Dodge City...

...stinks to high-heaven tonight! It's nothing but a big, old cattle-killing town, anyway. And we watched them spread manure out on the fields earlier. One does get used to the smell. I suppose we'll get to a place with fresh, clean air and be like, "This place smells funny!" lol

Heading back to PA. To the cold and possibly snow. Sigh. Can we please go south now??

I still love my new job!

We lost a mudflap, bought a new one, bought tools. Wrong tools. Bought more tools and realized the star hole on bolt was stripped. In the rain! And then, I sat on a burrito. Didn't know it til AFTER I'd been walking around inside with it on my ass!

Nov 25 Thursday Turkey Day!!
That was something! New Mexico: abt an inch of ice and snow on the road. Ppl driving too slow to get up a hill and spinning out so Matt stopped everybody til it was clear and made a run for it. The cb got deathly quiet. My hero!

Nov 26 Friday
Stupid trk broke down AGAIN!! It started spluttering around Colorado Springs and was nearly dead by Denver. We stayed the night, had turkey dinner since it was Turkey Day after all, drove to Limon and had to stop. We were sure by the way it acted the fuel was contaminated, either water or oil had gotten in it so we filled up hoping to dilute it. Didn't work. They had a shop so had them check the errors and did a full PM (oil/filter change). So far, so good, knock wood! We only lost 4 hours which was really good cuz we have a great paying load that we didn't want to give up AND we get to stop by and see Mom on the way.

Nov 27 Saturday
Saw my mom today and had a wonderful time. That little town she lives in is sooooo boring! I so totally could not, would not live there!! We talked and ate and walked around Walmart to stay out of the cold.

We have been stuck in Flagstaff 11 days and they still are not entirely sure what's wrong with the truck. Thankfully it's all under warranty but we're not making any money just sitting here. We've done a lot and it's been a pleasant vacation. We went to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Jerome which is a haunted town built into the side of the mountain. From there we decided to take the "scenic route" home and took a dirt road around the other side of the mountain and down into a lost valley of nothing but desert as far as one can see in every direction. We kept seeing signs for a town...that doesn't exist! We eventually made it back to civilization. We also got to spend an evening with one of my dearest friends and her family, whom we fell in love with!
They're saying now that we should be out of here by Wednesday. If not, Thursday is Thanksgiving and freight will be shut down. Sigh.

Broke down, again....sigh

We started hearing a loud grinding sound right after we came down the mountain at Flagstaff. Got halfway to Kingman and pulled off at a truckstop to check it out cuz it was getting worse. Off the exit ramp, turned the corner and she didn't want to go up the little hill into the truckstop. She died right there in the middle of the road. Matt managed to coax her on up and into a parking spot but we lost the load and are now being towed back up to Flag. That's what I get for starting to get cocky! Lol

Got my iPhone! Yay!

Now I will be able to post more often. It's more difficult to find free wifi out here than I thought so the laptop wasn't really cutting it. Even having issues with it in hotels. Speaking of which, we finally took a day off after running back and forth across the country several times since my bday. Night before last we stayed at a very nice hotel in North East, Maryland. No, really. That's the name of the town! Ha! It was our first real break since I got my CDL, not counting Seattle cuz we stayed in the truck the whole time there.

We r now headed back to L.A. via Chicago...multi-drop load. I have to drive thru St. Louis this afternoon which I'm highly upset about cuz I don't want to do that in a CAR let alone this big-ass boat! But such is the life of a trucker. I'm very glad we came out here. It is challenging but what fun would life be if we didn't try new things and meet some of those challenges head-on?

I'm a trucker!

So I took the tests and got my CDL on 10/12/10, mom's bday...kinda cool! We went home for MY bday and had a wonderful party/cookout at my fav park. Coming back on the road we went from NC to Massachusettes with chicken, to Washington with ?(I forgot) to Michigan with apples and will be heading to Los Angeles with Fedex for Monday. On the way we have seen countless deer, foxes, pronghorn and even a wolf! Stuck out near Seattle for 2 days where they had record rainfall. Watched the first snow of the season fall in the mountains. I'm getting more comfortable with driving every day. Anybody who says it's like driving a car has never driven a rig. It takes a lot more concentration and muscle and I'm sure enjoying the endless road trip!!

Where are we today?

I don't know where we are half the time...that's why I keep Matt around! He says we are near Memphis today...lol! Still enjoying the nomadic lifestyle though. The worst part is having to walk across a long parking lot to a bathroom, especially in the middle of the night. My knee healed nicely. I have a scar to show off!
The boys are doing very well. Jason was in the local paper today cuz he was walking in the rain! The article was about the rain, but I still think it's pretty cool.

New York City!

Matt drove us thru NYC today. Glad I wasn't driving! We could just make out Lady Liberty's silhouette in the distance. Pretty groovy. Gonna have to play tourist there one day. Headed to Maine for tomorrow.

9-1-10 Oopsie! That's gonna leave a mark!

I could no longer wait; I had to go to the bathroom. Matt was asleep so I quietly slipped out of the truck and made my way to the truck stop store. I had to walk across the truck scale to get there. Bleary-eyed from napping, I totally did not see the little ledge off the scale and thinking this was not going to be graceful and hoping no one was looking I tried to move my foot up to catch myself...to no avail. Somehow my toes got caught, scraped the cement, and I went all the way down....SLAM! Knees and hands right into the pavement behind a rig at the first fuel aisle. Instinctively I rolled and ended up on my side screaming in my head, "What the f...k! Then I'm like, "Why is no one coming to my rescue? I could lay here and get run over by an incoming rig! Oh sh..t! I'd better get up before I get run over by a rig!" Very disoriented, I slowly got up and grabbed my hat which had fallen off to my horror and then I was glad nobody acted like they saw me because my hair was a greasy wreck! We don't get to shower every single day out here and my hair gets yucky fast! Thankfully I only had the tiniest scratch on my hands and scraped my knee up pretty good but nothing broken except my pride. If only one could actually DIE of embarrassment!

8-31-10 Dumb asses

So picture this: it's 2am near Children of the Corn, Iowa, pitch black except for the headlights on the road ahead. Suddenly, 2 donkeys are in those lights staring at you from the middle of the road. Matt had to slam on the brakes and swerve to keep from hitting them. I was asleep so needless to say I was flung from the bunk. Ok, I was on the bottom bunk and had just kinda started waking up and was able to catch myself on the night stand but my legs were flung to the floor.

Labor day weekend

Finally got to see my baby bro and his wonderful little family...of 7! Lol. We really had a great time and looking forward to many more similar visits. All the kids got to get in the big rig and little Quinn kept asking Uncle Matt, "What's that? What's that?" pointing at different things like the qualcomm, gear shift, cupboard...he's only 3 after all! And quite the little car thief! He got tired of waiting for mom one day and took the family suburban for a joy ride! He takes after his Aunt Kari!

Skimming Niagra Falls

We are going to be abt 15 miles from the Falls and can't go because of time and money! That's been like my number one thing for years! Matt promises when we get more established out here we will take the time to go and do it up right.

Pennsylvania

We left Denver headed for a multiple drop in Omaha and Chicago. Fairly uneventful except that we drove right by Harpo Studios where Oprah films her shows. From there we came to PA...missed my brother in Ohio and dear friend in Pittsburgh due to time constraints. It's more difficult since I'm training. Should have more time to stop once I actually get my CDL. Now we are on our way to Mass. Never been there before. Should be interesting.
Oh yeah! So last night I drove in all of my favorite conditions (note the sarcasm) over the mountain, in the dark, in the rain AND thru massive construction! I 'bout peed my pants! I felt like I'd run a marathon when it was over.

Denver

We made it out of Arkansas and went back to the original scene of the crime, Dallas/Ft. Worth. From there we have brought a load to Denver. I drove just over 4 hours today: it is the most I've done at one sitting which doesn't seem like a lot but the big rig really wears me out. I always need a nap after! Of course, being tossed around like a rag doll when one is trying to sleep can be counterproductive. Matt's asleep now and I'm sitting here trying not to be bored. Oh, I have things I could do but I really want to go for a walk and I hate going alone in a new town. Excuses, excuses.

Stuck again!!

We are stuck in West Memphis, Arkansas due to a clerical error, Matt got his driver's license taken and we have to go to court on Thursday to get it back. We had to post over 500.00 bond or he would have gone to jail...crazy!
So we brought the onions from New Mexico to Mississippi. That night the generator that runs the AC went out so we we going to just idle the truck but the engine kept shutting itself off about every 20 minutes or so. Nasty heat wave, y'know...over 100 degrees every days and low 90's at night so we had to have air. Matt and I took turns staying up to keep the engine going. Our delivery appointment was at 7am. We got in the door and they unloaded but rejected 20 of the 50 pound bags of white onions because they said "low quality"...they looked fine to us but whatever. We called around and found a local food bank to donate them to. Went to our next pick up of Tyson chicken (frozen) that was supposed to be a double drop in Illinois and Ohio. They didn't have the load ready like they were supposed to so we were 4 hours late leaving which left it really tight. We got to the weigh station here in West Memphis and got pulled in for overweight. It was a light load and we were running late so we didn't check it before we left but they loaded it all in the front so the drive tires were over. When they pulled Matt's license they said it was suspended because of a speeding ticket from 1999! This was like, 2am so nothing could be done until the court opened up. We got it all straightened out this morning; the DMV lady said, "Oh, sorry, we didn't update our records correctly" and she fixed it immediately. So here we are in a hotel hanging out....showers good!!!!

Matt says I'm not allowed to say "ADVENTURE" anymore!!

Lunch at New Mexico farm

I cannot believe what we did for lunch today. We are at our pickup spot: an onion farm in southern New Mexico of all places. We were hungry and it was lunch time for the farm workers. We saw people coming around the building with plates so we thought there must be a vendor. We walked thru the mud (in flip flops...blech!) to the food and realized it was just for the workers. Matt, in all his wonderfully bold glory walked up and asked if we could have some, offering to pay. The white guy said, "Oh, there isn't enough for you." This Mexican guy said, "Yes, we have enough." (white people are so stingy!) The food was so good and they didn't want anything for it. It's all part of the adventure!

Sigh...Still stuck in Texas

Could be so much worse but we're out of money and things to do. We should definitely get the truck back tomorrow which will make 8 days in the shop....stupid! Matt's no longer roaring with anger...more like down to an underlying seethe. I know some people will say, "See? Told you this was a mistake." But to that I say, "See, I'm with my honey and enjoying life! So there!!." I'm out here for the adventure cuz it's my turn! I've been home working and raising babies for 20 years so now I'm going to be selfish if that's what you want to call it. The money will follow. Okay, off my soapbox! LOL

Stuck in Texas

Well, we never made it Vegas. The truck broke down in Ft. Worth, Tx and we've been here ever since. It hasn't been horrible except for the fact that we're not making any money. We're at a really nice hotel with pool and jacuzzi. Yesterday we went to the Stockyards which I didn't even know existed. It was really interesting. Hopefully we'll get out of here tomorrow but it just depends on if they can get the truck fixed. We may go into Dallas today just for something to do.

Trucking

Well, I got my permit to drive the truck. We took chicken from Missouri to Indiana then got this hot, hot load of cold, cold ice-cream to Vegas but it would explode I'd we take it over the Rockies so we had to take the scenic southern route. Lost 3 hours in Dallas due to a flat tire and now our turbo went out just past Ft. Worth. Matty is fit to be tied...

Trucker Training

All is well here. I passed 2 parts of the written test but missed the 3rd part twice by just a couple of questions. I get 2 more chances tomorrow but hopefully I'll only need one. I took the eye test and they said I don't have to wear my glasses to drive but I really do particularly at night.

I bought my leather gloves today and then got my toenails done! ha!

I had to call AT&T to quit today because Prime said they would not let me continue if I didn't. They had to have an "end date" listed from my previous employer. I don't see what the difference is if I'm not technically employed by Prime yet but whatever. They said do it so I did and it's done! I'd better for real make this thing work now!

Annoyed (grrrrr ) and Happy! (Hooray!!)

So I just found out that I completely lose my insurance which was kind of the point of going on leave instead of just quitting which I specifically asked about ahead of time and they said I keep my regular insurance, I just pay for it which is only about 100.00 a month...well now they tell me I can pay for COBRA, (aka lying, ripoff SOBs) for $1,200 a month...HELLOOOO!! REALLY??!!?? WTF!!! If I could afford sh** like that I would need the stupid job in the first damn place!!!
In case you hadn't noticed I'm a bit miffed and I've been holding back in saying anything because I didn't want to leave on a bad note but now I don't effing care and I know for a fact that there are people who can and probably will read this post and get me fired but I don't care because I have bigger and better things to worry about now!

Matt will be home tomorrow; we will leave on Saturday and next Tuesday I will start orientation to get my CDL permit. Matt will train me to drive the truck and we'll be off! Hooray! I'm so excited and scared but I'm sure it will be wonderful once we get thru the initial madness!

Almost ready....

Just checking in. Been spending quality time with my kids before Matt gets home Wednesday. We'll leave together on Saturday....more to follow....

Bittersweet

I can't believe I don't have to go to work today. It's been nice to know I can get some things done and I don't have to stress about making sure I get enough rest because of having to go back right away. I do miss my friends, tho....

New Life

Tomorrow is my last day at AT&T...for 30 days leave of absence...to go out on the truck with the love of my life. My team is the absolute best. They had a potluck, which I knew about, and brought me presents, which I didn't. They got me a 2011 road atlas which is perfect because the one I had before is from 2004 and I've been eyeing the new one but hadn't gotten around to getting it...a fancy journal which is big enough to use as a scrap book of our travels...pens, sunglasses...and best of all this amazing pink baseball cap that is sooooo me that it couldn't have been better if I'd picked it out myself!!!

New Year's Resolutions

I resolve to eat healthier, drink less beer, exercise more, send birthday/anniversary cards....and, most importantly, not be so hard on myself when I slip up. I just have to remind myself that all I can do is the best I can and that will be good enough. I think if maybe I'm nicer to myself I'll want to be a better person and the rest will fall into place. Whacha think world?