We ran from Wisconsin through the UP of Michigan.  it was so beautiful and we stopped in a tiny little rest area that was in the middle of the woods, snow softly falling with a creek.  We are so used to truck stops it was actually too quiet and Anne took a while to fall asleep.  We ran down to East Tawas on Lake Huron.  Pretty place and nasty people.  We are not impressed with the people of Michigan.  Anne was a little shocked after all the nice people we have met in the midwest.  After we arrived at 8:00 AM to deliver (we had an open delivery, no set time) the guys in receiving told us to back into the open door.  We did and a few minutes later felt the forklift start to unload the truck.  Then it got quiet for about 15 minutes and this very unhappy woman comes storming out and starts to yell at Anne.  Demanding to know why we were at the dock?  When Anne said the guys inside had told us to back in the woman said “They don’t know sh*t”  (I guess we were supposed to know this)  She told us to pull back out and back onto the street and she would get to us when she was ready but it would be hours from now.  We pulled out and parked.  A couple of hours went but and a guy came out and told us to back in again.  We did and then sat waiting until about 1:30 when we finally felt a forklift starting to unload us again.  A few more pallets were pulled off and then it got quiet again.  I went in to go to the bathroom and was told that they were sorry, but I would need to pull out of the dock because they had another truck that had to be unloaded right away.  So I pulled out again and sent a message to our Fleet Manager explaining what was going on.  He responded and said he would talk to customer service. I am not sure what happened but somebody got their ass chewed.  Fifteen minutes later they came out and were all very apologetic and would we please back into the dock again.  30 minutes later we were empty and out of there.  We were to run empty to our Chicago Terminal and then pick up a Fedex load in Chicago in the morning going to Henderson Colorado (home).  We took our time and stopped at a Home Depot and finally bought our refrigerator.  So nice to have that done.  We picked up the Fedex load in the morning.  Got the load and drove through Nebraska with no problems and finally, on our third attempt, we actually got to deliver a Fedex load!  We delivered about midnight and we were then to run to Kansas City empty to pick up a Fedex load going to Boise Idaho.  We had a day and a half before pickup so we went home and slept in our bed.  I had an awesome breakfast with my daughter and Anne went and spent some girlie time with her daughter.  We did some laundry and headed out about 13:00 for Kansas City.

We grabbed the load in KCI and headed North back through Nebraska.  Talk about tempting fate but we made it again.  We are now batting .500 on Fedex loads through Nebraska.  We delivered on time even though Fedex was a couple of hours late on the pickup.  We had a few hours break while we waited for a load so Anne finally got her Crab Leg dinner for her birthday at a Joes Crab Shack.  We then got a load assignment to haul 34,000 pounds of bulk sugar from Twin Falls Idaho to Walnut California (SoCal)  We had a great, kinda lazy trip through Utah and Nevada and we are now camped out at the Colton CA terminal for our delivery on Monday Morning.   Laundry and showers are done and Anne is cleaning the truck while I type this.  We are going to grab the company van and run out for shopping and then have dinner with two of my best friends (married to each other) from High School whom we have not seen since our wedding.

I also want to say publicly that I am loving having Max in the truck.  He is doing great and besides, he makes my wife happy.

And when Momma’s happy……………