5:30.  Alarm goes off.  Sadie gets up at 6 to go to school.   Seriously!  Why so early?   

6:30.  At the bus stop.   She gets on like a little trooper.   Sits right up front.  

9:30.  Taking Maddi to school. I think they have all grown a foot since Christmas. 

We stopped to have breakfast at a little cafe across from Maddi’s school.   The review on Yelp said they had eggs Benedict which is one of Gregs favorite so we thought we would stop in.   No eggs Benedict. It is a gluten free and vegan place with lots of different types of teas, coffees, lattes, etc.  But we were pleasantly surprised.  I didn’t want any of the breakfast options (no bacon in sight) so opted to have the Capressi salad and Greg had the avocado mash with a poached egg. Then we had expresso ice cream for dessert.   Needed a little caffeine.  Only had about 4 hours sleep last night.   The ice cream came as vanilla with a little chocolate sauce on it with the expresso on the side to pour on and walnuts.  Anyway, not what was expected but delicious anyway.   

DG:  And I had Earl Grey black tea. And water. I feel so healthy. 

Papaw and his little buddy.  

The girls have decided they want to be YouTube stars.   They watch a bunch of videos of little girls explaining their new toys so they wanted to make a video of their new Fashems.  Little plastic toys that look like frozen characters.   Here is their video.  

DG:  Oh what a day. Love it, love it, love it. So much fun. Times like these make the hard work worth every minute. 

That’s all for me. Have to get my rest. Kaiden has challenged me to another game of Clue after I won handily this evening and bragged about never being defeated in Clue. That may not be true, but I cannot remember ever being beaten. 

God bless everyone.  

9 am.  Slept in a bit this am.   Heading back in to Gregs favorite truck stop.   They have a Dunkin Donuts so I am having a coffee cake muffin for breakfast.  My favorite.   Greg will probably have a breakfast sandwich at Burger King.  Yuck!  Haha

10:30.  Decide to go on to Jacksonville to the TA truck stop there so we can hang out and maybe watch some TV since it looks like we will be waiting.  

Noon.   Quick drive.  All settled in and get an email that says we can roll on over to the receiver.   They are ready for us.   Glad we can deliver early but sure wish someone could get the story straight. 

12:45.  Arrived at receiver with our turkeys.   Bright sunny day in Florida.   70 degrees. 

2:30. All done.  Now we wait and see what’s next.   

3 pm.  No other loads available so looks like we are headed to Cape Coral.  

DG:  Someone is getting a new helicopter.  

  
Even helicopters are delivered by truck.  Go figure. Wonder where they found a roll of plastic wrap that big. 

Well, it’s not mine. 

We made it to Gregory’s. The kids were asleep but Annie went in to give them a kiss and Sadie was dreaming and talking in her sleep. She said “two more hours”.  Gregory said she had asked him how much longer until Mammie gets here and he told her two more hours so she must have gone to sleep with that on her mind.  

Mammie will take her to the bus in the morning then we will get the truck cleaned out and take it to the truck stop before Code Enforcement comes by and tells us to move it. 

All settled in for the night. Sleeping in a real bed for a change. 

Good night and God bless. 

6 am.  Up and heading out – after I get some caffeine!   It’s 46 degrees this morning and really foggy.   We have about 600 miles to go today.  

Mobile Alabama. 60 degrees and sunny.   

  
Battleship Park in Mobile. 

12 pm    FLORIDA!!! 

7 pm.  Stopped for the night in Live Oal, FL.   Found out our appointment isn’t until 10 am on the 18th and we are only an hour away.   Uuggghhh

DG:  Ah, truck driving amenities have hit a new high. Just happened to find this place with our truck route app.  It’s called Busy Bees and while I have never felt compelled to take a picture of a truck stop restroom other than to show how nasty some of them can be, I had to take a picture of this one. 

  
I thought I was in Vegas. No, I didn’t see anything this nice in Vegas. Now that’s class. 

I am amazed at this truck stop. It’s no Iowa 80 by a long shot, but nothing is. But still, it’s really nice. Well, take a look. 

  Jams, Jellys, honey and pie fillings. My, my. 

  
   
Gator heads, every kind of candy, hand made soaps and lotions, every soft drink known to man, Icees of every flavor, nick nacks and trinkets, souvenirs, and oh yea, self serve frozen yogurt. 

Gotta love Florida tourist traps.  Turning in.  Goodnight y’all. 

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  

3:15 am.  Woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep.  Read for a couple of hours and tried again.   

8:30 am.  Woke up. Greg apparently had been up a while.  Still no word on a trip.   Need caffeine!  

Had a dream last night I was a truck driver and had 4 bars I was trying to hook up to the back of the truck but for some reason I was doing it with my feet.  Finally I said forget it and did it one at a time with my hands.  Hmmmm.  Apparently I am going about something the wrong way and need to rethink my strategy and do it the right way.   If only I knew what it was.   Why can’t dreams be more specific like “hey moron, you need to do this that way”.  All these cryptic messages. 

11 am.  Still sitting.  No new trip yet.  

2:30.  Finally got a trip.  Back to where we were yesterday for a different load and going to Georgia.  Staying out of the cold!  Thank Goodness.  Makes Greg cry. Haha.   We have a 4 o’clock appointment so taking a quick nap before we start the long drive. 

4:00 pm.  Load not ready.   Not sure when it will be.  Told to sit tight. 

5 pm.  Got another load.  Looks like the other one won’t be ready by morning so they are sending us to Cargill to get turkey.   It doesn’t pick up until 10 am and it’s only a few miles from here.  Guess we are in for the night.  

They are watching us! 

DG:  So many birds. It’s really amazing. There are very few during the day then at dusk they start flying in and as soon as the sun goes down they all head for the trees. And chirp like the Dickens.  You all remember the Dickens right?  Man they could really make a racket. 

Okay enough humor. Good night all. And God bless. 

8:00 am. Woke up to a pretty sunny day.  43 degrees so 3 times what we have been used to lately.  

9 am.  Got an empty trailer and heading to Waco to pick up candy from Mars to take to Manteno, Illinois.  I feel like I’m going in circles.  Haha.  

We travel the world and don’t even leave the United States. 

1 pm.  Sitting.  Got here for our load to find out there is a hold on it.  Nobody knows why.  Waiting…..

4 pm.  Still sitting.  Now found out that load isn’t even here.  It’s at their other plant across the street.  Good grief!! 

4:50 pm.  Ok. Load is back where we were.  Big lot of confusion going on at this place.  Last word was its ready for us.  

5:30.  Sitting at a truck stop.   The story gets crazier.   We went back across the road to get trailer as it was supposedly done but the 12 year old security guy said we couldn’t have the trailer.  But Mars said it was ready.  Sorry.  I have a sticky note here that says it’s not ready that there is something wrong with the trailer and he can’t release it.    But I have a form from Mars that tells you to give it to me.  Nope.  My sticky note says I can’t.  So he calls his boss and was told nope.  Can’t release it.   Why couldn’t he have settled all this at 1 pm when we got here and we could have been on our way.  He didn’t tell us about the all important sticky note then.  I feel so confused.   Anyway, we left and went to Flying J where we will probably be spending the night since it’s getting late.    Greg is typing what sounds to be a really long email back to KLLM.  Hope it helps.  

At least we have had an amazingly beautiful day in which to sit.  Windows down, light breeze.  Perfect temperature.  Of course, Greg slept through most of it.  Haha   I dug in to a good book and just enjoyed the day.  I would say quiet but as mentioned above, Greg slept most of the afternoon.  Haha 

DG:  I tried to sleep, but she reads so loudly. 

This all may be moot as I feel there is an attack in the works. 

   
   
Gackels and cow birds. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands are massing to destroy truckers and trucking. Too many of their brethren have been mowed down by these deadly behemoths and the men and women who wield their power. The day of reckoning is at hand. If there is no blog tomorrow, you will know what has happened. Warn your family. Warn your friends. And warn only the neighbors that you like. This may be a time to rid the neighborhood of the trouble makers. 

Seriously though it does remind me of the movie The Birds. 

Forgot to post this last night. 

God bless everyone.

7:30.  Rise and shine.  Got a little time before we have to leave so watching the latest episode of iZombie while we have signal!  Greg of course isn’t watching.  He doesn’t  like to watch zombies.  Apparently Predator monsters are ok but not zombies.  Haha 

It’s 11 degrees today but wind chill factor is 1.   All I kept hearing while crocheting a scarf and hat for Greg last summer was “I’ll never use that. You don’t have to make that for me” but I kept crocheting.   Now when getting out of the truck he makes sure he has his hat and scarf on.  It’s so much fun being right.   Hahahaha

9:30.  Arrived at shipper.  No doors available for us so we sit.   Seem to be doing quite a bit of that lately.  

10:30.  Still No door. 

DG:  Door. We have a door. Not long after that last statement. 

We are in a suburb of Chicago called Chicago Heights. Apparently the German glass manufacturer, Gerresheimer Glass, likes this place as a distribution center. They make specialty glass for the medical and pharmaceutical industry. From what I saw in the warehouse we will be hauling a whole big bunch of little glass bottles. It’s interesting as you never know what you are going to find in these little towns and villages. 

The warehouse here is an “L” shaped building shared by, from what I can see, at least three businesses. Going in for my bills after a fairly quick load I discover that there are only two business that share the building but man what a busy place. It was like a ballet of trucks going in and out and around all moving fluidly around each other, pulling out of the docks and backing into the docks. Yard dogs moving trailers around for other trucks to pick up and picking up trailers dropped by runners that just go from the warehouse to a railhead or a port.  When it was my turn I had to first back up out from between two trailers left there by runners since I had arrived because there was not enough room for me to pull forward and make the necessary turn, then swing around, and circle around and pull head first into the space I had just backed out of allowing me to back straight into the appointed dock. 

11:45 am.  On the road.  Heading to Fort Worth, Texas.  Yee Haw! 

10:00 pm parked in Lebanon, MO home of Tracker boats. 

Bed time. Good night and God bless. I’m beat. 

Today is my aunt Teresa’s 56th birthday.   

7:00 am.  Good night sleep.   Time to get on in this morning with our turkey.   It’s a balmy 11 degrees but at least it’s not snowing.  

Good morning Illinois!  Kind of looks like Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, parts of Ohio, Indiana and Kansas too.   I guess If the road signs didn’t say Illinois I would be hard pressed to tell where we are.  Haha. 

Kankakee Illinois 

Made it to our stop in plenty of time.  US Cold Storage.  They have these gigantic storage places all over the place.  

DG:  Live unload. No surprise there. These places are generally very efficiently ran.  Out in just over an hour. Long enough for a short nap. 

Next trip is from Chicago Heights to Ft. Worth, TX. Good. Heading for some warmer weather.  But first a washout. My trailer looks like somebody ran a pallet through a wood chipper and threw some dirt in for good measure.  Not to worry though, the boys of Blue Beacon are on the job. 

After that we will be crossing the street to find a parking place for the evening.  

Not far from the place we are staying for the night there is a restaurant that has a car like the one in The Blues Brothers.  

 
We also passed the alien again but this time going the other way.  The place was called The Launching Pad.  I think it was a restaurant.  Not sure what kind of food they would serve though.  

Tonight we dine in style. The Iron Skillet restaurant at the Monee Petro is famous for its endless buffet and exquisite salad and soup bar. Not really. Just thought it would taste better if I made it sound fancy good. It’s not bad and the menu varies slightly from place to place and its 1000 times better than fast food and you get to sit down and be waited on. So considering all the positives, it’s a fairly good place to eat. And one has to consider that usually when one is near the Iron Skillet they are far from any other eating establishment.  Of course in this case, where we were parked, we were closer to a Culver’s, but I wasn’t that impressed with them the last time we ate there. 

Had a slow leak in a tire so got it checked out. Sure enough there was a piece of metal in it, probably a nail, but now all is well. 

Back at the ranch it’s time for bed. Hasta minana amigos eh amigas. God bless.