8 am.  Up and waiting on trip.  Nothing yet. 

9:30.  They want us to take trip Greg turned down yesterday but it’s a short trip and 4 days til delivery.   Greg calls the planner and he says we can drop it in the KLLM lot in Lancaster tomorrow and probably get a trip out from there and in two days someone else can take the load on to the receiver.   Here’s hoping! 

DG:  Two days in a motel has ruined me. I’m spoiled. I want the room. I want the big bed, the private bathroom, the TV.  Alas, this is the life we have chosen. Going back to that day when the decision was made that I would go to trucking school and learn how to drive a big rig and then do it, it all seemed so romantic and adventuresome.  And right from the beginning it was not quite so, but now it is more so as we get into the groove but sometimes the groove goes deep and we long for the surface again. 

Annie – 8:30.  Pulled in to the Big Cabin Wood Shed for the night.  Greg and Precious had dreams of a big chicken leg for dinner but the kitchen closed at 8.  He can deal with Precious.  He has been telling her for an hour about getting a chicken leg.  

10:30.   Turning in.  We have 300 miles to go in the morning.  Goodnight y’all.  

DG:  Well, Precious was not too disappointed as I still have some of the liverwerst I bought in Vermont. She almost foundered on it a few days ago when I attempted to see just how much she could eat. She eats more than a dog her size should be able to eat. 

It’s getting warmer so we thought about opening the windows tonight but there are a couple of cattle trucks in the parking lot so we are running the A/C with the windows closed. 

Annie didn’t take any pictures today cause I think you all have seen everything on this route several times over. Illinois to Texas via St. Louis. We did approach the arch from a new and different angle this time but Annie said 400 pictures of the St. Louis arch was enough. If you need to see it again just scroll back through the blog a little. It’s in there. 

Hope you had a wonderful day. I know I did. Good night and God bless. 

7:30.  Called KLLM but no trip yet.  Looks like we will be here a while.  

9 am.  Went down for the continental breakfast.  Bagels and hard boiled eggs.   Yay!  Uugghh.  Had a cinnamon bagel.   Greg had a bagel and the eggs.   

10:30.  Called KLLM again to check for trip.    They have one to Texas but it’s only 800 miles and due in 4 days.  No thanks!   So looks like we will be staying until morning.  Going to splurge and stay in the hotel another night.   A mini vacation!   

8 pm.   Walked across the street to Cracker Barrel for dinner.   It has been a long time since we have been in one.   There were some neat signs in the lobby for sale.  

  
   
 
They had some gardening stuff too.    
This is what happens during dinner when Greg has something he wants to read.  Haha.  Gregory sent me an article about the Hatfield and McCoys he found so I sent it to Greg.   Guess I should have waited until after dinner.  Haha

  
The daffodils are blooming in Illinois.  It’s almost spring! 

DG: Well, whatever I added earlier got deleted and I don’t remember what I said. But it was insightful and life changing to all who might have read it. So sorry. 

Anyway, today has been great. Relaxed all day and had a tasty dinner at Cracker Barrel. 

This job is so different from anything I have ever done I am constantly finding new ways to think about it. There is no set schedule, I like that, the scenery changes constantly even if we go to a place we have been before it is usually a week or more since we were there so there is no monotony in the daily routine, I like that too. And the actual work part, driving is easy enough requiring good concentration but relatively little physics exertion. All in all it ain’t bad. 

Who knows where we will be going tomorrow. Find out in the morning. 

Good night and God bless. 

Good morning Ohio.  

6 am.  Up and on the road.   605 miles to go today so going to have to push it. Unfortunately speed limit for trucks is 55 in Illinois but hopefully we can make it.  

4:40 pm.   Made it to our stop in plenty of time.  It’s a drop and hook which is great because we’ve only got an hour to get done and get somewhere to spend the night.  Clock is ticking.   Just as well. Greg is beat.   It’s hard on him driving 600+ miles and dealing with a ticking clock.   He had the pedal to the metal though.   

Yay!  Freebies!!

  
Bad news is they don’t have an empty trailer for us to hook up and take with us.  This means we have to come back in the am for the trailer if they can’t find us another one. 

6 pm.  Well we don’t have a trip yet and there probably won’t be one this late on a Saturday so we decided to stay at the Red Roof Inn tonight and rest and relax, shower, laundry, TV, rest, sleep, rest some more.   We are tired.  It has been a long week.   The hotel was right across the street from the truck stop and since we dont have a trailer we can park at the hotel.   A big treat for us.   

7 pm.  We ordered from a local pizza place.  St. Louis style pizza.  I was worried it would be Chicago style.   It was really good and the pasta we had too was delicious.  Nice change.  

DG:  600 miles in a day, no problem. We did make good time. I even took a short nap at one point. 

They must have changed the speed limits in Illinois or I had them confused with another dtate but I don’t think so. Speed limit was 65-70 for most of the trip and as the truck is governed to 70 mph, that’s all I could get out of it. 

The trip through Vermont and New York was really interesting. We stopped at one truck stop that wasn’t on any map or app that we have but the fuel was $0.10 a gallon cheaper than anywhere else in three states.  The Lord looks out for us. 

Hotels are great after a long trip. Well worth the price. 

I am falling asleep here so best stop now. 

Good night and God bless. 

6 am.   Alarm goes off.    Uugghhh. It’s cold and all I want to do is stay snuggled under the blankets but here we go.    1200 miles in two days.  Not quite sure we are going to make that but I’m sure Greg will give it his best shot.    

Dunkin Donuts was open and had my coffee cake muffins so all is good.    

7:30 am.  It’s spitting snow a bit.   Maybe if I don’t tell Greg he won’t notice.  Haha.  

We passed this really cool museum on the way through Shelburne, Vermont.   

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

You can kind of see the steamboat in this picture. 

You may not be able to see this, but the white lines in the picture are actually the tubing from the maple trees down to a big reservoir at the bottom of the hill.   We’ve seen blue and white tubing in the trees but pretty hard to get a picture in the woods.  

  
We passed this farm on our back road trek through Vermont.   Gorgeous farm and barns.   Turns out it’s the farm for Cabot cheese and butter.    They have 3000 cows and used cow power to run the farm.  Greg has always liked their cheese.  He bought pepper jack, sharp cheddar and horseradish last night to snack on and then passed the farm today.  Pretty neat.  

http://www.bluesprucefarmvt.com

Nice country drive on our way to the interstate. 

We passed this beautiful estate while going down the back roads.  Wow!  Come on lottery! 

http://www.beangroup.com/homes/183_Route_22A_Orwell/VT/05760/2134443420/index.html
 

Looks like even in the middle of nowhere you can find a race track. 

  
We’ve seen a lot of interesting forms made out of hay bales but not quite sure what to make of this.  It looks like velour.  

5 pm.   Off topic a bit.  We just passed the sign for the exit for Niagara Falls.   Thought I would share a few pictures of our trip there in 2008.  My how time flies.  

   
    
 
Every single time we stop.   Haha 

  
How important or rich do you have to be to buried like this? 

6:30 pm.   Sunset over Lake Erie, just in to western Pennsylvania. 

7 pm.  Pulled in to a TA for the night.   Greg is exhausted.  Eating and going to bed.  Still have 605 miles to go to get to receiver tomorrow.   

Goodnight y’all. 

7 am.  Up and headed on the last leg of this trip.  300 miles to go.   It is cold and rainy this morning.  At least it’s not snowing!  

I guess you could say it’s a little foggy too.  Here are some rivers we crossed over.  

In Potsdam, New York we saw these toilets in town on one of the lots.   See link below.   He is apparently protesting with these against Potsdam.   

http://youtu.be/fTMOs_Skgug 
     

Lake Champlain   

 Revolutionary War fort on Lake Champlain.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Montgomery_(Lake_Champlain)

Ice fishing in lake Champlain.    

Vermont!  #47 off the list!   

3:30.  Arrived at our stop in plenty of time.  Had to wait about an hour to unload us and then we are off to our next pick up which is across the street at Callebaut chocolate with a load going to Hershey in Edwardsville, Illinois.   Boy what I could do with all this chocolate and pecans! 

  
5 pm  Still waiting to get loaded.  Our trailer was frozen from the pecans and it has to get to 55 degrees before they can load the chocolate.

6:30 pm.   Now the trailer is wet where it thawed out and now we have to wait until it dries.   Gracious sakes.  

7:50 pm.   Finally loaded and ready to go.   Unfortunately our clock is done so we can only go down the road to the truck stop.   We have 38,000 pounds of semi sweet chocolate chips.   I don’t know what Hershey does to this chocolate but it doesn’t taste anything like the Callebaut I’ve had before.   

  
Good thing we are stopping for the night.  Visibility is horrible. 

Anybody want some maple syrup?  Two big shelves full here at the truck stop.  We bought a gallon to take to the kids. 

   
 DG:  I have to thank the Lord for a long load this time. It kept us out of this soup. 

Getting out of the truck it is misty rainy here and cold enough it just chills you to the bone in a few minutes. Unlike the stinging pain of a windy -23 like in Iowa a month or so ago this is a heavy cold that blankets you like a, well, like a wet blanket. A cold wet blanket. Brrrrrrr!!!!

And now Annie tells me it is supposed to snow in a few hours. Glad I will be asleep. Perhaps it will be gone when I awaken. 

  
This was by the road at a, well, they’re not rest areas, they’re parking areas. Big enough for four cars and one big truck or two big trucks. But it’s by a small country road so you cant expect much. 

So far Vermont has been very good to us. The truck stop we pulled into had one parking space left, just for us. Thank you Jesus. We went in to do the usual and check things out, and they had a Dunkin Donuts and a, wait for it, that’s right, a Subway. First to DD.  Annie likes the coffee cake muffins but those are only available in the morning.  Boston Cream, my favorite, they had six left but I only asked for one. The young man behind the counter grabs a bag and I see him put two in the bag so I politely ask him if he put two in there.  I wasn’t going to argue and I wanted to ask for two but didn’t want to appear piggish so it was okay with me if there were two in the bag. I was happy to pay for two. To my surprise he says, “Yes, I was going to give them to you.”  I looked surprised. I mean I wasn’t looking in a mirror but I knew that the look on my face was emitting surprise. “Give them to me?” I inquired.  “I’ll give you the rest of them if you want.”  Thinking I had stepped through some kind of space/time continuum portal where they give away doughnuts I quickly answered, “Fill ‘er up.”  Not looking piggish just went out the window. Still foggy from that experience we move to the next counter and faced with no good alternative decide on a Subway sandwich. Here’s where I feel I should spit as do the residents of Dog River do whenever Woolerton is mentioned.  (If you’re not a fan of Corner Gas this won’t mean anything to you and if you are not a fan, WHY NOT????). Very funny show even if it did come out of Canada. 

Where was I?  Oh yea, about to order dinner from Subway, pittuie.  So we split a foot long which was actually two six inchers one with chicken and lettuce and one with chicken, green peppers, onions, banana peppers and jalapeño peppers. And sriracha sauce. Annie has her huge five gallon jug that she totes around to refill with Diet Coke whenever the opportunity arises and she asked the girl behind the counter where she may get some ice. The nice lady tells her to fill it up at their soda fountain and she means fill it up. Not just with ice but with beverage as well and gives the old wink and a nod, the universal sign for this one’s on the house. What’s going on here I wonder to myself as Annie and I share quizzical glances at one another. Free doughnuts and free soda?  My God, what is the world coming too? Are they going out of business?  Is this their way to get rid of product?  None of this made sense. These people were so nice. And they’re YANKEES!  This is the end, I just know it. God forgive me. I’m coming to see you. Oh, and while checking out with some other items we purchased they didn’t charge us for the “Sweetie Pie” which given the sugar content of that thing and these people’s obsession with healthy living I am surprised these things are legal in this state. But given all of that, we like Vermont. And I’m sure it’s very pretty once the rain and fog are gone. 

Okay, so this is what happens when I get a nap while being loaded. That didn’t sound right did it?  Oh well, I’m sure somebody knows what I mean and they will explain it to the rest of you. 

Good night and God bless. 

6:30.  Ready to get up and start the day.   Cool this morning at 57 and looks like rain is coming in.   Makes for a gorgeous sunrise though.  

  
 I talked to the girls last night.   Birthdays are coming up soon and they wanted to make their birthday wish lists.  Sadie asked for a purse, shoes and a mermaid tail.   Haha.   Maddi wants a purse and ice skates.  I told her she lived in Florida and probably wouldn’t use them but she wants them anyway.   Haha. 

Ashland!  Ohio that is.   

8:30. Stopped for the night in Waterloo, New York.   Greg drove over 600 miles today so it’s dinner and bed.   Still have 300 miles to go to get to receiver tomorrow.   

DG:   This was in the hallway of the truck stop here in Waterloo. 

 Cool huh?

So here we are 300 miles from Ben and Jerry’s ice cream plant. Can’t wait to see it. 

Therefore, I am going to bed. Perhaps I will feel more like writing tomorrow. 

Good night and God bless. 

7:15.  Up and ready to go.   Trying to get ahead of the storm.  Bad storms, flooding and a tornado around Dallas last night.  So thankful we got a trip and got out of there.   

Such a pretty girl. 

  
Gregory hard at work.  

 He is getting so big.  
 

Memphis Tennessee. 

12 pm Stopped for barbecue again at exit 87 Barbecue in Jackson Tennessee.   Great ribs and sandwiches.   Not quite sure what to think of the pig though.   That’s just weird.

   
   
 
  
Nashville, Tennesse.   Again.  Little different view.  

  
4 pm.  Sadie working on her bike.  She needed a new inner tube and wanted to fix it herself.   Such a big girl! 

  
9 pm.  Stopped for the night in Bedford, Kentucky.   Parking is pretty tight and we ended up on the end. Just hope they don’t make us move.   

Wore out so turning in.   Goodnight y’all. 

DG: I drove, I parked, I’m beat again. I have got to do this first thing and not the last thing. 

However, XM Classic Vinyl is the station to drive by. Classic rock and roll to keep you moving. 

Good night all. God bless. 

8 am.  Up and ready to get on the road.   A few things to do first.   They have washing facilities here for the truck we are getting a trailer wash out and the truck and trailer washed.   They want everything shiny when we leave which is fine.  Saves us $$.    We are also going to hit the showers again before leaving.  We don’t have to be at shipper until 1 so plenty of time.  

 
 
Yes, we are headed to Vermont!   Only one more state and I have seen all the 48 contiguous states.  North Dakota is left but don’t want a trip there until summer.  

Greg got in to some fire ants taking Precious for a walk.   Ouch!  

Made it to shipper on time.   Now we wait.    We are supposed to be picking up ice cream for Ben and Jerrys.  It must have pecans in it.    

This place smells like butter pecan ice cream! 

DG:  Had a 1:00 pm appointment and it is now 2:45.  There is a company store here, but I’m afraid to go in. Too many good things could be in there.  

3:45.  Finally done and on our way. Sat for 2 1/2 hours.  Took them 15 minutes to load us with 11,000 pounds of pecans.  The load info said ice cream but I guess not.   Makes sense since we are going to Ben and Jerrys not leaving.   Pecans FOR ice cream.  Imagine they are hard to find this time of year.  

I don’t think anyone here speaks English even a little bit.  I went to the bathroom and everyone in the break room was speaking Spanish and in the bathroom there was a lady in here and I said hello and she just looked at me kinda scared and left the bathroom.   I don’t think she had any idea what I said.  Wow! 

9:30 pm.  Pulled in to a rest area in Malvern, Arkansas for the night.  Still have 1500 miles to go.   

Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  Traveling at night is quiet but you don’t see much scenery. Saw some young deer by the highway in Texas. We always pray that they will go back into the woods and not try to cross the road. Biggest thing I have hit so far were turkeys and I’d like that to be the end of my roadkilling.  

Still trying to figure out the 8-2 split break which is a formula surely developed by the IRS in conjunction with the DOT. I’ll let you know how it turns out in the morning. 

So far so good on our journey to the extreme north east.  Of course we are nowhere near the Mason-Dixon Line so north is still a ways off. 

My eyes are getting heavy now so I must sleep. Good night all and God bless. 

9 am.  Still no trip. 

DG:  12:15, I checked with local dispatch and found out they have a load picking up tomorrow in Corsicana, TX, about an hour southeast of here and going to, guess where?  One of two states we have not yet visited, Vermont. Here’s the mystery, we’re taking ice cream from Texas to Ben and Jerry’s.  1800 mile trip so we’ll take it. 

Sitting here for two days we have gotten to see several movies. The company has Direct TV plus a lot of movies. 

Time now for a long nap, then a wash, inspection and fuel before we leave. 

Amen and God bless. 

9 am.  Up and ready but no trip and no window yet in maintenance.   Waiting again.  

10:30.  Greg checked on window again but the guy that went to the parts store forgot to put it on his list.   He’ll have to go back over and get it.   Nothing like efficiency.  

We have a trucking celebrity in our midst.   Ms. Diva Trucker.  She does how to videos on YouTube for truckers. 

  
12 pm.  Still no word on anything so we head out for a bite to eat.  Went to our favorite place in Dallas.  Soulmans barbecue and had the soul bowl again.   Fritos, cheese, spicy beans, chopped pork, jalapeños and barbecue sauce.   Gregs had sausage too.   It is so good.  I can never finish it though which makes Precious happy.  

4 pm.  Finally got a door at the garage to get window fixed.  Still no trip.  

How long does a butt have to sit just right to make that kind of impression?   

  
7 pm.  Still no trip.   Guess it will be morning. 

10:30.   Turning in.   Tired of sitting.   Now going to lay down.   Goodnight y’all.