Up at 6 am but hit the snooze.  It got down in the 40’s last night and I’m all snuggled in the blankets.   Perfect!   Don’t want to get up.  But alarm goes off again so we are up.   It’s currently 48 degrees in the lovely town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Greg and Precious are looking forward to going south today.   She doesn’t even want to go out and pee but get under her blanket in her basket.   The heater is on now so they should warm up soon.   

Made it to Oak Grove, Kentucky before stopping for the night.  Got to get up at 6 to get to our destination by 1:30.  Still have about 320 miles to go.  

DG:  All’s good.  Temp in the 70s.  

It’s nostalgia Wednesday as we are watching the first Star Wars movie. Awesome effects. Just awesome. 

Annie is hooked on Pinterest so our conversations now are about the meat and the wired things one finds on that site. 

I never cease to marvel at the site and feel of Kentucky every time we cross the state line. There are other places in this country that are so different and breathtaking in their own right but Kentucky just has a look and feel like no other place on earth. Is it because I was raised here?  I don’t know but I definitely feel a connection with the landscape. Like a mother with open arms ready to give you a big hug is how I feel when I see her. Yes, the state is a she as it is a life sustainer. 

Tomorrow will be here soon so off to bed and dreamworld.  God bless. 

DG:  Time to get the jacket off the back of the seat where it has been since starting this leg of our journey.  We’re in Minnesota, I understand that, but don’t they use the same calendar we do?  It’s August for crying out loud. Technically it is still summer. Get with the program people. 

Annie – Greg and Precious are crying like little girls.  It’s cold this morning here in Minnesota.   Precious usually likes to run around a bit when she goes out but the last two days she has peed and run back to the truck.    Too funny.   Don’t know what these two are going to do when Winter comes.  

Made it to our stop at Kraft with plenty of time to spare.   Another KLLM diver here who said he was only here about an hour before they started loading him.   Fingers crossed!!  We’ve been here 45 minutes already.   Greg is going to take a short (we hope) nap and I’m back to my crocheting.   Almost done with a shawl I am making for mom.  If we keep staying in cold weather I may have to make her another one.  Haha 

DG: Stopping for the night near Cedar Rapids, IA. Have about 13 hours to Georgia.  This will be our third trip to the same place in the last week. The other KLLM driver that was at Kraft at the same time is going to the same place. He left about an hour before us so we probably won’t see him any more on this trip. 

That is all for now. God bless. 

3 am.  Greg wakes me up telling me to come look at all the stars.   We have been trying to see the night sky but it seems everywhere we park there are dozens of lights so we can’t see anything.   Where we parked last night is pretty remote with just a few lights so at 3 am the sky is pretty amazing.   It’s hard to believe how many stars are really up there and we still aren’t seeing them all.   It’s amazing.  
By the time I get back in the truck I am freezing.  I can’t believe it but it’s 57 degrees this morning – in August!   Not that I mind really.   You can always get warm it seems but when you are hot it’s just miserable. 

We have about six hours to go to get to Minnesota.   Then we will see where we are off to next.  

School starts today for the kids.  Even Maddi is going to pre-K.   She is so excited. Sadie starts first grade and Kaiden starts junior high.   I can’t believe it.   Where has the time gone.  

The girls got their hair cut Saturday  getting ready for school.  

   
    
   
Yesterday they spent the day getting ready for baby Alex.  Just about 3 weeks away.  Can’t wait! 

DG: Who has the cutest grandkids?  I do. No really. Everybody says theirs are the cutest, but just look at those Angels. No brag, just fact. 

Spring Valley, Minnesota is where we are. Parked for the night in the parking lot of an out of business variety store. One wonders, looking at the now empty shell, what happened?  Mismanagement? Better competitor?  Or community apathy. I just wonder how different things would be if communities, as a whole, took a more active role in supporting the businesses of their neighbors. There would be no room for chains and franchises. Sure you may pay a little more for your goods and services than a larger corporation would be able to sell for but you would keep the integrity of your town.  Now there’s is not a city, town or berg in this country that does not have multiple vacant buildings. Buildings that once housed the dreams and aspirations of a familiar family.  And now the big chains and corporate stores buy up land once used for farming and out up giant buildings and fill them to the rafters if things we do not need or want but will impulsively throw into our buggies as we walk the isles of these monstrosities spending way more than we needed to or intended. 

I’m reminded of a little corner market close to where I grew up where a mother and housewife could call the proprietor and place an order for her weekly needs and then pick up the order later that day or send one of the children after it, the cost of which being put into an account that would be settled at the end of the month. 

Spring Valkey looks like it was once one of those places. Now the empty shells of bygone days sat and as tombstones along the graveyard that was once Main Street. 

I am thankful for those memories even though they are now accompanied by sadness. Those are memories that no other generation will ever know.  And that is truly sad. 

I know you are probably thinking of Wal Mart as the perpetrator of this new way of life but I did a little research and discovered the origin of self service. You may be surprised but Piggly Wiggly was the first store if any kind to offer “self service”. Which essentially means “no service”. You pick from the shelves, carry your products to a counter and a clerk takes your money. The store saves on labor, but do your goods cost any less?  No. 

Annie – Turning in.  Don’t have to get up at 3 but get to sleep until about 7.  Woo hoo!  Our next trip is north just a bit and then dropping it in Union City, Georgia.  Again.  

Goodnight, y’all.  

2 am.  Up and heading to the truck.  Got fresh sheets, rugs, laundry, us. Now time to head north.   

DG:  What a day. Absolutely without event. Just the way we like it.

Stopped in Eolia, MO at a Fast Lane truck stopped. It is only 4:00 pm but that’s what happens when you start in the middle of the night. 

The temperatures are getting cooler and the humidity is lessening.  We have about seven more hours to go as our stop is in southern Minnesota cry close to the Iowa state line. 

We’re taking a nap right now. Will write more once refreshed. 

Refreshed, but now it’s time to go. 

God bless. 

2 am.  Time to get up and head to Mississippi.   We need to get refrigerator fuel (reefer fuel) before we park the trailer so it stays cold while it sits.   We stopped at the truck stop we stopped at last night on the way in to the Walmart distribution center but they were closed.  Every light in the place on and it’s locked up tight.  This also means no bathroom!  An attendant who watches over the truck parking area came over and said they closed at 10 and if I needed a bathroom I could use the one the truckers use, “it’s pretty clean”.  Suffice it to say it was not “pretty clean” but When you gotta go you gotta go.  The next truck stop is 70 miles.    Why is it that men can’t hit the toilet bowl.  Why must is be in the floor, on the seat, who knows where else.   It’s a pretty good size target to hit if you ask me.   

Ok.  Took trailer and moldy bacon back to lot and picked up empty trailer to take back to Louisiana.  

I’m Melting!!  Got to our stop to pick up load and it’s at a chemical place.   They won’t let me in since I am not a driver so I have to get out of the truck and wait at the guard shack while Greg goes in and picks up load.  Do they let me in the guard shack where it’s air conditioned?  NO!  Do they give a nice chair to sit in outside in the heat?  NO!   I am sitting on a hard as nails fold up chair in 82% humidity and sweating bullets.   Nice to know the guy in the guard shack is nice and cool though.   

Ahhhh.  Here comes my ride with his escort. 

Bought myself a present at the truck stop.  Signed edition!   841 pages. Chicken etoufee anyone?  If it swims, crawls, walks, hops or flies this book has a recipe for it.  

We decided to stop in Jackson Mississippu for the night where KLLM has a terminal.  We dropped the trailer there and drove to the quality inn for the night down the road.  We did laundry, showered and were able to watch some TV.    Now off to sleep.  Gotta get up at 2 to finish our trip.   Sure will be nice to sleep in a normal bed even if it’s just for a few hours. 

Greg is already asleep so I better turn in too.  Goodnight y’all. 

3:15 AM. Up and heading to Walmart Distribution Center. I hope they don’t take 4 hours to unload us like last time!  

Well, it took almost 4 hours to the dot.  8:38 and we are done.  Fortunately we were able to go back to sleep once we got settled here so that’s good. 

Apparently there is a trailer in Mississippi that is in the KLLM parking lot that they want us to go get.  The driver probably ran out of time and couldn’t get here on time so they parked.  We will go get it, about 90 miles, and bring it back to walmart to do this whole thing over again.   Yay!  😩

We got back to Louisiana about 3 pm but appointment isn’t until 4:45 and we can’t check in sooner than one hour early so we stopped off at a truck stop to get pop and ice for the night. We will probably end up sleeping in the walmart parking lot because Greg only has a couple of hours left on his clock. 

Finally we get checked in and now we wait. Again.  

DG:  We are back in Louisiana at the same Wal Mart distribution center we were at this morning. Except our appointment now is 12 and a half hours later than the one we had this morning. This morning, due to my time constraints we were, by Wal Mart rules, late by ten minutes. Apparently you have to make it through the guard shack registration, finding and backing into your assigned door and make your way to the receiving office which in some cases may be a couple hundred yards from where you park, by your appointed time. However, you may not show up more than one hour early.  So this evening we were exactly one hour early and they still did not get me a door until my appointed time. However I must say the lady who checked me in is a sweet southern lady who, when giving me my door assignment said if someone was still in that door to park until they left and if they got another door open sooner she would call me. Well, there was someone in my door but fortunately for us there was a parking space directly accross from the door next to it so I pulled in there giving me nearly a straight shot to back into my assigned door. Well, several minutes went by and my phone rang. It was the lady from the receiving desk. She asked if someone was still in my space and I told her yea and then she asked if the space next to that one was open and when I told her it was she said, “Well you get on in there honey”.  I just love the south. By the way, that door was directly behind me so there wasn’t any slanting and angling to be done. Anyway it’s around 8:00 pm now so I have to get some sleep so we can pull out of here around 2:00 am. 

God bless. 

Annie – Again almost 4 hours on the nose.  Why bother scheduling appointments so early when you know it’s going to be 4 hours.   So, Greg’s time starts again at 2 am so he is off to bed so we can get to our next trip, supposedly pick up in Louisiana somewhere and take to Minnesota.  I am ready to leave the south.  Way too hot for me and the humidity down here is awful.  

The call came in at about 9 that they were done unloading so Greg went to get his paperwork and finish up but there is an issue.  Apparently where it sat for a couple of days waiting some of the bacon packaging had mold on it so they rejected part of the load.  Not sure what happens next so waiting on call from office.  Oy! 

Ok.  We are to take trailer back to the lot in Mississippi where we picked it up and get a new empty trailer then go back to Louisiana to pick up our load for Minnesota.  

Better turn in.   Night y’all. 

DG:  Its day 211, a Thursday, Greg and Annie have stopped in a small hamlet just inside the state line of Louisiana after a day’s drive from Georgia. 

Stopping at a truck stop several miles east of here for an emergency bathroom break, when is a bathroom break not an emergency, dark clouds moved in over the happy couple. Really dark clouds. Rain began to fall and at once without speaking, they both came to the same conclusion. “We probably ought to sit here until this rain passes” Annie said. “It shouldn’t be long”.  Greg was thinking, all that and beauty to boot. “My dear, you are a genius”, Greg said. “I agree”. That’s when she clobbered him with the water jug. He was after all being a smart ass and she was having none of that. “It’s the caffeine honey. I swear”, Greg said in his defense. Without saying a word the water jug found its mark a second time. One thing is for sure, Greg has a hard head. 

Annie – Goofy butt.  All day every day in a very small enclosed space.   I may have to start drinking.   Nope, DOT says no booze in the truck.   Guess I’ll have to put up with him and take a lot of naps.  Haha 

We have to be at the Walmart Distribution Center at 4:15 am so off to bed.  

Goodnight y’all. 

And God bless. 

DG:  Waiting again. This next load was going to be a quick one. Dropping off a loaded trailer and picking up a loaded trailer, at the same location. That doesn’t happen very often. 

Checking in at the guard shack my hopes were up as the shipping clerk handed me a piece of paper with the location I was to drop the trailer I was delivering and the door in which I would find my loaded and ready to go trailer. This was going to be quick and easy. Ah, not so fast bunky.  Drop delivery trailer and found take out trailer right where he said it would be. Numbers match. Light is green. I hook up, pull away from the door, go around back to write down seal number. No seal.  This is strange. Maybe they will seal it at the gate. No, something is not right. Open the trailer door, EMPTY. They haven’t even started loading it yet. It was supposed to be ready at 8:30, I was here on time after driving through rain and wind, around wrecks, lightning and thunder. This is not right. 

Oh well, guess I will get some shuteye. They can load me when they are ready. 

God bless. 

Well, here we sit again.   Boy this week is not adding up to a lot so far.    We got in yesterday but they said load would be ready today.  Ok.   Called at 8 am and guy said our trailer was at the door and would be ready in a couple of hours.  Great!  10 am.  Head to Kraft (Oscar Mayer division) and we are told it’s not ready yet and will be a couple of hours.  I’m starting to see a pattern.  Just tell them two hours and make them go away.   Gracious sakes.  

So we went to have lunch.   I am loving the McDonalds southwest chicken salad with balsamic dressing.  Only 360 calories but Precious eats most of the chicken so it’s even less.  Lol.   

DG:  I hate waiting.  Again, the only person in this scenario that is not getting paid is the driver. The security guard is getting paid.  The shipping clerk is getting paid. All secretaries and supervisors are getting paid. Even the custodial staff and the window washers are getting paid. The driver?  He sits and waits without pay or compensation of any sorts unless the lumpers are really slow then a few coins are thrown his way that hardly makes up for the time he would spend driving earning his living. And as with all things paid on a per piece basis, miles in this case, these are times that cannot be made up. In other words they are lost forever. Into the ether. Vanquished to eternity. Never to be seen again. Gone. Forever. 

See what waiting does to me?  I become ridiculously contemplative and irrationally reflective. I hate waiting.

We are sitting in a truck, obviously, in a dirt lot across the street from the city cemetery.  I don’t have a word to describe this situation. There is no metaphor that applies and ironic is not the proper adjective if indeed ironic is an adjective.  I had Ms. Ison for 11th grade English and it is her fault I do not know the difference.  That’s not true. It’s my fault entirely. Even now I could look it up. On Google. In this day and age there is no excuse for anyone not knowing everything as it is all at our fingertips thanks to Steven Jobs and the two guys who started Google. I could Google their names but don’t feel like it right now. Don’t care. They took away my excuse for not knowing certain things. Now this is not to be confused with not understanding because I Googled physics one time and although everything written on the subject, including recent college papers written by some very smart students of the subject were there before my very eyes, I could make nary heads not tails of most of it although I did find the reading very fascinating, the understanding escaped me. 

Now back to my cigar. 

Cigar lit. Thoughts return. Back to the cemetery.  Final resting place for all who have waited, waited for that final call, waited for that final day, that final breath. The only thing in life that is final. Death.  But for the true believer death is only a doorway. A door into eternity. Will that be final?  No, that’s just the beginning.  So why all the waiting?  What purpose do we have here if it all ends in the same place?  We must make our mark. We must use our God given talents to mark the way.  We must leave something for those who follow behind. And regardless of your belief, this is what we do. I sit in a parking lot filled with many trucks, the invention of which was one man’s mark and thus has allowed others to make their mark. The miners of the raw materials used to make the frames, engines and bodies of these trucks. The assemblers that put it all together. The engineers who determine how it will all go together so that all those pieces will work together as one, properly. Each truck has the mark of every person involved in its creation whether it be seen or not it is there. And the driver. Where is his mark. His mark is in the freight he moves everyday, well almost everyday, taking goods from manufacturer to store so that people can have the things they need and want.  Everything you own and every material that is the essence of those things has at one time been moved by a truck. And that truck has to have a driver.  Proud to be an American truck driver. 

Now I feel like we should have some sort of common shout amongst us drivers kind of like the Army and Marines.  That may get a little weird around truck stops though. Don’t mention this to anyone. It’s a bad idea. 

Annie – Dear God – Please get us moving again soon!    

DG:  Around 3:00 pm prayers were answered. That means a four hour load time which means some compensation for our time. On the road again. 

I almost hate to admit it but I get a little excited when we begin a new trip. New roads, new places and we are moving which is what we do best. 

Drove through some horrendous rain and wind. I’m sure there was a tornado close by. Lots of lightning all across the sky. Made for one heck of a light show.  

Stopped in Marion, IL for the night. No regular parking spots open so we are parked by the scales. Don’t like it but what do you do. We got here late. 

Tomorrow it’s on to Georgia.  God bless all. 

Annie – A picture of the map while going through the storm.   Could barely see at times and the truck was swaying.  Pretty scary and then it just stopped.  Crazy!

   
 
After the storm there was a puddle at the truck stop I swear looked like a man.  

  
Well, goodnight y’all.  

Up at 7:30.  Appointment isn’t until noon but thought we would give it a try and call to see if we can get in early.   They said that was fine and off we go.   The place used to be an Aldi’s warehouse but now it’s a bakery.   Sure smells good whatever they are making and we are dropping off donut ingredients.    

Glad we could get in early so we can get on the road.  Noon would have put us getting in somewhere late tonight.   

Well, guess we weren’t in a hurry to get our load dropped off after all.   Got our new load information and it says pick up tomorrow.   We can’t get out of Iowa!! 

DG:  Stuck in Iowa again. Reminds me of a song. 

Well with a tomorrow pick up time that  gave us time to go to Wal Mart again.  We’re staying pretty well stocked up on drinks and snacks. Healthy snacks. 

We were fortunate that Kraft let us drop our trailer on their lot. So tomorrow, when they call that the load is ready, we will bobtail over and pick it up. 

I meant to write more given the free time we have had but I took advantage of the time in other ways and that means pretty much doing nothing. I meant to clean all my windows inside and out but didn’t. I did clean the inside while we were waiting to be unloaded. Just seems better that way then I am not technically using my off time for truck business.  Although that does sometimes happen.  

Well, it’s getting late and I don’t know what time they are going to call in the morning so think I will turn in.  

God bless.