Up at 4 am to head to North Carolina.   The clock has completely reset so We are good to go.   We are headed to Mebane which is about 30 miles from where we used to live.  I wonder if it still has the pharmacy with the soda fountain in the back?   It was such a cute small town when we first moved down there.

DG:  Spending the night just outside of Hickory, NC. We delivered some plastic to a company in Mebane then drove 160+ miles to just east of Ashville to the Baxter plant which we had visited twice before when we were with Trans Am. Didn’t recognize the address but knew right away when we pulled up to the intersection and saw the plant. We also knew that the little truck stop right across the street has killer BBQ so we had to stop in for a sandwich. Yes, that’s on our diet as long as we do not overindulge.

So now we are loaded with 43000 pounds of dialysis solution, saline and liquid nutrition.  All going to PA. Does anyone else see a pattern here?

Here’s a couple of more pictures from the Pioneer Auto Museum in South Dakato. There were too many to include all at once. Annie may have some pictures from today, I don’t know. We drove through a lot of smoke today. Apparently there are a couple of hills around here that have been burning for several days. It also started raining as we were leaving so that will help.

Enjoy the pics. I will entertain questions if you have any. God bless.

The smoke through NC was pretty heavy at times.   We saw signs that said dense smoke ahead and then we asked the guard when we got to our stop.    The air smelled like incense though which was kinda nice for a few minutes but then it was too strong.     Glad we were able to get about an hour away for the night.   Didn’t want to sleep too close to that.  I was able to get a picture.

Today was my 51st birthday and I got the nicest email from Gregory.    Well, on to 52.  Goodnight y’all.

All day at truck stop doing 34 hour reset. Slept all day. That is all. 

From Toms Brook, VA, God bless. 

Up at 4 am this morning to head to Westfield, Pennsylvania to get a load of plastic medical supplies to take to North Carolina.  I remember getting woken up a couple of times last night due to a heavy storm.    Lots of heavy rain and thunder.    I slept in a little bit but got up in time to see all the fog.    It was really pretty hanging in the trees up in the mountains.

After we picked up our load we started looking at the time and figured we had time to stop in Middletown and see the kids.   We met at a truck stop that had a McDonald’s in it and we had lunch together.    We only got to stay about 45 minutes but it was worth it.   I got lots of hugs and kisses and Maddi painted a tattoo on my arm.     It was great seeing everybody though even if for just a little bit.    Melissa looked a bit miserable.    She only has about 6 or 7 weeks or so to go until baby Alex gets here and those last weeks aren’t fun.    She is having a lot of feet swelling and I’m sure is ready for this part to be over.     Kaiden was full of stories about all the cousins that were in this week.   They really got to surprise grandma for her birthday and there were 14 or 15 kids there I think they said and the kids had a ball with all of them.   When we first got there everyone was in the bathroom so I snuck in and to surprise them.   I got lots of hugs and kisses but then Maddi wanted to know where Papaw was.  I opened the bathroom door and she saw him and runs yelling down the hallway of the truck stop – PAPAW!!!   So sweet.    She loves her mammie but Papaw is her buddy.    They walked us back out to the truck while Greg finished getting fuel and then we had to go our separate ways.    We had 2 hours to get to a Loves in Toms Brook, Virginia so had to hurry – only to find out that the delivery time had been moved to Thursday so here we sit two hours away from the kids for the next 36 hours.    At least this will give Greg’s clock time to totally reset which it needs but its a shame we didn’t know this before we left Pennsylvania.   We could have had tonight and tomorrow with the kids.    Don’t know why it worked out this way but we try not to second guess because there is always a reason why things work out the way they do.     It will definitely give us a chance to clean the truck and catch up on some sleep we have needed since the long drive from Washington.     That’s another thing too – I was disappointed we didn’t get to California from Oregon but then seeing all the horrible fires in California I now understand that God wanted us to go a different route.    Biggest reason I try not to get too disappointed when a trip doesn’t go the way I want it to go is I know there usually a reason, whether I know it or not.

Not too many pictures tonight but a few of the fog and some of the small towns we went through today in Pennsylvania.

Goodnight, y’all.

DG: Virginia is beautiful this time of year and we parked in the back of the parking lot next to some grass and the woods. I have gotten so used to the rumble of Diesel engines I hardly notice them anymore but I did notice theM today as I took Precious for a walk and heard some birds singing in the trees and I was too keenly aware of the rumbling engines just behind me. I can’t remember the last time I was in a place where there was no sound of modern machinery.  

I am going to sleep till I’m done in the morning but to do that I have to go to bed. 

Good night and God bless. 

4:30 Up and at ’em.   We have about 6 hours to go to get to our stop in Sacramento, Pennsylvania.   Didn’t even know there was a Sacramento Pennsylvania.    It’s starting to rain a bit.  Sure hope it doesn’t last long.

The rain just sprinkled for a bit so that was good.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSEY!!

We made it to our stop with our load of 40,000 pounds of potatoes.   We are just about in the middle of Pennsylvania.   Sure is pretty country up here in the mountains.  Lots of corn here too.   Haha

We have our next load which we will pick up in Westfield, Pennsylvania.  Right on the border of Pennsylvania and New York.   About 4 hours from where we are now.   The load is supposed to go to North Carolina tomorrow but Greg Only has about 9 hours on his clock so we will end up just a little further south than we are now.    We are hoping to meet up with the kids tomorrow.  They are in Middletown visiting Melissa’s grandmother for her 95th birthday party.  All the family came in but one set who is out of the country doing missionary work.   Gregory said there were about 14 kids there.  I bet ours are having a ball with all those kids.   They love their great grandmother too.   They talk about her and were excited to see her again.   Gregory says she is a hoot.   That’s wonderful that they will have those memories of her.   They have another great grandmother they would love to see too.  Hint hint (you know who you are).

DG:  Waiting for the planners and dispatch to get back to me regarding next trip I now have too little time to get there at the scheduled pick up time.  So what do they do?  Just change the pick up time. One can never be late if the pick up time keeps changing. They will probably have me swap with someone going south as I will have just enough time to get back to where we are now and Wednesday I will have only one hour and fifty minutes on my clock so we won’t be going anywhere on that day.

So we are having dinner in a diner next to the truck stop where we will be spending the night. We have been on Nutrisystem diet for about three weeks, which is working good, but decided to change it up a bit and help the locals in the process.  Food was delicious. And I ate too much of it but I deserve it.

Early morning we will be off to our pick up.  Then doubt probably as far as Carlisle for fuel and that should just about do it. Of course we will likely get to spend some time with the kids this way so see, it all works out.

Up at 2:30.   Got an early delivery time tomorrow so we have to get an early start today and tomorrow in order to make it.  I don’t know how he does it.  I can barely hold my eyes open.

More miles and miles of corn today.   We went through iowa, Illinois, Indiana and stopped for the night in ohio, just outside Akron.   Only 365 miles to go tomorrow so we shouldn’t have any trouble getting to our 1 o’clock appointment.

DG: 4:30 rise time, leave at 5:00 gives us eight hours to get there. That should be plenty of time to take a couple of bathroom breaks even. People in Pennsylvania need their potatoes and we’re gonna deliver.

Gotta get some sleep. God bless everyone.

Up and out at 5 am.   Got a long way to go today.    We were up just before sunrise.    We woke up to a lot of lightening and a mean looking sky but thankfully we ended up going around it and didnt get any rain at all today!

We went through the rest of South Dakota, skirted around the state line of Nebraska and in to Iowa.    We have found a Loves for the night in Newton, Iowa.   It is right across the street from the Iowa Motor Speedway.    There are a ton of people, cars and campers all over there for the race.    Crazy!

Speaking of crazy!   As Greg mentioned yesterday, there is a bike rally in Sturgis, South Dakota this week.   We passed hundreds of campers and bikes on the way through and even dozens more this morning, even at 5 am, headed to Sturgis.    There would be a dozen bikes in a row or 4 or 5 campers with toy haulers on the back.   All headed for Sturgis.    I went to the bathroom at 3 am and the parking lot of the truck stop was still jammed with bikers and I could barely get through.    The hotel across the street looked like a bike rally with all the bikes parked there for the night.    I cant begin to imagine how many people are going to end up at that thing.    The urge for a pair of scissors is almost overwhelming.   Something about a 60 year old man with a pony tail that really makes me want to snip snip.   haha

Not a lot of pictures tonight.    I just dont have the heart to take pictures of mile after mile of corn.   That’s about all Iowa is except for the one property you see below that had a bunch of odd things in the yard.   Very strange.

We stopped at a rest area this morning at the top of a hill that looked down at the river and there was a plaque that talked about Lewis and Clark going down the river so we walked around a bit and took a picture of the river.   Also, took one of the sunflowers that was growing all over the hillside.   So beautiful.

Also at the McDonalds here at the truck stop they have a wooden sculpture of a cowboy with his saddle.   Pretty cool. 

   
   
Well, hopefully tomorrow we will pass more than corn fields.    Goodnight,  y’all.

DG:  Well I had pictures and some very witty musings but when I posted it all went away. So here are the pictures. The muse has left. For now. 

God bless.    
            

Woke up to a gorgeous sunrise in Montana.    We were able to get through Montana, down in to Wyoming and in to South Dakota.  We had to change our plans a bit and go through South Dakota instead of North Dakota due to gas prices.   30 to 40 cents is a lot of difference especially when you get 200 gallons at a time.

We were so close to so many things.    We really need to come back this way in  a car.    We passed Custer’s last stand, The Black Hills, The Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and several historic sites along the way.    South Dakota is very rich in history.   The terrain where we were reminded me a lot of Wyoming except in a few spots where the rocks really stood out.

We still have 1600 miles to go before Monday afternoon.    We will cross the rest of South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and hopefully further tomorrow.

Goodnight, y’all!

Good morning Montana

This is the mountain from the movie Close Encounters with the Third Kind.

I have no idea

So close and yet so far

All of the rest areas have these teepees in SD.

This was as close to the Badlands as we got. Again, so close and yet so far.

DG:  Well I couldn’t guess how many motorcycles we passed.  Monday begins the Sturgis bike rally.  This event has been going on since 1940 and I think it has grown every year. Most of the bikes were dressers, very few choppers and probably as many coming in trailers as being ridden. To give you some idea how big this thing is we are at a truck stop 162 miles away and since we got here at six this evening it is now 10:00 and the bikes, campers and toy haulers are still pouring through. 

Hope they clear out by morning so we can get out of here. 

Well between the combine demolition derby, yes you read correctly, the testicle festival and Sturgis bike week I have to say South Dakotans do not lack for entertainment. 

Oh, and here are some pictures of the Pioneer Auto Show that is right across the street from where we are stopped for the night. 

  
My dream car. 1959 Cadillac.

  
That’s just what it looks like, a wooden car. 

  
An original pinball machine. No flippers. 

  
Tom Mix’s Packard. Really. 

Elvis motorcycle 

  
Car with sliding doors.  

   
 
This says use a dog, goat or sheep but I think a 3 year old would be better.   Haha 

  
I didn’t even know these existed. 

  
That’s all for now.  More later. God bless. 

Up at 7 am and heading out.

We got through Washington, Idaho and about halfway through Montana.   It is a huge state!

I can’t say enough about the landscape out here and how beautiful it is so I’ll just let the pictures explain.   I took 485 pictures.  Thankfully, they are digital and I could delete any duplicates or blurry ones.   Still ended up with over 300 and narrowed it down to 119 for the blog.    I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

We passed a little place off the side of the road on I-90 that had fountains spouting up in the air.    We went by too fast to get pictures so am sending this link for you to see.   Pretty neat.
http://sondahl.com/elmersfountain.html

We also passed a placed called Mullan, Montana that was having a testicle festival.   I kid you not!    Apparently surrounding towns get together and listen to live music, get drunk and eat Rocky Mountain Oysters.   I think that’s one festival I can gladly skip.

Well, turning in.  Long way to go tomorrow.   Goodnight y’all!

DG:  Words really don’t do it justice. I spent the whole day marveling at how majestic and beautiful is the landscape. And this is only one of God’s marvels.

Well, gotta go. Out early in the morning. PA here we come. God bless.

Up at 6:30 and ready to go to receiver.  It’s across the street so we should be fine.

We’ve been given our next load assignment and we are headed for Royal City, Washington and then Pennsylvania!   So glad we aren’t headed back to Texas!

We traveled back across the way we came for a bit to cross over in to Washington.   I have to say I am very surprised in the landscape of Washington.  I guess between movies and TV I thought it would look more like Oregon with mountains and trees but the part we were in was just like driving through Wyoming or Nebraska.   Lots of rocks, flat open fields and lots of cows.    There were a few small agricultural areas where they had some apples, peaches, nectarines and hops of all things but trees were scarce.    This part of Washington was all farm land.   Very few houses.   There was one section through the Yakima Indian Reservation that went on for miles and miles and it was just all scrub covered hills with horses every now and then.   You would see three or four horses together, then another mile and see a few more.   This went on and on and then we opened up in to a beautiful valley with a river and green fields and then back to the brown fields and hills again.    We are headed more in to the eastern part toward Spokane in the morning, the top corner of Idaho and in to Montana.   Cant wait to see what they look like.

We found a Loves in Ritzville for the night.   Ritzy it is not but we can get some sleep.    We have a long way to go to Pennsylvania.   The route shows we will be going entirely across Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota before heading south in Wisconsin to go around the great lakes and back up in to Pennsylvania.   We will definitely need the sleep!   Goodnight, y’all.

DG:  I too was surprised to see so much farmland in Washington.  I think between California, Oregon and Washington we could feed the world. 

Didn’t expect to see so many cows either. I tell you this country had it all. I don’t see why we should be buying anything from any other country.  

Time for dinner and a nap before moving on. More on the road tomorrow. God bless. 

Up at 8 am or 11 am for you in the eastern time zone.   I woke up to several emails and texts that had been sent hours earlier.   Too funny.   

We arrived at our first stop a little early.   It’s a live unload because they are only getting part of it and then we have a second stop today just a bit south of here in Silverton, Oregon.  

Well, we didn’t get too far today.  30 miles.  The first unload took 4 1/2 hours so it caused us to miss our 10:30 appt at the next place so it has been rescheduled for 8 am.   So here we sit in a grocery store parking lot across from the stop.   But it gave us a chance to go to the store and wow what a selection.   Getting here we passed all these fruit and vegetable farms and then the store has their produce in them and they are so good.    Also fresh fish so Greg had sushi and shrimp for dinner.   We got blackberries as big as your thumb.  Fresh cauliflower and blaakoli.  (yes I misspelled broccoli on purpose.  It’s blaakiii)   

The grocery store has the prettiest petunia hanging baskets I think I have ever seen.  Just gorgeous. 

DG: Truly beautiful sights.  I may have to change my opinion as to the most beautiful state however I will reserve said opinion until all are visited.

The fresh fruit and vegetables here are like none I have tried.  The land here is so fertile and they make good use of it.  You would think the locals would be walking pictures of health, but alas not everyone is so inclined to healthy eating.  Lord knows we are trying.

Like Annie said our first stop took so long not only did we miss our next appointment but our next load was given to someone else so we will be assigned another tomorrow.  In the meantime stay well and have a good day.

Good night and God bless.