Sitting.   Trying to decide what to do today. There is a casino close by.   Greg may go play some poker.  Still early though.  We’ll see.  

DG:  Didn’t go. Stayed here. Slept. Went for a walk. Iowa is flat. Corn is everywhere. The people are nice. We nearly went blind stepping out of the truck this morning.  Day and a half in a cave and the sun was really bright. My eyes?  My eyes!  All better now. 

So tomorrow we should have something to write about. Delivery at noon. Of course we are going to start calling early to see if we can get in early. Don’t want to start my clock that late in the day as it makes for a late parking time then a late getting started time next day and so on and so forth. But we will do what we gotta do. 

Movie time.  Monty Python and the Holy Grail, still hilarious.  A Million Ways to Die in the West.  Not so good.  Never make it as a classic.  

Up at 7:30 and headed to Iowa.    We have about 400 miles to go.  

Not much to say today. We made it to a truck stop 2 1/2 miles from our stop.  Now it looks like we sit until Monday.   

DG:  Sitting.  God bless 

Up at 7:30 to head to Jefferson City, Tennesse, to get a load of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies to take to Subway in Illinois.    This load holds no temptation for me.  I don’t care for the soft gummy type of cookie.  Yuck!  Lol

When we got to our load it turns out we didn’t pick up cookie dough but donut dough.  Oh my!  37,000 pounds of flour, yeast and sugar.

We had a little bit of rain going through Tennessee.   Not enough to bother driving but it did bring the clouds in low and make the mountains look so pretty.    I realize these look a lot like the pictures I have posted before.   Sorry, but it still amazes me.

I had the window down taking pictures and this little bugger flew in and landed on my arm and stung me.   He is now squished!

DG: Memphis, IN for the night. Wait, weren’t we just here?  Yep, same place. Almost parked in the same parking space. This place has a paved parking lot for 120 trucks and then this dirt field that would probably hold 300 more. 

  
They are building something on the back side of this lot so if Love’s doesn’t own it it may not be available for much longer. 

We stood outside for a long time looking for meteors. Thought we saw a few faint ones but I think there was just too much light. This was supposed to be the best night for seeing them. 

Looks like we may have some time on our hands this weekend. Our load isn’t due till Monday noon and we will probably get to the receiver tomorrow afternoon.  That would be good except they are not open on weekends so we will have to find a place close by to park for the weekend.  And unless they find me someone to swap with I’ll be getting another reset this week. 

Tired for now. God bless. 

DG: Today’s big decision, “Where do we sit and wait?”  Can’t go anywhere until midnight as that is when I get back some time. 

Annie – Sitting in a Walmart parking lot eating breakfast.   We went off our diet this morning but it was for a good reason – BOJANGLES!  I would walk over hot coals in bare feet for the Bo rounds.   I didn’t do too bad though.  Ate half the Cajun chicken biscuit (hard to eat the whole thing with a dog looking at you) and half the Bo rounds.    So yummy!  We have got to get out of the south and quick!   Heaven help us if we find a good southern barbecue place!

DG: I confess. I had the sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and half the Bo Rounds. It was so good we just plain forgot to eat lunch. Then went off diet again with a Godfather’s pizza and chicken wings. But we counted the calories and since all portions were small and we split everything but the wings all’s good. 

Never fear, we will be back on the road in the morning and back in the diet. 

God bless. 

DG:  Well it is actually 5:00 in the morning of the 13th. We plumb forgot to blog yesterday.  So now we are at the dock of MDI food services in Hickory, NC getting unloaded. Our appointment was for five but we got here last night and they have overnight parking so we were right at the gate when they called this morning at 3:30. I only have two hours left on my clock for today so we will be finding a place to spend the day. I will pick up more time after midnight so looks like we will be back on midnight turn for a while. 

Over to you sweetheart.  God bless. 

Annie – So sorry we didn’t blog yesterday.   I am knitting a dress for Sadie and it has a lot of new stitches in it that I had to keep googling to even find out what they are and then trying to do them.  Thank goodness for YouTube videos!   I am really enjoying this pattern and learning the new stitches.  This has been a challenge but the dress is turning out really pretty I think.  I will post it when done.  

We came through Asheville, North Carolina on our way to Hickory.  It is such a beautiful area.  I can definitely see why the Cherokee made this place home and would have hated to leave it for Oklahoma.   There were lots of streams and white water rafters and the mountains through here are just gorgeous.  Can’t wait until fall!  

Well, turning back In for a bit.  They are going to call when done and wake us back up.  Haha 

DG:  Driver Greg here going first on blog duty today as I am sitting, waiting on another trip after the one I had yesterday that was given to me when I had no time to even get started and then getting the suggestion to do the pick up while logging off duty driving time which is to be done only with an empty trailer and not under dispatch. I am a little upset about that. What upsets me more is the fact that they warned me a few months ago when I wanted to drive 94 miles to Ashland while empty and heading for home time not to do it as it would have violated my 14 hour rule, but here it seemed okay?  I know they need to move freight as do I but being told to violate the rules and my conscious and leaving the rule violation up to the interpretation of a DOT officer, the violation of my conscience is up to my interpretation, I chose to go with my conscience thereby denying the fate of my future to the interpretation of one of our government’s agents. 

Hooray, somebody, somewhere got something figured out and we are at the first place we were supposed to be yesterday. 

30 minute load, now we are at second pick up. Waiting as they have to figure some things out first. After this its on to North Carolina. 

I may be thrown out of the truck shortly. I got my full compliment of sleep last night and so the coffee I had this morning is acting as a stimulant and not just a counter balance to the fatigue it usually combats. Needless to say, when I am not writing I am talking, mostly jibberish, and Annie is trying to count stitches as she knits. And for 32 years all I’ve heard is how she can multitask, did her school homework while watching TV, do and talk and listen and whatever. Well, apparently a little enthusiastic conversation while knitting is more than she can handle. So, in the interest of self preservation I am remaining silent for the remainder of the day. 

God bless. 

As you can tell by the rant above, Greg was pretty wired this morning.   I was already having to rip out the knitting I had started because of a mistake and was in the middle of counting stitches so I didn’t have another one and he just wouldn’t shut up.   I don’t believe I have ever heard him ramble on like he did this morning.   I threatened to stab him with a knitting needle if he didn’t give me five minutes of peace so I could count.   Needless to say, he finally did settle down and I didn’t have to hurt him.  Wow what a morning.  And you know ladies as well as I do that normally we can do three things at once.   Haha 

We have stopped for the night in Memphis, Indiana.   Not too far outside of Louisville.   We have almost 500 miles to go tomorrow to get to Hickory, North Carolina to drop off 23,000 pounds of garlic bread.   Why is it that since we have started our diet all we seem to do is pick up food we would like to eat or candy?    Diet is going good.  The Nutrisystem is great to have in the truck and makes it easier to stick with it.   We have to stay away from Bojangles when we get to North Carolina though.   Those Bo Rounds get us every time. 

Turning in.  Goodnight y’all.  

Up at 12:30 and on the road by 1 am.  Got to get to Wisconsin around 7-8 am.    Hope we get this schedule turned around soon.   

We dropped off our bananas on time and now up the road just a bit to pick up a load of produce to take the Hickory, North Carolina.  

Well, that was rude!   Pickup truck passed us and a rock hit the windshield. 

DG: Now I have two holes in my windshield. 

Well, second load was a bust.  Apparently the guys in trip planning failed to acquire all the info regarding this next trip and I find out there is another part to the load that needs picked up at another plant, and my pick up at this one has been moved back several hours but now I am out of time. So it gets canceled. And my dispatcher tells me that our customer service department has said its a one stop load and to go back and get the guy’s name that told me that.  Not my job man. And besides I’m out of time and so legally can’t do that. So I’m told to call the log department and find out how I can go pick up two loads and go to a truck stop when I’m out of time. So I call. I get some suggestions from a lady in the logs department, I mull ’em over for a bit. I don’t see how what she told me is legal so I call back with further questions regarding said instructions and this time a guy answers.  I tell him my situation and what the lady told me and he basically tells me the same thing and that it can be done and I ask, “well isn’t that illegal?” And am told that it’s up to the interpretation of the officer should I get stopped. “Up to interpretation of the officer?!!!!”  Well we all know how that would go down. So I tell him I don’t feel like risking my license over this and well, what can he say. So here we sit. 20 years ago I probably would have said what the hey gone ahead but being now older and somewhat wiser I opted not to chance it this time. 

We will probably sit here till morning which is okay as I need the rest. 

God bless each and every one. 

1 am.   Going back to bed.   Greg went to sleep at 5 pm so he is wide awake.  I stayed up reading and crocheting until 10:30 so not awake yet.  

2:30 am. Almost knocked out of the bed going over these bumpy roads in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  Guess I’m up a while.  

4 am.   Pulled in to Chiquita to get our bananas.   We crossed the Delaware River which was cool.   Wish I had some daylight so I could take some pictures.  

4:30.  Trying to find our load.  There is only one KLLM trailer that is loaded but no paperwork that we can find.  On these early morning pick ups when the office is closed they usually have a box on the trailer with the paperwork in it but this trailer has no such box.  After two phone calls and climbing in the back of the trailer Greg finally found the paperwork under a strap on one of the pallets.   Jeez!   This has thrown us behind a bit but we are finally on our way to Wisconsin with our green bananas from Nicaragua.  

DG: All is going according to plan. We’ve been on a tight schedule lately but that’s okay as it keeps us moving. And moving means money. No move, no money. 

I have to tell you Ohio is good to truckers. Along I-79 and other highways I’m sure, about every 30 miles that have what they call service plazas. Kind of a cross between a truck stop, gift store and mall food court, with free showers for truck drivers and a driver’s lounge. Of Course they also sell fuel and have lots of parking. I really like them even though they have an abundance of four wheelers stopping I’m appreciate the effort from the state of Ohio. 

Well I’m sleepy. Good night y’all. God bless. 

Up at 2 am.  Tried to see some stars since we are out in the sticks but between the moon and lights in the parking lot we didn’t get to see very many.   

Headed to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania this am.   It’s outside of Allentown or all the way across Pennsylvania, almost to New Jersey.   

Our load is 43,000 pounds of BACON! so we have to get weighed first thing so we have to go out of our way a bit to avoid a weigh station until we make sure we are ok.  Don’t need any big fines! 

We got our bacon delivered on time but now we are out of time again.   We are headed to New Castle, Delaware to Chiquita for bananas and taking them to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.   Going to be a lot of night driving the next few days to get clock turned around. Up at 2 the clock runs out about 3 pm so here we sit for 10 hours and will be getting up at 1 to get to Delaware. 

Still daylight but turning in.  Goodnight y’all. 

DG:  That’s the thing about over the road trucking. One day you are on day shift the next you are on midnight turn. It’s all about the clock. And I have used too much of fit already. Shift starts at one and it’s now 5:30 pm so gotsta get some shut eye. God bless everyone.  Good night. 

Up at 3:30 to head to Pennsylvania.  I went back to bed this morning for a bit until the ride got so bumpy I was getting nauseous.  It’s not easy to sleep in the bunk while the truck is rolling.

We went over the WV turnpike for a bit and then veered off to go in to Pennsylvania.   We went through the tourist area of WV once we turned.  Signs for white water rafting and skiing and all the shops were touristy, crafts, etc.    There was a lot of fog this morning so the pictures aren’t real clear.

We got just a couple of hours from our stop and they called us and told us that the load was rescheduled for next week and to drop it off in a drop lot in Coshocton, Ohio and pick up another trailer to take to Pennsylvania.  Lots of curvy back roads to end up in a dirt parking lot for the night.   But out of time so will have to get up at 2 in order to get to receiver on time.

Lovely place to stay the night.

DG:  Any port in a storm, goes the saying. But it’s not storming. Unusual drop yard. Out in the middle of nowhere. 

Next we go back to PA but eastern part this time. 

God bless. 2 am comes early.