Well, this is what happens when you have a long day on a trip with a due time that gives you time to rest. And that is what we did. So no blogging got done yesterday. So now it is almost 9:00 the following morning and I asked, “Did you do anything on the blog”? And Annie responded, “No, did you”? And I said, “No”. So here we are. 

Well, know that we are well rested and just taking our time as we have until tomorrow, the 13th, to go 400 miles. We will do that today and hope that we can deliver today. 

Have fun, enjoy your Sunday, we will be back on track soon. 

God bless. 

Up at 7 and ready to go.  Another beautiful day but it is so hot and humid.  Not a fan of Louisiana.    The roads too are horrible.  Feel like we are in an amusement park ride with all the bumps and ups and downs.  

Talked to Mary via FaceTime for a bit.  What a wonderful invention!   Trying to decide what’s the best chocolate! 

We stopped in Waco and dropped off our peanuts at the Mars facility and picked up more candy.   No samples like at Hershey here though (which is not the best chocolate). Headed to Wrigley plant outside or Chicago.  Got until Monday but still going to have to push it a bit.  

When Greg got the new trailer he noticed a mud flap was missing so we had to call repair service and they said take it to Petro in Hillsville Texas and get a new one.  Apparently it’s a big deal not to have one of those and if DOT catches you without it you can get it trouble.   I didn’t see what the big deal was but Greg said without it the trailer could hit rocks and throw them on to the car behind us and break a windshield.   Guess it is a big deal.  I had no idea.   So we got that fixed but by then time had run out so we are staying the night here. 

Up at 1:30 to go to the bathroom and this place is packed.   There were a few open slots when we went to bed but now all are full and they are even double parked and parked in the fuel lanes and down the side of the road.  When time runs out it is serious business. 

DG:  Round and round we go, where we stop nobody knows.  

Delivered the peanuts and picked up 41000 pounds of Skittles.  On our way to Illinois.  Got till Monday to get there.  

Up at 8 as requested by office and load was ready.   Paperwork wasn’t so we still had to wait a bit but we are finally on our way to Waco, Texas.  Good thing is that with the new company Greg does get a detention pay since we had to wait so long for the load.   Nothing at old company.   So that’s a nice bonus.   

Went through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and in to Louisiana before stopping for the night.  Still have about 300 miles to go to get to Waco.   

Missing my babies something awful today.   Hope to get back soon.   

Goodnight y’all.  

DG:  Good day for driving.  Clear sky, not much construction and only one little delay due to an accident that was cleared in a hurry. 

Dinner took forever but we had a shower prior so it was easy to relax and wait. 

Pretty warm here in Louisiana so will be running the a/c all night. Gotsta keep cool. 

43000 pounds of peanuts headed for Waco to be included in your favorite candy bar. 

Gotta rise early to get a start on the day so good night and God bless. 

I know I have been MIA for a couple of days but it couldn’t be helped.    Play time with my babies.   What a joy they are!   We played and snuggled and watched movies and played some more.   We were painting toilet paper rolls to make flowers and looked and Maddi had mostly painted herself.    She said she wanted to look like a monster. LOL

We went to Parrot Key restaurant down by the beach for dinner.    The kids had to have the penguin poop for dessert.   It’s a brownie topped with coconut ice cream, chocolate syrup and gummy fish.   It was so awful, but of course I don’t like coconut, but the kids loved it.    I had a good steak.  Greg had the shrimp and grits.   They also had the calamari as an appetizer.   I can’t believe the kids eat that stuff but so glad they are willing to try new foods.    

We are back on the road this morning.   The girls made me promise to wake them up before I left.  I promised thinking they wouldn’t wake up but they woke right up and got lots of hugs and kisses and laid back down.   Before going back to sleep Maddi said “Mammie will you pray for us before you go?”    Of course I did.   Such sweet angels.  I sure miss them.   

Got to our stop in Albany, Georgia but our load wasn’t ready yet.   I could have stayed with my babies longer so they better hurry!  

Sorry the picture is bad.   We had a pretty good rain.  

DG:  No free sample here like at Hershey. Just waiting.  It was a seven hour drive so couldn’t really have waited in Cape Coral until the load was ready, but could have stayed a little longer. Oh well, no sense in postponing the inevitable. 

Had a fierce little thunderstorm come through a bit ago. Lots of wind and rain but not for very long. Lots of gnats around here. South Georgia, go figure. Drive about 40 med through farm country. Lots of peanut, cotton, soy beans and some other stuff I didn’t recognize.

Hoping for a load soon. Clock is running out.  

Annie – well load still isn’t ready and now they are saying it won’t be ready until am.   Going to go ahead and turn in.    

Goodnight y’all.   

DG:  And God bless. 

Up and on the road by 5:15. Got to first stop and waited.   Appointment was for 6 am and we sat until after 10.   Greg went in and asked about the time and was told they are all on break.  Will call you when they are done.   Well, apparently they were done before break and didn’t tell anybody because the guy came right back out and said we were good to go.
Now we get to second load in Miami which is at a Winn Dixie.   We were told to park behind the line and wait.   Oh goodie!

Yep.  This far back.  Weird.   

DG: They were obsessed with lines. Behind the line here, wait for the call, which came within minutes since it was Sunday and they were not busy, then make surely you drive past the line going out, stop and have your trailer inspected. Sometimes I think rules are made just so people won’t have to think about what they are doing.

Went inside to present our bills and get a price for unloading from the lumpers, oh, and use the facilities, that’s standard procedure at every stop.  I like what Annie told the lumper manager, “The only thing standing between me and my grandchildren is what’s on that trailer.”  I think he got the message.  Still it was a couple of hours getting empty which isn’t bad.

Now on to Fort Myers to park.

Gregory was already at the truck stop when we got there and wouldn’t you know it I just had to perform one of my now famous parking maneuvers.  He got a kick out of that and offered to park the truck for me.

Melissa called Gregory on our way to their house and said it was storming to please hurry because the kids had their faces planted against the windows looking for mammie and she was concerned because of the lightening.

Arrived. There was such yelling and screaming when they saw mammie it reminded me of a Beatles concert in the 60’s.  Once we all calmed down and hugs and kisses were exchanged we had dinner and some more hugging and kissing then I fell asleep.

So now it’s morning of the next day and I have some things to attend to on the truck so will write more later.

Good morning and God bless.

Happy 4th of July everyone!   

We got to sleep in a bit this morning since we didn’t pull in until midnight.   So had breakfast at the restaurant in the TA and now ready to head south. 

Pretty uneventful day.   Drove to pompano beach, Florida without any trouble.   Rained off and on but as it is in Florida it was only for a few minutes at a time.  

We used our trucker guide book to find a truck stop for the night close to our stop but it turned out it was closed so while we were trying to figure out what to do an older gentleman driving by saw we were having trouble and said I know where a truck stop is close by.   Follow me.   We did and when we got there he said give me $20 for gas.   Haha.  It was worth it to find somewhere close to stop as time was running out.   So we got parked and while I knitted a while Greg took a safety test his company sends around to everyone periodically.    He passed and I am closer to finishing a sweater for Maddi. 

Well we have to be up at 4:45 so turning in.   Get to see my babies tomorrow!!!!!

Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  Got to see some fireworks tonight albeit from a distance.  Two stops in the morning to deliver the salad fixins then to Cape Coral to see the grandkids. We’ve been missing them something awful. 

My navigator didn’t mention that it was me that found the nonexistent truck stop so I promised to allow her to do her job from now on and I will stick to the driving. 

Early day tomorrow so goodnight and God bless. 

DG:  I happened to notice last night that my pick up time for this next load is 11:00 PM tonight so I sent a message to dispatch to inquire if this was an appointment time or if it was one of those cases where we have until the pick up time to get it as is the case sometimes and from the information I receive it is not always clear. The response came that this was one of those anytime until then deals but the general consensus was that I should call to confirm the readiness of the load before moving out and starting my clock prematurely. So I called at 6:00 this morning as my break ended at that time. I was told they didn’t start loading till 8:00 so back to bed. 

The extra couple of hours sleep will do me good today. Up at 9:00, wow, feel like I slept all day.  Truck stop breakfast at TA is not too bad.  They have a full service restaurant so there are more choices than Burger King or Arby’s. Even though there is a Bojangles right across the street, four lane highway, that fact and the pouring down rain influenced our decision to eat where we were. 

Annie – Greg called and load is ready so off we go.   Except we get about an hour in to a two hour drive and come up on stopped traffic.  There is a wreck up the road between a tanker truck and an SUV.   We ended up sitting or inching our way for 5 hours!!   

   
   
We finally got to our stop which was a Dole plant and we picked up 10,000 pounds of lettuce mixes like you see already bagged up in the store.  We are taking part of the load to pompano beach Florida and the rest to Miami.    Then off to see the babies. 

The pictures below are of a flat bed truck with a sense of humor.   You see them carrying all kinds of stuff but this was too cute. 

   
 We parked at a TA just south of savannah so only about 6 hours to go tomorrow.    

Turning in.   Goodnight y’all.  

DG: I’ll second that. Goodnight and God bless.

Up at 5:30 and headed to Atlanta.    They said they had five trucks waiting on loads to Florida so we may be there for a bit. Also, we are going to get an inverter put in the truck so we can plug in appliances.

Got the inverter put in and also had them set the governor on the truck a bit higher.   The truck was set to go a max speed of 61 mph, which means little old ladies were passing us on the highway.    We got really great fuel mileage but sometimes you need to speed up to get around someone (usually someone else who is governed) and you dont have the speed.   We can now go a max speed of 70!!   So thats all settled.

We were told we may not get a trip out of atlanta until tomorrow because 5 other people were waiting on loads to florida.   Good weekend to take off I guess.   Finally at about 4:30 they told us they had a load for us but we had to go to North Carolina and pick it up and take it to Miami on Sunday.    Thats going to run us a day late but at least its in the right direction.

We didnt get too far from Atlanta before the time ran out but we only had a couple of hours to go in the morning to get to our stop.     We have stopped at a TA for the night just north of Athens, Georgia.

I was able to get my pictures uploaded tonight.   They are of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

 DG:  Yes it’s good to have a little extra speed when you need it. Now I have to be careful not to keep my foot to the floor in order to keep the fuel expenses at a reasonable level.

Deadheading to Bessemer City, NC to pick up a load with two stops. One in Pompano Beach, the other in Miami. It’s a good trip for a weekend. 

Well, hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day. Be sure to give some thought to the real meaning of the day. And thank God for working this all out so we can live in a land of liberty. 

Love to all. Good night and God bless. 

5:30. Up and ready to go.   Got a bit of breakfast and getting on the road.   Should get almost to Atlanta today.  

Sunrise in Sealy, Texas.  

Stopped in Baton Rouge for lunch.  Little local diner.   Food was pretty good.   Greg had the gumbo and Cajun shrimp.  I of course had the burger.   Haha 

   
 
Little convenient store sold hot sauce.  Loved the name of this one.   Not brave enough to try it though.  

Made it through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and part of Alabama today.   Will get to Atlanta in the am.   Almost to florida!  Get to see my babies soon!!   FaceTime with them earlier and they are so excited.   Sadie said she was about to cry she was so excited and Maddi wants to kiss all over our faces.  Lol. Can’t wait! 

Turning in for the night.  5:30 comes awfully early.    Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  God is certainly favoring us. Truck is running like a top, missing the really bad weather. All is good. 

Well, it’s bedtime so I will say goodnight and God bless. 

Sitting at a Freightliner shop this morning.  Hope this doesn’t take all day!

Well, we decided to stop whining and pray over the truck.   Immediately the check engine light went out and the truck started without any problems.   Thank you Lord!   He was waiting on us to ask him I think.   We are back on the road and headed to get trailer and head east!

Below are some pictures taken of Laredo.   We were just this side of Mexico.  So close I got a text from AT&T thanking me for traveling abroad and the weather kept giving me the temp in Juarez Mexico.   Haha 

I took several pictures of some cacti that was growing in the fields along the highway.  I’m not sure you can see it or not but the cacti go all the way back in to the fields as far as you can see.   Sure would hate to be a cow trying to walk through that field.  I bet they are gorgeous when they are all blooming.   The hummingbirds must love it.  

Made it all the way to just outside of Houston before stopping for the night.  

DG:  Yes God fixed our truck. Early this morning while waiting for a rework of our trailer to get the weight down to the legal limit the truck stopped idling and three warning lights came on. One was the usual check engine light that nobody gets excited about, the second was the stop engine light that will shut the engine down in a few seconds if you don’t and the other a red light that says nothing but means you need to find a shop soon and have things checked out. We had the third one which was why we were at the shop.  

The service manager tells me they may not even get to us today they are so busy. I start making plans for a rental car and hotel. Annie doesn’t like that idea and a discussion ensues about our prayer time and how we forget sometimes and how we should ask God to help us in everything we do. So we did. I started the engine just to get some air moving and the light was out. I don’t know how else to explain it. The truck has been running great ever since. Praise the Lord. 

So we are still in Texas but will be out and almost to our destination by tomorrow evening.

Keep praying and make God a part of your life.  He loves to be involved. 

We love you. Good night and God bless.