some days i feel like i've lost all my stuffin.....

babygirl sure gives her toys a rough go sometimes......there are times i feel like life treats me the same......i guess you just have to poke your stuffin back inside and keep playin!

i know we've only been back on the road 5 days, but it's been hectic and rushed and i keep lookin at the calendar counting down the days till we're off for thanksgiving!....

only in new york.......

now, don't get me wrong....i love new york.....as i've told you before, i'm one of the extremely few truckdrivers who still get excited everytime i cross the george washington.....or staten island.......but i gotta tell ya, there is a reason that new yorkers have the reputation they have.......case in point......a couple of weeks ago we headed over into brooklyn by way of the verrazano bridge to pickup a load at the old navy docks.....after getting off of i-287 and making our way almost to the docks on typical, overcrowded, narrow, paralell-parking-on-both-sides-of-the-street surface streets, we were one left turn away from our destination when we can to a sudden stop.......a roadway driver in a 10-wheel straight truck.....what???,about half the length of our truck???? rammed in to side of a small compact car driven by a young man who was attempting to pull out of a parallel parking spot on the right....thus tying up traffic on the street while both parties exchanged blame and other choice words and then got on their respective cell phones to contact a. police, and b. insurance agents and c. at least one good buddy each who they surprised with the words "dude, you're not gonna believe what just happened"........we sat at a stop right behind the roadway truck because we needed to make a left hand turn just past that building on the left in the top picture.......cars from behind us started coming around us, which literally made the oncoming traffic have to come to stop, except for a few adventuresome souls who sucked in their breath till they'd fit and created a lane where there was none........all of this was accompanied by the usual honking and hand gestures that make new york new york......and then the epitome of new york thinking kicked in in the form of the roadway driver coming back and telling brad to go around him.......brad told him that he had to make the left turn and that there wasn't room to get snaked around him and clear the intersection......and his reply???? "whatdayamean( yes, that's all spoken as one word!) ya can't make the turn??? wheredidya (also condensed to one word) learn how to drive????"

ummmmmm.....dude, excuse me, but we're not the one's sittin in the street with a four-wheeler attached to our bumper.........

another mouth to feed........

one of the perks of being a team of company drivers is that we get a brand new truck every year......we put around 250,000 to 300,000 miles on a truck and then trade it in and start all over.....for about 3 years now, we've been burning ultra-low sulfur fuel in the trucks ....a design effort to reduce emissions and comply with epa standards, especially california epa standards.....at first it was a hassle as not all truckstops were carrying the ultra-low sulphur fuel and we were constantly having to track down a place that had it, but then as there became more and more demand for it (all trucks with engines 2007 and newer require it), more and more places carried it........



about the same time we started using the ultra-low sulphur fuel, we also got a handy little feature on our engines called "regeneration"........this meant that while going down the road, our truck would occasionally go thru the "regen" process where internal temperatures could reach as much as 1500 degrees and would burn off any carbon buildup......occasionally you would also have to "regen" manually if you had been idling for long periods of time....when you have to manually "regen" you have to make sure you're not sitting on grass and/or near any paper or combustible materials........i've gotta tell ya, it took quite awhile to get over feelin anxious every time we were in "regen" mode......with all the little silly things we've had mechanics miss on our trucks over the years, it's a little hard to trust that truck builders always do everything right to keep you safe from those kind of temperatures under your butt........



last month we got our 2011 freightliner cascadia.....it has a detroit motor in it.......detroit, in their infinite wisdom, designed an engine that not only has all the features i've already mentioned, but it also has this handy little receptacle that you have to keep filled, in addition to the fuel tanks........ this extra tank holds a product called d.e.f......which stands for diesel exhaust fluid....an additive that makes the "regen" process burn cleaner and supposedly more effectively.....

you have the above pictured gauge(the row of green lights) on your dash to let you know when you need to add def.....and you're warned to keep a close eye on this gauge as running out of def will shut your motor down............we've been told that eventually most truck stops will also have a pump on the fuel islands for def, but so far, in three trips from coast to coast, we've only found one truckstop in washington state with it and they only had one pump on one fuel island for it.......the truckstops who do carry def stock it in the packaging you see below......2 and a half gallon plastic jugs with foot long nozzles that come packaged in cardboard cartons.........it causes me some concern that the same people who came up with this wonderful idea, are the same people who couldn't figure that the packaging should include a vent in the plastic jug so that the fluid would actually go into the tank with out you having to pull out your trusty pocket knife and punch a hole in the jug.............it also causes me concern that even tho i'm not picking up the tab on the def, it's $14 for one of these jugs and we have yet to determine how many jugs it actually takes to fill the tank up......ours was on half full and we put in 6 jugs and think we could have easily added two more.......let's see....that's $84 and two days later we had to fill it again.......i'm all for saving the planet, i just want to be able to afford to live on it while i'm keeping it green........

so now we leave this nice mess on the fuel islands.........

and this mess down the side of our truck, because the way the tank opening is situated and the way the jug nozzle is made, it's impossible to keep it from dripping......

not to mention that on the stops where you have to add the def, it adds at least another 15 minutes to an already tight schedule.........but hey!.....who gives a rat's derriere if we're overloading the landfills with plastic and cardboard as long as we're keeping the air cleaner in california?????

my little black bag

i'm not much for carrying a purse on the truck......for one thing, life in the truck is hard on them....they get kicked around on the floor, rub up against stuff and ruin the leather as we roll down the road....about the only time i feel the need for one is if we are taking time off somewhere other than home and i know i'll be going out shopping or to dinner....or when we stop at walmart.........back in my solo-driver days i had the whole dash to hold all my "essentials" while i was driving......but in the years since i became a team driver, it seems like either the dash is getting smaller and smaller, they're putting more and more space-sucking gadgets on the dash or else brad is just getting more and more stuff of his own, because it doesn't seem like i can find a place for my stuff up there anymore!.....but a couple of months ago while in walmart i was cruising the craft supply isle and found this little jewel......it's got sturdy sides and has kept it's shape.....it has loads of various sized individual pockets that make almost custom-crafted homes for all my goodies and it wipes clean with a damp cloth!!.....
outside pockets hold my eye-glass cleaner and cloth, hand sanitizer and a small bottle of a great little cucumber pick-me-up-spray, pens, post-its, and a comb........ an interior row of pockets are sized just right for my sunglasses, tissues, ipod, phone and headset.....and the huge inside pocket holds whatever audio-book i'm listening to at the time and keeps my wallet in handy reach!

i'm not embarrassed to tell ya that i'm just a little bit in-love with this handy little bag!....i set it on the floor beside my seat when i'm driving and everything i might need while driving is within handy reach......i've not yet given up my cupholder space for my coffee, water, tea or whatever tho...although the designers seem to keep making these smaller and shallower all the time, so it may not be long before i have to add a bottle holder to this little number!....and when we switch out and brad drives, all i have to do is pick it up and set it back on the bunk or a shelf and it's out of his way.....and he thinks that's pretty sweet!

council bluffs, iowa

i take alot of pleasure from simple things in life......one of them is watching all the new decorative bridge railings and intersection landscaping that so many cities across the country are installing as they upgrade and expand the infrastructure.....pennsicola, florida has the blue angels navy show squadron on their overpass abuttments.....seattle has fish and waves and mountains......las vegas has fighter jets from nellis airforce base.......albuquerque has huge mosaic pots and a giant cactus that changes colors at night......salt lake city and ogden have beautiful tin sculptures of ranchers, cattle, horses, and miners and skiers.............recently, while coming thru council bluffs, iowa for the first time in awhile we were greeted by this............we looked.......we looked again......we picked our jaws up off the truck floor and looked again.......we looked at each other and then at it again.......whaaaaattttttt??????????........

i'm pretty certain they paid alot of money for this "art".....upon a little closer inspection it looks like parts of tractors and farming implements welded together in some grotesque and eerie fashion.......perhaps inspired by a transformer movie or even edward scissorhands....... i guess i'm just missing something here.......i've seen the remains of a three-car pileup loaded on a rollback that made more sense than these do.......

on another recent trip thru council bluffs at night, we did at least find something good to say about the sculptures........"at least they're not lit up after dark!"

sittin & waitin......

most people think all truck drivers do is run down the highways of america taking things from one place to another......and that is a good part of our job.....it's the part that usually makes sense and earns us a paycheck......but it surely isn't all that we do.......on some loads, just the paperwork involved, alone, could send the hardiest of pencil pushers into a frenzy.....and then there's the driver's who load and unload their own freight......we try to avoid those kinds of loads.....occasionally we'll get stuck with one and i always argue with them over it since i have a strong aversion to touching freight.....it's not that i'm lazy....well, not entirely that i'm lazy, it's just that while i drove 500 miles thru the nite hauling said freight, i never once looked over and seen a shipper or receiver sittin in the passenger seat telling me funny stories to help keep me awake.......they never fuel, they have never once come out and cleaned my mirrors.....nothin........so i take great offense when they think i should work on their dock......just doesn't happen very often and i can assure you, NEVER without protest!!.....

anyway, the other big part of truck driving is the sitting-and-waiting........the past couple of weeks we've been doing alot of that.....first off because our load got picked up by another truck....then an entire week in a hotel with our truck in the shop.......then another day & a half waiting on a shipper to rework a load that was too heavy on the front....TWICE.....they reworked it and still couldn't get it right.......i mean, jeesh, it's not like they load trailers everyday..(insert sarcastic eye roll here)...........we didn't sit & wait much for the next few days, as we came down from seattle to los angeles, delivered, picked up another load and headed to baltimore......three days comin across the country meant three days that they had to get everything worked out on this load......three days till our 0700 delivery appointment this morning that i got up at 0300 in order to make on time......just to be turned away from the port gates because someone had not bothered to register this truck at the port for the past three days.......hmmmmmm.....can we say "incompetence"???????.......

so now it's 1645 eastern time and i'm still hooked to the same load and still waiting for them to tell us where to take it.......we are supposed to be headed home as soon as we do drop it.......i can assure you i won't be sittin & waiting for them to tell me to go!

theives among us!

everybody has fears.....we all are afraid of something.....for truck drivers, it's usually nasty winter road conditions, drive tire blowouts or that mini-van loaded with kids that pulls out in front of you........for alot of us it's knowing that things "back home" are safe and secure while you're out here earning a living........today we know how that feels......we're in portland, oregon in a hotel while our truck is in the shop........brad and i, while spiritual people, are not church-goers, so we don't tithe, but are thinking maybe we should start after these past few days......it all started last friday.....we delivered here in portland and were dispatched to pick up a load here later that evening going to sacramento, but when we went to pickup, it had already been gotten by another truck....evidently the load was double-dispatched, which i never understand how that happens, but it occasionally does.......so we headed over to the truck stop and called it a nite.....then on saturday evening we were again dispatched on a load going, this time, to los angeles,but it didn't pick up till monday morning.....that meant we had all day sunday off.....we are never ones to mind an occasional day of sitting idle because even tho you're not making any money, you do get a chance to catch up on sleep, laundry, truck chores and, let's be honest, facebook!!......we walked over to a really nice little restaurant for supper sunday nite and had marion berry pie for dessert!....if you haven't had marion berry pie then you need to add that to your bucket list......alot like blackberries, marion berries are indigenous to this area and very very tasty.....i wish i'd remembered my camera, just so that i could make your mouth water, but you'll just have to take my word for it......yummo!!.......anyway, we returned to the truck, watched a little tv and settled in for the nite......all was going well till about 0300 local time when we were awakened by what we thought must surely be the second coming....light on the dash blinking, buzzers going off....and a truck full of exhaust fumes!!!!!......we quickly got up, got the truck shut off and opened up and brad got under the hood to see what was going on......we ended up taking the truck to another truckstop shop where the mechanic found a break in the exhaust line just under the bunk......he couldn't fix it, so we took it to the international dealer's shop where they found a host of troubles in addition to the exhaust leak......seeing that some of the parts needed had to come to portland from the chicago area, they found us a nice hotel room....and we settled in again and ordered pizza, since after spending all day in their lovely, but hardly air conditioned driver's lounge, neither one of us were interested in leaving the a/c of our nice room......this morning brad called to check on the truck and was told that it wouldn't be ready today either.....frustrating, but doable....it's just part of truckdriving........a little later in the morning tho was when insult was added to injury......we got a call from the guy who looks after things for us while we're gone......he'd gone by our house this morning and found that sometime in the past few days it had been broken into!!!!.......in all the years we've been on the road, we've always worried about this happening, but have never had anything bothered.....it probably took me a good ten minutes of the call to comprehend that he wasn't bs'n me and that someone had actually been in our home.........i still don't think it became totally real to me till he put the state trooper on the line to talk to me......hearing news like that is just surreal........it appears they'd entered thru a window.....they must have spent a little time there, because every drawer had been opened and gone thru......they took some change we had in plastic jars where we empty our pockets on the truck and hadn't gotten taken to the bank yet....the took some of brad's marilyn monroe wines.....they took some jewelry .....these are the things we know of so far....we won't really know what's missing until we can get home and look for ourselves.........the biggest thing is that they took any peace of mind that we had, naively or otherwise, about the house and they put a large crimp in any thread of belief in human decency......no one should ever have to worry about the safety of the things they've worked hard to provide for, but today is totally about us.....so i'm saying that truckdrivers should never have to worry that, while they're working to bring the stuff you want to you, that their stuff is being pilfered out the back door!

sh*t our load planner comes up with!

i know that some of you just shake your head when you read some of my blogs where i complain about the folks we work for.......i know you think i should just suck it up and get on with it.....pull up my big girl panties and deal.......well, most of the time i do.......i'm a dealer-with-er-kind of person, always preferring to see the glass as half-full............it's just that sometimes it harder than others to believe there's any substance in the glass at all......

take last nite for example.....we delivered our load in salt lake city yesterday morning and then headed over to the truck stop, caught up a little on sleep, got a nice shower, some supper.....spent the evening watching tv and catching up on facebook till the driver-tech beeped with our assisgnment and this is what we found.........take a close look......deadheading 647 miles from salt lake to our company yard in colton, california, just to run a load over to ontario, ca....a whopping 21 miles away!!!!.......it doesn't take an mba to calculate the business stupidity of this logic........and if you notice that the load needed to deliver by 0900 local time the next morning.....now what you can't see in the picture is that this pre-assignment didn't even come to us till midnite!......we've been doing alot of loads lately that have high dead-head miles on them....this doesn't usually matter to us since we get paid by the mile loaded or empty....but sometimes ya just gotta go "whoooaaaaaa!!!".......anyway....brad called our fleet manager, explained that there was no way we could make it on time, the fleet manager, surprisingly, agreed how ridiculous this load was when there were surely any number of drivers in the local california area who could take it and he had it taken off of us..........as it stands now, we are picking up a load right here in salt lake in a couple of hours and heading to portland, oregon....makes much more sense to me.....with over 6000 trucks in the fleet there is hardly any area of the country that there aren't some of our trucks in at any given time.....why would you not utilize the closest truck????.....i've been reading a hilarious non-fiction book by justin halpern entitiled "sh*t my dad says"......i think i may have to plagerize his title and start a blog, "sh*t my load planner comes up with!"

something old....something new.....

hah!....i had you!.....you thought i was announcing a wedding, huh????......well, that could get a little complicated if it were true since brad gets cranky if i mention getting any other husbands besides him.....although he has agreed that i could have a brief dalliance with sean connery, if the moment ever presents itself...............actually i was thinking more about some fellow drivers we ran into earlier this week while we were in seattle.......when we arrived at the shipper's there were a few other trucks from our company there and since there was a delay with getting the freight off incoming ships and thru customs, we ended up spending one entire day and part of the next there waiting to get loaded......that gives you a little time to get to know the other drivers and listen to their war stories........if you're a fast enough talker, it even gives you a little time to tell a few of your own........

we spent alot of time talking with two trucks in particular.....one a team of "seasoned" drivers who, from the content of their stories, had literally done just about "everything" there was to be done in life, both in the trucking industry and out of it......we stood in amazement at the level of bullcrap that clogged up the arteries of their tales ....you know the kind i'm talking about.....the ones you hear when you have to sit at the "professional drivers only" counter in the truckstop restaurant because all the other booths and tables are taken......since they'd already given us their ages, we also may have missed details of their stories, since we were both busy in our heads trying to calculate how you could possibly fit all those accomplishments and adventures into the span of life they'd been on this earth......from years of experience, we'd learned that it's easier to just "ah ha" in the appropriate places during these kinds of tales tho, than to call the storyteller on the bullcrap and make him have to try to show his cards......it isn't that they weren't likable enough.....just that you need a big shovel to hang around with these guys very long........

the "something new" was a young couple who were literally on their third trip out......they'd just come out on the road together after having went thru school and then a few weeks running with individual trainers and they were eager to soak up any advice and experience we could share with them to make both their jobs and their life on the road easier.....brad and i both were impressed immediately at how down to earth and level headed they both were.....i was also impressed that while watching their faces during bullcrap stories, i could see that they weren't buying into any of it....that made me feel alot better....i've heard some real horror stories about new drivers who think they can put into practice some of the tall tales they've heard from other drivers.......they asked alot of questions, even took some notes and already had a couple stories of their own to tell.....we ended up trading phone numbers, email, etc......and came away feeling confident that they were on the right path to a successful driving career....

it made brad and i feel a little honored to get to mentor this young couple.......we wish both teams all the best....storytelling, like truckdriving, can be hard work!

wildhorse casnio......pendleton, oregon

after running over 7000 miles in 7 days, we finally got a load that gives us a little down time over the weekend.....we're hauling 42,000 lbs. of sugar from nampa, idaho to a bakery in seattle and we don't have to be there till monday morning......when we got this load we really expected the drivertech to beep and tell us to load it and drop it at the yard for a solo driver to deliver and then that would be followed by another beep giving us a long and "hot" load that just had to go, go!, go!!.....but so far that's not happened......it took us about 5 hours yesterday at the shipper's to get loaded...they're usually not that slow there but for some reason everything was moving slowly....it was refreshing to scale out legal on the first try and not have to do alot of sliding tandems to get things road-ready.......so since we hadn't ate all day and since it was already late evening by eastern standards, we went over to the truckstop and had supper and called it a nite........we've been watching the first two seasons of "weeds"......(yes, i know, we're behind!...sometimes it takes us awhile to embrace new pop culture.....lol).....anyway, we finished up season 2.....this show cracks me up......i swear, nancy (mary louise parker's character) cannot catch a break.....never mind that she's a marijuana dealer.....she's is the epitome of murphy's law and then some!!....anyway, now we're anxious to get to target for the rest of the seasons that are out on dvd.....that's pretty much how we watch tv.....seasons of the shows we like on dvd long after the next season of those shows have started.....we are never setting still long enough to catch anything in real time.....although lately we have been exploring hulu.com....a wonderful invention!!......any way, back to the sugar load.....we made it as far as pendleton, oregon......it was absolutely beautiful today coming over cabbage....the sky so clear you could see for miles....we decided to call it a night here.....pulled into the arrowhead travel plaza and cleaned out the truck......i think we have gremlins that trash this truck when we're not looking, because it sure does get dirty quick.....course it could be blamed on the fact that i had an snack attack of peanuts in the shell the other night while driving.....trust me, you cannot shell peanuts and drive at the same time and stay neat.....not to mention that had a cop saw me he would have probably explained how that isn't much different than driving while texting, so i have decided that peanuts in the shell is not a good "driving" snack......it could also be blamed on the pup, who loves nothing better than to get hold of a paper towel or tissue and see how many pieces she can transform it into!.......after dusting and running the sweeper and cleaning the windows, we went inside to one of the nicest showers you can find in a truckstop....it was so cute i was sorry i hadn't thought to take my camera inside with me so that i could show you......clean and cool and really great water pressure!........right beside the truckstop is the wildhorse resort & casino.....doesn't take much more than that to put a sparkle in brad's eyes....lol...so we moved from the truckstop up to the casino truck parking area and ran inside......after all, farewell bend and cabbage scales were both closed today as we came over, so that's a sure sign that lady luck is in your house, right????......anyway, brad hit the three card poker table and i found a couple of good one armed bandits and then after awhile he found me and we hit the buffet......not the best one i've ever visited, but not bad........with my tummy full, i played a little while longer while he went back to the tables and then i decided babygirl was probably gettin lonely in the truck all by herself, so i called it an evening and came out to be with her......alot cooler.....not to mention cheaper, to play computer games out here with her......lol..........

pulled from the files of " you just can't make this crap up!"

in honor of father's day, here's another short installment from the "you just can't make this crap up!" file......

spotted this near ft. collins, colorado.....it actually was a pretty neatly done paint job.....considering all the time it must have taken tho, you have to ask yourself, "why?"

also in ft. collins.......i think the folks out there either get some kind of kickback on the price of paint or else just enjoy the fumes from it........

i can't think of a thing i could say that would explain this one any better.......

i guess if you're gonna be trailer trash, then be the cutest little trailer trash you can be.......

carl hayden dam at lake powell, az

we picked up a heavy load of sugar in nampa, idaho just before the memorial day weekend and took it down to pheonix, arizona.....i was already a little cranky because i had wanted to be home in west virginia over the holiday, but they offered us a nice bonus to stay out and run and even tho that brightened my mood a little, i was cranky all over again when i looked at the routing.....i84 down to ogden, ut, then i15 to down below salt lake city and then we were taking us89 out thru the woods ( as truckers like to say anytime they get off the 4 lane).....i'd never been down that way before and i just thought i wasn't in the mood to be dealin with draggin 45,000 lbs of sugar up one mountain after another.....i should have known better!.....it's true, there were alot of mountains......long pulls up and slow decensts.....but the mountains were absolutely beautiful and the small towns we went thru made me want to stop and spend at least a day in each one of them.....panquitch, utah.....kanab, utah...well, we did spend the night in kanab......and then we crossed over into arizona the next morning and found this little jewel.....pretty much the most northern tip of the grand canyon and beautiful in it's own right.....lake powell, just north of page, arizona....and the carl hayden dam and visitor's center.

if you enlarge the photo, you can see the dinosaur's prints pretty clearly.

you'd think i'd know by now that just as you can't judge a book by it's cover, you can't judge a trip by it's routing. if you find yourself ridin down this way, prepare to not be cranky anymore!

hi 5 for USA

one of the little things brad and i enjoy while we're running up and down the highway are the vanity plates so many people have on their cars now.....sometimes they're cutsie.....sometimes the just let you know what line of work the driver does......sometimes they're so abstract it becomes a game between us to see who can decipher them first...........this one that we saw yesterday as we were running west on the ventura highway in california was pretty obvious....and i have to say, "right back at ya!"

Hi, there. I'm a napkin.

monday brad and i had the good fortune of picking up a load in emporia, kansas, which meant that we got to see our daughter-in-law, gwen, and the grandkids...... jj was out of the country on a business trip to london and tel aviv, so the best we could figure was that missing our visit was his loss....lol...... we had lunch with gwen and jacey at pizza ranch, a really cute pizza buffet place that has excellant food and a western atmosphere.......i always enjoy places that add a little nuance into the finer details......the little things.....and although i really loved the decor of this little place, it was the back of the napkins that did it for me.........

when ya think about it, anywhere ya eat.....anytime ya get takeout......you always need napkins.....and they do kinda have a somewhat thankless job....people use them, thoughtlessly, to wipe their mouth, clean up kid's faces and hands, wipe up dropped food off their own clothes and even blow their noses in them.........kinda seems to me like one of the toughest jobs too......

here lately, brad and i have picked up alot of trailers that other drivers have dropped with numerous problems that they should have taken care of...but didn't........we're also frequently asked to meet a truck and repower their load, that a) was a team load and a solo driver picked it up, b) is a hazmat load that a non-hazmat driver tried to pick up, or c) the driver doesn't have the hours to run the load........not to mention all the repowers we do in order to help another team get home or because their truck has broken down......

there are alot of names that people in our line of work get called.....some seriously, some humorously.....truckdriver, driver, freight relocation specialist, hand, professional tourist, asphalt cowboys,.......but after lunch at the pizza ranch i know we also have another name......napkin.....coz we're always cleaning up other people's messes.

jihad turkey!

brad and i've been having kind of a lazy weekend......we had been running so hard since we came out from hometime that we were both getting dangerously low on hours....so when we got this load going from nampa, idaho to jackson, tn and it didn't have to deliver until monday morning, we discussed our hours with our fm and figured out how instead of running it thru and dropping it early, we could use the weekend to do what is known as a rolling restart on our 70 hours ....that just basically means that when brad finished driving last wednesday, he started his 34 hour restart and i did all the driving thursday....then we shut down for thursday night, then he did all the driving friday and i had enough hours to do my 34 hour restart ....it cuts down your miles a little, but it gives you a slower pace and sometimes you just need that to regroup your spirits as well as you log book hours........anyway, we'd been enjoying it and having time to have good meals and long night's rests.....we'd stopped last nite in percival, iowa where a popular shortcut thru nebraska meets up with i-29 coming down thru western iowa and on into kansas city, mo......i usually get up and hit the road around 4 or 5 am but this morning i'd slept in a little and didn't start out till 7.......i'd been on the road about 2 hours and had just gotten off i-29 onto i-435, the beltway around kansas city.....it was an overcast morning with just a light drizzle every now and then......out of nowhere into my field of vision came this humungous bird....at first i really couldn't tell if it was a turkey or a hawk.....it was headed right for my windshield and before i had anytime to react, it slammed into driver's side of the windshield, shattering it into a million tiny little tiles of safetyglass......the glass actually buckled inward under the impact of the bird and a gazillion little shards of glass sprayed both me and the cab of the truck......i had a purple top on and when i looked down , it looked like my shirt was covered with glitter! instantly, i could no longer see thru the broken glass but i managed to get the truck onto the shoulder of the road and stopped . brad had been awake but hadn't gotten up yet and at first he thought we'd had a blowout.....but when i yelled at him to get up, i don't think he could hardly believe what he saw......the first thing he did was get our sweeper out and clean the glass off of me before he would let me move.....it's amazing that i didn't get any cuts and haven't had any glass splinters, so far anyway..........after he got dressed, and after all the calls we had to make about the incident, we managed to get the truck on down the road about a mile and a half where we could get safely off the road.......we spent along time cleaning up the truck and they sent another truck out to repower the load on to tennessee.......so here we are till tomorrow morning when they can put a new windshield in.......i'm figuring that we'll be cleaning up glass shards again after that.....i can't imagine that they could get this one out with out it coming all apart......

the whole thing did give us time for a nice visit this afternoon with virgil and cattleya and the kids......when they heard what happened, the drove up from kansas city and crowded into the cab with us for a couple of hours.....then they went and got lunch for everybody and again we nestled into the truck like sardines in a can......we had a great visit tho..........brad and i had just been talking the other day about how we will go for years without being hit by a small bird.....and then it seems like once one hits you, within a few days one or two more will do the same.....it's weird, i know....it always makes me think alfred hitchcock.....lol......i'm really hoping that only goes for small birds and not game fowl!!

kent to lost creek and back to kent again!

well, i'd kinda made a pact with myself to try and do better about keeping up the blog, so while we're sitting here in fife, washington, waiting on our load to be ready i thought i'd let you know what had been goin on since our last trip out this way and the previously blogged-about trailer incident.....lol......we finally made it out of kent on thursday and were headed east towards home.....we dropped that load at our company yard in indianapolis and picked up one from another team there that delivered in weirton, wv on sunday.....after dropping that trailer at the customer's, we headed off bob-tailing for lost creek.....we had a great time at home!!....no major excitement but alot of visiting with family and friends, some really good suppers, a little shopping and a pedicure!.....the rest of the time we just vegged out or worked on getting laundry done and the truck repacked......we headed back out on friday afternoon, going up near pittsburgh to pick up a load that had a stop in canton and then delivered in swanton, ohio late that night....from there we ran down thru the woods to columbus and got the one that we brought out here to kent.....we weren't sure just what we'd find on the way out here....we'd been hearing tales of snow just a few days before, but we were lucky for the most part....a little rain and a lotta wind, but no snow......yeah!!....lol.....all of our stops have worked out well, with trailers that have been in good shape......the only calamity was that we locked ourselves out of the truck at our fuel stop in billings, mt yesterday and had to have the locksmith come out.....ugh!!!....i'd had that happen once to me when i was a solo driver but this was the first time for me and brad together......we felt like a couple of rookies, hanging around the truck, which was still running and on the fuel island!)...waiting for the guy to show up......brad put the hood up on the truck while we were there so that other drivers would think we had a mechanical problem and we could save a little face!!!....lol....of course when he pulled in and parked in front of us with LOCKSMITH on the side of his van, it kinda gave the whole thing away.....lol......oh well, crap happens!....our other excitement came when the air hose going to the driver's seat came apart......lol....the sound of air whooshing in your cab is a little mind-boggeling when you're not expecting it.........we're not sure just what happened there.....at first we thought the pup got ahold of it, but then it looked more like maybe the seat came down on the metal trashcan and the rim of the can got it......anyway, we tried bending it double and taping it till we could get somewhere to get a coupling, but the tape didn't hold very well, so basically about 60 miles of the trip was spent with me lyin on the floor between the seats holding the hose.....lol.....what ya gotta do sometimes!!!!....lol.........when we stopped at the fuel stop, brad bought an airhose and installed that, so now when i don't feel like runnin the sweeper, i'll just open both doors up and blow everything to the ground!!...lol....i might like that.....maybe i'll end up having to have one installed at the house too!!.....anyway, we made our delivery in kent just 45 minutes late which i consider pretty darn good, since we were 9 hours late picking it up because they had us do that swanton, ohio run first, then we had about 2 hours of down time between the air hose issue and the lockin ourselves outta the truck issue.....and not to mention the gettin into seattle area at morning rush hour....it took me over an hour to get off i-90, down the 405, and down the 167 to the customer's...which was only about the last 25 miles ......geesh.....but i had a good cup of hazelnut coffee, so i just relaxed and did alot of people watchin as they scurried about tryin to get to work on time!

so it isn't just us, after all!!

baby girl listens as brad talks to dispatch on speakerphone!

drop unto others as you would have them drop for you!!!

no, no, no....get your mind out of the gutter.....i'm not talking about any kind of kinky sexual antics here......unless you wanna include the screwin you take when the driver pullin a trailer fubar's it up and then silently drops it and you are the lucky holder of the ticket to pick it up......we seem to be drawing those numbers a lot here lately.......
this load was a prime example.......

we arrived in kent, washington yesterday afternoon to pick up a load that brings us to indiana and then towards home for the weekend......we dropped our trailer in a door, unhooked and pulled over to the side of the lot to await it being ready to go.........after a couple of hours they came out to tell us the load was ready and on a different trailer than the one we'd brought......as we left out of the building with the paper work, they were locking up and heading home for the day........we hooked up to the trailer, pulled it out from the door and sealed it up and did the usual walk-around, making sure all the lights worked, etc.......as we came up along the driver's side, we noticed a big dent from top to bottom about half way up the side of the trailer.....the metal runner at the top of the trailer was so buckled that you could see part of the roof panel hanging over it........and the bottom metal runner was covered in yellow paint, and dented in pretty badly......and the turn signal assembly below it had been cable-tied back on!!!......we immediately called claims to report the damage so that, a. we could not be held responsible for the damage to the trailer, and b. that if, in fact the hole at the roof line went clear thru, then repairs would need to be done immediately since we had a trailer full of electronics, in kent, wa......which is basically seattle.....and you know what they say about how much it rains in seattle.........and that's true!.......anyway, as most things do when you let corporate in on anything, it turned into a big fiasco, with people from claims, people from the breakdown department and still others from dispatch all jockeying for position as head honcho in what to do about this load..........after a lot of deliberation and phone calls, it was decided that we would have to stay there at the shipper's until this morning and then have them take the freight off the damaged trailer and load it onto the one we had brought in......and, that they would be sending someone out with a tarp to throw over the roof to minimize any rain damage that might be happening......so about 3 hours later, and of course, right in the middle of "glee".....which we hardly ever get to see in real time......here comes a couple of dudes to tarp the trailer.............after more deliberation ...on their part, not ours, we were busy trying to salvage the last few minutes of glee......they decided that it didn't require a tarp after all and in their words, they duct taped the hell out of it and that would be fine till morning.......uh huh..... .well, as anyone who's ever spent an hour or so out in the cold, sleety, winter weather, tryin to get haz mat placards to stick to a cold and wet trailer will tell ya.....duct tape won't stick to it till ya dry it off!!!.....honestly, don't these people even watch red green????........so this morning, at first light , when i poked my head thru the curtain to see what everything looked like, imagine my non-surprise to find the duct tape flyin over the roof of the trailer like a flag of a redneck encampment..........then the shipper finally shows up for the day and is totally surprised to see us still sittin on his dock......he's one of those guys who is never gonna be voted most likely to win mister congeniality anyway......so after a lot of huffing and puffing on his part...... cell phone glued to one ear while he makes wild gestures with the other arm and a lot of foot stamping......he finally takes the load off the damaged trailer and loads it onto the one we had brought in with us yesterday.....now, if we can just get all the talking heads at our company to turn to the same page in the hymnal , maybe we can get out of here and headed to the other side of the world where home is.......so.....another 3 hours or so later we are finally given the ok to hook to the good trailer and head out..........in the mean time while all this deliberation is taking place, an honest to goodness repair truck shows up, complete with a generator that runs all kinds of wonderful tools to straighten metal and rivet metal, and honest to goodness caulking.....and he has the trailer fixed by the time we're ready to leave........anyway......to bring my little diatribe back to the subject......seems that the yellow paint i was telling you was on the side railing of the trailer??????...well, the same yellow paint was on the buckled up cross member on the bottom of the trailer......and what? you might ask is also that same color yellow and could have left this paint there????.....oh, only about a gazillion concrete posts and rocks painted yellow and placed in places to protect objects that you shouldn't back over in parking lots and dock areas.....little inconsequential things like fire hydrants, electrical boxes, drains.......my point is that not even the densest of drivers could have gotten up on this pole, and then gotten off this pole and not have known what they did......and yet, they brought the trailer into that shipper and dropped it, hooked to another and went on their merry way, leaving the problem for the next driver to have to deal with................i'd really like to catch some of these inconsiderate, cowards in the process of dropping trailers like this.......i'm an old hand at duct tape and i know where to stick it to the dry parts.......they'd only be dry till i ripped it back off!

ask a truckdriver......

my friend, salena, over at the daily rant finds some of the best memes for her blog.....i always love reading them because they give you such insight into the thoughts and lives of the folks who answer them.....it's always nice to learn more about friends, family....and in this case, also fellow drivers........

1. what is your favorite interstate to travel??
it's hard not to say i79 simply because that's the one that runs past our house.....but i really enjoy running i 5 thru northern california, oregon and washington.....beautiful scenery, lush green mountains, amazing lakes and rivers, not to mention those cute little expresso huts!

2. pilot, t/a, flyin j or loves??
pilot!....like salena said, they have clean showers and restrooms, and hazelnut coffee!!...

3. If you had to travel cross-country (East-West or West-East) would you prefer to take the Northern Route (I-80 or I-90) or the Southern Route (I-10 or I-40)?
i don't really have a preference here.....there are so many interesting things to see along both routes.....not to mention family and friends sprinkled along the way......i'm kinda like salena, in that i prefer to be cooler than too warm, but as long as my ac is workin, i'm good to go on either route!

4. When driving, do you prefer to see the sunrise or the sunset?
the sunrise!....i love that feeling of greeting the new day......the way that, even when you're driving west, you see the sky begin to come alive behind you.....i love being up while most of the world is still sleeping......

5. Favorite state to drive through?
oregon..............oregon never disappoints!!....the columbia river is breathtaking by day and with the moon glimmering off it at nite......i love portland with all the lights glistening off the water..... any state that has family in it, kansas, missouri, north carolina, massachusetts always makes me smile when i cross the state line too......

6. Least favorite state to drive through?
again, i agree with salena.....definitely texas!!...takes FOREVER to get across it....and with the exception of a few city lights and a couple of good bbq joints, it's mostly hot, dusty and bumpy...

7. What do you think is the most truck friendly state?
oklahoma......lots of truck stops and parking areas.....

8. What do you think is the least truck friendly state?
california......between the 55 mph speed limit, the lack of parking and the no idling enforcement, it takes the cake!.....florida is just about as bad for parking, as are a few others.....makes you feel like they're basically saying, "give us our stuff and then get the hell out!"

9. What is your favorite town to layover in?
vegas, baby!......lol.... .....with the exception of lost creek, wv, of course!!

10. Las Vegas, Reno or Atlantic City?
las vegas, hands down!!

11. Atlantic Coast or Pacific Coast?
pacific coast......you get everything from the desert to the mountains, city lights to olive groves, awesome views of the ocean......and those little expresso huts!

12. Favorite type of freight to haul?
well, for what we do now, i'd have to say electronics or airfreight......neither one are usually really heavy loads......my all time favorite tho, is when we were flat-beddin and doing over-sized stuff ......

13. Favorite company/industry to haul for?
the military......like salena said, it's always interesting!

14. Most annoying traffic related gripe regarding truck drivers?
trucks running up on and then tailgating four wheelers.....it's bad enough when they do it to other trucks.....it's downright stupid when they do it to cars......

15. Most annoying traffic related gripe regarding four wheelers?
being on the dang cell phone......passing and then cutting right in front of me to get off at the exit.....being on the dang cell phone......coming off the on ramp at full speed and running alongside me on the shoulder when i can't get over, which most of them would be able to tell if they weren't on their dang cell phone.......

16. Do you drive solo or as part of a team?
i ran solo for a number of years, but for the past almost 8 years i've teamed with brad.....teaming is better!

17. What kind of truck do you have and what color is it?
an 09 international.....and it's red......it's a company truck...that's the only reason we have it....

18. How many gears does it have?
it has 10 "pretend" gears

19. Does your truck have a name?
it has many at times....but most of them can't be repeated here......

20. Do any pets travel with you? If so, what kind and what are their names?
we have a new little miniture pinscher puppy.....just six weeks old.....her name is babygirl

21. What is your favorite drive in the entire country?
our driveway......what???...you didn't see that coming????.....

22. What state do you currently live in and were you born and raised in that state?
west virginia.......and yes, i was born here, raised here and if God is good, will die here.....i'm a hillbilly girl, thru and thru......

23. What kind of trailer do you pull?
a 53' dry van

24. What is your favorite truck stop?
jubitz in portland, oregon

25. What jobs did you do before you became a truck driver?
stay at home mom, waitress, pharmacy technician, deli worker, photographer, basket teacher, mayor, city recorder, truck driving school instructor.....

26. Have you ever been to Canada and if so, which is your favorite Province/Territory? Why?
several times....i think i've been in 7 of the provinces.....my favorite is ontario.....it's beautiful up there....and so clean......you can't be up there without noticing how clean everything is.....

27. What type of weather do you dislike driving in?
black ice.....this might not have been a good choice coz actually i don't drive in it.....i shut down asap!!

28. What do you listen to while driving? Type of music, talk shows, etc.
i listen to alot of audio books on cd.....john grisham, sue grafton, diane mott davidson and janet evanovich to name a few........our sirius satelite radio.....everything from howard stern to martha stewart......blue collar comedy to rosie odonnell, cnn to npr......

29. Who is your favorite talk show host?
ok, ladies....don't get offended but i gotta say.....howard stern

30. What is your CB handle?
dreamweaver.......but i hardly ever have the radio on.

the 2010 handbook

a friend sent me this in email and i thought i'd share it with you.....yes, it's a little past the new year's start, but never too late to put good advice to work for us......hope you enjoy....and find a few things here that will work for you this year.....

health:
1. drink plenty of water
2. eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar
3. eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and less food that is manufactured in factories
4. live with the 3 e's....energy, enthusiasm and empathy
5. make time to pray
6. play more games
7. read more books than you did in 2009
8.sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. sleep for 7 hours
10. take a 10-30 minute walk daily.....and while you walk, smile

personality:
11. don't compare yourself to others.....you have no idea what their journey is all about
12. don't have negative thoughts over things you cannot control.....instead invest your energy in
the positive, present moment
13. don't over do.....keep your limits
14. don't take yourself so seriously.....no one else does
15. don't waste your precious energy on gossip
16. dream more while you are awake
17. envy is a waste of time.....you already have all you need
18. forget issues of the past....dont remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past.....that
will ruin your present happiness
19. life is too short to waste time hating anyone
20. make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present
21. no one is in charge of your happiness except you
22. realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.....problems are simply part of the
curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last
a lifetime
23. smile and laugh more
24. you don't have to win every argument.....agree to disagree

society:
25. call your family often
26. each day give something good to others
27. forgive everyone everything
28. spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6
29. try to make at least 3 people smile each day
30. what other people think of you is none of your business
31. your job won't take care of you when you're sick......your friends will....stay in touch

life:
32. do the right thing!
33. get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
34. God heals everything
35. however good or bad a situation, it will change
36. no matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
37. the best is yet to come
38. when you awake alive in the morning, thank God for it
39. your innermost is always happy......so, be happy

there's so much good here....a few that i'm not sure what they mean.....but i keep remembering the quote that we are only as happy as we choose to be.......as for me, i'm happy....i wanna be happier....so i'm gonna choose to have a 2010 full of good times with brad and all my family and friends.....a profitable year in the truck with safe travels and awesome adventures....who knows, i may even organize my files and balance my checkbook........i'm just sayin......

some sites we see on the road just speak for themselves.....

seriously, you just can't make this stuff up!......hermiston, oregon