5:30 am.   Time to head west.   Only about 3 hours to go to receiver.  They said we can deliver early, as our appointment isn’t until tomorrow, so here’s hoping.

9:30 am.  Load delivered and ready to go.    No new trip yet so heading to truck stop.

10:30.  Only two hours left on clock.   Probably going to be here all day.   No new trip yet.

2 pm.  No new trip yet.   Time to take a nap!

4:30.   Well, no new trip so I guess we will go in and do laundry and shower.

7 pm.  There is a cafe here on the same lot as the Pilot.   We decided on the prime rib.   We haven’t had a steak in so long I may cry.   Precious will definitely eat good tonight too.

DG:  There was no crying but many groans and ooos and ahhhs. This place was here back in the 20s when this was just a trails crossroads. Sure glad they stuck around.

Several famous people have eaten here.

  
I think Elvis stopped here once.

More than 300 parking spots here and we had our pick as we got here this morning. Tomorrow is a mystery. The planners don’t get in until 7:00, which is 4:00 am my time. Maybe I should get to bed. All these time zone crossings gives me truck lag. It’s like jet lag but takes longer to get over.

Here are some pictures of the trip today.    The desert in California!   Still no trip.  Hope there is one tomorrow.   Goodnight y’all.

I’m 3:30 am.   Phone ringing.   Ignore. Phone ringing again.   Greg answers it.  Apparently KLLM is wanting to swap our load for another guys since we only have 6 hours on our clock today because Greg has reached his 70 hour per week maximum drive time.   We will get within 2 hours of the receiver and will have to stop.  So this other guy is going to the same place but has a later appointment so we can swap.   He is on his way here now.     So we wait for him instead of going back to sleep.   Gotta love this job!

4:45.  Swap complete.   Now back to sleep.

6 am.   Alarm goes off.   Time to head to California.   Need more sleep but since there isn’t a lot of clock time today we should be able to take a nap.

We drove through a lot of desert today and some really pretty mountains and woods in Arizona.    Who’d have thought.  I always had this picture in my mind that Arizona was just all desert.   Very beautiful around Flagstaff and the mountains.

We have parked for the night (its only noon – thanks to the clock) at this little truck stop on Route 66 called The Oasis.    Its in the middle of nowhere and the next area to stop is over 45 miles away.    This explains the prices at this place.   A bag of ice was $5.99.   A bag of Lays chips were $6.    A bottle of Diet Coke was $3.50.    There must have been a lot of complaining about prices as there is a sign saying please dont complain about our prices.   We are in the middle of nowhere and shipping costs are double what they normally are in order to get supplies.    So, we didnt say anything.   To them anyway.  Haha.

   
 We literally are in the middle of the desert and Greg decides he wants to go for a walk.   I remember the rattlesnake and scorpion warnings and as I am in sandals I’m not too thrilled with the idea but we go out for a bit.    

    

DG:  The desert was pulling me in. I just wanted to keep walking. But I didn’t. Annie was afraid I might find a snake or two. 

  Went back to the truck and got my boots on and Precious and went for another walk.    Found some beautiful cacti and thankfully no snakes or scorpions.   Its probably a little cold for them but the mind goes where it wants.     There were also these little holes every now and then and I kept imagining what kind of creepy crawly might be lurking in there.

   
   

  

DG:  This truck stop is right on old 66. Tried to imagine the millions of people who have traveled this road over the years. 

  
Some remnants of the past. 

  
And, a girl and her dog. 

  

We got to see an amazing sunset though.   The sky was orange and then faded to this amazing red.   It was gorgeous.   The camera does not do it justice.

  
  
  
Other pictures from the trip today. 

   
    

  
  
  

I love both of these expressions but Precious in particular.  Have you ever seen a more embarrassed look on a dog?

More tomorrow. 

Good night and God bless. 

7 am.  Up and ready to roll.  Still have a little over 1,000 miles to go before our appointment tomorrow evening.   Should make it all the way across New Mexico (so excited) and in to Arizona a bit.  I haven’t been to Arizona yet and only a few miles in the corner of New Mexico once so really looking forward to the drive today.   Got my Nikon out and hoping to get some good pictures.

I didn’t see this sign last night in the dark.   Glad I wasn’t climbing around on the rocks.

I meant to tell you all yesterday about a couple of neat things that have happened the last two days.   I downloaded the Bible to my phone and we have been listening to it a couple of hours a day.  Day before yesterday we were listening to the part about Noah and the flood and looked up and there was a small rainbow in the sky.   No kidding.    Then yesterday we were talking about America and how we hope the next president can really get in there and get this country back on track and back to the way our forefathers and the constitution intended.  It reminded me of some old school house rock videos from when I was a kid (see links below) and OMG a bald eagle flew by the truck.    I promise I am not making this up.  I guess we have to be really careful what we talk about today!

http://youtu.be/5ZQl6XBo64M

And

http://youtu.be/8_NzZvdsbWI

Apparently they are still making cartoons.  I found this one from 2011!

http://youtu.be/0efqnvYz4YI

Found this at a Navajo rest area.  Doesn’t sound a thing like me.

We drove a bit through Texas today and then all the way across New Mexico and part of the way through Arizona.   I have almost 300 pictures but will spare you all of them.     We saw some beautiful mountains and landscapes, a few pronghorns again and some Navajo Indians.    We found a radio station going through Gallup, New Mexico that is a Navajo station.   A clip of the music we heard is below.

We passed through the Laguna Indian Reservation in New Mexico as well.   There are a lot of houses that are in disrepair and some are abandoned and small single wide trailers close by.    Really sad to see.

We have stopped for the night in Winslow, Arizona.   Now all I need to do is find a corner to stand on.   Wait, that doesnt sound right.   Anyway, I’m sure you have heard the Eagles song.

Getting up at 5:30.   Better get to bed.   Goodnight y’all.

DG:  I would have had more to say, but I’ve been waiting on the pictures to upload and now I am sleepy. So blame a slow wifi/internet for my lack of input due exhaustion. Maybe in 10 years someone will figure out how to put fast speed internet everywhere.  

Until then, I need some sleep. Good night and God bless. 

7 am.  Up and getting on the road.  Long way to go today.    Gorgeous day here in Missouri.   Little cool but sun is shining bright.   

12:30.  Stopped at the big Indian again today.  The Woodshed truck stop in Big Cabin, Oklahoma.  

  
Greg and Precious love to stop there for the giant chicken legs.   I wouldn’t call them giant but they are bigger than regular. Precious eats a whole one.   Greg too.   Today Greg also had the meatballs on a stick.  4 meatballs, wrapped in bacon and covered in ketchup.  I can’t begin to describe how disgusting that sounds.   He really enjoyed them though.   

  

Precious after eating a whole giant chicken leg.  Haha

  
 
5 pm.  Stopped at the Cherokee truck stop in Calumet, Oklahoma.   They have a Cherokee museum out back, a live buffalo, hotel, campground and convenient store.  We have been there before.   They have a lot of different cheeses, preserves, salsas, pickled eggs, stuff like that.    I finally found Blue Blazes.  Any time someone says “where in blue blazes is that” you will finally know.  Haha.  Apparently it’s blueberry jam with jalapeños.  Sounds yummy.  

  

This is the look I get when I try to move Precious off her pillow.  Hahaha

  

We have stopped for the night at a neat rest area in McLean (yee haw) Texas.    

  
Inside they have several information tablets around a windmill.   I took pictures of them because I know Gregory is a lot like his dad and will want to read every…….single…….one.    

  
  

   
    

    
   

   
   

  
Outside they had these neat picnic shelters.   

  
Even the grills were in the shape of Texas. 

  
The outside side view.  

   
 

DG:  Neat place huh?  Like a mini museum.  I don’t think there are people in any other state as proud of their state as Texans are of Texas. It’s refreshing. 

Well, yesterday I promised you a story so here it is. Last night after walking Precious I headed back to the truck. The door was locked as usual so I took out my key, opened the door and as I set Precious on the floor of the cab I noticed that things appeared very different and I heard a voice say, “Hey”.  Immediately I knew I had not placed Precious in our truck, but another driver’s.  She barked a couple of times, would not come to me so I had to climb up and get her and amongst my sincerest apologies I could tell the guy was pretty mad. Well, how could this happen you ask. Easy. All the trucks look alike from the outside and, now this is the kicker, they are all keyed the same. That’s right. Every KLLM Freightliner uses the same key pattern. I can open any door, start any truck and everybody else with a key can do the same to my truck. What is the reasoning behind this you ask?  I have no idea. Other than it may save the company a lot of money having them all keyed the same, I can’t think of another reason. 

I felt terrible.  Not only had I surprisingly invaded his privacy, I probably scared the poor guy as well. Then Annie and I got to talking and our imaginations were working and scenarios began to come to mind, well what if there was a less than honest KLLM driver who preyed on other drivers at truck stops. You know, watching for the driver to go to the bathroom and then go over and rifle through his truck, maybe steal his CB or XM radio or any other valuable. And it just got worse from there to the point I started to worry about all the possibilities.  But I had to stop. It’s ridiculous.  I do think it’s a safety issue though and will probably suggest that they correct it. 

Going across the panhandle of Texas in the morning, across New Mexico and into Arizona. This will be some new country we haven’t seen. 

So much to learn about this country. And what a country it is. My prayer is that every American learn to properly appreciate what we have here. 

Well, that’s all for me folks. Seven miles shy of 600 today. Guess I’ll catch a few Zs before doing it all again tomorrow.  

Love to all and God bless. 

Annie – Last trip to the bathroom before turning in for the night.  I sat down, looked up and there was Hitler staring at me through the faux marble door.    Freaky!!  

  

Goodnight y’all! 

One more. This was by the highway in Oklahoma.  Looks like the circus is in town. 

  

5:30.   Alarm goes off.  Hit snooze.  Office doesn’t open until 6.  

5:45  Alarm goes off again.   Go ahead and try office.   They say come on in.   Greg comes back to the truck and says this is a drop and hook not a live load.  That’s great but confusing.  We were told by KLLM and the guy at the desk here last night that they would work us in today since we are early.   Our original appointment isn’t until 2 pm.   Love the communication!  Anyway, we are getting an empty trailer and hopefully a trip soon.  

DG:  Amazing.  Government regulations. Give me a break. Arrived ConAgra Foods warehouse in Frankfort, IN last night around 10:15.  By the way, where did they get the name for this town?  That’s another issue altogether.  So I’m here, out of time, 16 hours early for my appointment, but 10 minutes late for getting here before the evening receiving crew left for the night. If the security guard would have looked a little further he would have seen that this was a drop and hook and I would be ready to go at end of my 10 hour break instead of having to check back with security.  Doesn’t matter though, I needed a place to park for 10 hours and all of the truck stops and rest areas were full that time of night. And they have a nice driver’s lounge and bathroom facilities, so all is good. Except for the aforementioned government regulation.  It always comes back to that doesn’t it?  You can be having the best day, the best week, month, year, years and eventually you are going to run into the government and they are going to ruin it for you. I mean look at taxes. Specifically the income tax. Whatever you are doing in between April 15s, that day is going to come around and require that you pay it some attention.  And if you are meticulous about your record keeping this is going to be a part of your life year round. And it shouldn’t be. Life isn’t about walking the line of government regulations. Life is about liberty and the pursuit of happiness. My God, we fought wars over it. And now it is so much a part of our lives we just glibly accept it as such. WRONG!  That’s not what life is about. 

Back to my previous complaint. As stated, we arrived early, but too late, according to security, to unload, more correctly, to drop and hook. As I said, didn’t matter as I was out of time and needed 10 hours to reset my clock.  However, if I were able to take care of this last night I would not have had the hours of service violation slapped on me this morning by my electronic watch dog. That’s right. Apparently this lot is big enough for one to drive around it a couple of times, which is what I did going back to the guard house, which they call the welcome center by the way, sounds nicer than guard shack, then backing my trailer into a dock and next driving around to find the empty trailer to hook on to. Apparently there is a time limit as to how long one my do all of this in an “off duty” status mode.  So now I have to have the log audit department correct my driving/duty status so I don’t have to fill out paperwork stating, “yes, I was a bad boy and I’ll never do it again”, and then sitting here for 10 more hours. 

No wonder people are starting to wake up. Took way to long in my estimation. All my life people have complained about the government but done very little to change it, me included. But thank God for Donald Trump. Like him or hate him and whether or not he gets elected and does the things he says he is going to do or not, at least he got the conversation started and I believe, or I hope, those in government are going to realize how mad we are and change their ways and get out of our lives. Government of, by and for the people, not over the people. 

So here we are.  For a couple of more hours anyway. 

   
 

8:30 am.   Logs are all adjusted and we are ready to go.   Got a new trip.  Pick up in Indianapolis and take it to Victorville, California!’   Yeah!  Get to go through Arizona this trip.  One more off the list!   Greg was excited about California since its 32 degrees here in Indiana so I pulled up Victorville’s temp and it’s only 36.  Hopefully it will warm up by the time we get there.  Odds are its not snowing like here. 

DG:  Odds are. 

  

DG:  Guy next to me at the dock here has cats. At least two that we can see. 

  
Smelly cats. Smelly cats, what are they feeding you?

Annie – I can’t even begin to think what his truck must smell like.  At least we can only see two.   We saw a lady once with 4.  She had her windows open and the vents over the bed.   I can’t even imagine! 

Well, we have been sitting at the shipper for two hours already.   Not even started loading us yet. 

1:30. Took 3 hours to get us loaded.  Only about 45 minutes once they actually got started though.   Now we are on our way west.   

8 pm.   Stopped for fuel in Rolla, Missouri and decided to go ahead and stop for the night.  Starting to get filled up so we better grab a parking spot while we can.   

DG:  I have a story to tell but it will have to wait until tomorrow. 

God bless. 

9 am.   I’m up!  I’m up!   At least that’s what I keep telling myself. Time to head in for caffeine.   

Boy we had some awful rain and wind last night.  Woke us up a couple of times.   Glad we weren’t in Louisiana.   Looks like they got hit pretty hard.    Hopefully we will be behind the storm and not in it on the way to Indiana. 

9:30.  Almost ready to go and get a note from our dispatcher to please see if we can find another driver.   His GPS shows us at the same location.   His dispatcher has been trying to get hold of him and they can’t reach him.   Greg knocked and knocked on the door.   No answer.    Finally found the guy in Wendy’s having breakfast.   Sheewwwww.     Would not have wanted to have to go in the truck and find him dead.   They had an old guy who had a heart attack in his truck and died a while back. Yikes! 

10 am.  We are heading north.   Sky is gray and cloudy but at least no rain right now.  

6 pm.  Crossing the Ohio river in Indiana.   Really a lot of flooding on our trip today but this is awful.   It was a good half mile passed the river and still flooding.  

  
   
 
   
   

   
   

We’ve had pretty good weather on the trip.   Light rain in a few spots but nothing bad.  Wind has been worse I think.  Raining now in Indiana.  Greg thought he saw (A) snowflake so panic has set in.  Haha.  

7 pm.   Ok.  Now a lot of snow but it’s so wet it’s not sticking.  Just getting cold.  

10:15 pm.  Arrived at receiver.  Evening unloaded went hone at 10.   We can check back in at 6 with morning crew.   Continuing to snow but not much.  Everything is soaked.  Hope it’s not slick in the morning.  

12:30.  Greg has passed out.  Guess I’m next.  Goodnight y’all.  

5:30.  Time to get up and head out. Melissa works this morning so in order to keep Gregory from having to drag all four kids out we are going to take the car to the truck stop and then I’ll drive the car and Greg the truck back by their house and drop the car off.  

6 am.  Pull in to the Loves truck stop and there are 4 sheriffs cars and yellow police tape around the door. I had to go in the side door through the Subway to get into the store. Greg had the truck and pulled through the fuel line so he came in the back. Apparently some guy had come in and grabbed a bunch of cash out of the cash register and ran off. Apparently it takes four Sheriffs to deal with it.

7:20  Well, we should’ve thought this through a little bit more. In order to get out of the Love’s parking lot Greg has to go up and make a big U-turn. We probably should’ve had Gregory bring us earlier before Melissa went to work. Maybe we will try that next time. Anyway, we are on our way to the house and one last hug and kiss before getting on the road.

8:15.  On the road again.   Picking up veggies I think in Okechobee and then on to Georgia. 

Florida cattle farm. 

    
11 am.  Got to the shipper.  Doesn’t look like anyone is here but we have an appointment so we’re hopeful.    Apparently we are picking up a truck load of cabbages.  

   
    
 

Kissimmee River 

  

12 pm.   Ok.  No one is here and after some phone calls, no one is coming today.  So, we are leaving the trailer here and taking the tractor to the Pilot truck stop and coming back for a 7:30 appointment in the morning. 

1 pm.  Going back to shipper.   Weird very tiny little Pilot.  Crazy busy and the parking lot smelled like pee.  Yuck. 

6 pm.  Spending the night in a cabbage patch.  Greg takes me to all the best places.   We decided to get out and walk around a while.  Took a big long nap.   Must have needed that.  

   
   
Now that’s a big fork lift.  

  
I guess these cabbages didn’t pass the test.  

  
Itty bitty little cabbages.  

   
 
Sun is starting to go down. 

   
 

9:30.   Watched TV for a bit.  The new series Mercy Street on PBS about the civil war.  Only one of those episodes a day I tell ya.  I don’t think I can binge watch that show.   Decided to get out and go for a walk and look at the stars.  Was hoping to see a bunch tonight since we are in the middle of nowhere but it’s almost a full moon plus the lights around the building here made it difficult to see a lot but we saw a few.  

   
 Now back in the truck.  Watching Blues Brothers.   

DG:  Great weather. Very quiet. Should sleep well. 

Beautiful sunset.

   
Meant to include this one yesterday.  Alex helping dad pick out some steak for dinner.

  
Okay, off to bed. Good night and God bless.   

DG:  First off, a funny video:

That’s how the weekend goes when you’re with Alex. 

Annie – Another great day with the babies. Really hate to leave in the morning but got a load to pick up in Okechobee and take to Georgia.  

I have a couple of videos too. 

 

    
 
We went to the Asian market today.  They have different kinds of Kit Kat candy bars in Asia than we do.  Red bean, sweet potatoe, hazelnut, and a couple of others.  They decided on the green tea ones.   They all really liked them.  I didn’t try them.  Haha. 

  

The girls and I planted some gladioli bulbs and sunflower seeds today and drew all over the driveway some more.  They love to plant flowers and play with chalk.  Of course then they needed a bath.  I got them in and Alex started getting fussy so I put him in too.  He loved it.  I held him while Sadie washed his hair and body.   What teamwork.   

Well, turning in.  Long day tomorrow.  Goodnight y’all.