Up at 5:30 and calling dispatch.   They were supposed to call us when load was ready but apparently they didn’t as it is ready and waiting on us.  

It’s 75 degrees already and It’s still dark.  The humidity is so high the trailer is sweating and so am I.   Back in the truck where the air conditioner is.  

DG:  Off to Illinois with a load of frozen shrimp, vegetables and fruit juices. Anxious to see how the corn is doing in the Midwest. Cotton is blooming here in Georgia.  

Parked early tonight. Almost 11:00 now and the parking lot is full. Going to get an early start in the morning. Try to get 600 miles in. We have a little over that to our destination.  

Atlanta traffic wasn’t too bad today. Of course it’s a Saturday so you would expect that but there is also a lot of construction so that tends to bunch things up a bit. 

Showered, shaved and now sleepy. Have a great day everyone.  God bless. 

Annie – Isn’t he gorgeous.   Just want to squeeze his little cheeks.   Gregory would probably get mad if I tried to squeeze his cheeks. Haha.  

Lots of tears started our day as Mammie saw Sadie off to school. Hearts were breaking as we said our good byes and got back in the truck. It was harder this time than last. Maybe because we stayed longer, Alex came just before we had to leave, I don’t know. Six hours later and it still hurts. What’s worse is we drive two hours to pick up a load and find out it will not be here at the yard until probably 11:00 PM tonight. Which means we could have stayed there another 6 or 7 hours. AARRGG!

So we are spending the night in the FFE yard in Dundee, FL.  FFE is a sister company to KLLM. Both owned by the same people. 

If the trailer gets here on time I should be pulling out around 1:30-2:00AM.  Ten hours driving plus breaks and such should get us over half way to our destination in Illinois.  Wait, weren’t we just there?  This is beginning to look like a regional route. 

Well, off to bed for me. I will let Mammie fill you in on the new grandson. He’s perfect so I don’t know know what else to say. 

Mammie said I could do it so here are some pictures. 

   
    
   
He has two very loving sisters who just swarmed him when he came home. And Buddy, their Dachshund became instantly protective nipping at Greg’s heel whenever he picked up Alex. Once while lying on the couch with Alex on his chest, Buddy got right up beside the baby. That child will be well looked after, I have no doubt.  

God bless. 

Busy day getting the truck cleaned up, laundry and getting ready to go tomorrow. Back on the road.  It is so hard to leave! 

We got to see the baby for a bit today though which was awesome.  He is just the sweetest thing.  Barely lets out a peep until he gets hungry and then he makes his point.   He got circumcised today.  Poor thing.  But it didn’t even phase him.  Thank goodness. 

It is so neat to see the way the other kids want to be involved and are so excited.  Maddi doesn’t want to put him down.  Sadie was singing to him today and rocking.   They can’t quit touching him.  I think he makes Kaiden a bit nervous since he is so tiny.   The girls just think they can hold him all the time.  

Look at the big smile on Papaws face! 

Waiting on baby.  Gregory and Melissa left at 5 this am to go to hospital! 

Sadie is up and dressed and lunch is packed.  Been a while since I’ve had to do that.  

7:30.  Melissa’s water broke!   

1:30 pm. We have a new grandbaby!   Meet Alexander Reid Marlin Hill.   20 1/4 inches. 8 lbs 5oz.  

DG: This is exciting. Maddie fell in love right away.  She wouldn’t hardly let anyone else hold him and we couldn’t get her away when it came time to go home. 

   
 
That boy is not going to lack for love. He doesn’t know it now but he has two of the best big sisters a fella could have. He’s a blessed child. As are they all. 

Back at home Maddie is missing her daddy. Papaw’s going to lie down with her. A suitable substitute.  A goodnight story and sleep achieved. 

Annie – What a beautiful little boy.  We are so lucky and proud.  

Up at 6:30 am.  Kids have to leave at 7:15 in order to get Sadie to school by 8 am.  Maddi goes at 9:30 and Kaiden goes at 9 but he catches the bus.

Greg and I have our annual doctor appojnments this morning.  What fun.

Melissa has pink eye this am and a sore throat.  Kids have been sick and Maddi brought the pink eye home from daycare.  They may not induce her in the am if she is sick.  Hope she gets better fast.

Doctors appointments went fine.  Poked and prodded and told to lose more weight.  Yeah yeah.

We had to get a tire for the truck today.  Didn’t know it was going to take most of the day.   They got the tire on fast but then sat for two hours waiting on pay authorization to come through.  Lovely.  Now we are behind in the day.

Next stop was walmart to pick up refills and then office max for some copies and a fax to headquarters about tire.   I felt so bad for the girl behind the counter at office max.  She was obviously new so we tried to be patient.   Another lady came up and said to her “I don’t want to talk to you.  You have that deer in the headlights look and I need someone who knows what they are doing because when I explain what I want I want it to be Understood and done right”.  Wow!  Talk about rude.  So The manager came up and helped.  It took the poor girl 40 minutes to make copies for me.  I went next door to Michaels and came back and still had to wait.  Still I waited patiently.  Everyone should have to work retail at least once for some compassion for the new girl!

Then off to the grocery for a few things and then home.  We had spaghetti for dinner and then me and the girls did some crafts until bed time.  Both of them fell asleep right after story time.

We still don’t have a new grand son yet but she is due to be induced in the am.  Hope all goes well and praying for a fast and safe delivery.

I’m turning in.   Probably going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Goodnight y’all.

DG:  Waiting, I hate waiting. See above. We waited today. That was the story. Waiting. On hold not less. That’s even worse. There is either music, an ad or in my case both. After 30 minutes even the phone gave up and disconnected. Plan B.  Another call, different department, less waiting. Sometimes you just gotta go around the block to get to where you are.

Anticipation is high. Alex is taking it all in stride. He’ll come out when he is ready.

I’m bushed. It’s past my bedtime. All is well. Looking forward to tomorrow. Good night all. God bless.

It’s 12:30 am and I just realized we didn’t post anything for today.   Sorry!  The kids were out of school today so we have just played around.   We made coconut butter lip balm and decorated the containers.  We watched The Princess Bride.  We’ve played hide and seek.   And then we went to Bob Evans for dinner because Sadie wanted grits for dinner.    Haha.  That girl will eat two bowls of grits and want more.  Too funny.     We also arm knitted a scarf for their aunt Megan.  

Greg had to take his truck to Freightliner for its mileage maintenance and an alignment.  He needs two tires but that will have to be tomorrow.  

After dinner they had their baths and bed time stories.  They go to bed at 8 since they have to get up early for school.  

We have doctor appointments in the am so we better get to sleep.  

Also, no baby Alex yet.  He is being stubborn.  Poor Melissa is miserable.  She is due to be induced Wednesday if he doesn’t come tomorrow.  

Up at 7:30 and heading out. Should see my babies this afternoon!! 

DG: Made it safe and sound. Showered with kisses and hugs. See you in a couple of days. 

Got to sleep until 6 am.  Yay!  Haha.  Got quite a ways to go still.   Only 830 miles to Cape Coral but that all depends on where we go after Atlanta.  Hopefully they will give us a trip part of the way so we don’t have to pay for gas in this sucker all those miles.  

DG:  Well, they didn’t have a trip for us so we are bob tailing it to Florida. That’s going to be a lot of “gas” for that sucker.  Going to look into getting our own truck and loads. It’s more risk but more control as well. 

Stopped at a Days Inn in Valdosta, GA. Much better than a truck stop.  Going to see the kids tomorrow. Can’t wait. 

God bless. 

6 am. Time to go to receiving desk and see where we stand to get loaded.   Fortunately they had a door for us and we could go ahead and move.   Our appt was for 8:30 so hopefully this means we will get out soon!   

Text from Gregory said Melissa had been bumped from list this am and they are waiting on a call to come in.  Poor thing.  I know she was already nervous and now to be delayed.  Gracious!  

DG:  Guess my grandson wasn’t ready. He’s a special one. Not that the others are not, just saying. They are all special. 

Well we did get a door, two hours ahead of our scheduled appointment.  The guy checking me in this morning was the same guy I talked to yesterday and he was trying to mess with me, in a kidding way, but I was too sleepy to catch on and be witty back. Oh well, at least I didn’t get mad but I’m sorry I missed an opportunity for joviality.  Too early. AND I’VE BEEN HERE FOR 13 HOURS ALREADY MAN, GIVE ME A FREAKING DOOR.  Is what I said on the inside. 

It was sprinkling rain when I went to receiving and now it is pouring down. But I am already at the dock high and dry in my truck.  Just hope the rain stops before they do.  

Want to get over 600 miles today. Shouldn’t be a problem. The only slowdown of course will be traffic around Chicago.  Rain is really coming down hard. Probably ought to check the weather. 

Watched the game last night. Steelers versus Patriots. Patriots won. It was a good game. I still think Rothlesberger is the better quarterback but they just couldn’t score. However, the good news is, football is back. Yea!  

Well, it’s almost 7:00am and they’ve been shaking the box for half an hour now so this is hopeful. Another concern I had was the dryness of my trailer. Word is this place is famous for refusing to load a wet trailer and since one needs to have one’s trailer washed out before arriving for pickup well one worries whether or not his trailer will be dry enough for them. Mine looked pretty dry last night and I kept the refer on all night so it should have been dry and judging by the fact that they are loading my trailer one would presume that a sufficient state of dryness was attained. 

The rain is starting to pick up. However I have faith in the Lord above that He will clear a path for us and keep us safe. Praise be to The Lord. Amen. 

And He came through again. As usual. By the time they had finished loading the trailer the rain was down to a trickle. I should have prayed for no traffic as well, but I didn’t and therefore we only traveled 460 miles today due to standstill traffic outside of Chicago, construction around Indianapolis and Louisville and a GPS/driver misunderstanding that caused a missed exit and a few miles added to the trip via an interstate turnaround. 

We are settled in Franklin, KY for the night. Should make Kennesaw by noon. 

Oh yea, The inducement was canceled so no Alexander today. I think they have rescheduled for Wednesday.  Can’t wait to meet him. But all in good time. 

Saw a flat bed truck drive through the parking lot a little bit ago with a sign almost as long as the trailer that resembled the sign on the front of the Paramount theater in Ashland. As one does not see very many of those signs these days I wondered if it was from our local theater. Did they tear down the theater and sell the sign? Were they sending it to be reconditioned?  Had to find out so we pulled up the Paramount’s website and while their sign is about the same size as the one on the truck it was obviously a different style. Not our sign. Impressive though.  

I hope everyone remembered what happened on this day 14 years ago and said a little prayer for those who lost their lives that day and for the families they left behind. 

Good night and God bless. 

We have to be at our stop at 10 with about 40 miles to go but being just outside chicago we decide to leave pretty early.  Up at 7:30 and down the road by 8.   

Fortunately traffic was light for Chicago so we made it by 9 am.  It was a live unload but fortunately didn’t take but about 30 minutes once it got to our appointment time.   

Next trip is taking us south.  We were supposed to be off starting Saturday but it looks like it’s going to be Sunday before we get to Florida.   They are inducing Melissa at 4:30 in the morning.  Prayers for a safe and quick delivery.   

The girls FaceTimed me today and are excited to see the baby.   Unfortunately, they both have pink eye thanks to Maddi now being in preschool.  They have eye drops so hopefully it will clear up quickly.  They were going to paint cards for mommy and Alex.  I asked Sadie what she was going to put on hers and she said “have a good baby”.  Haha.  

We got our next load information and its to go to Atlanta.  Unfortunately, we can’t pick it up until tomorrow morning so it looks like we are spending the night in the shipping parking lot.  We aren’t alone. There are several trucks waiting to be loaded in the morning.  Hope they are fast so we can head south!   Got babies to see. 

DG:  Another parking lot sleep over. We are in the flight path of O’Hare airport so there is a jetliner flying low overhead about every thirty seconds. Takes me back to my Air Force days except the jets back then were a lot louder. 

It’s cool here in northern Illinois so we do not have to run the truck all night for air conditioning.  

I’m trying to think of something more to say but sleep is overpowering my thoughts.  I will have to start writing first thing in the evenings instead of waiting until right before bed. 

I hope you all understand.  God bless.