New News

Here we are sitting in Pennsylvania with no more hours to run on today and we are still about 2 hours away from delivery point. This load was supposed to be there today but with our limited hours (because we are running against our 70 hour clock) and we also ran into a construction site that had traffic backed up for 8 miles we have to wait til tomorrow to deliver. I am going bonkers in the truck today as it has been raining all day long and there is nothing to do and we have been sitting since around 3 p.m. I feel like I am vibrating inside. Sigh...

It is weird being out in the truck as I really don't have any way (except the internet) to keep up with the news. I never was a big news watcher on television but I always managed to stay on top of things and Josh REFUSES to listen to the news on the radio. I have managed to read the front of some newspapers in the truckstops and once in a while when we are in a restaurant they will have the news on and I can kind of catch up. I didn't know anything about the ISIS and what is going on over there til Saturday when we got data to have the internet. I can't even imagine what kinds of horror is going on and I would hope that I would have the courage to stand up for my beliefs even if I was to be killed for them. I understand there are many religions and there are many different beliefs but believe that killing others just because of their religion I can't imagine any religion supporting that. I know people through out the ages have delt with this very thing and have been persecuted and killed because of this but I would have hoped we have emerged from the dark ages and have progressed but I guess that just shows that humans can't live peacably no matter how many Miss Americas wish for it. I just feel helpless in the fact that there are so many things wrong and no matter what you do or what you say you aren't really going to change anything but all you can do is try. I know it is cheesy but in the movies Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty it really hits home when they talk about "be the miracle" and "one act of random kindness" is all it takes to make a difference. I may not be able to change the world but I can do small things for others and hopefully make a difference in their lives though small. Prayer is always the best medicine too.

I was also saddened by the news that Robin Williams the actor is no longer with us. I have always loved his work and he will be missed.

Sorry for being such a downer today but I guess with the rainy skies the past few days it is wearing on me. I would like to give a shout out to the people that are reading my blog, especially the ones over seas, there are some in Germany, Poland, and Ukraine, how awesome is it that my corny little blog is being read by people I don't even know! Coolio!

I believe this was in Tennessee

My finished afghan! On to the next project... not sure what it will be.

It is no wonder why I missed this the first time we went to St. Louis, the sign is very small.

A few more pics from the amish country

Loving the amish

We stopped in Arthur, Illinois on one of our trips to deliver wood to an amish kitchen cabinet factory. It was awesome to see all of the horse and buggies and you could tell the factory had all amish factory workers as there was not a vehicle in sight, only horses in the field and tons of bicycles. We noticed there was a place beside us called Family Health Store and we decided to venture in there to see what they had available and I could have went crazy in there! It had all the kitchen items that I could ever dream of including canning items and had a lot of bulk foods and ingredients that were all natural. We ended up buying some fried green beans that are crispy like chips but they really don't taste like green beans, some dried papaya, pineapple, and peaches, all taste good except the peaches, they are mealy and bitter. Also got some unsalted sunflower seeds already shelled, and a pheasant meat stick that wasn't very good either. I was taking pictures of some of the amish as they went by and I know they don't like to have their picture taken as it is to take part of their soul but I had no one complain, maybe these are progressive amish, not sure. It sure did my heart good to be in that area and sometime fantasize about living in an amish community, I think I could do it except for giving up my cigarettes, as that would be the hardest thing to quit. I know I need to and I want to but have been unsuccessful so far.

I have been clicking away with pictures and happy to find things to take pictures of as we have blazed some new trails. I took pictures of the stream, Josh was kind enough to slow down so I could get some awesome pictures, and yes I cried once again. I am a nut, plain and simple.

I am happy now that I have internet again but I guess I am going to have to watch how much I use so we don't get low on data by the end of the cycle. I am an internet junky and love looking things up as I think about things. It is amazing how hard it is to find a microwave that will work in the truck and when we found one online it was $153 and it was only a .5 cu ft with 750 watts of power, you would think the smaller, less powered ones would cost less but I guess not. I did end up eating some speghettios today straight out of the can, it wasn't horrible but like it much better warm. I would think the truck stops would carry microwaves but we have been to many of them and the last one we went to was a bigger one that carries all sort of items but they have no microwaves, I am almost resolved to getting a slow cooker and call it good.

A church somewhere in Ohio with a huge stone Jesus walking on water. Beautiful.

A blimp we saw that was over the PGA tour golf thingy.

Bicycles lined up along the factory, there were more on the front.

Josh and I tease about the only way you can afford blue cross blue shield is if you win the lottery.

Stunning.

Back to Blogging!

We have traveled to Ohio, Michigan, back to Illinois and then to Virginia, now on our way back to Illinois again and will be doing a few stops there and then off to Pennsylavania. I have been crocheting away and almost have the baby afghan done and need to find a new project to work on. We finished our audiobook that we started a month ago (it was a lot of books and it still isn't done but the new book doesn't come out til next year). I had downloaded some audio books onto the computer and Josh doesn't like them. The first one we tried to listen to is Pride and Prejudice which we both love but he doesn't like the narrators voice. The second one we tried was Letters from an Army Wife which is a real letters about an army wife that is traveling with her husband out west around the time of 1870. I love it because they are true letters and you tell by the way the wife writes she is an uptown girl and not used to being out in the "country" and is having a hard time adapting to the ways of the west. Josh isn't interested in this one at all, he thought the letters were from a army soldier to his wife and was hoping for some battles, he is more of an fiction action type guy and most of the time I am not. Biographies and real to life stories are what I crave but I have a feeling that this is going to be an ongoing battle on which stories we listen to.

Our truck was once again having starter problems and once again we complained to them about this and this time when the mechanics came out to look at it, it wouldn't start. Finally they can see the problem that we have been having all this time. It never would start and they gave us the option of getting a different truck or staying at the hotel and wait til they got that one fixed. Immediately I asked if they had a truck with the bunk beds and they said they didn't think so but they would look. We are walking down the long line of trucks and almost giving up hope when they found one, we looked inside and said yep SOLD! We spent the next hour and half unloading the old truck and getting stuff into the new truck. Josh I think is estatic about the new truck and there are quite a few reasons why. First and foremost is that it has bunk beds, I have been sleeping fine squished together in the single bed but I guess Josh hasn't and so he is loving the fact he doesn't have to worry about hogging the bed at night. I have to admit that the two nights I have slept alone it hasn't been all that good but that is partly due to we only have one cover and I wanted Josh to have it as it is more important that he sleeps good, I can always take naps. We have looked in different truck stops for blankets but surprisingly they dont have any right now as I guess since it is summer they don't have them in stock. Josh also says the suspension on this truck is better and doesn't bounce as much on the bumps, I can't tell the difference as I have the same exact type of seat as I did in the old truck. It does seem to have more storage as it does have higher ceilings so more cabinet space and the air conditioning is different too, before we had the air conditioner under the bed and it ran on a generator that was outside of the truck so this was very loud and vibrated the bed, now we have a system that runs on batteries and the only noise you really hear is the fan turning on and off to blow the air. It has done a great job so far but we really haven't been anywhere really hot at night. I hope the heat works just as well this winter. One big downfall of the new truck is that it didn't have an inverter to plug things into it, we had to buy one and have it installed. It says directly on it that it may not be able to power certain items and two of those items we own wont work on it, the laptop and the microwave. At least with the laptop I have another inverter that works quite well with it so I can at least still use it but the microwave is once again dead. We still have foods that doesn't need to be warmed up but it is becoming agrivating. The truck is a newer truck than we had before and a lot less miles but it still won't climb a hill with a loaded trailer worth a hoot, as Josh says it just doesn't have any heart. Oh and if you want to know Josh has the top bunk, I tried climbing up there as you have to have some moutain goat in you to do it but decided that if I got all the way up there I didn't know if I could get back down safely and so I get the bottom bunk which is what I wanted anyway so that way I am close to the potty! :)

Today when we were in Virginia we got on a bad road that shouldn't exsist! There were signs saying that trucks over 65 feet long should find another route and I wondered why the length of the truck would matter, everywhere we go there are height restrictions or even width restrictions but never had I seen length restrictions. Josh went anyway and we soon found out why, the road was terribly curved and most of the curves we had to use some of the other lane to get around them. We were on this road for almost an hour and it was a gut wrenching hour for me. Most of the curves had a 15 mph speed limit and a lot of the times there were no edges to the road and only a small metal guard rail that seperated you and the plunge of death. Josh was laughing at me and I think he was trying to make me relax but it didn't work. At one point a deer darted in front of us and Josh says he couldn't stop as we were going down hill on a precarious slope. Later he admited that the road tired him out too and when the gps was going to take us back to that road to leave town we decided to make our own way out of town and didn't care about how much longer that would take. Anyone that is in Virginia stay away from 501 South of Buena Vista!

I have so many more pictures to post but the internet isn't cooperating.  Will try to post soon.

Busy Busy Busy!

Just an update as to what is going on... We made it home on Friday evening, we get up early and Josh weed eats the yard and I am busy weeding the garden.  I can tell the effects of sitting in the truck as I feel weak and wear out easily.  I got some yard work done but not done as well as I would like.  Worked on laundry and trying to get things organized for going back out on Sunday.  We had some visitors today and it was great to see everyone and glad they came over as going out to see everyone that we want to see takes more time.  I just got done making a special little girl some sugar cookies but I am afraid that they didn't turn out well at all, they taste fine but I have to admit they are ugly looking.  Josh says that won't matter they are cookies and all that matters is the taste, but I wish I had the time to redo them.  I am wearing down and and running on low. 

I know that we are running low on data on our cell phones and so I may not be blogging as much til the after the 9th so bear with me.  I guess this really tells how much internet I use on our phones as we had added another gigabyte to our plan earlier this month.  We are not finding free wifi as often as I thought we would. 

Have a great weekend!

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!