Up at 6:30 am.  Kids have to leave at 7:15 in order to get Sadie to school by 8 am.  Maddi goes at 9:30 and Kaiden goes at 9 but he catches the bus.

Greg and I have our annual doctor appojnments this morning.  What fun.

Melissa has pink eye this am and a sore throat.  Kids have been sick and Maddi brought the pink eye home from daycare.  They may not induce her in the am if she is sick.  Hope she gets better fast.

Doctors appointments went fine.  Poked and prodded and told to lose more weight.  Yeah yeah.

We had to get a tire for the truck today.  Didn’t know it was going to take most of the day.   They got the tire on fast but then sat for two hours waiting on pay authorization to come through.  Lovely.  Now we are behind in the day.

Next stop was walmart to pick up refills and then office max for some copies and a fax to headquarters about tire.   I felt so bad for the girl behind the counter at office max.  She was obviously new so we tried to be patient.   Another lady came up and said to her “I don’t want to talk to you.  You have that deer in the headlights look and I need someone who knows what they are doing because when I explain what I want I want it to be Understood and done right”.  Wow!  Talk about rude.  So The manager came up and helped.  It took the poor girl 40 minutes to make copies for me.  I went next door to Michaels and came back and still had to wait.  Still I waited patiently.  Everyone should have to work retail at least once for some compassion for the new girl!

Then off to the grocery for a few things and then home.  We had spaghetti for dinner and then me and the girls did some crafts until bed time.  Both of them fell asleep right after story time.

We still don’t have a new grand son yet but she is due to be induced in the am.  Hope all goes well and praying for a fast and safe delivery.

I’m turning in.   Probably going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Goodnight y’all.

DG:  Waiting, I hate waiting. See above. We waited today. That was the story. Waiting. On hold not less. That’s even worse. There is either music, an ad or in my case both. After 30 minutes even the phone gave up and disconnected. Plan B.  Another call, different department, less waiting. Sometimes you just gotta go around the block to get to where you are.

Anticipation is high. Alex is taking it all in stride. He’ll come out when he is ready.

I’m bushed. It’s past my bedtime. All is well. Looking forward to tomorrow. Good night all. God bless.

It’s 12:30 am and I just realized we didn’t post anything for today.   Sorry!  The kids were out of school today so we have just played around.   We made coconut butter lip balm and decorated the containers.  We watched The Princess Bride.  We’ve played hide and seek.   And then we went to Bob Evans for dinner because Sadie wanted grits for dinner.    Haha.  That girl will eat two bowls of grits and want more.  Too funny.     We also arm knitted a scarf for their aunt Megan.  

Greg had to take his truck to Freightliner for its mileage maintenance and an alignment.  He needs two tires but that will have to be tomorrow.  

After dinner they had their baths and bed time stories.  They go to bed at 8 since they have to get up early for school.  

We have doctor appointments in the am so we better get to sleep.  

Also, no baby Alex yet.  He is being stubborn.  Poor Melissa is miserable.  She is due to be induced Wednesday if he doesn’t come tomorrow.  

Up at 7:30 and heading out. Should see my babies this afternoon!! 

DG: Made it safe and sound. Showered with kisses and hugs. See you in a couple of days. 

Got to sleep until 6 am.  Yay!  Haha.  Got quite a ways to go still.   Only 830 miles to Cape Coral but that all depends on where we go after Atlanta.  Hopefully they will give us a trip part of the way so we don’t have to pay for gas in this sucker all those miles.  

DG:  Well, they didn’t have a trip for us so we are bob tailing it to Florida. That’s going to be a lot of “gas” for that sucker.  Going to look into getting our own truck and loads. It’s more risk but more control as well. 

Stopped at a Days Inn in Valdosta, GA. Much better than a truck stop.  Going to see the kids tomorrow. Can’t wait. 

God bless. 

6 am. Time to go to receiving desk and see where we stand to get loaded.   Fortunately they had a door for us and we could go ahead and move.   Our appt was for 8:30 so hopefully this means we will get out soon!   

Text from Gregory said Melissa had been bumped from list this am and they are waiting on a call to come in.  Poor thing.  I know she was already nervous and now to be delayed.  Gracious!  

DG:  Guess my grandson wasn’t ready. He’s a special one. Not that the others are not, just saying. They are all special. 

Well we did get a door, two hours ahead of our scheduled appointment.  The guy checking me in this morning was the same guy I talked to yesterday and he was trying to mess with me, in a kidding way, but I was too sleepy to catch on and be witty back. Oh well, at least I didn’t get mad but I’m sorry I missed an opportunity for joviality.  Too early. AND I’VE BEEN HERE FOR 13 HOURS ALREADY MAN, GIVE ME A FREAKING DOOR.  Is what I said on the inside. 

It was sprinkling rain when I went to receiving and now it is pouring down. But I am already at the dock high and dry in my truck.  Just hope the rain stops before they do.  

Want to get over 600 miles today. Shouldn’t be a problem. The only slowdown of course will be traffic around Chicago.  Rain is really coming down hard. Probably ought to check the weather. 

Watched the game last night. Steelers versus Patriots. Patriots won. It was a good game. I still think Rothlesberger is the better quarterback but they just couldn’t score. However, the good news is, football is back. Yea!  

Well, it’s almost 7:00am and they’ve been shaking the box for half an hour now so this is hopeful. Another concern I had was the dryness of my trailer. Word is this place is famous for refusing to load a wet trailer and since one needs to have one’s trailer washed out before arriving for pickup well one worries whether or not his trailer will be dry enough for them. Mine looked pretty dry last night and I kept the refer on all night so it should have been dry and judging by the fact that they are loading my trailer one would presume that a sufficient state of dryness was attained. 

The rain is starting to pick up. However I have faith in the Lord above that He will clear a path for us and keep us safe. Praise be to The Lord. Amen. 

And He came through again. As usual. By the time they had finished loading the trailer the rain was down to a trickle. I should have prayed for no traffic as well, but I didn’t and therefore we only traveled 460 miles today due to standstill traffic outside of Chicago, construction around Indianapolis and Louisville and a GPS/driver misunderstanding that caused a missed exit and a few miles added to the trip via an interstate turnaround. 

We are settled in Franklin, KY for the night. Should make Kennesaw by noon. 

Oh yea, The inducement was canceled so no Alexander today. I think they have rescheduled for Wednesday.  Can’t wait to meet him. But all in good time. 

Saw a flat bed truck drive through the parking lot a little bit ago with a sign almost as long as the trailer that resembled the sign on the front of the Paramount theater in Ashland. As one does not see very many of those signs these days I wondered if it was from our local theater. Did they tear down the theater and sell the sign? Were they sending it to be reconditioned?  Had to find out so we pulled up the Paramount’s website and while their sign is about the same size as the one on the truck it was obviously a different style. Not our sign. Impressive though.  

I hope everyone remembered what happened on this day 14 years ago and said a little prayer for those who lost their lives that day and for the families they left behind. 

Good night and God bless. 

We have to be at our stop at 10 with about 40 miles to go but being just outside chicago we decide to leave pretty early.  Up at 7:30 and down the road by 8.   

Fortunately traffic was light for Chicago so we made it by 9 am.  It was a live unload but fortunately didn’t take but about 30 minutes once it got to our appointment time.   

Next trip is taking us south.  We were supposed to be off starting Saturday but it looks like it’s going to be Sunday before we get to Florida.   They are inducing Melissa at 4:30 in the morning.  Prayers for a safe and quick delivery.   

The girls FaceTimed me today and are excited to see the baby.   Unfortunately, they both have pink eye thanks to Maddi now being in preschool.  They have eye drops so hopefully it will clear up quickly.  They were going to paint cards for mommy and Alex.  I asked Sadie what she was going to put on hers and she said “have a good baby”.  Haha.  

We got our next load information and its to go to Atlanta.  Unfortunately, we can’t pick it up until tomorrow morning so it looks like we are spending the night in the shipping parking lot.  We aren’t alone. There are several trucks waiting to be loaded in the morning.  Hope they are fast so we can head south!   Got babies to see. 

DG:  Another parking lot sleep over. We are in the flight path of O’Hare airport so there is a jetliner flying low overhead about every thirty seconds. Takes me back to my Air Force days except the jets back then were a lot louder. 

It’s cool here in northern Illinois so we do not have to run the truck all night for air conditioning.  

I’m trying to think of something more to say but sleep is overpowering my thoughts.  I will have to start writing first thing in the evenings instead of waiting until right before bed. 

I hope you all understand.  God bless. 

Got to sleep in until 6:30.  Wow!  Getting a later start because it took them over 4 hours to load our trailer with 26,000 pounds of Halls cough drops.   Must be getting close to cold season.   

We have 650 miles to go to reach our stop in Hodgkins, Illinois.  Just outside Chicago again so Greg is thrilled.   When we were in OakPark the other day it’s amazing to see people act like this big truck is the size of a bicycle.   They pull out slowly in front of us, some places run across the street in front of us.   Crazy people.   I especially love how they give you room to turn.   In these tight city streets and you need to turn right and there is a car at the light just looking at you like what?  I’m not backing up and giving you room.   So do we hit the car, the curb with the pole on it or wait.   Usually we end up waiting until that lane is empty or the next person realizes you need more room and doesn’t pull up in your way.   Most people get it and don’t seem to mind waiting just a minute but it’s the others that just really surprise you.   They all want their stuff but don’t expect them to make your job easier.  Sorry for the rant.  We are headed back to almost the same neighborhood we were in the other day and it is very nerve wracking to maneuver through those type of streets.  Praying now for cooperation, kindness and light traffic on our trip.   

Plus we have a Powerball ticket for tonight so hopefully this is our last trip! 

DG:  Stopped in Gary, IN.  We were just here a couple of days ago. It was morning and we had to get to Oak Park for our delivery. There was a guy in front of the main building of the truck stop with about four large smokers with ribs, chicken and sausage on the grills. It was a charity cookout for the Children’s Miracle Network.  We had pulled in here to get fuel and I smelled the cooking as soon as I got out of the truck. I was so wanting some BBQ but it was too early and nothing was ready. 

Well, we stopped today for fuel and to spend the night and the grills were still here and this time the food was ready. However they were out of ribs, but they had chicken and sausage so that’s what we had. Mmmmmmmm.    

Drove 620 miles today. Got within 40 miles of our delivery point with a 10:00 am appointment time we will be heading out of here around 8:00 in the morning. Want to give myself plenty of time in case we run into any traffic, which I am sure that we won’t. 

Good night all and God bless. 

Alarm going off at 3 am. Uugghhhh.  Time to make the donuts?  Nope, time to get down the road.   Greg is awake since he got to sleep early.   I’m dragging behind because I read too late.   Caught up in a J. D. Robb In Death book.   

DG:  So glad she has time to read, knit and crochet. Me, I drive. Annie has added a few more titles to her name. Besides navigator she is also entertainment coordinator, chief cook with no bottles to wash chef de jur ala microwave, pet sitter, head nurse, spiritual counselor, truck psychologist, and with the newly acquired fly squatter, chief exterminator and disciplinarian. Needless to say I am watching my P’s and Q’s more closely these days. Those things can sting. 

So we get to our unload and they unload us.  Pretty quickly and in their effort to keep us moving dispatch gives us a load to pick up about 80 miles away but it’s not due to be ready until tomorrow morning. They tell me the shipper won’t change the appointment time but I could go in early and see if I can get loaded or pick it up, whatever. Well I know how those things go so I ask if they have something else that I can get today and keep rolling.  So I get what is supposed to be a drop and hook, about an hour away, so we take that. So we have to get the trailer washed out, that take about half an hour but the washout place is only eight miles from our pick up. We are going to be late but not too, we hope. Arrive at shipper about 20 minutes past appointment time but there are a line of trucks, actually two lines, waiting to get in this place so it’s going to be way past appointment time when we get to the guard shack. At the shack we are told they didn’t have any empty trailers so they are going to have to live load us. Annie and I both suspect the truth is everyone left early Friday and no one worked the weekend or yesterday.  Anyway we are not going far today as I will be out of time by the time they get us loaded. 

But tomorrow we head back to the Chicago area. Woohoo!

Almost forgot, we traveled through some Pennsylvania farm country, two lane road style and saw some really old stone houses and barns and, I saw my first ever cow crossing sign. Yep, just like the deer signs only with a cow. 

The wonders of the road. 

Gotta go. God bless. 

Up at 6 and hitting the road.  Short hours today so we will be stopping mid afternoon probably.   Heading to Pennsylvania with 43,000 pounds of beef from Tyson.   Thought Tyson was chicken but not exclusively I guess.   

DG:  We’re all chicken. Where’s the beef?  It’s in my trailer. 

Just crossed into PA. Stop for the night because my 70 hour clock was down to 24 minutes. Next rest area/truck stop is over an hour away. 

Good thing we got here early. It is overflowing now and it’s just eight o’clock.  Gotta get up at one so goodnight all. God bless. 

Annie – I can’t fall asleep.  It’s still daylight outside.  Even with the curtains closed my body knows it’s still daylight. Greg is already asleep which is good since he has to get up at 3 and drive.  Our delivery time is 7:30 am and we still have 230 miles to go.  Guess I’ll read a bit and try to get some sleep.  

Up at at 8 and showered. Ready for the day.   We have two hours to get to our drop. Greg was on the phone last night and again this morning trying to find a load after we drop this one off.  Apparently being a holiday weekend the loads are not available.  Will keep trying.  Don’t want to have to sit until Tuesday!

I started keeping my crochet hooks in the cup holder so I didn’t lose them and Greg has found another use for them.   Now he can send emails easier.  Too funny!

Made it to our stop in plenty of time.  Not anybody here because of the holiday weekend but we can leave our peanuts and now off to Tyson in Ottowa, illinois to take to Robesonia, Pennsylvania.

DG:  Chocolate everywhere but no samples. Unlike Hershey, Mars does not give samples. That’s why I am boycotting M&Ms. Just kidding.

This was a stressful delivery. The plant was built back in the 20s and since that time somebody built a town and many neighborhoods around it.  And then they put in an interstate 8 miles away. Narrow streets, tight turns and lots of traffic. And I had two sets of directions both warning me about an area of weight limits and another warning not to go east on one of the streets I had to go east on, but that was a warning not to go east leaving the plant because there was a low overpass that was marked improperly.  To beat it all my GPS which is supposed to be designed for truckers was trying to direct me down several streets that an 18 wheeler had no business going down. But we made it and all was well.

Got to the next pick up on time but it wasn’t ready and wouldn’t be ready for several hours. Fortunately there was a Wal Mart not half a mile away so we went and were able to stock up on some supplies.

Next weekend we will be in Cape Coral welcoming our new grandson into the world.

God bless.