Up at 6:30.  We have almost 500 miles to go today.  The weather is starting to get a bit cooler and the trees are starting to change in spots.  Goodbye summer!

DG:  Not so fast. Here in southern Michigan it’s a balmy 84 degrees.  Not Fall yet.  Some leaves are starting to turn, I will give her that.

We are at the receiver seven hours ahead of schedule.  It’s okay though because they have plenty of parking. Apparently the warehouse crew works only at night. One of the drivers who was already here said they start at midnight.  That’s good because my appointment is for 2:30 AM but my clock won’t reset till 5:30. So if they take the standard two hours to unload I should just have one hour to wAit for my reset.

We are backed up next to a pond. There are about a dozen ducks just sitting there and fish jumping all around. There’s also a no fishing sign but doesn’t matter, I don’t have a fishing pole with me.

It’s dusk and a mist is beginning to form on the pond. The humidity is high as sweat is forming on my head. I am trying to enjoy a cigar but may have to cut it short. Precious has been running the field here but I think she is tired and wants to go back to her basket.

I just noticed we have been talking to the dog for some time now. Not in the usual way that people talk to their pets but asking her opinion on certain things. Or pointing out something the other is doing and asking what she thinks of that. I worry that we have crossed some point of no return. Mentally. I want to ask other truckers if this has ever happened to them but not sure I want to know their response and I sure don’t want them to know that we are doing this. It’s a strange conundrum.  Is that redundant?

Annie – Here are some pictures I took tonight of the pond that is behind us.   A few ducks, an egret flying and some of the plants around.   Its a neat pond and its begging for a fishing pole.   Sure wish I had one with me.

The corn is really starting to get brown and dry out.   Should be harvest time soon.

Up at 6:30 after a good night’s sleep.  I don’t think Precious even moved.  Greg always sleeps good.  What is it about men that they can sleep in any position anywhere?   

Back in the truck and heading to receiver at 7:15.  Appointment is for 8 so hopefully we can get in a bit early and get back on the road.  Lots of trucks in the parking lot.  Hope we don’t all have 8 am appointments.  

Got right in and got a door pretty quick. Yeah!  Already hear them rattling around back there so hopefully we won’t be long.  

Fall is almost here.  I can’t believe it. You can start to see it up north.  Some of the leaves are just starting to turn and the temperatures are getting cooler at night.  I love fall and can’t wait to see the trees in the different states.  

DG:  Fall, yes, very beautiful. But it is a sign that winter is just around the corner. Odd saying that as if the seasons were on a road that you could choose which one to take and therefore which season to be in. I would take the summer road. Maybe veer off to spring occasionally and fall, but definitely detour around winter. It is not a road I like to travel. 

So this receiver seems to have their stuff together. Actually began unloading before our scheduled appointment. That is rare if it has ever happened. See, it can be done. That was targeted at Wal Mart though I doubt they will see it. 

Picked up more saline and NG supplements.  This time were are going to Michigan.  This shipper had their stuff together as well.  Load was ready, drop one and hook to the other. In and out. 

Now stopped for the night in VA.    

DG:  Up at 7:00 ish.  A good night’s sleep and no hurry to get to where we are going. This gives me mixed feelings.  While I don’t care for being pressured I don’t like having too much spare time either. I’m not getting paid by the hour so every spare hour is another hour without pay. It’s a delicate balance. 

Love’s truck stops started a new service of checking your tires while you fuel. They have one isle dedicated to this service at participating stores and so far there have been no lines.  It takes about ten minutes. They check pressure, tread depth, temperature and inflate to manufacturers recommendations.  This is supposed to save fuel and increase tire life. So far though I’m not impressed as my second experience with this service showed that two tires had actually gained tread over the course of a couple of weeks. That would be amazing if true and the cause were discovered. I could make millions. 

Stopped at a rest area just across the Maryland border. They had some Civil War information so I picked up a pamphlet. We are close to Emmitsburg  where the Union Army stopped before moving on to Gettysburg and the subsequent battle that ensued there. Annie was thrilled and didn’t want to leave. Not. 

14 hours early for my appointment and find out they do not have warehouse people on weekends. Appointment is for 8:00 in the morning but guard said we could show up at 7:30.  Parking was available across the street behind the Hardee’s and from the looks of things we aren’t the only ones with an early appointment as the parking lot is filling up. 

We have decided to stay in the motel that is next to the parking area. Feels nice getting a shower and having room to move around and watch cable TV. 

Well, I’ll let Annie say a few things. Take it away sweetie.  God bless. 

Annie – We stayed at a Super 8 Hotel. Not usually my first choice but they are doing remodeling and it was pretty good.  We asked for a non smoking room but I don’t think that’s what we got.  Burned a couple candles that helped some.   The bed was really nice though.  Soft and big enough to move around in.   Preciois actually had room without getting squished.  Lol. 

We watched about three hours of The Big Bang Theory which was fun.  Don’t get to see a lot of junk TV because it takes internet out here on the road so it was fun just to watch something funny for a while.   

Well, early morning call.   Talk to you tomorrow.  Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  I once thought about naming our days like chapters of a book but when it comes to putting it on paper so to speak, nothing comes to mind. Wait, just had a brain storm. Today’s adventure is “Two For One”.  Let me explain. This load we have is going to another shipping company from which we will pick up a loaded trailer and take that trailer to another shipping company. No deadheading. Two for one. Or it could be, “The Added Cost of Your Goods”.  You see, as a shipper KLLM charges to move products. When you move a product from the manufacturer to another shipper another cost is added on. Makes one wonder how inexpensive things would be if we could all buy direct.

Also, I have a bone to pick with the Mars candy company.  They make M&Ms among other tasty treats. As you may recall when we went to Hershey to pick up a load we got free samples. We even got them when we delivered to another Hershey plant in Illinois.  Mars on the other hand went so far as to put signs up in their receiving office, “No samples given”.  Well!  I see the sign as I’m watching a guy sweep up a pile of twix candy bars, in the wrappers, that overflowed one of the boxing machines. Those went into the trash but they can’t give out samples. Well let me tell you I have about 37,000 pounds of assorted tasty morsels sitting not six feet from me maybe I’ll just help myself and see how they like that. I would but that would be a heck of a thing to go to prison for. I can see it now, first day in the yard, “what are you in for?”, “stole a load of milky ways wanta make something of it?”.  Yea, that would get me killed.

Okay, so we have some extra time on this one. Not due until ten tomorrow night but the pick up is for noon so I figure we can do both around 9:00 in the morning and head to Fredricks, VA and either deliver tomorrow and get a new trip or deliver on Monday morning when it is due and get some more sleep time tomorrow.

Anyway, it’s bedtime. So I’m out of here. God bless.

DG:  Delivered a load of meat last night that was picked up in Kansas at one of our favorite spots, Cargill.  If you’ve been following the blog you know that’s not true. 

Anyway, while I appreciate KLLM’s efforts to keep us moving I don’t like being mislead and/or given wrong information either on purpose or accidentally that makes my job more difficult or more complicated.  Allow me to explain.  After dropping out initial load at an affiliate of Kraft we were informed there were no empty trailers at that facility.  We wait for instructions. Go to the Morrow, GA yard and get an empty. This is only a few miles away and I can get my truck washed as that is a requirement for anyone taking out a trailer from a KLLM terminal that has a truck wash. As we are reminded the company spent nearly one million Dollars on these big automatic truck washers we dang well better use them. Okay by me. It’s free and who doesn’t appreciate a clean ride. 

So sometime during our drive to the yard, or it may have been a sour of the moment thought, the local dispatcher tells me she has a full trailer that needs to be delivered about 30 miles from there and it’s due at midnight.  As my clock had only a few hours on it I was delighted to hear that this receiver had overnight parking. That will work out just fine as I can get over there around 8:00 pm, they won’t start unloading me until midnight and that will probably take two hours at least so that will be six hours of my ten needed for a reset and I will wait out the four hours on site and leave about 6:30 towards my other pick up. Sounds great don’t it?  Ah, but things aren’t always as they seem. I should have known something was up when I showed up at 8;00 and the guard told me to come back around 11:00 that there was no place for me to park. When I explained I did not have enough time on my clock to leave and come back In three hours he relented and said I could park in one of the two spots by the guard shack that looked like they were used by the construction crew during the day.  So I did. Around 10:00 pm someone knocked on the door. It was the guard telling me to pull in door three. Okay, I can wait there as well as where I was so I moved the fifty feet or so, nestled Chebby into the dock and went back to bed. In about 29 minutes another knock on the door. This time it was one of the lumpers asking for my papers.  Gave her my papers and she said some were missing and I said that was all I had and she said she would have to check and see if they need to get the missing papers faxed over befor they could start unloading.  No problem, I here all night. Well, wouldn’t you know it, they started unloading right away.  And it only took them about twenty minutes to do so. Then the same lumper lady came out and told me to pull over into a spot beside these other trailers as they were still checking on the need for more papers. Okay, I have a parking space so it looks like my plan is going to work. Thirty minutes later she comes out and gives me my copy of the bills and says all is good.  

So now I ponder. Sit still and hope no one notices me until morning or go ask permission to pull into the first spot I was in and wait for my clock to reset. When am I going to learn it is better to ask forgiveness than permission?  New guard on duty tells me I can’t park on the premises. I asked where could I go?  She says there is a Wal Mart about a half a mile away. I think I can get there without my drive clock starting. So off we go at a snails pace with flashers flashing.  Almost there. Then I hear my Qualcomm, “You are in violation of your driving time”. Dang it. I either went too fast or this thing has a distance limit. Either way this was going to necessitate a call to dispatch and logs. So I call dispatch and explain the situation stressing the point that I was told by the Atlanta dispatcher that there was overnight parking there. They told me what message to send and to call logs when they got in. So much for leaving at six in the morning. 

Now that my clock started anew with my HOS violation I lost the five hours of off duty time I had accumulated and so a six o’clock departure was now eleven. However, when I got a hold of logs around 9:00, that’s eastern time as the Jackson headquarters is in the central time zone and they don’t come in till 8:00, I was told that they had already made the adjustment and I just needed to update my logs. So when I did I see that they restored my original off duty time and changed everything to reflect that I had been off duty the whole time since arriving at the receiver and if I had know that was going to happen I could have left at six after all. 

So I haven’t been in the best of moods today. I feel like time was stolen from me. And you can’t get back time.  And with that my whole day has been screwed up. 

Annie – I’m going to bed.   Hopefully after a good nights sleep things will be better in the am.   

Happy Sweet 16 Abby!!  We love you!!

DG:  Wish we were there to celebrate. 

At the moment we are being unloaded of our shipment of beef and pork products. It 11:00 in the evening and since my clock has run out we will have to stay here until 5:30 in the morning. 

Lying in the bunk you can feel the forklift going in and out of the trailer. Usually it is a mild rocking motion but tonight it feels like these guys are trying to tear it up. 

Well, better get some rest before heading to Cleveland, TN and the PA tomorrow. 

God bless. 

Up at 6 am but hit the snooze.  It got down in the 40’s last night and I’m all snuggled in the blankets.   Perfect!   Don’t want to get up.  But alarm goes off again so we are up.   It’s currently 48 degrees in the lovely town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Greg and Precious are looking forward to going south today.   She doesn’t even want to go out and pee but get under her blanket in her basket.   The heater is on now so they should warm up soon.   

Made it to Oak Grove, Kentucky before stopping for the night.  Got to get up at 6 to get to our destination by 1:30.  Still have about 320 miles to go.  

DG:  All’s good.  Temp in the 70s.  

It’s nostalgia Wednesday as we are watching the first Star Wars movie. Awesome effects. Just awesome. 

Annie is hooked on Pinterest so our conversations now are about the meat and the wired things one finds on that site. 

I never cease to marvel at the site and feel of Kentucky every time we cross the state line. There are other places in this country that are so different and breathtaking in their own right but Kentucky just has a look and feel like no other place on earth. Is it because I was raised here?  I don’t know but I definitely feel a connection with the landscape. Like a mother with open arms ready to give you a big hug is how I feel when I see her. Yes, the state is a she as it is a life sustainer. 

Tomorrow will be here soon so off to bed and dreamworld.  God bless. 

DG:  Time to get the jacket off the back of the seat where it has been since starting this leg of our journey.  We’re in Minnesota, I understand that, but don’t they use the same calendar we do?  It’s August for crying out loud. Technically it is still summer. Get with the program people. 

Annie – Greg and Precious are crying like little girls.  It’s cold this morning here in Minnesota.   Precious usually likes to run around a bit when she goes out but the last two days she has peed and run back to the truck.    Too funny.   Don’t know what these two are going to do when Winter comes.  

Made it to our stop at Kraft with plenty of time to spare.   Another KLLM diver here who said he was only here about an hour before they started loading him.   Fingers crossed!!  We’ve been here 45 minutes already.   Greg is going to take a short (we hope) nap and I’m back to my crocheting.   Almost done with a shawl I am making for mom.  If we keep staying in cold weather I may have to make her another one.  Haha 

DG: Stopping for the night near Cedar Rapids, IA. Have about 13 hours to Georgia.  This will be our third trip to the same place in the last week. The other KLLM driver that was at Kraft at the same time is going to the same place. He left about an hour before us so we probably won’t see him any more on this trip. 

That is all for now. God bless. 

3 am.  Greg wakes me up telling me to come look at all the stars.   We have been trying to see the night sky but it seems everywhere we park there are dozens of lights so we can’t see anything.   Where we parked last night is pretty remote with just a few lights so at 3 am the sky is pretty amazing.   It’s hard to believe how many stars are really up there and we still aren’t seeing them all.   It’s amazing.  
By the time I get back in the truck I am freezing.  I can’t believe it but it’s 57 degrees this morning – in August!   Not that I mind really.   You can always get warm it seems but when you are hot it’s just miserable. 

We have about six hours to go to get to Minnesota.   Then we will see where we are off to next.  

School starts today for the kids.  Even Maddi is going to pre-K.   She is so excited. Sadie starts first grade and Kaiden starts junior high.   I can’t believe it.   Where has the time gone.  

The girls got their hair cut Saturday  getting ready for school.  

   
    
   
Yesterday they spent the day getting ready for baby Alex.  Just about 3 weeks away.  Can’t wait! 

DG: Who has the cutest grandkids?  I do. No really. Everybody says theirs are the cutest, but just look at those Angels. No brag, just fact. 

Spring Valley, Minnesota is where we are. Parked for the night in the parking lot of an out of business variety store. One wonders, looking at the now empty shell, what happened?  Mismanagement? Better competitor?  Or community apathy. I just wonder how different things would be if communities, as a whole, took a more active role in supporting the businesses of their neighbors. There would be no room for chains and franchises. Sure you may pay a little more for your goods and services than a larger corporation would be able to sell for but you would keep the integrity of your town.  Now there’s is not a city, town or berg in this country that does not have multiple vacant buildings. Buildings that once housed the dreams and aspirations of a familiar family.  And now the big chains and corporate stores buy up land once used for farming and out up giant buildings and fill them to the rafters if things we do not need or want but will impulsively throw into our buggies as we walk the isles of these monstrosities spending way more than we needed to or intended. 

I’m reminded of a little corner market close to where I grew up where a mother and housewife could call the proprietor and place an order for her weekly needs and then pick up the order later that day or send one of the children after it, the cost of which being put into an account that would be settled at the end of the month. 

Spring Valkey looks like it was once one of those places. Now the empty shells of bygone days sat and as tombstones along the graveyard that was once Main Street. 

I am thankful for those memories even though they are now accompanied by sadness. Those are memories that no other generation will ever know.  And that is truly sad. 

I know you are probably thinking of Wal Mart as the perpetrator of this new way of life but I did a little research and discovered the origin of self service. You may be surprised but Piggly Wiggly was the first store if any kind to offer “self service”. Which essentially means “no service”. You pick from the shelves, carry your products to a counter and a clerk takes your money. The store saves on labor, but do your goods cost any less?  No. 

Annie – Turning in.  Don’t have to get up at 3 but get to sleep until about 7.  Woo hoo!  Our next trip is north just a bit and then dropping it in Union City, Georgia.  Again.  

Goodnight, y’all.  

2 am.  Up and heading to the truck.  Got fresh sheets, rugs, laundry, us. Now time to head north.   

DG:  What a day. Absolutely without event. Just the way we like it.

Stopped in Eolia, MO at a Fast Lane truck stopped. It is only 4:00 pm but that’s what happens when you start in the middle of the night. 

The temperatures are getting cooler and the humidity is lessening.  We have about seven more hours to go as our stop is in southern Minnesota cry close to the Iowa state line. 

We’re taking a nap right now. Will write more once refreshed. 

Refreshed, but now it’s time to go. 

God bless.