Up at 7 to head to New Jersey for some candy to take to Kennesaw Georgia.   It’s a nasty rainy day.   Now it really feels like fall.  Sure would love a fireplace right about now.  If it gets any colder Greg is going to cry.  Haha 

Well, I didn’t get a shower last night. Because we stopped at this truck stop that was weird.  As Greg mentioned yesterday the truck stops or gas stations run by gas station Indians (not casino Indians) are usually nasty.   Their idea of hygiene and clean bathrooms are different than most Americans I believe.   Anyway, the shower I so badly wanted last night didn’t happen because they were not private.   They had 5 shower stalls in a row but the door to each shower only came up about halfway up the wall so basically anybody walking by could just look over the door.   They had a shower in the women’s bathroom but it was the same way so anybody coming in the bathroom could look if they so desired.  So, no thanks.   This place was pretty quiet but I still didn’t want to take the chance.   So tonight we will be stopping somewhere with a shower!! 

Got to our stop on time but need a wash out so heading down the road a bit and coming back.   

That was an experience.   The old guy running the place was German.  What a hoot! 

This Mars didn’t give away any samples.  Said they used to but they found out a trucker was getting them free and selling them at a truck stop.   One spoilsport is all it takes.   I did get a free cup of delicious Dove hot chocolate though.  

Virginia 

Stopped in Raphine, Virginia for dinner. Sign advertised “best dang barbecue”.  It was good.   It’s not the best but it was good.   They had Carolina and Texas style which was nice.  Don’t see the Carolina very often.   Everybody wants the sweet Texas style.   We got used to the vinegar bite of the Carolina barbecue and love it.    This needed a bit more vinegar and a kick to be real Carolina but it was good.   We used to go to “pig pickins” in North Carolina.    The pig was put in the ground for a couple of days and then you just pick the meat out with tongs.  Then you poured your sauce on it.  Meat was so tender it almost fell out of the pig.    Then we’d have Brunswick stew and hot hush puppies that you dipped in butter.   Ok.  We’re taking a side trip to North Carolina.    I wish!  

 
Gregory sent me a pretty picture of two of my babies.  

Ahhhh.   Shower!   And laundry.  Now to sleep.   Still have about 8 hours to go to get to stop tomorrow.  

Goodnight y’all.  

DG:  Yea, the German guy, Andre. He is 74, has an accent but it was his parents who came from Germany. He was born here. Never been to Germany. I told him he would like it. Anyway, he runs the truck&trailer washout/ repair place down the road from the M&M plant. It’s where they send you if your trailer is not clean. And mine was not. I pull in, get out of my truck and this old man comes walking out of this little out building yelling at me to turn that damn truck around and get it out of here. I tell him he’s a very nice fella for a Yankee and we both get a good laugh out of it. He tells me he drove a truck for 42 years before working at this place and gives several examples of how crazy the commercial trucking business is these days and the inexperienced drivers that come through his establishment not mentioning that I’m one of those inexperienced drivers. We had a good chat. It was a good experience. 

Loaded with 43000 pounds of M&Ms and Twix. Candy for the little trick or treaters. 

As Annie mentioned, the BBQ was good but not “Best Darn” of anything. But good. They were doing a good business so some folks think it’s the best. Might be the best around them parts. 

Okay, time to turn in. God bless. 

Up at 7 am and ready to head out.   Cloudy morning.  The fog on the mountains is beautiful.   7 hours to get to our stop this morning.   Praying it doesn’t rain.  

Stopped in Rafine Virginia for lunch.   Pretty new place with 4 restaurants, barber, movie theater, Taste of Virginia store and of course fuel.   Neat place to take a break.  

The leaves coming through Virginia and Pennsylvania are stunning.   I wish I could show you.   It’s been cloudy all day and every time I take a picture it just looks gray.    Miles and miles of just red, yellow and orange.      

We got to our drop without any problems.  It’s a drop and hook so that’s good.  

DG:  Got out with a few hours left on the clock but wanted to stop early to get good parking.  Just 63 miles to go in the morning and the place doesn’t open till 8:00 so we are looking good on time. This load is going to Kennesaw Georgia.  More candy. Just in time for Halloween. 

Stopped at a place in Whitehaven, PA, Hickory Run Travel Plaza. Fairly large place but not real busy. They have a 24 hour restaurant so we went in and had some chili. We were the only ones in the place. Chili was good. I hate to sound prejudice but it is run by Indians and I don’t know what they have against keeping their bathrooms clean but it’s every one we go in we find they just don’t have cleanliness as a priority. 

Annie’s playing with some ap that lets you lip sinc silly sayings. I am starting to worry about her. 

Okay, have a good weekend. God bless. 

7:20 up and ready to get on the road but no trip yet.    Enjoying the weather though.  51 this morning.  

Got the trailer washed out by some good ole boys in Chattanooga.   Really nice people.   Don’t you love southerners?

Got to our stop and traded trailers.  Empty for one full of M&Ms and Twix.  Headed to Pennsylvania. 

Stopped in Max Meadows Virginia for the night.   7 hours to go tomorrow.  

Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  I’m back. Fell asleep last night. Tired from driving and more tired from waiting. I swear, that 19 hour wait was exhausting. 

We are in Max Meadows, VA. Don’t know who Max was but he had a very nice meadow so somebody decided to put on it a truck stop. Thanks Max. 

It’s still warm enough to run the air conditioning at night. But I feel the winter chill coming. Maybe we can run orange juice back and forth from Florida and California.  

I’ll dream of that tonight. 

God bless. 

8 am.  Still waiting……

10 am.  Still waiting…….

11:30.  Finally done and getting back on the road.  Waited 19 hours for a load of stuff for IHOP.   Now headed to Tennessee.  It’s only 420 miles so we shouldn’t have any trouble getting there today.  

Made it to Murfreesboro on time.  We were hoping to be in and out pretty quick but not to be.  The guard at the gate said it should be a drop and hook but the receiving guy said there were no empty trailers so it’s a live unload.   Hope it doesn’t take all night like yesterday.   

2 hours and waiting……

Sorry I didn’t post this last night.   Fell asleep.  They got us unloaded about 10 pm but Greg’s clock is out so we are spending the night in the parking lot.   

Alarm goes off at 5:30.  Hit snooze.  Up at 5:45 and time to head out.   Going to Springfield Ohio this morning to drop off our lettuce and then see where we are going next.  

Keeping a watch on the sky as there is a meteor shower for the next couple of days but I don’t think we will have any luck with all the cars on the highway.   Shoot! 

Got to Dole at 9:15.  Appt was for 10:30 so we’re a little early but fortunately they could put is right in a door to start getting unloaded.   It’s gorgeous here in Springfield at 66 degrees and sunny.   

Got our next load.  Headed to Murfreesboro Tennessee after we stop in Columbus and Hilliard Ohio for pick ups.  

Got our load in Columbus after sitting 5 hours.  Just to get one pallet loaded.  Ridiculous waste of time.   Now off to Hillairs Ohio where hopefully we don’t have to sit all night. 

Can’t wait to get off the Ohio streets.    These drivers are crazy!   Greg had to slam on his breaks and blow his horn to keep from running over a Honda Civic who was in a big hurry to go one block and turn.   Then there is a guy on a bicycle going about 2 mph so that everybody has to move over in to the next line.  Greg can’t move over in the truck so we get to follow his idiot for a couple of blocks and he never picks up speed, gets up on the sidewalk or let’s anybody pass.   Just mosies along like its his street.  Wonder how many accidents he has caused.    Save the planet some other time than rush our traffic! 

Got to our next stop now. 

Waiting 2 1/2 hours so far.   

DG: Arrived early to appointment. Waited. They got to us early, but we had sat for several hours. For one pallet. Took about five minutes. How hard would it have been for them to do that when we got there I wonder. 

Our next pick up was only about thirty minutes away so we scurried right over. 

Waiting again. 

Annie – 10 pm.   Still waiting.  It’s nice to see a dozen employees out enjoying their cigarettes though.  

1:45 am.  Still waiting.   Going back to sleep.    Goodnight y’all.  

Up at 5:30 and headed to Indianapolis.   Got to watch the sun come up.   

Not much going on today just riding along. Made it to Indianapolis about 7:30.  Our stop in Springfield Ohio is only about 2 1/2 hours away.   

Watched a little bit of the ballgame today but the Cubs aren’t doing too well.   Oh well.  

Catch ya tomorrow.  

Goodnight y’all.  

Up at 8:30.  Since we got in so late our 10 hours weren’t up until now.   Getting kind of a later start on the day but only have 9 hours on the clock today so it will be an earlier day anyway.   First stop is in Eufaula, Oklahoma for fuel.  

DG:  Note to the governor of Oklahoma: FIX THE ROADS!!!!  Wow, feel like I’ve been on a bucking bull all day.  Perhaps it keeps the Cowboys happy. I don’t remember them being this bad but certainly noticed it today. 

Have stopped again at The Woodshed at Big Cabin, OK.  Home of the giant Indian. We figure he is Cherokee as the restaurant goes by that name. 

On to Ohio with salad fixings from Mexico. Don’t seem right knowing that we have all this farmland in this country and we are buying food from a foreign country.  

Okay, thought I had something else but too sleepy to think. Good night and God bless. 

Annie – Funny.  I didn’t know the Cherokee Indians ate spaghetti but it sure was good.  

  
Also saw this billboard as we were going through Dallas today.   Love the waterfall idea even if it is for beer. 

Turning in.  Still have about 12 hours to go to get to Ohio.   

Goodnight y’all. 

12:04 am.  Trying to sleep but keep hearing weird noises outside.   The truck to the left of us was hauling rocks earlier when I went to the bathroom so I wondered if he was having to do some readjusting or something but the noise kept up so Greg got up to see what it was and its a cattle truck.  All the thumping around is the cows trying to get out it sounds like.  At times it is really loud and it sounds like they are about to break out.  Hope when we get up in the am our trailer isn’t nasty.   These guys let it fly literally and the trailers beside them tend to catch it.   Too late to move now though.   

Woke up at 6 am but decided to go back to sleep since we only have the one stop today and it’s 4 hours away.    Fortunately the cattle truck left some time during the night and didn’t leave a mess on the truck.  
8 am got back up.  Nature calls so we decide to go in and have some breakfast.  I forgot to mention last night that the truck stop we are at has a taco restaurant in it.  The ladies behind the counter are hand making the food and even the tortillas.  I had a chicken burrito with tomatillo salsa and Greg had Mexican pork called Barbacoa.   Really yummy and spicy.   This morning Greg had a burrito with eggs and chorizo sausage and I had a spicy chicken taco.  Just enough heat that you could enjoy it but not too spicy.   Probably Americanized some.  The place is really busy.  

So we are on the road to Laredo.   Hope they got a trip out.  I don’t think anyone speaks English in Laredo.  Even the billboards are in Spanish.  

We went through some really pretty scenery today.   The pictures don’t do it justice.  Lots of rolling hills, taller hills and open areas.   Lots of cactus.   A couple of llamas or alpacas, not sure.  

A winery   
   
   

Air Force base dad and Greg went to.  

 
We stopped at the same type of truck stop again with the Taco place for lunch. I had chicken enchilads only because I know pollo is chicken.   Greg had some he’s still not sure what it was.   The guy didn’t speak English well and Greg thought the interpretation was goat but then heard him tell somebody it was sweetbreads and then gizzards so we’re still not sure.   Anyway, he said it was delicious, tender and just a bit spicy.   Of course we spiced it up more with sauces from the condiment bar.    

Made it to the drop yard in Laredo early since it wasn’t due until the morning but good news is they had another trip waiting on us so we didn’t have to spend the night in Laredo.   We are now heading to Springfield, Ohio with load due Wednesday morning.  We have 39,000 pounds of vegetables from Mexico.  

We get stopped by guards every time we leave Laredo.   All cars and trucks must stop.   For us all they do is ask us if we are US citizens and when we say yes they wave us on through.   What’s so funny is the guy asking the question is obviously Mexican with a Spanish accent.  Makes you want to go, yeah we are – what about you?   Haha 

We have stopped for the night at a Shell station in Jarrel, Texas.  We were trying for a Flying J but it was 5 miles up the road and we only had a minute left when we pulled in to the Shell.   We had wrecks and construction all through Austin and that held us up for over an hour at least.   Not good when your clock is ticking down.

Anyway, settled in for the night and ready for bed.   Headed to Oklahoma in the morning on our way to Ohio.  

A couple more pictures of my angels tonight. 

DG:  Well I don’t know what else to add to that. This has been one of our more interesting trips through Texas.  Good food and really beautiful countryside. And the weather has been very mild. 

And there is a lot of history. Annie found an ap for the historic markers.  It puts a pin on the map where each are located. Going through San Antonio there were so many markers the map just looked red. Didn’t have time to read all of those. 

Well once again the sandman has caught up with me so I better sign off. Good night and God bless. 

Up at 9:30!   Woo hoo!   Of course we stayed up until 2 watching TV.  A rare treat.  Time to get a move on back to Iowa Park and get load. Hope it’s ready.  

There is a high school on the way to the shipper and the road that runs by it is Bob Dawson Drive.  How cool is that?  

We have stopped for the night in Lampasas, Texas. Neat little place.   We have driven all day through these little towns.   Most of the stores are closed which is sad.   One place we passed through was Mineral Wells, Texas.   There is a huge old run down hotel sitting in town around  an almost empty town.  Apparently it used to be the go to place for mineral water and healing baths.   Now it’s all run down and they say it’s full of ghosts.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Hotel_(Mineral_Wells,_Texas)

They apparently had just had a festival but we missed it.   I guess it was crazy! 

There is a lot of pretty country in Texas. Lots of rolling hills, outcroppings of rocks, cows, and lots of goats. A few mules and llamas too.   

Gregory sent me some beautiful pictures.  

Kaiden in his new braces.  

Nighty night. 

  
Apparently you can now travel with your house.   Actually this is a new RV, the guy told us, that is completely off the grid.  Solar power, incinerator for sewer, rain barrel with water filter some device that gets up to 5 gallons of water a day out of the air.   He said some people were using it as houses out in the middle of nowhere and don’t or can’t hook up to anything.   Pretty neat.  

DG:  So when do we get one?  They are made in Athens, TX and this was a show model he was taking to set up on display. Sounded really neat. 

Yes, we are in Lampasas,TX.  Looked like a good place to spend the night.  The next truck stop is over two hours away and by that time of night parking would be at a premium.  We only have about four hours to go to get to our stop which is the KLLM yard in Laredo. Load is not technically due until Monday between 0800 and 3:00 pm so there is definitely no hurry. These are the kinds of loads you like to have if you are going someplace where there is something to do in your free time.  Or are driving off of the interstates, which we are. Another reason to stop early as driving on a two lane road with a 75 mph speed limit through the middle of Texas on a Saturday night is not my idea of fun. Besides, all those little towns we pass through with all of the closed businesses have at minimum two liquor stores and several bars that still seem to be doing well. 

A lot of goats in Texas. And did you know, goat farmers use donkeys to guard their goats. Yes. We kept noticing that every time we saw a field of goats there would be a donkey or two in the field with them.  We didn’t think anything about that until Annie was curious about the difference between donkeys and mules. So hello Google, or DuckDuckGo which is her new search engine.  And that’s where we learned that donkeys don’t like dogs, wolves, coyotes, snakes, mountain lions and several other threats to goats and sheep and will actually attack them sorts of critters if they come around. Go figure. Ain’t nature wonderful?  

We are learning so much out here. There is also a website for history markers and here in Texas there are signs telling you when you are coming up on one and what it’s number is. So you just look it up by number and get a history lesson right as you are driving by the place where the history happened. Look out Jeopardy, here we come. 

All that thinking has made me sleepy so am going to turn in now.

Good night and God bless. 

Up at 6:45 and heading back to Texas.   Greg is glad to get back to warmer weather.

We passed an awful truck fire on our way through Dallas.  

Made it to our drop on time.  Fortunately we didn’t have to wait for them to unload it.  Just drop it and get empty trailer.  

Our next load came in that we would go to Iowa Park, Texas and pick up load to take to Mexico.   What?   We don’t have passports.   Next email came through that we are to take it to Laredo Texas and someone else would take it across to Mexico.   Good!  

We passed a train on the way.  It had pieces of those silly windmills for as far as the eye could see.   Dozens of pieces.  

  
We get to the pick up place in Iowa Park only to find out that load won’t be ready until about noon tomorrow.   Well shoot.   So we decide to get out of the truck a while and go to a motel.  There are several in Witchita Falls, Texas which is only about 10 miles away.   I don’t know what’s going on around here but there are about 12 motels right here alone and the line was 8 deep when I went in the office to sign in.  Thank goodness I had called and reserved a room.   

We walked across the street to whataburger for dinner.  Greg had a burger but I had the chicken taco with poblano peppers and unions.  Yummy! 

Back to room to take a shower and watch some TV.   Feels good to be able to stretch a bit. 

Gregory sent me pictures today of the girls making cupcakes.  It’s so funny to see how different they are.  Sadie spreads her icing out but Maddi just globs it on there.  Too funny.  

DG:  I’ll bet they taste good. Such artists. 

Well, we are in a motel. It’s a luxury we afford ourselves from time to time. 

Here’s where I am torn between wanting to get on the road as soon as possible to rack up more miles and sleeping in, taking our time to get to Laredo. Load is not due until Monday but we could get there tomorrow.  I already sent a note to dispatch to let them know I will be ready for a new trip as soon as I get there so have me something ready. 

Oh, I can’t fight it any more. The bed is calling my name. Good night and God bless.