St. Louis = Lost

Early this morning we headed out to our stop of Granite City finally. We made it there on time but of course we had to wait for them to unload and that took about 3 hours. Josh said that he is running out of hours so for the rest of time until we get our days off we are going to be doing short runs so that means nothing exciting to see that I haven't already seen. Its a bummer but happy we started out with a bang. It is also ironic that the stop in Granite City was a Prairie Farms, Josh just left Peavler trucking and all they did was deliver to Prairie Farms, it seemed all too familiar except he had never been to this place before and it was quite interesting to find as it was tucked away in this swarming mess of steel manufactures and train railways, very industial part of town.

We then get our next load assignment, going to Anheiser Busch in St. Louis. I DO NOT like driving in St. Louis at all, I have had some harrowing times there and I hate the traffic and all of the on ramps, off ramps, and crazy drivers. We used to go there quite often for Alex when he had doctor appointments at the Childrens Hospital. I knew one way on how to get there and if for any reason I got off track I was lost. This was of course before the days of GPS and the like but I have to say that our GPS today was no friend. We passed the St. Louis Arch and while we are on area of road that seems to be way up in the sky with no off ramps it says "turn left here" ..um.. no thanks I don't have a death wish. Obviously the GPS was no help in finding our way and once we got so far there really wasn't a good place to try and turn around, trucks aren't allowed on quite a few of the streets and so began the furious map reading and planning on how to get where we need to go. We ended up going almost all the way around St. Louis before we got back on track. I have proved my worth of map reading and direction giving, what would he do without me! Even with my handy dandy directions we were still a little lost towards the end on where we were supposed to enter and eventually with dumb luck we find it and had to wait forever to get inside. We find out that we are on a drop and hook load which Josh prefers but the truck has been acting a little funny lately. First off the truck will only idle for so long before it turns itself off and as we are waiting in line to get into the brewery it turns off, and didn't want to start again! ARRRGGGG!!! What is going on? Eventually after many many tries it finally starts up and off we go, or at least we think. Josh finds where we are supposed to park the empty trailer and the pin won't release, he is getting hot from the sun and hot under the collar but eventually too that finally gives. We pick up our load and thankful they have scales on site so we don't have to weigh it at a station and have to pay $10 to make sure we are evenly distributed. Now we are trying to find a approved gas station to get gas and try to get the heck out of dodge. Thanks to me the wondergirl trucker sidekick I found us a place and get there with no problem, again so we think....

Josh was thinking that the town we are supposed to take this load to is by Decatur and when he is setting it up in the GPS so it will be ready to go when we leave it says it is by Chicago.. Hmm.... we were getting conflicting information from our phone GPS and the truck GPS, we finally get directions on how to get to the stop and that helped us figure out that it is indeed a suburb of Chicago. This means that we are basically out of hours for the day and we have to wait til midnight to get more hours back to drive but we have to be in Chicago by 7 a.m., it is going to be a push to get there on time but Josh says he is confident we can do it. At least we are gassed up and ready to go but here is it around 5 p.m. and he has to sleep to be able to get up at midnight. I just can't do it so I am here in the dark of the truck writing my blog trying to keep the clacking of the keys down.

One other little side note: I did go out to my garden last night and look for the zucchini that both my boys said disappeared, that someone or something had taken them because they weren't there. I do believe that zucchini is the master of camoflage and they have ninja moves so they can't be seen by boys. They are calmer when a woman is near and they practically jump out at you as they want to be caressed and pick up. Yep 5 huge zucchini jumped in my arms and I lovingly showed them to the boys. Alex plans to cut up and fry at least one of them, and once again I am missing home but at least someone is enjoying the fruits of my labor. 

　

Home is Beautiful

Our load doesn't have to be in Granite City until tomorrow at 10 a.m. so that means we had time to stop by the house for the night.  Home sweet Home!!!  I know I have only been gone from home for a week now but it was great to be back even for just one night.  I immediately started cleaning since my boys really didn't do anything while we were gone and usually I would be upset but it was great to stretch my legs and be busy.  Josh did a load of laundry that we had and I made spaghetti for us to eat and while cooking I emptied and loaded the dish washer.  I will never complain again about how small my kitchen is as it seems like paradise now. 

My wonderful mom came to visit us while we were here and was excited to show her all the pictures I took so far on our trip.  After looking at all the pictures I realized that I took 258 pictures and almost all of them were of mountains!  I really loved trying to get some amazing pictures to show how awesome they were and I guess I really got carried away.  Ethan was teasing saying it must of been like Josh was the tour guide and I was the tourist taking all the pics.  I forgot my manual on the ins and outs of what my camera is capable of as it has so many options it makes my head spin.  I am really wanting to learn how to take great pictures and see what I am capable of. 

I was feeling a bit restless still and was wanting to do some more cooking but was having trouble coming up with much with what was available in the house but of course I managed to find something, a cherry pie, my favorite.  We are waiting for it to cool yet and I'm getting a little impatient.  I do love to cook and that is something that I know I am going to miss more and more as we spend more time out on the road. 

I have a small pet peeve too when it comes to cooking and that is using disposable items.  I can't tell you the last time I bought paper plates or even paper towels.  I really was trying to cut down on our spending and cut down on what we put in our trash and right now in the truck it is easier to use these items than not but I am hoping to change that.  I am bringing a wash basin with me on this trip and it will have dual uses, wash dishes in and wash my hair/body in.  When it comes to daily use items that we spent a lot of money that didn't need to be I was more than ready to cut those expenses out.  One step I took is making our own laundry soap and I love it!  It is fraction of the cost and does a great job that I don't even miss using store bought soap.  I mentioned to my family about using cloth instead of toilet paper and then of course washing them and reusing them as I hate buying expensive toilet paper.  That idea didn't fly with anyone in the house and Josh's mom heard about this and had a huge laugh and bought Josh toilet paper for his birthday and told him that was just for him.  Needless to say that idea never came to fruition.  Oh well. 

That brings me to another point.  There is nothing better than pooping at home!  I know that is too much information but I have learned something important, riding in a truck seems to have a constipation effect.  That wouldn't be too bad but if we are going to be out for two weeks at a time I may explode before I get home.  Literally.  I guess all that vibrating is not good on your body but when I got home and relaxed it was finally time for some relief!  Did I mention I was happy to be home?

I will be getting a shower, at home, get some sleep, at home, and watch a bit of tv, at home and going to enjoy it while it lasts.  We will be up early and back on the road.  Since I took so many pics of the mountains here are a few more for you to enjoy.

Construction is a pain in the neck

After I got done writing last night we closed the curtains on the truck and it was completely dark in here. We get settled down in bed and all of a sudden we see a flash of light that was very bright inside the truck. We start thinking of the worst case senarios, was the police outside, was there someone out there with a flashlight? I suddenly can't remember if we had locked the cab doors so Josh gets up to check the locks and is looking outside the windows to try and figure out what is going on. While he is doing that I see another flash of light and had to laugh, I realized that my cell phone was screen side down and whenever I get a notification the flash from the camera goes off a couple of times. I guess I usually don't put it screen side down very often so wasn't used to seeing the flash go off. We were quite relieved that is all that was to that.

That night the air conditioning kept turning off and Josh would wake me up so I could turn it back on so that wasn't fun but the real fun started in the morning when the alarm went off. I sit up quickly and something in my neck "SNAPPED" and hurt like the dickens. Needless to say it has been bothering me all day and it even went into cramping type pain even when I wasn't moving. I laid down to try and relax it a bit and ended up taking a 3-4 hour nap. It still hurts.

We started out in North Carolina this morning and went through the Smokey Mountains and we were loaded even heavier this time. We were screaming up the hill at one point at a whopping 30 MPH. Once we go through we thought everything would be smooth riding, of course that wasn't going to happen. We came upon a section of interstate that they had closed down to one lane of traffic and we were inching our way up for about 6 miles. Since we had time to spare and everyone seemed to have their CB on I got on and asked about what everyones favorite meal to prepare in their truck. At first the only response I got was a guy that said prime rib steak. Then a woman chimmed in and she has been truck driving for 20 years and gave me a few web sites to look at and they have recipes and tips, I look forward to looking at those. Of course I don't think some of the men were happy about having two women on there talking about cooking and the such as one shouted out " do we really have to listen to these cackling hens?" lol. So I guess I made his day!

We made it to Nashville, Tennessee today and stopped and actually had a free shower on our card so today was bath day and it was more than welcomed!!!! I hadn't actually showered since we stopped at our house to pick things up on Thursday. That is one thing that I really don't like about being in the truck. I can go potty in a truck but I love, love, love my showers everyday. I am surprised how well my hair survived but today was the end, it was terrible. Now that we are both clean we are going to settle down and maybe watch a movie and take it easy for the rest of the evening but I am sure that I won't be sleeping soon since I had that long nap.... sigh....

　

The one thing I forgot to add is the massive amount of flowers and decorative trees and such that North Carolina has along the interstate.  It is very beautifully kept with wood chips around them and neatly kept edges.  Just the sheer amount of flowers out there is mind boggling!  I only have a few pic of them but they were impressive, Im guess they have money to spare for beautification projects.

Smokey Mountain High

I have traveled a few places but not very many and there are so many things to see and do. I know I will be disappointed in not being able to stop and admire and see new things but I was not disappointed today! We drove through the Smokey Mountains. It has to be the grandest thing I ever saw and seeing all the creeks with clear water trickling down over rocks it literally brought tears to my eyes. I am not sure why I cried but I couldn't help it. I took tons of pictures but nothing beats seeing it in person. Just the size of it all, the immense drop off on the side of the road to the high walls of rocks that you can't see the top of unless you put your head down on the dashboard. We started driving early in the morning and I can see why they are called the Smokey Mountains because of the mist that just hung between the mountains, letting you get glimpses of the top of the other mountains, making the mountains seem if they were hanging in the air with the clouds.....AMAZING!!! I was definetly thinking of Bob Ross' paintings and wondering if he took these views as inspiration. I can't wait to find out what else I am going to see on our trips and told Josh I am disappointed that we won't be traveling west of the Mississippi River very often as I am ready to see it all!

Now onto the daily stuff... or should I say the weird and boring..lol. First off I would like to say that when I first started this blog I was trying to be a perfect writer, keep the paragraphs, grammar, and punctuation in order. I decided not to fret and just write the way that I want. I guess if I want to write a book later that is what proofreaders are for! I have no intentions on writing a book anyway, but you never know what the future holds as I sure as heck didn't see me doing this!

My bum is sore already. This happened last time I went out with Josh but with my cushiony seat I thought it would take longer for that to happen, I was wrong. Josh is complaining too about his hip and legs feeling crampy. We are both trying to adjust to the new job. We did sleep much better last night, only woke up a few times and the air conditioning stayed on the whole time that I was a bit chilly by morning.

I had full intention on cooking us some breakfast burritos this morning for breakfast/snack and now we found out that the plug in for the microwave will work on isn't on when the truck is in motion. Wonderful. Now I have to make up a whole new plan for when and where I am going to make meals.

We are in Raleigh, NC now and stopped for the night out on the street next to where we picked up our load and tomorrow we head out for Granite City, IL, this means we get to go through the Smoky Mountains again.. this time I will have the tissues ready!

Here is a little side note of something I was thinking about today, there have been studies that says that memories can be stored in DNA. I often wonder if that isn't why I seem to have such a connection with certain items that can't be explained. Maybe I had a distant relative that lived in the mountains and that is why it stirred up such emotion. I also have a weird connection with my Victrola. I don't play it very often especially now that it is covered in stuff and can't be easily accessed but one day I thought I had broke off the wind up handle on it and I was in tears again. Luckily it had been turned the wrong way and came unscrewed all we had to do was screw it back in again and worked perfectly. Do any of you have weird or unusual connections with places or things? I would love to hear about it!

Pictures of random items

I will be periodically be posting pics on here that I will be taking on our travels.  Enjoy!

Josh (my husband) taking his job very seriously.  Smile :)

Thought this guys plate was cool.  One reason is that it has the $ sign on it and two he is the chief petty officer for the Navy.

First two days.. whew!

It truely has been a rough start. Nothing too serious just a little stressful. To begin with the company in their emails and on the phone told us to pack light, bring only what we need for the three days we will be in the hotel and of course they would route us home to pick up everything else we would need for the truck. NOPE. They tried to send us directly on a run to Pennsylvania. Josh told them we needed to go home first to pick up all of our essentials and so they gave us a new route to North Carolina and should have enough time to get home that evening, sleep at home and then head out in the morning. WRONG. When we got to looking on his QUALCOMM (a electronic logbook device) they had put down that Josh was ON DUTY driving when he was in the class room. Needless to say that left us with no time to make it back home that evening, but the mini drama doesn't end there!

Once we get in the truck they assigned us we were let down by the fact that we only have one single sized bed. We were told we would get a bigger bed since both of us will be sleeping in it at the same time. We have no pillows..no blankets...no sheets...and no way of using the bathroom in the truck as all of our supplies are where? Yep at home. We managed to get some sleep. I wake up every few hours as the air conditioning like kicking off by itself and I wake up drenched in sweat and have to reset it for another hour. Wake up in the morning with a very stiff back and a grumpy attitude.

We make our way home and Im on the cell phone talking with our youngest son to put everything on top of our bed that we are taking with us as we have no time to spare to get to North Carolina on time. Josh and I take quick showers while our son throws all of our stuff into the back of the truck for me to sort out later. After leaving the house the rest of our trip is going pretty smoothly except the fact I now know why Josh wanted me to come along... to be his "secretary/cook/drink maker". He has kept me quite busy most of the time but I am happy to do it if it means less stress for him. We are now stopped in Corbin, Kentucky for the night and will make our very first delivery stop tomorrow. I am sure things will get easier from here.

Now onto very important things! The TRUCK. It has good points and its bad points. It rides smoother than other trucks I have been in but it has hardly any pull power as we learned on the hills of Kentucky. I have NO cup holder on my side!!! Yes that is important to me. My seat is a fixed seat with no adjustments but is fairly well padded and so it doesn't hurt my bum too much. It seems to be fairly clean which is a big plus! It does have regular plug ins for items but once we plugged the microwave into one of them it made a zapping noise but the other one seems to work so far.. keep fingers crossed. The QUALCOMM is in a weird place, it is on my side near my shins, so Josh is putting me in charge of doing that too. The biggest complaint of course is the bed size... oh dear... I am hoping tonight goes better and we get better rest.

I am going to close with supper. We are having pulled BBQ beef (as long as the microwave works) on tortillas and maybe a little fruit for dessert. I would appreciate any ideas for meals on the go. I just ask for a few things kept in mind: If needs to be refrigerated it has to fit in a cooler, if needed to be cooked we only have a microwave currently, and as few ingredients as possible if assembled on the road. Put on your thinking caps and have a good night!!!

Starting

My husband Josh and I are not total strangers to the trucking world. He has driven for many years for different companies over the years and has had some other types of jobs in between, but he really enjoys trucking and has decided to return to the trucking world again. The big difference about the current situation is that I will be his handy sidekick full time. I have been on the road with Josh and the longest I have been out with him was two weeks. This is going to be a whole new experience for us both, especially me!

I have always been a homebody. I have always enjoyed being at home and all the things that go with it. I enjoy cooking and even ran a home based bakery out of my home for 3 years. The list of things that I loved to do at home included: gardening, canning, crocheting, knitting, quilting, sewing, cooking, and I have even dabbled in having chickens and stained glass. I guess I should say a lot of those were my hobbies as my first and most important tasks were raising my two boys. I am very grateful that I was able to spend most of my years at home with them but now that they are out of school and starting to branch out into their own lives it is starting to feel like an empty nest. It has been a difficult time for me to let go and let them do their own thing without wanting to control the things that they do every step of the way, but more about that later.

Josh and I know that the only way to make good money truck driving is to be OTR (over the road) driver and we don't want to be apart from each other for weeks at a time so our solution was for me to go with him. He has tried to talk me into getting my CDL so I could drive too and be a team but I assured him that was NOT going to happen. I have a good driving record but I am not a good long distance driver as he found out on a trip to Florida, I only drove one hour of the trip. Plus driving a large truck does scare me. I could do it if pushed to but there is no drive to do it and I'm not willing to even try. This leaves me to be a passenger.

We are starting out with a new company called McLeod out of Decatur, Illinois. We are hoping this is going to be the perfect fit for what we are wanting to do and so far it has been. Josh had to do 3 days of orientation and I was invited to come along. They pay for our ride here and our hotel and while I am not joining Josh at the actual orientation I get to stay at the hotel on what Josh calls my mini vacation of doing nothing but watching television and playing on the internet. This is giving me time to do some research on things and get started on my blog.

I have so many ideas of things I want to write about on my blog that it is hard to stay on topic and keep wanting to branch out before I even get the first topic finished but I think this will be a fun way to keep friends and family updated on what we are doing and hopefully explore new ideas that I can share with other truck drivers. I plan to learn how to use my wonderful new camera and share pictures on our travels. I am very excited about seeing new parts of the country that I haven't been to before as I haven't traveled too much. I realize most of our time will be on the interstates but I believe that I can still find some exciting things to capture and hopefully master with my camera. I am trying to be creative on the things that I can do to occupy my time in the truck and I figure photograpy, crocheting and blogging will be the main items to start with. I am thankful that my best friend Michelle for suggesting to start a blog as I think it will be a great way to share my thoughts and exciting adventures to come.

Welcome!  My name is Kristina and I am going to be blogging about living in a semi truck with my husband and all the things that happen and things we learn along the way.