1:30 am  Time to hit the road.  Our appointment in Stockton, California is for noon and we still have over 500 miles to go.   Good thing Greg went to bed so early!   
8:30.  California!  

Donner Pass 
  

Got flagged for a DOT inspection just inside California.    They do like their regulations in California. 

This was a sign on their lot.   Too funny. 
  

Donner Lake 

Looking back.  Wow! 
  

No snow on the other side and temp is up to 41. 

  
  DG:  Ah, the pacific side. That’s where all the good weather is. And the grapes for all the wine. Vineyards as far as the eye could see on either side of the road. Tastings at every turn, but no wine for me.

Well, ever since we pulled into Lodi I have that song in my head.  You know the one. CCR, Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Oh Lord, Stuck in Lodi Again”.  

So here we are, waiting again. Movie time. We started “The Hobbit last night so think we are going to finish it now.   

Finished the movie and laid down for a nap. It was around 6:00pm and we were only planning on a couple hours. Well, five hours later we’re up. It was around 11:30pm local time. Bathroom break and back in the truck. Oh no, it’s raining. Yes, a cold drizzly rain to start with and now, a couple hours later it has picked up some intensity.  Back to bed.  Planners don’t come in till 7:00 central time which is 5:00 here. They will probably have something for us by then. 

Until then my friends, God bless. 

Oh, if you haven’t already, check Annie out on periscope. It’s pretty neat. I think she enjoys it. Good night. 

2:30.  Time to get up.   I’m not ready!   Got to get about 600 miles today.  It got pretty cold last night. 

3:45.  Saw a beautiful white fox run across the highway. 

4:30.  Stopped at a truck stop right by the Sinclair oil refinery in Sinclair, Wyoming.  

7 am.  Good morning Wyoming.  

We saw these birds eating road kill.  A black billed magpie.   Beautiful bird especially when flying.   Tried to get a picture but couldn’t get a clear one.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-billed_Magpie

We have seen some pretty sites here in Wyoming. 

Idaho! 

    
Ice fishing and skating!! 

Stop at Bonneville Salt Flats Utah.   So gorgeous!   I did a Periscope video of it.  

Nevada!

Pilots Peak

8 pm.  I am turning in.  Greg has been asleep a while.   California tomorrow!! 

Goodnight y’all. 

Got to sleep in until 7 am.  Woo hoo!   Greg only has 3 hours on his clock today (thanks DOT).   Looks like we will be spending most of the day in a truck stop somewhere.  

DG:  And that somewhere is Laramie, Wyoming.  Got here around 11:40 local time this morning. Local time being Mountain Standard Time which means for you folks in the East, 1:40pm.  

Nice spot with a good view of the Rockies.  Plenty of parking, showers, laundry and a restaurant.  

Got a shower, did laundry, watched some football, back in the truck for a nap, maybe a movie. 

Add another title to Annie’s already extensive list of things she does on this truck. Now she is maintenance supervisor.  Heck with supervising, she is the maintenance department.  We have two sources of heat on this truck. One is the engine of course. This works by way of the idle manager system.  Start the truck, put gears in high range, hit the cruise control button then adjust heat or cool via a thermostat control in the bunk area. What this does is allow the engine to run only when needed to cool or heat the cabin shutting the engine off when the preset temperature has been reached and then starting it again when temperature falls four degrees below or four degrees above preset temp depending on whether you want to be cool or warm.  

This method of course uses fuel. Not as much as a steady idling, but about a tenth of what you would use running down the road.  

Well, there is another, smaller control panel in the bunk area that operates another system that mostly uses the electricity from the batteries, and a little fuel, but very little, about 10% of what the idle management system uses, but we’ve never been able to get it to work properly.  Well, now that we are traveling in areas that really get cold Annie figured we ought to explore alternative methods of heating rather than using so much fuel. So we tried little 12 volt space heaters. One barely knocks of the chill. We bought one last night at the truck stop and I didn’t notice until we got back to the truck that it needs to be hardwired, no plug, so I took that one back in and got a cheaper one, but with a plug. Open it up, plug it in and wow, heat, for about a minute.  Fuse blown. Let me say something here that should be obvious to everyone but escaped my attention, if an electrical appliance blows a fuse in one outlet, it most likely will blow a fuse in the next one. Well, I had to prove it to myself. 

So I took that one back. 

So on our drive to Laramie, Annie gets on the web and finds some videos showing how our electrical heater is supposed to work and how to reset it. You can finds anything on the web. 

So the electrical heater is now working superbly thanks to my multitalented wife except for one little glitch and it may not even be a glitch, but the upper bunk lights have to be on for the heater to work. No big deal. I tell ya I don’t know how I ever made it without her. 

Annie – He is so funny.   You can find anything on YouTube these days.  

I have gotten such a kick out of Greg in this cold weather.   One would think he had grown up in Florida instead of Kentucky with the way he talks about the cold.   

This is him when we went in the truck stop.  Of course it is only 14 degrees. 

  
We took a shower and while waiting on the laundry to dry we decided to watch some football.  This is Greg watching it. 

 
And this is me.   Haha 

DG:  She’s so funny. 

Well, now it is like 4 degrees, feels like -4.  It’s the kind of cold that follows you inside and lingers for a while. Brrrrr!!!!!

Went inside for dinner. BBQ Buffett. Not bad. However, it is still cold. And even inside I could feel it waiting for me out there. Ready to cut through any protection I might feel adequate to hold it at bay. At this point it is a living entity bent on the destruction of all mankind. I really don’t like the cold. 

Back in the truck the newly discovered, working, nare before used heating system is working like a charm. Oh, it is so toasty warm inside. The monster cannot penetrate our defenses. Our barrier to its wrath holds firm. Mmmmmm…..

Annie – Getting up early so turning in. Goodnight y’all.  

4 am.  Here we go again.    Happy New Year everybody!!    All was quiet at the truck stop.  I didn’t hear one fire cracker. Bunch of early birds around here. 

We have parked for the night in Sidney, Nebraska.   Sorry this post is not very long but it has been just drive drive drive.  Greg drove almost 700 miles today.   Exhausted and ready for bed.   Still have 1200 miles to go.    

4 am.   Time to make the donuts.   What?   No.  Time to get on the road. 

Looks like there is quite a bit of flooding still in Indiana.  

  
  
Not really sure what this is all about.  It had a steering wheel on both sides too.  Haha 

  
The kids got to go fishing with nan and pop today.   

  
We have stopped for the night at the Iowa 80 truck stop.  I have mentioned it before.  It has a barber so Greg was able to get the curls cut.   There is also a dentist and a chiropractor which unfortunately was closed.   There are several restaurants which was nice to have a choice.  Also a big gift shop, and theater.   Too bad we can’t stay a bit longer but we need to sleep.   Long way to go still. 

Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  Iowa 80, largest truck stop in the world. Over 900 parking spaces. We got here early and got one right by the front door. One could spend several days here taking in all the activities. It is truly something to see. 

Had a good day today. I did not listen to my navigator and missed an exit so we spent a couple of hours on Illinois back roads. These really tests your perception and sense of awareness as it all looks the same, corn fields with a house here and there. You gotta look close to see anything out of the ordinary. And sometimes you get lucky and pass a car that is really two halves of two cars put together to look like one car that can be driven from either end. 

I did get a hair cut and it feels great. Would like to have gotten an adjustment but he left an hour before we arrived. 

Happy New Year everyone. God bless you and God bless America.

3 am.  We had to drive a specific route for this load according to the shipper.  We aren’t sure what we are carrying but it’s a “classified load”.   We even have to call a number for Freight Watch when we left and with any stops and when we get to the receiver.  If we stop we have to get license and car information of any vehicles parked beside us. We are to call them if we notice anyone following us or anything suspicious.  Greg had to sign a form that he wouldn’t stop for at least 200 miles as this was considered the Red Zone for thieves.   Good grief.   So, they directed us down back roads and around until we hit I-70 and got out of the 200 miles.   We picked the load up at a lab so we aren’t for sure what it is, drugs or chemicals.  Who knows.   This close to DC it could be anything.  

This route did give us a chance to see some back roads in Pennsylvania, well as much as you can at night.   There was one point that was a 3 mile down grade that had two stop signs for trucks because it was so steep.   That was fun.    

Then we came around a corner and there sits a casino.   What?   Yep.  A really swanky one too it looks like.   Then we saw this huge hotel on the hill that was all lit up.  It was gorgeous and Huge!!  It was such a surprise because all we had seen up until then was farms and two lane roads.   Turns out this is a 2000 acre resort in Farmington, PA, called Nemacolin Woodlands Resort.  It’s owned by the family who owns 84 Lumber.  The dad bought it for his daughter because she liked to fish and they have done extensive remodeling and adding more to it.   It has a spa I could really get used to.   Definitely need to remember this place when we win the lottery.  

http://www.nemacolin.com/accommodations/chateau-lafayette

6:30.  Arrived in Lockbourne, Ohio.   Waiting on us and got us right to a door.  This is where we ended up.   

http://www.amerisourcebergen.com/abcnew/news/press-releases/columbus-becomes-center-of-pharmaceutical-innovation.aspx

Of all the days to get a fast unload.  We are beat after driving all night and hoping for a nap but nnnoooooooo.   One of the fastest unloads we have had.  Only took about 30 minutes.   Sleep will have to come later.   

On our way to Coshcoctin, Ohio to pick up our load to take to California!!   So excited!! 

Going through Hanover Ohio and saw this building.   Wonder what they make in there?   Hmmmm

Boy the rivers are right at the edge here in Ohio.  

Well we are loaded and ready to go but the clock has run out.   We have stopped in Zanesville, Ohio for the night.  Now time for shower, food and SLEEP! 

Ran in to an old lady in Arby’s when we went to eat.   She was sitting there with all this luggage.   She said hi and then started telling us she was a truck driver and had a wreck.   She passed out behind the wheel.   Turns out she passed out because of blood loss and they found cancer in her bladder, colon, ovaries and brain.   They have given her 15 days left to live.    She said she was in the VA for four months and just got dismissed but when she wrecked her truck the DOT took her license.   She can’t rent a hotel room without a license so she is stuck waiting on a bus to get her home to Tennesse.   She said she was ex marine.  Got out in 80 and had been driving a truck ever since.   She is now 75.   She said she almost didn’t get a bus ticket home because she asked them for the illness price and when they saw her terminal status they didn’t want her on the bus in case she died.  Wow!   Finally someone she knew explained that she was ex-marine and needed to get home so give her a ticket.  She finally got one but it doesn’t leave for Tennesse until tomorrow.   So here is this ex marine dying of cancer spending one of her last 15 days of life stuck in an Arby’s trying to get home.   And then two more days on a bus getting home. What has happened to America and human decency?    If she was an illegal Mexican or Syrian refugee they would roll out the red carpet and take her anywhere she wanted to go.   Unbelievable.   I can’t believe this is the America we have now.   If we had been going anywhere near Tennessee we would have put her in the truck with us.   Even though that’s against DOT regulations too.  

DG:  So I think we were hauling a secret government weapon. A vaporizer. That’s why it was so quick to unload. All the boxes were dummies covering up the “big gun”.  The scary part of it was if we had been hit by lightning we could have been thrown into a space time continuum and ended up somewhere in the past or future. Luckily nothing happened. 

So we’re at a truck stop in Lancaster trying to get some sleep and Annie wakes me up and there is a really loud siren going off. You know, like one of those you would expect to hear right before a tornado hits. Of course I would have slept right through all of it, but she was concerned so we got up, dressed and went outside to see if there was a shelter we should be heading for. No one seemed to be in a panic so we went in to find out what was the deal with the siren. Apparently it was the call for the local volunteer fired department.  Whew. No tornado. 

Okay, so now I do have to get some sleep. Have to be in Stockton by the 4th. 

Good night and God bless. 

 Up at 5 Am and heading to New Jersey.   Traffic is still crazy but this is more normal traffic for this area.  

7:30. Stopped for bathroom break and caffeine at the Maryland service center.   45 people in line at Dunkin Donuts so that’s not happening.  Went over to the little convenient mart in the center and Greg got his coffee and a biscuit he said must have been there since yesterday.  I got a Diet Coke in my big jug and I guess the lady at the counter didn’t like that.   I guess I was supposed to use their cups.  Yankees!  I tell ya.  No word of thanks or have a nice day.   

I did see this at the store.  I didn’t get it but thought about it.  As much as I like bacon and chocolate I just couldn’t imagine them together in a candy bar.  They did have Godiva but nothing had prices on it so I didn’t get that either.  

  
Anyway, we did have a pretty sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay as we passed through.  

9:30.  Arrived at receiver and found it was a drop and hook not a live load which is good. No waiting around.   Receiver doesn’t have any empty trailers so they are sending us to Hazletkn, PA for empty at the M&M place. 

Coming back across the Delaware from New Jersey in to Pennsylvania and saw all these birds on the water.    They all took off, flew and few feet and landed again.  What a site.   That’s a lot of birds.  

11 am.  Got next trip information before we even got to get the empty trailer. That’s a good thing.   It’s like we figured, we are picking up a load at the M&M place in Hazleton and taking it to Fredericksburg, VA.   

Trying to hurry and get out of Pennsylvania.  Weather reports are turning grim.   It’s not a good sign when you see the salt trucks out and it hasn’t even started snowing yet but judging by the radar it’s going to be a good one. 

  
Got our next trip info.   This is really unusual.   Usually we have to wait and get done with one before we find out.  I figure they are short handed this week.   We are going to Maryland after we finish in Fredericksburg and taking the load to Lockbourne, Ohio.   In case you didn’t know, that’s where I was born.  Lockbourne Air Force Base.  Probably brings back a lot of memories for mom.  Me, not so much.  Haha. 

Well we have stopped for the night in Thurmont, Maryland.  Getting up early so we can get to Virginia on time.  

Goodnight, y’all.  

DG:  KLLM is getting their act together.  We already have our next load. After delivering in VA in the morning we head back to Maryland for a load headed for Columbus, OH. Gonna be tight on time but they will work with us. 

I have never seen traffic like we have seen the past couple of days. When we stopped last night it was still going by and this morning at 5:00am it was still heavy. Where is everyone going?  Anyway, you know what that means, more cars more crazies. I would say the percentage of crazies to average driver is probably very low, say around one percent, but the percentage total increases with the total number of cars. Do the math. I need a tutor. 

Good night and God bless. 

6:30.  Up and ready to go.   We have 700 miles to go so a lot of driving today.   Not much traffic yet, of course it’s early, but foggy this morning.  

Boy, South Carolina’s state insect should be the ant.   We have seen dozens of these hills along the highway and at the truck stop.  Some even bigger than this one.  

We have stopped for the night at a weigh station with truck parking just south of DC.   Traffic is crazy through here but it has been that way all day.    Slow moving north and south bound.   People going north to get back home after Christmas and the snowbirds coming south for the winter.   So many fender benders and people off the road.   Crazy.   We have stopped a little early tonight so we can get up early and get around DC before the morning rush.    We have about 4 hours to go to get to the receiver.  

DG:  Met a trucker that drives for a company out of Florida that hauls only flowers. Just so happens it’s one I was looking at recently. He said its not the company it used to be. The man who started the company used to drive the delivery truck so he always had a soft spot for truckers and made sure they were taken care of. But the old man is dead and now his children run it and they are more concerned with the bottom line. It still may be something to check into. 

Okay, I almost forgot about the blog. Okay, I did forget about the blog and by the time Annie reminded me it’s late and I need sleep. So without further ado, good night all and God bless. 

9 am.  Well we are off and running again. Got a trip to New Jersey.   Our trip was short this time but we had a lot of fun.   The kids all got too many presents as usual.  Haha.   They cried when we left but their other grandparents are coming Sunday so they won’t miss us for long.  Lol 

We have stopped for the night outside of Savannah, Georgia.  Too bad we aren’t in the car.  I love Savannah.   It’s such a neat city and the shops along the river front are so much fun.   

We have had so much traffic today.   It’s been crazy.   We’ve seen a lot of fender benders too.   I thought it was all people going home after Christmas but ran in to a lady in the truck stop who was trying to go south to Miami.   

   
 
Saw this old truck.  They don’t make them like this anymore.  

  
I meant to post this last night and forgot. Maddi had papaw wrapped around her little finger The past couple of days.  They were even playing Barbie Dolls.

Well, we are going to watch a bit of tv and turn in.   Night y’all. 

DG:  They weren’t Barbie dolls mammie, it was Elsa and Anna.  And it was fun. 

It’s a beautiful night, full moon and warm breeze. We took a short walk as it may be the last one for w while we can do in short sleeves. 

Heading for Jersey in the morning. We have frozen shrimp and calamari.  All this food. Wow!!!

Getting late so off to bed. Love to all and God bless.