well, i feel like it's time to get out the spud bar....make a hole....and set a mailbox post.....yep, right here in the t/a parking lot.....i think we've been exiled to california and not told about it..........after the harrowing sliding down the mountain experience, we were in the shop for two days, then we sat at the petro in wheeler ridge for two days, then we ran up to santa clara and picked up a load of paper rolls and drug them down to irvine....and since we delivered them yesterday evening, we've been sitting at the eastern t/a in ontario......i say eastern because there are two of them here, one across the street from the other........we relish having a "down-time day" every once-in-awhile since we hardly ever get a chance to just set still and get caught up on truck chores or tv or facebook or any other personal pleasures......most of the time it's just "grab a shower and a sandwich and go".
freight is slow....especially in california....that's what my fleet-manager, a fancy new-fangled word for dispatcher, has been telling us.....she's kinda new to this business, but evidently, this time anyway, she knows from what she speaks, coz you couldn't cram another truck in either of these truckstops with a shoe horn.....the rows are full, the idle-aire lanes are full and the perimeter of the lot is lined with trucks hoping for a better spot......most of the time, in this particular area, if you're not in a parking spot by 1500, you might as well forget it, but right now you need to start looking for an opening no later than right after the breakfast crowd leaves........it's crazy.....and it's not just one type of freighthauler that's fillin it up.....there's flatbeds, and tankers, bedbuggers and reefers.......
california offers it's own personal set of complications when you have to sit here for a few days.....now, nevermind that the los angeles area has more highways traversing it's inclusion than any other city i can think of,.....i mean, theres i 5, i 10, i15, i210, i 215, the 405, the 605, the 710, rt 55, rt 57, rt 60, rt 91, us 1, us 101.....just to name a few......and most of these are, at the least, two lanes in each direction, some sprouting to as many as 6 lanes in a given direction.....and each of these lanes is usually bumper to bumper traffic at any given moment, with the only relief from this coming, if you're lucky, between 2-5am......now, i'm not a mathmatician by any stretch of the imagination, but if you could count all these smog-producing, oil-burning, gas-guzzling cars that pack the highways here at any given moment, i think the total would make the recent stimulous package total look miniscule.....and that's a real achievement.......anyway, i get carried away, but you can see my frustration when after dealing with all this endless traffic on the roads here, then when we get a chance to sit and rest and relax, california doesn't want us to idle our trucks......seriously......they have dot enforcement here who drive around the truckstop parking lot, followed by a state highway patrol car and if you're idleing longer than 5 minutes, they write you a ticket.......never mind the fact that we have to buy special ultra-low sulpher fuel and go thru a process called regeneration every few days, and have a big sticker stamped on the side of the truck that says we are "certified clean idle".....and never mind that it's 95 degrees inside the truck in the afternoon regardless of the fact that it may only be 65 outside......i can't idle my truck longer than 5 minutes at a time without risking a ticket.......it seems to me that if caldot was so gosh-darn concerned about the enviornment here, they'd have those officers out hoofin their way around the parking lot with their little ticket pads instead of having two cars on every detail......so here we are, hooked up to this wondrous (WARNING: Air is heavy with sarcasm here) invention called idle-aire....which puts a big yellow sleeve into your passenger window and gives you heat or a/c and electricty.....yeah, there's no light on it....you have to bring a little lamp from home....geesh.......and you get all these comforts for $2.99 an hour!!!!....yippee.....you can also get cable tv and internet for an added fee.......but it's down time.....it's relaxing.....it's unbelievably stupid, it's california, and it's coming soon to a state near you......and it's just one more thing for me to rant about.....it's ridiculous.....it's harrassment......it's assinine.............
but hey......i'm just sayin.........
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
sliding off the mountain.....
we loaded in in salt lake city for porterville, california and we were excited about the trip since we were going on a different route than we had before.....we've been across i80 a gazillion times, but this time at wendover, nevada, we were heading down us 93......we got over to wendover and were shut down because the road was closed due to snow....even i80 was closed further west......but we took this in stride and had a fantastic supper , gave the casino there a little of our money and had a good nite's sleep..........heading out early the next morning, we were enjoying the trip....us 93 takes you thru ely, nevada....a nice town with a lot of old buildings, then down thru the lavarock hills.....the light snow lying on the hills made you think you were looking at a black and white photograph.....then us 6 into tonopah, nevada......tonopah touts that it is the number 1 stargazing destination in the world....a claim that i cannot confirm since we were there in the afternoon......what i can tell you is that it is a very quaint little town with lots of personality......lots of little shops that i would love to go in......the streets are lined with artifacts from the mining days and with metal artwork depicting early prairie life.....brad especially enjoyed the murals on the sides of buildings...especially the ones with the old war planes.........from tonopah we climbed over the mountains to bishop, california, where we had another good meal....(we cook so much in the truck that anytime we actually eat out is a big deal for me....lol)....and spent the nite there......bishop is another great little town, home to the california rodeo and again....lots of little shops that tempt me somethin awful......lol.....
the next morning we started out early again....the weather was cold but beautiful as we headed south on us 395, then west on 14 and soon even further west on ca178.....178 is a 2 lane road with moderate mountain climbs that offer you fantastic views, especially when you get over near lake isabella......it is at lake isabella that we were dropped onto ca 155....ca155 is a tiny gray line on the map and not much bigger in real life......we had questioned this part of the routing but after checking the atlas and finding no restrictions, we started the climb up the tiny mountain road.......near the beginning of the trip there was a sign that said "winter conditions may exist"....it was a small brown wooden sign....the kind of sign you see when you enter a state park......more of a welcome sign than a warning.........but a little further up the road the next sign we saw was a bold yellow sign that read "11% grade next 14 miles"......not quite so welcoming......but with the road so tiny and absolutely no where you could turn around 75 feet of truck and trailer we continued our climb up the mountain......the views were fantastic, as were the homes that people who had loads of money had built there to allow them constant access to these views......upward we went, climbing and twisting thru 90 degree turns that were usually followed by another 90 degree turn in the opposite direction.......climbing.....slowly, since we were grossing almost 79,000 lbs........and then we hit the snow line......well, make that the ice and snow line.......brad was driving and he made the first few turns without any problems but then it became apparent that we were going to have to chain up just to stay in the road......we...well i should say he, put on three sets of chains....my contribution to the work consisted of pulling up or backing up a tad so that he could get the chains hooked up......now, most people when traveling in their cars don't pay a lot of attention to the elevation or grade signs, but let me explain that we were at 5,528 feet and on an 11% grade.....11% is steeper than most houses roofpitch.......the road was so steep and so icey that he fell 3 or 4 times while he was working out there.....and even tho i had my "gobhopper" boots on, it was all i could do to stand up out there......he got the chains on and tightened up but they didn't do us much good.....when he tried to start out again we couldn't go anywhere.....it was like taking 1 step forward only to take 2 steps back.....after several tries we hadn't made any progress.....and then we started to slide.....it is uncanny how sliding even 6 inches can seem like 5 feet when you have 79,000 lbs pulling you backwards down the side of a mountain and all that lies between you and what appears to be an endless ravine is a snowbank and a few trees........even with the chains we couldn't get the traction we needed to go forward and we slid backwards even more.....brad was able to get the rear of the trailor into a snowbank which stopped our slide, but this caused the tractor to come around and as it was sliding, the passenger side front bumper caught another snowbank, which tore that side loose from the truck, but kept us from jackknifing..........
it was about this time that the calvary arrived in the form of a california black and white........after the officer finished shaking his head about us being there, he gave us a ticket for being there......he said he had no problem believing that we'd been routed that way....and he agreed that there were no restrictions listed for that route in the atlas....but he said that trucking companies have access to "network maps" that show where trucks are NEVER supposed to be and that they are supposed to use them when routing us around.....he said we should pass the ticket along to the company.....the good news about the ticket is that it doesn't put any points against brad's license.....neither of us have anything against our license and we'd like to keep it that way............after he gave us the ticket, he turned into a really nice guy and actually became our knight in shining armour since he had the state highway department bring a huge chained grader up there and pull us out......he also had them bring a smaller grader which worked on the road and then they put down a couple truckfulls of sand.....the grader pulled us up to a spot where there was a cross road and cleaner pavement and we were able to do a u-turn......they stayed with us until we were able to head back down the hill........the descent was as slow as the climb had been.......once we were below the snow line we stopped and took the chains off and bungie corded up the bumper as best we could..........we crept on down the mountain to lake isabella again and on across 178 to bakersfield... it added about 90 miles to our trip......the road was a little larger, but the mountain curves were almost as tight, tho not as steep and there was no snow down there... and again the scenery was magnificent......and we breathed a little easier....but i don't think my heartbeat slowed down till we were over to bakersfield and on level ground......lol.....the mountains are truly a work of God and we're thankful we got to experience the sights, but we'll never be this way again, at least not in a big red truck.......
after we delivered at the walmart distribution center in porterville, which by the way, we did 6 hours early even after this ordeal......we headed back down to bakersfield to the freightliner shop......the trees in the orange groves that line the road here are loaded and absolutely beautiful and made me want to slip in there and swipe a few.......we got to freightliner and after they checked everything out, they said they didn't have all the parts to fix the bumper and so they rigged it up till we could get somewhere to get it fixed.....but they asked us if we'd been having any trouble with the windshield leaking and since we had been having some minor leaking so they wanted to reseal it......well, in the process of taking the windshield out......you guessed it.....they broke it.....and they didn't have any in stock, so we're sitting in the motel waiting for them to get a windshield delivered and installed........alta sierra slowed us down, but it turns out it's a little windshield leak that shut us down.......go figure!
the next morning we started out early again....the weather was cold but beautiful as we headed south on us 395, then west on 14 and soon even further west on ca178.....178 is a 2 lane road with moderate mountain climbs that offer you fantastic views, especially when you get over near lake isabella......it is at lake isabella that we were dropped onto ca 155....ca155 is a tiny gray line on the map and not much bigger in real life......we had questioned this part of the routing but after checking the atlas and finding no restrictions, we started the climb up the tiny mountain road.......near the beginning of the trip there was a sign that said "winter conditions may exist"....it was a small brown wooden sign....the kind of sign you see when you enter a state park......more of a welcome sign than a warning.........but a little further up the road the next sign we saw was a bold yellow sign that read "11% grade next 14 miles"......not quite so welcoming......but with the road so tiny and absolutely no where you could turn around 75 feet of truck and trailer we continued our climb up the mountain......the views were fantastic, as were the homes that people who had loads of money had built there to allow them constant access to these views......upward we went, climbing and twisting thru 90 degree turns that were usually followed by another 90 degree turn in the opposite direction.......climbing.....slowly, since we were grossing almost 79,000 lbs........and then we hit the snow line......well, make that the ice and snow line.......brad was driving and he made the first few turns without any problems but then it became apparent that we were going to have to chain up just to stay in the road......we...well i should say he, put on three sets of chains....my contribution to the work consisted of pulling up or backing up a tad so that he could get the chains hooked up......now, most people when traveling in their cars don't pay a lot of attention to the elevation or grade signs, but let me explain that we were at 5,528 feet and on an 11% grade.....11% is steeper than most houses roofpitch.......the road was so steep and so icey that he fell 3 or 4 times while he was working out there.....and even tho i had my "gobhopper" boots on, it was all i could do to stand up out there......he got the chains on and tightened up but they didn't do us much good.....when he tried to start out again we couldn't go anywhere.....it was like taking 1 step forward only to take 2 steps back.....after several tries we hadn't made any progress.....and then we started to slide.....it is uncanny how sliding even 6 inches can seem like 5 feet when you have 79,000 lbs pulling you backwards down the side of a mountain and all that lies between you and what appears to be an endless ravine is a snowbank and a few trees........even with the chains we couldn't get the traction we needed to go forward and we slid backwards even more.....brad was able to get the rear of the trailor into a snowbank which stopped our slide, but this caused the tractor to come around and as it was sliding, the passenger side front bumper caught another snowbank, which tore that side loose from the truck, but kept us from jackknifing..........
it was about this time that the calvary arrived in the form of a california black and white........after the officer finished shaking his head about us being there, he gave us a ticket for being there......he said he had no problem believing that we'd been routed that way....and he agreed that there were no restrictions listed for that route in the atlas....but he said that trucking companies have access to "network maps" that show where trucks are NEVER supposed to be and that they are supposed to use them when routing us around.....he said we should pass the ticket along to the company.....the good news about the ticket is that it doesn't put any points against brad's license.....neither of us have anything against our license and we'd like to keep it that way............after he gave us the ticket, he turned into a really nice guy and actually became our knight in shining armour since he had the state highway department bring a huge chained grader up there and pull us out......he also had them bring a smaller grader which worked on the road and then they put down a couple truckfulls of sand.....the grader pulled us up to a spot where there was a cross road and cleaner pavement and we were able to do a u-turn......they stayed with us until we were able to head back down the hill........the descent was as slow as the climb had been.......once we were below the snow line we stopped and took the chains off and bungie corded up the bumper as best we could..........we crept on down the mountain to lake isabella again and on across 178 to bakersfield... it added about 90 miles to our trip......the road was a little larger, but the mountain curves were almost as tight, tho not as steep and there was no snow down there... and again the scenery was magnificent......and we breathed a little easier....but i don't think my heartbeat slowed down till we were over to bakersfield and on level ground......lol.....the mountains are truly a work of God and we're thankful we got to experience the sights, but we'll never be this way again, at least not in a big red truck.......
after we delivered at the walmart distribution center in porterville, which by the way, we did 6 hours early even after this ordeal......we headed back down to bakersfield to the freightliner shop......the trees in the orange groves that line the road here are loaded and absolutely beautiful and made me want to slip in there and swipe a few.......we got to freightliner and after they checked everything out, they said they didn't have all the parts to fix the bumper and so they rigged it up till we could get somewhere to get it fixed.....but they asked us if we'd been having any trouble with the windshield leaking and since we had been having some minor leaking so they wanted to reseal it......well, in the process of taking the windshield out......you guessed it.....they broke it.....and they didn't have any in stock, so we're sitting in the motel waiting for them to get a windshield delivered and installed........alta sierra slowed us down, but it turns out it's a little windshield leak that shut us down.......go figure!
GWEN.....
i always feel very lucky when i think about my daughter in law, gwen......i listen to a lot of my friends always finding fault with the wives of their sons, the mothers of their grandchildren and i often remark to brad how lucky we are that we don't have those issues.....i think you're really fortunate when the worst thing you can find to say about your dil is that she's from kansas......now, not that there is anything wrong with being from kansas....it's a lovely state and has a lot going for it, it's just that as a mother who watched her son follow his heart to kansas....well, that's a really long way from west virginia!.........i fell in love with gwen almost from the moment i met her.....she was easy to talk to and down to earth and liked a lot of the same things i did, starting with jj....and continuing with crafts and good food.......in fact, while they were dating, i used to chide jj that if he didn't marry her soon, i'd have to adopt her........
they've been married for a dozen years now and i'm sure like all marriages, they've had their ups and downs, their easy days and then those days when they could barely stand the sight of each other, but when you're around them, you'd hardly know it.....they have a close relationship, their own looks and language with each other......thru the years jj's built a remarkably successful business in kansas and although i will be the first to jump on the bandwagon about how smart and hardworking my son is, i also know that this would have been a much rougher journey for him without gwen's support, understanding, counsel and, most of all, patience...........they may be able to tell you different, but from across the miles between kansas and west virginia, i've never seen a time when she wasn't there for him.......what more could a mother-in-law ask from the woman who shares her son's life???....well, that and four beautiful grandchildren.......recently gwen was recognized in the emporia gazette as a gazette mom......it's a wonderful thing and a long overdue pat on the back for all the hard work she puts into her family......
they've been married for a dozen years now and i'm sure like all marriages, they've had their ups and downs, their easy days and then those days when they could barely stand the sight of each other, but when you're around them, you'd hardly know it.....they have a close relationship, their own looks and language with each other......thru the years jj's built a remarkably successful business in kansas and although i will be the first to jump on the bandwagon about how smart and hardworking my son is, i also know that this would have been a much rougher journey for him without gwen's support, understanding, counsel and, most of all, patience...........they may be able to tell you different, but from across the miles between kansas and west virginia, i've never seen a time when she wasn't there for him.......what more could a mother-in-law ask from the woman who shares her son's life???....well, that and four beautiful grandchildren.......recently gwen was recognized in the emporia gazette as a gazette mom......it's a wonderful thing and a long overdue pat on the back for all the hard work she puts into her family......
Friday, February 6, 2009
Being home.....
It's crazy the way we are when we finally get to Lost Creek.....we're like hermits....carefully guarding our time at the house, savoring every smell, every bit of dust, every little creak in the old floor boards.......people say, "let's go here, let's go there", and we're like no, no...we've had enough of the "going", thank you very much......come here to us.....savour our smells, our dust, our creaks with us.......
first day at home is always a whirlwind of activity.....we come into a great looking space that Wanda has so lovingly dusted and swept, and immediately trash it with our stuff......we unload our dirty laundry, our truck bedclothes and rugs, all of our treasures we've garnered at stops along our travels, our life-sustaining appendages, (also known as our laptops) and all manner of other paraphernalia that makes it's way into our lives on the road......
first order of business is always our mail.....our little post office holds it for us while we're gone so that it isn't prey to anyone nosing around in our mailbox, and if Wanda hasn't already picked it up and has it waiting for Brad to sort thru, then he jumps into the blazer and heads off to retrieve it.....this is his "thing"....well, one of his "things"....he is anal about getting the mail.....we usually have at least two post office totes of it, after being absent for so long, so he is in heaven, sorting, stacking magazines and catalogs, neatly piling bills in one stack and "fun and personal' stuff in another....i swear, sometimes i think i actually hear him whistleing as he does this.....and, oh, my goodness....if you seriously want to make him sing, just let there be a package in there!!!!...especially one with his name on it!!!!!!!
next there's laundry......just imagine 3-4 weeks of jeans, shirts....i won't even mention the sox....oh, god, the sox......it's always like 10 loads of stuff at least.....you see, i just can't bring myself to use the washers at the truckstops......i know most women have an adversion to going to the laundromat and putting their unmentionables in washers where other's unmentionables have gone, ....now mutltiply that adversion by a hundred and you will understand why i don't use truckstop laundromats......an accident of catastrophic proportions has to occur in our truck before i will even consider it......thankfully, since our time out was extended this past trip, we had visits at Christmas with JJ and Gwen, and at New Year's with Karen, both of whom, mercifully, lent us the use of their washers and dryers......without that, we'd have been at walmart buying jeans and underwear......one of the things that will go on my list of 25 when i get to it, is that i secretly think all inanimate objects have a life of their own when we're not around....(a product of too many saturday morning cartoons in my childhood, i suspect)....but i imagine my washer and dryer lolling around in the weeks right after we leave out, dinning on ice cream and truffles, and then when they hear we're headed home, they're bulking up on fiber and protein, because they know the workout is coming........
the next thing i must do is make spaghetti......and "real" mashed potatoes.....not in the same meal, of course.......you just can't get decent spaghetti on the road.....if you're lucky enough to get a run across the Indiana tollroad and can stop at one of the plazas that has a Fazollis, then you can come close, but it's still not homemade.....and i won't even try to imagine the number of times i've embarrassed Brad with my quizzing a waitress on wether their potatoes were real or plastic......enough said........for Brad, it's getting to finally have a martini.....he really loves a good martini......he's so "James Bond" sometimes......
so here we are....hedionistically ensconced in the house.....in our little town that swells to 413 when we're home....and where everyone calls us by name...(so "Cheers", huh??)...and not by our truck number.....and loving every moment of it......tomorrow i am going to break the chain and head down to Parkersburg with Wanda.....she is having a mini-reunion with some classmates from highschool that she has reconnected with on facebook and she has enticed me for a ride-a-long with lunch at Olive Garden and a stop at Crafts 2000.......i'm not worried, tho.....Brad will be safeguarding all the smells, and dust and creaks till i get back.....
first day at home is always a whirlwind of activity.....we come into a great looking space that Wanda has so lovingly dusted and swept, and immediately trash it with our stuff......we unload our dirty laundry, our truck bedclothes and rugs, all of our treasures we've garnered at stops along our travels, our life-sustaining appendages, (also known as our laptops) and all manner of other paraphernalia that makes it's way into our lives on the road......
first order of business is always our mail.....our little post office holds it for us while we're gone so that it isn't prey to anyone nosing around in our mailbox, and if Wanda hasn't already picked it up and has it waiting for Brad to sort thru, then he jumps into the blazer and heads off to retrieve it.....this is his "thing"....well, one of his "things"....he is anal about getting the mail.....we usually have at least two post office totes of it, after being absent for so long, so he is in heaven, sorting, stacking magazines and catalogs, neatly piling bills in one stack and "fun and personal' stuff in another....i swear, sometimes i think i actually hear him whistleing as he does this.....and, oh, my goodness....if you seriously want to make him sing, just let there be a package in there!!!!...especially one with his name on it!!!!!!!
next there's laundry......just imagine 3-4 weeks of jeans, shirts....i won't even mention the sox....oh, god, the sox......it's always like 10 loads of stuff at least.....you see, i just can't bring myself to use the washers at the truckstops......i know most women have an adversion to going to the laundromat and putting their unmentionables in washers where other's unmentionables have gone, ....now mutltiply that adversion by a hundred and you will understand why i don't use truckstop laundromats......an accident of catastrophic proportions has to occur in our truck before i will even consider it......thankfully, since our time out was extended this past trip, we had visits at Christmas with JJ and Gwen, and at New Year's with Karen, both of whom, mercifully, lent us the use of their washers and dryers......without that, we'd have been at walmart buying jeans and underwear......one of the things that will go on my list of 25 when i get to it, is that i secretly think all inanimate objects have a life of their own when we're not around....(a product of too many saturday morning cartoons in my childhood, i suspect)....but i imagine my washer and dryer lolling around in the weeks right after we leave out, dinning on ice cream and truffles, and then when they hear we're headed home, they're bulking up on fiber and protein, because they know the workout is coming........
the next thing i must do is make spaghetti......and "real" mashed potatoes.....not in the same meal, of course.......you just can't get decent spaghetti on the road.....if you're lucky enough to get a run across the Indiana tollroad and can stop at one of the plazas that has a Fazollis, then you can come close, but it's still not homemade.....and i won't even try to imagine the number of times i've embarrassed Brad with my quizzing a waitress on wether their potatoes were real or plastic......enough said........for Brad, it's getting to finally have a martini.....he really loves a good martini......he's so "James Bond" sometimes......
so here we are....hedionistically ensconced in the house.....in our little town that swells to 413 when we're home....and where everyone calls us by name...(so "Cheers", huh??)...and not by our truck number.....and loving every moment of it......tomorrow i am going to break the chain and head down to Parkersburg with Wanda.....she is having a mini-reunion with some classmates from highschool that she has reconnected with on facebook and she has enticed me for a ride-a-long with lunch at Olive Garden and a stop at Crafts 2000.......i'm not worried, tho.....Brad will be safeguarding all the smells, and dust and creaks till i get back.....
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