Our Semi View

pictures from our travels

2013-08-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

     Thank you for coming to this page. I'm sorry I wasn't able to included pictures with the Kindle version of my book, Our Semi View. It was also cost prohibitive to included color versions of the photos in the printed book.
   Here I have posted some pictures that were in my blogs during our driving time with just a short description. Since you have probably read the story's they should make since with out too much explanation. They are not in chronological order I tried to group them into some sort of relationship; signs, accidents, scenery etc. Some of my pictures have a date and time in the corner some don't. That depended on which camera. We bought a new camera after a couple of years and if I used and my cell phone, there was no date posted either. Hope that doesn't confuse anyone.
     Thank you again, Leslie

Moab, Utah

Albuquerque New Mexico

Moab, Utah

Dome Rock, Utah

Hole in the rock, fun place to stop in Moab Utah

Red Rocks of Moab

Green Rocks in Moab

A fire in Montana

We are being escorted through a fire in California

This accident involved 4 semis and 2 cars. We were stopped for almost 2 hours before they had it cleaned up enough to let us pass 1 lane at a time.

A low clearance in Albany Oregon. There are signs, lights and warning chains but still once a year someone hits it.

Shower at the Phoenix terminal, no shower head

Will looking around at a rest stop on Route 66 in Missouri

The same storm in Kansas

In Illinois

Either a swamp or a bayou

Road closed due to to flooding

Driving into Mobile Alabama

In Wyoming, I think.

Above the clouds at Donner Pass in California

Mount Shasta, California

Mount Ashland, Oregon and the cover picture for the book

Man walking a Dinosaur in Murdo South Dakota

A bull head in Montrose, South Dakota

Worlds largest Holstein cow New Salem, North Dakota

Pocono Raceway

Lost and Old River in Texas

Suwanee River

Deadwood, South Dakota

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

"Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever". Chief Joseph, Chief of the Nez Perce tribe in the Pacific Northwest. A very moving story. Everybody should read about him.

Not one word in English

This is for the Joplin, Missouri tornado

The Bar 40 Grill in Doris, California. 'We now serve good food', guess it wasn't good before.

Overcoming Faith Christian Center in Arlington, Texas. Must be where you have to go if your a Catholic wanting to move to Texas

in Wisconsin

in Flippin Arkansas

Did you know Lynchburg TN is in a dry county. No hard liquor sold

near Union Kentucky

you can see behind us is a fire truck trying to make his way up to the accident

from a fire in Montana

part of the weight station in West Memphis, Arkansas is flodded

Dauphin, Pennsylvania 25 foot tall Statue of Liberty

Girls gone wild bus next to an RV with the Oregon Ducks logo, HUM?!

Bald Eagle in Oregon

Will showing how the sleeper safety net works. Looks nice and cozy uh? See the size of the bed, that's why if we slept together we had to sleep head to toe.

a truck in the sand box Ashland, Oregon

Argosy Casino in Kansas City

Graceland

The Pool Table

The Jungle Room

Livingroom and the Baby Grand Piano

Omaha, Nebraska

Lindstrom, Minnesota

Transylvania, Louisiana

Jerry drives a Honda

This is Penelope the Dragon. She is on I 5 near Yreka, California

Home Sweet Home

3rd times the charm

2012-12-04T16:02:00.003-08:00

Drug testing, 3^rd times the charm.

I cannot believe it took 3 tries to drug test Will. Sometimes I think this company doesn’t have it all together.

Last month we sat for 10 hours without a load. I kept sending in messages with no response. Oh sure my messages started off polite but of course that never lasts long.

We are empty, and ready for a load please, We have been empty for 1 hour ready for a load, 2 hrs sitting need load, do you know you have a team truck sitting without a load. Hello, is this thing on. If there are no loads send me home.

I will say that one big difference between Swift and Schneider is, Swift would usually answer me. Our DM (driver manager) would say stuff like the freight gods are just not cooperating with us today, freight is low in your area. Etc, sometimes she would say something stupid, practically setting me up, and I would think to myself, do you know who you are sparing with. I know you don’t know me or my family but sarcasm is a competition sport for us.

I don’t mean to brag, but I do hold the most gold medals.

My dramatic combination eye rolling and sighing is trademarked. As my former employers and co-workers will swear to.

But not Schneider. No response from them, no matter how my messages evolved . While swift’s unwritten policy must be poke the bear, enrage the driver. Schneider’s policy must be let the driver vent don’t engage the rage.

So the second time they attempted a drug test was on our trip from Seattle to Tampa Florida. After we started they sent us a message to stop in Houston. That’s 107 miles out of route. Gee I wonder why. Oh I guess I should let you know that the drug tests are random and secret. they can only inform you like 30 min or some short period of time, just to give you enough time to get from where you are to the lab. They don't want to give you any time to get any clean urine off the black market.

So I hurry getting to Houston, because I was almost out of hours for the day and we should be changing drivers before Houston, but did not want to waste the time. Just change drivers while Will is doing his drug test. Then we are not stopped for a long time.

Changing drivers takes at least 30min. post trip, pre trip inspections, bathroom breaks, dinner, shower, fuel etc, whatever it is we try to do it during our driver changes.

Anyway about 3 hours from Houston Terminal they send me a message, looks we will be gone when you get there, just stay there and call us at 6am pst –they are in Fontana California. I sent back a message saying why, we need to deliver this load by Saturday in Florida and stopping overnight in Houston means that wont happen. We are not out here on vacation, there is nothing I want to do or see in Houston. (DUH everybody knows that) Yes you all know I signed the petition.

We need these miles on this check. (well that is my go to excuse always need these miles on that check) only response is stay put call in am.

There is nothing at the Houston Terminal. It's a dump

this is actually tornado damage from Dallas, You should you tube it. watch the tornado toss the trucks around.

Full of stinky oil tankers. Hard to even find a spot for a 53 foot van. There is no grill. Funny how fast we got used to that little perk, most of the terminals have a grill. There was not even any food flyers. How are we supposed to order dinner?

We call at 6am and the DBL (driver business leader) asks us, when you guys start driving again, who will drive first? I said, same schedule as always, I drive 6am-6pm, Will drives 6pm -6am. There is a little silence on the other end and then he says, Oh then that’s not going to work , um yea that’s not going to work, ok sorry. Never mind.

That is when I lost it.

WHAT, ARE YOU KIDDING ME.NEVER MIND, YOU HOLD US HERE FOR 14 HOURS FOR NOTHING. YOU COST US GETTING 6300 MILES FOR THE WEEK. The dbl (he who shall not be named) said, im sorry, I know how you feel. OBVIOUSLY YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW I FEEL, SORRY DOESN’T FIX OUR MILES THIS WEEK. YOU SIT ME HERE IN THIS HOUSTON HOLE, IF YOUR BOSS TOLD YOU TO COME IN AND SIT AT YOUR DESK AND DO NOTHING FOR 14 HOURS WOULDN’T YOU EXPECT TO GET PAID. WE NEED TO BE COMPENSATED FOR THIS FORCED SITTING. WHY DO YOU GUYS MAKE IT SO HARD TO GET A UA FROM THE NIGHT SHIFT DRIVER. IF ONLY THERE WAS SOME WAY TO GET A LIST OF ALL THE HOSPITALS IN THE UNITED STATES WITH A LAB, PLACES WHERE WE COULD GO GET A DRUG TEST DONE. YOU DO HAVE INTERNET THERE DON’T YOU.WHAT KIND OF F"N LOAD CAN I GET OUT OF HERE? I'M NOT PLAYING FIND A LOAD OUT OF TEXAS AGAIN.

At some point Will left, he always refuses to watch myself imposed implosions. While the rest of the break room began to fill up with other drivers watching my interaction with the driver manager, pace and yell and maybe some swearing.

After taking a breath, I said to him, I know you are not to blame you are just the lucky recipient of my frustration, feel free to convey my anger to anyone you want.

The third time was today. About 2 hours after we changed drivers, Will is just about in laa-laa land. A couple arthritis pills some Benadryl and night, night. I got a message, When I get to Mattoon IL , pull over to safe location and call in they need to talk to Will, Yes we know he is in the sleeper but please wake him, we need to talk to him.

Great I get to poke the Bear, and Im not even lost this time.

Will asks her (a dbl, she who shall not be named) if he is supposed to come up on his logs for this. She said, well some of our drivers prefer not to and some do, its up to you. Ok that’s what Will wanted to hear. Really he is supposed to log this drug test as working not driving time, because it is something the company has ordered you to do, like taking a class, putting on chains etc. but she says not logging it is ok.

They send us to the Mattoon Hospital,

there’s 3 building and we pick one. Will goes up to the desk and tells the nurse, well she had scrubs on anyway, that Schneider sent him here for a UA. She says, what, whats that, the other nurse says, oh you mean a drug screen? That’s over in the other building.

Now those that don’t know me may think that is the end of it.

If they did not care about getting the test done during Will’s driving time, why did they have us sit in Houston. Why did they waste our time twice before. Time is money. If the wheels aren’t turning, we aren’t earning. Why did it take 3 times to figure this out. Is Will your first and only night time driver.

Will said I could not message them about that. He said he was putting him foot down. It's cute when he does that

Whatever

*currently rolling my eyes**

love and miss you all.

a post about nothing.

2012-11-27T11:41:00.002-08:00

Things I have learned while crusin’ around the country side.

Truck driving is a ‘ell of a way to make a living. It is impossible to succeed without support from family and friends.

No matter how hard you try, you can not slam the curtain between the sleeper and the driver hard enough to convey enough anger and frustration. The Velcro only makes an angry sound when ripping open.

Don’t drink the water in Yuma or El Paso **don’t brush your teeth. Don’t even have orange juice with breakfast. It was obviously frozen and reconstituted with tap water.

If you do, you might make it back to the hotel room, but not the bathroom.

The further east you drive the smaller the lanes get. Also the more people look twice at a female truck driver.

The radio should play more Runrig,

John Butler Trio,

and Saffire the Upity Womans Blues.

These guys and gals do not get enough air time.

Four-Wheelers (cars) need to learn how to merge. I cant stress enough how dangerous it is to not merge. It is the vehicle that is merging into traffic has the responsibility to merge safely.

It is not the traffic’s responsibility to slam on our brakes so you can get on the freeway. Hang up the phone and drive. Accelerate and go in front or slow down and line up behind me. I know you know where your gas pedal is because when you try to squeeze in beside me as the merge lane ends you suddenly find your gas and your finger…. Stop It

Everybody must make a trip to Memphis, actually just Beal Street. I would love to go back. Once was not enough. The history of music that has walked down that street is unbelievable. From rock stars, to Country singers, Jimmy Buffett and of course the Blues greats.

People, you do not really want to see Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa, the Dakota’s, Arizona, Texas, No you don’t! You only think you want to see America. I’ll tell you what you’re missing. Get a brown piece of paper, light brown, tan will do, lay it on a table, there you go, you’re on vacation.

Oh wait, let’s go thru the seasons. Place the paper in front of a fan on high and now you’re in Wyoming. Get the paper wet; place it in the freezers and now your experiencing Nebraska, Iowa, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Now put the frozen paper in front of that fan again, still on high, and you’re in Wyoming again.

**adult supervision is required to visit the next 2 states**place the paper on your stove top, and now you are visiting Arizona and Texas.

There are a ton of reason NOT to go to Texas….

Just read my blogs....

In fact I understand there is an on line petition that Texas wants to succeed from the union. Let them. I know where I can get boxes, we can all help them pack.

When I started this Will said I would only have to drive for 5 years. By then we would have the bills all paid and have enough money saved to buy a smaller house. One with a smaller tax bill, lower utilities, best of all NO HOUSE PAYMENT. Then we would either rent or sell the house we have now.

Well, we have no car payments, no credit cards. Now all we need a house. I have updated my housing requirements. Or lowered them depending on how it look at it. I’m willing to look at manufactured homes in a park. We wanted to stay away from that monthly space rent, but some of them include water, sewer, and garbage. And most of the manufactured homes don’t need a lot of work, paint carpeted.

We will be home for Christmas. Santa is bring me a granddaughter.

Jennifer and her husband are expecting baby girl #4 on Dec 22.
In between holding the new granddaughter, last minute shopping, Christmas dinner at our house, spending time with family, catching up with friends, cleaning the house, see the other grandkids, I hope we have time to look at houses. Both stick built and manufactured.

I know this was probably a boring post. You can read my previous posts if you get too bored.

Sorry I haven’t been getting lost but since I haven’t posted in a long while thought I should write something

Love and miss you all

the honeymoon is over already??

2012-08-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Its so sad when the honeymoon ends…….

We found out the hard way that Schneider does not send you a HazMat route when they send you a HazMat load. Will says ever other company he worked for has sent hazmat friendly routing. Heck even Swift did that, 1 point swift.

Thank goodness Will was driving and not me. We had just switched drivers and we were on I95 Baltimore Maryland. And we see this sign says last exit for HM. All HazMat must exit.

Surprised and upset and confused Will exits. Next thing you know we are down town Baltimore.

DOWNTOWN.

We were on a street that has the light rail down the middle. There wasn’t enough room for us to stay in our skinny lane so the driver’s side of the truck and trailer was on the tracks. I decided to get dressed in case we had to jump out. (I was in my pj’s ready for bed)

The GPS kept telling us to turn at every street. But looking down each street it looked like there was a parking garage to drive under or a walking bridge or even smaller streets. I got the laptop up and said looks like if we stay on Howard Street we will run into Martin Luther King JR and then we can turn left and takes us back onto the freeway and we can start over.

After we turn on MLK we pass Pennsylvania Avenue. And I started thinking. How close are we to the White House. Turns out we were only 38 miles away from the White House with a truck load of HazMat. HUM!!! And nobody stopped us.

Then I started to wonder how close we were to other interesting sites I would love to see in Baltimore.

USS Torsk Submarine ~2 .5 miles

USS Constellation Ship also 2.5 miles away

Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum~ 1.3 miles away

Charm City Cakes ~ 2.3 miles.

The Annabel Lee Tavern ~ 3.1 miles. The Annabel Lee is a very sad poem and is the last poem Edgar Allan Poe wrote.

Annapolis ~27 miles.

Ok not near by, but if I were driving I would have gotten lost there, accidently of course. What better place to get lost where every day, is fleet week.

We had a little chat with our DBL (driver business leader) and asked why they didn’t send a hm route. He said all we have to do is call or check the map and route ourselves. Well fine now but maybe you should put a not on hm loads ‘double check your route’

After that we took a load from Pennsylvania to Logan Utah. It’s a refrigerated load. We tried to get out of it, telling them that we have no training in refer units, no experience. We talked to 3 different people they tried to give us refer training over the phone.

is the light green; no its white. Well that’s not right should be green. maybe the cover came off. What is the temp? I don’t know where is it at. Don’t forget to put fuel in. where does that go. Call this number if you have any problems, I wont know there is a problem until it explodes, as I told the last 2 people I have no experience in refer units.

I was talking but they weren't listening

Well Will does but only a couple of times. Doesn’t like them because it is hard to sleep with the refer unit turning on right next to the sleeper.

It weighs 43,200. If we were owner op’s and in our International Prostar we could not take something that heavy. But since its not our fuel cost the only down side for us is the speed at which we will be crawling up the hills. And crawling was right.

Who would route a 43,000 pound load on 9-10% hills instead of the interstates. Schneider figures why drive I70 when US40 runs right along side of it.

US40 through Pennsylvania is a beautiful scenic drive. For cars. Really beautiful.

It goes through Union Town PA

I would have taken more pictures but I was busy practicing my down shifting.

There are little towns with stop lights at the bottom of step hills.

We finally arrive and now it is time for some much needed time off. 34 hours off anyway.

Its been a tough week

Love and miss you all

week one with Schneider

2012-08-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

We are just about a week into our new driving adventure with Schneider National Trucking.

We have a brand spanking new 2013 Freightliner Cascadia.

Some things are going to take longer to get used to than others.

Like the shifting, OK, Mostly the shifting.

It’s a 10 speed and my entire career has been on an 8 speed. An 8 speed is just a big H shifting pattern just like a car. But on a ten speed, 1^st and 6^th gear are over to the left and down. (Reverse is over to the left and up). I am always missing 6^th gear. When I do find it I then miss 7^th and go straight into 9^th. Which makes the truck shimmy and shake and stutter, and Will is telling me to down shift, down shift, go back to 7^th. To which I say, DUH don’t you think 7^th was my goal to begin with. He keeps telling me 6^th is around the horn, after 5^th go around the horn??? Like when he is trying to help me back he says, now get under it, get under it.???

The paper/computer work is a little different. In orientation Will kept complaining that we did not have to do this or that with swift. I said no WE didn’t, I did. Most of it is the same, just in a different place or in a different order.

Schneider treats us more like an adult. So far, they have the attitude, you’re a competent adult, that’s why we hired you now go do your job. With swift you had to ask permission and then report what you were doing. Swift would send us a trip and we would have to get fuel, after stopping and putting in the fuel, Swift wants you to send a message saying, ‘I just put in fuel’. When arriving at a customer or anyplace really that you were going to have to back up to park, Swift wants you to send in a GOAL message. Get Out And Look. Swift has a lot of backing accidents and this is one way, they claim to reduce the accidents by making drivers aware that they were about to back. In case you forgot why you put the truck in Reverse.

Most drivers already practice GOAL. Will and many drivers never did the GOAL message. It did not seem safe to take your eyes off of the situation and traffic around you, just to send a text message to your boss telling him what you were going to do. But this way if you had a backing accident and did not send in your GOAL you could be fired for not following company policy.

You also don’t carry a spare tire. Schneider figures that tires do not just blow for no reason. If you do a good pretrip stop and check your tires, like your supposed to, you will see an issue before it becomes a problem. You just take your truck or trailer to a truck stop and get the tire replaced. (well that’s what they say anyway, I’ll let you know if it works as well in reality as it does in theory) With Swift they will run the tire until it blows. We have picked up hazmat loads with very questionable tires, taken them in to swift to be changed and they say how far are you going, whats the weight, I think it’ll be ok, Ive seen worse, those aren’t that bad, you have your spare with you right?

Oh and the HazMat pay is a lot better. Swift gave us $35 total for hauling a HazMat load, Schneider will pay us $50 each.

The navigation is set up different too. With Swift we would have to manually input the address we were going to and then stop and get fuel on the way. Schneider has all the address already in the system. When we are sent a load we click GO on the navigation and it has the fuel stops and customer addresses already and the system just takes us from here to there. Of course one time we got a message fuel solution could not be found, but I called and said we are taking a shower at a Flying J can we get fuel here, and she said go for it.

The truck has a Radar System

Which , Im sure, should really impress my dad, Retired CPO Adams Submarines,

and my baby brother, Retired Senior Chief Adams USN.

It is called On Guard, collision safety system. Kind of cool. It sees the speed of a vehicle in front of us and if the vehicle is too close or is going too slow it beeps, then it automatically reduces my speed.

It does not detect Cross Winds, Tornado's or Deer. There is probably no danger of dolphins or whales beaching themselves or birds dropping dead in front of me because of this radar system.

It does not like when cars are merging and getting close to the side of you. It beeps and slows me down, not sure that is a help at that moment. Mostly its just fun to watch shows the speed of a passing vehicle. Really doesn’t do anything we don’t do already.

The truck also has smart cruise. Predictive cruise control. It looks ahead and see a corner and will automatically decrease your speed then resume speed as you come out of the corner. It looks ahead and sees a hill judges the hill and increases your speed and when you crest the top it will reduce your speed. I used to have to get a running start at hills. But this baby does that for me.

It was not fun to have the cruise on while going up a hill empty because everyone else was going slow and the on guard system wanted me to slow down because of the slow traffic up head. I just got over one lane and everything was fine. You can turn off the cruise but you can not turn off the On Guard.

My sister thinks I should paper the truck with OSU Beaver stickers. Like I bleed Orange, Powered by Orange, Orange Crush.

I think shes right, but Will and Schneider have a different opinion.

There are a few things we still need to work out. The truck died while I was creeping along going through a scale. Will said the automatic engine shut off should only be activated when the breaks are pulled. Said there must be something in the computer that needs to be adjusted. Normally I would have heard over the CB ‘Swift move that piece of $#!& out of the way, learn how to drive’ Nobody said anything. That was a nice change.

Never a dull moment at home either.

Our son cut his hand pretty good / pretty bad, the other day. His girlfriend calls me and says,

‘ Um, Leslie does Willis have like any insurance or anything’

‘not yet, just car insurance, why, what happen’

‘well he stabbed himself and we are here in er’

“WHAT, What happen, Where’

‘ well he was trying to pry apart some frozen hamburger patties and the knife slipped and cut his hand, we have been here about an hour and they just took him back, he told me to call you’

Now at this point I was at least a little relieved to find out he ‘only stabbed’ his hand. And since he sat in the waiting room an hour seemed to me that the nurses did not think he would bleed to death or lose his hand.

But I was a little confused about why this genius engineering student could not figure out a better, safer way to separate hamburger.

(I bet he can think of a better way now)

When I talked to him later I reminded him that when I told him we were changing jobs we would have a 30 day wait before the new insurance starts, ‘so no playing with fire or running with scissors.’ He said I said nothing about juggling knives.

YUCKY ALERT

Its still too soon to tell if he will have any nerve damage or needs tendon repair surgery. The doctor thinks there might me tendon damage around his ring finger. Guess they will know more after they take the stitches out. I told him I hope this engineering thing works, since its too late for you to become a piano prodigy.

I have to take time to thank John our neighbor who drove Willy to the ER. Need to see what special treat I can find in my travels.

Well guess that’s about all I have that’s new. Just sitting here at Kimberly Clark in Jenks, Oklahoma waiting for our load to be ready. Waiting , waiting, waiting, I wonder what Schneiders detention pay policy is.

Love and miss you all

Hello Schneider

2012-08-09T14:45:00.007-07:00

We are starting with a new company. Schneider National. The big orange pumpkins, which suits the OSU Beaver Lover in me just fine.

not our truck

Our home time was busy. We got a lot of work done on the little house.

it doesnt look like it but we really did get a lot done

Touch base with a few family and friends.

Jennifer, Lauran, Lilly & Natelie (son in law mike taking pic)

kenny, Jacob and son in law Jeff

our younget and oldest, Willy & Paige

2 weeks home was a great reminder of what our goal is, what we are working towards. Being able to spend more time with our family and friends.

After passing another DOT Physical and urine test Schneider also requires a hair sample drug test.

I'm sure thats how much they took

The list of items Schneider told us to bring did not include supplies for more than a few days. So Will and I debated about whether or not that meant we would be going home after being issued a truck, or if bringing supplies for more than a week was just expected as common knowledge. So we compromised. Clothes for 2 weeks and some truck stuff. GPS etc…

They had us staying at the Clarion Hotel in Portland. Very nice. But the pool was cold and the hot tub was burning our eyes with the amount of chlorine. I can not say enough good things about the bed. I tried to steal it but Will wouldn’t help me carry it.

The physical aptitude testing was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

luckily I'm in good shape

More frustrating was the drive test. I had a feeling if I could not back the instructor would help me. But, that turned out not to be the problem. Shifting was the issue.

My 4 years of experience included an 8 speed transmission, only.

and this truck was a 10 speed.

Will says the truck we are getting is going to be a 10speed.

After trying and searching and grinding and missing and stalling, I decided that there was nothing wrong with 5^th gear.

When we get back to the class room we told the other two new drivers my trouble shifting and one of the guys, the one with as much experience as Will, tells me I don’t have to use 1^st or 6^th gear. I can continue to use the H pattern Im used to.

Just start in 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, shift to high then 7^th,8^th,9^th,10^th.

I looked at Will and he says, Yea, yea you can do that.

WTH ~ Thanks Mike. That would have been helpful Will.

I did a great job on my backing. The instructor tells me to just put it back where we got it from, and got out. (Will said I scarred him with my forward driving)

So I went about setting myself up. Looking at the empty spot, going past till the drive tires just pass it, turn hard right, count to 10 then hard left until I see the spot. Back up, go forward to straighten up, do that a couple more times and just like that Im in.

The whole time Will is telling me, your doing it wrong, where are you going, what hole are you looking at, are you even using your mirrors, your dyslexia is getting worse

I told him, Dave is over there having a cigarette do you want to join him, but by then I was parked. Mostly straight. I did not hit a cone,or anything else and I was in my spot. Most importantly I passed and nobody got hurt, (not even Will)

After all that, Schneider does not have a team truck for us yet. Need to give them a day or two to find us one.
So we are home for a couple of days re-thinking what we are taking with us. We cannot have an inverter so no refrigerator or microwave. That is going to be hard to get used to. How am I going to keep yogurt and salad. How is Will going to make coffee.

It seems contradictory to have trucking company’s, tell drivers to stay fit, eat right, etc, but not allow you to have a refrigerator or microwave to help you accomplish that.

They are forcing drivers to make poor choices. Truck stop food is not healthy.

Even though they have apples and banana’s. They have some fast food joint attached to them or a quick sitdown buffet. Paying for every meal, snack, and coffee at fast food prices is incredible expensive.

if the truck stop is open.

We will be making some big changes concerning food. Lots of PB&J sandwiches. (jelly in those restaurant packs, from Costco). Maybe a couple days of yogurt in an ice chest, sandwich meat and cheese, mayo in the packets.

But I'm sure it will all work out, we are not the first team and we wont be the last team to live without a refridg & microwave.

There is still a lot to learn with Schneider but we cant wait to get started on this new chapter in our team driving adventure.

Love and miss you all

nothing to do but complain.

2012-07-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

How can one State, and one Terminal cause me so much heart burn.

Yes you guessed it, Texas.

Our last trip was to Amarillo.

We were scheduled to pick up a load weighing 35000 lbs, going to Laredo. When we arrive, we check in, drop the empty, continue to shipping department to sign in, go find and hook to our preloaded trailer, stop at shipping on the way out to sign our paperwork only to find out the actual weight is 45000. Too heavy for us. We told the shipping clerk and he shook his head and says happens all the time; a lot of Swift drivers come in expecting a lower weight. He said all the shipments weigh this amount. So we had to do all that in reverse.

We (I) contacted Swift telling (yelling) our frustration and deciding to take our 34 off in Amarillo.

We ate at the ‘World Famous’ Big Texan Steak house.

They offer a FREE STEAK DINNER all you have to do is eat the 72oz steak in 1-hour. You pay for it first, $75, then if you finish you get your money back.

While we were there, a man was attempting this feat.

There is a live camera where you can watch too. It is at bigtexan.com He did not finish, but received a round of applause from the restaurant goers for his effort.

They also have a shooting gallery where you can wait for your table. I shot a rifle and Will picked a pistol and he shot better than me. He must have cheated. Will had a 12oz steak and I had 8oz steak. Not a lot of chicken choices.

They also offer free Cadillac ride from your hotel to the restaurant, we did not know this and had to drive the semi.

The next day after resetting our hours and receiving only one short mile load, we tell dispatch that since there are no team loads here we will relocate ourselves to Oklahoma City.

A Funny thing happened on the way to Oklahoma. After complaining about only receiving solo loads we were told we were not listed as a team in the system and to get with our Driver Manager on Monday to correct it. Well of course I was furious. My fingers could not keep up with my range. I sent a message on the qualcom…..i posted on swift’s facebook page asking how after 3 years we are suddenly not a team. (has it only been 3 years seems like a life time)

On Monday our dm fixes the problem. But that doesn’t fix my anger.

I sent an e-mail to the Lancaster Texas terminal manager, asking how this happened. His reply was the 11 solo hours his load planner saw was correct and suggested we make sure we are on the correct driving line on our logs. We have electronic logs so it is hard not to be on the correct line. Every morning we send in a driver status report. That shows our eta to the next stop and our pta, projected time available. We reported that on July 7 our pta would be 22hrs. They want teams to have a minimum of 22 hrs available. On July 8, after not driving, we still had a pta of 22hrs.

So I sent a second email. Since I did not understand his replay and my question to Lancaster was how can the system show we only had 11 solo hrs available when I reported 22 team hrs available.

His second email included (selected) screen shots, that proved his point. There is a program running in the back ground that projects our pta. He called it a virtual pta

(not sure why he have to put in a reality pta then) The screen shots were interesting in what they showed and didn’t show. He showed a screen shot of our driver status on July 8 that showed he had 22 hrs. and a screen shot of July 6 that showed we had 11 hrs. Which is true, that’s why we took our 34 off at that time. So I still do not understand if a screen shot on July 8 that shows 22 hrs available, why on July 8 a loadplanner believed us to only have 11 hrs.

I think it is a losing argument. Of course they will provide me with their side of the documentation to uphold their side.

No matter what, we all know what happened. The loadplanner got pissed off and got an attitude,

first when we refused that load in Amarillo that was too heavy and second when they sent us a low miles load that was also hazmat. That put them in a spot. In reality the miles made it a team load because it was 650 miles but not in time. It did not deliver for 2 ½ days. A solo hazmat could have taken it. The problem is there are not that many hazmat drivers. So we believe the load planner changed our available hours, or choose to only look at the incorrect pta. That later statement was added only as a remote possibility. The response from face book was expected, everyone believes that is exactly what happened. Everyone had a different story of how a loadplanner got back at them for refusing a load.

Our dm said it doesn’t benefit them to make us appear to be solo. I said the only benefit would be to the loadplanners satisfaction of punishing us. She did not say that the hours were changed on purpose but did not say it is impossible and the system will not allow it. Too her benefit, she did not try to make excuses for what happened, in fact she said she cant change what happened, lets just move on.

I cant not believe how mad I am over this. As you can probably tell because im rambling on and on.

Anyway the reason I have time to ramble on and on is because we are sitting in Edwardsville, (Kansas City) without a load.

There are a lot of trucks here so that tells us there are not a lot of loads. So it does not appear anyone is picking on us….not this time.

Gee I feel better,

thanks

Love and Miss you all ......very very much.

Guess who got a ticket

2012-06-08T11:10:00.003-07:00

Guess who got a ticket.????

No it wasn’t Will, it was Me…Me…..ME!!!!

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their daily novena's to St. Anthony helping me not get lost. Will is getting much more sleep now. But your patience has been rewarded.

I know, I can't believe it either. Now I admit I could have been day dreaming, thinking about my high school having to get rid of its mascot because it is offensive to Indians. The Lebanon Warriors.

As everyone knows, I like to think things out and take them to their obvious illogical conclusion.

Will we have to change names like Milwaukee, which is Algonquian which in Native American and means ‘a good place’. Massachusetts, from the Massachusett tribe, which means ‘a great hill’.

What about The Rebels or The Pirate’s? Do we really want our kids trying to live up to the values of a pirate.

I wonder how much it cost Lake Tahoe to keep the name Squaw Valley. Did Los Angles get permission from God to be called the City of Angels? Did Saint Francis give a nod of approval to San Francisco. What about Hawaii State University, they are the Warriors.

Or I could have been thinking about the new suggested law that says truck drivers can not use “hands free communication devices”. Now I understand the reason behind not texting while you drive.

But the reason behind wanting to ban hands free is because law makers a saying you are still distracted while talking on your blue tooth. Well then, they should also put a muzzle on all your passengers in case you are tempted to have a conversation.

They should take away the radio so you're not tempted to sing.

Don’t forget eating while driving. It takes one hand to eat so both your hands are not on the wheel, and don’t you always glance down to make sure you are aiming your cup towards the cup holder.

Take out all the GPS’s I know you look at the screen to make sure you are taking the correct exit.
And Don't Think of what is going on at home. Don't think about missing your grand-daughters first parade or their ballet recital.

Or how much fun you had last time you took your grandson to the Zoo

But back to my ticket.

I still can't believe it. Just 3 days ago I was the toast of Mississippi, passed my D.O.T inspection got a ‘Thank You and have a safe trip' from the officer. He should have added stay the hell out of Texas

We were picking up a load in Lubbock, it is potato chips going to Salt Lake City. The route they sent us was high altitude. Swift said they would send us a low altitude route. Have to stay under 6000 ft.

When that arrived it was still high altitude so I contacted our manager again and she said she would look into it, but we could take off and she would get ahold of me before we got too high. (in altitude people, for cryin' out loud)

When she finally sent me the new, new route I looked at it and it said I should start on I27S but the first set of directions she sent said I27N (that's what I was on) so I had to pull over and ask her if she wanted me to turn around and start all over. She said no the road I’m on will connect with the road I want then all will be good.

I was cruising along in Texas, (somebody make me evil overlord so I can kick Texas out)

YES, I already explained in a previous post that there is always room in my administration for hard workers.... like he obviously is.

And I saw the flashing lights on the sign that said 'all commercial trucks proceed to scale.' Normally the next sign you see is a big Green one with an arrow that says Scale.

see you cant miss it.

Well they didn’t have one. As I passed the exit, I looked over to my right and saw a building that said Justice Court. Well of course, How convenient, get a ticket, see the Judge and pay the fine all in one quick stop.
Less than half a mile later The Sheriff of Hale County Texas was pulling me over. He took my license and said 'follow me ma'am.'

Yep, just like Smokey and the Bandit

As I was following him I thought to myself, too bad the roads are so awful, I’d like to put on eye liner, shave my legs etc, I should have put on a different shirt.....where's that Victoria Secret Bra Will likes.

Crap……….Crap……..Crap.

I was not the only one escorted back to the scales. While I was there another wayward driver also received a personal invitation to return to the scales. So I think it’s a set up. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

When they pulled me into the inspection pit, the officer asked if I’d ever been through a Level 1 Inspection before and I said yes, mostly in California. He said ‘Well we’re not that bad’ ‘That's funny Big Hoss, that’s what they say about Texas’.
Scarred you uh? You thought I said that out loud, but I used my, newly found, inside voice.

They did a complete inspection on the truck and trailer. They ask me questions to decide if I am impaired in any way and personally legal and able to drive. They checked my log books figuring the time line from here to there, making sure I could have arrived at this spot, at this time doing the speed limit. The truck passed with a warning our fire extinguisher was not secure, the clip came un-clipped. Big Whoop. The trailer got a warning that tires needed to be replaced and signed off on it 15 days.(That's not my ticket that's the companies ticket) And I got a ticket for failure to comply with a traffic control device. OUCH They directed me where to park and which door would lead me to the court room.

$200. The money hurts but how many points did this screw up just cost me on my license? I bet if I went in like I was supposed to the tires on the trailer would have passed. But since they didn’t I get deducted points for that too.

I told my DM (not dungeon master, driver manager) that it was my first ticket ever. But I was quickly corrected by someone who loves me very much, or claims he does anyway.

“Not-aw, 10 years ago you got a ticket for running a yellow light” on main street with a cop already stopped in the lane next to mine. It didn’t seem right to slam on the brakes just to end up stopped in the intersection. The ticket said I ran a red light, when I told him it was yellow when I went through it(you were sitting right there) he said red and yellow are treated the same. It was at that moment I realized that our local Officer Barney was born without a funny bone.

So that’s my M.O. I've got a record. With Priors for ignoring lights and signs, continuing to endanger the public with blatant disregard for laws.

I have to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone I have let down.

Will asked if I wanted him to write down where all the scales are? I said that would be great, but better would be if he could route me around the scales. He said, looks like I can do that by myself.

Maybe Trucking should cut their losses now, before I further disparage the title of truck driver.

Currently saying a prayer to Saint Johnny Paycheck, Patron saint of the willfully unemployed.

I admit I thought about what would happen if I didn’t pay. I would have to stop being a truck driver, *bummer.

I would get a mini vacation, albeit in Texas. But hey, 3 hots and a cot courtesy of the Grey Bar Inn.

I could end up with another tattoo, (not that I got my first and only one in jail) but Will won't let me get another tramp stamp.

I asked Will if he would come visit me in jail, first he said in TEXAS? Then he got this big smile and his eyes glazed over, no doubt thinking about possible lesbian encounters, shower scenes, and congeal visits.

**note to self, buy more lottery tickets.

I love and miss you all so much.

Oregon vs the rest of the States

2012-05-05T15:56:00.001-07:00

Oregon vs the rest of the States

Since Im not getting lost, Probably due to my daily novenas to Saint Christopher, patron saint of travelers, Saint Anthony, patron saint of lost things, I am running out of 'lost stories'

While traveling around this country, I have decided we need to make some changes. Not big changes just obvious ones. But if I were Dictator...

First, there are a few states we dont need anymore, actually not sure why we needed them to begin with.

Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, sorry your out 'a here. Your too windy to keep. Calm down people, we can import their beef and corn. we will even be willing to pay more for them because they are “imported”. That should improve their local economy's.

Well Kansas City has a great Irish Heritage Center so guess we will keep Kansas, But your on notice.

I think we should keep Idaho and Montana, get rid of anything east of Missoula. Boise State has a heck of a football team. Need to keep Clinton Montana , the Rock Creek Lodge has the Testicle Festival. (just saying it makes me smile)

I dont see any reason to keep North Dakota, well wait thats where Fargo is, and that was a good movie, aww gezz. We should keep South Dakota just because of the cool towns, Deadwood, Sturgis, Spearfish. Spearfish? Sure you know Spearfish, they have one of the few rivers that freezes from the bottom up. I hear it's a great place to go fishing.

Wisconsin we have to keep just for all the great cheese.

Texas, start packing. Dont tell me you haven't thought about it too. It is too hot the roads are awful. They think they are too good to be part of the United States anyway. The Texas state flag is flown everywhere, but not always along side the US flag.

Let them be their own country, so giddy~up and giddy~out. Oh and take Oklahoma with you.

Well.... he looks like a hard worker, he can stay

We will ,of course, have to arrange a secret covert operation to extract ZZ Top and Willie Nelson for purely selfish reasons.

Ok whats left. Well Tennessee we have to keep. We spend a lot of time off in Memphis. I Love Beale Street.

Will says we have to keep New Jersey otherwise there would be no Sopranos. But I think we have to let the shore side go, for the greater good of course.

Arizona, is the prospect of standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona worth keep an entire state..... NO your right, sorry Arizona, you are Way to HOT

I think the rest we can keep. They have enough trees to make me happy even if some of their summer temperature and humidity are too high for me

There are a lot of things we dont normally see in Oregon.

I'll start with the obvious thing you dont see much of in Oregon

Lebanon, on average gets about 50” of rain a year. About 2” of snow. And about 68 days with out rain. Our average winter temp about 37' and average summer temp is about 78'

We dont have devastating tornado’s.

We dont worry about earthquakes when we're on a bridge or overpass.

We worry about will we make it across before a bridge lift,during fleet week..mmmmm fleet week.

We dont have weird bugs or snakes.

something in South Caronlina, didnt want to get the cell phone too close

Well there is an ongoing debate over the brown recluse spider, experts say it doesn't live here, but everybody that has a wood pile, has a story about one.

Our forest Actually have trees, unlike Wyoming.

You will have to look hard to find this on the side of the freeway.

its garbage

You wont find orange trees ripe in January, or any other time for that matter.

You wont find stand alone ~ self-service, Ice Machines

Things you CAN see in Oregon

Free beach access!!!

Since the 1960's Oregon as had a law that in short says private landowners can not restrict the public's access to the beach. There are only a couple of beaches where you can still drive onto the sand but other than that, if you can find a place to park you can walk to the beach. FYI Hawaii is the only other state that guarantees the public has free and uninterrupted use and access to beaches. But the water is a lot warmer and more inviting there.

Oh Heck yeah we're keeping Hawaii, might even get to visit it

If your lucky you can see snow on the Oregon Beach. A rare site, but COOL.

You can see Bald Eagles on Hwy 34, just about 5 miles from our house.

during lambing season

You dont have to pump your own gas. In fact you are not allowed. Only New Jersey agrees with Oregon that this is a good idea.

We have the Oregon Country Fair. (ok maybe not one of our proudest but a very popular event)

They say they discourage drug use, but gates open at 4:20 (some of you might get the significance of that ~ and if you do shame, shame on you)

At Silver Creek Falls, there are falls you can walk behind, that's cool.!!

You will find the BEST POPCORN in the world.

Yes, you can order on line..

You will find an intense yet friendly, web footed rivalry between Ducks and Beavers. Many family’s, (as is ours) are divided by a green vs orange line.

I guess I am big enough to give credit where credit is due, Congratulations Ducks for not embarrassing the state at the Rose Bowl, like you have before.

( last season was a building year for the Beavers)

By the way has anyone else noticed that the other colleges with the initials OSU also have the colors orange and black. Someone should have sent out a memo. Thats confusing.

Even with my Irish blood,

I BLEED ORANGE......GO BEAV'S

and the best thing about Oregon is this...

if your lucky you can attend my grand~kids jam session.

love and miss you all so much

Hometime Sweet Hometime

2012-03-27T15:46:00.001-07:00

Home time was great. It feels like I was busy, but didn't get everything accomplished.

We made it home for us to have Will's Birthday dinner (53) with the kids and their respective others. We went to Los dos Amingo's. Nice time.

Saturday was a long planned and Much needed Adams Family Girls day out with Mom, and my sisters Sally and Theresa. Being St. Patrick's day was an added bonus. We left early so we could go to Kells Irish Pub.

the line to Kells

here they are scrapping money off the ceiling.

They throw money on the ceiling all year long and then scrap it down and donate to a local Children s Charity. This year they donate close to $18,000. But the line was too long so we had to scratch that off our list. Dont worry we did get green beer and bagpipes.

One of the Pipe and Drum Bands Roaming around the city

Sally found a little leprechaun to sever us beer (look at the guy checking her out)

Now it's Saint Paddy's Day. (thats moms sweater)

Then it was off to the main event. Wicked.

If you haven't seen it...SEE IT!!!! It was Sally's 3^rd time, My 2^nd and mom and Theresa's first time. But hopefully it wont be our last. If you have been living under a rock Wicked is the behind the scene story to the Wizard of Oz. What made the wicked witch, wicked ? Why is she green? How does she know Glenda? “..That's Glenda with a Gla..” Whats up with the ruby slippers?

After that it was off to Cheese Cake Factory for dinner, after an hour wait.

Sunday was our Corned Beef and Cabbage night.

It was good, but think next year we will try Lamb Shepherds Pie

Trying to decide what to do with the little house we bought. Should we demo it and put in a small manufactured home. Demo and put in a small stick built. And by small i mean small. Under 1000 sqft. Right now it is 800.

Or pay to have a complete remodel done on the inside. My idea is being poo~pooed by Will. Tuff sheds, or millerbuilt.pro sheds. When you stop laughing, Look it up, think about it. I still have a lot of sweet talking to do but I think that should be one of our options.

Our middle daughter came home and told us she and her boyfriend are planning to Elope. We are so happy.

the future so bright gotta' wear shades

He is a great guy. Not sure you are suppose to tell people when your eloping but I dont know what the rules are anymore. We went with them, met the in-laws they are great too. We just love him.

He is so intelligent, respectful, protective of Jennifer and her 2 daughters, its nice to know there are still guys out there like him. Oh and by the way he has 1 daughter so the estrogen level in his house just sky rocketed, anyone wanting to time share man~cave hours with him I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

We got the truck back from the shop. Had to have brakes put on and get the a/c fixed (AGAIN ?!?!)

Cost of brakes $290

Cost of A/C $800

Cost of keeping your cool in Texas, Priceless.

Our first trip after home time was to Phoenix. Nice little test for the air conditioner. Passed, sorta

It works up front but still blows hot air in the sleeper.

Only the driver stays cool. Which is really bad for will, that means he is trying to sleep during the day with no air conditioning and the heater slightly on. And when its already 79' there really is no such thing as the heater slightly blowing hot air.

Well cant wait to see what happens next.

Love and miss you all

changes, changes

2012-03-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

March 5, 2012

Well, some things have changed. Hopefully for the good.

Remember back in November I wrote to everyone at Swift I could think of(just need firstname underscore lastname @ swifttrans.com) Complaining of our miles. The COO Mr. Stocking, and our terminal manager thought we should be getting more miles and they would do all they could to help us. We wanted at least 5000 miles a week. We would LOVE to get 6000. That would put us closer to retirement.

Since that letter we averaged about 4500 miles a week. We continued to complain to our Driver Manager about our miles. We told her what we thought the biggest problem was, waiting for a load. Sometimes we would sit 24 hours just because they need a hazmat team to drive fedex 700 miles. Not a good use of our time.

No response and no change.

We were always told the same thing, Freight is low......

But, If the wheels ain't turning then I ain't earning

We have talked to team drivers who are getting over 5000 a week. We have talked to solo drivers who are getting 4000 a week. Why are we getting just a little more than a solo driver. Yes we also talked to drivers getting what we are getting, but the point is other drivers get more miles and we what to, too.

I sent an email to our DM and Terminal manager 'officially' complaining about miles and sitting time. 2 days later on Friday, we were sitting in Georgia, and no load. We sat 4 hours and no preplan. We felt like we were being spanked for complaining yet again.

Will said that's it we quit

We sent a message to our dm telling her since there were no loads in Georgia we were headed home to clean out the truck.

Posted the truck on the Swift Facebook page.

Anybody interested in taking over lease of 2010 International Prostar. 1 yr left on lease. Neither driver smokes. We will leave microwave, refrigerator, 15” flat screen tv w/built in dvd player. Also will leave complete set of chains for truck and trailer including a set of cable chains for the tractor. And to help get you started we will give you $1000. Nice way to see if o/o is for you.

I wrote an exit letter and sent it to the same people I sent my November letter to. It basically said the same thing, complaining about miles, sitting time, lack of response from our terminal and saying we were currently bob-tailing from Georgia to Phoenix to either turn in our truck or change terminals.

I don't have to tell you how shocked I was , when just a few hours later, I checked facebook and email before going to bed, there was an email from Mr. Stocking. He said He would get us a load and work this problem out.

WOW

I just figured they would all get the email Monday morning.

WOW

We were nervous. This is the second time Mr Stocking has helped us. It is a little nerve raking to be at the bottom rung of the ladder and get help from someone at the top rung. Not even “just' someone at the top THE ONE AT THE TOP. We don't want to let him down. But I think he believe we should be getting more miles, otherwise he would have just said to himself...screw these whinny drivers I don't need another head ache, let them quit

He did fix things. (We think anyway) He got us a load to Phoenix. And we changed termnials. We are no longer out of Troutdale Oregon We are now out of Lewsiton Idaho.

Lewiston, ID on left and Clarkston, WA on right ofSnake River

Our new driver manager is able to plan her own loads. What? I didn't know that was possible. It doesn't seem fair either. Doesn't seem fair to the drivers who have a dm that has to rely on load-planners to dispatch their drivers. Doesn't seem fair to the dm's that have to put up with drivers complaining of their loads, when really that dm has little to do with our load.

But, We are happy for the change and excitted about the possibiltys.

We will be home in a few weeks. Need to take care of doctor apt. And there is a girls day out on the town planned. Myself, my mom and my sisters are planning to go see Wicked.

My sister Sally and I already saw it, but it was so good Sally talked mom and Theresa into going.

Love and miss you all

rear window or cabin fever....???

2012-01-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

January 12, 2012

Under considerable duress, my oldest daughter is forcing me to write about our recent stay in Memphis.

I wish I could tell you the following is a combination of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, The Soprano's, Sons of Anarchy, with maybe a little cabin fever thrown in. But I'll let you decide.

Before that I need to set the scene........

While the truck was in the shop we stayed where we usually stayed. The beautiful,**mostly affordable** Motel 6 on East Brooks in Memphis.

The surrounding area sucks.

It is mostly industrial. The convenience store across the street has bars on the inside. Everything is behind the glass and bars. You have to tell the clerk, behind the bullet proof glass, what you want, you point to the bread, the chips, the salsa, the beer and after you pay for it they slide it into a lazy Suzann like thing, spin it and you get your grocery's. Only one place delivers to the hotel, Yep, Chinese Food. Not bad food but not for a week. There are not even continuous sidewalks.

We went for a walk and Will promised it would be to a well populated, ok area. after about half an hour I tell him I didnt bring my wallet, he said why he has money if I want to buy some water. I said no I just dont want the police report to say.. and victim B was found over there.

Real newspaper article"....A Memphis strip club shut was down for the second time in less than 10 months. Nearby businesses describe “Babes of Babylon” as a haven for drugs, prostitution, and crime....They would bring a lot of trouble and we recently got robbed, said the Motel 6 manager Diptesh Patel....In December 2010 the strip joint was shut down for prostitution and drugs...."

Being about 3 miles from Graceland, and about 10 miles from Beale Street, you'd think the area would be a little more upscale or at least clean.

So before we check in we go to Walmart, get food to last a week, then we settle in at the hotel. The Hotel is fine. Big bed, nice shower, refrigerator, microwave and tv.

We always joke about the hotel being next door to the Babylon strip club. Will is always volunteering to go see if they have hot wings there. He's helpful like that.

Well a few hours after we arrived there was a knock on the door. When I answered it the “woman” on the other side looked surprised to see me answer, and asked if i have been in this room a while, I said yes and she said ok and left. HUM??? *clue # 1

The next night there is a fight in the room next to ours. Not a clue to the mystery just thought you should know we could not hear everything, very frustrating.

The 3^rd night there is a ton of traffic. At the far corner of the hotel. Cars coming and going all night. I even timed it. Every 20 minutes a black suv would leave and a different car would come and stay for 20 minutes * clue #2.

A white delivery van was coming and going in between the 20 minute intervals. *clue #3

The 4^th day we see the lady a couple rooms down from us out in the parking lot with her mother dog and its litter of puppy's, pit bull mix. Trying to sell the puppy's to people who drove in. *not a clue but made a note, not to accept room #115.

Will spy's a mini van, parked a couple of doors down from us loaded with hula hoops. And not the normal ones, he says sparkle ones *clue #4

A pink feather is found in the parking lot *clue #5

A lot of truck drivers have shown up in the last few hours. *clue # 6

and you know what they say about truck drivers

**the following is Text messages between my daughters and my youngest sister.

ME: dad walks down to the vending machines and hears two guys talking ....'and they got 3 guns over there.' he comes back and double locks the door, normally he teases me about double locking.

ME: dad thinks they are filming a porno at the other end of the hotel. Lol sitting here doing under cover surveillance. They have had 2 food delivery's in the last hour.

and not the good porn

(you have got to read this book)

PAIGE: ha ha too funny

ME: I think he's board, currently eating popcorn with the curtains barely open

PAIGE: OMG dad is bored !!

JENNIFER: What hotel does dad bring you to?? lol

ME: yep. We just thought we needed someone to tell the police why we were killed :)

THERESA: a promo, for what??

JENNIFER: just cheeching it up thats all

PAIGE: my co-workers think the porn film is just high and hungry kids

ME: no, porno, not promo

ME: there is a red light shinning through the curtains.

THERESA: omg are you hearing something.

PAIGE: jennifer thinks dad is having SOA withdraw

ME: no its across the parking lot

JENNIFER: well dont you have lights in your room
Jennifer: mom, how dare you questions dad's knowledge of porn. omg lol

ME: Could be. But dad said he saw someone take a light on a pole from one room to the one next door. And what about the pink feather uh???

PAIGE: lol

ME: not red lights !!

JENNIFER: is dad going to ask if they need help holding the lights lol

ME: plus there was a guy with dreadlocks going between the two rooms.

THERESA: see if they need any extras. does will want you to borrow the pole. can you belly dance /pole dance.

ME: dad just saw a guy carry an empty brown bag into one room and little bit later he came out with stuff in the bag.

ME: no i only belly dance, no pole dancing....

ME: well I do have pictures, and just fyi you can not look up a license plate online.

JENNIFER: dread locks mean cheech not porn, mom !!

ME: what about the car he saw last night with the hula hoops. I told him they might have been here for a cheer-leading thing. Looked on line and didnt see anything. He says they were not cheer-leading hula hoops. They were porn hula hoops..???

PAIGE: haha OMG

JENNIFER: could be drugs

PAIGE: They know ho's usually aren't the healthiest people unless its a cinnemax porn and they always talk to much anyways. Thats what I have been told I never seen one thou...lol

ME: your father does not do drugs...anymore..lol

ME: well now dad thinks its all drugs, closed the curtains. said been there done that, and wont let me take any more pictures, says thats serious $#!*

THERESA: lol

ME: well all that excitement wore out the ol man, nap time. He told me to leave the curtains alone

PAIGE: Are you going to blog this

Around 3am Will got up and looked out the window to see what was making noise and he saw a girl wearing daisy dukes and a guy stumble into a room *clue # oh who cares.

The next day when we check out there are two housekeepers in the lobby dividing up the rooms to be cleaned.

The clerk tells them room 112 is leaving.

One housekeeper said, What number, Oh ok. Boy I hope that other room doesnt leave today.

The other housekeeper says, which one?

You know which one,

ah ha, lordy yes,

Im off tomorrow let Timlinda clean it.

Awa-ha. She can do that.

Then they both giggle. And shake their heads.

Well there you go.
Do we need to contact Lennord Nimoy and tell him there are more unsolved mystery's in Memphis besides if James Earl Ray acted alone?

Should we let Timlinda know her co-workers think she has exceptional housekeeping skills?

And most importantly, do we really want to know what porn hula hoops look like?

I love and miss you all

what happens when you hit a tire on the freeway

2012-01-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

Jan 7, 2012

Looks like we all surrived the holidays. (we live to shop another day) We had a great time at home. Spending time with the grandkids is always my favorite time. Watching Christmas from their eyes is wonderful. More Grandkids!!! thats what the world needs.

We headed out from Lebanon to Sacramento, not good miles but at least it got us rolling and into California. From Sacramento we headed to Salt Lake City. From there we got a load to Miami. Finally some good miles.

The trip was uneventful until i got to Atlanta. It was dark and I hit something on I75. At first I thought the truck passing me had a blow out, but it didnt feel like I ran over rubber, Felt like I hit the Jersey barrier. (not that I ever hit one..)

I pulled off immediately. Shaking so bad I couldnt turn the radio down. Will looks out of the sleeper “what the hell was that” I told him, I hit something. You hit something? What? I dont know, ...(i was really crying by then and shaking more) so Will got out, I got out and realized the driver steps are bent up and uneven.

Will and I walk back on the freeway looking with the flashlight to see what I hit. We found nothing. We did find across the freeway on the opposite side 3 vehicles stopped. I told Will thats about where I hit something, on my side of the freeway. Thank God we did not find another car or motorcycle in the ditch.

We walk back to the truck the whole time Im thinking I really have to pee now, I hope the police hurry and get here so I can give my urine sample. I called to report the accident while Will was checking out the damage, making sure the fuel tank was not compromised, checking the fuel tank straps. looking under to see what damage was done and doing duct tape repairs.

They told me I didnt have to file a police report because no other vehicle was involved, no other property was damaged and no body was injured. (guess nerves dont count)

Will said there was rubber on the front of truck , on the busted pieces of the flaring and on the fuel tank. So he agreed I hit a tire. I said it felt like cement. He said it was probably that truck's spare tire some drivers keep their spare mounted on the rim so they can change the tire themselves and not have to pay the call out charge. The noise I heard was probably the tire falling off the truck, not a blow out.

When we get all situated and ready to leave we notice there is a police car with the vehicles on the other side of the freeway. I drove over there and talked to the officer, telling him I hit a tire and I have signification damage, I wondered if these cars are related to my problem. He said no they didnt lose a spare, they hit a tire. Anyway, talking it through we guess what happened is, I hit the tire and it flew over to the other side where they hit it. Nobody else on my side stopped, nobody in front or behind me swerved to avoid debris, nobody else knew anything happened or they just didnt care enough to check on me.

Seems weird to me that I would be the only one to hit the tire and it would take off flying horizontal never hitting anything on my side of the freeway and land on the other side damaging other vehicles. But that's the general consensus.

Despite what happened I am really blessed. I am so blessed. I didnt hurt anyone and we weren't hurt. So many things could have gone wrong. I hate to think how things would have turned out if the tire would have bounced and came through the windshield, or even hit the truck at a different angle and come up the drivers door.

Swift says we should return to the Decatur, Georgia yard and have the truck repaired there. They would also get someone to take our load to Miami.

We get to Decatur the shop tells us they would order the parts and we could be on the road Wednesday. Cool beans. Not too bad. In the morning, they tell us they cant fix it and we would need to take it to Memphis, about 375 miles. Ok so off to Memphis we go.

Thats where we are headed now to Memphis. I think will is secretly hoping to see Barbie and Suzie Q from our last stay in Memphis. ~~~see my last post, just another man impressed with my driving skills~~

I'll let you know what happens next.

Love and Miss you all so much.

another man impressed with my driving

2011-11-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

November 27, 2011

You have all been so patient. Faithfully reading my blogs. Hoping one day I would demoralize and humiliate myself with another lost story. Well your patience has paid off.

This trip had everything I dread. Airports and New Jersey. ~throw in Texas and you'd win the daily trifecta.

ok , you got me, there are some things I like about Texas

Our first load was going to UPS at the Philadelphia airport. There is construction and detours everywhere, which only add to my confusion.

But the drive into Philadelphia was fine.

I was following the directions from Swift and it wasn't long before I was staring at the arrival/departure parking garage. Same problem, different airport.

I stopped to ask the guard, with the horrified look on his face, how to get to Hog Island Road? He pointed behind us and to the left. When asked if we could go straight ahead, he said 'I don't see how.' .(not nearly as helpful as when I get going the wrong way at the Salt Lake City airport, They had a guard come up to me and help me get turned around. Salt Lake airport is the place to get lost if you have a choice.)

I forgot to mention, we are stopped in 1 lane of 4, all going one way, and we need to go the other way......Where is the rapture when I need it?

So Will backs up about 1000 ft and just like that we are headed in the right direction. We thought. The new directions take us right back to the passenger terminals. Been there, dont that. But Will sees a road that looks like it goes around the back of the airport. It does and soon we find a UPS truck and follow him. What can Brown do for you? It can lead the way, thats what. And soon we are at UPS.

UPS doesn't have an empty for us. Swift sends us to New Jersey to look for one. I'll make this part short. We were suppose to go to Ocean Spray for an empty trailer. The directions sounded easy, only a couple of turns. Turns out the address Swift gave me is for delivery's, the empty's are a few blocks away. Only one wrong turn, and since I was bob-tailing I didn't have a drag a trailer around town with me.

One hint that I'm driving where I shouldn't be is people stop and look at me Like I'm from Mars. And everyone was staring at me now. I turned into a park because the bridge in front of me was only 10ft high. I need at least 13'6" and even then I duck when I drive under.

That's right, Stop playing ball, stop pushing your kids on the swings, just stare at the lost truck driver. At any rate I need to be at the other end of Park Street ...............North, East, South or West would be a nice touch on the address.

**note to self, buy more lottery tickets

I finally get an empty, now I am off to The Christmas Tree Shop.

This is where it gets interesting.

Ok, everybody unfold your New Jersey map. Log into Google Street View, or map-quest.

Go ahead I'll wait...

Everybody ready? Good. Now look for this address

270 Daniels Way,

What? You cant find it me either.

Now here are the directions Swift sent me.

Go south on us130 (5miles)

Right on Delaware Ave (cr656) (1 1/2 mile)

Left on Broad Street

Left on East 3^rd Street

*arrive at destination; christmas tree shops, Florence, NJ

NO!!!!!

I have arrived at a small residential neighborhood.

Oh my, the people were staring at me now. Beautiful neighborhood, seems nice and quite, till the semi (with a trailer now) showed up. Oh hey look how low those power lines hang, that cant be legal.

I hope I dont end up like that

One guy on a bicycle turned around and followed me. Which was pretty easy since I was going so slow trying to decide how to get out of there. He was waving his hand so I stopped. He asked what I was looking for. I told him. He said “ a big warehouse, right?” I nodded my head (I didnt really know I just guessed it wasn't here at Mr. & Mrs. Nussbaum's driveway)

Then he asked how I got in here. ~Just another man impressed with my unique driving skills. He said he doesnt even drive his motor home down this street!!.~ now he's just flattering me. I think he was flirting.

Turns out he's a firefighter and knew where I wanted to go. His directions were right on the money.

Thank You, New Jersey's finest!!

We arrive safely and pick up our loaded trailer and head for Augusta Georgia.

Leaving town was pretty easy. Almost.
You know how most people have an internal compass? Something that lets them figure out where North is? Well my internal compass is stuck on shipyard. Must be the sailors daughter in me.

**a lot more lottery tickets

Well that was just a little site seeing trip, hardly even out of the way. The important thing to remember is nobody got hurt.

To top off a perfect day I listened to the Civil War.
Beavers vs Ducks.

In reality, Beaver Nation knew the season would end this way. The same way it started. We are the giant killers, so there was a little hope. But I am still a Beaver Believer and just wait till next year. Then we'll shut the duck up!!!

GO BEAV”S

After Augusta, we pick up a load going to Memphis.
Memphis, we were just there for Thanksgiving. We ate at a Piccadilly Cafeteria. We ended up having to wait 24 hours before picking up the load that started this whole adventure. While in Memphis we went to a gas station across the street from our hotel and Will bought a beer. He was carded!!! My 53 year old gray bearded husband was carded. I dont think Barbie could even count to 21. We walk back to the hotel and stop to get stuff out of the truck. While Will is walking across the parking lot some little Suzie Q stops her car and asks Will if he needed a date ? He said he had one and pointed to the room. ??

WHAT? oh no he didn't, What did he say? Did he mean me? After 29 years, Im just the date waiting in the hotel room? I should be charging him more. Maybe this is my way out, after all it's just a date.
So I had to put up with his inflated ego the rest of the day, and the next day.....Now really I dont mind some young thing stroking his ego once in awhile as long as that's all they stroke.!!

I love and miss you all

occupy oakland, dead starter, whats next

2011-11-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

We made it out of oakland safe and sound. We were down by the docks but did not have to pickup there this time. We were not downtown so we didnt see anything there. We were on the freeway that was shown on the news. Good thing we were in and out in the morning.

I tell you watching it on tv, I was scared for those truck drivers.

The whole time I kept thinking of Reginald Denny, the truck driver that was pulled out of his truck during a riot in LA. And nearly beaten to death. It was so long ago, in the 90's I think, I dont think it was in the 80's. The whole thing was caught on tape by a news-chopper. Im so glad nothing like that happened in Oakland.

There have been a couple of times, Will has told me to get in the back. (sleeper), delivering to a very bad neighborhood. Guys walking up and down the middle of the street. Looking in cars as if to find an easy one to car jack. One business we really had to rush to get to before they closed because they lock the gate and the guard doesnt let anyone in. And that was one area you do not want to be left out on the street. I remember the lot inside was full of trucks. Most were there 12 hours early just so they could be locked inside safe for the night.

There have been times while driving that Will, wakes me up, and tells me to sit up front. He thinks the front seat and seat belt is safer than the safety net in the sleeper.

The truck is in the shop. Again. This time its for the starter, shocks, airbags and to figure out why the check engine light is on. Yes I made sure the gas cap was on tight. Silly. The starter went out fast, not a lot of warning. We had a hard time starting it once in Salt Lake City. Will told me not to turn the truck off, and we'd get it checked later. After we left Oakland, we stopped in Livermore at Jack in the Box and I shut the truck off. It would not start.

Will looked at it but where it is he couldnt get to it. We called swift and asked if they can come and give us a pull start. Of course you knew that cant push start and tractor-trailer. Swift said they dont have the equipment. We thought we had 1 free tow available from international, so we called them and they had no idea what we were talking about.. $$ OUCH. $$ We were on the phone ordering a tow when the starter and it started. I didnt mind cashing in karma points for that.

didnt need the tow truck

We went to the swift shop in Lathrop and told them the issues and they said they could fix it, most of it would be warranty work, Cool Beans.

So hear we sit at the hotel. Will sleeping. Me with nothing to do. No book. I finished, Cleopatra’s Daughter. Very good. And I am out of yarn so I cant work on the sweater. The last 3 walmarts did not have the yarn. I have more at the house, but that doesnt do me any good here does it.

Got the truck back from Swift/Lathrop. They said all was fixed. We looked at the paper work and they did not fix the starter because it started. They did fix something with the check engine light, even though that light came on 20 miles down the road.

Next stop International in Springfield Oregon. Put the truck in there, same problems, same results. They can't get the starter to fail so they cant fix it under warrenty.

They did spend a lot time and fixed they real problem with the check engine light. Guess we will see about that down the road. We told them to replace the starter and we'll pay out of pocket. We cant have it only fail on us. As soon as they heard we were going to fork over $1000 they get right on it.

Our son is down in San Diego for some magic card show/tournament, he loves it.

Says it is differentially on his list of places to live.

We were just glad to hear that we are not the only place on his list.

Love and miss you all,

hey, it's like winter out here and if swift thinks im going to forget about the money they owe me they have ice cubes for brains.

2011-11-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

Oct 29, 2011

The weather is starting to turn to winter here in New Jersey. We arrive friday and the weather was nice, we would have walked a couple of blocks to eat dinner but there was no sidewalk and it was busy 4 lanes near the on ramp to the turn pike. We ordered pasta and boy was it good. I had chicken Parmesan and saved half of it to take with us in the truck. Your right I forgot it..

Today its snowing. And snowing hard. It's a Nor~East'r. Its starting to get windy too. Most of the trees are weighted down with snow on their branches because not all of the leaves have fallen off.

just about an hour of snow. very wet and heavy snow too

They sent us a load to Houston, first we were just going to ignor it and not even answer it, but then we saw the weather report and thought we'd better take anything that gets us out of the north east on a saturday, before we end up hanging out here all weekend.

Since we are 3 hours ahead in New Jersey we got up and had to check out of the hotel, check out time was 10am. Now we are just sitting in the truck finishing The Gangs of New York. Got a good find at the truck stop the other day seasons 1 & 2 of Northern Exposure. Some of you may have to explain to the youngsters what a cool show that was.

Our load from new jersey is to houston. That didnt go to bad. Still had to wait to be dispatched but after Houston we got a load to Salt Lake City. This time it didnt cancel.

I did have to stop on the turnpike in New Jersey and get a sweat shirt. I only have just my summer jacket. Who knew winter would come in October. Either need to get home to pick up our heavy clothes or find a Cabellas.

Nashville, showing off it's colors

I get to drive through Moab. I like when we hit Moab and its my shift. A very pretty place. All times of the year. Even for the desert, which you wont here me say to often.

the red color is caused by a mixture of iron and oxygen ~~iron oxide

the green is caused by a mixture of chlorite or clay consisting of iron silicate

We have been arguing with swift for about 4 weeks now on some empty miles we were never paid for. we have 51 miles when we got to the shipper the load was canceled at LAX. And we have 494. thats the one that hurts. I have messaged our dm first 3x a week then last week once a day . With no resolve. I talked with the fleet manager, and he said he would look into it and get back to me.

Nothing yet.

Besides losing the .81 cents a mile, the 494 miles really affected our fuel rebate. That is 494 miles not included in the total trip miles but miles we burned fuel. When I called the rapid response center they told me that our home termianl took those miles off. Said they were un authorized. When I confronted our driver manager she assured me that Troutdale did not take those miles off. I said thats good to hear, but if Troutdale did not take those miles off us, then where is our money

that's what I said

The part that really burns me is, beside it happening in Houston, I never thought to take a picture of the load when it is sent to us. To prove we were dispatched those miles. The whole day was screwed up. We delivered in Houston, hooked to an empty trailer only to be told they assign empty's there. Some places do but most make it a free for all, you see one grab it. So we unhooked, went up front and said we need an empty. We were told they didnt have any. What about the line of empty's, we just hooked to one. Oh those are already spoken for. Ok what ever. So we bobtailed out and went down to the truck stop to wait for a load.

They stacked 3 loads on us. Sometimes the loadplanners do that because they want you to do the crappy one and they are showing you a good one to make up for the crappy one.

I called our dm and complained about the first one. It was a pick up at a rail yard and the trailer was going a big 24 miles, to walmart. Where we pick up another load going a couple hundred miles to arkansas. Then we go to Jenks, Oklahoma and take it to Dover Delaware .

after compalianing about the waste of time the rail yard was. And how the swift yard would not give us an empty. I gave in , and she told me just to bobtail to the rail yard. It was only 5 miles away, but because of road construction, Houston being Houston and a train blocking the tracks it took 45 min. To get there.

Houston traffic jam

When we get there I wait in line and get up to the front and the guard tells me only one driver allowed in the yard. Someone will have to wait out side. I said what, but it is my husbands sleeper time, you want me to wake him up and make him stand out here. Forget it cancel the load. I called our dm and she said that was crazy, just head to our next load.

Next on my list was walmart 24 miles away. When I arrived there, waited in line only to hear, you cant come in with out an empty. I said our last load was cancelled and that was going to be our trailer. The guard said that doesnt matter, Icant pickup a loaded trailer unless I exchange it with either a full or empty.

So I called our dm again, and she was gone for the day now but the guy that answered said walmart was not our next pickup we should have headed to Jenks Oklahoma. I said ok there was a little confusion. I guess our dm knew that walmart would not let us in without a trailer and just canceled it, unless im giving her too much credit. I told him we still didnt have an empty I didnt want to get to Oklahoma just to find out they wont let us in, and he said no your good.

Yeah good and screwed is what he should have said.

I take a picture of our detention notices. they come in handy when they say they dont have a record of us responding to the notices. As soon as I say i have a picture what is your email, they suddenly say oh here it I see it now. But i never thought to take a picture of our dispatched miles, you bet I do now.
And while I'm complaining, all the crapy roads in Texas and Oklahoma bounced the life right out of our refrigerator and of course it took all the food with it. That had to be replaced.
Just Bleeding money on that trip.

So now that I got that off my chest.

We are sitting in Salt Lake City waiting for a load. Why do we have to wait they know we're coming. Why do I bother putting in our projected time available. They did send us a load to Dallas. I turned it down, this time dont being so polite, I said
NO ALWAYS GET SCREWED IN TEXAS.
(and not in the good way) ***sorry kids**

Of course they put us in time out for having the nerve to turn now the wonderful load. No load offers for 1 hour. “bad driver”

well hope everyone had a safe Halloween

I love and miss you all

oct 14

2011-10-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

Oct 14, 2011

My goodness its been a long time since I last blogged.

Thought I should let you all know that thanks to karma, St. Christopher patron saint of travelers, daily prayers to my patron saint and 2 gps devices I am happy to report I have not gotten lost.....Thank You, Thank You, Please your standing ovation is too much~~~~Your applause was plenty

after some home time, that allowed us to work on our new home, well its not a home yet, now it is just a house, barely.

everybody giving advice on how to put in new floors, and insulate and move rooms around etc...

But our plan is within a year we can move in. We also put the truck in the shop, again for the airconditioner. This is the 3^rd time in a year and a half that its been it. Thankfully its all been warrenty work. This last time it cost us $28.00 because they changed a couple of filters. You will be glad to know the air conditioner worked for about 36 hours, until we got to kansas. Of course. Looks like i cant spread my karma to cover not getting lost and having air conditioning.

When we get to kansas city we needed to take some time off because Will hurt his back. Slipped a disc (*diagnoised by dr leslie) when we delivered at the swift yard I told the lady at the window that I needed to take Will to an er or urgent care, which one is closest. Um I dont know, he cant wait and see his doctor in the morning? we dont live here, thats why I asked where the er is... oh, and she giggles a little. Um theres the phone book over there I dont know what its called. Dont you live here? Yea but I never had to go to the er. (ive never been to the oregon state mental hospital , but i can tell you where it is lady) So after looking up the hospital and putting in the address in the gps. We are only about 5 miles away.

Getting will in and out of the semi was slow going. He couldnt lift his leg very high so getting in was harder than getting out, easier for him to step down. Er asked when it hurt, when it feels ok, he said it hurts when i sit or stand, the only time it doesnt hurt is when Im laying on my back. so they said sit here.

Er gave him some flexeril shot, (what a baby)and they gave me directions to a walgreens and a couple of hotels. Walgreens was easy, The hotels were all full some big event Lance Armstrong Live Strong Arena hoo~haa going on. We had to make do at and expensive hotel for the weekend because that was all that was available. Just friday, saturday and sunday, then will should be feeling better and can sit and drive.

Legends Mall in Kansas City, near our first hotel.

Monday rolls around and will isnt any better, if we are going to stay another couple of days we need to move to a cheaper hotel. So we pack up and leave for a comfort inn or quality inn, our usually hang outs over the road. After 2 days there and will isnt any better i ask the desk clerk if there is an urgent care near by. She said yes, just about 4 blocks. So i get him in the truck, no he didnt want to use a taxi because he thought that would hurt more trying to stand up out of a low car than climb down from the semi?? so we get to this little urgent care, of course the parking lot isnt set up for semi parking, but i manage to crowd my way into a spot, help will out of the truck shuffle across the parking lot, wait in line just to hear, this isnt an urgent care until 5pm. Right now its a doctors office do you have an appointment? I said are you kidding me the sign out front that is lit up says urgent care. Yes mam but not till after 5pm. Ok she told be they did have a real urgent care about 25 miles away in Shawnee. Reverse the whole show, shuffle back to the truck steady will was he climbs into the truck, and off we go. Parking is worse in Shawnee, i trimmed 3 trees in the parking lot at no cost to them. I get in there and it is so small I ask if they do xrays here, she said no they would send us to a place down the street. Then they would be read within 6 hours and......never mind. All that wore Will out so we went back to the hotel. Thursday I conviced him we should just go back to the er. They took xrays this time, said nothing was broke. And gave him some pain meds, more flexeril and steriods. With in 24 hours he was beginning to feel better.

look at him go....

But not good enough, so friday morning i went down to pay for friday, saturday and sunday and she tells me they are booked for the weekend. WTH. What do you guys do around here on the weekends? She found another comfort inn a couple of towns over and got us in there. They were just having a hot rod car show and that wasnt very popular we were lucky. All in all we spend 10 days in kansas city and the surounding towns.

the Legends mall in Kansas City, walking distance from our first hotel

I did get a lot of knitting done. Trying to finish a sweater for my mom for Christmas. Hope i dont have to make it a mothers day gift insteed.

After wills back started feeling well enough to sit and drive he had to stop the pain pills and the flexeril. So the first 2 days I drove and he went into rehab in the sleeper. I think the steroids is what really worked. After Kansas City we headed for Flordia........oh my gosh it was so hot and humid there.

i hoped change the color setting on the camera would help convey of hot it was in Flordia

2 cranes at the customers pond

pretty colorful duck

It was so hot ~~how hot was it?~~ my little gold hoop earrings turned bronze or pewter color. Ok walmart gold, but still I guess it must be some chemical reaction involving an oven, swearing, sweat and maybe some tears.

From Florida we headed to Dover Delaware. ~The first State. At last some cooler weather, thats where we will spend our 34 off too. Its 82 Dover is having a heat wave, they are loving it. %$#&*^

the picture doesnt do this home justice, the green just glistened

Chesapeake Bay

at least it fall in some places

the hotel in Dover was a comfort inn. I beg each and every one of you not to stay here. They were nice and let us check in at 7am, normally check in is 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Our refrigerator in the truck died

We drive back to the huge walmart ,at the other end of town and its closed. Not open yet, grand opening is oct 26. so we end up at the little walmart that does have a refridge, but no groceries. So have to shop at the safeway. Anyway done and now back to the hotel.

OH be still my heart!!!

The room is very musty smelling. And the window is painted shut so we leave the door open for some fresh air. I grab the laundry bag from the truck and head down to the laundry room. The desk clerk told me to come see her and she would give me a laundry room key, it is separate from our room key card. So I did that and she points the way. The door is open when I get there, and there is only one washer and one dryer. Ugh! I have two loads, oh well get one load started, shut the door and head back to the room. When I went back to change the laundry, my key card wouldn't work. I went in and told the desk clerk and she looked at me funny and said who shut the door? I said I did, isnt that why you gave me a key? Oh ok she got housekeeping to come over with me and see if she could get it open, no luck, then someone else tried, again, no luck. They both left and I waited thinking they were going to solve this problem. But about 10 minutes later I see the housekeeper coming out of one of the rooms. So I go back to the desk clerk and she said, its still not open? Nope. She said she would call someone and get them to open it from the inside. So I go back and wait. And wait. AND WAIT. About 15- 20 minutes later I went back to the desk clerk just looked at her and she said she is one her way she was on the road shell be right back? I said really, cause I have more to do today than just hang out waiting for the laundry room to be opened. In about 20 minutes someone opens the door from the inside. I change the laundry and grab a big upright over stuffed chair and drag it and block the door open with it. I was so mad when I got back to the room my face was all red I was sweating and swearing. I sit on the edge of the bed and look down and see a black sock and was mad that a sock fell out of the laundry bag, then I remembered I didnt bring the laundry in the room. That sock was left here. Oh and I guess the toe nail clippings belong to the owner of the sock. &*^%# *(&$% then I started looking around and found an atm receipt on the tv dated oct 2. so guess that was the last day the room was cleaned, or sorta cleaned. I did check for bed bugs and they didn't have any, you can check on line before you stay http://bedbugregistry.com/

and of course always check when you get there. I did complain, and got the room charges reversed so that wasn't so bad then.

After Delaware it was off too Arizona, where our good luck held out and I had a blow out.

I was thankfull the next rest stop was open becasue many of Arizona's rest stops are closed budget cuts i guess. so at least I wasn't sitting on the side of the road for 3 hours.

a camel in Quartzite, AZ

Well guess this is long enough.

Love and miss you all

2011-08-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Aug 13, 2011

just when you thought it was safe for me to drive up and down i5.

Well mostly we drive i5. For our south bound load, we pick up in seatac, then stop in pdx then continue to lax (hawthorne). North bound, we pick up at lax stop at hayward airport, (they call it san franciso) stop again at pdx then our finale destination is seatac again.

the blue angels in seattle. the only other 2 words that make my heart skip a beat is 'fleet week'

Our driving schedule it pretty laid out. South bound, Will picks up in seattle drives pdx then to redding, california. Then i drive from redding to lax. North bound, will drives from lax to hayward. I drive from hayward to salem, will drives to pdx, then to seattle.

Will thinks the way i remember how to get to lax is too confusing. I'm on i5 to the 405, exit 45, exit 5. i wrote it down for him but he said remembering the names of the freeway is easier. I5, 405, (cross off the zero,) exit 45, (cross off the 4) exit 5. easy, peasy. The route from hayward to I5 is just as easy to remember. 880, 80, 505, I5.

I did the route a few times then decided i can turn off the gps. I dont need no stinkin gps, i know where im going, this is so easy.......oh look a balloon.

While on the 80 i saw a bunch of hot air balloons. I was taking pictures thinking this was pretty. When i was done i put the camera down and after driving a while (really folks it was only about 25 miles, hardly story worthy) i noticed the road was still 4 lanes. Usually by this time im on 2 lanes. With corn and sun flower feilds on both sides. Ok , i know the drill, turn on the gps, take the next exit, cross over, return to the scean of the crime. The whole adventure cost about 50 miles and close to an hour. So i didnt make it to salem to change drivers, we changed in albany.

Really i dont know why im telling you this. Maybe because i didnt have anything else to write about.

I do get to run into a friend of mine, that i knew when i had a normal job. Her and her husband drive for another company, and their route is mira mar to portland. I did run into her at walmart last time we were home, (its a small world) We are usually north when they are south. She'll call me to say she just passed me and that there is a fire up ahead but its on her side so not to worry.

just a fire, no worries, no reason for anyone to stop

Its kind of nice knowing someone else let their husband talk them into this too. but baby, we'll get caught up on all the bills and even get ahead!!! we can retire with something!!! it wont be forever, i promise!! i asked her once how much longer she planned on doing this and she said everytime they pay off a bill another one pops up. , said yea us too. But we , and when i say we i mean, ME!! I!!! MYSELF!!!! want this to be over when our lease is over. 19 months and counting.

Well i make that statement while we are sitting in hotel in fontana because our north bound load doesnt pickup till tonight at midnight. And since our air conditioner isnt working 100%, will cant sit in that truck all day. Although i doesnt matter that i sit in the hot truck all day while will is sleeping, the sleeper air conditioner works fine.

my air conditioner. its a complicated system involving duct tape and prayer that the air actually gets to me

Ok gotta go do laundry.

Love and miss you all

stuck in fontana seemed like a life time

2011-08-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

Aug 3, 2011

wow i was just looking at my last blog and it was almost a month ago.

our view of the portland airport.

Things have been going fairly ok with this dedicated run. I say fairly because we are not getting 4 trips per pay check. _seattle, la is 1 la to seattle it 2, etc. We are not getting our detention pay in seattle. We get paid if we are detained in hayward waiting for a plane, but not in seattle, just waiting for them to unload. on friday things really fell apart. They sent us a return load. On friday and saturday it is not from the shipper we work with all week, another driver has that load. So our return trip is different. They sent us one that was 40,000 and picked up 10 hours after we delivered. I denied that and told our dm why. 40,000 lbs means we can not get at least 7.0 mpg that is our break even point. Being that heavy makes us slow and we wont get home in time to spend any time at home. And it waste 10 hours. Need one that is ready when we're ready. She agreed and we were sent a load from ikea in san diego going to ikea in tacoma. It was preloaded and a drop delivery and only weighted 16,000. i accepted it. Duh!

After we delivered at lax.

la traffic

We sent in a message that we were empty and ready for our next trip info. Will took off for san diego, because it usually takes 30 to 45 minutes before they send you your information. Half way there, we get a mesg saying we do not have a preplan. I sent back a mesg telling them the plan number and that i accepted it at 9:30 am. We were told no preplan. Will pulled over and i called. Told again, No preplan. The guy told me that we were the 3^rd to complain about losing a load. He said they were having problems with the qualcom. He said he would mesg the load planners and tell them we needed a load going to seattle. We waited an hour then decided to drive to the fontana termanal.

The whole time i kept sending messages. And yes they did get more and more sarcastic. Why? Because they were not answering me. I told them give us a load going anywhere. They told me there is no freight. No freight in california going anywhere.?? i told them i did not believe them. when we got to fontana i asked if they needed a trailer number there were lots of loaded trailers here, they must be going some where. I asked them what kind of dedication is this if its only dedicated one way? Even if there is a problem with qualcom there is still freight out there, just issue the load old school way. Before computers. You did go to school didnt you? When i told them we were going to fontana they informed me we were not going to get paid for those miles we were reloacting unauthorized. I said i was not asking your permission i was telling you were we will be, incase you were worried about still having a driver sitting on the side of the 405 in la. Obviousely i can see where your concerns are, not with the drivers safety but making sure we dont make an extra $12.35. That was the last message i received from them.

In the morning i sent a message that we were going to a hotel and would be available monday.

So 3 days off. Normally you would be jumping up and down to get 3 days off. Not when it cost you $200 for hotel, $25 a meal x 2 meals a day. $10 for hotel laundry room. And one bottle of brandy. Plus the money we lost by simple not working. Oh and we saw cowboys and aliens, so that plus popcorn and soda. (walking back to the hotel around 11pm was like seeing a second feature for free)

monday first thing i contacted our driver manager. Told her what happen over the weekend. We lost our load and sat 15 hours with no load issued so we dediced we werent going anywhere until you came in monday. Asked why no one at swift cares about the drivers money etc. She said she cared and i told her i know she does but since she doesnt sign my pay check someone else has to care. Asked her if we were going to be compinsated for our time. Since it was swifts fault we had no load? She'll look into it.

She asked what we needed for this dedication to work. I said we want what we were told, and what we agreed to. You told us 2 round trips seatac to lax a week. We compared the pros and cons. Pros: leslie wont get lost. (ok thats a major pro) 2 rt a week thats 4 days, maybe add 1 day for the turn around, and that gives us 2 maybe 3 days at home. No hotels, no eatting out, no laundry. Not having to worry and stress about what our next load is going to be. Kisses and hugs from grandkids on a regular basis. The cons: low miles only 4400 a week (we should be getting 5000 to 6000) paying the road tax to the kingdowm of oregon. That is what we assumed based on the statement “2 roundtrips a week, seatac to lax”

then after we agree, we find out there is one south bound stop in pdx where they take stuff off and put stuff on. Also find out there are 2 north bound stops. One in hayward airport and again at pdx.

at lax

bay bridges. have to pay a $18.00 toll to get out of town

The delivery times are screwy. We arrive in seattle around midnight, but they are closed and open again around 6, but our appointment time is at 5 am? So around 8 they give us a dock and we wait to be unloaded. They are done around 9 or 11am. Acorrding to swift rules we are to get $30 an hour for every hour after the second hour of waiting. (the first two hours is free). If the customer pays them, thats a bunch of bull. We have not gotten paid for any of the detention pay in seattle. Also we find out when we are dont unloading, they do not load us, to head south, until 6pm. So really we are there at 5am and have to wait until 6pm to leave again. It is not 2 roundtrips a week. The way they have the delivery times it takes 4 days to do 1 round trip from seattle to lax. (Its 3 days to go from portland to newark nj.) Since my paycheck is based on a normal 7 day week, not swifts 8 day week this is not working.

nulhollad drive

house up on mulhollad drive

sunset blvd.

Couldnt they give us the whole story before we made our decision.? Then they get mad at us because we're complaining its not working out. They act like we knew what we were getting into. No we only know what you tell us. Well ok, i see their point we did know what we were getting into we should not have expected swift to tell us the truth, silly me, my bad.

happy cows, (oregon)

unhappy cows, (california)

cow? near yreka.

Our dm said she would get with a couple people and see if they can beef up the miles. I hope so. We cant working in the negitive. Already had one negivtive pay check, cant afford too many of them. I really hope they can work this route out, will really likes me not getting lost. And so do i except it gives me less to blog about. Sorry guys.

Love and miss you all

open letter from my truck to all cars

2011-07-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

July 9,2011

Since we have been cruising up and down I5 I dont have any oh crap i got lost story's, but my truck would like to say a few words.....

HANG UP THE DAMN PHONE AND NOTICE THE 53 FOOT LONG HOUSE DRIVING BESIDE YOU !!!!

WTH is the problem with you and merging? It really is not that hard.

You cars can all stop quicker and accelerate quicker than I can. It is YOUR responsibility to MERGE, When getting on the freeway YOU are in the MERGE lane. Heck sometimes there is a sign that reminds you to merge. That signs faces you not me.

LIKE A ZIPPER IDIOT

I can not quickly change lanes and jerk the truck over to the left lane to let you in. I risk becoming unstable perhaps even rolling on top of you, because of you.

If there is room I will change lanes. (and I thank you when you change lanes and allow me to merge safely) when I do move over to let you in, please let me back in the right hand lane. In most places I can get a ticket for driving out in the left lane for too long. My driver can not afford a ticket for being nice. If I am able let you in, please reciprocate and let me back in the right lane.

I can not stop to let you on the freeway, just because you could not decide weather to go in front or behind me. Make a decision and stick with it. I will make it work. Did you know it takes about 400 feet for me to stop when traveling 55mph. DO NOT continue to drive beside me until your lane ends then flip me off. Its not my drivers problem your driver cant merge.

Maybe you should all take a trip to Texas, those cowboys know how to merge.

giddy up

Another issue related to merging. When because of road work, accident, police activity or another reason the number of lanes reduces, do not wait till the last possible second to merge. You just hold up traffic.

You are not any more important than the person you are trying to get in front of. If you are in such a hurry perhaps you should have left the house earlier. If you continue to refuse to merge early and help traffic continue to roll smoothly, a couple of trucks will help remind you there is a merge ahead. We will drive side by side each other until you merge into the correct land behind one of us. Then we can all continue on our merry way.

As long as I have your attention. When my driver turns on the blinker, that is not a signal for you to speed up. (That's how I know you saw my blinker, you speed up.) Really, it's not, I looked it up. It means for what ever reason I need that lane. maybe because there is a police car on the right shoulder, stopped car, a hitchhiker or a three toed sloth

whatever the point is, at that moment It is illegal and more important unsafe for me to drive in the right hand lane. I'm not getting in the left lane just to get in front of you, I am not trying to ruin your view. (its not always about you) and as soon as I pass the problem I will move back to the right hand lane, that is if you are not trying to zip around me and pass me on the right. so my left blinker isn't a request for your permission to move to the left lane, its more of an announcement, I need to move over, (and since I saw you speedup, I know you saw my blinker so here I come.)

Ladies, and I use that term loosely. Dont drive up, lift your shirt and show us your boobs.

Only one of my drivers is slightly amused anyway.

And for your information, if you dont have to wear a bra, they are not big enough to be called boobs. Grow a pair and we'll talk.

My driver loves and misses you all.

rest stops

2011-07-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

im going to try and post the pictures from some of the rest stops we've stopped at. there really isnt much to say, but my favorite one is the Missouri rest stop, those pictures are last. sorry i couldnt figure out how to post the pictures side by side, so its going to be a long scroll down to the bottom.
ARIZONA

NEW MEXICO

TEXAS

OKLAHOMA

WYOMING

SOUTH CAROLINA

TENNESSE

MISSOURI

what? a schedule? what's next armageddon?

2011-06-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

june 27, 2011
we have completed one round trip from seatac to lax. (ok actually hawthrone airport)
southbound we have one stop at pdx where they add stuff going to la. that route is fairly easy. mostly i5 for my driving time anyway.
the north bound route is more stressful. after dropping in la, we hang out and leave a couple hours later, with a different trailer. there are two stops north bound. one in hayward airport and again at pdx.
they are timed loads and the time from lax to hayward is very, very tight. it is only 370 miles, they do give us 6 hrs and 45 min. but that time line doesnt really allow for la traffic. (i dont think they sleep down there)

it was still bumper to bumper. add to that the road construction in veris areas. going down to one and two lanes on a 5 lane freeway makes for very slow going, even if it is only for a mile or two. the time also puts us in bayarea morning rush hour traffic. will did it with 15min to spear. but he did not stop at all. no bathroom breaks, no closing his eyes to rest breaks, no get out and walk around and wake up breaks. no vehicle checks.
when i contacted the customer service rep. he really didnt want to hear anything i had to say. i told him our info says we are picking up a preloaded trailer at 22:00 but it is a live load and we left at 23:30, so i felt like our delivery time should have been adjusted 1 1/2 hours to reflect the fact that we left 1 1/2 hr after our apt time. he says it is scheduled to leave at 23:30 etc. we went back and forth of course i lost because it is what it is. i also mentioned to him the new csa rules state we are suppose to stop after every 2 hours of driving. that would mean for 8 hour of driving we should be showing on our logs 4 breaks. his response was."who is csa and why do they say you have to stop thats a new one on me ". my response was, "csa is the new set of rules governing the trucking industry,"

then i contacted our dm and mentioned to her. who is this guy, is he new here. doesnt he look at the posters all around the office stating the new rules. every truck stop has those poster. every swift has those posters. new fines. new penalty's. how can someone in the trucking world not know about csa. maybe he needs an in service class to bring him up to speed.

im not saying we do stop every 2 hours. i stop about every 200 miles which is about 3 hours. that rule really cuts into our pocket. since we only get paid when the wheels are turning and we have to stop the wheels every 2 hours. in an 11 hour driving shift we would need to stop 5 times that totals 1 hour and 15 min. since we are allowed to work 14 hours a day, but can only drive 11 hours within that 14 hr window, it makes our work day longer. now it takes longer to reach my 11 hours driving point. its confusing. i was mostly trying to get an extra hour so will could stop and rest his eyes, and go to the bathroom. the csr did not care. he said this time has been set and it is the time schedule. so i told will next time do not drive over the speed limit. stop every 2 hours and do your in route vehicle safety check , stop to use rest room if you have too. and if its late, its late. but speeding and not stopping and showing up on time isnt going to fix anything. thats only going to get us a ticket for speeding, and log violations. and show the csr that it can be done. will is afraid that if we show up late they will take us off this route.

the finale delivery , back up in seattle is a little messy. we have a 7am appointment, but there are 3 trucks in front of us and the business isnt even open yet. its a live unload. seems like we wont get out of here until noon.
but the good news is, since we dont have to be back in seattle until monday at 6pm we will be able to go home for the weekends. YEA!! HIP~ HIP ~HOORAY!! YAHOO!! YIPPEE!!! HAZAA!! and so on and so on.
we should be able to be home late saturday afternoon until monday afternoon. we are going to pick up one of the cars to leave up here that way we dont have to drive the semi back and forth. that will save us some fuel cost and the oregon road tax, since even empty even just bobtail oregon wants that money.

im so excited. home on a regular schedule. church. kids. grandkids. family. friends. exercising. gardening. housework. hot tub. i almost dont care about the la and bay area traffic with all that to look forward too.

**see you soon**
love and miss you all

2011-06-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

june 23, 2011
we have started our dedicated route. but before i get to that, the last delivery we made rather tried to make was a mess.
the business was hard to find. seemed like they were hiding behind a tree. will walked up to see what the dock location was like. he does that most of the time when he isnt sure and doesnt want to get into a situation he cant get out of. notice i said 'he' cause 'me' never gets in a backing or docking situation. the shipping papers had a note that said, must use experience driver, blind side docking from busy street...do not send trailers with skirting. thats a sheet of metal that a lot of companys are putting on trailers to help reduce drag and increase mpg.

at first we thought they didnt want trailers with wind shield because they were going to use a mirror to look under the trailer for bombs or whatever. but thats not why they had that statement. when will went in to talk to someone, the supervisor told him most trucks cant come in. the railroad tracks routinely grab and tear off the landing gear. the supervisor told will last week he helped the driver pick up the pieces and toss it in the trailer. that would suck. he said the problem is the degree and and peak of the tracks. the supervisor told us they are always contacting the city of portland and the railroad and each says its the others problem.
so we contacted our dm told her the situation and waited for directions. she said she would contact so-and-so. we waited about an hour with no response. will decided to go over there and see if we could do it. mostly just to be able to tell dispatch that we did so try. thought maybe from an angle stuff wouldnt get hung up. but you can see that didnt work.

good thing will was going slow, if he had been hurrying to get out of the way of traffic we would have torn up the truck. after we decided this wasnt going to happen and i and the supervisor got enough pictures will decided it was time to head back to the swift yard and give them back the loaded trailer. will starts to pull forward very slowly because i was on one side and the supervisor was on the other side watching the landing gear. they scrap across the tracks just like they did when backing up. then the angle of the trailer changes and the corner of the dot bumper gets hung up and pops.

we call our dm and report it. she said bring the load back and they will figure it out. so i emailed her the pictures.
now we are starting our dedicated route. seattle to los angles (hawthorne) and back to seattle. there is a south bound stop in portland. and north bound we will stop in hayward and in portland. so far it seems to be working out. but we've only just begun (hey someone should write a song..) we are almost to la as i write this.
while i was driving past los banos there was a fire on i5. it was on both sides and in the middle. but they let us drive through.

fire season in california. they had helicopters and planes.

i think i would change the name of the exit.

love and miss you all

a new route??

2011-06-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

we are getting ready to start a dedicated route. i know youve heard that one before, but this one sounds like a true dedication. from seattle to los angles to seattle. two round trips a week. we are hoping the times work out so that we will be able to be home 2 days a week. that should really reduce our out of pocket expenses. laundry, hotel, resturants, etc. part of the down side is the, oregon road tax. the kingdom of oregon charges truck drivers 16 or 19 cents for every mile we drive in oregon. also the lower miles about 4200 a week we want to average 5000. and on the rare weeks we get 6000, that is just icing on the cake. so all we can do is try it and see how it works out. if it doesnt work out i guess we can just go back to what we're doing now. fighting and scratching for 5000 miles a week.

im going to gather all my pictures of the rest stops and post them later. some of the rest stops are amazing. there might be a couple of post with just pictures. expecially that last one we were at in missiouri. then you get into arizona, california, oregon and washington. just a little step up from honey bucket. thers something oregon can do with the money from truckers, give us a nice place to pee. its no wonder there are so many bottles and other containers tossed on the side of the road with urine in them. no people its not apple juice, bunch of pigs.

and in case you havent read it on my facebook page, IT IS HOT!! it certainly takes a special kind of person to live in some of these places. (special, special) i dont know why anyone would choose to voluntarily live where the temp gets above 75' and then places where it regularly is above 100', 110'. i look around expecting to see people spontaneously combust

oh and just a side not some of you may have felt a disturbance in the force. if you have not heard the shocking news, the other day will and i were both given the senior dinner discount.!!!
i know, thats what i said, WTH!!!. i pay good money for this hair color. i was raised a good irish, catholic girl. i never did drugs, i never (really) killed anyone, i have karma points as a back up and still this happens. i could stand to lose some grandma weight. i love and embrace my grandma~ness but i am still 6 months away from having to open any mail from aarp. i think little Suzie Q waitress was tired it was obviously pass her curfew. screwed herself out of a tip. will thought it was funny and gave her a tip anyway.
love and miss you all

2011-06-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

What I hate about driving.

I hate being gone all the time. Not being there for little events in my grandkids life; graduation from kindergarten, testing for black belt, dancing, or just babysit. I hate not being around to help my kids or even just sit and talk and laugh with them. I hate not being home and able to run over and see my mom and dad on the spur of the moment. I miss petting the dog. I miss not being able to be with family when they are sick. I hate only communicating with family and friends through text or email. I hate being mad at someone and only being able to get 3 feet away.

I hate not eating real meals. Having to run and look for a rest stop. I hate having to grab an extra pair of pants when I run into the rest stop because I already know im not going to make it. I didn’t think I would, but I hate not exercising. Running to the bathroom doesn’t count. All I do is move from the driver’s seat to the sleeper.

What I like about driving. Paying the bills,

………………..let me get back to you on the rest of that

There, now I feel better.

We got fairly close to the st louis arch this trip. Well maybe not,maybe its just a better camera. Great zoom!!

the st louis arch

Here are some pictures from texas. The cars are a big tourist attraction in amerillo. They are standing on end out in a field.

near Amarillo

texas speed limit sign

sam houston, larger than life..

mexico, from el paso

Driving through new mexico, there is a ton of smoke. Not from a fire here but a fire huge fire in arizona. The smoke was so thick we had to turn our head lights on. For a brief moment I thought we were back in oregon and it was field burning season.

route 66

Im adding a picture of will sleeping in the coolness of his excellent working air conditioner. So cold he had to use the blanket and he kept his socks on.

Hogging all the coolness by keeping the Curtin closed. If you detect a hint of sarcasm , you are correct my dear. The air conditioning in the cab is not working. I have been complaining about it for a couple of months (I know it was not summer a couple of months ago, but needed to use it a couple of times. So hush) will said I must have been having a hot flash. Yes that’s what he said. Now he agrees with me that it isnt working as good as it should. Duh!! Hot flash, im much too young for that.

Love and miss you all