6:15.  Up and at ’em.   The plan was to get up at 7 but guess My internal alarm had a different idea.   So we are getting on the road a bit earlier than we thought but judging the traffic already outside Chicago getting up and out earlier was a good idea. Crazy!      We only have about an hour drive so hopefully will be out of this soon.  

Made it to our drop in plenty of time.  Got set up and now waiting on them to get to us to unload.  We’ve been waiting an hour already.  Hope it’s not too much longer.  The place is completely staffed with Mexicans.  All the signs in the office are in Spanish and when a message went out over the intercom it was on Spanish.   Oy! 

2 1/2 hours unload time.   Now back on the road to the Wrigley plant in Romeoville, Illinois to take to Jessup, Pennsylvania.  

A couple of new baby pictures. 

We have stopped for the night in Angola, Indiana.   We have about 500 miles to go tomorrow.   We have 34,000 pounds of Wrigley gum.   The smell at th warehouse is almost over powering.  Very minty place but again, Better than meat places!   

It’s 61 tonight.  Not to bad for October.   We know winters coming though.   The truck stops are putting all the washer fluid down to -20 degrees and heavy jackets, scarves, gloves, etc. out now.   Won’t be long now, especially in this part of the country.    Still haven’t seen much fall color.    Trees are either still green or just turning brown.   Hope to see some color before winter.   

Well, goodnight y’all. 

On the road again after a good breather and time with mom.   Tine to head to Geneva, Illinois with our load of cookies.   

Outside of Gary, IN we srop for the night.  An hour and a half to reach our destination.  This is the closest truck stop.  

The truck I drive has a dummy axel.  Most semis have two drive axels. Mine has one. This means there are four wheels that are just coming along for the ride.  Well I noticed the other day that the tires on the axel that has the power are wearing much more than the ones that are just rolling along.  So I get them rotated. Now the ones with the most tread are on the drive axel so the tread should even out eventually. 

More fun facts tomorrow gang. Stay tuned. 

God bless. 

DG:  Just outside of Richmond, VA there is a Nabisco plant that makes something chocolatey.  And you can smell it all around. That was our pick up spot yesterday.  32000 pounds of cookies on its way to Geneva, IL.  When we get our load information we also get a fuel routing that tells us where and how much fuel to get at the best price. I was pleased to see our fuel stop at Grayson, KY. Since this load is not due until Monday morning with no early drop available we had an entire day to spend with Ruthie. All day today. Will probably leave about 8:00 in the morning. Will have to spend the night outside of Chicago and roll into our delivery about 8:30. 

Having time to ponder while not driving I am aware of the calmness and solitude of the road and I miss it after a very short while. Yes it’s nice to mix with what has become now the outside world, but it’s a world of confusion and sadness. Driving I can go anywhere in my mind. That may be a statement to come back and haunt me should I run off the road or have an accident due to inattentiveness.  

Pretend I didn’t tell you this. 

Anyway, a great meal and some quality family time. It’s been a good day. Oh, and ice cream from Crisp’s. Now it’s perfect. 

Annie – Great time with mom this weekend.  Also got to putter around in the kitchen which was nice.  I miss it.  I put on some homemade rolls and bread this am which we had with dinner.   Good steaks from Whites Meat Market.    Got mom to eat most of her dinner.   Haha.  

Well, off to bed.  Up early with an 8-9 hour drive tomorrow.   

Goodnight y’all.  

God bless

DG: Another day, another dock. Our lives are truck stops, rest areas and loading docks. And highways. And wide open spaces. And small towns with lots of red lights. And weigh stations. Fast food. An occasional motel room. And lots of closeness. If working together side by side for over 15 years did not cement our relationship, living together in a space smaller than the common office cubicle will. Imagine being in such close proximity to your spouse all day that you can’t move without touching each other. It’s wonderful. Unless it’s been a couple of days inbetween showers, then I feel sorry for her. 

Annie – Yeah just imagine………

So, it looks like our trip is going to take us through ashland so we will get to spend the night at moms.   Probably won’t be there until 9 or 10 but at least we get to stop.  

Saw a wreck in Virginia.   Roads have been a mess.  

   
I took a couple of pictures coming through White Sulfur Springs, WV.   It’s beautiful through here.  Wish it wasnt raining but it has rained the whole way!  

   
 
New picture of our little sweetie.  

Well we made it to moms.  Looks like we get to stay tonight and tomorrow night.   Greg is going to do his 34 hour reset since the load isn’t due until Monday am.  The plan is to leave Sunday am and get there to drop off and be ready.   

DG:  Sleep, oh beautiful sleep. Take me to dreamland where skys are blue all day long. Or all night long. Depends on if you are napping during the day or……..

Wanted to post a picture of the trailer I’m pulling this time. I feel like a rolling billboard.  

 
Oh, and we stopped at a rest area on the turnpike that had a Burger King and I got the new, limited time Halloween Whopper. 

  
It was okay. Don’t think the black bun will be permanent.  

God bless. 

8:30 Still sitting in the hotel room. Load was supposed to be ready at 8 am but still not ready.   Greg called at 7:30 and 8:30 and still a no go.  We’ll wait here as long as we can.   No since sitting in the truck until we have to.  

10:30.  Load is ready.  Heading to Fredericksburg, VA.  It’s 49 degrees here so Greg and Precious are ready to go.  

Stuck in traffic.  GPS took us through the DC loop for some crazy reason instead of further out and down.   GPS says 2 hours 11 minutes to go 45 miles because of the speed and delays.  I could not do this every day.  

DG:  For real. Creep, stop, creep some more, get close to the speed limit, stop, creep, rest area. Ahhhh!  

Wondering where we were going to spend the night as the apps we had available showed no truck stop close to our stop, but a rest area was close by.  The decision was made to go to the stop and reconnoiter the situation since we had plenty of time. Surprised to find, when we got there, that we had been here before. In fact this is the place where, when we stayed at the Super 8 motel close by, Annie woke up the next morning with some mysterious bug bites. 

Needless to say, tonight we will be sleeping in the truck.  

God bless. 

Up at 7 and heading to Pennsylvania.   Lots of rain yesterday and still drizzling this morning.   Hope it clears up soon.   We have a truck load of Mars Candy such as Kit Kats and Twix.  Taking it to Mars distribution center in Hazeltownship, PA.   The smell at that place yesterday was amazing.   Smelled like caramel, peanuts and chocolate.  Much better than the meat places we have been too. 

Made it to our stop without any problems other than rain all the way.   Just drizzling nasty stuff.  It’s currently 55 degrees.   Definitely feels like fall now.

You pass some strange things on the road. The flat beds carry all kinds of stuff.  One day we saw a flat bed some contraption on the back I have no idea what it was but it had 4 black SUV’s and a police escort.  Glad they were going the opposite way we were and we weren’t following them.  Today, however, there were two trucks hauling army tanks.  They were pretty used and banged up.   Still weird going down the road and having that thing pointing at you. 

   
   
Ok. This doesn’t have anything to do with the blog but was so funny I have to put it in.  This is how I feel about exercising too.  Haha 

Our load out won’t be ready until 8 am so we decided to go to a hotel close by.  Get out of the truck a while.   Sleep in a real bed without being squished.  

DG:  I thought the tanks on trailers were a good deterrent to tailgaters. 

Staying at a Residence Inn by Mariott. Very nice. And not much more than some of the not as nice places we have stayed. 

In the night stand by the bed I find the Bible and The Book of Mormon in the top drawer and I find myself surprised there is not a copy of the Koran in the drawer beside the other two books. And that thought disturbed me. What’s coming?  

Tomorrow we go to Fredricksburg, VA. They are almost out of candy so we gotta get there. 

That’s all I got. God bless. 

DG:  Okay, here’s the scoop.  I didn’t say anything yesterday because I was too frustrated to speak coherently.  

As you already know I went to the ER in Paducah, KY a couple of days ago.  After EKGs and blood work and neurological exam the doctor was at a loss as to what had caused my symptoms. He recommended a follow up with my family doctor and released me. Or so I thought. The paper he gave me on my way out stated no strenuous activity until released. Well, this did not satisfy the safety department as they wanted a full release without restrictions.  So I called the hospital and asked for a more thorough release and was told that would have to come from the doctor and they did not know when he would be on duty again. Relaying this information to safety they were unmoved. And I could not move without a release that satisfied their requirements. “Take a train if you have to” was their response to the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere, 20 miles from the nearest doctor, in an area with no public transportation or cab service.  So we sat. No one at the company seemed to care about my situation. They were only concerned about covering their hinies.  For a while I did not know what we were going to do. Then it came to me to call the emergency room about the time I was seen the night before as the doctor who saw me would likely be on duty. Praise God he was on duty, the charge nurse explained the situation and he agreed to fax me a more thorough release.  Release received and forwarded to KLLM. This was followed up by a message from me requesting confirmation of receipt of said fax. Receipt confirmed, dispatch even said the safety hold had been lifted. Alright. New load information should be coming soon. Whoa!  What’s this?  Message said new release form not good enough. Now they insist it state released without restrictions. Don’t you love admin folks. They have no clue to the real workings of the world rather live by a set of numbers and rules. So I call the hospital, again, and I do want to say the nurses in that ER were very patient and helpful. The charge nurse to whom I spoke after explaining my current dilemma stated what I was thinking, “if there were any restrictions the doctor would have stayed so in the release”.  And he didn’t, but that wasn’t good enough. So she contacted the doctor, he gave her the okay to make an addendum, case resolved. So around 11:00 am I am finally cleared to drive, get a load and we are on our way to Pennsylvania with another load of Kit Kats and other assorted candies. 

There’s a lot more to this story, but I gotta get some sleep. 

God bless. 

Up at 5 to head to Georgia.  Greg is feeling fine.   No further issues of whatever that was.  Thank goodness! 

I gotta tell you a funny.   Greg upgraded his cellphone because the battery kept dying.  The new one has Apple Pay whereas the old one didn’t.   We were at a vending machine at a rest area in Tennessee and he wanted a cup of coffee but didn’t have change so I said use your phone.  Huh?  Apple Pay.   Just touch the pad with your phone.   Puzzled look on his face and he taps the phone to the pad and then uses his thumbprint to authorize purchase and out comes his coffee.   The look on his face was priceless.   Too funny.   Old guys and new technology.   Honestly though who would have ever thought you could buy something by tapping a small portable phone to a vending machine pad.   No one over 50 I’m betting.   So now he is up to speed at least until the next phone comes out.  

Gregory getting ready for his first official day at his new job.   I told him to smile.  He said – I am!  Oh boy.   If I didn’t know he was kidding I would be worried.  Haha 

DG:  What a handsome lad. Takes after his mother. I’m so proud of this young man. He is destined for greatness I have no doubt. 

Up and at ’em.   It’s 6:30.   Looks pretty gray here in Indiana.   Hope we don’t have rain today.   

Went to Kraft in Champaigne, illinois and picked up Velveeta cheese and salad dressings of all kinds.   Got our trailer and headed to Georgia.  

Well, we got side tracked in Paducah.   Greg said “I don’t mean to alarm you but I don’t feel well.  I’m real dizzy and shaky”. He was clammy and pale too so he pulled off the road and I made him put his head down and raise his legs a minute.   Thought maybe it was low blood sugar so gave him a cookie and a protein shake.  Felt a little better and decided to get back on the road.  A few minutes later he said he needed to pull off again that he just didn’t feel well.  We pulled in to a Pilot and parked.   He was still clammy and dizzy so I called 911.  They took him to Lourdes Hospital in Paducah.   

Well, after 4 1/2 hours we are back at the truck.   All the blood work, EKGs and chest X-rays were fine.   All we can figure out is his blood sugar or maybe some dehydration.   No heart attack or stroke.  All is good.    Scary but it’s good to know all is ok.  

Greg being silly.  

Carnies at the Pilot tonight. 

I’m finishing off the night with a picture of beautiful Alex.  I could just eat him up! 

DG:  Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.  All is well. Got a little nap in the ER.  Fun and games are now over. Time to get back to work. 

God bless. 

Up at 6:30.   Going to be a rushed day.  Greg has only 7 hours on his clock and it’s about a 6 1/2 hour drive so no dilly dallying.   They want us there by 3 which shouldn’t be a problem if we don’t run in to problems, traffic, etc.    Dang clock!  

Alex is one luck baby with two older sisters like this.   

Well, our trip got re-routed.  We ended up going to Portage, Indiana instead of Wisconsin because our load wasn’t due until Monday so we are dropping this off at the yard for someone else to get tomorrow and we are taking a load to – you guessed it – Georgia.  

We have parked for the night in the yard.  These are usually nice places with free showers and laundry.   The stuff here is free but it’s not as clean as I’d like but a shower is a shower.   

Getting ready for bed and had to go to the bathroom one last time.   This time I had company.   A tiny little mouse came out from behind the trash can to scurry to the door only it couldn’t get out so it just kept running back and forth in front of the door trying to get out.  I screamed so it took off back under a chair that was in there and just sat looking at me.   Hurried out of there let me tell Ya.   I told the guy at the desk that there was a mouse in the bathroom and his lovely response was “yeah there’s a bunch of them around here”!!   Guess they have never heard of mouse traps.   Anyway, guess I’ll be holding it til morning and we get down the road.  Haha

Big full moon tonight.   Supposed to be a blood moon or eclipse tomorrow night.  According to a Jewish profit this is a big deal as there have been 4 of these in one year and it’s supposed to mean trouble.  We’ll see.  

DG:  Look at my little man there. Ain’t he handsome?  Blessed too to have such caring sisters. So blessed. 

Yes we are at the KLLM yard in Portage, IN.  Lots of boats around here. I didn’t notice that the last time we were here. Will have to explore it more thoroughly when we have more time. 

Well, we lost the cookies. Yep, we had three cookies from The Woodshed in Big Cabin, OK, ate one and put the other two away only we can’t find them now. I think Precious ate them. When was acting very sneaky earlier. 

Well, off to Georgia again. Same place. Kraft warehouse just outside of Atlanta.  Have to pick up in Champaigne, IL first then fuel in Ina, that be in Illinois as well then back down that old familiar route of 57 to 24 to 75. 

Up early so good night Irene. 

God bless.