GOTCHA Tennessee!

I must be getting used to being in the truck as I have no more swelling or constipation and my butt must be getting used to it too as I don't shift as much in my seat as I did before. Josh is going to start keeping track of what eat from now on too as I love salad but salad doesn't agree with me and I was to the potty 4 times this morning and we ran out of chemicals to put in the potty to help with the smell. Today he said I could pick out where I wanted to eat lunch and I said I wanted a salad and he was not amused to say the least. *evil grin*

Before I get into our day and what happened I would like to announce that my youngest son is now officially sworn into the Air Force and we cannot be prouder of him. We hope for many great things for him and I believe this is a great start. I hope he learns to work hard and have some self discipline and that would serve him greatly in his future. I know he wishes to travel too and I can't hardly wait to hear from him in a different country. It is exciting and painful for me at the same time as I know I won't be seeing him very often and he won't need his mommas help anymore.

Our day on the road has been different to say the least we have hit traffic jam after traffic jam on the interstates and one in particular delayed us for an hour and once we found out why, the delay didn't matter. A trucker had an accident and a horriffic one at that. I am not sure if the driver survived but the tangled mess of the truck I would be surprised if he did. His accident happened at 5 a.m. and we drove through at 5 p.m. and they were still cleaning up. We can only speculate as to what happened but from the look of things we think he must of fell asleep at the wheel as there were many scrapes on the concrete of the bridge before the truck went through the metal railings and he plumetted down and must of rolled the truck. We saw two more accidents happen because of the back up of traffic, I swear people go crazy when they are in hurry or think they don't have time to wait like everyone else. One of those accidents happened when we were going 10 mph... not sure why but a guy just rearended the person in front of him and must of hit them pretty good as there was damage to both vehicles. Here is some tips for when you are in a traffic jam:

1. Pick a lane and stay in that lane until you know if you need to switch. Jumping lanes repeatedly will not get you there any faster and you are putting others in danger each time you do so.

2. The shoulder is not a safe place to pass everyone and should be left clear for emergency vehicles and the like.

3. Be patient, we are all waiting and getting mad and blowing your horn or yelling isn't going to do anyone any good.

Luckily all the other times we were in a traffic jam it was because of construction (it is everywhere!) or because it was a busy time of day. I am getting into the point where I am having a bit of road rage myself and I am not even driving, people need to have more courtesy to each other and quit being selfish idiots, and also remember to give truck drivers more room as it is harder for us to stop and move, dodging in front of us is never a good idea.

Today Josh discovered cleavage jam. Yep, sounds disgusting right? Wrong! In our travels there are some foods that we cannot have in the truck unless it is refrigerated and we currently have no way of keeping said items cold and so I have resorted to stocking up on some useful items a little at a time when I see something I want and jam or jelly is one of them. We have taken jelly from our table at restaurants before we usually have our shower bag with us and put them in there, today we didn't have our bag so Josh asked where I was going to put the jam and I took two of them and put them in my bra, you couldn't tell since they were nestled in the middle. Josh asked if I was going to put that on my blog and said sure I am not ashamed! :) I am sure I could have walked out with them in my hand but that wouldn't make a very good story now would it?

I finally got a picture of the Welcome Sign in Tennessee! a real one!! One point to me, zero for Tennessee! Game and match!

It's A Dogs Life

We made it to our stop in South Carolina and now they have rejected our trailer saying there is a dip in the floor and they deemed it unsafe to load. We are trying to patiently wait for someone in dispatch to respond as to what we are supposed to do now. It is quite frustrating to sit and wait and you have no idea if they are even working on the problem as we haven't even talked to a person yet as they are not answering the phones. We have had this problem a lot and even if you leave a voice mail you might as well not expect an answer as I don't even know if they even listen to the voicemails as we have never gotten a call back from anyone that we have left messages for.

Yesterday when we were in North Carolina we got to see something cool but I didn't get a picture of as it happened too fast. We were sitting at a stop light and we hear this large rumble and as it got closer we realized it was a plane and about that time we look up we see two fighter jets flying by and they were flying quite low but not fast enough to break the sound barrier. Further on down the road we did see four, what seemed to be cargo planes from the air force. I love seeing those kinds of planes and would love to ride in one. One other neat things is when you are driving in the mountains there are signs along the road saying that speed is controlled by aircraft and one day we did see helicopters hovering over the road and using radar to catch speeders. They bob and weave over the peaks of the mountains and they seemed to be silent as we didn't hear them at all. After seeing these I was on alert and watching for helicopters hoping to get a picture and I saw a dot in the sky and was about to say "hey there is one" when I saw four other dots in the sky that were evenly spaced and realized that it was power line with those little balls on it. It was high enough in the sky I couldn't tell til we got closer. Josh of course teased me about that and now everytime we see one of those balls he brings that up.

It is fun too see all of the dogs that a lot of truckers have with them and sometimes there are multiple dogs and large breed dogs. Once in a while you see a trucker with a cat but not very often. As Josh and I are looking at this rather large dog get out of the truck he says " I would never have a dog in the truck it would be cruel to the dog as he would have nothing to do but go from bed to seat." I agreed with him but then later on I was thinking, hmmm that is what I do. It would be cruel for the dog but it is ok for me.. am I less than a dog? LOL! I guess I am better than a dog anyway as I can make drinks and food! BWAHAHA Also he can take me into stores without having to put on my special working animal vest.

Hold onto your hats as I am about to unload on our day! Whew and what a day it has been! When I last left you we were waiting on a call from the company as to what we should do about the trailer being rejected. They called and we got a place set up to take the trailer for repairs. We get there and the trailer guy says the trailer is fine, it had a place on the side where something had happened to it before and it was repaired and the repair was good and there really wasn't anything that needed to be done. Josh showed him the inside of the trailer and where they said the floor looked weak because they could see daylight. Repair guy says yes there is a gap there because that is where your wiring goes for your lights. We have repair guy call our company and explain the situation and they decide between them to put some caulking in the area there was daylight and call it good. We go back to get loaded and as soons as Josh backed into the dock the guy there says "same trailer I am not loading it" without even looking at it after we told him we had it repaired and passed a DOT inspection. I am getting a bit mad (ok a lot) and I call the loading company and asked for shipping department. I get a guy on the phone that is hard as heck to understand but I am using my polite "professional" voice and explain that the trailer has been repaired and I need to speak with a supervisor. He said he didn't realize that it was rejected twice and he will go see what is going on. When he comes to the truck and talks with Josh he says Josh's supervisor is on the phone and we need to get this straightened out! LOL! Yep Im Josh's supervisor!!!! hee hee.. If I would have know that I would have played my cards a bit more agressively. Anyway he barely looks at the trailer too and tells him that the trailer is being rejected because of the repairs. So my little call did nothing that I was hoping for and we pull out again and wait for McLeod to get ahold of us again. Josh is so mad at waiting and mad at the loading company that he gets out of the truck with our toilet in hand and empties it next to the road by that enters the loading company. His theory is if they are going to s%^t on me Im going to s%^t on them literally! Yep. We waited for quite a bit and Josh decides to head to a truck stop so we can eat and take a shower. I was really hoping that would help our mood but OH NO! I decide to get an extra towel for our shower and there is no one around so I help myself. Little did I know there were no towels in there at all and so we still only have one towel. I get in the shower and the water was barely warm. We go to eat at Wendy's and the food was nasty, the burgers we got were soaked in grease and dripping out of it when we pick it up. Nice. We get back into the truck and still no word as to what to do now. I lay down and eventually fall asleep, when I wake up we are on the road BACK to North Carolina to pick up a different load. This load is weird to say the least. The instructions on this load says that it is a double blind load meaning we are not to tell the shipper where this is going and we are not to tell the receiver where it came from. Plus when we start getting loaded Josh had to physically count the pallets on the load as the shipper wasn't supposed to tell us how many pallets we were getting but Josh had to call the load broker to tell them how many we got and they had no idea what was going on either! When Josh called them and told them 28 pallets were loaded they wanted to know if they could fit anymore, um no... trailer is full... they thought we were supposed to get 29 1/2... Josh explained that is what was on the pallets 29 1/2' long board pieces. Oh.. he says.... geez. Just makes you wonder what is up with all of the secrecy! I asked Josh are we hauling drugs or guns or something... makes you wonder and I really hope we aren't! We leave the shipper and haven't found a place close to weigh the load and not too far down the road is a weigh station and of course it is open. Nothing we could do so we hold our breath (to make it lighter..ha ha) and we get a green light meaning our load was ok. Later down the road and we went into another weigh station and got a green light there too, thank goodness! Josh is still wanting to get the load weighed but I am thinking that is unnecessary now. This load is going to Illinois and we are hoping that we get to go home this weekend as we have a special 3 year olds birthday party to go to and we NEED a break. Stress levels have been high and it is wearing on both of us as proof this morning, neither of us wanted to get up out of bed and Josh is fighting a headache since yesterday. We also had trouble finding a place to park last night and we went over our clock by 30 minutes but finally got into a rest area and quite early this morning we had a woman knocking on our truck, don't know what she wanted as by the time I got to the door she got into her car and then stopped at the truck ahead of us then she left on the interstate. Whatever. I guess I've typed enough for today, have a great day! :)

　

　

　

Air Force airplanes that we saw

Yes that is a large hat on top of there!

Picture of skyline in Charlotte, NC

Game on!

We are in Tennessee. I finally got a picture of the welcome sign, it is even in black and white to give it that old world feel.

Ok I guess I can't fool you, this isn't an actual picture. I didn't realize how close we were to the Tennessee line and I was on the phone with Ethan when the sign went by, it is funny how I have been through Tennessee how many times and I have yet to get a picture, game on Tennessee, game on.

We are headed to North Carolina today and of course this is a screwed up load too. They originally gave us a load that was to go to Ohio but they changed their minds as another driver that had a load was at time at home and they didn't account for the fact that she was to be home for three days and they only wanted her to be home for one day. We are quickly finding out that this company doesn't like for you to go home and when you do they try to cut it short. Anyway we had to call up this lady driver and ask her where the load was and we went and picked it up and made it to a truck stop for the night and we need to be leaving now but we are parked in by a four wheeler. I don't know what they were thinking parking right in front of us but now we are waiting on the owner to come back to move it. I don't think I would know how to act if things went smoothly! :) We did get our next load info and it is for South Carolina, yep the same dang place that we had to wait for 6 hours to get loaded. I guess I will have plenty of time to get my crochet on! I just don't know what else to do with myself today just feeling a bit out of sorts, not feeling content I guess, I am wanting to accomplish something today and there isn't many choices of things to do. I think I am feeling a bit frustrated as I would rather be home in my garden weeding as the weeds are tall enough now the plants can hardly be seen. My kids keep telling me that they will help but that is yet to be seen. I am also frustrated as Josh told me last night that basically my idea of living on a "farm" type area isn't going to work as my proof of my garden. Maybe he is right but right now all I am feeling is defensiveness. I gave up everything to be in the truck with him, so we could be together and try and help him out. Ok enough rant.. I am emotional and not thinking clearly and will try to be more objective later. Hope you all have a great sunny day!

What is in our future?

We are sitting in London, Kentucky now. This company can't quite figure out what they are going to decide on and it gets a bit frustrating. Last night we had the load for North Carolina and was sitting in the truck stop in Decatur and Josh and I stayed up a bit late last night as we knew we would have time to sleep in this morning since we weren't supposed to be going anywhere, but bright and early the QUALCOMM starts going off that we have a new messages. When Josh reads them it says to bring the load that we have now and drop it in the yard and pick up the load we now have going to Kentucky. It doesn't deliver til tomorrow so we are now sitting in another truck stop wasting time til we can drop this load. Something that kind of made me a little mad is when Josh was talking to the dispatcher last night and told Josh that is ok to be overweight by a few hundred pounds and he could go ahead and take the load as it was. First off we were overweight by 740 lbs, not a few hundred, and secondly if we did take the load and go into a weigh station the DOT would fine Josh and it would go on his drivers liscense and the company wouldn't be responsible for it at all. I feel sorry for the person that does take that load and wonder if they will have him take it as is or if they will actually have some of the weight taken off.

Now onto the subject of men and how sometimes it so hard to understand why they do the things they do. Of course I will only be using Josh in this comparison but I am sure everyone can relate that sometime men and women do things differently and it isn't always clear to either sex why they do it that way.

Example 1: Josh had asked me the other night if I wanted to stay in a hotel overnight instead of sleeping in the truck. I said no because that is just another expense that we don't need and the subject was dropped. Last night when the dispatcher told us we would have to sit with that load til Monday he did offer us a free hotel room to stay in and Josh declined and when I asked why he said he didn't want to stay in flea bag motel room. I am only going to guess that they are only flea bag motels if they are free otherwise he is getting his moneys worth? Sigh.

Example 2: Josh had stopped in a CB shop and was wanting to price some items and maybe get his old CB working because in his mind it is the "best" and we also found out that it is now illegal. He has a CB in the truck and it is hooked up and it works but the distance on it doesn't work very well. The shop told him that they could put on a better antenea on his truck for $200, and we didn't have the money for it then but he is fixated on this now. He only uses the CB whenever we get in a traffic jam to find out what is going on up front and which lane he needs to be in. He would often roll his eyes at what some of the truck drivers are talking about as most of them are being gross or just plain mean to each other. I told him I didn't think we needed to spend money on that because of the little use. He is now turning it on a lot I guess to prove that he needs it and would use it and talks about it all the time. Sigh

Example 3: When we are at a truck stop with nothing to do Josh always wants to "trash around the truck stop" meaning he wants to go look at things in the truck stop. I don't mind this usually as it is a way to get out and stretch our legs but he seriously shops and looks at everything while we are there. These truck stop don't vary much in what kinds of items they carry and even then it isn't anything that is of interest to me. I think that I am going to see if I can talk him into doing some walking around the parking lot instead.

Example 4: Parking. I am not a truck driver but I do understand mostly what it entails to park a semi, Josh is constantly driving around and around the parking lot looking for the perfect parking spot. He has had to do some interesting manuevers to park and I understand that but the constant circling the lot and complaining about other drivers doing the same is irritating. When the clock is running down and we need to park and he refuses to park in a certain area because it isn't to his liking and I am screaming in my head "just park the dang thing!"

After rereading some of these I think I am just complaining more than anything but there was a point that I was trying to get to. One night Josh and I had a discussion on what our current goals are, which direction are we going, and how to achieve it. We don't seem to be on the same path anymore.as neither of us are sure where we want to go and this seems to be a bigger problem the longer we go. Things have drastically changed in our lives such as our children are now grown and we feel we have more freedom now and we are trying to decide what to do with this new freedom. Our first and short goal is to get caught up on bills and try to get some things paid off and be able to maintain at the very least. Josh has asked me many times how long I am going to stay in the truck and I have no answer. I know I don't want to do this for many years but exactly how long I don't know. He is interested in being an Owner Operator and buy his own truck and I am too afraid of doing that. I want to buy some land, where I am not sure, but I would like to own our own property with lots of acreage to build up something of a farm and to be able to garden. We won't be able to afford to do both and so we are at a stand still. We are lost to say the least and there is no easy answer for either of us. Josh has always said the we are like Ying and Yang, even though we are total opposites we fit together and complete one another but now it seems our differences are not strengthing us anymore. Sometimes I wonder if we are putting too much thought into this and maybe we should just wait and see what happens. Who knows what the future holds.

　

Mac Daddy

We have spent the past couple of days doing short trips in Northern Illinois again and not too much to report. We just picked up our load that will be going to North Carolina and we will be dropping off at the exact same place we went to last time. I think Josh likes this as he know where it is and how things work. We don't know yet what load we will get next but we are really hoping it is not the place in South Carolina where we had to wait for 6 hours to get loaded. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I have been a total bum lately and my hygiene is showing it. It is funny how I have used the thought process that "who cares what I look like I am sure I won't see these people again" has changed my habits and routine. Stubbled legs, messy/oily hair, and wearing underwear for more than one day doesn't bother me much anymore. I have seen many woman drivers out on the road (more than I ever expected) and they seem to be quite put together. One woman in particular that I saw had on all of her makeup, hair was done, and was dressed nicely, not a wrinkled cloth in sight and I was impressed. I am wondering if she was a local driver and was home often or if she really put in that much effort each day. I was never one to take much time on my appearance, the only time I wore even a bit of makeup was in high school, I guess after having kids that type of stuff just wasn't important to me anymore. Tonight is shower night and I am looking forward to it as my hair is driving me nuts, sticking up everywhere it almost feels like it is floating on my head, and yes clean underwear will be implemented as well.

Change of plans again. I don't think this company knows how to handle weekends. We pick up our load and knew it was going to be a heavy one and Josh was dreading taking it over the mountains as we were going to be maxed on weight, but we only got to the local truck stop to weigh it and come to find out that we are over max weight by 740 pounds. Josh calls dispatch and they tell him to take it to the manufacturer, the first place we stop tells us that we have to go to a different area where this product is made and so we head there, we get there and they tell Josh that no one is in the buildings to change our load on weekends, we will have to wait til Monday to have that fixed. They tell us to take it to their truck lot and drop it there, once there they tell us they can't take the load either! So we make it to McLeod lot and we find out that they want us to stay with this load instead of giving us another one. That means sitting in the truck until Monday morning til we can get the load fixed. Nice. This load was scheduled to deliver on Monday too.. hmm.. don't think it is going to make it on time.

Earlier today when we were in Champaign, IL a storm came and if anybody knows me I do not like storms. If I am someplace where I feel safe it isn't so bad but the wind came up quite strong with the rain and we were sitting in a parking lot and I could feel the truck rocking with the wind. My mind always comes up with the worst senario, tornado. I have always had a fear of them and have dreams about them all the time. I wasn't worried about a tornado picking us up rather I was worried that the strong winds would break something loose and it would come through the truck. I miss the days of living at home and my bedroom was in the basement and felt quite safe there, no matter how bad the storm I could hide and usually if the storms were to get bad we always had some family come over to be safe too and that would take my mind off of what was going on most of the time. I love the child innocence of mind and think that as long as I was with my parents nothing bad would happen. I truely believed that my dad has superman vision when we would be driving in the rain as I couldn't see nothing but he always drove through it without a problem.

The is the daddy of all Mac and Cheese!  This large noodle is sitting in front of Kraft in Champaign, IL.  I am not sure if I like the words on it though....plus I am enjoying the view of the guy that must be picking out belly button lint. :P

 If you look very very close on the guard shack it says no cameras so I had to take a picture of it! I can't tell you where this was taken because I think they might call the County Mounty to erase all my pictures of industrial espionage.  If you don't hear from me again you know what happened! Hee hee

　

10-4 Good Buddy

Today I decided to share a bit of trucker lingo, as some of it is funny and soon you all will be talking just like us truckers. lol.

Deadhead = Going anywhere empty

Bobtail = No trailer attatched

Drop and Hook = Leaving an empty trailer and picking up a preloaded one

Chicken Coop = Weigh Station

Pickle Park = Rest Area

Chicken Hauler = A truck with a lot of lights on it

Four wheelers = a car or truck

Parking Lot = Car Carrier Semi Truck

Lot Lizard = Paid short term escort.. ahem...

Tanker = Semi hauling Liquid

Drop Deck = Semi with a two level trailer

Flatbed = No sides or coverings on trailer

Pete = Peterbuilt brand truck

KW = Kenworth brand truck

Freight Shaker = Freightlinger brand truck

10-4 = alright or OK

Hopper Bottom = a truck that unloads from the underside

Wiggle Wagons = any two or three trailered semis

Bears/County Mounty/City Kitty/Po Po = Police

Hiding in the weeds = Police using radar gun on side of road

Sitting in the median = Police waiting on the asphalt sections between two interstates

Covered wagons = Flatbed with sides that is tarped on top that is rounded

Spread Axle = Any truck where the tires aren't set together

Jake Brake = is an engine retarder that is used to slow the truck without using the air brakes

Reefer = A refrigerated trailer

Super Single = refers to a single tire instead of a pair on a truck or trailer

Van = any dry non refrigerated trailer aka dry box

Day cab = no sleeper on truck just front seats

Cab over = a truck with no hood where the truck sits over the engine

Conventional = any truck with a hood

Flat top = a truck with a shortened height sleeper

Schneider egg = Any orange barrels or cones from construction zones

Fifth wheel = part of the truck that the trailer connects to and rests on

King Pin = an actual pin on the underside of the trailer that connects the trailer to the truck

Pig tail = the electrical cords that connects the truck to the trailer

Governed = having a truck that is restricted to a certain speed

Any my all time favorite is......drum roll please.....

Hauling Sailboat Fuel = empty trailer

Here is a little tid bit too that you might not know is a lot of the chain truck fueling stops have reward cards and they are quite a little gem to have and almost a necessity if you are a truck driver. When you fuel at these truck stops they will give you points on your reward card that can be used to buy almost anything in the store. They also let you earn shower rewards so you can shower for free otherwise it cost anywhere up to $10-13. We use this card frequently for drink refills and last night was able to use it to buy some pillows for the truck! You know I missed my pillows and was more than happy to have them back. Right now Pilot (which is where we are authorized to fuel) is giving double points all summer long! :) I believe right now we have around $25 on our card and each time we fuel we get more which isn't hard when you drive as much as we have lately. The only thing that I don't like is that when we are in a truck stop they always charge you for use of the wifi...and it is quite costly and you can't use your points to pay for it. I mean come on.. it doesn't really cost them hardly anything to provide wifi, most places like restaurants have it for free but I guess I shouldn't complain as we do get quite a bit on our reward card for free.

Fun with night time camera in Tennessee

This picture was also from Tennessee.  I have yet to get the elusive Welcome to Tennessee sign yet.

Rembering old and making new memories

Thank goodness the place where we was to pick up our load was the right place because we waited for 6 hours to be loaded. Josh never did confirm that indeed it was the right place and I believe we got lucky on that. After getting loaded we still had 6 hours of drive time left on the clock and he wanted to shut down, I was not wanting to do that, we had sat in the truck for 6 hours with no pay and now it was time to make some time and money. He relented and headed down the road but as we both know it is harder to find a place to park for the night the longer you are out after dark. Luckily we found a place with a whole 30 seconds to spare. We did end up in Tennessee but was unable to get a picture of the welcome sign as we didn't see one.

Driving in the night through the mountains was amazing, probably not as much for Josh as he is the one driving but it was so dark there, no street lights, no city lights and if there wasn't so much cloud coverage I bet the stars at night would be amazing. I am so wanting to find a place just like that for star gazing and to be able to see the Milky Way again as I did as a child. I have one memory in particular that I love, it was me and my grandma Mabel driving home from church that was in the country and it was so dark I laid in the back seat just watching the stars and I thought they were following us. I told grandma this and she stopped the car and turned off the headlights and explained to me that they weren't following us and she also pointed out the Milky Way and of course big and little dipper. I didn't think much about it then but that memory has stuck with me. Another memory that has stuck with me is seeing the northern lights. I was sitting in the back yard and began to see these red fingers of light coming across the sky. I hollar for mom and dad to come see this and we are watching together trying to decide what it was. It never changed color it was only red and we figured it had to be the northern lights. We teased that knowing our luck it was radiation from a nuclear bomb being dropped and here we are sitting outside just watching it.

I didn't get many pictures of South Carolina as there wasn't too much of interest to take a picture of.. The further west we got the more mountains there were but for the most part it is a flat land with lots of trees. We did notice that once we got on the interstate it wasn't a very well kept road as it had a lot of potholes. I was also surprised that once we got into the bigger towns they weren't all that big. No large buildings or even heavy traffic. I do believe that it must be a poorer state than most. We did see a lot of swampy areas around and Josh teased that now all we needed was a gator and a banjo.LOL.

Our view for 6 hours...

Batmans secret lair isn't a secret anymore I guess.

Beautiful silver lined clouds of South Carolina

Pines in sweet South Caroline

I have been feeling so exhausted lately that I haven't kept up on things like I should and I am sorry for that. Not sure what is making me feel this way but I know Josh says he felt the same way all day yesterday. I know I am missing my pillow and I wake up sore and know I didn't sleep in a very comfortable position all night and that is probably part of the problem. I think trucking is a very draining job and it is one you just can't leave even when off duty.


We traveled to North Carolina and did a drop and hook which makes it nice and the people there were extremely nice too. It was a small place and very beautifully kept considering it was a animal food manufacturer. Then we headed to Florence, SC and our instructions say that it is a place called Smurfit Stone. I was wondering if we were going to see smurfs or not.. ha ha. Our only direction is that is on Papermill Road, no actual address. We are driving down this very skinny road and there is nothing for miles and we are really starting to get concerned, there is nothing but trees and a few houses. We see what looks to be a business that allows trucks and we go in there and of course the guy at the guard shack says "nope this isn't the place and I have no idea where you need to go, never heard of the place". Oh good gravy. So we head down the road again and find a place that Josh is sure where we need to be and there is a line of trucks ahead of us. Josh is just sitting there, not doing anything and the clock is ticking down as he only has 1 hour left on it. I hop on the CB and ask if we were in the right place, no one knew. I asked if they were waiting in line for pick up and they said yes, for a live load. We thought we were going to drop and hook again and they told us we needed the other entrance for that and here we are on a two lane road, no where to turn around and there is a truck behind us now. Josh again just sits there. I am getting a little hot under the collar as I know we have to get out of here or run out of time. I once again hop on the CB and ask if we pass everyone on the left side of the road is there a place to turn around up front and they said they think there is. We start passing these trucks and hoping we really don't run into another truck going the other way as the line was a least a mile long and the road is curvy and trees lining the road blocks your view of anything ahead. We get up to the front and there is a place to turn around and we go to the the other entrance and for drop and hook loads and the yard driver tells us that he doesn't "think" that we have that type of load, it will be a live load. We go back into town and find a place to park at a gas station and decide to come back in the morning and hoping the line won't be as long. We are back this morning and there is a line but not as long. Josh says he is going to be mad if this isn't the right place again and we waited for nothing. I told him to walk up to the guard shack and find out but he is refusing. I swear the way he does things sometimes drives me nuts! I asked him why he didn't get on the CB yesterday and ask questions and he said he didn't know but I know that he is so afraid of looking stupid he just doesn't do anything. I guess I don't mind looking stupid, all I want is some answers.

When we were coming into South Carolina we came in by two lane highways. I have to say first of all that I am amazed at all the pine trees that are down here. I guess I just always assumed that most pine trees were further north but they are everywhere down here, more so than other states that we have been to. This state is also seems to be like a place that time has forgotten. There are quite a few old homes that aren't necessarily in horrible condition but you can tell they are quite aged. It seems to be a poor area as there isn't a hardly any newer looking homes for many miles and even then the newer homes look to be built around the 80's. The places may look poor and old but they still seem to be well kept as in the yards are mowed and there isn't trash sitting everywhere, of course I did see a sign that littering fines are $1000 and jail time, that is one of the most severe penalties I have seen. It is flat here and no mountains but the dirt seems to be quite sandy here as some yards don't have much grass and a lot of them don't even have gravel for driveways because nothing grows there anyway and I guess with the sandy soil don't have to worry about mud either. It really seems to be a quiet place, things seem to be far and few inbetween and lots of wooded areas. I can say that the humidity here is quite high, I would say even more than at home.

We are just an hour away from Myrtle Beach and I tried my dangdest to get Josh to take me there but of course we couldn't.  I knew seeing things would be hard from the truck but I hate being so close to something and not being able to take a bit to check things out. 

A view of North Carolina



We are going where?

Here is the update on the past few days. We headed to the Walmart DC in Olney and we get a call saying that they are giving our run to Maryland to someone else that has been waiting for a load and instead of them sitting waiting they decided to give them our load and we would be "on call" on Sunday. There was nothing for us Sunday either so we got to stay at home and we were able to go grocery shopping, get my medication refilled, and laundry done. They told us to call in Monday morning to see what they have going on then. Today we call in and they said they just got in the office and don't know what is available just yet. Josh was trying desperately to get ahold of our dentist to get in to get a tooth pulled. He had a filling fall out and the dentist told him before he would have to have it pulled as it was just rotted. Luckily they could get him in right away and got that done quite quickly and was home in no time. When he got back he called in again and they had a load for us to Michigan. We quickly load up our things (maybe too quickly as we forgot our pillows at home) and was on our way to Decatur, IL to pick up the load that goes to Michigan. We arrive where we were to pick up and they told us that the load isn't done loaded yet and we needed to go to their other building to pick it up. We head over there and the guard tells us that that load won't be ready for another 5 hours. Nice. We decide to go to the McLeod building to wait and hopefully get the truck washed while we are there. Josh goes inside to turn in some paperwork and they tell him that instead of waiting for 5 hours for that load they had a more urgent load that needs to go out immediately. They want us to go to North Carolina, this load was actually was supposed to be delivered last week! What?! What kind of Mickey Mouse operation is this anyway? One driving waiting for a load and taking our load and letting us sit at the house for more than a day and this load is already late and they wait til Monday to figure this out! Frustrating to say the least, and on top of that they want this load delivered by 6 p.m. Tuesday. This is pushing our driving time to the limit to get it there in that time line but I guess if it is already a week late I guess they shouldn't mind if it is a few hours later than they were told.

This is the first time really that Josh has driven in the dark and I have to say that some of these larger cities like Cincinatti, Ohio is much prettier in the dark. You don't see all of the trash and bad broken down buildings just lights, even as we crossed the river into Kentucky there were tons of little boats and it just looked like floating christmas lights.

I started crocheting today until it got too dark and that really seemed to help the time go by quicker but I have to say my back doesn't like it, I guess I bend over too much when I am doing it and when you are hitting bumps all the time it seems to make me slump even more. I am going to need a back brace at the end of this if I keep up doing that way.

Good night everyone.

　

MINE MINE MINE

You would think that I would learn my lesson and not try to type for the blog while the truck is going down the road but once again here I am sitting on the bed and trying not to make to many typos while bouncing and balancing the laptop. I am a slow learner sometimes.

Today we have been hopping all over northern Illiinois and we aren't done yet. They must of ran out of long haul loads as we have been picking up and delivering 3 different loads all pretty close to one another. We will be delivering to the Olney Walmart DC tomorrow and they told us we could have some home time while we are there, as long as we are running on time that is, so it probably will end up just being able to sleep in our own beds and then back out again but it will be nice for that much.

This morning while we waited in our truck for our time to leave we were parked in a truck stop in Gary, Indiana and we were noticing the seagulls. I of course wanted to see the feeding frenzy and threw a small bit of my sandwich to them and here they all come. I told Josh that I wanted to get some pictures of them so I crouch down by the truck and take a few then signaled him to throw another piece of sandwich and took pics of that too. The birds must of got bored waiting for us to throw more as most left then we tore up a tortilla we had and feed a few that remained. Josh reminded me about how in Finding Nemo it sounds like they are saying "mine, mine, mine" and at times it did sound like it.

I am sure you can tell by now that I am not very good at taking pics or have much of an inclination to take pics of cities unless there is some great architecture. I am going to have to say that nature pics are my thing, it is so much more interesting to me and so beautiful. I always wondered who would want to live in a big city and all of the congestion, close neighbors, traffic, and noise but the longer I think about it I am glad most people prefer to live in the bigger cities, if we all wanted to live in the country there would be no country to have and for that I am thankful. I know everyone has their preferences and mine is country all the way. I have been doing a lot of research and reading on living and being self sufficient in the country and some things I think is just rediculous. Josh and I watched a documentary about people living in tiny houses. I totally support the idea that we don't have to have huge homes to live in and keeping things to a minimum is a good idea but the show we watched had a young man building his tiny home on a small trailer bed, he wanted something mobile so it wouldn't be considered a permanent structure as there are laws saying he couldn't live in such a small space. I believe it was about 164 square feet, very tiny and he was building it himself to save money which I applauded. The huge downfall to all of this is he spent nearly $28,000 building it! Wow! Our first home we bought was only $20,000 and we had full sized rooms! I was thinking that he should have bought an RV type thing and it would already be set up for everything that he was wanting to do. It is cool to build it yourself and and look at it and say "hey I made that" but there is also a need for some common sense in this all too. I also wonder if this was just a hobby type thing for him and he really doesn't have any intention on living in it on a permanent basis and if so that is a lot of resourses wasted. OK ok... I will get off my soap box for now but I am sure I will get back on again later, you have been warned.

I also found out that one of our future loads will be going to Maryland! Yeah a new state and I will give you my full report with pictures.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Not much happening today besides driving. We are in Gary, Indiana for the night as we called the company that we were to deliver to and asked if they would take us early and of course they wouldn't so we are waiting til morning to unload. We did get a call from our dispatcher and told Josh he was doing a kick ass job. I guess that is professional talk for guys. I think more of the point was to call and tell us he doesn't have a new load for us for tomorrow. It's Chicago, surely there is something out there. I am just amazed at the load we have now which all it is a load of pallets. I realize pallets are used everywhere and very helpful to unload and load a truck but was it really necessary to have a load of only pallets go all the way from New Jersey to Chicago? I guess it isn't any of my business we get paid the same no matter what we are hauling.

Since not much happened on the trucking front I guess now is a time for my musings. Topic today is trucking partners. When we were telling people that we were going trucking together all the people asked Josh if he was really sure he wanted to do that, and if he ever has rode with me in the truck before. I realize there may be some men out there that would be horrified to have their wife with them 24/7 but I am really thinking that Josh is not one of them. In all of this I didn't really have anyone ask me if I would be ok with being stuck in the truck with Josh. Maybe it is different for men than it is with women. I am keep asking Josh how he feels having me here and he continues to reassure me that he wouldn't have it any other way. He does take good care of me and makes sure I have everything that I need and usually want. I really do miss home somedays and wonder why I took this on but somedays I feel content and really feel like I have just traded one stress for another. It wasn't overly stressful at home but at times like anything it could be and I was home alone most of the time too which I didn't necessarily like. Josh had planned on helping me through the "empty nest syndrome" as he knew I would be depressed about and I haven't given it a thought since I have been out here with him, so in his own weird and cockeyed way he is helping me and things are going pretty good. I just wish I didn't have this caged animal feeling. I am constantly moving from the bed to the seat and vise versa. There isn't much moving room and easy access to the things we do have in here is closing in and I hate that feeling. It is funny though as we are together so much more I don't get as many kissies as I used to. He just read that and explained the reason, it is because he is constantly at work and even when we shut down for the night there is still a lot to get done. That's ok... I will sneak those kissies in anyway, that should be a work perk!

I did get some pics of some pretty cool cars so I will share those with you. I am not taking as many pics now that I have seen some of these areas and really excited to expand our driving routes to new places. Josh and I did discuss that living in Pennsylvania might not be too bad as we seem to like the areas there. I see some really amazing homes and think "yeah I could live there" but there only seems to be one major problem with those homes, they are right next to the interstate. I mean really I am sure they have paid some major bucks for these homes and they seem pretty secluded except for the fact that you have interstate noises all the time. I can't imagine that being very relaxing. If I am to move again we are going to own a house out in the middle of no where and there will be no noises but from nature, not man.

Here is a cool stone retaining wall that was colored to show the different layers of stone in the mountain.  We think this was in PA, things are running together it is hard to remember.

Here is another little tidbit, we play a game of "what's making that noise".  As I am sure you know trucks ride rough and makes things move around and shake, and it drives both of us crazy when there is a rattling noise and we are always on the hunt to find out what it is.  It is funny I am sure to see us holding different things down to see if that is the object making the noise.  Yep it is extremely fun around here!

　

New Jersey the Garden State???

I will start out by saying that I didn't get any awesome pictures today as I was hoping. We had Ethan look last night on Google Earth to see if it was even possible to see the Statue of Liberty from the road we were going to take (out of route) so I could get a pic of the lovely lady, but as all lovely ladies she is too short to really see. We might have seen the torch but from the pic it would be hard to recognize that is what it is so we decided against going there. The town we were in, Carteret, NJ, I was hoping we would be close enough to see Staten Island and once again I was let down, close but not close enough and no roads that trucks were allowed on to get closer. I am hoping we get another chance someday but for now it was a no go.

Let me tell you about New Jersey. I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to live there. We traversed all over Jersey and there was nothing, and I do mean nothing that was even remotely exciting. New Jersey is called the Garden State. If growing interstates with tolls is what they were talking about then they more than accomplished that. It just looked like a dreary, dirty state. Everywhere you looked there was trash and weeds high enough that they were covering the signs that we needed to see. Everything looked rusty and unkempt, even the place where we dropped off at is a grocery warehouse and it was just disgusting. The traffic there is also horrid, and with so many major roads it is quite easy to get lost there. I am glad that we got the heck out of there and have no desire to return.

We did however get to dip into a new state! Delaware! I didn't get a picture of the welcome sign as I was trying to look at the map to give Josh directions but I did get a pic to prove that we were there. I have other states that I have missed also and will try to add them as soon as we get a chance.

We are in Pennsylvania for the night and look forward to a long day of driving tomorrow, sigh. We are headed to Bowling Brook, Illinois near Chicago. I am not sure where we are heading next yet but I know I will keep you posted.

One other thing that I have thought of often as we are driving down the road is seeing all of these houses that are decaying or in need of some great repairs and just thought of the first owners and how proud they must of been building their new home, and if they were to see them now how disappointed they would be in the condition of these homes. I have a great love of older homes and I want rescue so many of them but I know our pocketbook cannot even come close to letting me do even one but my heart does go to them so. 

Can't you just smell the garden breeze here? hmm... I think not.

 Here is my proof that we were in Delaware :)

Josh's limelight

Today's blog is brought to you today by the letter F and the number 5. (Seasame Street reference) Anyway seriously I am going to dictate everything that Josh has to say about the hours in the truck and if it doesn't come out clear it isn't my fault...hee hee.

There are five types of statuses for the driver:

On Duty, not driving. Anytime you are on duty but not physically driving the truck. Examples are loading and unload or getting fuel.

On Duty, driving. This entails driving.

Off Duty, anytime you are free to persue your own interests. Examples are having lunch, home time, anytime you are not in the driver seat or not doing any work related activities.

Off Duty Driving, only certain companies allow this, you are only allowed 1 hour off duty, during that hour you may drive up to 30 mintues away and can be off duty for longs as you are allowed and then you have 30 minutes of driving back.

Sleeper Berth, anytime you are actually in the sleeper area.

Now that we have these statuses broken down we can explain the clocks that we have to keep an eye on.

There are four clocks.

70 hour clock, is the amount of hours that you are allowed to work in a 8 day week. This includes all on duty and driving time.

14 hour clock, starts at the beginning of your day and doesn't stop until 14 hours later. To reset this clock you must have a ten hour break. This includes all on duty and on duty driving time.

11 hour clock, is how much drive time you have total in one day, this is on duty driving only.

8 hour clock, determines when you need to stop for a 30 minute break, this break must be taken within the 8 hour clock, after the break the 8 hour clock resets, it may be necessary due to unforseen circumstances to take a second break before your 14 hour clock runs out.

Luckily with the electronic log book it tells us how much time we have on each clock and it is easier to keep track of this way. I hope this make sense, if not please call Josh on his mobile phone...hee hee.

Back to me now. Today we got to see a crop duster in Ohio but it wasn't what I am used to seeing it was a helicopter. I kept seeing it come over the hill briefly and wondering what was going on but then we saw him and dang he could get awful close to the crops that way.

We made it to New Jersey today and about 45 minutes away from our drop off that we will do in the morning. Josh took a different route this time and was hoping to see some new states today but he didn't get off on the right exit and we ended up just going by Philadelphia and let me tell ya there is nothing to see there. It is crowded and lots of crappy places and wholey moley tons and tons of tolls. I didn't even get to see any impressive buildings, they must be on the south side of town. It didn't help the mood any that is was totally pouring rain the whole time.

On the brighter side of things we stopped in a rest area and I wanted to pick some flowers (or weeds by some peoples standards) while we were there. We found this little cove area that would be perfect for murdering someone...(sorry but it is true) but it was full of all kinds of plants and anything that had flowered I pick at least one of them. While there we saw a bunny on the edge of all this bramble as if to welcome us. It was very nice there and was so happy that my dear hubby helped me in all of this and even pointed out different ones that I might have missed. He carried my little bundle to the truck and I got all emotional, I told him "ya know it is the little things that mean the most" and he agreed. He is just trying to make up some brownie points with me after burning a few while at home..lol.

We got our new load assignment for tomorrow and we will be heading back to Illinois. Josh is now trying to see if we can get close to the Statue of Liberty as he knows how much I want to see it. Where we are delivering to is right next to Staten Island and hoping there is something interesting to take a picture of there. Tomorrow could potentially be quite exciting!

My collection of flowers.  I pressed them in a book for keeping.

This was my favorite, it was like a little orange cup.

17 days

Josh and I counted up that we have been on the road for 17 days and that is not counting the three days of orientation that we had.  We made it home today for our two days off.  It does seem weird to come home and be so disconnected on what has been happening here and that I am not in control of the cleaning or organizing of things.  We also counted up today that we have been in 11 states in those 17 days and looks like we will be adding to that number even more in the weeks to come.  The load we had for Illinois doesn't deliver until Monday and after delivery of that load we already have our new load assignment and we will be delivering in New Jersey, too bad I already have the New Jersey sign in the pictures. 

We will be lounging today and as Josh put it "distressing" before having to go back out again.  I feel like there is tons of things I should be doing instead of lounging but of course we have to sit and give some love to the animals for awhile.  Our cat I think was actually happy to see us this time and our dog (or as some call him creature) is always happy to see us and that is nice feeling to be missed.  Our boys on the other hand seem indifferent that we are home and probably prefer like feeling like kings of the household while we are gone. 

I probably won't post again til Monday or Tuesday but I promise that sometime in the future I will explain the clock situation for truck drivers and will post some pics of our living quarters in the truck.  I really need to find something that will occupy my time that Josh doesn't find annoying.  I have played the heck out of the games that I have on my cell phone and that really helps pass time, and surprisingly I haven't crocheted anything yet, just haven't been in the mood to do so.  Josh really gets into books on tape to listen to while we are going down the road but the problem with that is we don't agree on what to listen to so we just listen to the ones he already owns and loves. 

Here is two semis delivering 4 tires... those are some BIG tires!



 

I guess this hill is the only place where there is gravity. ;)

PA Fun

A crazy day in PA! We started the day south of Pittsburg and headed to our destination of Bethlehem, PA which is almost to the New Jersey state line. The roads in PA are crazy! Never in my life had I seen stop signs for on ramps to interstates. There were places where there were no merge on ramps, you had to yield or stop before getting onto the interstate. Also with all of the hills and mountains a lot of the interstate is 55mph. We got really slowed down as there was a oversized load ahead that had a police escort and took up the whole interstate. Luckily they found a place to pull over for awhile and we were able to pass them and go on.

We got close to Hershey, PA and was hoping they would be passing out free chocolate on the interstate, and about as soon as I said that we saw a man walking down the interstate and told Josh to stop he must be the one handing out chocolate! LOL! Even if this man did have chocolate I wouldn't want it from him, he was a bit rough looking.

On one section of road where they were doing construction (which is everywhere no matter where you go there is some kind of construction going on in every state) we were quite high in the mountains and they had the white line for the edge of the lane was under the guard rail and past the guard rail was a huge drop off. I told Josh I didn't like this part at all! Made me very nervous and was glad when we got through that.

There are plenty of mountains and beautiful landscapes here too but what I love the most is seeing all of the farms that are scattered around. A lot of the homes had stone bases and a lot of barns were made completely of stone and they were the big beautiful house and it seemed like all of them were two stories tall. I can't imagine being a farmer in this kind of area with all the hills, we don't know how lucky we are in Illinois to have a flat area to farm on. I told Josh the only kind of farm I would have out here is a goat farm, at least they are great climbers.

We make it to our stop and was told that we were too early, it was 1 p.m. here and they wouldn't take us til 7p.m. We have to leave the yard and find a place to park and sit til it is time to come back. The closest place we could find was in New Jersey. We were hoping it would be an approved gas station (we have a list of gas stations that the company approves of and only there can we get gas) but there are no stations in New Jersey or New York on the list so I guess we weren't supposed to be there. By the way we were only about a 100 miles away from New York City. We had time to go there but I don't think the company would have approved of all the extra miles. Josh has me look up Walmart nearest us and we are hoping to park there and be close to where we need to drop off our load. I look up on the Walmart website and find out there is one only 3 miles away and we snake our way through town in search of it. It is no where to be found when we get to the address, it is all residential. I know we were getting a few looks from people wondering what we were doing in that part of town. We then decide to get out of town and the crazy roads and get on a main road and head to the truck stop in New Jersey. We park at the TA (Travel Centers of America gas station) and go inside to eat lunch and the food was actually decent even though it was a buffet. After eating we lay down in the bunk and take a nap. When we get up it is raining and the truck stop is filling up with truckers fast and they are parking in place that they aren't supposed to, meaning we are stuck because there is a truck in our way and have no way of getting out without him moving. Josh tries to get out and ends up hitting a mirror on the truck next to us and we realize no matter what we try we are stuck. I told Josh give me the name of the trucking company that is blocking us and I call the TA truck stop and have them page the owner of the truck to move. He finally comes and out and he is happy we are leaving as he wants our space but so do 4 other trucks that were watching what was going on. I don't know who ended up with our parking space but we finally get out of there.

We had a bit of trouble coming back to the town and ended up going through the tight parts of town again to get where we needed to go but we get there and once we get to this warehouse there is a line of trucks waiting to get in. I guess it didn't matter that we were a little late as we still would have waited. We are currently sitting at the dock waiting to get unloaded and it is 9p.m. and Josh is completely out of hours and the warehouse does not allow overnight parking so now we get to drive illegally to try and find a place to park for the night. Our next load is in Carlisle, PA and we are dropping off in Ohio. We are getting closer to home but not close enough for me. It just seems like everything that you do in a truck is 10x harder than it should be, and it wears on a person after a bit. I know Josh is very tired and losing patience and can't wait to get home. I am handlling the situations ok but I am wondering if this isn't such a good idea for him. Time will tell but I am hoping some of the frustrations will lessen.

Morning update: We had time to go in to take a shower and it was a diabolical shower. I had the temp set where it was nice and warm and then it would make this pulsing sound and it would shoot out HOT HOT HOT water. Josh was laughing at me because I was in there dodging the water every time I heard the noise. Sometimes it would do it without warning, so I do believe that I am boiled clean today! You just never know what you are going to get into in these places.

Beautiful farm houses are dotted along the hill sides.

 Drop off of Death... didn't like it!

 Went through 3 tunnels

 

Finally some flat land!  Love how these little towns pop up in between the mountains.

　

DOT Inspection and more

Things just seem to go from bad to worse. We start out the morning with getting loaded at the shipper and got that done pretty easily. We go to weigh the load and adjust it and we are on our way back to Illinois. We have to pull into a weigh station and we are sure the weight is fine but we get a red light and that means we have to pull over. Josh takes the paperwork inside and our weight is fine but they wanted to do an inspection. Great. They pull two more trucks into the area for inspection also. Josh had never had done this before so we got to enjoy our first inspection together. The guy came out and went through everything, being very detailed. While doing our inspection a hazard waste truck was being inspected and he was out of there in about 10 minutes, by the time our inspection was over it was about 45 minutes. Josh comes back to the truck with the final report and they found three violations. Two of them were basically the same about the load not being properly secured and the other was there was a scuff mark on the break lines. Once agaiin we are on our way.

We make it to our destination and it is a fun time trying to back into dock. I swear some of these places like to see how talented you are in manuvering you way around. This is the first time Josh had me get out and help him back into the dock without hitting anything, it was tight. We have had trouble with the truck not wanting to start on occasion and this time it was even worse. They needed us to move forward about 3 inches and it took forever for the truck to start.. The trailer is unloaded and we try to start the truck and there is nothing. After multiple tries without even getting a sound that it was going to try to start we call McLeod, which is only a few miles away, to come and get us started since we are still sitting in the dock and I am sure they needed us to move soon. We wait for the rescue truck and what seemed like a long time they come and figure out that we have a short to the starter. Thankfully they don't leave us but stay in front of us on the way back to the McLeod yard because not too far away the road we needed had a train on the tracks and if the truck idles longer than 5 minutes it automatically turns off. Quickly the repair man runs back and tells us to follow him to a different way around so the truck won't turn off. We make it there and immediately he starts working on the starter. We also let him know that our bunker a/c isn't working still and told him about the break line that we got violations for from the inspection. I was impressed that even though it was time for this guy to go home he stayed and fixed everything except the break line as he says it is only a scuff mark on the line and there is nothing wrong. I hope he is right about that as I don't want to go through another inspection and see that we didn't get that fixed.

Earlier in the day we received our next load information and we didn't think we would be taking that load since we used up the drive clock with getting repairs done, plus we were supposed to have home time on Thursday and the run was going to Pennsylvania. We wouldn't know til morning when the dispatchers come into the office.

Early in the morning we went inside and took showers. I was looking forward to it but there was no water pressure, the water wasn't hot, and the water must of been very soft as it felt like I couldn't get rinsed, but I am always happy to be clean. Josh went and talked with the dispatcher and told him to go ahead and take that load and said we might get some home time this weekend. I am so loving that word "might", it instills such confidence. The town we are going to is called Bethlahem, so all morning I have had the song Oh little town of Bethlahem stuck in my head.

I can tell that riding in the truck is getting to me in ways I didn't expect. I am still constipated and lately my hands and feet are swelling. I am sure the swelling has to do with the combination of sitting, eating salty food, and the vibration of the truck. I don't know why vibrations make me swell but it always does. I can weedeat the yard and my hands are always numb and swollen by the time I am done. I guess I am just too delicate! ha ha!

I almost forgot, after parking for the night we were feeling a bit down and agrivated about things that had happened during the day and then suddenly a dove landed on the mirror in the front of the truck. I told Josh it was there to give us good luck but for me it was much more. It made me reflect that no matter how frustrating our day was we were safe, alive and together. God is watching over us and I am so thankful for his protection, and I believe he sent that dove to say "hey, quit your complaining and start thanking" so Thank You God!

 not my pic

An accident we saw this morning,it didn't look too serious.