Woke up to a gorgeous sunny day.  It’s 40 degrees already and we are heading south to Georgia.   That should make someone in the drivers seat very happy!

We are getting pretty used to this route by now.  It seems it’s the same every week.   We went by Kansas City, St. Louis, Paducah, Nashville and have stopped just north of Georgia.    Just three hours to go tomorrow to get to Atlanta and load isn’t due until 6:30 am on Monday so it sounds like a laundry day.  Lucky me!

I’ve started J.D. Robb’s new book – Obsession in Death, so the miles went pretty quickly. I cant hardly put her books down when I start one.

I was able to get three pictures of hawks finally!   I swear they are all over the place when we are driving.   Protecting us and watching out for us.   We also saw a lot of birds migrating north again today.    Some were the snow geese like yesterday and then we saw some gulls.   There is one picture of a field and there are probably a thousand birds on the field and in the air over it.   Its amazing to see.   Also went over one river and there were tons of birds in there as well.   Those were gulls I believe.   Its amazing the large number that fly in together.   Nature is amazing.     Thousands of birds fly thousands of miles and it looks choreographed.   Get a dozen people on a sidewalk and you get stepped on.  LOL

Driver Greg here:  Amazing it is.  Every day, every mile I am awed by God’s creation.  This is a beautiful country and we are blessed to live and work here.  The other day I was moping about something and Annie picked me right up by pointing out that the truck was my office.  And what a view I have.  It gave me a more positive perspective about what we are doing.  I do have an awesome office.  And an awesome wife and friend.  We are having so much fun together.  We have always done better when we are together 24/7 and this is 24/7 in a tight space so we are having a ball.

Well, another day behind us and another load almost complete.

Good night and God bless.

Post Script: Sitting here just now a truck pulls in with a big black box on a trailer with radioactive placards on it.  Oh boy.  What could that be?  Hope we don’t wake up all aglow if you know what I mean.  LOL.

Hawk

Winery

More birds

Hawk

Hawks

Goodnight Illinois

Goodnight KY

Up late for us.  8:30am. Due to getting in so late his time doesn’t start until 10 am.  Throws us off a bit for the day.   We are headed to Golden Circle, Nebraska and then on to Georgia.   Another good long trip!  Keep them coming!

We have seen thousands of birds flying west the past few days.  According to Google they look like Snow Geese heading to their spring breeding grounds in Canada and northern US.   It is gorgeous to watch them fly together and see them on some of the ponds and lakes. They just about cover the water there are so many of them.

First stop in Lexington, Nebraska.   Tyson Foods.   I cannot explain to you the stench at these places.   You see the butchering area where all the trucks are with live animals and then we go to the other side for the packaged meat.   Something is cooking in between and there are big plumes of smoke coming out of some of the buildings and OH MY WORD! It is horrible.  I’m cramming gum in my mouth to hopefully smell that instead of outside but am sorely tempted to stick the gum up my nose.  I haven’t yet but I have thought about it.

It’s starting to get dark and it’s amazing watching the sun go down over the plains.  It lights up the sky for miles and seems to take a while.   Just beautiful.   The birds are still everywhere.   Just great big groups of them and then There will be several small groups.    They swirl and dip and make all kinds of shapes.    Reminds me of Finding Nemo when those fish made all those shapes.  LOL.

We still have about 5 hours of driving tonight. Going to stop outside of St. Louis – again!

Found a Pilot about an hour from St. Louis.   Going to stop and get some rest.  Another late night.  11:15 pm already.  Got to get up and go another 10 hours tomorrow.

Goodnight, y’all.

Up at 5:30 and hitting the road.    We have to be in Nebraska by 7 o’clock pm.    Having to go 25 mph for several hours yesterday in the snow really threw our time table off so we are going to have to push it.   Which means no diet coke because we can’t stop too often.

Not a cloud in the sky this morning but it is really cold.  Only 14 degrees.    I can’t complain though as you guys in Ashland are getting pounded with cold and snow I hear.  Mary – you are not getting off your hill until spring I’m afraid.

Greg says his right butt cheek is numb.  I’m surprised both cheeks aren’t since he barely moves all day.  I can get up and move around a bit and stretch but he is stuck sitting and driving.

Greg – sorry I didn’t write anything last night. Just too tired to think.   Catch up with you later.

600 miles later and with just a bit of time to spare we made it to the walmart distribution center in North Platte Nebraska.  Now we wait to be unloaded and then we can rest for the night!

Greg: Actually we pulled in out of fuel and out of time.  I had less than an 1/8th of a tank so I pulled in the truck stop next to the Wal Mart distribution center and put in 50 gal. and filled up my refer tank and DEF tank.  DEF, another government requirement to help diesels run cleaner.  Of course like the no lead and ethanol gas you put in your car it’s not so good for the engines, but you have to add that to the cost of whatever you buy that is delivered by truck.  Oh wait, that’s EVERYTHING.  We are gouged in so many ways it’s hard to keep track.

Well, as stated above, we are no longer in Florida.  Below freezing temperatures last night but Nebraska is surprisingly mild, low 50s when we got here, getting colder but supposed to be in the 50s tomorrow and next day.  Of course we don’t know yet where we are going next so that weather report may be totally useless.

I’ll tell ya now, Wal-Mart ain’t the fastest at getting you loaded and unloaded.  Backed the trailer into the dock 45 minutes ago and no word yet.  The last two Wal-Marts we have been too were at least two hours getting us unloaded.  And both of those were partial trailers.  This one is fully loaded.

As Annie said we are in North Platte, Nebraska home of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody.  His ranch is still here and open to the public.  That’s one place I would like to visit.  Nebraska is nice.  Rolling terrain in spots, many miles of flat land, lots of corn fields and cows.  I still think Florida has more cows than anywhere, except maybe Texas.  When we were there last weekend it seemed like they were everywhere.  Much like corn in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and probably the Dakotas although we haven’t been there yet.

Still seeing lots of hawks.  They sit on the edge of these corn fields waiting for mice to come out to eat.  It’s fun to watch them fly.  We also passed several large ponds each with hundreds of ducks in them.  And a field with what looked like thousands of bird all gathered together.  They looked like the ones that formed that bird tornado we saw the other day, but these were just sitting in the field.  Nature is wonderful to behold.

Well, you guys in Kentucky try to stay warm, and Doc, hang in there brother, Texas is on our mind.  We will get there soon I promise.

Good night and God Bless.

Well, we have been at Walmart for 4 1/2 hours so far.  I went in and asked the clerk about our load and she said they have 750 cases out of 1500 unloaded so far.    Good grief!

It took 5 hours to get unloaded.   And we have to pay for that privilege.   Anyway, stopped at Flying J for the night and ready for bed.  Goodnight y’all.

Good morning Missouri!

Up and at them but thankfully still 55 degrees so no ice and sleet this morning.    Got to put a lot of miles on the truck today so hopefully our troubles are behind us.   No leaking in the axle so off we go.

Pretty good going until western Kentucky then hit snow and ice.  Roads are okay right now. Salt Trucks and snow plows are out which is good.  Doesn’t seem to slick when we stop.   Pretty slow going but at least we are going.   Radar shows it stops outside St. Louis which is just a couple of hours away.    There were a lot of trucks and cars on the side of the road and in the median but we got through fine.  Probably helps we are loaded.

The windshield got so frozen up at one point that Greg had to pull off and de-ice it.   We tried to stop at a rest area on the highway but it was completely full.   Cars and trucks had even pulled up all the back to the highway trying to get in.   So, he had to pull up off the road past the rest area to do it.   As mentioned, the ice trucks and snow plows were out and I looked out the window to check on Greg and saw this snow plow coming down the highway throwing snow off the road in about 6 foot high waves.   I saw Greg coming around the drivers side of the truck and started yelling – MOVE!   Just as he saw the snow plow coming as well.   He managed to get to the other side of the truck before he got snowed under.   That would have been awful.   I dont know if he would have ever gotten warm after that.    He has already cried the whole way since leaving Florida.   LOL   It was 80 degrees when we left.   ha ha.

Got to Missouri and it was like the faucet was turned off.  No more snow and the roads were clear.    Made it to the Pilot in Pendelton, Missouri, outside of St. Louis for the night. Got 600 miles to go tomorrow.

Greg is already in the bed so he wont have any comments on the blog tonight.

Goodnight, y’all.   Keep warm!

Cool car parked beside us at rest area.

This is the tire that had the leaking axle.

Wreck not far up the road.

We couldnt see out of the windshield so Greg had to get out and de-ice the window.

Well, the morning started off early the way we were supposed to but Greg noticed that the axle is leaking again.    It’s not a lot but needs to be fixed.  Tried sending in work order but system has a red light which means no signal. Tried calling.  On hold forever.   So he thinks we should go.   Truck repair place just 60 miles.

We made it to the Travel Center in Lake Park, Georgia without any problems.  Thank God.   Now we sit and wait while they fix it.   Hopefully really fix it this time!

Speaking of travel centers, why do they have to have the same restaurants in them everywhere you go?   People travel all over.  Break it up now and then!   TA centers have Arby’s.   Pilots have subways.   I may never eat another subway in my life.    Arby’s is getting real close to the line too.   I get nauseous just walking in Pilot and smelling that bread now.  Why not Pilots in this state have one restaurant and Pilots in another have something else.   Nobody wants to eat subway for weeks on end.

Driver here:  I’m getting too good at waiting.  Something I don’t like.  Same problem, different day.

So I really hate to say anything bad about anyone and I don’t think it’s my imagination as I have been noticing a growing number of incompetent people in the world.  Not so much low intelligence but rather an aura of disassociation.  It’s like nobody is in the moment, an inability to concentrate on the task at hand.  Their minds are somewhere else.  I think we have too many distractions in our lives.  Instead of being taught to focus we are offered up multiple forms of distractions from early childhood on through adulthood.  To the point that much of our education in our early years takes the form of entertainment and that is what we have come to expect.  There can be so much magic in every moment that it’s overwhelming sometimes to experience.  Not to say people are incapable, they have forgotten how to pay attention.  And get to easily distracted by their wandering thoughts.  I am guilty of this as well, but I’m working on it and I think I am getting better.  But it just hit me today that this is the case as I experienced several occurrences of this behavior just today.

Oh, bright shiny object.  Will be back later.  

Finally!   Back on the road after 4 hours of sitting around.    Got some time to make up.   They set the drop time to Thursday now instead of Wednesday which gives us time to complete the load but delays our time in the process as this will cause us to miss another load faster.   Well, at least the company is making money! 

I know most of you won’t feel like it, but spring is coming.   Something has already started blooming in Georgia.   I know this because I have sneezed all day!   We did see some trees with what looked like little flowers on them and what looked like red bud trees so one of them may be the culprit.  At any rate, Kleenex has been my friend today.    It’s sad that I am looking for cold weather again.   

We went through Atlanta at a pretty good rate tonight.   Usually we just stop and inch our way through town but we got there about 6:30 tonight and only had to stop a few times.   It started getting really foggy as we got close to the city and then by the time we stopped it started raining.   Not much but just enough to make going up to the bathroom fun.   Weather report says it is supposed to turn cold tonight and the rain is to turn into sleet.   I hope not as we go up the mountain in to Tennessee in the morning.

We have parked at a Pilot in Dalton, Georgia for the night.   Still got a lot of miles to cover tomorrow.

Driver here:  I can feel the cold air already.  It was 57 when we pulled into the truck stop.  Supposed to get colder over night.  I miss Florida already.

Well, once the axle seal was repaired, for the second time in 24 hours, we got underway and made pretty good time with the time we had remaining.  Here again, the government bureaucrats thinking they know what’s best for me require me to pull off the road for 10 hours after I sat for four hours.  Jeez, I wish just one of those turkeys would do a job before getting the urge to regulate it.

All looks good so far, no leaks.  I had a low tire so have to keep an eye on that.  Everything seems to be logged correctly, no messages to the contrary, I am technically in the sleeper berth, don’t tell anybody I’m writing this now, so I will say goodnight and write more tomorrow after a long drive through the mid-west.

Good night and God bless.

Chicken farm

Anybody need a trailer?

Georgia Pecan trees.

This is the runway for the airport. You go through it to get to Atlanta from the south. Whats scary is when you see a big airplane go across it as you go through.

Well, we got off to a late start.   I tell ya, they don’t tell the new folks anything.   Greg went out to the truck yesterday to get something and noticed a message from the office. They had us a trip booked for Sunday that we didn’t know about.  Greg emailed them and told them we were off this weekend and the guy said he didn’t know and would contact dispatch about what to do.   Waited all evening for a call and then this am called the office and was put on hold forever and Greg finally hung up.   We figured we didn’t have a load yet so we decided to go to breakfast with Gregory, Mel and Maddi.    Got there, ordered our food and got a call from Transam that Cape Coral was about to tow our truck even though it was sitting in front of the house.  Cape Coral has some weird laws about business names being on vehicles.   Anyway, we rushed out of the restaurant without eating and made it back in time to not get towed.    In the midst of this, Greg gets a call from the office Finally and said the load he got yesterday is his and he needed to be on the road at 6 am this morning.    Why didn’t the guy yesterday say that!!!!!!   So we load up the truck with all our stuff and head out.  Maddi keeps saying “I don’t want you to leave” and gives each of us about a dozen kisses.    The morning had already been tearful saying goodbye to Sadie and Kaiden when we took them to school.    What a roller coaster ride of a day.

So we finally get on the road and Greg gets a message that he has to buy load locks which are bars that go across the back of the load to keep it from shifting.  We had just pulled in to a Pilot so that worked out good.  Ok.  Back on the road.   We are headed to Coca Cola in Auburndale, Florida.

The day just gets better and better.   Got to Coca Cola for a drop and hook which means we leave our trailer and pick up a loaded one. In and out.   Real quick.   Nope.  Not today.   Got there and got connected to the new trailer and while Greg did his inspection he noticed a axle oil seal leak which is apparently a big deal so we couldn’t go anywhere until  that was fixed.   Called a repairman and waited about an hour for him to get there and then about an hour to fix it. So a load that should have taken just a few minutes took over two hours and threw us even later.    We have to be in Nebraska by 7 pm Wednesday.   Going to be pretty tough at this point.   Praying for a better and more productive day tomorrow that’s for sure.    Greg still has about three hours of drive time so hopefully we can get some miles in.

We have 42,000 pounds of orange juice.  We had to go the backroads to the coca cola plant and we saw acres and acres of orange trees.   Some were heavy with fruit and some were just blooming and had the most fragrant white blooms on them.   Must be a different variety or something is all I can figure.   We also went past an orange processing plant and boy could you smell the orange juice.    Look closely at the pictures and you will see all those oranges in trucks and bins in the processing plant.

We stopped at a rest area on I-75 for the night.   Long day tomorrow.    Goodnight everybody!

Driver here:  Well the picture below about says it all.  That’s my granddaughter Maddie giving me goodbye kisses.  When I talked to her on the phone on our way there she said she was going to kiss me all over my face.  Well, she did.  What a joy those three kids are.  Kaiden and Sadie are doing well in school and excited about it.  Kaiden is in Weblows and has his soap box derby this coming weekend.  Sure wish I could be there for that.

Well, Annie told you what a day we had after leaving the kids.  Sometimes I wonder who’s running this outfit.  That’s the second trailer in the last 10 days I have discovered with a leaking seal.  Maybe I’ll just stop looking as that appears to be what others are doing.  No, I can’t do that.

With that all said and done the driving has not been very long today and we have not gotten as far as we had hoped.  Of course if someone could have given me an answer yesterday we would be halfway to Nebraska.  Oh well, we always say there is a reason for everything and this just may have kept us out of some serious trouble.  We’ll make it up.  Don’t worry.  Not that you would.  I mean do you really care if the people in Nebraska get their orange juice?  Well yea.  Everybody needs their orange juice.  So we’ll take it to them.

I’m sleepy.  More tomorrow.  Enjoy the pics.  Goodnight and God bless.

Kissing papaw goodbye. She said she was going to “kiss him all of his face” and she sure did!

Only in Florida do you have a caution sign for Sand Hill Cranes.

See the manatee?

Orange trees!

Pretty building in Auburndale, Florida.

Baby orange trees

Snow birds have arrived.

This guy had two horses and 5 hound dogs in his trailer. Guess it was hunting time.

Osprey nest with two in it.

Look at all those oranges!

What my sweetie bought me at the Coca Cola place!

Wow!   It’s March already!

We have spent another wonderful day with the babies today.  So much fun.   We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then went fishing.   Didn’t catch anything but had a lot of fun anyway.   Everybody got to get their toes wet a little bit.   We would cast for the girls and they would reel it back in.  Kaiden is an old pro so he didn’t need any help.   We walked the couple of blocks to the water which was nice.   We took all the dogs and they seemed to enjoy getting out as well.   Just about everybody was grumpy on the way back because it was getting so warm.  85 degrees today but after standing out in the sun for a couple of hours it felt warmer than that here. Kaiden was on his bike so he went ahead and had cups of ice water for everyone waiting on us when we got back to the house.  Very thoughtful and appreciated.

We played for a bit while the guys watched O Brother – again.

I put the girls on the tub and washed their hair.   Then they played Barbies until the water got cold.  So funny to listen to their banter.

Speaking of banter – after our walk the kids were not and sweaty and wanted to get in the pool.   This requires an adult and I was not swimming in February. The water isn’t that warm!   Sadie and Maddi went to their room mad and shut the door.  We could hear them in there talking about how unfair we were that we wouldn’t let them swim.  They were going on and on.  It was hilarious and probably a scene we will witness many times in the future about how awful we adults are.

Gregory grilled some pork chops and a steak for me on the grill tonight for dinner.   Then it was off to bed and since they have to get up at 6:30 in the morning for school.   The weekend is gone already.   Boo Hoo.

Goodnight, y’all

Walking to the fishing hole.

Princess time!

Papaw and his girls.

Driver Greg here.  Mammie, (Annie), is too busy playing with her babies, Sadie and Maddie, to write so I am going to fill you in on what happened today.  Today was the first of two days off with the grandkids.  I spent the day running errands, picking up prescriptions and getting them filled, picking up supplies for the truck, snack stuff, got a hair cut, and a couple of other personal errands that needed done.  Annie stayed home and did crafts and played games with her girls.

Tomorrow we clean out the truck real good and try to rearrange things so we can put more stuff in it.  Oh, and laundry.  Had to do laundry.  So it was overall a fun and relaxing day free of the stress of making delivery deadlines and pick up deadlines.  That all starts again Monday with a pickup in Leesburg, FL and a delivery to Lemont, CO, just north of Denver.  We are contemplating taking the mostly southern route through Texas, New Mexico and then north.  Annie’s looking forward to seeing some real mountains.  I’m not looking forward to driving up and down real mountains.  It’s not dangerous as long as the roads are clear, just takes a while.  It’s at a creeping speed.

Well, sorry there are no pictures and not much to talk about but that’s life on the road.

Good night and God bless.

I get to see my babies today!    I am so excited I can’t wait.   Unfortunately I look like a hobo.   In trying to save washer/dryer costs we decided to do laundry at Gregory’s house this weekend.   Unfortunately it means I am down to my last pair of everything and look like one of those people that go to Walmart at 3 am in their pajamas.   Yes, I have been in my pajama bottoms for two days.  So embarrassing.    Also I can’t wear jeans right now anyway because of a horrible rash on my legs.   Greg spilled diesel fuel on his jacket a while back so we washed it.   I didn’t want to spend the money just to wash a jacket so I threw our jeans in with it.   Everything still smelled a bit like diesel fuel but I figured it would wear off.   So I put my jeans on without thinking anything about it and noticed my legs were hurting.  Went to the bathroom and had a horrible red painful rash on my thighs.  So off come the jeans and I have been in loose fitting sweat pants or pajama bottoms for a week.    I am going to have to rewash everything this weekend.  Maybe twice.   Fortunately being an old nurse I packed a bit of everything so I had some steroid cream and gold bond and the rash is so much better.   I walked like a duck for two days. LOL.   I am so glad that I don’t know any of these people we see in truck stops or I would have died of embarrassment by now.   Of course now we look like we fit in.   The truckers I’ve seen wouldn’t win any fashion awards anyway.  I guess when you sit for hours everyday In a truck by yourself you don’t care much about your appearance.    I do though and can’t wait to do laundry!!

I love seeing all the horse farms in Florida.   I never knew they had so many until we moved down here.    Horses and cows everywhere!  Huge farms with hundreds of acres.   We passed one with 183 acres for sale.

Made it to the Walmart distribution center on time.   A little worried after the late stop last night but we made it.   This one is even bigger.  We are at dock 343 this time.

We made it in the to see the kids.  They were so excited.   Sadie started crying.   I have missed them so much!   We ate a good bowl of homemade potato soup and played some games and now its bed time.   The girls want me to read some of their Bible stories and we are having a sleep over on the floor (Hope I can get out of bed in the am).

Goodnight, y’all.

Greg. –  Just turned onto Highway 301 S. Florida.  I remember this route number.  It was one we took several, if not every time, we went to Florida.  In 1959 my grandfather died and my aunt, cousin and grandmother moved to St. Petersburg. Every summer thereafter we would take our vacation at her house. Dad would always drive straight through getting up early in the morning and heading out before dawn.  I would crawl in the back seat and go back to sleep.  I remember him planning the trip several days in advance trying to find the best route.  Sometimes he would call AAA and get one of their trip packs that had the best route for shortest miles, fastest time, motel stops, gas pricing along the way and whatever else one requested.  I only remember staying in a motel once during these trips, two weeks every summer from 1960 through 1969 and that was at what i would call a novelty motel that had cabin rooms in the shape of tepees.  I think dad was intrigued by this roadside attraction is the only reason we stopped.  Otherwise it was straight through, 24 hours to go 1100 miles.  I would move from the back to the front throughout the trip depending on what I wanted to see and if I felt sleepy.  No car seats, no seat belts, total freedom to move about the car.  And I’m still alive.  Imagine that.  Anyway, looking at 301 today, it is much different than what I remember although there were several familiar sights I seem to remember.  As I recall this particular route was populated on either side with roadside attractions.  Petting zoos, exotic animal displays, alligator farms, souvenir shops and the all popular Stuckey’s.  I remember begging dad to stop at every one of them.  Of course that would have been impractical and quite costly at the time, so on occasion he would indulge me and we would stop and take the tour.  Snakes, monkeys, alligators, lizards.  That’s about as exotic as it got as best I can remember, but I enjoyed it just the same and wanted to go back year after year.  And a pecan log from Stuckey’s. Not sure why I was fascinated with these things, crushed pecans stuck to a roll of nougat.  I would eat maybe a third of it, saying I was going to save the rest for later and never finished them.  Dad bought me one every year nonetheless.

Riding down 301 today, four lanes now instead of the two lanes I remember, brought back many memories.  Some of the buildings that held the “tourist traps” as dad called them, are still there, run down, abandoned, some found other uses as junk/antique shops, but nothing resembling the glory days of parking lots full of cars with license plates from all points north and wide eyed kids looking at the wonders of Florida wild life on display for all to see.  And the bumper stickers.  Back then it was a custom for the attractions you stopped at to put one of their stickers on your bumper and in my mind a level of prestige to have several on your back bumper to show what fun you had at all the attractions you stopped at.

Well, a trip down memory lane and a stop over for a couple of days with the grand kids. It’s been a good week.  Good night and God Bless.

You know you are in Florida when it rains every afternoon.

Osprey nest

Girls in the bunk of the truck.

Well, woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow. It looks like we got about 4 inches. It is beautiful to look at but not much fun to drive in so we are going to head out early this morning so we can go slow and take our time.   At least we are headed to Florida today so the weather should improve greatly as we go.

Getting through Tennessee sure was difficult. It took us 30 minutes just to get down off the mountain due to roads and only able to go 35 miles an hour because of the weight of the truck. It sure is beautiful though.  I took a lot of pictures of the snow in the trees even though I’m sure you all are tired of looking at it.  We went along the same road we went on before where you are in Tennessee then Georgia then Tennessee then Georgia all within just a few miles.

The first part of Georgia was snowy and we saw two bad accidents where trucks had turned over. They said there was a lot of black ice this morning but thankfully we missed it. By the time we got to Atlanta the roads are clear.   Of course the traffic around Atlanta was fun as usual.

We made it to Florida as it was starting to get dark. But at least we made it to Florida! We are stopping at the Walmart distribution center in Macclenny Florida and then we will find a place to stop for the night so we can finish our load tomorrow and then go see my babies!  These Walmart distribution centers are huge! They are set out in the middle of nowhere and are acres in size. There are hundreds of trailers in the parking lot and over 100 docks. We are to pull into dock 136 if that gives you any kind of idea as to how big they are. We have a truck load of chicken that will find its way into area Walmarts soon.

After being in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Kansas, I can’t believe we have 55° weather. I have my window down for the first time.

Mary, you will appreciate this. Greg now has a Bluetooth earpiece for his phone to use while driving.   He may find it on the side of the road somewhere if I get the ssshhhhh and pointing to his ear again.  LOL.   He will just start talking and I think he is talking to me so I try to answer him and get the hand gesture.   Oh boy!

Driver: My version of the sight upon awakening; woke up to a cold, slushy mess.  I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

Out of the cold and into the warm sunshine of sunny Florida.  God certainly loves the people of Florida because he gives them year around sunshine.  Ahhhhh!!!!  For the first time in weeks I was able to go outside without my toboggan on.  That is a relief I cannot describe.  Just look at the pictures of snow and ice below and you will get a sense of how happy I am to be out of that mess.  Then scroll to the bottom and presto, green grass and sunshine.  Hallelujah.

Then there was the three hours at the loading dock to unload maybe one third of a trailer.  The words of the instructor during orientation keeps playing in my head during these long waits, and I quote, “Trans Am don’t sit at docks more than two hours”.  I would like to bring him with me for a couple of weeks.  I don’t think I have sat less than two hours for loading and unloading.  The only time we have been able to get in and out is a drop and hook, and that’s only when your loaded trailer is waiting on you.  It happens.

So, with the three hour wait at the dock, my 14 hour clock ran out which means, legally I’m done.  Can’t move, can’t do paperwork, can’t do email.  Stupid right.  Well, someone did realize this could be a problem so there is an exception in the law called Safe Haven, Mandate to leave property.  This is just for situations like this.  You’re at a shipper or consignee and you run out of time.  You can’t stay there, gotta go, so you log “on” and select Safe Haven, etc. and legally you can drive to find a safe place to park.  How far you can go, I don’t know, but we had to go about 17 miles to finally find a parking place and a small out of the way truck stop.  Two of the previous truck stops we drove through were slam full.  Guys were on the side of the road and Annie kept wanting me to pull in next to or behind one of these guys, but it just didn’t feel right so I checked my trucker app and found this place.

So there you have it.  Bad weather, good weather, legal issues, all in a day’s work.

Good night and God bless.

Nice

Bet you are glad thats not the road to your house!

Finally! Green grass!