2 am.  Time to get up and head to Mississippi.   We need to get refrigerator fuel (reefer fuel) before we park the trailer so it stays cold while it sits.   We stopped at the truck stop we stopped at last night on the way in to the Walmart distribution center but they were closed.  Every light in the place on and it’s locked up tight.  This also means no bathroom!  An attendant who watches over the truck parking area came over and said they closed at 10 and if I needed a bathroom I could use the one the truckers use, “it’s pretty clean”.  Suffice it to say it was not “pretty clean” but When you gotta go you gotta go.  The next truck stop is 70 miles.    Why is it that men can’t hit the toilet bowl.  Why must is be in the floor, on the seat, who knows where else.   It’s a pretty good size target to hit if you ask me.   

Ok.  Took trailer and moldy bacon back to lot and picked up empty trailer to take back to Louisiana.  

I’m Melting!!  Got to our stop to pick up load and it’s at a chemical place.   They won’t let me in since I am not a driver so I have to get out of the truck and wait at the guard shack while Greg goes in and picks up load.  Do they let me in the guard shack where it’s air conditioned?  NO!  Do they give a nice chair to sit in outside in the heat?  NO!   I am sitting on a hard as nails fold up chair in 82% humidity and sweating bullets.   Nice to know the guy in the guard shack is nice and cool though.   

Ahhhh.  Here comes my ride with his escort. 

Bought myself a present at the truck stop.  Signed edition!   841 pages. Chicken etoufee anyone?  If it swims, crawls, walks, hops or flies this book has a recipe for it.  

We decided to stop in Jackson Mississippu for the night where KLLM has a terminal.  We dropped the trailer there and drove to the quality inn for the night down the road.  We did laundry, showered and were able to watch some TV.    Now off to sleep.  Gotta get up at 2 to finish our trip.   Sure will be nice to sleep in a normal bed even if it’s just for a few hours. 

Greg is already asleep so I better turn in too.  Goodnight y’all. 

3:15 AM. Up and heading to Walmart Distribution Center. I hope they don’t take 4 hours to unload us like last time!  

Well, it took almost 4 hours to the dot.  8:38 and we are done.  Fortunately we were able to go back to sleep once we got settled here so that’s good. 

Apparently there is a trailer in Mississippi that is in the KLLM parking lot that they want us to go get.  The driver probably ran out of time and couldn’t get here on time so they parked.  We will go get it, about 90 miles, and bring it back to walmart to do this whole thing over again.   Yay!  😩

We got back to Louisiana about 3 pm but appointment isn’t until 4:45 and we can’t check in sooner than one hour early so we stopped off at a truck stop to get pop and ice for the night. We will probably end up sleeping in the walmart parking lot because Greg only has a couple of hours left on his clock. 

Finally we get checked in and now we wait. Again.  

DG:  We are back in Louisiana at the same Wal Mart distribution center we were at this morning. Except our appointment now is 12 and a half hours later than the one we had this morning. This morning, due to my time constraints we were, by Wal Mart rules, late by ten minutes. Apparently you have to make it through the guard shack registration, finding and backing into your assigned door and make your way to the receiving office which in some cases may be a couple hundred yards from where you park, by your appointed time. However, you may not show up more than one hour early.  So this evening we were exactly one hour early and they still did not get me a door until my appointed time. However I must say the lady who checked me in is a sweet southern lady who, when giving me my door assignment said if someone was still in that door to park until they left and if they got another door open sooner she would call me. Well, there was someone in my door but fortunately for us there was a parking space directly accross from the door next to it so I pulled in there giving me nearly a straight shot to back into my assigned door. Well, several minutes went by and my phone rang. It was the lady from the receiving desk. She asked if someone was still in my space and I told her yea and then she asked if the space next to that one was open and when I told her it was she said, “Well you get on in there honey”.  I just love the south. By the way, that door was directly behind me so there wasn’t any slanting and angling to be done. Anyway it’s around 8:00 pm now so I have to get some sleep so we can pull out of here around 2:00 am. 

God bless. 

Annie – Again almost 4 hours on the nose.  Why bother scheduling appointments so early when you know it’s going to be 4 hours.   So, Greg’s time starts again at 2 am so he is off to bed so we can get to our next trip, supposedly pick up in Louisiana somewhere and take to Minnesota.  I am ready to leave the south.  Way too hot for me and the humidity down here is awful.  

The call came in at about 9 that they were done unloading so Greg went to get his paperwork and finish up but there is an issue.  Apparently where it sat for a couple of days waiting some of the bacon packaging had mold on it so they rejected part of the load.  Not sure what happens next so waiting on call from office.  Oy! 

Ok.  We are to take trailer back to the lot in Mississippi where we picked it up and get a new empty trailer then go back to Louisiana to pick up our load for Minnesota.  

Better turn in.   Night y’all. 

DG:  Its day 211, a Thursday, Greg and Annie have stopped in a small hamlet just inside the state line of Louisiana after a day’s drive from Georgia. 

Stopping at a truck stop several miles east of here for an emergency bathroom break, when is a bathroom break not an emergency, dark clouds moved in over the happy couple. Really dark clouds. Rain began to fall and at once without speaking, they both came to the same conclusion. “We probably ought to sit here until this rain passes” Annie said. “It shouldn’t be long”.  Greg was thinking, all that and beauty to boot. “My dear, you are a genius”, Greg said. “I agree”. That’s when she clobbered him with the water jug. He was after all being a smart ass and she was having none of that. “It’s the caffeine honey. I swear”, Greg said in his defense. Without saying a word the water jug found its mark a second time. One thing is for sure, Greg has a hard head. 

Annie – Goofy butt.  All day every day in a very small enclosed space.   I may have to start drinking.   Nope, DOT says no booze in the truck.   Guess I’ll have to put up with him and take a lot of naps.  Haha 

We have to be at the Walmart Distribution Center at 4:15 am so off to bed.  

Goodnight y’all. 

And God bless. 

DG:  Waiting again. This next load was going to be a quick one. Dropping off a loaded trailer and picking up a loaded trailer, at the same location. That doesn’t happen very often. 

Checking in at the guard shack my hopes were up as the shipping clerk handed me a piece of paper with the location I was to drop the trailer I was delivering and the door in which I would find my loaded and ready to go trailer. This was going to be quick and easy. Ah, not so fast bunky.  Drop delivery trailer and found take out trailer right where he said it would be. Numbers match. Light is green. I hook up, pull away from the door, go around back to write down seal number. No seal.  This is strange. Maybe they will seal it at the gate. No, something is not right. Open the trailer door, EMPTY. They haven’t even started loading it yet. It was supposed to be ready at 8:30, I was here on time after driving through rain and wind, around wrecks, lightning and thunder. This is not right. 

Oh well, guess I will get some shuteye. They can load me when they are ready. 

God bless. 

Well, here we sit again.   Boy this week is not adding up to a lot so far.    We got in yesterday but they said load would be ready today.  Ok.   Called at 8 am and guy said our trailer was at the door and would be ready in a couple of hours.  Great!  10 am.  Head to Kraft (Oscar Mayer division) and we are told it’s not ready yet and will be a couple of hours.  I’m starting to see a pattern.  Just tell them two hours and make them go away.   Gracious sakes.  

So we went to have lunch.   I am loving the McDonalds southwest chicken salad with balsamic dressing.  Only 360 calories but Precious eats most of the chicken so it’s even less.  Lol.   

DG:  I hate waiting.  Again, the only person in this scenario that is not getting paid is the driver. The security guard is getting paid.  The shipping clerk is getting paid. All secretaries and supervisors are getting paid. Even the custodial staff and the window washers are getting paid. The driver?  He sits and waits without pay or compensation of any sorts unless the lumpers are really slow then a few coins are thrown his way that hardly makes up for the time he would spend driving earning his living. And as with all things paid on a per piece basis, miles in this case, these are times that cannot be made up. In other words they are lost forever. Into the ether. Vanquished to eternity. Never to be seen again. Gone. Forever. 

See what waiting does to me?  I become ridiculously contemplative and irrationally reflective. I hate waiting.

We are sitting in a truck, obviously, in a dirt lot across the street from the city cemetery.  I don’t have a word to describe this situation. There is no metaphor that applies and ironic is not the proper adjective if indeed ironic is an adjective.  I had Ms. Ison for 11th grade English and it is her fault I do not know the difference.  That’s not true. It’s my fault entirely. Even now I could look it up. On Google. In this day and age there is no excuse for anyone not knowing everything as it is all at our fingertips thanks to Steven Jobs and the two guys who started Google. I could Google their names but don’t feel like it right now. Don’t care. They took away my excuse for not knowing certain things. Now this is not to be confused with not understanding because I Googled physics one time and although everything written on the subject, including recent college papers written by some very smart students of the subject were there before my very eyes, I could make nary heads not tails of most of it although I did find the reading very fascinating, the understanding escaped me. 

Now back to my cigar. 

Cigar lit. Thoughts return. Back to the cemetery.  Final resting place for all who have waited, waited for that final call, waited for that final day, that final breath. The only thing in life that is final. Death.  But for the true believer death is only a doorway. A door into eternity. Will that be final?  No, that’s just the beginning.  So why all the waiting?  What purpose do we have here if it all ends in the same place?  We must make our mark. We must use our God given talents to mark the way.  We must leave something for those who follow behind. And regardless of your belief, this is what we do. I sit in a parking lot filled with many trucks, the invention of which was one man’s mark and thus has allowed others to make their mark. The miners of the raw materials used to make the frames, engines and bodies of these trucks. The assemblers that put it all together. The engineers who determine how it will all go together so that all those pieces will work together as one, properly. Each truck has the mark of every person involved in its creation whether it be seen or not it is there. And the driver. Where is his mark. His mark is in the freight he moves everyday, well almost everyday, taking goods from manufacturer to store so that people can have the things they need and want.  Everything you own and every material that is the essence of those things has at one time been moved by a truck. And that truck has to have a driver.  Proud to be an American truck driver. 

Now I feel like we should have some sort of common shout amongst us drivers kind of like the Army and Marines.  That may get a little weird around truck stops though. Don’t mention this to anyone. It’s a bad idea. 

Annie – Dear God – Please get us moving again soon!    

DG:  Around 3:00 pm prayers were answered. That means a four hour load time which means some compensation for our time. On the road again. 

I almost hate to admit it but I get a little excited when we begin a new trip. New roads, new places and we are moving which is what we do best. 

Drove through some horrendous rain and wind. I’m sure there was a tornado close by. Lots of lightning all across the sky. Made for one heck of a light show.  

Stopped in Marion, IL for the night. No regular parking spots open so we are parked by the scales. Don’t like it but what do you do. We got here late. 

Tomorrow it’s on to Georgia.  God bless all. 

Annie – A picture of the map while going through the storm.   Could barely see at times and the truck was swaying.  Pretty scary and then it just stopped.  Crazy!

   
 
After the storm there was a puddle at the truck stop I swear looked like a man.  

  
Well, goodnight y’all.  

Up at 7:30.  Appointment isn’t until noon but thought we would give it a try and call to see if we can get in early.   They said that was fine and off we go.   The place used to be an Aldi’s warehouse but now it’s a bakery.   Sure smells good whatever they are making and we are dropping off donut ingredients.    

Glad we could get in early so we can get on the road.  Noon would have put us getting in somewhere late tonight.   

Well, guess we weren’t in a hurry to get our load dropped off after all.   Got our new load information and it says pick up tomorrow.   We can’t get out of Iowa!! 

DG:  Stuck in Iowa again. Reminds me of a song. 

Well with a tomorrow pick up time that  gave us time to go to Wal Mart again.  We’re staying pretty well stocked up on drinks and snacks. Healthy snacks. 

We were fortunate that Kraft let us drop our trailer on their lot. So tomorrow, when they call that the load is ready, we will bobtail over and pick it up. 

I meant to write more given the free time we have had but I took advantage of the time in other ways and that means pretty much doing nothing. I meant to clean all my windows inside and out but didn’t. I did clean the inside while we were waiting to be unloaded. Just seems better that way then I am not technically using my off time for truck business.  Although that does sometimes happen.  

Well, it’s getting late and I don’t know what time they are going to call in the morning so think I will turn in.  

God bless. 

Sitting.   Trying to decide what to do today. There is a casino close by.   Greg may go play some poker.  Still early though.  We’ll see.  

DG:  Didn’t go. Stayed here. Slept. Went for a walk. Iowa is flat. Corn is everywhere. The people are nice. We nearly went blind stepping out of the truck this morning.  Day and a half in a cave and the sun was really bright. My eyes?  My eyes!  All better now. 

So tomorrow we should have something to write about. Delivery at noon. Of course we are going to start calling early to see if we can get in early. Don’t want to start my clock that late in the day as it makes for a late parking time then a late getting started time next day and so on and so forth. But we will do what we gotta do. 

Movie time.  Monty Python and the Holy Grail, still hilarious.  A Million Ways to Die in the West.  Not so good.  Never make it as a classic.  

Up at 7:30 and headed to Iowa.    We have about 400 miles to go.  

Not much to say today. We made it to a truck stop 2 1/2 miles from our stop.  Now it looks like we sit until Monday.   

DG:  Sitting.  God bless 

Up at 7:30 to head to Jefferson City, Tennesse, to get a load of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies to take to Subway in Illinois.    This load holds no temptation for me.  I don’t care for the soft gummy type of cookie.  Yuck!  Lol

When we got to our load it turns out we didn’t pick up cookie dough but donut dough.  Oh my!  37,000 pounds of flour, yeast and sugar.

We had a little bit of rain going through Tennessee.   Not enough to bother driving but it did bring the clouds in low and make the mountains look so pretty.    I realize these look a lot like the pictures I have posted before.   Sorry, but it still amazes me.

I had the window down taking pictures and this little bugger flew in and landed on my arm and stung me.   He is now squished!

DG: Memphis, IN for the night. Wait, weren’t we just here?  Yep, same place. Almost parked in the same parking space. This place has a paved parking lot for 120 trucks and then this dirt field that would probably hold 300 more. 

  
They are building something on the back side of this lot so if Love’s doesn’t own it it may not be available for much longer. 

We stood outside for a long time looking for meteors. Thought we saw a few faint ones but I think there was just too much light. This was supposed to be the best night for seeing them. 

Looks like we may have some time on our hands this weekend. Our load isn’t due till Monday noon and we will probably get to the receiver tomorrow afternoon.  That would be good except they are not open on weekends so we will have to find a place close by to park for the weekend.  And unless they find me someone to swap with I’ll be getting another reset this week. 

Tired for now. God bless. 

DG: Today’s big decision, “Where do we sit and wait?”  Can’t go anywhere until midnight as that is when I get back some time. 

Annie – Sitting in a Walmart parking lot eating breakfast.   We went off our diet this morning but it was for a good reason – BOJANGLES!  I would walk over hot coals in bare feet for the Bo rounds.   I didn’t do too bad though.  Ate half the Cajun chicken biscuit (hard to eat the whole thing with a dog looking at you) and half the Bo rounds.    So yummy!  We have got to get out of the south and quick!   Heaven help us if we find a good southern barbecue place!

DG: I confess. I had the sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and half the Bo Rounds. It was so good we just plain forgot to eat lunch. Then went off diet again with a Godfather’s pizza and chicken wings. But we counted the calories and since all portions were small and we split everything but the wings all’s good. 

Never fear, we will be back on the road in the morning and back in the diet. 

God bless.