun to imagine the history that could be behind the driver's seat of that old car.

A Desert Rainbow

2011-08-06T03:00:00.000-04:00

There is just no denying that I do have the absolute best view from my office window.

I grabbed this shot in Arizona off of I-40, in a moving truck, averaging 65 mph. No sooner did I take the picture, did the rainbow disappear. You got to catch mother nature when she is being sweet.

Thank You!

2011-08-05T19:34:00.002-04:00

Over the last few days I have received several very kind comments from you wonderful readers and I just wanted to say thank you! When I began this blog I just hoped my family and friends would read it. I never expected anyone else to and I can't tell you how much it means to me to have people actually interested and who enjoy reading what I write. I don't think there are too many posts that ELH doesn't comment on and I look forward to that so much. Although we haven't actually had a conversation I completely feel like we know each other. Of course Salena who is always the biggest support. And all of you who comment and who don't...

I read this comment this morning before my drive and I am not going to lie, I got a little teary...

My name is Virgil and I have been following the plum trucker from training in truck driving school onward. I am 74 years old and live in Tucson (the daily rant) and I have a friend in Globe, AZ (100 miles away) who is a couple years older than I who lives in a mobile home and only has a radio to listen to the outside world and a cell phone that I have provided for her. I call her two to three times a week and the thing she looks forward to the most is my reading of the Plum Trucker blog. Not only does she look forward to it---but I do also. , I just wanted you to know that you probably have people out here in the world following you that you might not be aware of. Thank you very much for doing what you are doing!!!! Virgil Baker (tucson) & Betty Gilbert (globe)

Thank you Virgil and Betty, I cant tell you how much I appreciate y'all.

I love hearing from all of my readers, but I didn't realize how many people might read this that I don't even know about. It's stuff like this that makes me feel good about what I do and keeps me going. So thank you again to everyone and I hope to continue to keep you all entertained. We have many more adventures ahead of us.

Sometimes It's EASY To Be A Woman!

2011-08-04T19:42:00.000-04:00

I know Tammy Wynette said that sometimes "it's hard to be a woman" and she was right sometimes it sure is, but then again....sometimes it is EASY!

Take today for example, I was just finishing up my 600 mile drive out of Taylor, MI. I drove south through Dayton, Ohio then across into Indianapolis, Indiana and finally through St. Louis. I am on the "day" shift for this run, just the way our hours fell. It's nice because I get some jam up sleep, but driving during the day also presents a whole different set of challenges.

Just before my exit to switch out I got pulled into a weigh scale in Missouri. I am use to this one pulling me in, as it almost always does. What I wasn't use to was the DOT officer standing on the left side of the scale stopping trucks and climbing up on their steps, looking into their truck and asking them questions.

Since we were about to switch out Kendall was upfront with me. He jumped in the back once we knew I was going into the scale house, but he didn't zip up the curtains or anything. You see if you are sitting in the passenger seat then you are considered "on-duty" not off or in the sleeper berth and if that is not what is on your logs you can face a ticket. So I was a little nervous about how this was going to work out.

He had been standing on the truck in front of me for what seemed like forever, then he finally let him go. It was my turn to pull up. I already had my window down and was just about to stop next to him on the scales when he looked up at me, smiled, and said "Have a nice day."

As I rolled on through I looked out my window to see him stopping and climbing up on the truck that was behind me. I must have giggled all the way to the truck stop. Kendall just shook his head at me and said "must be nice" and it is :)

Because I Am A Good Girl!

2011-08-03T19:37:00.003-04:00

The load we picked up from Canada is headed for Calexico and once we cleared customs we got our dispatch. It was tight and I was worried about my hours. I wasn't picking enough up tomorrow night to make the final drive needed to get the load there within the time span the dispatch gave. I called our fleet manager and explained that I didn't think it would work and I wanted to just check with him before we got 1000 miles down the road and realized it. He told me that I need to tell him if it is going to work or not, that he does not have the time to do my trip planning. So I told him, that is what I am trying to say I don't think it is going to work. He seemed flustered, like he was busy with something else and I guess that really worked to my advantage because for the very first time since we've started driving I was told that we were going to get a 34 hour restart!!!! I know! Take a moment to let that sink in, as I had to. He said "well I can fix this, it is a single transit load, not team so just get a restart then deliver the load." Then gave us a new ETA. How awesome is that?? The thing is, he has no clue what he just did for us. We can do laundry, sleep, take a shower, get a real meal with hot food, not subway or sardines out of the truck, and just relax without fear of a chirp. With a simple click of a button he rejuvenated us!

So we took a shower, did laundry, and went out to dinner. We also stopped by a Kohl's where Kendall not only picked out, but also bought me these beauties.

I am absolutely in love with them! He said since I've been working so hard lately I completely deserved it and you know what....I think I did too!! Plus, they make me feel so girly and that is always a good thing out here, you can easily lose that. Now anytime I am having a rough day I can just put these on and lounge in my sleeper. LOL

But I Must Say...

2011-08-02T20:08:00.000-04:00

I've got to tell you Canadians are great! They are some of the nicest and most helpful people I have ever met. When we arrived at our drop off in Quebec and was asking the security guard about where he would like us to put the trailer he said, "now don't worry this won't hurt at all" then he paused and said "see, you felt no sensation." (Now make sure you do that in a little French accent because don't forget that is the language they speak, although most also speak English) He was such a nice guy. They also had no empties and our company wanted us to wait until the morning to see if they would get any and the guard let us park there, like I said helpful and nice.

Once we did find an empty the next morning, we then spent the majority of the day driving to our next pick up, still in Quebec, but down nothing but back roads. We were a little scared because I was not able to get on the Internet before hand and look at everything, but it really wasn't all that bad. Mostly because of another reason I enjoy Canadians, they have good signs!! They are easy to follow for the roads and routes you need.

We did get a little lost for a moment though, our directions literally read like this: take route 271 and turn right towards St Ephrem De Beauce. Will come to stop sign in front of church, turn left. Go 100' and turn right. Pass cemetery to sign for customer. (sounds real helpful right?) Well we come to a stop sign, the first one on the road and it is in front of a church, but the road to turn left doesn't really look like it is a road. What it does look like is a bad situation, so we didn't turn. We went forward and pulled into a business's parking lot and asked for help. They knew exactly the place we were looking for... We needed to go to the NEXT stop sign. Like I said, super helpful.

The whole time no matter if you were making copies, needed help getting the fuel pumps turned on, you are lost, or just ordering food they are really great people with good attitudes.

After we picked up our load we had a 730 mile drive back across Canada towards Detroit. We were both pretty whooped by this point. I know one is suppose to sleep while one drives, but being in another country, everything in French and spending the day following directions from our qual-comm on backroads we really needed to stay up with each other to help. I drove out while Kendall slept a few hours since I now knew the route. Then he drove the rest of the way back to the states.

I wish we could have spent more time, stopped at a restaurant, taken pretty pictures, but everything was go, go. Sometimes just being on a constant tight clock can really wear you down so when we got the run around at customs it was just like come on already.

Oh and our truck was searched as well as the trailer. I feel the border patrol on the southern border are very different, they treat you with respect, I have never had one of them refer to me as anything but "ma'am" and they ask "may I open the door please" These guys just yell a lot and expect you to know what's going on. I have full respect for our border patrols, I think their job is important and am glad they do it, but you can be courteous in the process or at least until given a reason to be otherwise. The worst part is technically they work for us, the taxpayer, as we are the ones who pay their paychecks. ELH I must agree with you, when it comes to any government employee, it is always on "their time" and not yours.

Toronto

2011-07-31T19:41:00.000-04:00

We were able to cross another Canadian providence off of our list on this trip, Ontario. While in Ontario, we drove straight through Toronto. I feel like Toronto would be like our New York City. It is modern, full of people, and everyone lives in apartments.

These buildings look like skyscrapers? Maybe offices? Nope, they are apartment buildings and all of Toronto is filled with them. I saw like one house, I swear. Everyone lives in these gigantic high-rises, it was unlike anything I have ever seen. There must have been hundreds of them. Every time I thought they were buildings they always turned out to be apartments. Toronto is huge, goes on forever and is lined with these. I've been to every major city in America and none of them look like this one, where all you see are these type of apartments. I thought it was so neat I had to share it with you.

Where It Begins

2011-07-29T19:43:00.000-04:00

Our crazy week began with a load to Laredo from Tennessee. It was a good run, with extra time, and obviously pretty good miles. When we got to Houston we were pre-planned with a load that picked up at our yard and had 3 drops on it, one in Tennessee and two in Pennsylvania. It had a good amount of spare time, so we really didn't mind. We haven't been to the east, east coast in months and I knew our luck would run out soon enough. LOL However, about 15 mintues later it was unassigned and we got a new one that was headed to our terminal in Taylor, MI. This too was good for us, I like terminal to terminal and again good miles and not a bad route.

We arrived to the yard about two hours before our dispatch time and Kendall went in to drop our paperwork and get our next load info. Kendall came back out quite upset. Apparently there was this new guy working dispatch and he initially tried dispatching us out at 61 mph. I had never heard of this, our company does not do that. They may do 55 but I have never seen anything higher and I truly don't think they would. So naturally Kendall told the guy he was off his rocker and after some argument got us a 50 mph dispatch. I really don't know what the "set" dispatch speed is. I think standard is 48 and I know anything UPS is 55 and then I think the speeds just vary depending on load and who is dispatching you.

Either way we were told the load needed to be in Quebec the following day by 17:00 and we were picking it up 17 hours before that dead line, seemed extremely impossible. Usually we just relay these loads to Taylor and they have local guys who basically just run back and forth from Canada. On the way to Taylor, yep..you guessed it. We got the pre-plan that we were going to Canada. We have so been wanting to go back to Canada, especially since it is the summer, but I have to admit I was pretty bummed because I knew the time they wanted it there was unrealistic and I was afraid they were going to try and make it realistic. I was just afraid about being rushed around in a place I am not familiar with.

We made it to Taylor and they were all like "yeah it says it needs to be there by 17:00, that's not going to happen, going to take a couple hours just to do paperwork."

That made me feel so much better, so we took a nap until the paperwork was done. Then we headed across the border...

Welcome Back...NOT!

2011-07-27T09:45:00.000-04:00

Obviously you've noticed I haven't been blogging, today is Wednesday the 3rd. I am going to be doing some back tracking. It's been a hell of a week to say the least...and I will tell you all about it, so don't worry.

Right now though we just crossed back into the states...well we are trying to cross back into the states. We are at the Detroit/Windsor location and it is not so lovely to say the least. We crossed over into Canada from here and no worries. Of course, I've heard them say that it's always coming back that is difficult and I am here to tell you it sure can be.

We went through the initial inspection where you give your paperwork and id. He sent us over to X-ray and they sent us over to trailer inspection. So now are truck is parked at a dock and they are going to search the trailer I know for sure, not sure about truck as well. Apparently you bump the dock, go inside give paperwork, wait, then they call you and you go back outside they remove seal and you re-bump the dock, go back inside, wait longer, and they inspect it. Who knows how long this will take.

I am sitting in a very depressing room with other men who mostly seem foreign that are getting inspected too. Everyone seems depressed sitting inside of this room. How can they not be, this is not a very pleasant experience. They talk to you as if you are doing something wrong, I don't get it really. And if you ask questions or make a wrong turn it is like the end of the world, yet they don't provide you with any information of what exactly to do. Oh but I guess that is just the life of a driver.

This really only adds to the crap week we have already been having, because now although I will have sat awake for however long, already been a few hours they will still probably give us a 55 mph dispatch. Our truck only goes 65 and that is really not a enough time, after fueling, construction, and just traffic to do anything, least of all take a nap.

"Just get through your shift" has been my motto this week so I will put that into place today and hope for the best. If we ever get out of here stay tune for all the fun happenings of the week that leads us to today.

Thank you Boss Man!

2011-07-25T17:20:00.004-04:00

We picked up a UPS load in Atlanta. We were due there at 09:00 and of course that is the time when rush hour encompasses you. It was about 07:15 when I was hitting the loop around Atlanta, which is where our pick up was and I was feeling quite happy, there was a lot of traffic but no traffic jam...yet. Our plan was to stop at a truck stop that was suppose to be at the same exit as our pick up was and wait there until closer to 09:00. One thing about UPS they are never on time and more then often you end up waiting a few hours passed your appointment time before they finally decide to properly due their job and get your load ready...oh but that's a whole other story, one in which I will not bore you with.

Well we got to our exit and...we got a little confused. I was driving, Kendall navigating and that is always a deadly combo. Usually he drives into places,(unless it is obviously easy or we've been there) and I navigate him, we just work better in that fashion. I am excellent at preparing him for upcoming turns he'll make and the location of things and he is excellent at evasive maneuvers on the rare occasion I mess up. LOL

Needless to say things did not go as planned so we just went to the UPS instead, we at least we knew how to get there. It was a complete shocker to both of us when we arrived that they had our load ready. This is the first time we've ever picked up a UPS early. We grabbed the load and I sent in all of our forms, we received our dispatch and saw we had an extra 3 1/2 hours on the load. The computer dispatched us out vs. our fleet manager. You see sometimes things are programmed into the computer and when they are usually you'll get lucky and have a few more extra hours on the load then you would if someone actually dispatches you and messes with the time.

All we really wanted to do was grab a shower because we were already pre planned with another load and weren't sure how much time we would have in between to get one. About 45 mins into our drive the dreaded "chirp, chirp"

The message read: "Sorry need to speed you up, new eta 18:45 thanks" Kendall called just to verify and was told it was due to us picking it up early. It left us with about an extra hour and 15 mins.

Sometimes it feels like you almost get punished for being diligent. The change in time left us with no time to to shower. Oh well, you win this time Mr. Boss Man.

Back Roads In Virginia!

2011-07-24T20:17:00.000-04:00

Anytime we get in the Richmond, Virginia area there is a good chance they'll send us to a QVC in Suffolk. The only way to get there is via back roads. They are filled with lush green trees, bricks houses, old cars, a ton of antique stores, and just pretty old buildings, like the church in the picture. I always enjoy the ride down, of course it never seems like we have anytime to stop at all the amazing places, but maybe one day as many of them have places where the big ol' girl can squeeze in.

Running With Trains

2011-07-22T22:40:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite things about driving at night is when I get to run along side of a train.

The moon and stars are so bright they light up the sky. I come along side of a train and usually end up passing it. I'll put my window down while going along to hear it and the roar of my truck. It is a very amazing feeling. You are alone out there with only the stars and the train, moving America along while everyone else sleeps.

The Guru ...still The Guru

2011-07-20T21:12:00.005-04:00

It never fails how much I learn from that Daily Rant. Salena mentioned the app "Instagram" on one of her latest posts so I checked it out and now I am totally obsessed. It totally makes professional photographers out of iPhone users. Way to go Salena, I am always learning from you

Always Be Aware Of Your Surroundings...

2011-07-20T18:46:00.002-04:00

We are Alabama bound and last night I was heading north on I-59 through Mississippi. I started driving around 22:30 and it was now a little after 04:00 and I had to PEE!! (I love how I am like only blogging about my pee now, I am sure y'all love that) Well there is like nothing on this stretch. There was a rest area as I entered the state, I stopped and it was full. Then there was a parking area, but I saw the trucks were backed up so I didn't want to waste more time, turns out as I passed by I saw spots...ugh! And then there was nothing. There are no cities, no lights, no nothing! Finally ...like 60 miles into the state I see another parking area, thank goodness.

As long as I can remember my Dad always told me to be aware of my surroundings, whether this was in the yard watching for snakes and animals (remember I live in the backwoods) or as I got older and going out to parties or walking to my car late at night after work. It doesn't matter where you are or when it is, you should never underestimate people or the situation, keep your wits about you, trust your instinct, and always be aware of your surroundings. This has been something that has stuck with me always and is part of the reason I was not afraid to become a truck driver. So when the car that I had just passed up only moments before, slowly followed me into the parking area, I was very much AWARE!

I saw the car, way ahead if me pull onto the road from the crossover in the median, that only cops are suppose to use. I thought it probably was a cop. As I got closer the car was only doing about 55 mph. I slowed, waited for a car to pass on my left, then got into the left lane to pass as well. The slow car flashed me over twice, I got over, thanked the car and then saw my parking area. Typically you only find semi's in parking areas. There are no bathrooms, lights, nothing. There were two lanes to park, the place was pretty filled so I pulled to the farthest one. As I turned left to park I saw the car slowly coming in behind me. He then parked on the right hand side if me and turned his lights off. My initial thought was great this is someone who is lost and is going to ask me for directions. So I waited a minute, but something felt very strange to me. The way he was parked on my right hand side, a little bit back so he wasn't in clear view from my mirror, the way he slowly had followed me in, and had killed his lights. The hair on my arms was standing up. I peeked out of my passenger side window and he was just staring straight at me. Obviously, I made sure the doors were locked, went in the back, woke Kendall up and explained what was going on. I really had no solid reason to feel this way, but like I said something didn't feel right. Kendall being the sweetheart he is, didn't say "your paranoid I'm going back to bed," he got up and look out the window to only find the guy was still just staring.

I started to pull out with Kendall in the passenger seat. The car turned their lights back on and pulled out behind me. Immediately Kendall told me to pull between these two trucks, before we made it out of the parking area, I did. The car stayed behind us for a few minutes, then slowly came around. He went around and then pulled over in front of the parked semi that was in front of me, again he turned his lights off. Kendall and I switched spots and he pulled out, we got his tag information and pulled onto the interstate. He followed.

At first he was behind. Then he came around like he was going to pass, got up next to us, then slowed back down and got behind. He never honked, gave us the middle finger, nothing. Kendall got in front of a slower moving semi, the car got into the left lane to pass the truck as well and get back behind us. Kendall slowed our truck to close the gap and with a line of cars behind the "car" in the left lane, he was forced to go passed us. Now that he was in front of us, we were going to keep him there.

So many things start to run through your mind at this point. Did I piss him off? Did I cut him off? Should we call the cops? I know I did not cut him, I wasn't sure how I would have pissed him off and I've never seen someone pissed off on the road act this way, but you never know what you are dealing with. I wasn't sure about calling the cops, what would they even do?

Over the next 40 miles Kendall made sure to keep the car in front of us, at times we had to slow to only 55 mph to make it happen. We found a travel center truck stop at exit 97 and decided that would be the best place to see what happens. There would be people, it would be well lit, and the sun was starting to come up. So Kendall hit the pedal and got in front of the guy, knowing he would follow, and he did.

We pulled in on our right, had to go down the side of the building, around the back and back up to pull through a fuel line. We watched the car mimic are every move. Obviously, he couldn't pull through a semi truck fuel island so we waited to see his move. He circled around and came straight in front of us, parking in the car area. The building was on our left hand side, we were parallel to it. He was parked facing it, and diagonal from us. When he came around we got a clear shot of him. He was an older, bald, white guy. With a white button up shirt on and a very strange looking face. To put it simply, he looked like a complete weirdo, someone you wouldn't want around your kids. When he came around he was staring right us, pointing, and saying something, but no one else was in the car with him.

For the next few minutes it was like a stand off. He parked, turned his lights off, and just stared. We were contemplating what to do when Kendall said enough is enough and got out. I knew he had a plan, Kendall never does anything without thinking it through. As he approached the car, the man put his small dog on his lap and began petting it.

It seemed like Kendall was over there forever. He was in a great position though, right in front of the doors. People were walking by observing what was going on. Since I was in the truck I really didn't know what was going on, all I saw were arms in the air, a lot of pointing, and Kendall yelling. The guy never got out of his car and didn't put his window down very far. By the end of it Kendall had said something enough to make the guy take off fast, Kendall hit his car as he was trying to take off. He then walked back with nothing but a grin. Meanwhile, I am freaking!

He explained what happened. He walked over and asked the guy why he was following us. The guy (petting his dog all creepy like) said he wasn't. Kendall said he knew at that point he was dealing with a pervert, his look, his demeanor, everything, so Kendall unleashed. He said the guy started stammering over his words and started shaking. He couldn't answer a single direct question, like where he was going, why he pulled into the truck stop, and the parking area. He tried saying he wanted something from inside, Kendall told him to get out and get it then, the guy said "he changed his mind." Kendall flat out told him "when I call the cops on you what kind of sick pervert are we going to find out you are." At this point the guy started apologizing and saying he would leave, like I said Kendall was unleashing on him, he was using a lot of cuss words and pointing his finger down at the man, just letting him have it. When I saw the guy leave, Kendall said he was actually struggling to get it into gear, mind you it was an automatic, that is how unnerved Kendall made him.

When we left, we saw him parked at another parking area, behind another truck. I called the police to report it. I got a woman who without a doubt could have cared less. She had an attitude with me, like I had done something wrong and when I asked what was going to come of it, she said it would be "logged."

I am happy Kendall got out and scared him. How many people has he done this to? What else would he have done? How long would he have followed us? Who else might he do this to and what if they aren't as cautious as us? And the cops are simply going to "log" it? This is my workplace and my home and I will NOT be threatened or intimated by anyone!! Speaking of which, my new present that Kendall ordered for me a few weeks ago is waiting at the house and it should certainly make me feel better after all of this... It's pink and dangerous.

As If I Were A Criminal...

2011-07-19T16:51:00.000-04:00

Well I finally got to do my first random drug screen, for any job! We rolled into our Laredo terminal and what happens is that you are initially sent there. Once you arrive you send the trailer through an inspection, since trailers cross into Mexico (we don't!) then they let you know where you need to delivery load to in the area. You never find out until then.

We made it out of the inspection and went over to the delivery. They closed down from 13:00 - 14:30 and we arrived at like 12:57, kind of a bummer. So we decided why waste time and headed back to the terminal to take a shower and get fuel then would head back.

We checked in with local dispatch and explained what we were going to do, they said no problem! Kendall and I went are separate ways for a showers (they don't allow you to shower together at the terminals) and about 5 minutes into my shower I hear our name being called to report to dispatch. I thought holy crap there is no way we got a load that fast. So hurried up and hauled butt to find only find out I was selected for a random drug screening.

Uhhhhh, what do most people do when they go to shower? They use the bathroom! Which is what I did, I mean hello as a driver you don't pass up an opportunity to release the bladder. Instead of telling me as soon as I arrived they waited, I peed, and they expected me to do it again.

Needless to say I spent the majority of my afternoon, dribbling water, and walking around the inside of the terminal trying to work up a pee, as I was not allowed outside. They made Kendall deliver the load, by himself and I was stuck in the smelly terminal. Ugh! The worst part was the nurse said if I didn't fill the cup up by my third try she would have to take my license.

She ended up being a real nice girl, we chatted as I waited for my pee. She said I was the cleanest and prettiest truck driver she'd ever seen! How sweet? I know! But again scares me of what she's seen.

It took about an hour of talking sweet nothings to my bladder but she finally cooperated and all was well in the world again.

You Got To Fight For Your Right...

2011-07-15T14:41:00.001-04:00

...To SHOWER!!

Since we stay on a time warp go go mentality because we are a team and have tight dispatches, I have NO time to waste waiting on a shower to become available. I have recently realized that I have become somewhat ruthless in my endeavors to obtain a shower in a timely manner.

Typically we stop to shower in the middle of the day. Everyone is gone, you can get a parking spot and a shower with no wait. However, there are still those times when no showers are available and I have to take matters into my own hands.

First, I go to where the showers are located and see what is going on. Are there open doors and no one has cleaned them? Or are there actually people in them? You can always tell because truckers are not quiet souls, plus you can hear the water running. Usually what I find is no one has cleaned the showers (probably since the morning rush) and no one is around to ask about getting the showers cleaned. This is when I will go hunt them down. A lot of the times I will find that they have available showers, they just have not punched the key code in to make them "available" so that the computer can register them and call your number. Or they are just goofing off. I find this all the time! They will just be talking with someone else or wondering around aimlessly. This is when I do the whole stand there and stare at them thing, they hate it and usually get back to work just to get rid of me.

One time we were at a Flying J and this lady was training a new guy on how to clean the showers. There was about 5 of us waiting. She saw us, looked at us several times. Finally after about 25 minutes she goes " Oh I think we have people waiting, go put some showers online." They had the showers available the ENTIRE time, just made us all wait for what? This is just one example of the many I have had that, all equal that there should be no reason why a shower isn't available, especially when half the time they are just no one puts them "online."

Now don't get me wrong, you can tell when there is just a line of people and you just picked the wrong time to try and shower, I am fine with that. We usually leave, because we literally have to. Showering is the most important thing to us, whenever we get our dispatches that is are only concern, "will we have time to shower?" We always try to make it work no matter what, but when you only have an extra two hours on a 1200 mile run you can't waste time waiting for some idiot to do their job so you can keep up on your personal hygiene. Ahhh, just writing this almost makes me feel bad for myself. My biggest concern is that my job will allow me enough time to SHOWER?? That is so sad.

Last night, we stopped around 18:00 which is not a good time, all the solo's are shutting down and showering, but I thought lets take our chances the parking lot wasn't real busy. We get in there to find 10 people already on the shower wait list. Let's go I thought, we don't have that kind of time, but I decided to snoop around after I heard the cashier saying the system was down. What I found was they had 11 showers and all were available and had been available. This one couple had been waiting an HOUR (that is like a year in team world) and the manager said she deleted their numbers from the system when she restarted it. Before I knew it it was like a free for all, no one was actually in line correctly. Some people were patient and waiting (and will remain waiting because no one will tell you what is going on unless you find out for yourself) and others, like ME were heading to the back where the guy who cleans the showers was just letting people in. He did not know the system was down and when you walked back he would just throw you into a shower. So that is what I did! We got shower 7, the handicap one, which is huge!! It was lovely! ....calm down I am not so mean, I made sure the couple who had been waiting got a shower before us, but I did cut a few solo guys who were ahead of us technically, but not back there when he asked if I needed a shower, they just didn't want that shower as bad as I did.

So like I said.. You got to fight for your right to shower or you could be one of those smelly drivers! Yuck!

Oops...I Did It Again!

2011-07-14T19:53:00.002-04:00

We got a hot load headed for El Paso, which is kind of funny because we were just driving through there the other day and thought how funny it was that we have a yard there but have never delivered there, as a team. I went there once during my training. Then the next load was bound to El Paso.

So we took I-20 across Louisiana and you know what that means...

We went back to the Crawfish Hole!! To my disappointment they did not have crawfish, apparently they are seasonal and won't be back until November. I was pretty bummed, but order the boiled shrimp, SPICY!! It's the same seasoning they use on the crawfish, that with potatoes, corn on the cob, and a ton of butter I barely knew the difference. It was so good! I was beyond happy we got to stop!

Here Is To One Year On The Open Road!

2011-07-12T11:14:00.003-04:00

Well we officially made it, one whole year of trucking!!

The Stats:
Combined Miles Driven: 223,826
Been to 45 out of the lower 48 States and 3 Canadian Provinces
Crossed the longest bridge over ice covered waters
Been to 5 Border Towns
Seen a heard of Elk crossing the 3 Sisters in Wyoming
Easily have spent at least a month of this past year broke down
I've been in 2 accidents, none of which were my fault
Driven 5 different trucks for the company
Been towed 3 times
Survived this WINTER
Made it through 5 weeks of training with two strangers
We've seen hundreds of sunrises and sunsets. Ate hotdogs in Chicago and Crawfish in Louisiana. We've walked the streets of New York City on one amazing night through Times Square. And even drove through a National Forest in Utah. We've learned a lot about ourselves, our country, and the people who make it up. A lifetime of experience and knowledge on warp drive, only within a year and in the end... We still love each other and the adventure!!

Thanks for sharing this year of ups and downs with us. You've been there every step, through the good, the bad, and the ugly. When we were scared, happy, and plain pissed. Whatever comes around the next corner we'll be in it together!

The Town With The Big Arch!

2011-07-11T21:02:00.004-04:00

No, I am not talking about McDonald's. I am talking about St. Louis.

We made it to Nogales and back out again, which is always a good thing. We were scheduled to deliver in St. Louis this afternoon. We arrive only to find out we weren't suppose to be there until the following day. I wonder what genius decided to drop the ball on that one?? Not as if it matters though, nothing will come of it. So we rolled over to a drop yard we have in the area and got an extra 60 miles of pay for the hassle of driving around.

Now I am sitting in a yard waiting for our next load that is Florida bound! Ugh!!!! I HATE going to Florida if I am not going home! I also hate this run, we've had it several times before and it usually puts us in this Indiana, Florida, Kentucky cycle that blows! Hopefully we get down to Florida and they give us something good, I doubt it but isn't it always better to prepare of the worst and hope for the best? Well that is what I am doing!!

Tomorrow makes one year!! Exciting, exciting!!

Happy 2 Report!

2011-07-09T21:02:00.001-04:00

I am very happy to report that the Kenworth of Houston is much more diligent then the one in Memphis. They had us fixed and rolling within a couple of hours! We were able to keep the load headed for Nogales plus get a nap so not too shabby. This was our 3rd tow within a year, does that seem like a lot? I'm not sure as I have no reference. I think I could probably write a book about my "tow" experiences.

There is something about cramming into another man's truck. For one they are never very clean, two I either sit on Kendall's lap or on the bed in the sleeper, which is really uncomfortable to me. The tow driver is usually quite the "interesting" to say the least. The one in Memphis had us stop off at Enterprise so he could get some price information from them for an upcoming trip he was taking. He wanted to run more errands but we talked him out of it, thank goodness too because I was sitting on Kendall's lab for that one.

This more recent one was just as adventurous. You never know what you'll get when they pull up, nice or mean, rude or smart ass, fast or slow, good driver or poor, funny or serious. This guy was a total crack up but it took us a few minutes to realize it, at first he just seemed crazy. There really isn't a way for me to describe it to you but I can tell you he had a "zapstick" and used it in his conversations. A zapstick is literally that, a taser. Needless to say I was happy Kenworth was only a couple of miles away...

Ouch! Kendall Strikes Again...

2011-07-08T14:15:00.002-04:00

This morning the sun rose over the bayou for me as I drove through the night across Lousiana. I was just getting into Baton Rouge as she began to break, it was a lovely morning in the swamp. We had some extra time on our load bound for Houston so we decided to stop at the Cracker Barrel on our way in, it is across the street for a Petro before you get into Houston. We got a pre-plan for a load picking up at the same place we were delivering and it was for 22:00 tonight, which meant we would have the afternoon off to do...well whatever, probably watch TV and nap. Lol The load was bound for Nogales, AZ, which is a decent run and means we would get a good mile load afterwards. Basically today was shaping up to be a pretty freaking good day...

Until....

Yep, Kendall struck yet again!!

This picture my friends is of a blown airbag on our drive axle tires on the tractor! Only one airbag blew so that was good. It shook the whole truck, which I was in at the time and it totally freaked me out!! Kendall was outside when it happened and it sounded like a gunshot! He remained super calm, even while the group of guys standing around had to come ogle at the blown airbag.
"Well look at that Jim, looks like a...blown airbag."
"I think you might just be right there Bob."

So now we are sitting at a Love's waiting for a tow truck to come pick us up and take us back to KENWORTH... my eye is twitching just typing this. The worst part is the Kenworth is 2 miles away, but the company won't let us drive over, we have to wait at least 2 hours for a tow and another hour for him to even hook us up. So Hello Houston!! (too bad you're not here Ash!!)

The Wheels Are Moving...

2011-07-07T15:46:00.001-04:00

Well folks we just got off of some home time. I love going home to Florida. I love the heat, the bugs, the smell, the greenness, the evening time, and the sun. We were happy to spend the 4th of July holiday home. We went out on the pontoon boat with Kendall's family down the rainbow river, which is simply the best spring feed river anywhere. The day was perfect!

It was nice to be home also because last year on the 4th of July we were in Kansas City, MO! That was when we flew in, rented a car, and drove down to Joplin for our orientation to become truck drivers. Kind of crazy to think this fantastic roller coaster ride started only a year ago...July 12th is considered our "official" hire date, I will be posting our stats thus far then, so be sure to look for that!

When we landed in Kansas City we were terrified of just about everything!! We had taken quite a big leap of pursue something that could or could not work out.....sometimes I still feel terrified but I also recognize the confidence that has grown. We are much better equipped now, with GPS, iPad, iPhone, Next Exit Book, and our Atlas. We have become much more comfortable that almost no place "scares" us anymore, unless it is winter and and we still look forward to the adventure that is waiting around each corner.... Which is where we are today, going back on the board, wondering where they'll send you out....

"Into the great wide open, under the skies of blue....."

Hot Rolls!!

2011-06-22T21:39:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I think the big guy upstairs is seriously looking out for me. Okay, remember the load from my previous post, where we really didn't have the hours to run it, but they sent us anyways and with a really tight dispatch that left us with zero time? We show up to the shipper at 17:35 and our dispatch time in was actually 19:00 (we gained time back thankfully, we also did not stop for anything other then to fuel and once to wait for Kendall's hours to pick up) We arrive and surprise, surprise... No one is there. They are closed, business hours from 8-5 and this is a live unload, no dropping trailers. Basically, they never looked into an appropriate time for us to show up, just picked a number and told us to hurry up and get there.

So I call up, at first they think we are maybe at the wrong a address. Then they think the shipper might "re" show up to work. Once they realize they cannot get ahold of anyone, because they are all home and believe us that no one is there and that we are in fact at the correct address. ( maybe I'm not a moron truck driver...) they decide we need to sit here and wait, but informed us if anyone shows up in the middle of the night we need to let them know.

Okay this is what I HATE about driving for a company, you'll have 20 different idiots dictating everything you do out here. They constantly drop the ball, you pick it up, get treated like you're the idiot and they still find a way to blame you...for what? I don't know. Like we really went to the wrong address, like I am going to stay up, hope and pray someone will come to work at 1am to unload one truck full of plastic? What a joke!

Plus, our directions said no over night parking. At first we didn't understand why, the place looked almost abandoned, there was a ton of room. When we went to leave though, we understood....the gates lock and close!! I guess it had a timer, it was open when we got there and when we went to leave it was closed. Initially we thought we might be locked in, but it opened for us to get out, but wouldn't open to get back in. Which to me, only solidifies that no one will be showing up.

So we head back up the street, there is a little gas station with truck parking and..... Lambert's Cafe!! It is the home of the hot thrown rolls!! And it has truck parking!! You may have seen this place on the Food Network, it was voted #1 place to pig out in America and it is true. The place rocked, favorite place we've been to so far, I even got a shirt!!

They literally walk around yelling "Hot Rolls" you out your hand up and they throw those suckers at you!! The kid was chucking them clear across the restaurant and what happens if you get hit? Suck it up! Its all apart of it!

I took a shot of the kid throwing them!

The place is nothing but a good time. Everyone is laid back and joking, how could you not? The food, amazing. We got the fried chicken, all legs! Plus two sides, greens and mash potatoes. And in addition to this they have people walking around with buckets of fried okra, black eyed peas, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes, and of course the hot rolls being hurled at you!!

The whole place was decorated with old time pictures and vanity license plates. They played good music, Joe Walsh, ZZ Top, and Johnny Cash. They even had a guest registry you could sign. It was sooooooo great! They have 3 locations Sikeston, MO, Ozark MO, and Foley, AL. If you ever get a chance...do yourself a favor and GO. It is an experience you want to .....well, experience! It is a great time.

And this is why I know the big guy is looking out for me. We have been running like crazy, over 11,000 miles since we left for Buffalo, last Sunday. We are both tired and could use one little night off, if nothing else to feel human again. Not only do we get that, we get it on their mess up, which to be honest feels pretty good because they are always trying to blame you, the driver. And our delivery would be on the same road as Lambert's Cafe, in the middle of nowhere in Missouri and they have truck parking?? Hello!!

Uh, Are We Even Suppose To Be Here??

2011-06-20T23:04:00.000-04:00

We picked our load up today in Logan, Utah and are headed for Sikeston, Missouri, if you goggle map this you will see that you must take a back road to get onto I-80 or you can back track south on I-84, then go over to 80, but that is adding some much out of route miles we currently can not afford. On every load you are allowed to drive 8% out of route, but it is not suggested to do this often, as if still affects your fuel mileage which the company tracks and even worse it adds time to your trip that dispatch will not give you back, your dispatch eta stays the same no matter what. We try to only go out of route in emergency cases, like the middle of winter.

In addition, on this load specifically, we were going to have a tight dispatch. When we were assigned the load we explained that 1. We were going to need extra time on it because we have poor hours (that tends to happen once you've ran nearly 8,000 miles in 7 days) 2. The shortest route goes through I-29 in Missouri/Iowa where the road is closed due to flooding and Hwy 2 in Nebraska that is also closed due to flooding, so we would need to detour and that would add extra time as well. 3. The dispatch time they had told us was actually impossible for anyone. I guess no one likes to hear when they are wrong, especially dispatch. We received nothing but an attitude for pointing this out. Apparently what happened was... they let the load sit for over 24 hours and never changed the time it was due in Missouri. When they "fixed" it we were literally given only enough time to make it there, no stopping to shower or eat, only fuel. The extra time needed to detour was not taken into account and we were told to go.

I explained all of this crap to you for a reason...so you can understand what pushed me to make the decision I made. Go back to your google map, you see a very twisty and winding road US 89 in Utah. It takes you to HWY 30, which you take through Wyoming and eventually down to 80. If we would not have taken this, we would have went 50 miles out of route, which would have added an extra hour, an extra hour we literally did not have. I used the satellite feature on google maps and did see one or two trucks on the road. I also double checked the route for restrictions and low clearances in our Atlas (The Holy Grail for drivers) Everything looked good so we embarked!

Look a little narrow to you?

That is because I drove through a freaking national forest! That's right people Plum Trucker should now be called Super Trucker for what I accomplished today. I drove through the Logan National Forest and lived to tell. It was hands down the scariest drive of my life, I don't think you could have done it at night, well ...maybe but you would have hit like 20 deer, easy! You without a doubt could not drive it in the winter, in fact I would bet the road is not even open during the winter. There were so many pull offs with people hiking, kayaking, biking...etc... I saw only one other truck and that was at the end. The curves were easy 20-30 mph and you thought you were still going to go off the road, the road was beyond narrow. Trees were over hanging into the road, I so thought we were going to hit, thankfully we did not. It was up down and round and round, the whole time it was twisting from left to right, it felt like a roller coaster. The steering wheel was pretty soaked when I made it out of there. Oh and don't mention the water that was practically on the road, all I could think was what if it is flooded around the curve.

But.... It was the MOST amazing stuff we have ever seen! It was really a ton of fun, once I made it out and it leads to the neatest beach town, Bear Lake.

Would I do it again? Sure,....well maybe.

Rice & Beans

2011-06-18T11:51:00.001-04:00

In Kansas City, sitting at our yard, waiting for our relay to arrive, we had an extra few hours...so we cooked!

Yellow rice and black beans....mmm mmm good!

We are now heading to Oregon!! More good miles and more western skies.

All Me!

2011-06-16T11:50:00.000-04:00

This basically sums up what my drive looked like today. You go up, you go down!

The Weight: We have 40,000 in the box which means we are just shy of our max of 80,000 pounds truck and trailer combined.
The Route: I-70 across Utah and Colorado.
The Situation: Mountains! The Vail Pass and Eisenhower Tunnels!
The Driver:.....ME

We've been across here only once before. We had barely been out here when we went across, we weren't real heavy, and Kendall drove...I was asleep. So it was months ago and I was asleep, which means I had no clue what I would be getting into...and I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous

It was a challenge, to say the least. By the time I hit Colorado it was dark and everyone had their brights on, refusing to dim. There was construction, two way traffic, 45 mph curves, and the truck was getting ate up by the hills. I found my faithful gear to be 7th, nothing was getting through her! Mostly I was climbing the hills at about 25 mph, but my downshifting to get to that point was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself, no grinding, no clutching, just smooth floats, again and again....and again. By the time I was done with my shift I was beat! My arm got a serious work out from downshifting then unshifting, then downshifting!

The Final Frontier!

2011-06-14T11:50:00.000-04:00

Our loads have kept us mostly on the west, just sneaking towards the east to pick up then heading back out. Oh that is love right there! The dispatch times haven't been the worst but they also haven't been the best, however we have both been sleeping pretty good on our breaks. So naturally when we saw this restaurant we had to make the time...

I-70 in Utah around exit 40 will bring you here to a Frontier Chuck Wagon restaurant! We have a fuel stop here, across the street is the restaurant and it has truck parking.

As soon as you walk in you think you are in a grandmother's country kitchen. The place even had a fireplace with a mantle made out of a tree trunk. The food is down home through and through, open face roast beef sandwiches, stews, roasted chicken, mash potatoes and gravy, and I think cooked carrots came with almost everything. It is a place I plan on stopping anytime we head through. Maybe one time we will get lucky and go through on a weekend as they had a downstairs area for late night dancing!

Shake, Rattle, and ROLL!

2011-06-13T11:57:00.000-04:00

Hi guys! Its not really Monday as the date of this post states, it is really Sunday, June 19th, Father's Day (Happy Father's Day Dad, including you too Lance) We have had a hell of a week and this has literally been my first available opportunity to blog, I am actually missing out on my sleep to do this, so hopefully you like. Now lets retrace our steps so you can relive the week with me...

As soon as we hit Buffalo we began our trek across America...heading west, FINALLY!

St. Louis
Indianapolis
Cleveland
Buffalo
Columbus
Oklahoma City
Amarillo
Albuquerque
Flagstaff
Caliexico
Phoenix
San Diego
LA
Las Vegas
Denver
Kansas City
Tulsa
Twin Falls
Boise
Portland

Just a few of the places we've been to during this work week of over 7,200 miles!

Joplin, You Saved Me!

2011-06-11T21:11:00.002-04:00

We arrived to Joplin last night. They started working on the truck at 07:45 this morning. They finished around 14:00 and I am happy to say we are FIXED! We got a new fuel tank, they topped off our fluids and did an alignment! Thank you Joplin! Thank you for not being morons and just getting the job done!

We already have a load going to Buffalo, NY. We pick it up tomorrow afternoon. We are soooo excited! Excited to be making money again, but also just to drive, we actually miss it. Plus, going to Buffalo is super cool. We headed that way only once before and it was in the dead of winter, snow and ice everywhere I can't wait to enjoy it now.

Since we don't pick up until tomorrow we decided to get some dinner. We weren't sure if our shuttle was still running or what if anything was available. But we were very surprised at how normal everyone and everything seemed. The streets are busy with cars and the restaurants packed with people, it was nice to see that. When our shuttle picked us back up, the driver drove through town. We saw what was left of the Wal-mart we always shopped at and the Home Depot, nothing! Literally nothing! Then just going down the streets trying to remember the drug store that was there or gas station. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures, I rode in a dazed state. I have never in my life seen such devastation. Whole streets just destroyed. While the news has slowed down on reporting anything about this, it is still very much a reality for these people. A challenge and struggle they face everyday, from driving past on your way to work to living in it and helping clean up. The vibe of the town was inspiring and uplifting with signs saying "Stay Strong Joplin" and a ton saying "We will rebuild together." I have such admiration for these people, they are a true example of what is right in America.

Thank you Joplin!

Have Mercy On Me!

2011-06-10T11:45:00.003-04:00

I am completely over getting the run around and even more over blogging about it. It is just getting ridiculous, actually it is past ridiculous. You'll talk to 10 different people a day, no one knows what is going on. You get an answer, then it all changes within the hour, yet no one informs you. You have to hound, babysit, and beg everyone, re-explain over and over again and still nothing gets resolved.

We talked to the supervisor of road service first thing this morning, he was rude to us and said he was "working on it and would call us." Two hours passed and it was check out time, we called back and asked for him. We were told he was not able to come to the phone, someone else handled us. He told us that they had two tanks in Joplin and that is where they were sending us and for us to tell Kenworth to just put the tank back on to get us moving. We did as we were told. Kenworth had ZERO clue what we were talking about and furthermore didn't want to hear anything from us, they needed to be told what to do by the company only.

We called the company back and sat on hold for about 30 minutes. We asked then if they had any plans of calling Kenworth and of course they had no clue what we were talking about. We gave up for a few hours after that, just sat there in the waiting room without a clue what to do. During this time no one touched our truck and we received no phone calls. So we decided to try our last hope, our fleet manager to see if he could get anything figured out. He unfortunately seemed a little aggravated with us too. I really don't understand this, we have been shut down for 11 days, missed out now on 2 weeks of pay and haven't complained once, yet everyone starts to get annoyed with us, why? Because they can, I guess. Either way calling him was probably a good thing because shortly after we got a phone call from the supervisor of road service.

Finally it was a break we needed. He said he was the only one working on it, gave us his extension and explained everything. There are not two tanks in Joplin, but they are going to look for some, maybe even grab off a crashed truck or a new one. We were never suppose to take the load to Houston, we were suppose to go straight to Joplin. He completely agreed and understood that it would be impossible for us to run only on a 90 gallon tank. Basically, they weren't sure what they were going to do yet, but being in Joplin would give us more options. So he called Kenworth, told them to bypass the tank and get us rolling. Within mintues we saw them working on it.

Kendall realized the mechanic was reconnecting the entire tank again. This means we would have got about 5 miles down the road and the truck would have broke down again. The tank is damaged and it would have started sucking air and broke down. So Kendall asks the guy if they fixed the tank or something as to why he was reconnecting everything instead of bypassing it. He mechanic told him "you don't talk to me about what I am doing, you need to talk to the office." Jerk! So Kendall goes into the office and they are completely confused, they thought he was putting on the new tank, Kendall had to explain that was the wrong tank. Honestly do we have to tell everyone how to do their job?

The guy unhooked the tank and bypassed it. We were about to be on our way to Joplin, but before we left we got one more surprise, the mechanic who was working on the truck the previous night locked our extra set of keys in his tool box. Don't get work done in Memphis, that's all I'm saying...

Roundy Round, Here We Go!

2011-06-09T12:08:00.002-04:00

Did you honestly think we were going to show up to Memphis and that they were going to install our fuel tank, then we would be on our way and everything would be right in the world?? Do you know us at all by now? Things are never that cut and dry for us, come on now, you should have known better.

Let's do a little timeline to breakdown the frustration:

14:25 Arrive at our terminal. We shower and drop our trailer, in case they take to long at Kenworth and we can't keep the load.

15:15 Stop by Wendy's on our way to Kenworth for a couple of spicy chicken sandwiches.

15:45 Arrive at Kenworth where we wait for them to bring us into a bay.

15:45- 17:00 SLEEP

19:00 They bring us in..finally and we head up to the waiting room. It is on the second floor and has an overlook of the shop. This means you can see when and if they are working on your truck.

At first things started off with great optimism. They began working on the truck, got the old fuel tank off, got the new one over and then things went dead. An hour passes and the same thing, nothing.

21:30 I head down to find out what is going on...they "misplaced" the fittings to the tank. The idiots lost them!! They were searching under boxes, inside containers, even checked our side boxes. No clue. We stood upstairs and just watched, watched our chances of getting out of here diminish.

22:00 The mechanic commissions Kendall to help him. Kendall goes down and the other mechanic brings a little something of interest to everyones attention....are you ready? It is the WRONG tank!!!!

22:10 Kenworth calls our company to explain

22:20 We are on hold for Road Service to find out what we can do.

22:35 They finally pick up. Kendall asks them if we can just get them to rig the tank back up again so we can roll and he literally tells us that he has no clue what we need to do. We will need to call the supervisor of road service in the morning because this situation has become to complicated for him to answer any questions.

23:00 We checked back into the hotel....

The Truck Is Where??

2011-06-08T11:50:00.000-04:00

08:30- This morning started off with Kendall calling Kenworth to ensure that the new fuel tank did arrive and that they were going to be working on it.

Insert Kendall: This is Kendall in truck 34104 just wanted to make sure our new fuel tank arrived.

Kenworth Guy: Let me check on it...

(On hold.....Dom Dom do do elevator music...)

Kenworth: Ya that truck is gone, there is no fuel tank.

"It is gone? That is impossible that is my truck, I have the key and I just saw it in the yard last night"

"No Kenworth has your fuel tank so they are going to have to have one made, that will take 4 weeks, they sent that truck to Joplin man"

"Well the truck itself is still there right? I just saw it in the lot last night."

"I don't know, it is marked 'done' on my screen."

Okay so I start freaking out a little...immediately Kendall calls the company while panic sets in for me thinking that they just took off with our truck without letting us know anything and with all of my things in the truck, what an awful feeling.

Road service tells Kendall the truck was still at Kenworth, but said the same thing about the fuel tank, it will take 4 weeks for a new one because there are none in the country. Ok hold on, are you serious? None anywhere that they can order? Nothing they can do? I don't believe this for a second, I believe we are dealing with idiots who don't really give a crap about our position in this or what happens to us.

I honestly was thinking they were going to switch us around in trucks, maybe get an old nasty one or something, but nope! Even better, the guy in road service explains... They by passed the broke fuel tank and now we are going to run 4 weeks on one fuel tank, the driver side, which holds less because the DEF tank is there too, only 90 gallons compared to 110. I know that probably doesn't seem like much, but it is. You can go about an extra 150 miles on 20 more gallons and out here that is huge!

What this means for us is having to stop to fuel twice as much as we did before. This creates several problems for us. Typically on one shift we will run 550-600 miles, stopping once or twice during the run to potty and then at the end we fuel up and switch out. Now we are going to have to plan our trips to fuel up about every 300-400 miles tops. I know,I know.. having 90 gallons and averaging 7.0 mpg should allow us to drive 630 miles. That would be running our tank bone dry and that is 100% IMPOSSIBLE! The reality of being out and having approved fueling locations ( approve fueling location means the company tells us specific truck stops we can only fuel at) means that there isn't always going to be a guaranteed fuel stop every 400 or 500 miles and after the scare we had of the truck breaking down and their automatic reaction of assuming we ran out of fuel, I don't want to even let the tank get into the red zone of being too low on fuel. So we are going to have to stop every 300-400 miles, before the tank gets too low and again that makes it difficult because there just isn't always a approved fueling location exactly 300-400 miles apart. Sometimes there will be one 100 miles from the next along your route and sometimes you will go 600 miles before the next one, I think this could get tricky.

Fast forward to 15:00... We are now at the yard and waiting for our load to show up. We are headed for Houston. It is 570 miles away and should give us a good feel for how the fuel is going to go.

Right before we leave we get a message from our Fleet Manager saying they found a tank. It was from the Joplin, Kenworth and survived the tornado. They shipped it to Memphis. Our next load was from Houston to Taylor, MI and we would have plenty of extra time on it to stop and have it installed! Yay!! What a blessing I thought!! Finally something working out for us!

It was about 19:45 when we started getting the "chirps" a truck broke down in Houston that was suppose to pick up a UPS load heading to Saint Louis and of course, they wanted us to rescue it. We are in NO position to rescue this load, we need to get to Memphis to get our fuel tank. So I called up and got a really awesome guy on the phone!! He didn't yell at me, he wasn't a smart ass to me, he listened and tried to help....what a shocker. I gave what Kendall described as an Emmy award worthy performance as to why we simply could not rescue that load and how we needed to stick with our original plan. While he was a great guy he told me basically we didn't have a choice, but that he would do what he could, starting with our dispatch time. Anytime you get a UPS load they dispatch you at 55 mph or more sometimes, our truck only goes 65 and typically you can't average that, in cities, slower speed areas, California...etc. So it literally leaves you with zero time, especially if the run is only like 650 miles. These kind of rush around jobs aren't going to work if we have to stop and fuel up more often. So they said they would slow it down. In this business you learn to take what you can get. So we took.

Around 22:30 after some load assigning and un-assigning they finally figured it out so that we could keep our original load and be able to roll through Memphis.

Whew what a day...we should be in Houston by 01:30. We will pick up and roll again, the load is already ready. So I am going to try and get some shut eye before I have to drive back to Memphis!

Lets see what tomorrow brings....

Yep, Still Here!

2011-06-07T19:00:00.003-04:00

The new fuel tank should be here Wednesday!!

We had to get out of the room, so we re-rented a car. Then Kendall found a Charity Horse Show in Germantown, Tn. (not far at all 15 miles max)

It was fun and the horses were totally lovable!! We walked around the stalls and met a few horses, they were awesome! Some were getting baths and totally cracking me up. It was cool, never been to a horse show before.

The Food: Bonefish Grill, another staple of home for us and again something you don't see out West. Food of choice there, Bang Bang Shrimp. Insane!! Super Good, don't go there and not get it, that would be a mistake!!

Now I am sitting in the hotel room...blah! I bought some coloring books today to occupy my time IF the truck isn't finished by tomorrow, but honestly who am I kidding I will probably color as soon as I am done typing! Lol

Then Monday Came..

2011-06-06T19:02:00.003-04:00

Today came with the promise of the truck being fixed, then they rained on our parade! They got the fuel line in and put it on the truck, but now ... All of a sudden, the truck needs a NEW fuel tank!! This struck Kendall and I very strangely, if the fuel tank had a problem don't you think they would have known that 4 days ago? We think they stripped it out when they put the new fuel line on. Thankfully this time we did not check out of our room, we did however turn the car in. We didn't have anywhere to go so...we just sat around. I think we were both just a little bummed out. We had a great weekend, but we were really looking forward to getting back on the road. Being out for a week means that we have to now stay out an additional week to make for it financially. Oh well...
Activity: Marathon of Orange County Choppers vs. Paul Jr. Designs. Never watched the show in my life, I totally dig it now and I am so in Paul Jr's corner. They had a showdown last night. They both designed bikes for Cadillac for charity and hands down Jr's bike rocked!
The Food: Ordered in from Blimpie subs and we were surprised how good they actually were!

We went to River walk the other day, it is near the downtown area. It was a nice picnic area and the houses there are beautiful!! The picture is of Mississippi River and that is the bridge you always cross on I-40 to go from Tennessee to Arkansas.

When In Memphis....

2011-06-05T19:00:00.002-04:00

You gotta see the King!

Elvis is everywhere here, you can not miss him! Kendall refused to take me to Graceland. He doesn't like "tourist traps" and he thought it would still smell like the 70's which did not interest him either. However, he did drive me by it, on Elvis Presley Blvd, where I also saw the Heartbreak Hotel. It was awesome, even if I didn't get to go to Graceland, bummer!

Activity: Went shopping! Barnes and Noble, Macy's etc... Just checked out the local shops and walked around. Then we came back to the room and went swimming, of course we both got burnt!

Food: We found a 5 Guys!! About 11 miles away and worth it!! 5 Guys makes the BEST burgers and you can only find them on the East, although I recently saw one in Texas, which is very exciting. Kendall, myself, and my best friend went miniature golfing, go kart riding, and to 5 Guys, it was the first time Kendall and I really got to hang out, kind of like our first date. It was also my very first time eating at 5 Guys. I have been hooked on the burger and the guy since.

Dirt Track Demon!

2011-06-04T18:59:00.001-04:00

This morning we woke up, worked out, and then headed out to explore....

Activity: Started off downtown, where we had lunch. Unfortunately I was not impressed with the area at all. Beale St. claims to be about the blues and the food. We found it smelled like urine, it was trashy, and we were approached 3 different times in about 30 minutes of walking around down there by the local beggars, asking for "money for a brother." I do not like places like this, it was a disappointment. Thankfully we had better plans for the evening....The Races!

The DIRT track!! It is our favorite kind of races. It was great, down home, and fun. It was super hot outside, we drank lemonade and ate popcorn! It was awesome. Tonights show had a special feature, "Faster Pastor." Local pastors from churches raced for the fastest time. Six in total raced and they used the cars of other drivers who offered them up. Plus, they did the kid races, where all the kids from the stands run down to the track and race on foot for a prize, it was cute.

The Food: We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown. We both got the California Chicken Sandwich, it had sliced avocado and a lemon mayonnaise on it. Super Yummy! After the races we totally hit up Krispy Kreme, it wasn't our fault there was one right by our hotel. It would only have been wrong not to stop!

Stuck In Memphis, The Beginning!

2011-06-03T18:58:00.002-04:00

Well we found out what was wrong with the truck, a fuel line gone bad. They ordered one yesterday, apparently it is a metal fuel line which is rare and there was like only one in the country? Hmm. It was "suppose" to come in today, but of course it did not. We checked out of the room and headed over to Kenworth, as we were told to do. We sat for about two and a half hours and no one was working on our truck so Kendall went to investigate, this is when he found out that the order got messed up and they would not be able to resolve it until Monday!!!

So that means a weekend in Memphis!

Took this in Downtown Memphis!

The first thing we did? Called Enterprise to rent a car!

Adventure of the day: We couldn't pick up the car until 5:30 so we went to dinner and then checked out a local Italian fest they were having. It was loaded with people, very crowded, and mostly young kids just drinking. We didn't stay too long, it was a hot one outside.

The Food: We ate at Carrabba's! It's an Italian restaurant and it is sooo good, one of our favorites, guess it got us in the mood for the Italian Fest. (Salena you would have loved it!)

Food Score!!

2011-06-02T12:40:00.004-04:00

Did I mention we were extremely hungry after the break down and tow business? Well we were!! So we ordered in and ended up getting super lucky. The guy at the desk suggested a ribs place called, Marlowe's, they delievered...OR they could come and pick you up in their pink limo for FREE! They are located one mile from Graceland and have several "Elvis" inspirations on the menu. And the coolest thing about them...they were featured on Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives!! How awesome is that? Bringing the Triple D to me! Oh ya, we so had them deliver. Does it get better? I don't think so because they had the food at our hotel door in under 30 mintues and it was AMAZING!!

We ordered: Fried Green Tomatoes, 3 entrees 3 sides feature: Beef Brisket, Pulled Pork, BBQ Chicken, Greens, French Fries, Baked Beans, plus it came with these super yummy rolls, they were FRIED! For dessert Kendall got the Mississippi Mud Pie and I got Banana Pudding. It was quite the feast! Of course we didn't finish it all, but we damn sure tried! Yummy comfort food at it's best!

Here are the Fried Green Tomatoes! They were the BEST! The slices were thick and the batter a little spicy and full of flavor, you didn't even need the dipping sauce.

Now we are sitting in the Kenworth drivers lounge. The the last update we got was that they don't know what is wrong, something to do with the fuel system but they should be done by 2. Doubtful in my opinion, but we still had to check out of the hotel and wait over here. The lounge is pretty nice with a TV and a few couches. Unfortunately they are all filled up by other drivers, which leaves me forced to sit on a hard chair that is making my ass go numb. The good news is that I still have a smile on my face, why? Because my life cracks me up! I never know what is coming, but I always make it work!

This Time It Was Kendall!

2011-06-01T12:40:00.002-04:00

Our stay in Michigan was quite short lived. About 150 miles away we got the ...you know "chirp, chirp" it was a pre-plan for a load picking up in Columbus, OH at 0430, our eta for Taylor, MI was 00:38 and Columbus was 177 miles away. So obviously a message proceeded the pre-plan chirp with "Your next load is hot so you need to hurry up and drop in Taylor so that we can make the pick up time on the pre-plan, be careful of course." So we dropped and rolled.

The load we picked up was bound for Dallas, TX, but they were having us relay it in West Memphis? What? That made zero sense to me. All together the run was like 1,000 miles, maybe a little more. And we were going to relay the last 400 of them? The load only had an extra 4-5 hours on it so...this seemed extremely stupid to me, but what do I know I am just a driver.

About 40 miles away from West Memphis ..."chirp, chirp" Message read "Relay taken out, proceed to final destination." They didn't send anything else, no directions, no stop location information, no dispatch, you know all the things we needed. We figured don't sweat, we were going to stop and fuel up in West Memphis anyways and shower so we would just get the information we needed then.

We were 5-8 miles away from the terminal when the truck started acting funny. You would have your foot down on the fuel and there was no power. It like kept kicking on and off with having any power. Then the yellow check engine light came on. Since we were so close to the terminal we just crossed our fingers that it would make it. We made it up and over the bridge that crosses over the Mississippi River and takes you from the Memphis, TN side to the West Memphis, AR side. We got bypassed by the scale houses at the bottom of the bridge, which was shocking, they ALWAYS pull us in. And then the truck just died! One freakin mile away from the terminal!!

Anytime a vehicle shuts off what happens? You lose steering power. Now imagine loosing steering power on a 80,000 pound rig. We weren't far off from weighing that much either, we had over 40,000 in the trailer. Thankfully Kendall was driving and he coasted us to a stop on the side of the road. I can not tell you how happy I was that Kendall was driving and not me. He did a great job, he was calm, and he didn't hit the guard rail while trying to stop the truck, barely being able to steer it. I on the other hand would have been a complete basket case!

Doesn't he look a kid in time out for being bad? Adorable!

I called up the company and got to play 21 questions with the lady in road service. They thought we had run out of fuel!! I explained what happened and the first question...
Did you run out of fuel? No
Well when was the last time you fueled?
How far did you go?
How much weight do you have?
When was the last time you checked your fluids?
How long had the check engine light been on?
Did the red engine light ever come on?
And you are sure you didn't run out of fuel?
Then she talked to Kendall and kept on with the "did you run out of fuel"?
I get it, we have some real idiots in our company that run out of fuel and probably try to lie about it. Which is even more stupid because if you run a truck out of fuel they can easily find out. I get that! But come on lady. We had just below a half of tank. Not even close to running out. You see company policy is if you run out of fuel and a tow truck has to come and get you, you the driver pay for the tow.

We waited about 2 hours for the tow truck to get there and then about another hour for him to hook us up. We then went to our yard to drop the trailer. Originally they wanted us to keep the load, which would have been a complete nightmare, but thankfully they finally found someone by the time we got to the yard. We dropped the trailer and then rolled on over to Kenworth. They said they wouldn't be able to get to it until the morning so we got a room. Kendall was exhausted he had been up all through the night driving. We were both sweaty and smelly and just plain tired from the heat and sun, being out in it for 3 hours. A shower, a clean bed, and we both passed out.

Michigan Here We Come!

2011-05-31T12:18:00.002-04:00

We got our load this morning and it is bound for our Taylor, MI terminal. We've really been on the terminal train lately, I love it. It's fuel, DEF, a shower, an easy drop, no docks, and a parking spot. Plus, we know how to get to all of our terminals which that makes directions easy.

I am quite excited about heading up. We don't make it to Taylor very often and the last time we were here it was the dead of winter. Everything was dull and frozen, I can't wait to see the green!!

I have no clue where we will go from Taylor, the load we are taking up is bound for Canada. I would take it, but they usually don't have teams do that. I think it is because there aren't a lot of team loads in Canada and it would be sort of a waste to use your teams there.

There is an excitement and scare in not knowing where you are bound for. My heart is hoping west, but my head is saying probably east or south. I hope to make it out west a lot this summer, since the weather has improved. It seemed like we lived in bad areas during winter and lately we've stayed south east, only going as far as Texas.

So cross your fingers for me that we get a load west....soon

Goodnight From Memphis!

2011-05-30T21:16:00.001-04:00

Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all the men and women who continue to serve and protect our nation!

Memorial day is usually the unoffical start to summer, filled with cook outs, pool parties, and sunscreen. Although we are not home for BBQ and fun in the sun, we still celebrated the day. We got to our terminal around 0400, I drove us in and the dispatch office told me things were real slow due to the holiday, no problem with me. We took a nap and when I say nap I mean we slept until NOON! Oh and it felt so good. We still didn't have a load so we went for a jog in 100 degree weather!

I did a little over 2 miles (Kendall's phone has a mile counter on it) and...I thought I was going to pass out from the heat. Even after taking a cold shower, I was still sweating when I got out. But we got a work out and some sun, which we both needed. We quickly came to the decision that since we got the sun and work out, we now needed to celebrate with food. The logical choice for us was Cracker Barrel, all the fix-ins of home even when you aren't there. We then had ourselves a little Golden Girls marathon.

I just don't think days get much better then this...we still don't have a load and the sun is going down so...

Goodnight from Memphis!

Sweet Sinful Saturday!

2011-05-28T20:33:00.003-04:00

It is no surprise to anyone that things literally change by the second out here, but there are times that I am even surprised by how things can change. One minute I am chugging Mountain Dew to stay awake and the next I am chillin out in Laredo. Thats right people, they are letting us keep our load tonight. We will deliver it in the morning and then get a load heading out, which should deliver on Tuesday because of the holiday on Monday. I hope nothing screws this up because this plan sounds jam up and jelly tight to me.

We've been in Laredo for about four hours now. We stopped by Target for some supplies and grabbed a few tacos. And then.....

You know what this! And Oh yes we did!! We got some Hot and Fresh!!

I'm talking Krispy Kreme people!!

In all the times we've been here we have NEVER stopped in, which is always so weird to me since Kendall is a self proclaimed Krispy Kreme-aholic. One time we were at a truck stop in Missouri and Kendall spotted the Krispy Kreme delivery guy and practically attacked him like a dog sniffing out the fresher donuts. I remember hearing him say "I don't play around with my Krispy Kreme's man, are you sure these are the fresh ones?" It was hilarious to say the least. The guy thought we were complete whack jobs, but he damn sure gave us the fresher ones.

After we ogled for about 10 mintues, we walked up to the counter where we were each given a free sample. I didn't even know they did that! We were so excited, bonus! We ordered a dozen of the glazed and two small milks to go. I've only ate one out of the box, but somehow the box is half gone...hmmmmmm!

The Fourth Week Blues!

2011-05-27T18:03:00.002-04:00

What are the fourth week blues you ask? They are when you fall into the "dispatcherin" cycle of hell. This usually occurs around week four of being out on the road. Our solution? We go home!

We've been out one week and somehow we find ourselves staring down the black hole of the fourth week blues....that's never good.

I had just finished a lovely night drive. Starting off in Mobile, Alabama, buzzing across Louisiana, and finishing on the west side of Houston, in the middle of rush hour...I was quite proud of my accomplishment. We stopped at a truck-stop for about an hour to eat and hang out before Kendall finished the drive down to Laredo. I must have been sleeping for about 20 minutes when I awoke to Kendall yelling my name. I look up to see him turning the truck around and heading up an I-10 east ramp. What the crap? I don't even know how or where he pulled over or how he managed to get us turned around...he's good.

The message I found on the qual-comm read "Stop, you need to turn around and go back to Houston." I also saw we had a pre-plan from Beaumont, Tx which is 80 miles from Houston and we were about 60 miles west of Houston. Picked up at 19:00 in Beaumont and was bound for Memphis by 07:00.

We make it to Houston and drop our trailer to find that they had no empties for us to pick up. We had to drive 20 minutes over to Pepsi to get one. Spent about 30 minutes there before they would release the trailer. We immediately left for Beaumont, although they still hadn't sent over the load assignment or dispatch. I hate leaving without my dispatch, but sometimes it takes them a few hours before they send it over. Thankfully, this time it only took 15 minutes.

We made it to the Petro to nap for about 3 hours by 14:30, which was right by our exit for the pickup. I had already been in the back on the way down and ended up with about 3 and half hours of sleep total. Ugh! But we had a plan, although Kendall's logs and clock had been started if we could pick up the load a little early he could drive out and I could sleep.

So we get there a little after 18:00, but of course we couldn't get a break and they finally got the load ready an hour after it was suppose to be, at 20:00. The load was a little over 40,000 pounds which is heavy, but no problem. The guy who loaded our trailer put ALL the weight in the front, that is a problem. We had a bad feeling so we scaled it and we were right. Even though we slid our tandems it just wasn't going to work we were 500 pounds over weight on our drive axle.

I called the company, while Kendall hauled butt back to UPS before they left, since this was like the only none 24 hour facility. After being asked if we slid the tandems, how much fuel we had, etc..etc.. They finally believed me that if they don't distribute weight properly there is nothing we, the driver can do.

Thankfully, they were still there. After unloading and then reloading, they decided to use some of the 18 feet of empty space in the back of the trailer, we were finally ready to go. Obviously, we couldn't make our original ETA. They were kind enough to give us an extra hour and half due to this.

We finally hit the road at around 21:15. Kendall's hours were gone so I had to drive through the night. I finally went to sleep this morning around 08:30. After we dropped our load and got our next one lined up. That puts me being awake for 30 out of the last 33 and half hours...

I gotta shake these fourth week blues if I am going to make it to week two... We are headed back to Laredo, we will see if we make it this time.

So Fresh And So Clean!

2011-05-25T16:42:00.000-04:00

Kendall and I decided very early on with this trucking business that we were going to shower everyday come rain or snow and even super tight dispatches. Usually we succeed, unless we opt for sleep instead or we really get screwed around with loads. But it is very, very seldom that we cant make it work. One thing that really help us are these super cute and super small walkie talkies below.

See how they both fit into my hand? They're mini...cute huh? I know!

We bought them for 20 bucks at Target and use them all the time. We pull into the fuel islands, while Kendall fuels, I go in and grab the shower. Then radio over to him the shower number. He then parks the truck, when he is finished fueling and comes in, I'm basically done by the time he gets there. We can fuel, shower, and grab snacks in about 30 - 40 minutes, which ain't bad.

The only thing though...I'm always afraid when I hear the knock that it is someone else, like maybe someone else heard me on the radio. Good thing we have a secret password, just in case someone tries to pull a fast one.

One Moron At A Time!

2011-05-24T19:08:00.002-04:00

Today we find ourselves in Florida. We stopped in Wildwood for a quick shower before dropping in Ocoee and then heading to Titusville for a relay going to North Carolina and of course, it is already late. So we wanted to make sure we grabbed a shower. While Kendall was parking the truck I went in to get the shower. Usually they have a kiosk where you can swipe your driver reward card and get a print out with your shower number on it and code to enter to get in. The kiosk was out of service so that meant I had to go to a cashier, no problem.

I got in line behind a guy who was buying three hotdogs and a drink. While standing there I noticed that the cashier was actually the manager of the truck stop and she was having some words with an employee. While she was checking the guy out she said "we can take this in the back" to the employee. It was obvious things were getting heated. The guy pays, she gives him his change, he takes forever to put his money in his pocket, leaves, and I walk up with my card in hand. I am about to say "shower please" when she just walks off, without a single word, with the employee to the back room.

Uh hello? Did I forget to take off my cloak of invisibility again?

At that very moment, with my mouth still hanging open and a dumbfounded look, a fellow truck driver who witnessed the ordeal said "she just walked away from you, did you not smile and give her a wink?"

I said: "This is bullshit!" (I don't know what came over me, it just came out and before I knew it I was hot!)

I walked over to the other line where I was now number four in line, the truck driver kept on about the cashier walking away from me and by this point the whole store was involved, I am sure my little outburst didn't help. When I got up to the new cashier I told her that I thought that was very rude of the lady. She completely agreed and said "That is the General Manager, can you believe it?" And asked me if I wanted to call corporate, she seemed excited about this possibility, which leads me to believe this lady is probably not very well liked. I said no and that I would handle it when I got out of the shower.

When Kendall got there I explained the situation and told him I was going to confront her. All he said was "let me get my hotdogs first."

We walked out, Kendall went towards the hotdogs and I went towards the GM. I was all polite and smiley when I said excuse me can I talk to you. She was helping someone fill out an application on the computer. She too was smiles and said sure. Then I let her have it...

Me: I was the person in line behind the guy with the hotdogs when you decided to just walk away because you were having a "tiff" with your employee. That was rude and I must say immature. (Then I paused, looked at her name tag, then back at her and said...) And for the General Manager I would hope that you could conduct yourself in a more professional manner!

She had a "uhhh I am totally confused" wrinkled brow look on her face.

GM: I am sorry you felt that way.

Me: No I did not "feel" that way, the entire store watched you walk away while I was standing there.

GM: I helped you.

Me: Uh No you didn't, I had to get back in line behind four other people because you wanted to run off in your tiff.

GM: Well.. I apologize.

Me: Good, I just wanted you to know.

The nice cashier smiled and winked at Kendall, I turned and walked out and GM, well....she still had the wrinkle brow look, which I must say was not very becoming!

At the end if the day Kendall got his hotdogs and got me white cheese popcorn with a root beer. A nice reward for my public service!

Our Second Home!

2011-05-23T10:23:00.004-04:00

As many of you have probably seen on the news today some horrific tornados tore through Joplin, Mo last night. For those who have been following my blog, you know that is our main hub and basically second home. We got the news around 19:15 last night. We were actually on our way there, but thankfully still in Texas. We are headed for Columbia, Mo and whenever you pass up the terminal they require you to stop. Not last night or this morning through, they sent over messages saying to bypass the terminal and to only call in an emergency. No one at our terminal was injured and so far no injuries have been reported for those who were home, but work there. However, on the morning message they did say several employees have lost their homes.

I took this shot as we drove through. We were on I-44 heading east. Most of the damage is on the west side, but we still saw some. This picture is a little blurry but it is emergency crews picking up debris and trying to turn over a truck that flipped. We actually saw two trucks flipped. Also, a truck stop destroyed with trailers and trucks flipped and the roof of the building gone. We saw a few houses destroyed too. The biggest thing we saw was the path the tornado took through the trees, all were overturned or broken apart, with the roots on top and the grass pulled up too. It was awful! Thankfully, when we passed our terminal up, it looked fine. They said they have only minor damage to some of the buildings, but they are out of power and running on emergency back up power.

We are under a load and already pre-planned with another one, but as a human your instinct is to stop and help, unfortunately we can't. All we can do is hope and pray for those they haven't found, those who are injured and lost their homes. Our dispatcher isn't at work today and we hope he and his family are okay. They all will be in our thoughts and prayers.

Makes It All Worth While!

2011-05-21T12:10:00.004-04:00

Sometimes it is the little things that take my breath away. Like beautiful sunsets that make you step back and say "wow how lucky am I?"

Thank you all for your kind words and support. It is always nice to know you are not alone! I especially loved, "it is never an adventure while it's happening". How true is that for us all?

We left Florida once again with our load of crappers headed to Indiana. Lol. We are now currently sitting in a dock in Henderson, Kentucky waiting to get loaded and then headed for our beloved Laredo. This should be a great drive down and we always get a good load out!

Still Alive and Still Truckin'!!

2011-05-20T11:50:00.002-04:00

Wow what day is it even? I know it has been quite awhile and I am sorry I haven't been blogging. But versus just saying "sorry" I feel you deserve an explanation.

Basically it all started once we left Chicago and headed for Miami, that is when I started to lose my "fluff" as Ruthann from All Things Bradbury once described it. I started coming apart at the seams. It just seemed like everything was going wrong and it put me in a very negative mood.

Most of it was the normal aggravations that any company driver faces out here. Crap loads with tight dispatches. Being talked down to by the operations department for doing your job and getting screwed around by the load planners. It is never fun to be on a load, driving down the highway, in the middle of a city, climbing a mountain and get the "chirp chirp." Within three hours one day we had 5 loads unassigned and assigned. Every time that happens you have to reroute and change all of your plans. Where you fuel, switch out, how much time you have. You have to check the route, the directions, everything. It is real easy to push the send button while sitting at a desk, it isn't real easy for us. And the big one, a lack of sleep. Add that to never getting a day off or a 34 hour restart in four weeks and I was just unhappy. I usually face theses things with a positive attitude and it doesn't seem that bad, but I guess this last time out it just got to me more. I think the biggest thing was not being able to get good sleep. Typically in a normal job if you had to work tired because of a bad nights sleep you get a chance to make it up the next night, not out here though. You get 10 hours of the truck moving, hitting pot holes, the other driver stopping to use the restroom, fuel, etc...to get whatever type of sleep you can and then you drive again, no excuses because the truck never stops, we run on hours, not days.

It really hit me at a truck stop in New Mexico. I went in to wash my face after a long drive through the night and was horrified at how awful I looked. The black circles under my eyes, my eyes were blood shot, the bags, and just my face. I looked so tired and unlike myself.

As you can imagine every time I would attempt to blog it was depressing and negative, which has never been what I wanted this blog to be. Plus, just because I was going through "the motions" at that specific time did not mean that would be an accurate representation of my feelings of being out here and driving. And I didn't want to put that out there, knowing in a few weeks I would feel better about things. Which I do. We went home for a few days, recharged the batteries and it was just what I needed. I am ready to come back out here and tackle another month.

So I hope you can forgive me and will continue to follow us through the ups and downs of driving across America!

Yet Another Food Alert!

2011-04-27T20:49:00.007-04:00

Okay, did you not think I was going to talk about the food...honestly?

As soon as I walked in I knew what I was getting, A Chicago Dog! I have been dying to try one and what better place to do that then, in Chicago! How lucky am I? I know! I was soooo excited the guy behind the counter was cracking up about me being so thrilled to get this Chicago dog. He said "everything on it?" I said "hell yeah!" So what is on a Chicago dog? The dog, mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, and a pickle! All I can is ....Oh My Goodness! I usually only eat my hotdog with ketchup, but this bad boy blew me away.

Kendall got the Chili Dog, which he said was the BEST chili dog he has ever had! He said because you could tell they used real chili, plus the hotdogs themselves were high quality! They had that "snap" when you bite into them.

In addition, we dabbled into some other choice items. A classic burger for Kendall and I got the Italian Beef on French Bread with sweet peppers. Again, a home run. I think it was kind of like a French dip. Everything was amazing, as you can see from the picture below.

And don't ya know we ate it all...even the fries. With Johnny Rivers in the background singing "welcome back baby to the poor side of town," I felt very "rich" and full :) And just totally lucky that I got to get a Chicago dog in Chicago!

Just Play Some 50's and Feed Me!

2011-04-26T20:49:00.001-04:00

We are in Chicago picking up a load headed to Miami. We've been to this place several times and on the way in we always pass up this hot dog place that is always busy, but we never have the time to stop....except this time! The place, Portillo's! It was started back in 1963 by Dick Portillo who just had a small hot dog stand.

The place is totally decked out to the 50's with signs, a jukebox, checkered deco, and memorabilia! It looks like an old fashion "soda jerk!" Plus, they rock nothing but oldies while you are munchin down the food.

Doesn't it look great?

Sitting there I could only picture a group of friends after a late night of being out on the town, stopping in for a late night meal. Or a very cool first date, perhaps sharing a milk shake. The vibe of the place is fun, yet local, none touristy.

I totally fell in love with it from the counter where you order to the super cute booths to eat at.Such a great find. It is on my list of favorites!

Good Morning Beautiful!

2011-04-25T20:47:00.000-04:00

Oregon sure is pretty in the morning and she looks so different without all the snow. I didn't remember how green everything gets. I love it!

We have literally made a circle across America. We started off last Thursday in South Holland, IL and went to Montgomery, NY. From there we headed to Santa Fe Springs, CA. Then up to Portland, OR and now we are headed back to South Holland. We will be there Wednesday afternoon. Whew... I hope to nap when we get there!

Who Are You Really Passing Up?

2011-04-23T13:45:00.000-04:00

We picked our load heading out of New York to Southern California Friday morning around 07:30, it is now 13:15, I just woke up and I am in Amarillo, Texas. It amazes me how far and fast we can move along. Any who so I wake up, look out my window and see this...

Now this may just look like a fancy RV to you, but I have reason to believe otherwise. I think someone is in there, perhaps someone famous. They may not be "cool" famous, but famous probably! I especially believe this because he had a buddy with him who just left before I took the picture and you know one bus isn't enough to hold everyone, so they travel in groups or pairs.

On any given day I wonder who we might pass up... When in the Washington D.C. area how many politicians? In LA how many celebrities or has been celebrities? How many common criminals or even worse, a serial killer? Hey as crazy as it sounds it could be true. Just who are we really passing on the highways of America? Do you know?

Repaired and Rolling

2011-04-22T15:08:00.000-04:00

As promised our truck was all finished Wednesday morning. We headed to South Holland, IL to pick up and then delivered in Montgomery, NY. Then we totally scored a great load heading out of Montgomery to.... You guessed it, Southern California!! That is a 2880 mile run, which is simply beautiful in the trucking world.

We will run steady, truck across America and hopefully make good time. Wait did I just say truck across America? Yeah I did!

Downtown Indy!

2011-04-20T11:03:00.003-04:00

The biggest thing I love about this job is that I get to be a modern day gypsy of sorts. I mean how neat is it that we packed a bag, put an outfit together, got a room, got a car, and just did some exploring...all in the middle of the week. We didn't have to take time off to do this and we didn't have to be disappointed that our vacation ended up only being in Indianapolis. It didn't matter where we went or what we did, especially because we were in a car and could turn around no matter what. We just went... Which if you really think about it, in this job, you always "just go." You have to be prepared for anything and everything and always make sure you have comfy shoes because walking is going to happen. I just think it is so neat, never knowing what the day might bring!

After we left the 3 Sister's Cafe we drove into the downtown area to see what we could find, dinner hopefully. Lol. The drive into the city was interesting, we actually went through some tough neighborhoods to get there. In fact, we saw a swat team that had like 5 guys arrested on the front porch of a very ran down house. It was so exciting that we turned around and did another drive by. Then we just jotted down some other random road.

We ended up parking in a garage underground (so cool) that was attached to a 4 story mall right in the heart of downtown. We did some shopping and then walked around for a while enjoying all the tall buildings.

This is a shot of just one part of downtown from the 3rd story of the mall. I thought it was very cool.

After that we literally just got into the car and drove. We headed out of the city to more country roads. Some of the roads were so country that they would only fit one car at a time. It was sooo much fun and beautiful. Just a great day of exploring! Now back to work we go :)

Triple D!

2011-04-19T11:04:00.001-04:00

Still in Indianapolis and it looks like we will be here one more day. They had to order the shock and it won't be in until Wednesday. So whatever shall we do... Well first we got the room for another night, then we looked into places to go/eat because you know we are all about the food, next we called up the car rental place and then we hit the road. Unfortunately it is raining outside and the temperature has dropped quite a bit from the 70 degree beautiful weather of yesterday, but we are determined not to let that drag us down. After all when is the next we will get to explore Indianapolis, ok...ok... It is no New York, but we refuse to stay locked up in a hotel.

After some investigating and when I say "investigating" I mean calling Kendall's mom, our personal travel agent, we got a list of a couple of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives in the area. You know the Food Network show with Guy Fieri, where he travels around America hitting up good places to eat. We decided on 3 Sisters Cafe. It is located in the Broad Ripple area, just a little north of the inner city. The area seems college, "hippy" with a bunch of vintage clothing stores and head shops. Still very cool though.

The cafe itself is an old Victorian house and you can easily drive right passed it. You have to park on the road and everything is tight, the truck certainly would not fit. The food is GREAT. Everything is fresh and whole, they even offer vegan. I order a scrambler with goat cheese, wild mushrooms, onions, and mixed squash. Kendall ordered one of the sandwiches that was actually featured on DDD.

This thing was AMAZING! It's called the D'Nai (don't worry we couldn't pronounce it either) It is a braised pork and kale sandwich, with cheese on it! The taste was out of this world, especially if you like good southern "greens" You could tell they let them sit and simmer for a long time! The meat was super good too, the flavor was outstanding, I am not sure if they let it simmer as well, but either way a good find.

So if you read my blog and you are from Indianapolis and haven't been, shame on you! Go and get this sandwich! And for everyone else if you are ever in the area, it is a must!

Some TLC

2011-04-18T11:10:00.002-04:00

We unloaded our "crappers" (still totally cracking me up) in Indiana and headed on over to the Kenworth of Indianapolis. Our truck is in desperate need for some TLC. She has a cracked windshield from a rock attacking us, an oil leak, a broken shock and some other minor things. So the company said for us to get her taken care of, not to mention an oil leak, broken shock, and cracked windshield are all DOT fineable offenses and neither of us want that ticket.

This is the first time that we have taken her into the shop while being on the road. Usually if the truck needs work it is done in Joplin. Whenever you take your truck, your home, your money machine into the shop it can easily become a pain, but hopefully this trip will be cut and dry. We will probably end up getting a room for the night because they look backed up, just have to make sure it has a refrigerator! Then we will go from there and see what happens....

Big Old Jet Airliner

2011-04-17T15:42:00.002-04:00

Well folks we are back on the road. We needed some home time to rest and relax, sometimes you can get a little burnt out. But we are back and ready to roll. Speaking of rolling we got the coolest load heading out this time, or so we thought. All we knew is that we were heading to the airport and were hoping we were some how carrying a plane.

When we got there they actually had us back up to a plane for them to load us....it was so cool. This was the first time I'd ever seen a two story plane before, very neat!

Any who so we are all excited waiting to find out what we will be carrying. We felt so cool and important being at an airport with pretty tight security picking up our load and what did it turn out to be..... The TOILET! Many of them actually. Apparently we are taking them to be refurbished. So yeah, I am driving around America hauling a bunch of high flying crappers..look out people!

Red Sky's In The Morning, Sailors Take Warning!

2011-04-05T17:03:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Wyoming, please don't blow us over.

The gusts have died down to around 50-55 with average 38-42 so we are going to go slow and steady and she how she does. Things can change in a heartbeat out here so you always have to be careful because 10 miles does make a difference.

Oh good thing we stopped last night..passed 4 trucks blown over and we aren't even in the bad stuff yet.

Too Windy For My Blood!

2011-04-04T17:15:00.000-04:00

We are heading across I-80 in route to Kansas City to deliver a horribly tight UPS run. My drive included the stretch of Wyoming therefore, I was keeping my eyes on the wind as one should always do when going across Wyoming. I've seen one too many trucks flipped over not to be aware of the damage that can be done by ignoring the wind speed out there.

I kept checking the Wyoming website, which is amazing it gives such detail per mile marker, including wind speed and gusts. They had issued a no light trailer advisory, which isn't uncommon. Also it said there was blowing snow and slick in spots. I made my decision to shut down when I saw that the wind gusts were 65-68 miles an hour and the average was 47-49. That is too much wind for me.

We only have 20,000 on us and are pulling a double stack trailer, which means 10,000 pounds of that weight is above our heads. So we are shutting down and will wait and see if the winds die down!

I Can Make Pasta!

2011-04-03T17:02:00.000-04:00

When we weren't stuffing our faces with burgers the other day in Barstow, we hit up the outlets. They had a Kitchen Store outlet that was amazing. I walked through the store just wishing I had a house and trying to figure out where I could put things in the truck. Overall I was unsuccessful of convincing Kendall for most of the stuff, but ....I did get him to buy us a microwavable rice and pasta cooker.

Isn't it great looking? We picked up the pasta you see from Andersen's, check the mini bottle of olive oil? SO CUTE!

Anyways, it came equipped with measuring cups and measuring spoons. And all you do is put the pasta in, fill it with water, microwave, and lift out the removable pasta basket which strains the water into the big container(which is the rice cooker base) dump the water and have pasta. It also has a steaming tray for veggies too.

Can't wait to make some. We will have to show you when we do.

Pea Soup Anyone?

2011-04-02T16:55:00.001-04:00

After we delivered our load in LA we headed north on I-5 to pick up the next one. We had extra time and decided to stop at Andersen's Pea Soup Restaurant. If you have ever traveled on I-5 then you have seen the signs. Well they totally sucked me in, plus with two truck stops next door, it was a must for me.

The place itself is cute, but touristy. The inside had a kind of funny smell like it had never had a spring cleaning air out. Lol. The food was good though, although we didn't try the pea soup. The pea soup had no meat in it and I like mine to have ham in it. I did get a Greek salad that included sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and covered in feta. It was super good. Kendall had a sausage sandwich with onions and peppers, which was pretty good too.

Overall fun stop. We got pastries and checked out the gift shop. I would go back for the pastry for sure!

When In Rome...I Mean California

2011-04-01T16:27:00.000-04:00

Whenever you go to California you must stop and get an In and Out burger. I swear I think it is a food group for these people, the place is always packed and there are a ton of them everywhere.

Well of course we had to join in. Yes, I got the double double...just look at that cheese!