My sweetie got on the road this morning without me.   Makes me sad but I get to play with the babies so I’ll be ok. 

DG:  Looking at those pictures from a couple of days ago, I’ve never made you smile like that. I think you’ll be okay. 

This truck seems awful empty without you. I even miss Precious. 

Well, not much to tell. Drove about 420 miles today. Got to do more tomorrow if I’m going to make South Dakota by Friday. Pray for good weather. Got a report its snowing all around. You all know how much I don’t like snow. 

Okay, showered and fed this trucker’s going to hit the bunk. After I call my sweetheart that is. 

God bless. 

DG:  Day two of home time. 

Mammie drawing with her girls and being adored. Maddie starting the day with scary hair. Kaiden is intensely enjoying Osmo, an early Christmas gift.  And papaw, that’d be me, holding a sleeping baby. 

HOME TIME. Nuff said.  

DG:  Arrived early to the delivery, Buckhead Beef. Look for them in your favorite grocery store.

Got here about 5:00am and the place looked closed. Not sure where to park or where to check in. Never been here before.  There are two trucks in the parking lot in front of the gate facing out. Pull up beside them to get the down low on the situation. Nobody in either truck. I’ll just wait here. See a faint light in a little building that could be the guard shack. I approach. There is a security guard in there. Things are looking promising.  She has me sign in, checks my bills and tells me where to park and tells me when they are ready to unload me someone will come to the truck and I will be directed back into the warehousing facility and given a door. 

Well right at about that two hour mark when I was in my deepest sleep there comes a banging on the side of the truck. “Boy, you’re hard to wake” was the greeting I received from the security guard who apparently had been knocking for some time. “Door 9”, she says, “someone will come and get your papers”.  

“Great”, I reply. As she hands me my bills and walks away I am asking myself, “which door did she say”?  Ah, she wrote it on the bills. Now why can’t they all do that?

Door 9, approximately a one hour unload. And they want to purchase the damaged cases of beef. So now we are all collectively waiting on several high paid personnel, in my company, their company and the shipper as to determine if these two cases of beef will be sold here at the place I sit. This is okay with me as my other alternative is to take it back from whence it came and even though it is just a 20 minute drive, I do not like to backtrack. 

3:20 more on break and I can drive again 

Annie – we had Nicaraguan food for lunch from a food truck.   It was delicious.   I had chicken and Greg had beef.  They came with beans and rice.  I also had plaintains and Greg had Yuca.   They came with two sauces.   One was an herby parsley spice blend with olive oil and the other was a habanero sauce.  Yummy!   We are at the picnic tables by the lake.  There is a blue heron on the left side of the lake but he’s hard to see in the picture.  It was a nice place to have lunch except for the heat.   It’s still too hot for me and it’s November!  

Melissa’s sister Megan made a hat for Alex.  So cute!

We finished our second stop but still have to wait three hours for Greg’s clock to reset before we can go see the babies.  

4:30.  Finally!  We are on our way to see the kids.  We have one more stop to make but it’s not until 1:30 so we are going to spend the evening with the kids and then go back at midnight and deliver the last load to Walmart.   

 Somebody is glad to see his papaw! 
Sadie got a shirt at school for being a renaissance kid which means great grades. 
   

While we were talking and saying hi to everybody we found Maddi trying to get back in her Halloween bag for candy.  She got caught before she was able to get any and wasn’t happy about it.  LOL

The girls wanted to watch a movie with me so when everyone else went to bed we sat on the couch and watched about half an hour of Inside Out before they were both asleep on my lap.  I couldn’t move.  Thankfully I heard Greg get up and go to the bathroom and was able to softly yell at him and get his attention so he could help me get them in bed.  So sweet!  

Midnight and the alarm goes off.  Time to go to the last stop.  

DG:  Cursed clock. That’s all I got to say.  Have to figure this out. It’s true, you can’t stop time. Nor can you make it go faster. Wonder if anyone has done a study of how much fuel and time is wasted just waiting for these fool things to reset. I would bet it’s in the millions of dollars and millions of hours. Wasted. Leave it to the government to screw something up royally. 

Where was I?  Oh yea. Big surprise for the kids as they were not expecting us until tomorrow.  Sadie gets so excited she cries and Maddie comes running for papaw. Kaiden is pretty ambivalent.  Unless there are gifts involved. I think he was glad to see us. I got several big smiles out of my new grandson. And he got more than several from me. 

Well, wait time is almost up. Time to go to work. 

9 am and we are finally leaving Walmart.   They gave us a buzzer like one of those things at a restaurant and said it would go off when they were done.   It never went off so Greg walked up to th office and the lady said “I told you to come to the office if it didn’t go off by 5:15”.   No she didn’t.   I was with him.   Oh well.    Time to go play with the grand babies.   I’ve had 4 hours of sleep.  

Well, close but no cigar.   Greg went to the back of the trailer to close the doors and they haven’t unloaded us yet.   They gave him the paperwork and said they were done but nope.   That’s why our buzzer hadn’t gone off.   I think somebody dropped the ball somewhere.   Legally if she signed the paperwork and said we are good to go anything left in the truck is ours.   I wonder what 11,000 pounds of beef is worth.   But, we won’t do that.   

Ok.  After many trips to the office and several conversations later they have finally unloaded us.  It is now 11:45.  Wow!  The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing at this place and neither one of them are doing much of anything.  

Now, hopefully, we can get back to the kids.  

Gregory called and said they were looking for us and we’re disappointed when we weren’t there this morning when they got up but told Gregory “they’re coming back.  They left Ptecious!”    

Woke up about 1 pm.  Slept like a log.   Time to get moving around.   Need food and shower!   

Ordered pizza and took a shower while we waited on it to be delivered.   Someone had a birthday here at the yard and they brought us a piece of cake.  No, Greg is not wearing lipstick.   He shared his wings with Precious.   

   

We have a trip information.    We are headed to Florida and actually have a trip there.  Gregory needs me to help babysit for a couple of weeks which I am happy to do.  Miss my babies something awful.   Greg will be alone for a couple of weeks and we appreciate all prayers.  Haha.  We have three stops to make before we actually get to Cape Coral so we should be in there Saturday morning.   

We were able to get our windshield fixed finally while we waited on our trailer.  Took the guy 10 minutes.   He said it only took that long because he had to walk over to the truck.  Haha. 

1:30 am.   Arrived at first stop.  Save-A-Lot to drop 11,000 pounds of beef.   Two more stops to go.  

3:15.  All done with this load or so we thought.  Greg went in to get final paperwork and was told two packages were damaged.  No idea where or how especially since we didn’t have it the first leg of the trip.   Gotta call dispatch and see what to do.   They don’t open until 7.   

4:30.  Arrived at second stop.   They don’t open until 7 am.   Time to go to sleep.   Goodnight y’all.  
  

DG:  Woops,  must have been driving. God bless. New day. 

DG:  Ah, rest and relaxation. As much as one can expect parked in a truck stop parking lot that is going through renovations. Ah yes, the roar of Diesel engines and the clank of a back hoe digging a trench. Music to the ears. As long as they keep up a good rhythm it does have a certain soothing effect. 

Eight hour break complete I currently have five hours and twenty minutes of drive time available before a two hour break is required to fulfill my ten hour break in twenty four hours requirement. Where would I be without the government telling me when I am tired and when to rest and how much rest I need. I am so helpless on my own. Thank you big government for taking care of me. 

Pardon me while I puke.  My attempt at sarcasm has left me nauseous.  Just typing those words has left me weak and dizzy. I will need a minute. 

Annie –

Gregory called last night and said Maddi fell in the driveway. Poor little thing. We FaceTimed her and told her she needed ice cream to which she readily agreed. Haha. I think anyone who falls and bangs up their forehead and nose deserves ice cream. She scraped her knee pretty good too but she wouldn’t let me see it.  

  
Ok.  I know I have mentioned several times about the nasty and weird bathrooms on the road but this one takes the cake of weird and I am locking the door!!   Talk about cheap.   How much does plywood cost?  Really! 
   

We stopped at a rest area just across the Kentucky line in Tennessee.   I don’t think you can get this combination anywhere else but this area these days.   

2:40 am.  Arrived at receiver in Atlanta.   Boy are we tired.  Thankfully it’s a drop and hook so we should be in and out pretty quick.  

4:04 am.   Back at the KLLM yard for the night.   Or morning as it were.    Goodnight y’all.  

DG:  I still don’t understand everything about this clock business.  There is a thing called a split break where you can divide up your required 10 hour break into eight consecutive hours then later that day two hours all in the sleeper.  Somehow I got over 12 hours of driving time today doing that but I swear I don’t know how. It felt good splitting it up though. 

Okay, now that we are parked I am going to do the full 10 all at once. Goodnight and God bless. 

7 am.   Still waiting.   

I wish I had something to write today.   We have been a whole day sitting again.    Greg called about 7 pm to see if we could bring load over but nope not until 9 pm.  

8:30 pm.  Headed to drop – finally!   

9 pm.  Got to receiver right on time.  

9:45.  Unloaded and ready to go.  Wow.  3 day wait for 45 minute unload.  Unreal! 

So now we are off to Champaigne, IL for load back you Atlanta.    Sometimes I feel like I am in a loop.  Lol 

1:48 am.  Arrived at shipper.  Kraft foods.  We are picking up 41,000 pounds of cheese whiz.   You just never know.  

Well we are finally on our way to Georgia.   Hopefully Greg will stop shortly and sleep. I’m turning in.  

Goodnight y’all. 

Slept until 7 in a nice soft comfy bed.  Ahhhhh

Greg called the receiver to see about bringing our load in but they said no we couldn’t deliver before the delivery date tomorrow at 9 pm.   Good grief.  So a call to KLLM to let them know and they are working on getting us another trip.   Don’t want to sit here two more days.  

DG:  No trips to be had so I have to try and stay up late tonight so I can sleep all day tomorrow before delivering at 9:00pm and then possibly getting a trip after that to somewhere.  

So thankfully we are at a truck stop with a movie theater. They let whoever pick the movies so after watching half of Furious 7 I went to the counter and requested San Andreas and Hot Pursuit, neither of which we had seen. The first one was really good, anything The Rock does is good and the second one was cute and we were glad we didn’t spend $40 at the theater to see that one.  So that’s all for today. Just sitting. That’s usually not exciting unless I guess you are sitting on the rim of the Grand Canyon. That would be exciting and probably more inspirational. 

7 am.  Or is it really 8 am?   I’m so confused!   We’ll go with 7 since that’s what all the digital devices say.   

As you could tell, Greg was in a rather depressed mood yesterday.   Hopefully today is better!   We had just come from dinner where this lady sat with her family and she, the adult, kept burping loudly while she ate.  No manners whatsoever and then the things people do in public bathrooms.   I can’t even tell you.   Then while listening to the radio they were talking about all these companies, trucking companies as well as all these other big companies, are hiring foreigners specially bringing them in to keep wages low.  They get government breaks on taxes when they hire from another country.   So less per hour, or mile in our case, plus less corporate taxes means a lot of Americans who want to work don’t have a shot or have to settle for crappy wages.   Why doesn’t the media report on that garbage?   Where are the riots?   Oh yeah!  We’re all too busy on Facebook to care.   Shoot.  I think I caught his aggravation.   Sorry for the rant but it does get depressing when you go in for a cup of coffee in the morning  in the middle of freaking Indiana and you’re the only ones speaking English.  Now we know why all these truckers out here have Middle eastern or Indian accents.  Can’t even blame the Mexicans on truck driving jobs.   This has got to stop or America is gone.   

Ok.  Enough!  Moving on.   It rained a lot last night but looks like we have a bright sunny day to drive in which is nice.   Here we go to Illinois.  

Got to our fuel stop in Demotte, Indiana.   Such a sunny day.   It’s nice after a couple days of rain and cloudy.    Pretty good temperatures too.  57 so not cold.   We are 2 1/2 hours from stop. 

Ok.  Guess it’s time to buy some new bras.  Walking across the parking lot Greg asked me if I had a bra on.  Well, of course.  Then he says “oh.  Well you looked floppy so I didn’t think you had a bra on”. Not what a girl wants to hear – ever.   

DG:  Trucking, get it there early, and sit. The load we are on started in South Carolina yesterday morning with a due date and time of 11/3, 9:00am to 9:00pm and we are here today, Sunday 11/1  And there is no one at the place where we are to deliver. Sooooo, we came to a motel which is right across the street from a truck stop. Park the truck, walk across the street, order pizza and watch some football. Almost like real people.  

Even Precious enjoys some time out of the truck. 

Got the pizza and a salad. Good on both counts. The Steelers lost to the Bengals so there is sadness in the room, but the Packers will win their game tonight and joy will once again return. 

In case you missed it, Illinois is flat. 

  
Evenings are long when you park early and have nowhere to go until morning. Time for laundry and a shower and a nap. 

So the Packers lost and the World Series is tied in the 12th inning. I should be in bed but haven’t yet had my shower. 

Kansas City beat the Mets to win the Workd Series.  7 to 2

Hope everyone is well. God bless.