12:30.  Time to get back on the road.   It seems like a short night.  It’s hard to sleep during the day when you aren’t used to it and the noise at a truck stop during the day is pretty loud.  All the slamming doors, people talking and driving around.   I see a nap in my future.

4:30.  Falling asleep in my chair.  Greg is getting tired too so we are stopping for a nap.

6:30. Back on the road.  750 miles to go.

Gregory told Maddi to get ready for school.  Cutest thing ever!

2:30.  We have stopped for the night in Ozona, TX. 380 miles to go in the morning.   We had more time on the clock but truck stops are few and far between in this part of Texas so we thought we better stop rather than risking getting stuck in the middle of somewhere.

4 pm.  Had an ok dinner at the restaurant here at the truck stop.   I ordered the chicken burrito and it came with chili on top of it.   Not what I was hoping for so instead of having her take it back I got a flour tortilla and put all the chicken in it with the beans and rice and gave Greg the chili which he ate with his cheese enchiladas.   Problem solved.  

5:30.  Turning in.  Greg is already in bed.   Goodnight y’all. 

1:30 am.   Finally on the road.  We are doing a swap with a guy coming from Salinas, California and heading to houston, Texas.  1500 miles so we gotta move fast. Need to be there at 9 am on the 25th which is why we are leaving now.  Try to get as much time as we can with the clock ticking.

2:30.  Finally got trailers swapped out and on the road to Texas.

4:30.  Fight!   We were in Loves getting caffeine and someone started yelling Fight!   The cashiers and tire maintenance guy all ran outside to see what was going on.  The cashier had Gregs change in her hand so we couldn’t leave plus we didn’t want to go out anyway just yet.   Apparently it was two guys fighting over a gas pump.  Who knows why.  There were several lanes.   Anyway, it’s a good thing we aren’t thieves.  The place emptied out of staff. It would have been a good opportunity to have walked out with a bunch of stuff.  Kind of crazy for everyone to run out.   What if they planned it that way?  Hmmm.  I’ve seen too many cop shows.  Haha.   Oh well.  Coast is clear so we are back on the road.

9:30.  Stopped to eat a bite. Pulled in to a truck stop at Taco Bell.   We were sitting there waiting on our food and we smelled this awful smell.   Turns out it was the guy sitting at the next table.  Not kidding.    Wow!

11:30.  Going through Phoenix.   Flowers are blooming.

  
Phoenix Arizona 
 1 pm.  Stopped at a truck stop.   Saw this beauty and couldn’t resist getting a picture.

Such a beautiful boy!

This is why the size of my rear end is not shrinking.

Guess they don’t have pay phones much anymore.

So True!  Funny saying on the back of the booth at the restaurant. 

We have stopped in Willcox, Arizona for some much needed rest. Greg looks ready to drop.  Going to eat a bite and hit the bed.

Goodnight y’all.

  
DG:  Yes, ready to dropped. Slept for a couple hours. Not enough. Going back to dreamland. Good night.   God Bless.

Got to sleep in until 8 am. Woo hoo!   Then had to spend half an hour cleaning up after I spilled my Coke all over everything.   I spilled it in the seat on top of my jacket, on the rugs, in my shoes, on the dash.    Didn’t just spill a little.  Had to spill most of it.  Well we are starting out with a clean truck even though I’m sitting on a stack of towels because my seat is soaked.   Just lovely!   Praying the day gets much better!

My babies this morning.   Maddi is feeling better.   Alex is such a happy baby!  Sadie had a tooth pulled love her heart.   They wanted a thousand dollars to do a crown on a 6 year old.  I’d have pulled it too.    Crazy!

So beautiful!! 

  
DG: We have beautiful grand kids don’t we? I think so.

A California cell tower.  Haha 

A couple of pictures I forgot to send yesterday.

Annie finally found her Tootsie Roll Pop.

This is the urinal in bathroom at Cima Mining Co. convenient store.  It’s a waterfall in case you couldn’t tell.

Got to our receiver three hours early and they wouldn’t take me so  we went to the truck stop around the corner and had lunch.

Back at receiver around 2:30.  Got a door and getting unloaded. Trying to get another trip so we’re not sitting for long.

No trips. Planners go home at five which was 3:00 our time so I hadn’t even gotten unloaded by then. They get in around 7:30 Central time which would be 5:30 our time here in California but I ain’t getting up that early to check. Who am I kidding. I’ll be up.

We’re enjoying the nice Southern California weather. It looked like rain here around dusk but then I remembered the song “It Never Rains in California “.  But it do. But not tonight.

No pictures from me but I think Annie may have a few.

A few pictures from today.   Not too many as we only went about 180 miles today.    The sunflowers are blooming and were everywhere.   I tried to get some pictures of the mountains but the ones in the background were very hard to see and couldn’t get a good picture of them.   The fog or haze or whatever it was just hung around them all day.   Never could get a clear shot.

Well, I hear Greg snoring so I guess its time to turn in.   Goodnight, y’all.

6 am.   Up and headed to California.   We are only 30 miles from Utah.  It’s warmer today than yesterday at 39!  Got caffeine.   Ready to roll.

Gregory texted me and said Maddi was in the ER having trouble breathing.  She must have breathed something at the air show yesterday.

Boy we have seen some sights today.   I don’t know how I am going to decide what pictures to upload.  I took 927 yesterday thanks to my digital camera and I probably have that many today.  Took me two hours to sort which 120 to upload last night.  I’ll be doing the same tonight.   Haha.  Hope you guys enjoy them.

4 pm.  We stopped at a truck stop outside Las Vegas.   The thermometer in the truck said it was 104!   Time to go!   I’m going back to Utah where it was 39!

DG:  Well we didn’t go back and I keep telling her it’s a dry heat. We have stopped in Nipton for the night. Didn’t think we were going to find a place. I was running out of time and traffic was heavy, at a standstill for a good while. My GPS said there had been 83 minutes added to my arrival time and I had only about an hour and a half on my clock. We were trying to get to a rest area that is still some 40 miles away and I wasn’t going to make that with the time I had left. So we saw this gas station, didn’t see any trucks at pumps or any in their lot at all but across the street was this big dirt field with a couple of trucks already parked for the night so we joined them. We’ve all got our own corner of the lot and about 100 yards from each other.  Should make for a quiet night.

Don’t know why but traffic has been very heavy both leaving and going into California.  We surmised the traffic leaving Nevada was from Las Vegas but don’t know what all the traffic going to Nevada is all about.

Hope you can see the string of lights going in both directions.  It’s been like this for hours.

When we first approached the traffic Annie checked an app she has that gives traffic alerts and conditions. You can text back and forth with people using the app and asked about conditions up ahead. After speculating that it was either construction or a wreck the person up ahead said no wreck, just people don’t know how to merge. And sure enough once we got up there, that’s exactly what it was.

So we are settled in for the night. Have about three hours to the receiver in the morning and load is not due until 3:00 pm.

Here’s a couple more pics like you don’t have enough already. The store and filling station is called the Cima Mining Company and they have these moving, talking robotic miners out front that tell you to watch out for some raccoon that is in the area and if you go inside and buy some veggie chips he is likely to follow you around till he gets some. This is all while he is panning for gold. The miner, not the raccoon. Didn’t see a raccoon but that is a neat marketing tool.

Besides the usual travel souvenirs and snacks they umpteen different kinds of soda pop and their own brand of beef jerky. I bought a bottle of Dog Drool and three bags of jerky, original, sweet and spicy and cowboy style.

Can’t really describe the flavor of the soda but it was good and the jerky was very tasty. Precious likes it when I get jerky.

Annie – 

Green River Utah. 

   
 
Truck stop in Vegas.  Guess what Greg found.    Guess we’ll be driving with the windows down for a while.  Haha 

  
California!   
California cacti.   There were a lot of buds on the cactus.  I bet in another week or so this place will be gorgeous.   

 
Here is Greg walking off in to the sunset with his bag of ice and soda pop.  

Turning in.   Goodnight y’all. 
Here are some pics from today.    There are a few from a canyon we went through in Arizona.   Absolutely gorgeous.  It was such a lush green growing on the mountains.   Just beautiful.

DG: Goodnight from starry California.  God bless. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREGORY!!
5 am. Up and trying to get warm. It’s 19 degrees. So cold! When you expect cold it seems not to bad but when surprised with it then it’s really cold. Haha. Temperatures have been so mild for us lately that I forgot it’s not really spring yet. Going to have to get my coat back out if this keeps up. We are headed in to Colorado today and according to the weather report we may have some snow. Definitely going to need the coat.
7 am. Stopped at a rest area in Sterling, Colorado. They have this beautiful statue titled Metamorphosis. Love the butterfly!


Kaiden had a Boy Scout event at a radio controlled airplane show.  Sadie watching with the binoculars

At our highest altitude today.

We had a little truck trouble today. I’ll let Greg tell you about that. So we stopped to have lunch and this is what happens to the squeeze mayo at 10,000 feet.  It was siracha mayo.   I bet his sandwich was hot!

A few pictures of the Colorado River.     

Abby had a dance tonight and went with her boyfriend Caleb.  Aren’t they adorable?   

Gregory’s birthday present from Melissa was pictures of Alex.  Isn’t he adorable?  Yes, I am a very proud grandma.        

DG:  Well, this will be the day that the mountain kicked my behind. 

Going up a mountain ain’t so bad. It’s slow, depending on how steep the mountain and how heavy is your load. It just takes longer. 

Going down is another thing. You can use your engine to hold you back but you have to watch that you don’t let your engine rev too high. That could damage some things. So you use your brakes, but just enough to keep your speed at a controlable rate. You also have your Jake brake that uses your engine to retard your speed. Well, somewhere on the downhill I used my brakes too much and things started smoking. After they start smoking, if you don’t stop and let them cool they will quit on you. That’s when you look for the runaway truck ramp and hope your life insurance is paid up. Well, I stopped as soon as I saw the smoke rolling. I was watching for it as I knew I was braking too much and as soon as I saw it I pulled over. I wasn’t parked five minutes and the safety patrol pulled up behind me and asked if I was having trouble. Once I explained to him the situation he told me he would let the tunnel know I would be moving in about 30 minutes. Since there were several tunnels on this mountain I guess they have to keep track of any trucks that may be having trouble. He as very nice and I thanked him for stopping. 

We got a little higher than that first picture of my GPS data indicated. 

  
That’s why my condiment bottle spewed all over me. It had come up the mountain from near sea level and when I opened it the lack of that pressure holding it in allowed it to escape. If you need further explanation contact Bill Nye. Science guy. 

Here is the perfect wife holding the phone so her husband doesn’t miss any of the Kentucky game while he is fueling his truck. She is just the greatest. 

Well, got more mountains to tackle tomorrow so better get my rest. Y’all keep ’em straight up there. Byyyyyyyyeee. 

God bless.