Day 377, February 9, 2016.   Memphis, TN; Effingham, IL

3:30 am.   Alarm goes off.  Time to go to receiver, which is Kroger this time.   

The alarm woke me up during a very interesting dream.    I was driving up a hill into a big canyon and there were protesters on both sides of the road with signs.  I park and get out and there is my cousins Rita.  People are standing all around and a few are sitting against the rocks.  She starts getting all worked up about everybody is just standing around. Nobody’s doing anything.   She starts yelling “Come on people!  This is important.  Get up!”   I walk on down the path a bit and it turns and I see millions of people all over the rocks, in the canyon, going back as far as you can see.  I start telling Rita to hush and Come here.  She says “But nobody’s doing anything”. I take her down the path a bit and turn and she sees all the people.  We are overcome with gratitude and amazement.   Then all of a sudden everyone, millions of them, start singing in unison like a choir of Angels.    I still don’t know what the protest was about or what we were doing but the Angels are with us.   

6 am.  All done.  Boy, that was fast.   Now headed to Jonesboro, Arkansas.  Load isn’t scheduled to be ready until 2 pm but hopefully it will be ready early! 

9:30. They are able to take us early so heading to Butterball.  

Saw this old truck on the road.  Pretty cool.  They don’t make them like that anymore. 

  
10 am.  Butterball!! 

  

10:30.  Got our load and headed to Illinois.  

3 pm. Snowing a lot of the way. Not much. Roads are fine.   

  

  

The Snow Geese are back.    We saw several big groupings like this today. 

   

5:30 pm.  Parked for the night in Effingham, Illinois.  Only have about three hours to go to get to our appointment at noon.   

Went in and had Sbarro for dinner.  Fairly decent and differnt.  Hadn’t had pizza in a while.   Greg had the spaghetti and meatballs and was sure to save one for Precious.  Haha. 

Since we don’t have to get up before dawn we were able to watch a movie.  Greg wanted to watch Blazing Saddles.  Predator was on in the lounge and he watched some of it while I had some work to do.   I think he needed something funny after that.  Haha

10 pm. Turning in.   Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  Epilogue.  Blazing Saddles kept me from having nightmares about the Preditor. God bless. 

 

Day 376, February 8, 2016. Greensberg, IN

Happy Birthday Dad!  He would have been 74 today. 

5 am.  On our way to pick up load in Franklin, IN.   It’s snowing!  Big puffy flakes and then small ones coming down pretty good.   Doesn’t look like it’s going to stick but we will be out of here in a bit.  

Snowing when we came through Louisville too.   

 

DG:  Near blizzard conditions this morning.  But it didn’t last long. Picked up a load of coffee creamer and candy bars.  42000 pounds of the stuff. 

Stopped in Memphis, TN. Can’t find Elvis anywhere.  I think he left the building. 

Our appointment is for 4:45 in the morning.  We are only two miles away so I’m going to sleep till 3:30. Will drive the two miles, get backed into a dock and go back to sleep. What a job. 

That’s all for me. Good night and God bless. 

Day 375, February 7, 2016; Memphis, IN

10:30 am.  Yep.  Slept til 10:30.   Took a Benadryl last night for this crazy sinus thing I got going on and slept like the dead.   I can’t take those very often but it felt good not to sneeze and wipe my nose all night.  I don’t know what’s in the air but it’s trying to kill me.    I know we aren’t making any money this weekend sitting in a truck stop but with my head the way it feels it sure is good not to be bouncing down the highway right now.    Of course, I think Greg planned the reset for this weekend so he could watch the super bowl.  Haha. 

DG:  Haha indeed. What planning?  I don’t plan. I go with the flow.  That’s not exactly true. And that point was made clear to me today during lunch. In almost all truck stops, if you listen closely you will inevitably hear a conversation about politics.  I believe I can accurately state that most, if not all truck drivers lean toward the conservative side agreeing that there may be some registered as Democrat, I don’t believe there are any that embrace that ideology especially as it has metamorphed over the last 10 years or so. Today I overheard a conversation, on the one side were complaints about government regulations/restrictions as regards the trucking industry. After patiently listening to that argument the person next to the orator made the statement that he just doesn’t care. It made no difference to him what the government did or didn’t do. Hitler would have loved this guy. As would any liberal politician today.  I don’t know how I feel about that statement albeit I know it is not a healthy attitude to adopt. While I am by no meaning of the term a political activist I do care and use my vote to express that concern. Along with the occasional letter to a ocngressman, which I have found only generates a form letter reply however I do feel that if all the people who feel strongly one way or the other regarding a political position would let that feeling be known we would not have the rampant runaway government we have today.  I want a government that cares what people think and not people who don’t.  I feel a change in the wind. 

6:30 pm.  Back in bed.  Feel miserable.  Did manage to get some laundry done and take a shower.  Now another Benadryl and back to back.   Waaaaaaa

Greg went in to the truckers lounge to watch the super bowl.  

11 pm.   Greg is back from watching the game.  Lousy Broncos won.   Oh well.  There’s always next year for my Steelers to  make it. 

We have a trip now.   Picking up at Nestle and going to Memphis, TN.   Gotta leave at 5 so better get to bed.   

Goodnight y’all.  

Day 374, February 6, 2016; Memphis, IN

7:30 am.  Up and ready to go.  Going to be a bit late for our appointment since we ran in to some traffic in Nashville (of course).   

Pretty Indiana morning.  Little bit of frost in the ground.  Little misty.

   
    
   

10 am.  Made it to the Kroger distribution center with our bananas.   Just about an hour late.   Now we wait.  

Noon. Still waiting.   We have a door but they haven’t started unloading us yet.   They offered us a trip but it’s only 300 miles and doesn’t deliver until tomorrow night which means we will be sitting all day tomorrow and then driving all night again.   Probably just going to do a clock reset which is a 34 hour break.   We’ll see.  

1:30 pm.  Unloaded and ready to go.  Still no trip so headed to truck stop to sit and wait.  

DG:  You meet the most interesting people on the road. Talked at length with a driver from Wisconsin who was part Italian and married an Italian girl. Traded life stories. One wonders at times how people end up out here but we do. 

Another driver told of how he delivered a boat to John Lennon a week before he was killed.  And his dad bought a motorcycle from Jimi Hendrix. We don’t know if any of its true but it makes for good story telling. 

Watched the second Thor movie on the big screen in the driver’s lounge. We came to a Petro for just that reason. Not all truck stops have lounges. 

Going to do a reset so we will sleep in as long as our old tired bodies will allow.  

More tomorrow. God bless. 

Day 373, February 5, 2016. Laurel, MS; Memphis, IN

8 am.  Up and ready to go.    Should get almost to receiver today.   It’s a gorgeous day here in Mississippi.  It’s only 40 degrees but not a cloud in the sky.  

Driving all day.   Went through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennesse, and stopping for the night outside Louisville, Kentucky.   

Rail bridge in Louisville changes colors at night.  

   
    
 

We are all tucked in and ready for bed.  Have a delivery at about 8 am and still a couple of hours away. 

Goodnight y’all.  

Day 372, February 4, 2016;  Saint Rose, LA; Laurel, MS

Slept until 9 am.  Still no trip so went back to sleep.   

11:30.  Up and awake this time.  And hungry.   Still no trip so we walk down the road a bit to eat.  Where else do you eat in New Orleans but the VooDoo BBQ and Grill?    I had the jerk chicken and the mojo chicken with fries and sweet potato soufflé.  Greg had the carnival which was chicken, pork, brisket and sausage, corn casserole and rattlesnake beans which Is baked beans with hot sauce and spices.   
 

Greg asked about the gris gris greens and was told they are mustard greens, spinach, and kale cooked with pork pieces and pork broth and hot spices.  He really liked those.   Me – no.   

Back to the truck to wait.  Have two hours until clock resets.  We are then going to downtown New Orleans to pick up a load of bananas from South America for Chiquita to take to shelbyville, Indiana.    

At least we got to save some time.  A guy came around with a pressure washer to do portable trailer wash outs.   That was handy. 

The truck route to the shipper did not take us the tourist route. 

   
 
They really like their big cemeteries around here. 

  
Heading through the center of town.  

   
   
New Orleans Saints football stadium. 

  
More downtown 

   
    
 
   
 
Really old cemetery.   It’s falling over in parts.  The outer walls are really crumbling.  Wonder what they do when it gets like this.  I wonder too about some of the little houses.  Are those for ashes or the family cheap?   There are several pictures because I wanted you to see how big it was.  This is right by the highway.   

   
   
   
    
 
  
And literally right next door what do you have?   An RV park.  Seriously?   How could you sleep?

  
Pictures from the other side of town heading toward shipping area.  

These houses are literally right on top of each other.  

   
 
  
Not sure who this guy is but someone really loves him and his wife.   Not really a place I would put the picture but it sure makes a statement. 

  
Bridge over the bayou.  

   
 
   
 
Greg’s Pecilan. (yes it should be Pelican but ever since Sadie was little she has called them Pecilans so now we do too)    
We passed by part of the dock area.  Old equipment lying around.  

    
We arrived for our bananas!  But the bananas are not ready for us. So now we wait.   We aren’t the only ones.  Probably 15 trucks sitting and waiting on nanners. 

 

Stopped for fuel at the Palace Truck Stop in New Orleans.  Looked old and had a big garage attached to it.  Had truck parking too which was pretty full.   We got to the door to go in and it was locked.   We saw people inside and the girl behind the counter buzzed us in.   There was a security guard inside too.   Greg asked him if this was the bad part of town and he said no.  Hate to be in the bad part.   Security guard asked us if we were headed to New Orleans and we said no just left there.      The girl behind the counter said its a good thing.   There are three parades tonight downtown and everything is closed off.   She said Tuesday when Mardi Gras was in full swing everything stopped.   People can’t even get to work hardly.    That’s crazy!   I hear people who go have a great time but not my cup of tea.  

DG:  I meant to add this the other day when we were in London, KY. 

  
Noticed that just as we were pulling out of the lot. 

Now I digress on today’s events. Dispatch notified us of a load of bananas needing to go to Indiana.  But, the boat was late so the load wasn’t ready yet. At this point we still had a couple of hours before the clock reset.  I checked for a trailer washout facility and found one about 15 miles away but not on the way to our pickup.  Funny, but I didn’t give it another thought. I knew it had to be done so we would do it on our way to pick up the loaded trailer of bananas.  

With approximately one and a half hours until the clock says I can drive again I decide to lie down for a quick power nap. Five minutes later I hear what sounds like a power washer right beside my truck. Someone’s getting their truck washed here in the parking lot. I try to let the rhythm of the engine lull me to sleep and even think of calling a friend of mine in North Carolina who has a lawn care/pressure washing business and give him this idea. Then the spark.  Hey, this guy would probably like to earn a few extra dollars washing out my trailer. I spring out of bed, get dressed and leap from my truck excited over the fact that, once again, God has provided. Okay, so I didn’t leap nor did I spring, but I did get my trailer washed out and didn’t even have to move.  Now what are the odds that this guy would be washing a truck right beside my truck right when I needed a washout?  God is good. 

Well, looks like we are going to miss the Mardi Gras celebration once again this year. Woohoo!  

So lunch was good, God sent Harold Clark to wash out my trailer, we found good parking for the night, the weather is cool but not cold so no heat required. It was again, a good day. I know I don’t say that often enough. Will try to do better. 

This is my new chai tea maker Annie bought for me. We used it for the first time tonight and it makes really good chai tea. I will sleep good tonight. 

  
Love to all and God bless. 

Day 371, February 3, 2016; Morrow, GA; Destrehan, LA

DG:  3:00 am delivery. Time for a nap. Got to yard around 11:00 last night, was wired from driving so watched some tv for a while then tried to sleep all day but that didn’t work. Did some laundry and took a shower. Now it’s time for a nap. 

Annie – 6:30 pm. Time to get back on the road. Headed to Louisiana.  If only we could find the truck.  Lol 

     
Getting the truck washed here at the yard before we head out.  They do it for free here including the tractor which can be pretty expensive on the road.   It needs it too.  All the salt and grime from the snowy roads and rain have made it a mess. 

3 am.  Passing through New Orleans.    Bridge going over Inner Harbor from Lake Pontchartrain.  Hope we get to go back through in the daylight.  

  

3:30 am. Arrived at receiver with our truck load of Teddy Grahams.  They say it shouldn’t take too long.  Greg is going to put his head down for a minute anyway.  Getting pretty tired.  

5 am.   All done.  Heading to truck stop to get some sleep.  

Passed this on the way to the shipper.  It’s the Destrehan Plantation.    Sorry the pictures are dark.  Here’s a link to their website and Wikipedia. 

http://www.destrehanplantation.org

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destrehan_Plantation
   
    
   

5:30 am.  Finally stopped for the night.   This truck stop has a casino attached to it.  I believe I now know the reason casinos are so popular.   They are the last public place where you can still legally smoke.  The smoke almost knocks you over.    The casino and truck stop share the bathrooms and apparently everyone takes their cigarettes to the bathroom with them.  Haha 

Well, turning in.  Goodnight y’all.  Or good morning. 

Day 370, February 2, 2016;  Gas City, IN; Morrow, GA

3:40 am.  Got to Walmart in plenty of time for our 4:20 appointment.   There is still a lot of snow piled up here in London, Kentucky.   

  

5:52.   All done unloading the truck.   Not bad at all for a Walmart.    We don’t have a new trip yet so headed to truck stop.  

7 am.  Stopped at a BP station in London, KY.   I got some ice in my cup and went to the counter to tell them.   The guy (maybe 20 years old) turns around, spits in the garbage and says “That’s ok mam”   Man, you gotta love Kentucky!  

11 am.   Went back in to truck stop for lunch.   I had the chicken and dumplings.   Boy it was good.    Greg had fried chicken he said was good too but I think he was more interested in my chicken and dumplings.  Haha 

We got our next trip but our clock hasn’t reset yet so we are going to do off duty driving to get wash out and pick up load.   Not entirely legal but ok to do when empty.  We are picking up here in London and going to Union City, Georgia.  Again.  

Looks like we are picking up Cookies.  This must be where they make them too because it smells amazing.  Too bad they don’t give samples and the blog doesn’t have smellovision. 

 
Well, we didn’t get Oreos like the guy ahead of us.   We got BeVita cookies.  I don’t think I would like those so it’s a good thing they didn’t give us samples.  Haha 

We are now headed to Georgia.  Starting to rain a bit.  

This display was at a tire shop next to a truck stop we stopped at.   Wonder what their name is? 

   

12:30 am.  Got to our drop off and pick up (same place) in plenty of time.   Just swapping trailers.   We swapped cookies for cheese.  

Only about 30 minutes left on clock so we will just head to KLLM yard for the night.  

Day 369, February 1, 2016. Gas City, IN;

5:30 am.    Made it to Walmart.  A little late due to the time change when we hit Indiana.   Hope it doesnt make us have to wait too long.   

9:30 am.   Still waiting.  At least Greg got a good nap. 

11 am.  Finally!  They have unloaded their part.   The rest of the trailer goes to London, Kentucky in the morning.   But now we are out of time and have to head to a Petro close by.   If you have had a big break like this one and able to nap you should be able to get back on the road.   Thanks government regulations! 

DG:  Yea, thanks, but no thanks. 

Anyway, it is what it is. Here is how they get the corn out of those cribs and into the trucks. 

  
I don’t know how many trucks they can fill up from that one crib.  Looks like just a couple but I’m betting it holds more corn than it appears. 

Sitting having lunch, our window looked out onto the fuel aisle. One of the corn trucks had just fueled up and dropped some corn. The birds were happy to clean up after him. 

We’re napping now so please be quiet. Thanks. 

9:30 pm Up and ready to get on the road.  A bit early but we couldn’t lay down any longer.   Got about 5 hours to get to our stop.   It’s a little foggy but the traffic is light which is one good thing about driving at night.    

Day 368, January 31, 2016.  Dodge City, KS; St. Louis, MO

12:30 am  This is what those windmills look like at night.    There are probably 100 of them on both sides of the road.   Sure can mess up a horizon.  

4:30 am.  Stopping for Greg’s two hour break in Ottawa, Kansas.   Got to get his new tire re-torqued.  You are supposed to do that after so many miles I guess.  Then nap time!  

6:40.  Time to get back on the road. 

11:30.  Clock is out of time so we stop at a TA for Gregs 10 hour break.   We need to get a preventative maintenance on the truck so this is a good place to stop.   Time for the oil change, filters, lube, check tired etc.   This will take a couple of hours so head in to do laundry and eat lunch.  

2:30.   Time for bed.   Have to be on the road at 9:30 in order to make 4 am appointment in Indiana.   

DG:  As usual, I am too tired to think creatively so will get back to this after a nap. 

9 pm.   Time for Greg to get up and get on the road.    I slept a couple of hours and then went in to the drivers lounge a while and watched tv and listen to the other drivers talk about their companies, truck driving in general and of course, football. They are all of the opinion truck driving has changed a lot in the last few years. Mostly due to the influx of foreigners because companies can get them so cheap.   The unity seems to be missing lately.   All the sitting everyone seems to do at times.   And who is going to win the super bowl.   I’m hoping for the Panthers!  Not a Peyton Manning fan so the Broncos are not it for me.   We’ll see. 

11 pm.  Now it’s my turn to sleep.  Goodnight y’all.