Driver Greg here.  Mammie, (Annie), is too busy playing with her babies, Sadie and Maddie, to write so I am going to fill you in on what happened today.  Today was the first of two days off with the grandkids.  I spent the day running errands, picking up prescriptions and getting them filled, picking up supplies for the truck, snack stuff, got a hair cut, and a couple of other personal errands that needed done.  Annie stayed home and did crafts and played games with her girls.

Tomorrow we clean out the truck real good and try to rearrange things so we can put more stuff in it.  Oh, and laundry.  Had to do laundry.  So it was overall a fun and relaxing day free of the stress of making delivery deadlines and pick up deadlines.  That all starts again Monday with a pickup in Leesburg, FL and a delivery to Lemont, CO, just north of Denver.  We are contemplating taking the mostly southern route through Texas, New Mexico and then north.  Annie’s looking forward to seeing some real mountains.  I’m not looking forward to driving up and down real mountains.  It’s not dangerous as long as the roads are clear, just takes a while.  It’s at a creeping speed.

Well, sorry there are no pictures and not much to talk about but that’s life on the road.

Good night and God bless.

I get to see my babies today!    I am so excited I can’t wait.   Unfortunately I look like a hobo.   In trying to save washer/dryer costs we decided to do laundry at Gregory’s house this weekend.   Unfortunately it means I am down to my last pair of everything and look like one of those people that go to Walmart at 3 am in their pajamas.   Yes, I have been in my pajama bottoms for two days.  So embarrassing.    Also I can’t wear jeans right now anyway because of a horrible rash on my legs.   Greg spilled diesel fuel on his jacket a while back so we washed it.   I didn’t want to spend the money just to wash a jacket so I threw our jeans in with it.   Everything still smelled a bit like diesel fuel but I figured it would wear off.   So I put my jeans on without thinking anything about it and noticed my legs were hurting.  Went to the bathroom and had a horrible red painful rash on my thighs.  So off come the jeans and I have been in loose fitting sweat pants or pajama bottoms for a week.    I am going to have to rewash everything this weekend.  Maybe twice.   Fortunately being an old nurse I packed a bit of everything so I had some steroid cream and gold bond and the rash is so much better.   I walked like a duck for two days. LOL.   I am so glad that I don’t know any of these people we see in truck stops or I would have died of embarrassment by now.   Of course now we look like we fit in.   The truckers I’ve seen wouldn’t win any fashion awards anyway.  I guess when you sit for hours everyday In a truck by yourself you don’t care much about your appearance.    I do though and can’t wait to do laundry!!

I love seeing all the horse farms in Florida.   I never knew they had so many until we moved down here.    Horses and cows everywhere!  Huge farms with hundreds of acres.   We passed one with 183 acres for sale.

Made it to the Walmart distribution center on time.   A little worried after the late stop last night but we made it.   This one is even bigger.  We are at dock 343 this time.

We made it in the to see the kids.  They were so excited.   Sadie started crying.   I have missed them so much!   We ate a good bowl of homemade potato soup and played some games and now its bed time.   The girls want me to read some of their Bible stories and we are having a sleep over on the floor (Hope I can get out of bed in the am).

Goodnight, y’all.

Greg. –  Just turned onto Highway 301 S. Florida.  I remember this route number.  It was one we took several, if not every time, we went to Florida.  In 1959 my grandfather died and my aunt, cousin and grandmother moved to St. Petersburg. Every summer thereafter we would take our vacation at her house. Dad would always drive straight through getting up early in the morning and heading out before dawn.  I would crawl in the back seat and go back to sleep.  I remember him planning the trip several days in advance trying to find the best route.  Sometimes he would call AAA and get one of their trip packs that had the best route for shortest miles, fastest time, motel stops, gas pricing along the way and whatever else one requested.  I only remember staying in a motel once during these trips, two weeks every summer from 1960 through 1969 and that was at what i would call a novelty motel that had cabin rooms in the shape of tepees.  I think dad was intrigued by this roadside attraction is the only reason we stopped.  Otherwise it was straight through, 24 hours to go 1100 miles.  I would move from the back to the front throughout the trip depending on what I wanted to see and if I felt sleepy.  No car seats, no seat belts, total freedom to move about the car.  And I’m still alive.  Imagine that.  Anyway, looking at 301 today, it is much different than what I remember although there were several familiar sights I seem to remember.  As I recall this particular route was populated on either side with roadside attractions.  Petting zoos, exotic animal displays, alligator farms, souvenir shops and the all popular Stuckey’s.  I remember begging dad to stop at every one of them.  Of course that would have been impractical and quite costly at the time, so on occasion he would indulge me and we would stop and take the tour.  Snakes, monkeys, alligators, lizards.  That’s about as exotic as it got as best I can remember, but I enjoyed it just the same and wanted to go back year after year.  And a pecan log from Stuckey’s. Not sure why I was fascinated with these things, crushed pecans stuck to a roll of nougat.  I would eat maybe a third of it, saying I was going to save the rest for later and never finished them.  Dad bought me one every year nonetheless.

Riding down 301 today, four lanes now instead of the two lanes I remember, brought back many memories.  Some of the buildings that held the “tourist traps” as dad called them, are still there, run down, abandoned, some found other uses as junk/antique shops, but nothing resembling the glory days of parking lots full of cars with license plates from all points north and wide eyed kids looking at the wonders of Florida wild life on display for all to see.  And the bumper stickers.  Back then it was a custom for the attractions you stopped at to put one of their stickers on your bumper and in my mind a level of prestige to have several on your back bumper to show what fun you had at all the attractions you stopped at.

Well, a trip down memory lane and a stop over for a couple of days with the grand kids. It’s been a good week.  Good night and God Bless.

You know you are in Florida when it rains every afternoon.

Osprey nest

Girls in the bunk of the truck.

Well, woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow. It looks like we got about 4 inches. It is beautiful to look at but not much fun to drive in so we are going to head out early this morning so we can go slow and take our time.   At least we are headed to Florida today so the weather should improve greatly as we go.

Getting through Tennessee sure was difficult. It took us 30 minutes just to get down off the mountain due to roads and only able to go 35 miles an hour because of the weight of the truck. It sure is beautiful though.  I took a lot of pictures of the snow in the trees even though I’m sure you all are tired of looking at it.  We went along the same road we went on before where you are in Tennessee then Georgia then Tennessee then Georgia all within just a few miles.

The first part of Georgia was snowy and we saw two bad accidents where trucks had turned over. They said there was a lot of black ice this morning but thankfully we missed it. By the time we got to Atlanta the roads are clear.   Of course the traffic around Atlanta was fun as usual.

We made it to Florida as it was starting to get dark. But at least we made it to Florida! We are stopping at the Walmart distribution center in Macclenny Florida and then we will find a place to stop for the night so we can finish our load tomorrow and then go see my babies!  These Walmart distribution centers are huge! They are set out in the middle of nowhere and are acres in size. There are hundreds of trailers in the parking lot and over 100 docks. We are to pull into dock 136 if that gives you any kind of idea as to how big they are. We have a truck load of chicken that will find its way into area Walmarts soon.

After being in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Kansas, I can’t believe we have 55° weather. I have my window down for the first time.

Mary, you will appreciate this. Greg now has a Bluetooth earpiece for his phone to use while driving.   He may find it on the side of the road somewhere if I get the ssshhhhh and pointing to his ear again.  LOL.   He will just start talking and I think he is talking to me so I try to answer him and get the hand gesture.   Oh boy!

Driver: My version of the sight upon awakening; woke up to a cold, slushy mess.  I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

Out of the cold and into the warm sunshine of sunny Florida.  God certainly loves the people of Florida because he gives them year around sunshine.  Ahhhhh!!!!  For the first time in weeks I was able to go outside without my toboggan on.  That is a relief I cannot describe.  Just look at the pictures of snow and ice below and you will get a sense of how happy I am to be out of that mess.  Then scroll to the bottom and presto, green grass and sunshine.  Hallelujah.

Then there was the three hours at the loading dock to unload maybe one third of a trailer.  The words of the instructor during orientation keeps playing in my head during these long waits, and I quote, “Trans Am don’t sit at docks more than two hours”.  I would like to bring him with me for a couple of weeks.  I don’t think I have sat less than two hours for loading and unloading.  The only time we have been able to get in and out is a drop and hook, and that’s only when your loaded trailer is waiting on you.  It happens.

So, with the three hour wait at the dock, my 14 hour clock ran out which means, legally I’m done.  Can’t move, can’t do paperwork, can’t do email.  Stupid right.  Well, someone did realize this could be a problem so there is an exception in the law called Safe Haven, Mandate to leave property.  This is just for situations like this.  You’re at a shipper or consignee and you run out of time.  You can’t stay there, gotta go, so you log “on” and select Safe Haven, etc. and legally you can drive to find a safe place to park.  How far you can go, I don’t know, but we had to go about 17 miles to finally find a parking place and a small out of the way truck stop.  Two of the previous truck stops we drove through were slam full.  Guys were on the side of the road and Annie kept wanting me to pull in next to or behind one of these guys, but it just didn’t feel right so I checked my trucker app and found this place.

So there you have it.  Bad weather, good weather, legal issues, all in a day’s work.

Good night and God bless.

Nice

Bet you are glad thats not the road to your house!

Finally! Green grass!

Well, change of plans.   This is why we didn’t tell the kids we would be there Saturday.  Just in case.   Got a call about midnight that they wanted to swap our load with another guy because his brother died and he needed to get to Florida ASAP.   So Greg said ok.   Now we have a trip back to Oklahoma.  They are trying to route us back to Florida “but it is going to be very difficult”.   His manager called this morning and said “why did you take the swap? We had you headed home?”   What were we supposed to do.  The guy’s brother died.  Last time Greg asked if he had to take the swap and she said “well it’s nice because you may need a favor some day”.  Make up your mind!   Running my own business for so many years I forgot what working with other people is like.

So, we are heading to get the trailer washed out and headed to Rich Products in Lebanon, TN then to Oklahoma.   I pray they can get us back to Florida this weekend!

Oh the lovely world of truck driving.  LOL.  We spent three hours getting the truck loaded (With 34,000 pounds of different kinds of shrimp) and found out we are swapping trailers with someone again.   They have found us another trip to Florida so I can’t complain.  So now we are headed back to the truck stop we were in this Morning to wait for the guy to show up “sometime before 6 pm”.    At least I will have time for a shower!

Got a shower and a nap and the guy shows up to switch trailers.   5 o’clock so even a little early!  Yay!   Now we can drive about 4 more hours tonight.   This trip is a two parter.  First part goes to Macclenny,Florida and then on to Arcadia which is real close to the kids!!

Well, we didn’t get far.  About an hour outside of Nashville it started snowing pretty hard.   We made it a few more miles to a truck stop and pulled over.   It is coming down fast and hard.   Weather report says we are supposed to get 2-3 inches tonight and black ice around Atlanta so its a good thing we are stopping here.  Hopefully they will have had time to get the roads clear around Atlanta by the time we get up and out.

Driver here: Chickens, helicopters, goats, cows and horses and now snow.  What a variety.  Looks like the snow is more rain now.  If it doesn’t freeze we will be alright.

This is the same truck stop where we met the guy that toured with the Grateful Dead so many years ago.  You may or may not remember that story from an earlier blog.  This blog has helped us remember so many things that we would otherwise forget as the days seem to run together out here on the road.

Speaking of time, it seems to expand out here on the road.  Looking back it has only been 29 days since we started the blog but it seems like years.  Not that time seems to drag by, but it may be due to the fact that your whole day is spent concentrating and traveling.  Maybe it has something to do with the motion.  Don’t know.  Someone should do a study.  Any grant writers out there?  I’m sure the government has a spare mil lying around they would be glad to throw at a study that studies the relationship between time and travel.  As Einstein theorized, if you traveled at the speed of light time would stand still.  So maybe at 60 miles an hour it slows down, if only slightly.  But done daily would be somewhat noticeable.

Okay, I am really sleepy now.  Good night and God Bless.

Snow really started coming down in a hurry.

Helicopters flying around Nashville.

Tennessee countryside.

LP Field. Home of the Tennessee Titans.

Doesnt this AT&T building look like a Transformer?

Good morning everyone. Up at an early hour again. Greg got up at 4:30 but told me to stay in bed if I wanted to so I did but the rocking and bumping and bouncing only makes me nauseous so I’m up now too.

Stopped at a rest area in Illinois and we started getting messages that the refer (refrigerated trailer) had a critical error. I’m not worried since it’s set at 27 and the temp is 9 with a windchill of -8. Don’t even know why we have it on in this weather. It’s not going to thaw out. Anyway, Greg had to hit some reset buttons and see if we can fix whatever’s going on.

We are in to Illinois now and it is finally getting warmer.  It’s 34.  Greg has finally stopped crying so much.  Lol.

We passed through Kentucky on our way to Tennessee tonight.  Did you hear us yell hi?   Probably not all the way from Paducah but our thoughts were with you guys there tonight. We saw quite a bit of snow passing through.   More so than we saw in Iowa this last trip.   Now thats surprising.

We have stopped at a Truck stop in the heart of Nashville tonight.   Right now we are across the street from downtown.   Pretty neat skyline.    Got a long drive again tomorrow. We are due to hit Orlando at 11 am on Thursday!!  Should get a couple of days with my babies!!

Well, what a day.  Refer problems, cold weather, I get to the truck stop with 12 minutes left on my clock and I have to do a 10 minute post trip inspection.  Talk about cutting it close.  Already had one hours of service violation this week.  Another one within 30 days and I could get written up.  Or worse.  Not sure.  I guess I just like living on the edge of danger.  That being said I added another check off to my list, I bumped a guy’s trailer trying to park tonight.  I didn’t even know I had hit him.  I tried to get into a spot that was too tight and backed out and parked in another area of the lot.  Next thing I know this guy is taking pictures of my license plate and truck.  I ask him what he is doing and he says I hit his trailer.  So, I go look and sure enough there is a small dent on my trailer about the height of the light I knocked off of his trailer.  Not sure what that’s going to cost me.  Reported it to the company.  Waiting to hear back.  I’m sure there is some DOT report I will be involved with.  The irony here is I just got a notice this morning that I got some sort of safety award for the week.  Go figure.

Oh well, stuff happens huh.

I didn’t see where Annie explained the tire tracks in the snow in several of the pictures below so I will mention that they are on a lake.  Don’t know about you, but I don’t think it could get cold enough for me to feel safe driving a vehicle on a lake.  Maybe in Antarctica.  But you won’t catch me there, ever.  Oh, and the helicopter shot was taken close to Fort Campbell.  There were two others flying around but didn’t get pictures of those.

I think I said before there are places in other states that look similar to Kentucky, but the thing I noticed today, no matter how close they resemble our fine Commonwealth, they are not it and it is plainly obvious to me when I am in Kentucky.  It just “feels” different.

Well, it looks like we are headed for warmer weather and yes, I was crying when the temp was in the single digits and below.  It’s just not right.  Early morning, so I will say Good Night and God Bless.  Keep the shiny side up and eyes on the road.  That goes for all of us.

Up at 0 dark thirty. It’s 2 degrees with a windchill of -7. It wouldn’t be so bad if there wasn’t so much whining coming from the drivers seat. LOL. He does not like cold weather.

It’s too dark to take pictures yet. I tried once before and the flash about blinded Greg while he was driving so I figure that’s probably not a good idea.

It’s getting colder as we go. It is now -3 with a windchill factor of -13. The sun is starting to come up so hopefully will the temperature.

We passed a sign that said birthplace of John Wayne. Apparently he was born in Winterset, Iowa. Cool

Well what was supposed to be a quick trip to Tyson ended up being five hours. The brakes weren’t working on the trailer and Greg couldn’t slide the tandems in place. He tried everything he knew, emailed Transam and tried everything they said and they still wouldn’t work. Ended up waiting on repair guy to come and help. We were supposed to be several hours down the road on our trip next but only had an hour and a half so we didn’t even get out of Iowa yet. Greg needs to get out of Iowa quickly. All he is doing is crying about the weather. LOL. It hasn’t gotten above 2 degrees today with the windchill -7 still. He is not made for the cold weather love his heart.

We got loaded up with 44,000 pounds of pork.   That surprised me since we were at the Tyson place.  I was expecting chicken.   Guess Tyson does more than just chicken.

All tucked in for the night now at Pilot outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa.   It’s not a big place but several industries right in town.   Everywhere you look there are smoke stacks and steam and whatever else coming out of them.

We are headed to Illinois tomorrow so I don’t look for much warmer weather yet.

Sorry I don’t have a lot of pictures tonight but I figured you were getting tired of farmland and barns so I only took a few.

Talk to you tomorrow.   Goodnight, y’all.

Brrrrrrr…….  I don’t like cold weather.  It feels crisp and clean for about 10 seconds and then it starts to hurt.  My bones are cold.  No kidding.  According to the GPS we will be heading east for while before turning south.  Can’t wait.  I need warm sunshine.

Cedar Rapids smells like oats.  I guess it’s because of the big Quaker Oats plant in town.  Can’t imagine smelling breakfast all the time.  I guess it’s what you get used too.  I grew up smelling Semet Solvay so oats would probably be an improvement.

So, here we are in a small truck stop outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Dinner was cafeteria style chicken and meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans.  A hot meal is good when you can get it but a good hot meal would be even better.  It was filling.  And we’re thankful.

That’s about it for today.  Most of the day spent working out problems with the trailer.  I must be the broke trailer magnet.  That’s two within a week that I’ve found needed fixing.  Somebody else’s turn now.

Well, gotta turn in.  Early day tomorrow.  Good night and God bless.

Sound asleep and get woken up by scraping noises and the truck bouncing. I woke Greg up (of course) and told him somebody just hit the truck so he gets up just as the guy knocks on the door to tell Greg he hit the trailer. Greg goes outside and sure enough the guys trailer is on ours. He pulls forward and there goes the screeching again and the truck rocking as he pulls away. Greg said he didn’t hurt anything. The guy backs in again without hitting us this time. Good grief. All of these trailers have scrapes down the side where somebody has rubbed up against them. They aren’t usually going fast enough to do real damage when backing. We saw a guy the other night go too fast while turning and not wide enough and just nailed the guy’s trailer on the end. He didn’t even slow down. Just kept going like it didn’t matter. At least this guy came to the door and apologized. Now to try to go back to sleep.

Alright. All ready to start the day at 6:30 AM. Greg has his coffee and I have my Diet Coke and off we go.

We hadn’t been on the road but just a few minutes when a coyote went streaking across the highway. Man it was fast. It ducked right under the wiring in the median and kept right on going. Fortunately not a lot of traffic yet.

We drove through Missouri, Iowa and in to Nebraska.   Nebraska takes their corn seriously.   There is a busy town and right beside it would be a huge corn field.   Apartments, restaurants and then more corn fields.   I guess if you have an empty spot you put corn in it.   The part of Nebraska we are in is rolling hills.   It seems real congested here which is different than what I thought it would be since Iowa and other states around it are so sparse.  Of course, where we came in may be the hub and outside is more corn fields.   Maybe will see tomorrow.   We are headed to Waterloo, Nebraska.

We went by a corn field and there was a bird tornado.   Thats what it looked like.   There were so many birds and they were taking off and landing and swirling around.    Wow!

We have done a lot of sitting around and napping again today.   Got to Truck stop, Sapps Brothers, around 4 pm.   We are leaving about 2 am to go to Waterloo.

Sapps Brothers takes their truck stops seriously.    It has lots of knick knacks and stuff like that but the bathrooms have bidets in them with heated seats.    Fancy!    You need the heated seats here.  It is 12 degrees and the wind just cuts right through you.

Well, turning in.   2 am comes early.    Goodnight y’all.

I’ll make this quick since I need some sleep.  Came across the Missouri River a couple of times.  This is along the Lewis and Clark trail.  It is something to see that river and the surrounding landscape and to think of those explorers seeing this for the first time.  The bridge across the river from Iowa into Nebraska is a toll bridge with these two old ladies sitting in the booth collecting tolls.  $5.00 for the truck.  Not bad as tolls go for these things.  But the guy at the place where I dropped my trailer wondered why I wasn’t routed from the interstate which is about a quarter mile from where we were standing.  This GPS system really needs an update.  It brought us across the toll bridge, through town, when we could’ve taken the interstate all the way.  Jeez.  Oh well, good trip all in all.  The other day we see a roadrunner and today we see a coyote.  I tell ya, he looked like he was chasing the roadrunner as fast as he was going.  The bird tornado was really something.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  It was really amazing.  I have never seen so many birds in one place and swirling like they were.  There has to be a name for that phenomenon.  Not long before that we saw what looked like Canadian geese except they were much higher than I had ever seen them flying and in great numbers.  Amazing sights almost every day.  What a country we live in.  Just wonderful.

Well, that’s it from the road this day.  More tomorrow.  Good night and God bless.

BIrds

Poultry or some kind

What the heck?

Up early again this morning. Much warmer this morning which is nice. It is currently 42° which is 10° warmer than it was last night when we went to bed. Unfortunately it’s raining this morning but I guess that’s better than sleet or snow. On our way to our pick up and then onto Nebraska.

We now have our load from the wrangler warehouse and now starting the 14 Hour Drive to Omaha Nebraska. We have 6200 pounds of blue jeans. The weather is getting colder instead of warmer which is fun.

Interesting facts about Hackleburg, Alabama. It is home to Sonny James the country music star of the 60s and 70s with songs like Young love and running bear. He started singing at the age of three and played a banjo that his dad made from a molasses can cut in half and strings put on it. His family had a 300 acre farm but they toured around different states playing school gymnasiums and things like that but after graduation he enlisted in the National Guard and was sent to Korea. After Korea he came home and went back into the country music business. He was the first country music recording artist to have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Other lovely sites we have seen in Alabama. Too Fat Sisters in the kitchen restaurant, Coon dog cemetery, and the Buttahatchie River.

Crossed in to Mississippi but didn’t get picture of sign. Batteries ran out in camera and was changing them when we went passed.

Now in to Tennessee. It has rained for hours. Creeks and rivers are running over their banks. It’s a nasty day to be driving.

Stopping at a Pilot in Jackson, TN. Time for Greg’s 30 minute break and something to eat.

Ran into a young girl (20’s) in the bathroom crying her eyes out. Big gulping sobs. I asked if she was alright and she said yeah. She had a big duffel bag with her so I wondered if she and her husband or boyfriend had a fight and she got out of the truck or was tossed out. I asked her how she was getting home and she said she didn’t know. I tried to talk more to her but she left and I didn’t see her again. I pray she finds a safe ride home.

Going down the road we see this big house and then did a double take. What we first thought was a horse was actually a Zebra. What? Yep. And there were also a bunch of what looked like caribou. Further down we saw a sign that said it was a small safari park. How random is that?

Ran into quite a bit of flooded corn fields coming through Tennessee. What looked like ponds were actually fields. It has rained all day.

Got in to Missouri and the rain stopped but lots of ice on side of highway, trees and fields. Beautiful to look at but glad roads are clear.

Made it past St. Louis so stopped for the night. Got about 6 hours to go to get to Omaha. Going to eat a bit and settle in. Got to see what’s going on in Downton Abbey tonight.

Goodnight, y’all.

Not so fast.  Gotta put in my two cents.  Reaffirming everything Annie said about the weather.  Aweful.  Could have been worse, but still miserable.  Saw the sun for a few minutes at sunset driving into Missouri, but that was about it.  I don’t mind driving in the rain, just would rather not.  Doesn’t make for good sightseeing either.  Well, my navigator found us a truck stop just on the far side of St. Louis so we can avoid any Sunday morning traffic in that area in the morning.  I was worried we weren’t going to make it before my 14 hour clock ran out.  I was driving on that one since we took such a long break for lunch.  As you may recall from our clock lecture a few post ago, the 14 clock does not stop once started.  It is your daily limit for driving, working and taking breaks.  We were about 20 miles away from the truck stop with 32 minutes drive time remaining.  Speed limit 70 to 65 and sometimes 60, so that shouldn’t be a problem right?  Well, you never know what’s going to happen with traffic.  As we speed toward our stop getting ever close I move into the right lane a few miles ahead of the exit so that I won’t have to worry about traffic to my right when trying to get off of the interstate.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, there is a car in the right lane and he is going 55 in a 70 mph zone.  De Javu.  If you remember, that’s hour I got my hours of service violation a few days ago, riding behind a slow poke on a two lane country road for 30 minutes as my drive clock expired 14 minutes before I could stop.  Well, no problem tonight.  Pulled into the parking lot with about 14 minutes to spare.  Now remember, I cannot sign off as long as the truck is moving and the clock continues to tick.  I find a spot, back in, that’s right, I back in.  There was nothing for 50 feet on either side of my parking spot but that’s not the point here.  Got stopped, hit off, but then it asks if I want to do a post trip inspection.  I say yes.  This requires 10 minutes minimum and if you check off before that it will make you go back and edit your logs to include a 10 minute post inspection.  Set the timer on my phone so I get at least the 10 minutes.  The timer goes off, I click okay, post inspection done, and there is less than a minute left on my 14 hour clock.  Parked, inspected and done right on time.  Good planning or just plain luck?  I’m going to give the credit to my planner.  She knew how far we could get and how soon and we did.  Good job Andrea.  I think I will keep you on.

Good night all.  And God bless.

Plastic containers

Birmingham

Coal train in Alabama

Kinda creepy

Birmingham

Flooding

Started the day out before dawn again. Not too early. Got to sleep all the way to 6:30.

It is freezing here in Jackson, Georgia at 22 degrees but trying not to complain since I know you guys in Ashland are at -12 this morning. I also saw where Cape Coral is 34 this morning. I can’t believe that one. Global warming!

We are going Birmingham for pick up. Then we have to take that load to Hackleburg, Alabama where they get part of the load and then to Omaha Nebraska. I haven’t been there yet so am excited to go.

Well after waiting two hours we now have a truck full of plastic packaging. We were supposed to be on our way to Hackleburg Alabama but they canceled it today and made it for tomorrow due to possibility of sleet tonight. According to the map there is nowhere for us to stop and sleep tonight on the way to Hackleburg so we are going to have to stay here in Birmingham even though it’s only 3 o’clock in the afternoon. This also makes it crunch time for our trip to Omaha on Sunday.

Well it’s time for bed. We watched as much TV as we could stand and now time to turn in so we can get up early. Sorry there are no pictures tonight. We didn’t get far enough out for me to really see anything.

Good night y’all.

Well, slept in for a bit. Got up at 8 instead of 5. Made it to loading dock in plenty of time. We dropped off good Kansas and Oklahoma beef at Bubba’s Foods. The guys that make those yummy burgers in the frozen section at the store. I was not paid for this commercial. Well, I guess in a way I was. Lol. Anyway, good to know its good USA beef not from China like Walmart. Mmmm. Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.

Interesting note: Located in Northeast Georgia, Elberton was incorporated on December 10, 1803. The city was first called “Elbertville” and named for General Samuel Elbert who fought in the Revolutionary War. Elberton sits near the center of Elbert County, 33 miles east of Athens and 110 miles east of Atlanta. Known as “The Granite Capital of the World”, Elberton produces more granite monuments than any other city in the world. Elberton is also known for attractions including granite monuments, historic homes and architecture, beautiful lakes, historical theatre and downtown square, and the 20,000 seat Granite Bowl.

Next stop is to trade trailers with a guy so he can have time off. We are taking his trailer on to Florida. We are to meet him at —- Bucksnort Road in Butts County, Georgia. Seriously. You can’t make this up.

Driver here: arrived early at consignee, but 40 minutes later, and no unloading started. Must be union. Wouldn’t think so this far south and such a small town, but who knows. Annie made fun of my backing again. Wide open parking lot and I still get crooked. I think it’s my mirrors. Yea, I’m going with that. Gotta get new mirrors. Well, will write more later. I have waiting to do.

Well, change of plans again.  We got trailer from guy as mentioned above and Greg noticed oil on one of the wheels.   So, he had to call Transam and let them know.    They think it’s a leaky (yawn) wheel cylinder type thingy (please stop talking).    Whatever it is, it means we can’t take this trailer for fear a wheel will come off.    So, we are now sitting in the truck repair place at a TA truck stop.    In the meantime, they have told us we are not going to go on to Florida as planned but will leave this trailer here and go get another trailer in Birmingham, Alabama tomorrow.     Not many miles today but don’t want a wheel to fall off going 60 mph in a truck either.   So here we sit.   I see a shower in my future since we are going to be here a while.

Not very many pictures.   Sorry.

Driver again:  Going around the trailer with the driver swapping with me I notice a big puddle of oil in the left rear outside trailer wheel.  Definitely something leaking.  These things have oil in the axles and seals on the outside to keep the oil from leaking out.  Well, this one was bad and needed some attention.  The guy who had driven the trailer from Indiana said he hadn’t noticed it and I gave him an out saying that it was probably the cold weather he had come through.  We both know the truth.  Anyway, here we sit.  Will get plenty of rest tonight before heading for Birmingham early in the morning.  May write more later but if not, you know what happened.  Zzzzzzzzzzzz………

The road to Elberton

This is the kind of place I would lose Greg in for hours!!

What the heck?

Lovely!