sometimes i think that as long as i live, i will never understand people......i have a saying "i used to be disgusted, now i'm just amused".......well, sometimes i'm still disgusted......
after we delivered in kent, wa, we went down to sumner to pick up a load and since it wasn't gonna be ready for a few hours, we dropped our trailer and bobtailed across the highway to a little truckstop to restock our cooler and get some lunch......we noticed the sign as we were pulling on the lot saying that it cost $10 to park there for 12 hours.....but we weren't staying the nite, we were just shopping......since we were bobtailing, we backed into a little corner behind the building that a truck with a trailer couldn't have gotten into and went inside......now, in the scheme of things, $53 isn't a whole lotta money, but when you're talking about lunch, it kinda is.....i mean, geesh, we weren't at outback, or olive garden.....we picked up some cold drinks, and some sandwiches and chicken out of the deli case ...........
we headed out to the truck and decided to eat our lunch there and then head back across the highway.....about an hour later here came a boy wanting to know if we were spending the nite and when brad told him no, that we were gonna be leaving soon to pick up our load, he said we'd have to pay to sit there.....brad explained to him that we'd just spent $53 there on food, but that didn't matter........i swear, if it hadn't been that i thought the chicken was gold-encrusted, i'd have flung the last dry, overcooked piece at his head........
so anyway.....if you find yourself on wa 167 in sumner, at the west valley hwy exit and you think you need a cold drink, have your $10 to park ready and in hand, so that you can pay to park while you spend your hard earned money on that drink......gene's is the name, parking's the game.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
warning!...woman at the wheel.....
my friend, salena, over at The Daily Rant had another excellent blog post recently about being a woman truck driver....her post was inspired by a newspaper article she'd received from a friend about a woman driver who had died in a truck wreck near tuscon, az last week...the woman had been a team driver with her husband for the past 10 years....her husband had survived the crash.....aside from the sadness felt over the loss of this life, the offending part of this article is that the writer chose to use the fact that it was a woman driver who died in the headline, and, as salena says, it somehow seemed to imply that her gender was to blame for the accident.......i find it relative to mention that the writer is a man.......
i've been out here on the road for over 10 years now....the first three as a solo driver and the last 7 as a team driver with brad.....back as a solo driver, every now and then i'd run into some prejudice, but it was mostly minor and usually it was more that some guy was just trying to "get your goat" than being seriously against women, although occasionally you could tell your critic wasn't joking....since i'm fairly proficient at the snappy comebacks, i usually just struck back and laughed it off, thankful that my self-worth is not determined by idiots.......i kinda feel like i had a little bit of a head start on alot of my fellow female drivers out here, in that i'd been around trucking most of my adult life and embraced the fact that i was entering a profession dominated by men, that i was not easily offended or embarrassed by moronic male behavior, and that i have always had good report with my male counterparts........as for why women go into trucking, well, i know there is the exception to anything, but i don't think most women are out here looking for a man......it's a job that pays enough to pay the bills, there are usually benefits, there's the travel......kinda sounds like the same reasons you'd get from a man, eh???
most of the guys i've talked to out here, have, at least at face value, been supportive and willing to share their knowledge although the reverse has not always been the case.....it took me a little while to learn that not everyone wanted my help in backing up or sliding their tandems, etc.....
i've always been a rather independent person and the first year i was a solo driver i stopped at the truckstop in missoula, mt to get a mud flap for my tractor.....when the parts counter guy asked me if i wanted that put on, i told him no, i'd already taken the torn one off and just had to bolt the new one on....he looked impressed.....i commented that well, i didn't always wanna look like a girl.......he said, honey, you can put on a thousand mudflaps, but you're always gonna look like a girl......being rather well-endowed, i couldn't help but chuckle.........
i pretty much thought that over the last few years things out here had evolved a little better, but just a couple of weeks ago, i was driving thru construction on 294 in the chicago area.....the speed limit was 45, trucks were posted to use the left lane and i'd already passed 3 or 4 bears working the area......i was in a line of trucks in the left hand lane doing the 45 limit and minding my p's and q's .....about a quarter-mile space had developed between me and the truck in front of me.....all of a sudden a couple of trucks pulled out of the row behind me and passed on the right at about 55 or 60 and when they got up near me, they commented on the cause of the "hold-up" being my company truck...(i get that alot).....i said yeah, that was me, running the speed limit and obeying the lane restrictions......when they heard my female voice, the one driver proceeded to explain to me that if i was "afraid" of my truck i should get back home and have babies and clean my house.......well, my babies are grown and my house...and my truck...are clean......
i'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination and that includes my driving......i'll sneak a few extra mph's on there when i can......but in all the years i've been out here i've never had a preventable accident and i've never had a speeding ticket....frankly, i'm not gonna start changing that anytime soon, as long as i can help it......i mean, i'd much rather take my money to the mall than hand it over to illinois.......that has nothing to do with being a scared or inept female at the wheel, that's just common sense......
i'm not advocating that women are better drivers than men......but neither are they less capable......i do feel that women pay more attention to details and by nature, are not as aggressive which can lead to better driving habits.....
i guess i'm just saying to men, don't hate us coz we can bring home the bacon and still fry it up!
i've been out here on the road for over 10 years now....the first three as a solo driver and the last 7 as a team driver with brad.....back as a solo driver, every now and then i'd run into some prejudice, but it was mostly minor and usually it was more that some guy was just trying to "get your goat" than being seriously against women, although occasionally you could tell your critic wasn't joking....since i'm fairly proficient at the snappy comebacks, i usually just struck back and laughed it off, thankful that my self-worth is not determined by idiots.......i kinda feel like i had a little bit of a head start on alot of my fellow female drivers out here, in that i'd been around trucking most of my adult life and embraced the fact that i was entering a profession dominated by men, that i was not easily offended or embarrassed by moronic male behavior, and that i have always had good report with my male counterparts........as for why women go into trucking, well, i know there is the exception to anything, but i don't think most women are out here looking for a man......it's a job that pays enough to pay the bills, there are usually benefits, there's the travel......kinda sounds like the same reasons you'd get from a man, eh???
most of the guys i've talked to out here, have, at least at face value, been supportive and willing to share their knowledge although the reverse has not always been the case.....it took me a little while to learn that not everyone wanted my help in backing up or sliding their tandems, etc.....
i've always been a rather independent person and the first year i was a solo driver i stopped at the truckstop in missoula, mt to get a mud flap for my tractor.....when the parts counter guy asked me if i wanted that put on, i told him no, i'd already taken the torn one off and just had to bolt the new one on....he looked impressed.....i commented that well, i didn't always wanna look like a girl.......he said, honey, you can put on a thousand mudflaps, but you're always gonna look like a girl......being rather well-endowed, i couldn't help but chuckle.........
i pretty much thought that over the last few years things out here had evolved a little better, but just a couple of weeks ago, i was driving thru construction on 294 in the chicago area.....the speed limit was 45, trucks were posted to use the left lane and i'd already passed 3 or 4 bears working the area......i was in a line of trucks in the left hand lane doing the 45 limit and minding my p's and q's .....about a quarter-mile space had developed between me and the truck in front of me.....all of a sudden a couple of trucks pulled out of the row behind me and passed on the right at about 55 or 60 and when they got up near me, they commented on the cause of the "hold-up" being my company truck...(i get that alot).....i said yeah, that was me, running the speed limit and obeying the lane restrictions......when they heard my female voice, the one driver proceeded to explain to me that if i was "afraid" of my truck i should get back home and have babies and clean my house.......well, my babies are grown and my house...and my truck...are clean......
i'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination and that includes my driving......i'll sneak a few extra mph's on there when i can......but in all the years i've been out here i've never had a preventable accident and i've never had a speeding ticket....frankly, i'm not gonna start changing that anytime soon, as long as i can help it......i mean, i'd much rather take my money to the mall than hand it over to illinois.......that has nothing to do with being a scared or inept female at the wheel, that's just common sense......
i'm not advocating that women are better drivers than men......but neither are they less capable......i do feel that women pay more attention to details and by nature, are not as aggressive which can lead to better driving habits.....
i guess i'm just saying to men, don't hate us coz we can bring home the bacon and still fry it up!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
lifewater
today as i was catchin up on all my favorite blogs, i was so happy to hear about stace, over at the highway hags, doin so well on her plan to kick this diabetes thing in the butt.....she's got a diet plan that sounds like it's workin for her and i'm high-5'n her for her efforts.....i thrive on her success and consider it partly mine too, because it reinforces my hopefullness that good health can be achieved out here on the road..........tho i'm a long way from any of my goals, one of the things i've found that has helped me the most was cuttin back on the diet coke.....i used to be addicted.....to the point that brad would break into a sweat at the thought of bein couped up in the truck with me if the cooler was runnin short on it......but, unfortunately it didn't take long, once i started keepin track of my blood sugar, to realize that the diet coke made it shoot up.....so i pretty much went cold turkey ....drinking water, tea and coffee......i've never been much for the fruity drinks....most of them always left a bad taste in my mouth.....but one day i was standing in a truckstop, staring at the shelves in the cooler, tryin to come up with something new, when i realized sobe had a new line out.....lifewaters......and alot of them are 0 calories.......even the ones that aren't are only about 100 calories a bottle........i'm still basically a water drinker, but these are a nice little treat when you need some flavor.....they're crisp and there's no aftertaste......my favorites are the black and blue berry, the mango tangerine and the fuji apple pear......check them out and let me know what ya think......Sunday, July 12, 2009
this weekend.....
well, it's sunday evening, supper is cookin in the burton ovens and we are enjoying our last nite, hopefully, in beautiful walcott, iowa ....our last nite for awhile, anyway.....we're supposed to pick up a load in de witt in the morning and drag it over to gastonia, nc......i can't really complain tho...walcott has been a gracious host to us for the weekend........
we've had a rough week......we spent the 4th of july in salt lake city, which was nice and they had a decent fireworks display....but on sunday, the 5th, when we went to pick up our load outta there, which was going over to montgomery, new york.....yep, good miles.....we dropped our empty trailer to find that not just one, but both rear tires on the tractor were wet ....seems we'd blowed both seals back there.....so we hobbled over to freightliner and spent the day and that night in the shop there.......after that we got a load going down to los angeles.....on the way there we got a message to go to fontana freightliner to have some wiring replaced.......another day and night in the shop.......finally they got that taken care of and we headed down to otay mesa to pick up a load going to chicago........everything was going good......it was a light load....and we always love the drive across western i-70 thru utah and colorado........but then we got to iowa city, iowa....and the monsoons had hit.......running thru torrential rains, lightening and thunder was daunting enough, but then all of a sudden the truck shut off on me........completely down......i managed to get it off to the side of the road, ignoring some comments on the cb about girl drivers being afraid of the storms, and got brad out of bed.......we could see an exit sign just ahead of us and we managed to get the truck started and running long enough to get up to the exit and off the road in a safer spot.....seems the belt for the water pump had come off the truck.....a call to breakdown brought us road service again.......i was never sure how serious to take the guy that showed up, but he tried to convince us that driving thru the rain had caused the belt to come off.....he put it back on, put in about 3 gallon of water and off we went again, heading first for a tire shop in iowa city since while brad was outside with the roadservice guy, he noticed we'd also gotten a flat on the trailer.......a quick stop in iowa city and then we were off again, heading for the t/a shop at the iowa 80 truckstop......the mechanics there got a good chuckle out of the theory of how the belt came off in the rain, did a little tinkering around with it and then had to send for some parts.......which, of course, wouldn't be in till the next day......so we had a lovely overnite stay with them.....the good news is that it was the last day of the truck show and so we had some entertainment.......at first it was still monsoon weather, and about all you could do was to feel sorry for all the vendor tents tightly closed up and making no money, and all the guys who'd buffed chome polish for hours, only to have to hide the effort under a tarp.......but later that afternoon the clouds dispersed and the sun came out .....the tent flaps got drawn back and the tarps came off and it turned out to be a really good show......it didn't take long for the iowa sun and a light breeze to dry the lot up........this was the first time we'd had the pleasure of getting to take in this show....and while it's a little smaller venue than louisville or some of the others, they do a good job here......there were alot of trucks in the show, alot of antique trucks.....one of my favorites was a black 54 autocar......sweet........there was another one that i wouldn't have been ashamed to have been seen running around in.....a blue peterbuilt with a fantastic mural of horses runnin on the beach on the sides of it......it had a big ole house on it.....all the amenities of home, even a fireplace!............we got in a nice visit with pam in the ooida truck and enjoyed a pretty good grilled dinner of pork chops, baked potatoes and all the trimmings.........
saturday they got our parts in and got us fixed up and runnin pretty quick.....we got our showers and enjoyed our supper and had a good restful night.......today we got our load assignment, and even tho we've basically set all week, it was kinda nice to know we just had the rest of the day free to relax......we ran across the street and had breakfast at gramma's kitchen......pretty good food and alot to entice you to browse the little shop as y ou head to and from your table......think miniture cracker barrel.........basically we've just been slugs the rest of the day......reading the sunday papers, playin on the computers.....the most exertion either of us has had was when babygirl made us take her outside.........as for now, supper is about ready.....gonna kick back and watch a little tv and then call it a night.......probably say a little prayer of thanks that this past week has ended and a llittle prayer for the one startin up.......ya'll be safe out there!
we've had a rough week......we spent the 4th of july in salt lake city, which was nice and they had a decent fireworks display....but on sunday, the 5th, when we went to pick up our load outta there, which was going over to montgomery, new york.....yep, good miles.....we dropped our empty trailer to find that not just one, but both rear tires on the tractor were wet ....seems we'd blowed both seals back there.....so we hobbled over to freightliner and spent the day and that night in the shop there.......after that we got a load going down to los angeles.....on the way there we got a message to go to fontana freightliner to have some wiring replaced.......another day and night in the shop.......finally they got that taken care of and we headed down to otay mesa to pick up a load going to chicago........everything was going good......it was a light load....and we always love the drive across western i-70 thru utah and colorado........but then we got to iowa city, iowa....and the monsoons had hit.......running thru torrential rains, lightening and thunder was daunting enough, but then all of a sudden the truck shut off on me........completely down......i managed to get it off to the side of the road, ignoring some comments on the cb about girl drivers being afraid of the storms, and got brad out of bed.......we could see an exit sign just ahead of us and we managed to get the truck started and running long enough to get up to the exit and off the road in a safer spot.....seems the belt for the water pump had come off the truck.....a call to breakdown brought us road service again.......i was never sure how serious to take the guy that showed up, but he tried to convince us that driving thru the rain had caused the belt to come off.....he put it back on, put in about 3 gallon of water and off we went again, heading first for a tire shop in iowa city since while brad was outside with the roadservice guy, he noticed we'd also gotten a flat on the trailer.......a quick stop in iowa city and then we were off again, heading for the t/a shop at the iowa 80 truckstop......the mechanics there got a good chuckle out of the theory of how the belt came off in the rain, did a little tinkering around with it and then had to send for some parts.......which, of course, wouldn't be in till the next day......so we had a lovely overnite stay with them.....the good news is that it was the last day of the truck show and so we had some entertainment.......at first it was still monsoon weather, and about all you could do was to feel sorry for all the vendor tents tightly closed up and making no money, and all the guys who'd buffed chome polish for hours, only to have to hide the effort under a tarp.......but later that afternoon the clouds dispersed and the sun came out .....the tent flaps got drawn back and the tarps came off and it turned out to be a really good show......it didn't take long for the iowa sun and a light breeze to dry the lot up........this was the first time we'd had the pleasure of getting to take in this show....and while it's a little smaller venue than louisville or some of the others, they do a good job here......there were alot of trucks in the show, alot of antique trucks.....one of my favorites was a black 54 autocar......sweet........there was another one that i wouldn't have been ashamed to have been seen running around in.....a blue peterbuilt with a fantastic mural of horses runnin on the beach on the sides of it......it had a big ole house on it.....all the amenities of home, even a fireplace!............we got in a nice visit with pam in the ooida truck and enjoyed a pretty good grilled dinner of pork chops, baked potatoes and all the trimmings.........
saturday they got our parts in and got us fixed up and runnin pretty quick.....we got our showers and enjoyed our supper and had a good restful night.......today we got our load assignment, and even tho we've basically set all week, it was kinda nice to know we just had the rest of the day free to relax......we ran across the street and had breakfast at gramma's kitchen......pretty good food and alot to entice you to browse the little shop as y ou head to and from your table......think miniture cracker barrel.........basically we've just been slugs the rest of the day......reading the sunday papers, playin on the computers.....the most exertion either of us has had was when babygirl made us take her outside.........as for now, supper is about ready.....gonna kick back and watch a little tv and then call it a night.......probably say a little prayer of thanks that this past week has ended and a llittle prayer for the one startin up.......ya'll be safe out there!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
blogger blues......
ok, before i go sexing around with all my settings.....and other stuff that i admit to knowing precious little about, i am having some trouble lately reading some of my blogs.....is anyone else having difficulty????....and if not, got any ideas on what i need to do to remedy the malfunction????
here's my problems......
i don't have any trouble opening "The Daily Rant"....but one of my favorite parts of Salena's blogs are the archives....it's really weird, but for a couple of weeks now i have not been able to open the archives from 2005 and 2008 thru the links under each new post.....2006 and 2007 work just fine, but it's a no-go on 5 &8......if i go down to the list of all the archives i can open them there, but then i find myself reading the whole month's worth...and that ruins the daily surprise!.....i know...i know....i'm weird........i admit it.......just help me.......
and then there is "Heads Carolina/Tails California".....i can get the page to open, the list of followers, etc comes up.....but no post.....nothing at all....no matter how long i wait......
everyone else i read, daily or occassionally, seem to be working just fine.........any ideas out there?????.........please!....i've become addicted and need my daily fixes on these blogs.......
here's my problems......
i don't have any trouble opening "The Daily Rant"....but one of my favorite parts of Salena's blogs are the archives....it's really weird, but for a couple of weeks now i have not been able to open the archives from 2005 and 2008 thru the links under each new post.....2006 and 2007 work just fine, but it's a no-go on 5 &8......if i go down to the list of all the archives i can open them there, but then i find myself reading the whole month's worth...and that ruins the daily surprise!.....i know...i know....i'm weird........i admit it.......just help me.......
and then there is "Heads Carolina/Tails California".....i can get the page to open, the list of followers, etc comes up.....but no post.....nothing at all....no matter how long i wait......
everyone else i read, daily or occassionally, seem to be working just fine.........any ideas out there?????.........please!....i've become addicted and need my daily fixes on these blogs.......
Saturday, July 4, 2009
she might only be a min pin, but she thinks she's a rottweiler.....
she's only 9.5 lbs.....but she thinks she's a rottweiler........i'll have to hand it to her tho, she is an excellent guard of this truck.....she'd take on anybody that dared to try to get in ....even to get too close.......we admit it tho....she's spoiled.....she thinks the truck is hers and she merely lets us drive her around so that she can bark at other dogs and take care of her business in various locations from coast to coast...........she's so spoiled that she has pretty much taken over our bunk......being a burrowing kind of dog, she has laid claim to all the pillows.......and the minute your butt hits the bunk, it's hers for the snuggling........which can be really nice on a cold winter night, but come summer, you wish she wasn't so affectionate.........so i guess it wasn't any surprise when we saw this cartoon and it hit so close to home.......
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