9 am.  Up and ready to go.    They have a Wendy’s here so we decide to get a biscuit before we go.   I wanted a bacon only biscuit.  No egg, no cheese.   Greg wanted the sausage, egg and cheese biscuit.   Simple enough?  Nope.   I got a sausage biscuit and he got a bacon, egg and cheese.   This is after the manager told the back I wanted a bacon only biscuit because they didn’t have a button for it. Finally I got mine switched to bacon and Greg said forget it, he’d eat his the way it was.  Seriously, if you are going to live and work here you HAVE to learn the English language.   Written and verbal.

Ok.  Now on to Dallas.   We have a 9 pm appointment so gotta go.  It’s a gorgeous day.  55 degrees.

12:30.  Stopped at a Stripes in Midland, Texas to eat lunch because they have a Laredo Taco Company to eat at.  Such yummy burritos.   Greg had the roasted chicken dinner with rice and beans and I had the chicken burrito with rice and beans and lots of verde sauce.

4 pm.  Stopped in Sweetwater, Texas for fuel and Greg noticed the window at the bunk was broken.   Little pieces of glass laying around.   Don’t know when it happened or how.  Had to be today since it wasn’t there when he got fuel yesterday.    Very weird.

  
8 pm.  Got here by the hair on our chinny chin chins.   We had until 9 pm to get here but caught the guy as he was getting in his car to go home.   Guess he thought we weren’t going to make it.  Now to drop this trailer and go get another trailer.   Hopefully get a load in the am.   They tried to give us one earlier but it was sitting all day tomorrow and all day Monday so we turned it down.

9 pm.  Picked up new trailer and now off to Lancaster, Texas to spend the night at the KLLM lot.  We can get a free shower and free laundry!  Yippee!

11:15 pm.    All scrubbed clean, laundry is done.   Time for bed.   I came on back to the truck as Greg wanted to watch The Revenant, the movie they had on in the break room.   I saw just a few minutes of it and knew that wasnt a movie for me.   Yick!   So, spending a few quiet moments by myself and watching a movie that won’t keep me up all night.

Here are a few pictures today.   These are mostly from west Texas.    Goodnight y’all.

DG:  Singing Marty Robbins songs as we travel. 

Texas weather is a little cool at night. Won’t need the A/C or the heat. Almost perfect for sleeping.  

Hope to get my window replaced and a trip in the morning.  Good night and God bless. 

6 am.  Wheels still aren’t moving.    No one is answering emails yet either.   I think someone goofed with this order and they’re trying to figure it out.   Hopefully we won’t have to sit here all day.  

DG:  Conflict. No roll, no dough. No dough, no roll. Sushi roll that is. So what’s going on here?  First the steak place and now this……

  
A sushi restaurant in a truck stop. 

It’s only 9 am.   Will have to come back in a couple of hours when they open.  

Maddi has FaceTimed me again today.   Today we did puzzles and colored some more and I read her a couple of stories.   She was even on the phone when we went back to the sushi place for lunch.   She pretended she was having lunch with us.   She is so sweet. 

Greg was in hog heaven for lunch, I of course had the chicken. Haha 

They had 50 specialty rolls.  One for each state.   

  
   
 
The food was really good and a very welcome change from regular truck stop food.   

We passed an In-N-Out burger place all the stars talk about but didn’t go in.   I don’t know if I will ever want a hamburger again after this job.  I know Subway is off my list forever.  

 
The entrance to Main Street here in El Centro is pretty grand.  It looks like it lights up at night too.  

 Time to leave the desert.  90 degrees!!   A dry heat my butt.   It’s hot! 

  
They were finally able to get Gregs appointment moved up to 3 pm from midnight but now we have to go scale our trailer so they know how much to load us with.   Wish they had told us that earlier so we could have gotten it when we were at the truck stop earlier.   Now back again we go.  

4 pm (not 3)  We finally got a door. Getting loaded soon I hope.  

6 pm.  All loaded.  Now we have to go reweigh and come back so they know if we are too heavy.

It does light up!  Sort of anyway. 

7 pm  All is good.   Got a little fuel while we were at truck stop too.  Now headed to Dallas.   Disappointed it’s dark.  I wanted to go through Yuma, Arizona in the day time but been sitting too long.   Need to get moving.  

2 am.  Stopping for the night in Casa Grande, Arizona.    I zonked out about 1 am.  Greg said I missed seeing a lot of cacti.   Look forward to daylight so I can see them.  

Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  Interesting how different border agents approach their job. In Texas we are just asked if we are American cirizens. Coming into Arizona, from the eastbound, (westbound had no such inspections), we were asked if we were American citizens, if we were carrying any contraband, explosives or weapons of mass destruction. This is several miles after I had to stop and show my papers, truck registration, insurance and fuel tax stickers. I was upset at the wasted time until I saw that they had one truck pulled over in a special lane and a DOT officer was going through his cab. He was not a happy camper. The driver, I can’t speak to the mood of the DOT officer. 

At one point on the highway there were about ten cars pulled off the side of the road, some way off the road with their headlights shining out into the desert. I could see people walking out into the bush and they were carrying flashlights like they were looking for something or someone. I did notice that several of the vehicles were marked border patrol. 

The heat here is different than Florida or Kentucky.  It is very dry. How dry is it?  So dry the trees sweat. 

   
 
Notice all the lush green grass in the background?  You didn’t?  Well that’s because there isn’t any. 

That’s all for me.  Sleep calls and I must answer. Good night and God bless. 

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.

Snow on the mountains in southern California

Sure is pretty

Not sure what this is. A gun range maybe?

Victorville, California snuggled up against the mountain.

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. 

Is it just me or does this look like an octopus head?

Zombie mountain!

Wild lavender growing along the road

Mojave desert

Bridge over the Colorado River

California! San Bernadino county

Route 66 truck stop

Thats a little steep!

Sunrise in the Arizona desert

Snow on the mountain

Still a little bit of snow in Flagstaff, Arizona

Old house

Pretty trees

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.